One of the first National Socialist concen-tration camps in the Reich was officiallyset up by Dr. Werner Best, who had beenresponsible since 13th March 1933 as“State Commissioner for the Police inHesse”, by way of an implementing regu-lation of the “Reichstag Fire Order” of 1st

May 1933. In the small rural town ofOsthofen near Worms, a concentrationcamp was established for the ”People’sState of Hesse” (Rhinehesse, Starkenburg,Upper Hesse). Any individuals taken intopolice custody for political reasons andwhose period of detention was to last aweek or more were to be taken there.

The Osthofen Concentration Camp Memorial

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Outside view of the Osthofen concentrationcamp memorial

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Previous historyBest, who had a PhD in law and who,after the “Seizure of power” in Hesse on6th March, was initially appointed specialcommissioner for the Hessian police. FromJuly 1933 he was responsible, as state po-lice chief, and was considered within hisparty as an expert in combating politicalopponents and on security issues. As earlyas the 5th August 1931, at a meeting ofleading Hessian National Socialists, inclu-ding the deputy Gauleiter, Wassung andthe Offenbach district leader and econo-mics expert, Wilhelm Schäfer, the thenjunior barrister, Best had announced hisplans as to what measures were to betaken by the NSDAP after a take-over ofpower. According to the recorded scena-

rio, Best assumedthat a communistattempt to topplethe governmentwould be thwar-ted. “In order torescue the people”armed NationalSocialist groupswould have toseize power anddeclare a state ofemergency. “SA,territorial reserveunits etc., “were tobe given unlimitedexecutive powers.“Resistance will be

punishable by death as a matter of cour-se”. Those who did not hand in theirweapons within 24 hours were likewiseto be shot as well as any members of thepublic service who took part in strikes oracts of sabotage. For this purpose, mili-tary courts were to be set up. Severalmeetings about this issue took place atthe Boxheimer Hof near Bürstadt/ Lampert-heim, not far from Worms, involving thetenant, Richard Wagner. Wilhelm Schäferhanded over the document to the Hessianpolice. This was an act of vengeance.

Best had forced Schäfer to resign fromthe Hessian parliament on account ofnon-disclosed previous convictions andsubmission of a false doctorate diploma.In the spring of 1933, at the instigation ofBest, Wilhelm Schäfer was taken into pro-tective custody. Schäfer was even tempo-rarily accommodated in the Osthofen con-centration camp. When Schäfer’s bodywas discovered near Neu-Isenburg in July1933, Best was linked to the murder. “Hisineptitude” in this affair gave his oppo-nent, the Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger, theexcuse, in autumn 1933, to dismiss Bestfrom the Hessian police service.

The publication of the text known as the“Boxheim document” after the place whereit was produced caused great waves inHesse and throughout the Reich for ashort time. Best was suspended from thestate service and proceedings were initia-ted against him for high treason.

Werner Best in the mid thirtiesSource: Hessian statearchive, Darmstadt

The “Datterich”, a weekly publication for Hesse,published a caricature on 4th December 1931which dealt critically with the “BoxheimDocument.”Source: Hessian State Archive, Darmstadt

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However, this was overruled in October1932 for lack of evidence. Finally, thisaffair attracted Hitler’s attention to theyoung notary whose further career in theSS was continually advanced.

Immediately after his appointment as Chiefof Police in Hesse, Best was able to puthis ideas of “fighting opponents” into prac-tice. To do this he could avail himself ofthe emergency measure overruling essen-tial basic rights, which was quickly pas-sed by the Reich president von Hinden-burg on 28th February 1933, the day fol-lowing the Reichstag’s fire. With the lega-lised restrictions on personal freedomcontained in this measure, widespreadarrests were made allegedly to “protectpeople and state”.

The wave of arrests that followed through-out the Reich put hundreds of the mostwell known communist functionaries un-der lock and key even before the Reichs-tag elections scheduled for the 5th March.Several functionaries of leftist parties andof the trade unions were, however, alsoarrested. Finally, this so-called “Reichstagfire order” was used as the excuse toconfiscate the Reichstag mandates of theGerman communist party (KPD) after theelections. The elections, which gave rise totwelve years of dictatorship and tyrannyinvolving violent crimes, the extent of whichhad been inconceivable up until to thattime, can therefore, in no way be descri-bed as “free”.

The result of the Reichstag election andthe ”Reichstag fire Order”, § 2 of which alsopermitted intervention in Länder legisla-

tion, created the bases for the “seizure ofpower” in Hesse and the takeover by Bestof the key positions in the police for “com-bating opponents” and issues of security.

The establishment of theOsthofen concentration campWhy Osthofen? Why did Best decide onthe community of just 5000 inhabitants asthe site for the only state concentrationcamp for the entire ”People’s State of Hesse”,with its seat of government in Darmstadt?

Certainly the situation regarding the trans-port links of the town, positioned as itwas on the railway line with direct connec-tion to the main road between Mainz andWorms, was at least acceptable. The pro-ximity to the industrial town of Wormswith its high proportion of workers mayalso have played a part, because the townwas, after all, considered as a “red strong-hold” before 1933. On the other hand,the fact that the Osthofen NSDAP hadalready created a fait accompli there atthe beginning of March was probably themore decisive factor.

On 6th March, just one day after theReichstag elections, which had given theNSDAP in Osthofen a distinctly betterresult compared with the Reich average,at 52.8%, the local protagonists of thisparty had imprisoned practically the enti-re SPD parliamentary group without anylegal basis, in the now empty, formerpaper factory. The factory was owned bya Jewish manufacturer from Osthofen. Atthe time of its official opening on 1st May1933, the camp had been in existence for almost two months.

This outside view of the concentration campcould be bought as a picture postcard at the

camp and posted.

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At least 250 people, the majority fromOsthofen, Worms, Alzey and the surroun-ding area had already been taken to theconcentration camp as early as March andApril either on foot or in collective trans-ports on lorries.

Even at the beginning of April 1933 Best,in reply to an enquiry from the SocialDemocratic “Mainzer Volkszeitung" hadhis office officially deny knowledge of theexistence of a concentration camp in Ost-hofen. On 20th April, however, he instruc-ted his newly created “central police head-quarters” - the independent political poli-ce, which had been separated out fromthe general police and expanded in termsof personnel and their authority - as wellas all district offices, to deliver a total of100 prisoners to Osthofen, according to aset formula. For this campaign of arrests,essentially workers, but no functionariesor “repeat cases” were to be handed over.At the end of the day, these men wereintended to be released again only a fewdays later on 1st May, on the “day ofnational work and reconciliation”, whichwas stage-managed throughout the Reich

by the National Socialists for propagandapurposes. Thus, the Hessian regionalpress, which had already been tamed,then celebrated the release of 115 priso-ners from the Osthofen concentrationcamp on 1st May as a “special surprise”.Many of them were re-arrested on the2nd May following the crushing of thetrade unions and were transported toOsthofen.

Reporting by the pressAs early as its weekend edition on 22nd/23rd April 1933, the “Niersteiner Warte“ ina well-illustrated whole page article underthe heading “Approved school and cor-rectional institution in Osthofen”, reportedin detail even though heavily glossedover, on the concentration camp. At thebeginning of May, at the invitation of theHessian State Press Office, representativesof the press inspected the Osthofen con-centration camp. In the days that follo-wed, the population in all parts of Hesseand beyond were able to read the officialversion of the meaning and purpose ofthis camp and of the conditions prevai-

Alzey, spring 1933: Nazi oppo-nents are transported on lorriesaccompanied by regular andspecial police to the nearbyOsthofen concentration camp. Source: private

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ling there. Press reports followed on adaily basis of raids, house searches, arrestsand removals to Osthofen. Even for railpassengers, the existence of the campwas made clearly visible by the huge let-ters of the inscription on the building.“There (is) still plenty of room in Osthofen”becomes the familiar slogan. Even in hiscarnival speech at the Mainz carnival on18th November 1933, Seppel Glückertwarned against “the Worms region“. Inother words, the existence of this earlycamp was in no way kept secret. On thecontrary, the targeted warning and at thesame time played down information wasintended to prevent the “national comra-des” from offering effective resistance at atime when the position of the nationalsocialist dictatorship was still not secureby any means.

Abroad people reacted with consternationto the establishment of concentrationcamps and the persecution of Jews andpolitical opponents of the national socia-lists. Worms was given special mention inthe international press as a place of parti-cular terror. Osthofen was also mentionedin the “Brown Book of the Reichstag fireand Hitler terror”, which was published inAugust 1933 in Basle. Neither the maltreat-ment of Carlo Mierendorff in Osthofen,nor the torture suffered by Siegfried Reschon his arrest by the Worms SS, was con-

cealed abroad. The protest notes handedover through the foreign embassies resul-ted in release in the case of the WormsJew, Resch, on account of his Polish citi-zenship. In other cases as with Mieren-dorff, the protests were rejected by theGermany embassy.

Camp management and guardsBy his order of 1st May, Best appointedthe Osthofen SS-Sturmbannführer, Karld’Angelo, who had, for a time, been chair-man of the local NSDAP group before1933, as honorary camp commandant andmade him answerable to the official super-vision of the Worms police station.D’Angelo, who was well acquainted withBest (both had belonged to the HessianNSDAP group in the state parliamentsince 1931), had already named himselfcamp commandant even before his offi-cial appointment. Best entrusted the mana-gement and calling up of the camp guardfrom the ranks of the hurriedly sworn inspecial police to the Worms police station,headed by the police chief, HeinrichMaria Jost. The national socialist had beenappointed to this position following theremoval from office of his predecessor,the social democrat, Heinrich Maschmeyer.Maschmeyer, apart from losing his joband the financial sacrifices that this invol-ved, had to tolerate countless humiliationsas a prisoner at the Osthofen concentrati-on camp.

Prisoners from the ranks of Communists andSocial Democrats in Worms being closely guar-ded by SA-men, some of whom were in uni-form, special police and regular police officerson their way to the Osthofen concentrationcamp.

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The merchant, Heinz Ritzheimer, a nativeof Worms and administrative officer of theSS-Sturmbann Worms, based in Osthofenalso took over the office of administrativeofficer of the concentration camp on 31stMarch 1933. For this work he receivedremuneration of 2 Reichmarks a day witheffect from the beginning of July 1933.The rest of the camp guards were paid 50Pfennigs a day for their services. For thoseof the SS and SA-men, who were out of ajob as a result of the economic crisis orpersonal insolvency, this would have beenan attractive incentive. The SS-Sturmbanndoctor, Dr. Reinhold Daum, who like Bestand d’Angelo represented the NSDAP inthe Hessian parliament from 1931 to 1933,was responsible for the medical care ofthe prisoners in the Osthofen concentrati-on camp. For every sick prisoner on “hissickbay“, he could charge 50 Pfennigs.However, it was not possible to talk ofadequate medical care. The Worms sportsreporter, Richard Kirn, described in detailin the Worms edition of the Neuer MainzerAnzeiger, in 1946 the sufferings of a fel-low prisoner, who, in spite of an acute,painful and severe kidney infection, wasnot treated by the doctor on hand, Dr.Daum. The principal duties of the doctorincluded signing pre-printed forms, whichhad to be completed when the prisonersarrived and were discharged. In spite ofunmistakable signs of maltreatment, thearriving prisoners were certified as “healthy

and fit for detention” and when theywere released, they were then certified as“healthy and fit for work”. When theywere arrested and during the subsequentinterrogations, the Nazi opponents wereoften brutally beaten. Many prisonerswere therefore delivered to the prisonwith clearly visible signs of maltreatmentor returned from the interrogations bea-ring clear physical marks. Before a statepolice (Stapo) field office moved into the1st floor of the concentration camp in De-cember 1933, the prisoners were frequent-ly taken to the SS barracks in Erenbur-gerstraße in Worms for interrogation orwere sent to the Osthofen concentrationcamp via this much feared address.Where the Technical University is nowsituated, was the headquarters of theGestapo field office for Worms. The headof this field office was senior detectivesergeant [Kriminalobersekretär] JohannJohannes. The torture that was perpetra-ted in the cellars was amongst the worstmemories of many former prisoners.

In the wake of the political power strug-gles in Hesse, the Hessian Gauleiter andReich governor, Jakob Sprenger dismissedthe incumbent Prime Minister FerdinandWerner, Werner Best, who had only beenappointed Regional Chief of Police in thesummer, as well as almost the entire poli-ce management in the autumn of 1933.The office of Police Chief was no longer

Armed SS guards in front of the concentration camp building. Photo from February 1934Source: State Archive, Speyer

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occupied. The restructuring also had aneffect on the management of the concen-tration camp in Osthofen: The SA guardswere withdrawn from the guard service.In their place came SS-men from the Offen-bach and Darmstadt special and guarddetachment. These SS-men in particular,are very often linked by former prisonersto brutal assaults. The management of thecamp was placed under the head of theHessian Staff Office, Otto Löwer, an inti-mate friend of Sprenger. The Worms law-yer, Philipp Wilhelm Jung took on theposition of Werner, who had been demo-ted from President to Prime Minister inthe summer of 1933. In fact, Reich gover-nor Sprenger was the only one who hadany say in the matter. Even the orderingof protective custody and the committalsto the Osthofen concentration camp weremore highly centralised. From March 1934onwards, only Minister of State Jung andthe police station in Darmstadt were res-ponsible for such things. The prisonerswho were still committed by district offi-ces and police stations were to be imme-diately released. However, this new order

probably no longer played such a bigrole, because the number of prisonerswas constantly declining until in July 1934,what had probably been the first concen-tration camp in Nazi Germany was finallydisbanded in the wake of the nationwidecentralisation of the concentration campsystem.

The prisonersUnder the Reichstag Fire Order and theprovisions issued in the form of an imple-menting regulation to put protectivecustody into practice, the members andfunctionaries of the German CommunistParty (KPD) which, whilst not officiallybanned, had had its structures broken upand were particularly severely affected bymass arrests. Therefore, the majority ofprisoners in Osthofen also belonged tothis political grouping. However, alsoseverely hit by persecution and arrestwere personalities of other leftist parties,who were known in their region, primari-ly those of the Social Democratic Party,the trade unions, members of the BlackRed Gold Imperial Banner (Reichsbanner

The Reich governor Jakob Sprenger (3rd from left), Minister of State Philipp Wilhelm Jung (4th fromleft), police inspector Otto Löwer (5th from left) half obscured.Source: Hessian state archive, Darmstadt

Schwarz Rot Gold), which had been ban-ned since March 1933 and of the IronFront (Eiserne Front). Amongst the esti-mated 3000 prisoners, there was also evi-dence of seven women.

Of the 1600 prisoners in protective custo-dy in Osthofen, whose names are recor-ded at the Memorial, there were 114 Jews.Many of them were initially arrested forpolitical activities directed against theNational Socialist regime. Most belongedto the SPD or the German CommunistParty. By the end of August 1933 at thelatest, state police chief Best had it publiclyannounced in Hesse under the heading“Warning to the Jews”, that more Jewsshould be taken into police custody andbrought to Osthofen. The Jews were be-ginning to ignore the “request to keeptheir distance“ by approaching Germangirls (…). Thereafter the number of Jewsin the Osthofen concentration camp rosedramatically. The accusations plucked outof the air and the stereotype reasons givenwere, in many cases, clearly racist and nolonger covered by the original order, whichonly provided political reasons for impo-sing protective custody.

Following the voluntary winding up ofthe Centre Party in July 1933, as the lastof the democratic parties, former suppor-ters or members of the Catholic CentreParty were arrested from the summer of1933 onwards and taken to the Osthofenconcentration camp. Also now affected bypersecution once the first wave of arrestshad died down, were Christians, separa-tists or supposed separatists, Seventh DayAdventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Sinti andindividuals who had been picked up forbegging.

Dr. Carlo MierendorffAs a strong opponent of National Socia-lism, the press officer at the Hessian Inte-rior Ministry and SPD member of theReichstag was first arrested on 7th March

1933 and dismissed from the state service.Following a temporary stay in Switzerland,Gestapo officers arrested Mierendorff on13th June 1933 at a conspiratorial meetingin Frankfurt am Main and took him to Ost-hofen on 21st June.”Here is your traitor tothe workers!” With these words the Darm-stadt SS delivered Mierendorff to Osthofen.During the first night, Mierendorff was sobadly beaten and abused that he couldhardly move the next day. Even talkingwas difficult for him. He therefore had tobe transferred to the sickbay for severalweeks. Following his discharge from sick-bay, he became the focal point for his fel-low social democratic prisoners. Via acontact person, the trade unionist, HedwigBardorf from Worms, he was in contactthroughout his time at the concentration

camp with Emil Henk, who was one ofthe organisers of socialist resistance in theHeidelberg/Mannheim area. At the begin-ning of November 1933 he was transferredfrom Osthofen to the Börgermoor concen-tration camp in Emsland. Until his dischar-ge in 1938 he had to suffer various otherconcentration camps. Unbroken by thelong period of custody he became invol-ved in German resistance at the beginningof the Second World War. He died on 4thDecember 1943 during an air raid onLeipzig.

Abused and humiliatedThe accommodation and hygiene condi-tions in the Osthofen concentration campwere extremely primitive. The prisoners

Carlo Mierendorff Source: SocialDemocratic archive(AdsD)

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slept in the factory hall, initially on the bareconcrete floor, which was only coveredwith a thin scattering of straw and laterthe prisoners made two-tier plank beds,as well as tables and benches. As it beca-me colder, they were given a blanket inaddition to their straw mattress. In autumn,they built fireplaces for small stoves, whichburnt wood, but in the draughty, dampcold hall, it never got warm. Many priso-ners suffered from the cold and succum-bed to kidney and bladder infections,some of which lasted a lifetime. In spiteof the miserable conditions, no prisonerdied at Osthofen. Even so, terror and dis-regard for any human dignity, beatings,kicks, withholding of food, bans on postand visits and even mock shootings domi-nated the camp routine of many priso-ners. The Jews in particular, but alsointellectuals and former state officials vili-fied as “big shots”, suffered abuse andhumiliation. At Yom Kippur, the supreme

Jewish fast day, a Jewish prisoner wasbeaten and forced to eat pork. At roll call,other Jewish prisoners were sworn at andinsulted by the camp commandant andafterwards they had to climb into the stin-king sewage pits and scoop out the faecalmatter, armed only with food tins. As anadditional punishment, after they haddone their work, they were not allowedto be issued with any soft soap to cleantheir clothing or bodies. Deceitful intentlay behind this, as it did behind the paltrysanitary conditions. Three cold taps in theyard and next to them a mound of sandserved as the washing facility for the camp,which was occupied by an average of200 to 300 prisoners.

The former Worms police chief, Masch-meyer, was exposed to the derision of thepopulace in that he was forced to grindcoffee whilst sitting in the road in front ofthe camp. The former Worms police com-

This photo originates from a former prisoner at the concentration camp, Hans Rasp. He was photo-graphed by a guard in front of the caretaker’s house. The family of the caretaker of the shut-downpaper mill continued to live on the site whilst it was a concentration camp.

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missioner, Wilhelm Ruppert, who wasalmost 2 metres tall, was commanded tosweep the yard bent double, with a broomwith a sawn off handle. And Carlo Mie-rendorff had to spend his days hamme-ring nails straight, which his fellow priso-ners had to deliberately bend for the pur-pose.

The average period of detention at theOsthofen camp was 2 to 6 weeks. At mor-ning roll call, the prisoners were allocatedto do work, which was necessary for therunning of the camp. For example, theymade camp furniture, took on cleaningwork or mended and repaired, with thelimited means available to them, the items

of clothing and shoes of their fellow pri-soners. Other prisoners were allocated tovarious outside details. It was preciselythe local national socialists, but in particu-lar the camp commandant, Karl d’Angelo,who benefited from the cheap or evenfree labour. To a greater extent, prisonerswere deployed to work in his Osthofenprinting works. One work detail had tocarry out building and plastering work inthe building housing the office of thelocal NSDAP headquarters in the MainzerStraße in Worms. Others were ordered toremove from the Gestapo cellars theblood of their fellow sufferers, who hadbeen interrogated and tormented.

Prisoner solidarity and escapeEven worse conditions prevailed in theso-called Camp II, which was set up forthe enforcement of “aggravated arrest” inthe vicinity of the main camp, in an old,empty timber mill. During the very coldwinter months, the prisoners accommoda-ted there were transferred to the localcourt prison in Osthofen. Best imposedaggravated arrest particularly against”repeat offenders”.

Where possible, the prisoners attemptedto help each other against the terror ofthe guards. For example, they secretlybrought extra food into Camp II to thoseimprisoned there, who suffered greatlyfrom the meagre food rations. Prisoners,who were the subject of special “attenti-on” from the guards or individual guards,were occasionally suggested to the SS-person responsible for labour allocation,Otto Krebs, for outside work details. Thisprotected them from brutal attacks. Also,there were opportunities to escape whenworking outside the camp.

The escape of the Jewish lawyer fromMainz, Max Tschornicki, comes to mind.Thanks to the help of his fellow prisonersand his fiancée and the support of Ostho-fen citizens, he was able to escape fromthe camp on 3rd July 1933 and flee to theSaarland, which at the time was under

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The formerWorms policechief, HeinrichMaschmeyer.Photo from 1930. Source: Statearchive, Speyer

Shoemaking in the Osthofen concentrationcamp; press photo of the Niersteiner Warte of23rd/24th April 1933.

French administration under a League ofNations mandate. The politically fearlesssocial democratic lawyer had been athorn in the flesh of the Hessian nationalsocialists long before 1933. In countlesspolitical trials, he had courageously defen-ded members of leftwing parties andbrought charges against the Nazis for cri-mes. At the beginning of March 1933 hehad criticised the “Reichstag Fire Order”in an article published in the social demo-cratic Mainer Volkszeitung.

Tschornicki‘s escape took him in 1935 tothe South of France following the incor-poration of the Saarland into the GermanReich. In France, he was discovered byGerman Gestapo officers and deportedvia Lyons on 11th August 1944 to theAuschwitz concentration camp. He diedon 21st April 1945, just before the end ofthe war, in a sub-camp of Dachau fromthe consequences of dysentery andexhaustion.

The former district leader of the GermanCommunist Party, who was well knownin Worms, Wilhelm Vogel, will never for-get the interrogation methods of Gestapoofficer Johannes, to which he had beensubjected at the Osthofen concentrationcamp. These interrogation methods for-ced him in 1933 to flee the Osthofen con-centration camp immediately. He initiallyescaped to the Saarland. From there hewent on to France in 1935. There he joi-ned the Communist Resistance, whichfrom its position in exile, maintainedcontact with the communists in Germany.When the Spanish Civil War broke out,he fought against the fascist Franco regi-me. After the defeat of the republicangovernment, he was deported from Spain.He was interned several times but wasable to escape. In Morocco he joined theBritish army in 1944 and finally returnedwith his unit, via Algiers, Palermo andNaples, to his home town of Worms.

The end of the Osthofen concentration camp In the wake of the attempted centralisa-tion of the concentration camps, HeinrichHimmler, in May 1934, commissionedTheodor Eicke, Commandant of Dachauconcentration camp to take over, reorga-nise and standardise the existing concen-tration camps. This was accompanied bythe disbanding of most of the smallercamps. The Osthofen concentration campwas disbanded in July 1934 as one of thelast early camps. Up to this point, thenumber of those in protective custodydeclined severely in the wake of the con-solidation of the national socialist dicta-torship as everywhere in the GermanReich, including Hesse. At the time theconcentration camp was closed, therewere officially still 84 prisoners from thePeople’s State of Hesse in protectivecustody. Some, such as Carlo Mierendorff,had in the meantime, been transferred toother camps. With the imposition of adaily reporting obligation, the majority ofthe prisoners had initially been released.Many of them were arrested, terrorisedand abused again. Some of them did notsurvive the end of the national socialistdictatorship. They died in other concen-tration camps or in punishment battalions,into which they were forced “on proba-tion”. With respect to the guards of theOsthofen concentration camp, their workin the national socialist state was in no

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Willi Vogel’smembership ID ofthe InternationalBrigade.Source:Morweiser,Hermann /Ludwigshafen

way completed even after its closure.Many members of the camp guard wereallocated other positions within the Hessianpolice or were taken on by the manage-ment of the Dachau concentration campas guards. Karl d’Angelo was even campcommandant of the protective custodycamp there. However, his career thereended abruptly. To the camp comman-dant, Theodor Eicke, he seemed to be“soft” and therefore totally unsuited forthe position of commandant of the pro-tective custody camp. Nevertheless, hewas able to pursue a career in Nazi Ger-many. He advanced to become policechief in Cuxhaven and later in Heilbronn.

A novel: “The Seventh Cross”and the Osthofen concentrationcampIn her novel, “The Seventh Cross”, firstpublished in the USA in 1942, the Mainzauthor, Anna Seghers, created a literarymonument to the prisoners in Osthofen.She was born Netty Reiling on 19th Novem-ber 1900, the daughter of the respectedJewish art and antique dealer, Isidor Rei-ling and his wife, Hedwig. After havingbriefly been detailed by the Gestapo shewent into exile to Paris in 1933. Her worldfamous novel, “The Seventh Cross”, wasalso written there. In it she describes anescape from a fictitious concentration campcalled Westhofen. The escape is set in1937 at a time when the real concentrati-on camp in the neighbouring town ofOsthofen had already been closed forthree years. Unlike the novel, there wereno deaths at the Osthofen concentrationcamp. On the other hand, Anna Seghersrealistically describes how political oppo-nents were treated in Rhinehesse. Fromher own experience, she describes thedifferent reactions of the domestic popu-lation to the beginnings of National Socia-lism, its ideology and the arrest of friendsand neighbours.

In 1947 Anna Seghers returned to Germany

where she was awarded the Büchnerprize for “The Seventh Cross”. In 1950she moved to East Berlin, where she diedon 1st June 1983.

Concentration camp – furniturefactory – memorialAfter the closure of the concentrationcamp in 1934, the factory complex initial-ly stood empty. At a compulsory auctionin October 1936, the married couple, Mrs.and Mrs. Bühne, acquired the land andbuildings of the former paper mill in or-der to move their existing furniture fac-tory there and enable them to expand.The furniture factory of “Hildebrand &Bühner G.m.b.H” was involved in the seriesproduction of living room cupboards.

At least 16, mainly Belgian, prisoners ofwar had to do forced labour there bet-ween December 1942 and March 1945.

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Wood engraved title by the Mexican, LeopoldoMéndez, for the first German language edition ofthe novel, “The Seventh Cross” by Anna Seghers,published by El Libro Libre, Mexico, 1942. Source: Archive of the Academy of ArtsFoundation, Berlin

In 1976 Hildebrand & Bühner went bank-rupt. The land and buildings were rentedout and used by a plastics recycling com-pany amongst others. The fabric of thebuildings became more and more dilapi-dated. The history of the place as a con-centration camp was suppressed and for-gotten. Only with considerable effort wasit finally possible to clear the rubble andreveal the history.

The first to get involved were former pri-soners. In 1972 they established a campassociation under the leadership of KarlSchreiber from Bickenbach and with theparticipation of the “Union of Persecuteesof the Nazi Regime / Antifascist league“[VVN/BdA]. They initiated the first com-memorative ceremonies on site and ma-naged to get permission for a commemo-rative plaque to be mounted on a outerwall in 1978. In 1979 the first publicationabout the Osthofen concentration campappeared, published by the formerBuchenwald inmate, Paul Grünewald. Atthe beginning of the 80s, other comrades-in-arms joined in: the Youth Wing of theGerman Federation of Trade Unions(DGB) organised three peace trips toOsthofen and the Association for the envi-ronment and nature conservation (BUND)petitioned for the building to be schedu-led as an ancient monument.

In 1986 under the central control of theDeutscher Zweig des Christlichen Friedens-dienstes e.V. [German branch of YouthAction for Peace], based in Frankfurt,together with the Rhineland-Palatinatebranch of the DGB, the Association offormer camp inmates and the VVN/BdARhineland-Palatinate, the “Association forthe promotion of the Osthofen project”,was founded, which further advanced theidea of a memorial. In 1988 the initialrooms were rented on the site and for thefirst time, a programme of continuouseducation was carried out. The Associa-tion also raised awareness amongst the

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Emilion Leon Thiry, one of the Belgian POWsSource: Ceges-Soma, Brussels

The Hildebrand and Bühner furniture factory– photo from the 1950s. Source: private

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Carl Schreiber, former prisoner and chairman ofthe Osthofen Concentration Camp Association,with the commemorative plaque that was fixedto the outer wall in 1978.

public of the history of the former Ostho-fen concentration camp by putting onevents, such as concerts, lectures, rea-dings and art events.

In 1989 the building was classified as anancient monument. In 1991 the state ofRhineland-Palatinate acquired the propertywith the aim of setting up a memorialthere. The state government commissio-ned the Rhineland-Palatinate Centre forPolitical Education to deal with the con-tent, which developed the memorial inco-operation with the Association. In 1996an interim permanent exhibition was ope-ned in the first rooms to be renovated.

Since 2002 the “Commemorative work”department and the Rhineland-PalatinateCentre for National Socialist Documenta-tion of the Centre for Political Educationhave been based at the memorial. Withthe opening of the permanent exhibition,“Persecution and resistance“ in Rhineland-Palatinate 1933-1945“, in May 2004, thedevelopment of the Osthofen concentra-tion camp memorial was complete.

One of a total of three peace trips to Osthofenby the Youth Wing of the DGB and theAssociation of Former Inmates of the OsthofenConcentration Camp.

Today, the Rhineland-Palatinate Centre forPolitical Education and the OsthofenProject Association work hand in handthere.

The permanent exhibition,“Persecution and Resistance inthe Rhineland-Palatinate,1933-1945”At the centre of the exhibition are thetwo concentration camps of Osthofen andHinzert. From 1939 to 1945 the latter wassituated 30 km from Trier. The exhibitionalso focuses on the subject of "Persecu-tion and Resistance" in the territory of to-day’s Rhineland-Palatinate. The exhibitionprovides numerous biographical and geo-graphical-regional features. The collectedmaterial handed down from contempor-ary witnesses, their personal life storiesand documents play an important part.Individual biographical information aboutpersecuted individuals illustrates to visi-tors the merciless national socialist terror.The careers of perpetrators from the regi-on are also presented by means of briefbiographies.

The exhibition is made up of informationplaques with a large number of writtenand picture documents. Biographical testi-

monies of victims of the concentrationcamps and the individuals persecuted bythe national socialists are accommodatedin display cabinets with pull-out drawers.Films about the national socialist periodin Rhineland-Palatinate, which depict theevents in Osthofen, Hinzert and othertowns in Rhineland-Palatinate, are shownon three large screens in their overallhistorical context, during the years 1933to 1945. Special listening points provideadditional information.

One room is dedicated to the novel, “TheSeventh Cross“, by Anna Seghers and tothe biography of the author. In a specialmap room, interactive maps of nationalsocialist history in our region, of the con-centration camp system and of the campsin Osthofen and Hinzert can be called up.

Collecting – Researching –Bringing together: Employmentopportunities at the Osthofenconcentration camp memorialThe Rhineland-Palatinate Centre forNational Socialist Documentation at theOsthofen concentration camp memorialserves as a place of remembrance, docu-mentation and research, as well as provi-ding an educational insight into the natio-nal socialist period for the state of Rhine-

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A look at the permanent exhibitionPhoto: Rudolf J. Uhrig, Osthofen

land-Palatinate. These functions are ofmutual influence. The documentation onthe national socialist period in Rhineland-Palatinate is not limited to the two con-centration camps of Osthofen and Hin-zert. It also covers other regions in thestate and is devoted to topics, which areof importance to the regional history duringthe national socialist period, independent-ly of the concentration camp system.

As the documents concerning the two con-centration camps have been largely dest-royed or scattered amongst various archi-ves in Germany – and with respect to theSpecial Hinzert SS camp also amongst for-eign archives – obtaining replacementdocumentation on the two former con-centration camps is one of the main tasksfacing the documentation department. Afurther focus of the collection is the natio-nal socialist period in today’s Rhineland-Palatinate. Apart from the documentarymaterial, a wide variety of media are in-cluded in the collection. All collectionscan be researched in databases and canbe inspected in the reading room by priorappointment. A library containing almost4000 titles on various aspects of NationalSocialism in the regions of Rhineland-Palatinate can likewise be used.

One of the most important tasks of theCentre for National Socialist Documenta-tion is to stimulate and co-ordinate regio-nal research into the national socialistperiod in our state and support this byproviding a wide variety of material. TheNational Socialist Documentation Centretherefore has a primary service functionfor schools and universities, as well as forhistorians, who are dedicated to local andregional research into National Socialism.

“One visit here replaces ten hours ofhistory lessons” according to one teacherfollowing a visit to the Osthofen concen-tration camp memorial with his class 10.For many pupils learning at an “authenticlocation” is a vital experience. The Ostho-fen concentration camp memorial provi-des various opportunities for this; duringa guided tour (lasting approx. 2.5 – 3hours) the history of the Osthofen con-centration camp is explained to the visi-tors by a media-aided talk, a guide throughthe site and a tour of the permanent exhi-bition. For more in-depth work, projectdays are offered, which facilitate learningby discovery and are intended to helpgain insights into the structures of NationalSocialism and the persons involved.Documents from the National SocialistDocumentation Centre can be opened up

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The grand-daughter, great-granddaughter and great-great-grandsonof the former prisoner, Moritz Marx from Flonheim, research his fateat the Rhineland-Palatinate Centre for National SocialistDocumentation.

by the pupils independently under super-vision. In this way an in-depth debateabout the complex subjects is also encou-raged with regard to issues of the presentday and the future. The memorial doesnot offer any firmly prescribed program-mes but develops an individual program-me in co-operation with teachers and pu-pils, which takes account of the interestsof the group. Different methods are offe-red, ranging from working with archivematerial, films and photographs, writingworkshops and role play through to crea-tive painting and designing.

For educational work, four seminar roomswith appropriate conference facilities areavailable. Even for individual visitors, thememorial offers the possibility of in-depthstudy of the history of the Osthofen con-centration camp. Six text panels on thesite provide the visitor with informationon the happenings and importance of theindividual sites for the history of the camp.In addition to the permanent exhibition,individual visitors can also call up additio-nal information about the National Socia-list period in Rhineland-Palatinate at thesix computer workstations at the “in-depthstudy station”. The permanent exhibition

is supplemented by temporary, alternatingexhibitions on the various aspects of theNational Socialist period.

Art at the memorialThe art works to be found on the premi-ses of the Osthofen concentration campmemorial offer completely different accessto the subject-matter. Even without speci-

fic, prior historical knowledge, they en-able the site of the former concentrationcamp to be something that can be experi-enced and touched. The focal point ofthe art at the Osthofen concentration campmemorial is the sculpture. As early as 1990,even before the site was renovated andthe present memorial set up, the Frank-furt artist, Friedhelm Welge, worked forseveral weeks at the memorial and, amongstother things, created the sculpture “SichWindender” (writhing man), which cannow be seen at the memorial site.

In the rear section of the hall, where pri-soners were accommodated in 1933/34,there is now the artistic installation, “DieGrube” [the Pit] by the Mainz artist FeeFleck. Here, the artist reappraised theevents at Bjelaja-Zerkow in the Ukraine.There, in August 1941, at the rear of the6th Army, the Jewish inhabitants wereshot by Special SS squad 4a and buried inshallow pits. Roughly 90 Jewish childrenwere left without parents and withoutmeans of support in an empty building.

Pupils in the exhibition.

“Die Grube” (the Pit) installation by the artist, FeeFleck

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Their whimpering could be heard day andnight. An attempt to rescue them failed andso the children, with the approval of theWehrmacht, were also shot by the SS.The lighting effects, combined with a taperecorded sequence of a witness statementof the goings-on in Bjelaja-Zerkow im-pressively document the dreadful scale ofthe National Socialist terror.

In the summer of 2000 at the initiative ofthe Association and with the help of finan-cial assistance from the Regional Centrefor Political Education, the Sculpture Sym-posium, “Künstler gegen Gewalt” [Artistsagainst violence] was held on the memo-rial site. The sculptors, Hans-Otto Lohren-gel, Bernhard Mathäss, Peter Schilling,Achim Ribbeck and Bernd Kleffel workedfor five weeks on five blocks of stoneright next to the hall in which the priso-ners had to live at the time it was a con-centration camp.

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About his work, the artist Friedhelm Welge saysthat it represents both the prisoner, who wants toescape from his suffering, as well as the contem-porary, who does not want to know (then or now)and who turns away. However, both fail.

Each sculptor interpreted the set subject of“Violence” in his own way and gave form tothe impressions that the place made on him.Almost 2000 people visited the memorialduring this period and even today, the fivesculptures are a particular attraction whendoing a tour of the memorial site

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• Gedenkstättenarbeit und Schule inRheinland-Pfalz. Die GedenkstättenOsthofen, Hinzert und Hadamar und ihreAngebote für Schulen. Hrsg. v. Pädagogischen ZentrumRheinland-Pfalz. Bad Kreuznach 2009(PZ-Information 13/2009).

• Meyer, Hans-Georg/Roth, Kerstin:Zentrale Staatliche Einrichtung des LandesHessen: Das KonzentrationslagerOsthofen. In: Wolfgang Benz/Barbara Distel (Hrsg.):Instrumentarium der Macht. FrüheKonzentrationslager 1933 – 1937. Berlin2003, S. 189 – 219.

• NS-Dokumentationszentrum Rheinland-Pfalz. Gedenkstätte KZ Osthofen.Kurzinformation für den Besuch derGedenkstätte und der Ausstellung (Flyer).Hrsg. v. der Landeszentrale für politischeBildung Rheinland-Pfalz. Mainz 2005.

• Ruppert-Kelly, Martina: Das ProjektOsthofen. Der schwierige Weg zurGedenkstätte. Hrsg. v. Förderverein Projekt Osthofen.Osthofen 2004.

• Verfolgung und Widerstand inRheinland-Pfalz 1933 – 1945. Bd. 1:Gedenkstätte KZ Osthofen –Ausstellungskatalog. Hrsg. v. der Landeszentrale für politischeBildung Rheinland-Pfalz. Mainz 2008.

• Vor 75 Jahren: „Am Anfang stand dieGewalt…“ Gedenkveranstaltung zurErinnerung an die Errichtung desKonzentrationslagers Osthofen.Dokumentation. Gedenkarbeit inRheinland-Pfalz 4. Hrsg. v. derLandeszentrale für politische BildungRheinland-Pfalz. Mainz 2008.

Text: Angelika Arenz-Morch, MartinaRuppert-Kelly, Landeszentrale für politi-sche Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz [Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Centre for PoliticalEducation], 1st edition Osthofen 2010Project management: Dr. Dieter Schiff-mann, Direktor der Landeszentrale fürpolitische Bildung Rheinland-PfalzList of illustrations: The rights to thephotographs reproduced, unless otherwi-se indicated, remain with the Rhineland-Palatinate Centre for National SocialistDocumentation/Osthofen ConcentrationCamp Memorial. Translation: Übersetzer-GemeinschaftSternheimer, Mannheim

Further literature /materials:(selection)

• Am Anfang stand die Gewalt. In the beginning was violence. DasKonzentrationslager Osthofen 1933/34.Ein Dokumentarfilm. (29 Min.), Sprache:deutsch und englisch. Hrsg. von der Landeszentrale für politi-sche Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz. Mainz2008. (als DVD erhältlich)

• Arenz-Morch, Angelika: DasKonzentrationslager Osthofen 1933/34. In: Die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus inRheinland-Pfalz. Band 2: „Für dieAußenwelt seid Ihr tot!“. Hrsg. v. Hans-Georg Meyer und HansBerkessel. Mainz 2000, S. 32-51.

• Fachinger, Heribert: Leben und Alltag ineinem frühen Konzentrationslager imSpiegel von Häftlingsberichten undErinnerungen. In: Die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus inRheinland-Pfalz. Band 2: „Für dieAußenwelt seid Ihr tot!“. Hrsg. v. Hans-Georg Meyer und Hans Berkessel. Mainz2000, S. 80-90.

Public guided tours: every first Sundayin the month, 14.30 hours; meeting pointin the Memorial foyer (prior booking notnecessary)

How to find us:Railway: local trains on the Mannheim-Mainz route; at Osthofen station go in anortherly direction (towards Mainz bycar) for 3 minutes on the footpath to theMemorial, which is located on the left,behind the railway crossing.By car: Autobahn A 61 Speyer-Cologne,exit Gundersheim-Westhofen/Osthofen,via Westhofen to Osthofen. From here,follow the signs to the memorial.

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Practical information

Address:NS-Dokumentationszentrum Rheinland-Pfalz/Gedenkstätte KZ OsthofenZiegelhüttenweg 38, D-67574 OsthofenTel.: 06242-910810, Fax: 06242-910820info@ns-dokuzentrum-rlp.dewww.politische-bildung-rlp.de

Förderverein Projekt Osthofen e.V. Ziegelhüttenweg 38, D-67574 OsthofenTel.: 06242-910825, Fax: 06242-910829info@projektosthofen-gedenkstaette.dewww.projektosthofen-gedenkstaette.de

Opening hours:Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.: 9.00 - 13.00hours, 14.00 - 17.00 hoursWed., 9.00 - 12.00 hoursWeekends and public holidays: 13.00 - 17.00 hoursGuided tours for groups and school clas-ses by prior arrangement only.

Outside view of the Osthofen concentration camp1933.