Brandenburg-Görden Prison

Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden quarter of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. Both criminal and political prisoners were sent there, also people imprisoned for preventive detention or for interrogation and prisoners of war. Built with a capacity of 1,800, it sometimes held over 4,000 during the Nazi era.

A first Zuchthaus in Brandenburg was established on Neuendorfer Straße in 1820. The old Brandenburg Prison was closed in 1931 because of its disastrous hygienic conditions, but later housed a Nazi concentration camp from August 1933 till February 1934. It later became the site of the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre, part of the Nazis' 'euthanasia' program known later as Action T4, where from February to October 1940, some 10,000 disabled, mentally retarded or mentally ill people were gassed.

Upon the Nazi Machtergreifung, the new prison in Görden became an instrument of political repression and terror. It was a Zuchthaus for inmates with lengthy or life sentences at hard labor, as well as prisoners who had been sentenced to death. Initially, there weren't many political prisoners at the new prison, but during the war years, the share increased to about 60%.

In 1940 Brandenburg-Görden became one of the selected central execution sites established throughout Germany by the order of Adolf Hitler and Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner. An execution chamber was installed, using what had previously been a garage, with a guillotine and a gallows. The total number of executions was 2,743 and took place between 1 August 1940 and 20 April 1945, most of them convicts sentenced to death by Sondergerichte courts of the notorious People's Court under President Roland Freisler. The youngest victim was a 15-year-old French boy. By the end of 1942, "preventive detention" prisoners, such as Jews, Roma, Sinti, Russians and Ukrainians were sent to concentration camps.

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