Wöbbelin Memorial - a place of light with a dark past

The Wöbbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust only existed for ten weeks. By the time he was liberated on May 2, 1945, more than 1,000 prisoners had died in this satellite camp of Neuengamme. The newly designed site was officially opened on June 24th.

by Axel Seitz

Since 2005 there has been a memorial directly on the state road, which commemorates the victims of the Wöbbelin concentration camp. In recent months, the rear part, where the prisoner barracks stood in 1945, has been redesigned. They can be seen from afar - several white steles in the forest. "The dimensions of these storage buildings were huge. You couldn't see them at all on the site. That's why we marked the corners with large steles, like those used elsewhere by the memorial site, to mark the spatial cubature of the buildings," explains landscape architect Matthias Proske. This means that anyone who drives past the facility can already see from the street that there must be something back there that was previously completely imperceptible.

"Make the Wöbbelin concentration camp visible again"

Proske considered how the former concentration camp could be made visible again - in agreement with the head of the memorial, Anja Pinnau:"There were exactly four accommodation units in the stone barracks camp. When several evacuation transports from other concentration camps came here in April 1945, there were These accommodation barracks weren't even finished yet. In principle, there was only the body of this barracks here, there was no floor, no furniture, no beds, as was known from other camps."

"The washhouse was the last place of dehumanization"

The prisoners built their own bedsteads or sometimes slept on the bare floor. The conditions were catastrophic, says Pinnau, describing the situation at the time for the more than 5,000 inmates on site. Now every visitor can at least imagine how big the barracks were - namely 60 meters long and ten meters wide. And right in the middle of these four buildings was the wash barracks, which, however, was not used at all. "There were no water connections and in the last few days before the camp was liberated, bodies were piled up there in an unworthy manner. The wash barracks were the last place of dehumanization for the inmates," Pinnau continued. That is why this place is also shown in a special way. He is natural, sublime, has no corner marking. As a result of the construction work, the entire barracks were uncovered as a foundation. That wasn't so obvious before, says Pinnau.

Clarify the contrast of light and darkness

While the earth, trees and plants within the foundation of the wash barracks were not removed, so the forest remains in its condition, the two rear barracks received separate planting with holly. These grow up to two meters high in the coming years and form a dense carpet within the steles. In addition, the entire site was given new footpaths that are designed to be handicapped accessible. Landscape architect Matthias Proske also thought about the trees that are here:"After many inspections - also with the memorial in Wöbbelin - we proceeded in such a way that we thinned out the front part of the forest a little ." The front part used to consist of birch, a rather light tree species. The darker pines were taken in this area. In the rear area, where the barracks stood, there are still mostly pine trees - "in order to keep pushing from the light into the dark, so to speak, in the direction of evil," Proske explains the concept.

"The last hell of their deportation story"

Concentration camp survivors reported that Wöbbelin was the final hell of their deportation story, Pinnau recounts. Those who died in the camp were buried in 1945 after the end of the Second World War in Schwerin, Ludwigslust, Hagenow and also in Wöbbelin.