Wöbbelin concentration camp
sub-camp of Neuengamme concentration camp (1945)
Wöbbelin was a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp near the city of Ludwigslust. The SS had established Wöbbelin to house concentration camp prisoners whom the SS had evacuated from other camps to prevent their liberation by the Allies. At its height, Wöbbelin held some 5,000 inmates, most of whom were suffering from starvation and disease. The camp was freed on May 2, 1945.
History
In September 1944, a small camp called Reiherhorst ("egret’s nest") was built for American prisoners of war. On 12 February 1945, a group of inmates were transported to build a larger camp, by then known as KZ Wöbbelin. The SS-physician Alfred Trzebinski stated during his trial that 648 people were held at Wöbbelin camp until the end of March 1945. In mid-April, several transports from subcamps of Neuengamme and Ravensbrück concentration camp with more than 4,000 inmates arrived.
On May 2, 1945, the 8th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division encountered Wöbbelin, in which the living conditions were deplorable. There was little food or water and some prisoners had resorted to cannibalism.
“Wöbbelin concentration camp” enters the record as sub-camp of Neuengamme concentration camp (1945). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wöbbelin, concentration and camp can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q567556. VIAF identifies the subject as 152871808. The Library of Congress control number is nr00035045. Authority coordinates are 53.367, 11.492. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945 and 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wöbbelin concentration camp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.