The Sztutowo Concentration Camp (Konzentrationslager Stutthof) - Camps -

German death camps and concentration camps in Nazi occupied Poland 1939-45

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The Sztutowo Concentration Camp (Konzentrationslager Stutthof)

Located in the Reich’s Gdansk West-Prussian Province (Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen) in the Vistula River’s delta (Żuławy Wiślane), near the Gulf of Gdańsk.

From September 2, 1939 to September 30, 1941 in Sztutowo was the Stutthof POW camp (Zivilgefangenenlager Stutthof), and from October 1, 1941 to January 7, 1942 the Stutthof Special camp (Sonderlager Stutthof) and Education labor camp (Arbeitserziehungslager Stutthof).

From January 8, 1942 to May 9, 1945 it was an autonomous Concentration camp(Konzentrationslager Stutthof). During that period the camp was also further developed. Its prisoners were employed in many companies and factories. The Poles detained in the camp were members of underground organizations, political and cultural activists, and intellectuals. Transports from other Concentration camps, from Białystok District, and many European countries were also sent there. At the turn of 1943 and 1944 the camp had ca. 6,000 prisoners, mostly Poles from Pomerania. In May 1944 the camp received a group of Pawiak prisoners. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising the Germans sent transports of civilians and Warsaw insurgents.

The transports of Jews from labor camps in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia began in June 1944. During that period the camp also received Hungarian Jews from Płaszów and Auschwitz. Due to numerous transports of Jews the number of the prisoners increased to over 60,000. Some of them were assigned to the factories and Subcamps. During this period mass executions were conducted in gas chambers using cyclone B. The camp crematorium, where the murdered prisoners’ bodies were burnt, operated from summer, 1942.

The camp’s commandants in chronological order: SS-Sturmbannführer Max Pauly (from August 31, 1942) and SS-Sturmbannführer Paul Werner Hoppe (September 1, 1942–9 May 9, 1945).

The evacuation of the camp began on January 25, 1945. On April 23, 1945 there were 4,508 prisoners left in the camp. They were evacuated by sea to Flensburg. The Red Army marched into Stutthof on May 9, 1945.

During the whole period of the camp’s functioning the total number of prisoners was ca. 100,000. About 65,000 prisoners of various nationalities in the camp and its Subcamps.

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