Camp XII

Dalum

The justice administration had Camp XII Dalum completed in May 1939 for a total of 1,500 prisoners in order to expand the system of penal camps in the Emsland from seven to fifteen camps and to be able to use more prisoners for moorland cultivation. However, the camp was no longer occupied by prisoners until the beginning of the Second World War.

After the start of the war in September 1939, the Wehrmacht took over the camp as a prisoner of war camp and assigned it as a branch camp to the VI C Bathorn prisoner of war camp. In the first phase of the war, it mainly served as a transit camp. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht occupied the camp with Soviet prisoners of war. In September 1941, 4,100 Soviet soldiers were held prisoner in Dalum.

The Soviet prisoners of war were initially mainly used for cultivation measures, but after 1941 they were deployed exclusively in agriculture and commercial businesses. The National Socialist racial ideology led to ruthless treatment of the Soviet prisoners of war. The hard forced labor, combined with poor nutrition, inadequate accommodation and harassment by the guards, claimed countless victims.

In 1942, the Luftwaffe took over the camp as an equipment depot. In January 1945, the SS set up the Dalum camp as a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp (near Hamburg). The concentration camp prisoners had to set up defensive positions in the winter of 1944/45. Due to insufficient food, clothing and accommodation, hundreds of prisoners died during the hard labor. In March 1945, the SS transported the concentration camp prisoners back to Neuengamme via Cloppenburg ahead of the approaching Allied troops.

The Dalum war cemetery is the final resting place of around 8,000 to 16,000 unknown Soviet prisoners of war in mass graves. In addition, 38 known persons from the Soviet Union, one known Italian and nine unknown prisoners of war are buried in individual graves.

Place of Remembrance "Camp XII Dalum"

The transformer station and the guard building of the former National Socialist Emsland Camp XII in Dalum were renovated in 2022/23 in accordance with monument protection regulations and are now accessible as the “CAMP XII DALUM” memorial site. The exhibition in the rooms of the former camp provides detailed information about the camps as well as the war cemeteries in the Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim.
The permanent exhibition inside the building is accessible daily during opening hours via an electronic system (CEST 9 AM to 7 PM in summer, CET 10 AM to 4 PM).