Prisoners from Italy, France and Spain

Prisoners from Italy

In September 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies and declared a cease fire.This prompted the German Wehrmacht to occupy central and northern Italy as well as the Italian-occupied areas in the Balkans. The Wehrmacht classified captured Italian soldiers as “military detainees”, so they could be denied the status of prisoners of war. Large numbers of these “military detainees” were deported to Germany for slave labor, where they were subjected to especially severe forms of humiliation. The Germans’ strict policy of repression in Italy, which included massacres, the shooting of hostages, and deportations to concentration camps, led to a massive increase in support for partisan groups. At least 1,100 men and around 100 women from Italy were imprisoned in Neuengamme, among them partisans and civilians from areas under partisan control, people who had taken part in strikes, and POWs.

Prisoners from France

In the spring of 1944, resistance activities and well-organised attempts to escape forced labor in Germany led to mass arrests in France and the deportation of a large number of prisoners to German concentration camps. Within a few months, thousands of prisoners were transported to Neuengamme via the Compiègne transit camp. Around 300 of these French prisoners were regarded as important figures who were housed separately and did not have to work. About 650 of thearound 11,650 French prisoners in Neuengamme were women.

Prisoners from Spain

Many Spanish people who had fled to France after the end of the Civil War were arrested after they had been conscripted for forced labor in Germany or because they had taken part in resistance activities in France. Antifascists from different countries who had defended the Republic during the Spanish Civil War were arrested by the Vichy Government in France and handed over to the German occupying forces.