Former Youth Concentration Camp and Later Extermination Site in the Uckermark.
+++ The information panels are in German language. +++
“[...] we rejoiced in life. We were so young that we still had so much vitality within us. We were probably scarred by those difficult times. We are probably different from what we would otherwise have become. [...] But otherwise, we are happy to be alive.” Quote from Stanka Krajnc Simoneti after her liberation from the Uckermark concentration camp.
The exhibition focuses on the Uckermark concentration camp, where young women* and girls* were imprisoned, tortured, and humiliated. From 1942 to 1945, a total of approximately 1,200 girls* and young women* were detained there. The majority of the minors (under 21) were sent there because they had been discriminated against as “asocial” by the welfare authorities during the Nazi era. Some of the young people were imprisoned for other reasons, such as political resistance. In January 1945, the SS (“Schutzstaffel”) established an extermination site in a large part of this camp and murdered approximately 5,000 women* shortly before the end of the war, including many from the neighboring Ravensbrück concentration camp and other camps. Many were Jewish women*.Today, almost nothing remains of the former camp. The visible remnants are mainly from buildings and roads dating from the period after 1945 and the use of the site by the Soviet Army. Only in a few places are the camp’s foundations still present.
The exhibition consists of 26 panels. Topics include a chronological overview of the Uckermark concentration camp, biographies of the girls and women who were imprisoned there, forensic examinations, and its later role as a site of extermination.
The exhibition was created by the Hamburg group of the Initiative for a Memorial Site at the Former Uckermark Concentration Camp.
The exhibition can be visited free of charge in the STRAZEhall from June 6 through July 19 on Sundays and Mondays from 2 to 6 pm and by appointment.
Memorial stone for the Uckermark Youth Concentration Camp unveiled at the 2009 Liberation Ceremony; (c) Initiative for a Memorial Site at the Former Uckermark Concentration Camp, Inc.