Five hundred Jewish women. That’s the number etched into this very plaque. The KZ-Außenlager Sasel Plaque. It stands as a stark reminder a chilling testament to a dark chapter in Hamburg’s history. We stand here today on the corner of Feldblumenweg and Petunienweg. This seemingly quiet spot once held a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp.
Between September 1944 and the end of the war this site was a prison. It wasn’t just any prison. It was a place of unimaginable suffering for these women. Transported from Auschwitz they were forced into slave labor. They toiled constructing prefabricated concrete houses near Poppenbüttel station and in various factories across the city.
Imagine the exhaustion. Picture the hunger. They labored under the constant threat of violence. Their days were relentless their nights filled with fear. The plaque doesn’t just list statistics. It whispers stories of individual lives lost. Lives stolen prematurely.
The SS weren’t the only perpetrators. Twenty to twenty-five conscripted retired customs officials guarded the prisoners. Inside the camp approximately twenty-five female SS guards oversaw their brutal regime. These women were not just victims. They too played a role in the horror.
In early April 1945 the SS forcibly evacuated the camp. They transported the prisoners to Bergen-Belsen. A horrific journey. The trauma did not end there. A second group arrived in April. These women were evacuated from the Beendorf satellite camp. They had endured a harrowing ten-day journey in cattle cars. Many perished during the transit. Twenty-nine women lost their lives here in Sasel.
A memorial stone stands alongside this plaque. This stone was erected in 1982. Students from the Oberalster Secondary School initiated its creation. They had painstakingly researched the camp’s history. They published their findings in a brochure. Their work ensured this story would not be forgotten.
The KZ-Außenlager Sasel Plaque isn’t just a marker. It’s a living testament. A reminder of the strength and resilience of these women. It’s a call to remember. To learn. And to ensure such atrocities never happen again. We owe it to them to keep their stories alive. To make sure their suffering was not in vain. Let’s take a moment of silence to reflect on their suffering.