Prisoners from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece
Prisoners from Poland
From 1940, the SS deported Poles whom they regarded as political adversaries,people who disobeyed German orders, and members of the Polish intelligentsia from Poland to Neuengamme. Most of them were transferred here via other concentration camps (primarily Auschwitz). The Nazi regime planned to give large parts of Poland to German settlers and to reduce the Polish population to a “people of workers without any leadership”. From 1942, large numbers of Poles who had disobeyed work orders or special decreesfor Poles (“Polenerlasse”) in Germany were taken to Neuengamme concentration camp. After the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944, the SS deported many women and men to Neuengamme satellite camps. In the same year, many Jewish people from the Łódź ghetto were taken to Neuengamme satellite camps via Auschwitz. Around 13,000 men and 2,700 women from Poland, among them more than 5,000 Jewish people, were imprisoned in Neuengamme and its satellite camps.
Prisoners from Czechoslovakia
Many of the Czechoslovakian prisoners in Neuengamme concentration camp were imprisoned for political reasons. Among them were students who had been arrested following the protests at Czech universities in the autumn of 1939, many intellectuals, and other political adversaries of the Nazi regime. They started arriving in Neuengamme in 1940. The majority of these prisoners were transferred to Neuengamme from other concentration camps. Workers who had disobeyed orders in German factories formed another group of Czech prisoners. In1944, Jewish women from Czechoslovakia,who had been imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto, were transferred via Auschwitz to Neuengamme satellite camps. Altogether, around 1,600 prisoners from Czechoslovakia were imprisoned in Neuengamme. Around half of them were women (mostly Jewish). There were also a small number of ethnic German prisoners from the Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia.
Prisoners from Hungary
Hungary had been defeated in WWI and had lost two-thirds of its territories and three-fifths of its population. Before and during WWII, Hungary and Germany were allies. With support from Germany, the country managed to regain its lost territories after 1938. In March 1944, Hungary was occupied by German forces and the Jewish population was deported. More than 437,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz, where 330,000 of them were murdered. The others were selected for slave labor in satellite camps in Germany. In November 1944, a transport carrying 830 Jewish men arrived in Neuengamme straight from Budapest. Almost all of the7,200 prisoners from Hungary were Jewish,and around 5,800 of them were women.
Prisoners from Yugoslavia
After the Wehrmacht’s “retaliation campaign” against Yugoslavia in April 1941, the country was fragmented: Croatia (including Bosnia) was declared an independent state under the leadership of the fascist Ustasha regime, while the remaining parts of the country fell under the authority of Greater Germany, Italy, Hungary or Bulgaria. Within a short time, the resistance movement began to take shape. The partisans, led by Marshal Tito, managed to gain control over large areas of the country.Many people, among them Jews who had managed to escape the extermination of the Jewish population in Serbia, were arrested in Yugoslavia for political reasons or during resettlement measures andother campaigns against the population. Yugoslavs who had been taken to Germany for forced labor were often sent to concentration camps for disobeying orders. Around 1,000 men and 250 women from Yugoslavia, most of them from Slovenia, were imprisoned in Neuengamme concentration camp.
Prisoners from Greece
In April 1941 the Wehrmacht occupied Greece. The Jewish population was deported to the extermination camps. The German occupying forces reacted to the strikes and partisan activities organised by the Greek resistance movement with massacres, the shooting of hostages, and deportations. Greek slave laborers in Germany who had disobeyed work orders were arrested. Around 1,200 people from Greece were imprisoned in Neuengamme.On 4 June 1944, a transport carrying 850 prisoners arrived in Neuengamme from Athens after a 10-day journey.