Stutthof concentration camp

Stutthof concentration camp - darkometer rating : 8 - The concentration camp that the Nazis set up at the start of World War II for the Danzig/ Gdansk area, as the first such camp in what is today Poland . The site is now a memorial and museum. It is located close to Baltic seaside resorts, which can make for an odd mix of visitors in high season … > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Stutthof, or Sztutowo in Polish, is one of the lesser known sites of the many concentration camps that Germany 's Nazis established between their rise to power in 1933 and the end of World War II . Stutthof's initial role was to serve as an internment centre for "undesirable" Poles (i.e. members of the political opposition, intellectuals, etc.) right from the start of the war, which began in Danzig/Gdansk . Lists of persons who were to be removed from society once the war was under way had been drawn up beforehand, and so the initial camp quickly filled up. From 1942 onwards the camp also assumed the full role of a concentration camp, with inmates now including POW s and Jews from various other countries too. During this time the camp had been expanded, including the addition of a dedicated Jewish section, the "Judenlager". Towards the end of 1944 Jews formed by far the majority of the inmates. Thus this camp too played its part in the Holocaust , even though nowhere near as massive a role as other sites in Poland , especially Auschwitz . A total of ca. 110,000 people passed through this camp and well over half of them, possibly as many as two-thirds, perished here, including almost all of the Jewish inmates. Yet more died on the Death Marches just before the camp's liberation by the Soviet Red Army on 9 May 1945.