Memorial Ahlem Concentration Camp

Behind the Commonwealth War Cemetery, this memorial is erected. It commemorates the victims of the Ahlem concentration camp, which was located on that ground.

The sign at the memorial has the following German text (translated to English):
The Ahlem concentration camp, an external extension of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, was located 150 meters next to the monument.

In November 1944, approximately 1000 male inmates, mostly Jews from Poland were brought to Ahlem to work at the underground asphalt tunnels for the war industry. After that, in the succeeding months another 500 men of different nationalities came to the camp.

Some 750 prisoners died, they starved, frozen, or they succumbed to infection, the hard work, by abuse, or were murdered.

In the beginning, the dead were cremated in the crematorium at the cemetery Seelhorster. Later, the corpses were buried in mass graves.

With the allied troops in sight, the SS braked down the camp on April 6th 1945 and sent more than 600 prisoners on a death march to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

More than 200 sick and completely exhausted prisoners remained in the camp. Of these, 16 died in four consecutive days. The survivors were liberated on April 10th 1945 by American troops. 51 of them died after the liberation of the impact of imprisonment in a concentration camp.

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