Esterwegen is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony , Germany .
4-514: Esterwegen lies in northwest Germany, less than 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Dutch border and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the sea. In 2015 the population was 5,280. The mayor is Hermann Willenborg. In 1933 a concentration camp was established in Esterwegen. In 1936 the camp was dissolved and used till 1945 as a prisoner camp, for political prisoners and later for prisoners of
8-490: The Emsland district of Germany. It was established in the summer of 1933 as a concentration camp for 2000 so-called political Schutzhäftlinge ( protective custody prisoners) and was for a time the second largest concentration camp after Dachau . The camp was closed in summer of 1936. Thereafter, until 1945 it was used as a prison camp. Political prisoners and so-called Nacht und Nebel prisoners were also held there. After
12-469: The decree Nacht und Nebel . This Emsland district location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to the Holocaust is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Esterwegen concentration camp The Esterwegen concentration camp near Esterwegen was an early Nazi concentration camp within a series of camps first established in
16-564: The war ended, Esterwegen served as a British internment camp, as a prison, and, until 2000, as a depot for the German Army . The most famous prisoner was writer and editor of the weekly magazine, Die Weltbühne , Carl von Ossietzky , who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935. Comedian Werner Finck was detained in Esterwegen for six weeks. SS- Hauptscharführer Gustav Sorge , nicknamed "The Iron Gustav" for his brutality,
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