Klinkerwerk

The Klinkerwerk of Sachsenhausen concentration camp was a brickworks complex and later a subcamp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg, north of Berlin. It was established in the late summer of 1938 near the Lehnitz Lock on the Oder–Havel Canal. The site was intended to produce building materials for the monumental construction plans of the Nazi regime in Berlin. Prisoners from Sachsenhausen were forced to build and operate the complex under conditions of extreme violence and exploitation.[1][2]

Among prisoners, the Klinkerwerk had the reputation of being a Todeslager ("death camp" or "death site"). The SS also used the site as a place for targeted killings.[2]

History

Beginning in the late summer of 1938, prisoners from Sachsenhausen were forced to construct what the SS intended to be the world's largest brickworks. The project was linked to plans to supply building materials for large-scale construction projects in Berlin.[1]

The prisoners were initially marched daily from the main camp to the Klinkerwerk. The SS drove up to 2,000 prisoners each day over the canal bridge to the site, in full view of the population of Oranienburg. On the return march, prisoners had to pull a cart carrying the bodies of those who had died during the day.[1][2]

Originally, the Klinkerwerk functioned as a labour detachment of the main camp. The SS later built a separate barracks camp at the site because the long daily marches reduced the available working time. This barracks camp was completed in April 1941. With its establishment, the Klinkerwerk received the status of an independent satellite camp of Sachsenhausen.[3]

The satellite camp consisted of ten standard wooden barracks. Its prisoner population was heterogeneous and included political prisoners, Jews, prisoners classified by the SS as "criminals", prisoners of war, and men deported from occupied countries as forced labour refusers. The number of prisoners housed in the barracks fluctuated between roughly 1,500 and 3,000 inmates.[3]

From 1943 onward, the SS increasingly used the Klinkerwerk site for armaments production. Shell casings were annealed in the furnaces of the former brickworks.[1][2]

On 10 April 1945, the Klinkerwerk satellite camp was largely destroyed in an Allied air raid. Numerous prisoners were killed. The remains of many victims are believed still to lie in the ground of the site and in the adjacent canal.[1]

Conditions

The Klinkerwerk was regarded by prisoners as one of the most feared labour sites in the Sachsenhausen camp system. It was especially dreaded by inmates and was also the scene of deliberate acts of murder.[2]

The Klinkerwerk was not merely an industrial site but also a place of extreme coercion, punitive labour, and lethal camp violence. In addition to hard physical labour in construction and industrial production, prisoners were subjected to arbitrary punishment, exhaustion, and a camp regime designed to maximize exploitation.[3]

Commemoration

Today, the history of the Klinkerwerk is presented in an open-air exhibition at the memorial site. The site commemorates the prisoners who were forced to work and die there.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "KZ-Außenlager „Klinkerwerk"". Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen (in German). Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e "1936–1945 Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen". Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen (in German). Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  3. ^ a b c Müller, Joachim. "Das Klinkerwerk Oranienburg" (PDF). Gedenkstättenforum (in German). pp. 24–33. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
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