Stutthof Concentration Camp

Scope and content

The collection contains among others:

“Commandant orders”, special orders relating to the construction of external work camps, listings of statistics on the labor units of the prisoners, orders of the camp command headquarters relating to guard units, correspondence of the camp command, Red-Cross-correspondence, transcripts of interrogations relating to escape attempts, documents relating to SS-Storm Unit Stutthof 1., 2., 3.company, purchase contract on the concentration camp site, Block announcements”, various correspondence with other concentration camps et al, files of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1943-1944, arrivals books and listings, prisoner lists, lists of deceased prisoners, transport lists, death certificates, deaths lists, death books, secondary death books, correspondence on the property of deceased prisoners, money account cards, medical and/or certifications by the police doctor (transport, ability to undergo imprisonment, etc.), registries of personal effects, prisoner registration files, prisoner registration forms, telegraphs, death announcements, documents relating to prisoner hospitals (releases, medical record, et al), prisoner cards without names

History of Concentration Camp Stutthof 1939-1945:

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the city of Danzig (Gdansk) and the surrounding region were the target of German "Revisionspolitik" (revision of the Treaty of Versailles). Immediately following Germany’s attack on Poland, the National Socialists began aggressively “germanizing” and “politically cleansing” the area: enormous numbers of Polish teachers, civil servants, priests and functionaries of Polish organisations were incarcerated and murdered. Already in the first days of the war some 150 prisoners had to build a camp in a remote area near the village of Stutthof. For the most part it was Polish and Jews from Gdansk were then incarcerated there. Until late 1940 more than 10,000 mostly male civil prisoners (Zivilgefangene) passed through the camp. Starting in January 1942 the site was continually expanded and run as an autonomous concentration camp. The prisoner numbers climbed rapidly, and numerous satellite camps were added. Forced labor, hunger and abuse by the guard units characterized life in the camp. Moreover, from the very start the prisoners were defenseless against the vicious whims of the SS, who shot or hanged the prisoners. SS-doctors killed sick and weakened prisoners through injecting their hearts with poison or petrol. In the summer of 1944 prisoners were also killed in a gas chamber. As of summer 1944 Stutthof became the destination and transfer point for evacuation transports from concentration camps in the Baltic region. From mid-January 1945, with the Red Army continuing to approach, Camp Stutthof was gradually disbanded. On 25 and 26 January 1945 the SS began with the “evacuation” of the concentration camp. Over 10,000 prisoners in several convoys were forced onto “death marches” heading westward or towards eastern Prussia. By the end of April 1945 the SS “evacuated” further groups of prisoners. When soldiers of the Red Army reached the camp on 9 May 1945, there were some 150 prisoners to be found in Stutthof. Of the approx. 115,000 prisoners of Concentration Camp Stutthof and its numerous satellite camps, only some 50,000 survived the war.

Source: Matthäus, Jürgen: Stutthof (KZ), in: Lexikon des Holocaust, ed.by Wolfgang Benz, München 2002, p. 230 and http://www.memorialmuseums.org/denkmaeler/view/395/Gedenkstätte-und-Museum-Stutthof [Latest access: 2012-08-09].