Nohra concentration camp

Nohra was the first of the early Nazi concentration camps in Germany, established 3 March 1933 in a school at an airfield in Nohra. The camp was administered by the interior ministry of Thuringia. The inmates were exclusively communists and included half of the Communist party group in the Thuringian state parliament. Prisoners were not forced to work or systematically abused, but had to suffer from poor hygienic conditions and did not have beds. The camp was closed down again after a few months, and the building was demolished in the 1950s. A plaque commemorating the camp was installed in 1988 but taken down in 1990; as of 2023 there is no memorial board for the camp.

Nohra
Nazi concentration camp
Coordinates	50°58′44″N 11°13′58″E / 50.97889°N 11.23278°E / 50.97889; 11.23278
Known for	first Nazi concentration camp
Location	Nohra, Germany
Operated by	Thuringia interior ministry
Original use	school, airfield
Operational	1933
Inmates	Communists
Number of inmates	250

Background

The Nazi party had been part of the Thuringia state government since 1930, when Wilhelm Frick was appointed interior minister. In the 1932 state elections, the Nazis won a plurality of the votes and formed a coalition government under Fritz Sauckel, who also served as interior minister. On 28 February 1933, a Thuringian Hilfspolizei (auxiliary police) unit under Sauckel's command was formed, with unit members recruited from SA, SS and the Stahlhelm veteran association. After the 27 February 1933 Reichstag fire, hundreds of Communist Party of Germany members were arrested.^[1] To reduce overcrowding in the prisons, the interior ministry of Thuringia decided to open additional camps, called assembly camps (Sammellager),^[2] and the first such camp was opened on 3 March 1933 in Nohra, close to Weimar.^[3] On the same day, 100 prisoners arrived from various police stations and prisons nearby. Many of the prisoners came from Thuringia's socialist-leaning industrial cities. By the second day the population reached 170 and around 12 March it reached its peak of 220 prisoners.^[3] Many additional arrests took place after the election on 5 March. From 8 March 1933, the camp was described as a concentration camp.^[4]

Site

 

Heimatschule Mitteldeutschland at Nohra, later site of the concentration camp

The camp was located at the Nohra airfield [de] in a World War I era building that consisted of two barracks connected by a low-rise hall for aeroplanes.^[4][3] The building was close enough to the later Buchenwald concentration camp that the bell tower of the latter is visible from the site.^[5] From 1928, the site was used to house the Heimatschule Mitteldeutschland, a right-wing military school for young men.^[4] The school offered mostly holiday camps combining military sports with national-conservative political education. Between 1928 and 1931, 1119 young men, no older than 15, took part in the activities at the school.^[6] Additionally on site were a volunteer work camp of the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst and a military sports camp of the Stahlhelm association.^[4] Advantages of the site were the supportive local ideology, the presence of suitable buildings and the presence of Schutzpolizei in nearby Weimar.^[7]

The concentration camp was located on the second floor of one of the buildings, and divided into three large rooms, furnished only with straw and blankets.^[8] In particular, there were no beds.^[4] There were no fences or barbed wire,^[8] and the site was comparatively freely accessible.^[4]

Administration and guards

Unlike most of the later concentration camps, Nohra was not administered by the SA or SS, but by the Thuringia interior ministry.^[9] Heimatschule students were employed as additional guards. A police station was set up in the school building where newcomers were interrogated.^[3] The commander of the station lived in a villa close by, still called Kommandantenvilla locally^[10] that was used as a Gasthaus as of 2003.^[5]

Prisoners and camp life

All prisoners were Thuringian communists. Half of the Communist party (KPD) group in the Thuringian state parliament was imprisoned at Nohra, the five politicians Rudolf Arnold [de], Richard Eyermann [de], Fritz Gäbler, Leander Kröber [de] and Erich Scharf [de].^[3] Other prisoners included the KPO member Werner Klinz and the former KPD member of parliament Hermann Steudner [de].^[11][12] The prisoners did not work, but spent the entire day in the halls where they slept, with only interrogations and new arrivals interrupting the monotony.^[3] There was no systematic abuse by the guards,^[4] but the hygiene conditions were very poor, especially as the camp was sometimes very crowded.^[3] The inmate Fritz Koch, a functionary of the paramilitary Roter Frontkämpferbund,^[2] died on 17 March 1933 in a Weimar hospital from a tooth infection caught at the camp;^[4] his was the only death related to the Nohra concentration camp.^[2][13] Occupancy of the camp averaged at 95, with a maximum of 220.^[3] In total, about 250 prisoners were interned at Nohra until the camp was closed.^[14] For a short time, some women were also held at the camp.^[3]

The Nohra inmates were allowed to vote in the March 1933 German federal election, and their presence caused a significant rise in the communist vote in Nohra (172 in March 1933 versus 10 in the December 1932 local elections).^[14] Prisoners who were released had to sign a statement that they would refrain from future political engagement.^[15]

Closure and legacy

Nohra was among the first concentration camps that were closed down again.^[4] The closing date has been reported to be 12 April 1933^[14][16] or 10 May 1933.^[4] Any remaining prisoners were moved to a prison in Ichtershausen.^[4][14] In October 1933, some of them, including Eyermann and Kröber, were moved to Bad Sulza concentration camp [de] in nearby Bad Sulza.^[4][14]

The Heimatschule was closed in October 1933. From 1935, the camp site was used by the Luftwaffe, who added some barracks and further buildings. The barracks were used by the Red Army after the end of World War II.^[4] In 1946, the government of Thuringia considered moving their administration offices to the site of the Nohra airfield, but this was not accepted by the Soviet occupying authorities.^[17] The building that had housed the camp was demolished in the early 1950s.^[10][18] In 1988, the Weimar district Socialist Unity Party of Germany ordered the installation of a memorial plaque for the concentration camp in Nohra. The plaque read In dieser Gemeinde haben die imperialistischen Machthaber im März 1933 das erste faschistische Konzentrationslager in Thüringen errichtet. ('In this mucicipality, the imperialist rulers set up the first fascist concentration camp in Thuringia in March 1933')^[4][5] After German reunification, the plaque was moved to the town hall attic in 1990, and there was no local indication of the existence of the camp in the early 2000s.^[5][19] In the 2010s, a local history club was working on having memorial boards installed.^[10] This has not happened as of 2023.^[4]

References

Footnotes

1. Wohlfeld 2009, pp. 140–141.
2. Drobisch & Wieland 2018, p. 11.
3. Wohlfeld 2009, p. 141.
4. Wagner 2023a.
5. Zeiss 2003.
6. Reimers 2000, pp. 155–156.
7. Wagner 2023b.
8. Wohlfeld 2005, p. 174.
9. Bernhard 2008.
10. Brandt 2013.
11. Weber & Herbst 2008a.
12. Weber & Herbst 2008b.
13. Wohlfeld 2001, p. 115.
14. Wohlfeld 2009, p. 142.
15. Drobisch & Wieland 2018, pp. 11–12.
16. Wohlfeld 2005, p. 175.
17. Wahl 1999, p. 212.
18. Flugplatz Nohra.
19. Wohlfeld 2005, p. 176.

Bibliography

• Bernhard, Henry (23 March 2008). "Todesstoß für die Weimarer Republik". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 25 April 2021.
• Brandt, Sabine (20 February 2013). "In Nohra stand das erste sogenannte KZ" (in German). Retrieved 12 May 2021.
• Drobisch, Klaus; Wieland, Günther (12 July 2018). System der NS-Konzentrationslager 1933–1939 (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-05-006633-2.
• Reimers, Bettina Irina (2000). Die Neue Richtung der Erwachsenenbildung in Thüringen 1919 bis 1933 (Doctor of Social Sciences thesis) (in German). Universität Tübingen.
• Wagner, Jens-Christian (3 March 2023a). "Nohra: Das 1. Konzentrationslager in Thüringen". www.mdr.de (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
• Wagner, Jens-Christian (3 March 2023b). "Prof. Jens-Christian Wagner über Thüringens 1. Konzentrationslager". www.mdr.de (Interview) (in German). Interviewed by Pütz, Miriam. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
• Wahl, Volker (1999). "Thüringens Landeshauptstadt". In Post, Bernhard; Wahl, Volker; Marek, Dieter (eds.). Thüringen-Handbuch: Territorium, Verfassung, Parlament, Regierung und Verwaltung in Thüringen 1920 bis 1995. Veröffentlichungen aus thüringischen Staatsarchiven. Weimar: Böhlau. pp. 203–215. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-02965-2. ISBN 978-3-7400-0962-5.
• Weber, Hermann; Herbst, Andreas, eds. (2008a). "Klinz, Werner". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
• Weber, Hermann; Herbst, Andreas, eds. (2008b). "Steudner, Hermann". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
• Wohlfeld, Udo (2001). "Das Konzentrationslager Nohra in Thüringen". In Benz, Wolfgang; Distel, Barbara (eds.). Terror ohne System: die ersten Konzentrationslager im Nationalsozialismus 1933-1935 (in German). Metropol. ISBN 978-3-932482-61-8.
• Wohlfeld, Udo (2005). "Nohra". In Benz, Wolfgang; Distel, Barbara; Königseder, Angelika (eds.). Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager (in German). Vol. 2. C.H.Beck. pp. 174–176. ISBN 978-3-406-52962-7.
• Wohlfeld, Udo (2009). "Nohra". In Megargee, Geoffrey P. (ed.). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum encyclopedia of camps and ghettos, 1933-1945. Volume 1, Early camps, youth camps, and concentration camps and subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA). Translated by Pallavicini, Stephen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 140–142. ISBN 978-0-253-00350-8. OCLC 644542383.
• Zeiss, Katrin (22 February 2003). "Die Spur nach Buchenwald". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). pp. 1001–1002. ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
• Flugplatz Nohra. "Flugplatz Nohra e.V." www.flugplatz-nohra.de. Retrieved 25 April 2021.