The purpose of the early concentration camps was to repress and terrorize opponents of the new regime, primarily communists, but also socialists, dissenting Christians,[note 1] and trade unionists.

Unlike later concentration camps, the prisoners and the guards at Kemna were from the same cities and in many cases, knew each other and were already enemies from the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and subsequent political battles of the 1920s.

They conducted mass arrests of some 10,000 of their political opponents within just a few days, intending not just to confine, but also to weaken them physically and mentally through terror.

Interior Minister of Prussia Hermann Göring began to look for regional locations in cities for short-term, temporary means to house the newly arrested.

These were all in residential areas, however, and the torture already being practiced caused unrest in the community, prompting the SA to seek a new, larger location on the outskirts of town.

They found a suitable location, an empty factory in Wuppertal, the owner of which, on a promise by the local district government to purchase the property later, agreed to allow the SA to use rent-free in the short term.

[14] In the evening and particularly at night, the screams of prisoners were heard at a bar 600 meters (0.37 mi) from the camp, as well as by people who lived across the Wupper.

Articles appeared in the local press, referring obliquely to "enhanced interrogations" and explaining the need for a firm hand to deal with the type of prisoners held there.

[18] The attic floor contained a clothing storeroom, an orderly room and prisoner quarters for Nazis placed in "protective custody".

[16] Special cells for harsh punishment were the freight elevator and cubicles under the stairs, where prisoners were forced to crouch for hours.

As many as 50 men at a time were forced to live there in stifling air and heat; one witness said, "The exhaled breath of those locked up was so great that water condensed and ran under the door, as if poured from a bucket.

[19] In late September 1933, in preparation for a large transport of 200 men, the guards' quarters and the infirmary were moved into the house, which had previously been empty.

[19] Of the prisoner housing, room one was considered the worst because there was an increased likelihood of attracting the attention of a passing SA man, an occurrence that could lead to immediate abuse.

Most feared by the prisoners, however, were the torture rooms; the bunker, the freight elevator and the cubicles, where inmates were denied even the normal camp standards of meals, washing, toilets and the infirmary.

These "big shots", as the SA called them, included Heinrich Hirtsiefer, a former Prussian Vice Minister President, Wilhelm Bökenkrüger, a former director of the Wuppertal employment office, and Georg Petersdorff, the secretary of the Düsseldorf and Cologne Reichsbanner Gaue.

[8] Beforehand, prisoners were made to eat "appetizers" of unsoaked salt herring smeared with lubricating grease or feces; when they regurgitated, they were forced to lick up the vomit.

[8] In November, prisoners with fresh wounds were thrown into the cold waters of the Wupper and afterwards, made to stay in their wet clothes.

Frequent and extreme drunkenness, which was a common problem within the SA, aggravated the situation at Kemna, as numerous former inmates later testified.

Local taverns, normally closed at the hours the guards were ready to drink, were faced with violence and threats if they did not re-open.

[27] Because of the many severely injured prisoners who were brought to the local hospitals, rumors about Kemna began to spread, although cautiously, since speaking about the situation could land one in the same predicament.

[8] On March 8, 1934, the state's attorney, Gustav Winckler, made his first report to his superior, Günther Joël, regarding Kemna.

[8][28] After the Night of the Long Knives, when the SA was purged, its top leaders removed and its power curbed[8] just two weeks later, Joël began an investigation and soon had a number of witnesses willing to testify.

Days later, on August 18, 1934, Hess issued a temporary injunction for "abuse of the gravest kind against protective custody prisoners at Camp Kemna" against Veller, Hans Pfeiffer, Hilgers, Wolff and three other SA leaders from Wuppertal.

[31] In mid-December 1934, Prussian Ministry of Justice state secretary, Roland Freisler ordered the files on the case to be turned over to the Nazi Gau leadership.

The court found that the investigations had been conducted in a one-sided manner, with testimony coming only from "implacable enemies of the new state" whose credibility the judge questioned.

[31] Although the accused had gone beyond the point "necessary to break the resistance"[31] and had "as a result, transgressed the Führer's order, that the National Socialist state well knows how to render his opponent harmless, but beyond that, eschews all vengeance".

The court noted that the SA in the Wuppertal industrial area had to contend with especially persistent communist opponents, who never stopped trying to organize underground, even after the Machtergreifung; and that this behavior of the state's attorney has given impetus to this element.

Newly re-employed in the office was Johannes Pauli, another former Kemna prisoner, who, recognizing the charges from his own experience, set the cogs in motion and on July 12, 1945, Warnstedt was arrested.

[37] The Radevormwald community center has a memorial plaque with the names of 16 victims, who represent some 200 local citizens who suffered at Kemna in 1933.