Posted By: TurkeyHunter
Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp - 09/20/14 05:53 PM
Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km (31 mi) south west from the city of Strasbourg. It was the only concentration camp established by the Nazis on present-day French territory, though there were French-run temporary camps such as the one at Drancy. The total number of prisoners reached an estimated 52,000 over the three years. Inmates originated from various countries, including Poland, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, France, Germany, modern day Slovenia and Norway. It was largely set up to house (and kill via starvation/quarry work) undesirables and people of the resistance movements. They executed a number of people there as well.
Two Royal Air Force airmen (F/O Dennis H. Cochran, and F/L Anthony R. H. Hayter) who were involved in "The Great Escape" and murdered by the Gestapo after re-capture, were cremated at Natzweiler.
This was all the center of the German science project of what became known as the Jewish skeleton collection. The Jewish skeleton collection was an attempt by the Nazis to create an anthropological display to showcase the alleged racial inferiority of the "Jewish race" and to emphasize the Jews' status as Untermenschen ("sub-humans"), in contrast to the Germanic Übermenschen ("super-humans") Aryan race which the Nazis considered to be the "Herrenvolk" (master race). The collection was to be housed at the Anatomy Institute at the Reich University of Strasbourg in the annexed region of Alsace, where the initial preparation of the corpses was performed.
They also did a variety of human experimentation at this camp.
One of the things particularly disturbing to me were the several meat hooks near the crematorium. Apparently when they did not want to do a more public execution the Nazis would use a small cord or rope around somebody's neck and hang them to strangle and die just off the floor.
This place is also in a fairly remote area of Northeastern France. I became angry after leaving, thinking about why they put it so remote so nobody would see. From May 1941 to March 1945, more than 17,000 people died in the Natzweiler-Struthof camp system. Some estimates are as much as 25,000.
http://www.struthof.fr/en/home/
Main Entrance (memorial in background)
They dumped ashes in that little area you see.
What they had to haul rocks with in the quarry. Public gallows replica at the camp. Minor infraction would have you swinging.
Each of those terrace level would have buildings for housing people in very bad conditions. They were about the size of a commercial chicken house. I think there were about two buildings on each level.
Two Royal Air Force airmen (F/O Dennis H. Cochran, and F/L Anthony R. H. Hayter) who were involved in "The Great Escape" and murdered by the Gestapo after re-capture, were cremated at Natzweiler.
This was all the center of the German science project of what became known as the Jewish skeleton collection. The Jewish skeleton collection was an attempt by the Nazis to create an anthropological display to showcase the alleged racial inferiority of the "Jewish race" and to emphasize the Jews' status as Untermenschen ("sub-humans"), in contrast to the Germanic Übermenschen ("super-humans") Aryan race which the Nazis considered to be the "Herrenvolk" (master race). The collection was to be housed at the Anatomy Institute at the Reich University of Strasbourg in the annexed region of Alsace, where the initial preparation of the corpses was performed.
They also did a variety of human experimentation at this camp.
One of the things particularly disturbing to me were the several meat hooks near the crematorium. Apparently when they did not want to do a more public execution the Nazis would use a small cord or rope around somebody's neck and hang them to strangle and die just off the floor.
This place is also in a fairly remote area of Northeastern France. I became angry after leaving, thinking about why they put it so remote so nobody would see. From May 1941 to March 1945, more than 17,000 people died in the Natzweiler-Struthof camp system. Some estimates are as much as 25,000.
http://www.struthof.fr/en/home/
Main Entrance (memorial in background)
They dumped ashes in that little area you see.
What they had to haul rocks with in the quarry. Public gallows replica at the camp. Minor infraction would have you swinging.
Each of those terrace level would have buildings for housing people in very bad conditions. They were about the size of a commercial chicken house. I think there were about two buildings on each level.
