Jungfernhof concentration camp
| Jungfernhof concentration camp | |
|---|---|
Ruins in 2011
|
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| Also known as | Mazjumprava, KZ Jungfernhof |
| Location | near Riga, Latvia |
| Date | December 1941 to March 1942 |
| Incident type | Imprisonment without trial, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, exile |
| Perpetrators | Franz Walter Stahlecker, Rudolf Seck |
| Organizations | Nazi SS, Latvian Auxiliary Police |
| Victims | About 4,000 German and Austrian Jews |
| Survivors | About 148 people |
| Memorials | At Biķernieki Forest |
The Jungfernhof concentration camp (Latvian: Jumpravmuižas koncentrācijas nometne) was an improvised concentration camp in Latvia, at the Mazjumprava Manor, near the Šķirotava Railway Station about three or four kilometers from Riga (now within the city territory). The camp was in operation from December 1941 through March 1942, and served as overflow housing for Jews from Germany and Austria, who had originally been intended for Minsk as a destination.
The new destination, the Riga Ghetto was also overcrowded and could not accommodate the Jewish people deported from Germany. The first transport train with 1,053 Berlin Jews arrived at the Šķirotava Railway Station on November 30, 1941. All persons on board were murdered later the same day at the Rumbula Forest near Riga. The next four transports were, on the orders of SS-Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker, commander of Einsatzgruppen A, brought to Greater Jungfernhof, an abandoned farming estate on the Daugava River. Originally Jungfernhof was to have been established as an SS business enterprise, and being under the jurisdiction of the SS it could be employed without consulting with the German civil administration ("Gebietskommissariat") in Latvia. Under the new plan, Jungfernhof would serve as improvised housing in order to make available labor for the construction of the Salaspils concentration camp.
Only the sixth transport, which arrived on December 10, 1941 with Cologne Jews on board, came to the "freed up" Riga ghetto, following the murder there of numerous Latvian Jews.
The former estate of 200 hectares in size, had built on it a warehouse, three large barns, five small barracks and various cattle sheds. The partially falling down and unheatable buildings were unsuitable for the accommodation of several thousand people. There were no watchtowers or enclosing perimeter, rather a mobile patrol of ten to fifteen Latvian auxiliary police (Hilfspolizei) under the German commandant Rudolf Seck.
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