Moringen concentration camp
[1] KZ Moringen, established in the centre of the town on site of former 19th century workhouses (German: Landeswerkhäuser), originally housed mostly male political inmates.
[5] By the time of Nazi ascension to power, the place provided shelter to around 150 inmates; all Prussian workhouses, hit by the Great Depression, housed around one thousand.
[6] Arrests of political opposition in the beginning of 1933 and the resulting demand for prison space prompted Hanover administrators to relieve themselves of the costly, under-used Moringen facility.
[7] This "welfare" section of Moringen facility operated in its original function almost until the end of World War II,[8] providing temporary asylum to people unfit for work.
[8] This "early"[4] concentration camp in Moringen, one of the first established after Nazi ascension to power, was set up in April 1933 for the internment of political opposition, mostly communists and social democrats.
[9] The camp was governed by a mix of workhouse and prison rules; corporal punishment was prohibited but guards were authorized to shoot escapees on sight.
[9] In October 1933, after another round of negotiation between provincial administration and the Ministry of Interior,[9] Moringen was designated as the sole official concentration camp for the women.
[27] Krack apparently[18] defended prostitutes and "asocials" from transfer to Lichtenburg, believing that they (unlike political and religious prisoners) belong in the workhouse rather than in the concentration camps.
[28] In March 1940 Heinrich Himmler, concerned about rising juvenile delinquency, proposed a new system of "youth custody"; in Autumn 1940 it was furthered by the Ministry of Defence.
[29] In June 1940 Moringen was repopulated again, this time as a juvenile concentration camp (German: Jugendschutzlager), housing male prisoners from 13 to 22 years of age.
Punishable activities ranged from true crime to jazz music; the Swing Kids from Hamburg, in particular, were subject to mass arrests as of June 1942;[30] between 40 and 70 of them ended in concentration camps, including Moringen.
[31] One of these kids, Heinz Lord, later survived the sinking of Cap Arcona, emigrated to the United States and became Secretary-General of World Medical Association; he died at the age of 43 of heart failure linked to his captivity and torture.
Moringen became the first juvenile camp where prisoners were assigned to barracks based on their biological characteristics according to Robert Ritter's theory of racial hygiene.
[33] Prisoners could hope to be released provided that they progress through the system until reaching the Block der Erziehungsfähigen – a barrack for those "ready for discharge", usually to military service.
