- Caption
- View of the palace and grounds of the Archduke of Mecklenburg, where the bodies of 200 prisoners from the nearby concentration camp of Woebbelin were buried by German civilians from Ludwigslust.
A sub-camp of Neuengamme, Woebbelin was captured by British and American troops on 4 May 1945. Upon entering the camp, the liberators discovered nearly 4,000 prisoners, one-quarter of whom were already dead. Outraged by what they found, the ranking Allied commanders in the area forced civilians from the nearby towns of Schwerin, Hagenow, and Ludwigslust to first see Woebbelin and then bury the bodies of prisoners in their towns. The largest number of bodies, ca. 200, was buried in Ludwigslust on the palace grounds of the Archduke of Mecklenburg. A slightly smaller number was buried in the garden of the leading Nazi official in Hagenow and 80 bodies were interred in Schwerin. Every fourth grave was marked at each site with a Star of David in honor of the unidentified Jewish dead.
- Photographer
- Fred Frater
- Date
-
1945 May 07
- Locale
- Ludwigslust, [Mecklenburg] Germany
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Fred Frater
- Event History
- Woebbelin, a sub-camp of Neuengamme, was captured by British and American troops on May 4, 1945. Upon entering the camp, the liberators discovered nearly 4,000 prisoners, one-quarter of whom were already dead. Outraged by what they found, the ranking Allied commanders in the area forced civilians from the nearby towns of Schwerin, Hagenow, and Ludwigslust to view the concentration camp and then bury the bodies of prisoners in their towns. Approximately 200 bodies were buried in Ludwigslust on the grounds of the palace of the Archduke of Mecklenburg. A somewhat smaller number were buried in the garden of the leading Nazi official in Hagenow and 80 bodies were interred in Schwerin. Every fourth grave was marked at each site with a Star of David in honor of the unidentified Jewish dead.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006160.