“Did you hear about that place where they used to lock people up?” a visitor whispers. Today we stand at Gedenkort an das Deportationslager Köln-Müngersdorf. This place of remembrance marks a dark chapter in Cologne’s history. It’s a place where Jewish people from Cologne and the surrounding area were once ghettoized. From here they were deported to ghettos and extermination camps in occupied Eastern Europe.
The Gedenkort an das Deportationslager Köln-Müngersdorf stands as a reminder. It was erected in 2020 on the site of the former Deportationslager Köln-Müngersdorf. The sculpture “Wall” by Simon Ungers is at the heart of this memorial. Three information panels tell the camp’s story. These panels are connected by a 280-meter path of remembrance.
The Deportationslager Köln-Müngersdorf consisted of two areas. First was Fort V, part of the outer fortress ring. Second, about 250 meters away, was a barrack camp. The Nazis used Fort V as a military prison starting in 1879.
Between 1941 and 1943, Nazis used this site as a Sammellager or collection camp. From October 1941 to March 1945, it served as a holding place for Jewish people. In 1943 and 1944, foreign forced laborers were housed here. From October 1944, it became a labor education camp.
Before its use as a deportation camp, measures targeted Cologne’s Jewish population. From 1933 to 1941, the number of Jews in Cologne decreased from 15000 to nearly 6000. In 1939, the “Aryanization of living space” began. Jewish residents were forced to take in other Jews. Jews were evicted from their homes. From May 1941, many Jews were moved into so-called “Ghetto houses”. Jews had to move from all right-bank suburbs into the Altstadt, Neustadt, Nippes, or Ehrenfeld. Jews were forbidden to use public transport or bicycles.
In autumn 1941, the Gestapo and city administration decided to establish a “community camp for Jews”. Fort V would house about 200 people. The new barrack camp would hold over 1200.
The first inmates moved into Fort V in October 1941. They built the barrack camp 250 meters northwest of the barracks. Hundreds of Jewish women, men, and children were interned there. Rabbi Zvi Asaria described the catastrophic conditions. People lived in underground vaults. There was no running water in the unheated barracks. They were only allowed to take a bed and chair with them. Ten to twenty people lived in each vault.
The first residents moved into the 12 barracks shortly before Christmas 1941. They lived in unsanitary conditions without running water. Residents had to provide their own furniture. The Jewish community had to pay 800000 Reichsmark for the barrack camp. Only 22 of the planned 36 barracks were built.
After a bombing raid in May 1942, the Jewish hospital was cleared. Patients were moved to the Müngersdorf barrack camp. Many died due to lack of medical care. In May 1942, the camp was overcrowded. Some inmates had to sleep outside.
The deportations of Jewish residents from Cologne began in October 1941. The first deportation train left from Cologne-Ehrenfeld station in May 1942. In early 1943, most inmates were deported to Theresienstadt. From there they went to extermination camps like Bełżec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Others were deported to Maly Trostinets near Minsk and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Many people committed suicide out of fear of deportation.
After the deportation of Jewish inmates, the barrack camp housed forced laborers in 1943/44. Following the destruction of another camp, surviving prisoners were moved to Fort V in Müngersdorf.
From September 12, 1944, the Cologne Gestapo interned about 1000 Jewish men and women in mixed marriages. Also interned were men, women, and children considered “half-Jews”. The barrack camp was also called Mischlingslager or mixed-race camp. The Gestapo organized deportations to Theresienstadt. Many suicides occurred in the camp.
The Gedenkort an das Deportationslager Köln-Müngersdorf serves as a place of reflection. It helps us remember the victims of the Nazis. It encourages us to learn from the past. It ensures such atrocities never happen again.