Stutthof is unfortunately regarded by many as a 'forgotten camp', something reflected by the lack of English language displays. However the sheer weight of history behind it makes it an intriguing, and distressing, day trip. In spite of efforts by the Nazis to hide all traces of their atrocities, much of the original camp remains standing.
In what was once the camp headquarters visitors can now view a sobering documentary film detailing day-to-day life in Stutthof. Screenings can be seen every half hour. Past the main gates the wooden barracks house horrifying exhibitions. Piles of shoes, countless photographs of emaciated inmates, prisoners' drawings, Christmas cards, poems and other personal belongings all paint a vivid and heartbreaking picture. Disturbingly, the splendid residence of the camp commandant just outside the main camp is now a private house.
Many barracks have been preserved as they were, and visitors can walk amidst the stacks of bunks which were often crammed with up to four prisoners per bed. Also remaining are the canteen and horrific sanitary block, in which 4,500 prisoners were expected to wash in little over an hour.
Unsurprisingly epidemics raged regularly. The 'hospital' block, rather than being a bona fide infirmary, was actually no more than a place of execution. It was here that thousands of prisoners were murdered using phenol injections to the heart. The very sight of basic utensils, surgical bed and clumsy needles are still enough to send waves of revulsion through the body.
The barracks to the right of the main entrance house displays detailing the struggle of the local resistance and are a must see for those interested in the history of Gdańsk/Danzig. Also of note is a scale model of Stutthof and its related sub-camps, as well as an interesting exhibition of photographs that puts faces to the men responsible for running the camp. Heinrich Himmler's visit to the camp is also documented, and there are several pictures of him inspecting his troops and enjoying banquets at the camp commandant's house. Having been 'selected' prisoners were herded to the gas chamber at the top end of the camp. Using Zyklon B gas they were summarily murdered, and their bodies disposed in the gloomy crematorium nearby.
Dominating the skyline is a giant memorial to those who suffered. Known as the Monument to Fight and Freedom, it was designed by Wiktor Tolkin and unveiled on May 12, 1968, the 23rd anniversary of the camp's liberation. Forming a part of the monument, a reliquary showcases a grizzly display of human bones recovered from the camp. Remembrance services are held on the first Sunday of every September.
Equally disturbing is the memorial dubbed the Holocaust Stake. A 500-metre walk through the forest, this is no more than an excavated mass grave. Prior to the building of the gas chamber it was here that Jews were executed by firing squads, their bodies then burnt on funeral pyres. A ring of symbolic stones now mark the edge of the pit.
[...]
Add
your
comment
Long before the outbreak of war Nazi officials in the Free City of Danzig had been conspiring to build a camp designed to detain, and ultimately exterminate, ‘undesirable’ elements of the local population. By autumn 1939 their poisonous plans had become reality. Having spent the previous few years compiling information on politicians, intellectuals, economists and Polish patriots, the capitulation of the city spelt the start of six years of terror. Waves of mass arrests followed, and by September 2, 1939 Stutthof camp opened its gates to receive its first batch of prisoners. What had been a quiet, unimposing town became the first concentration camp to be built outside of Nazi Germany.