1933-1945

The Emsland Camps

The National Socialists and their accomplices set up a total of 15 concentration, penal and prisoner-of-war camps in Emsland. 

Twelve of them were located in what is now the Emsland district and three in the county of Grafschaft Bentheim. Thousands of people were imprisoned in the camps, including numerous ‘political prisoners’ who stood in the way of the National Socialists enforcing their regime. The construction of the Emsland camps took place in three overlapping phases: 

• 1933-1936
  Establishment and supervision of concentration camps by the SS
  (Börgermoor, Neusustrum, Esterwegen)
• 1934-1945
  Prison camps under the authority of the justice administration
  (Aschendorfermoor, Börgermoor, Rhede-Brual, Walchum, Neusustrum, Oberlangen, Esterwegen, Versen, Fullen)
• 1939-1945
  Prisoner of war camps of the High Command of the Wehrmacht
  (Oberlangen, Wesuwe, Versen, Fullen, Groß Hesepe, Dalum, Wietmarschen, Bathorn, Alexisdorf)

Today, hardly anything of the former Emsland camps can be seen on site. Information boards at the sites of the former camps provide information about the history of each camp.