Soldau concentration camp
| KL Soldau (Działdowo) | |
|---|---|
| Concentration camp | |
Działdowo – Monument to Victims
of Soldau concentration camp 
 northwest of Treblinka death camp |
|
| Coordinates | 53°14′N 20°11′E / 53.233°N 20.183°ECoordinates: 53°14′N 20°11′E / 53.233°N 20.183°E |
| Known for | Forced labor camp |
| Location | Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany |
| Operated by | Schutzstaffel |
| Number of inmates | Around 30,000 |
| Killed | 10,000 |
The Soldau concentration camp established by Nazi Germany during World War II was a concentration camp for Polish and Jewish prisoners in Działdowo (German: Soldau), a town in north-eastern Poland, which after the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 was annexed into the Province of East Prussia.
The camp was founded in the former Polish Army barracks by SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch with the approval of Reinhard Heydrich. The first prisoners were brought in already at the end of September 1939. They were the Polish Army defenders of the Modlin Fortress who were forced to capitulate due to lack of ammunition and food. The camp served different purposes throughout its existence. The Polish intelligentsia, priests and political prisoners were secretly executed there, on top of 1,558 patients of all psychiatric hospitals in the district. It also served as a transit center for deportations from East Prussia to the semi-colonial General Government and for slave labour to the Reich. Intended as temporary – for the initial 1,000 inmates – the camp soon became permanent and rezoned as an Arbeitserziehungslager for the civilians brought in from across the new German Zichenau (region). Some 10,000–13,000 prisoners died there, out of the total number of 30,000. After the war the camp was first classified by the International Tracing Service (ITS) as an Vernichtungslager (extermination camp) due to its sheer number of victims.
The town of Działdowo was located in the part of occupied Poland which was annexed to the Third Reich. The first civilian prisoners arrived in trucks and in trains from the towns on the Polish–East Prussian border, evicted from their homes by the Nazis in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the area of non-Germans entirely. Also, the camp conducted early experiments in gassing. In accordance with Action T4, mental patients at sanatoria in East Prussia and Regierungsbezirk Zichenau were taken to the Soldau camp; 1,558 patients were murdered by the Lange Commando in a gas van from May 21 to June 8, 1940. Lange used his experience with exhaust gasses acquired at Soldau in setting up the Chelmno extermination camp thereafter.
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Wikipedia