Camp IV

Walchum

Camp IV Walchum was planned as a penal camp for 500 prisoners and was completed in May 1935. It was guarded by an SA unit in the service of the judiciary, which was later complemented by judicial officers.

Initial plans from December 1936 to expand the camp to a capacity of 1,000 prisoners were realised by 1939. However, the actual occupancy fluctuated greatly in the following years.

Up until the beginning of the war, the prisoners were people who had been persecuted by the Nazi regime on political, racial, social or religious grounds. In addition, there was a much larger group of prisoners who had been convicted of criminal offences. During the war, mainly former soldiers convicted by Wehrmacht courts were imprisoned. Foreign prisoners from occupied or annexed territories (Poles, Czechs, Luxembourgers and others) were also imprisoned here.

Depending on the time of year, the prisoners had to perform 8 to 12 hours of forced labour in the moor every day (drainage, road and path construction, peat extraction). Following the start of the war in 1939, the prisoners were increasingly deployed in essential war industries and in agriculture. The rations were poor and inadequate in relation to the hard labour. In addition to this general ordeal, the prisoners were subjected to a great variety of physical and psychological abuse by the guards. There was an unknown number of deaths and murders.

In February 1945, 167 prisoners were still imprisoned in the Walchum camp. They were transferred to the Aschendorfermoor camp in early April 1945.

The civil registry records 71 deaths, but it is likely that the actual number is higher. The dead were buried at the Börgermoor camp cemetery, which is now the Esterwegen burial ground.