Memorial plaques on Lagerhaus G (Dessauer Ufer satellite camp)

Lagerhaus G is a warehouse that was built in 1903 in the free port of Hamburg near the Veddel suburban railway station. From July to September 1944, the building was used to house 1,500 female prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp. These jewish women were directly deported from Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Immediately after the women were transferred from the building, it held 2,000 male prisoners from Neuengamme until 25 October.

The warehouse was mostly destroyed in an Allied bombing raid on 25 October 1944. It is estimated that 150 male prisoners were killed in the attack. The satellite camp was subsequently moved to wings A and B of the Fuhlsbüttel prison. In February 1945, the SS moved 800 male concentration camp prisoners back to the warehouse from the Fuhlsbüttel satellite camp.

All of the prisoners held at Dessauer Ufer were forced to carry out construction and clearance work for water utilities, petroleum companies and other port operations, as well as the Reich railway company, as part of the ‘Geilenberg programme’ for restoring Germany’s oil production.

Memorial site

At the end of 1998, the Hamburg Cultural Authority listed the warehouse as a protected monument in light of the fact that it represents the ‘historical form of storage outside of the Speicherstadt [Hamburg’s warehouse district], with brick architecture characteristic of the period’. The interior of the building also remained largely unchanged, and traces left by the prisoners in the form of inscriptions and carvings on the walls made the building an ‘important witness to the Third Reich’ in the port area. Two plaques were placed on the outer wall of the building (one in German, one in English) by the Hamburg Cultural Authority to explain the history of the Dessauer Ufer satellite camp.

In 2020 two plaques were installed on the building: one of a private initiative for the commemoration of Gestapo-prisoners from Groningen and the other one of the 'Lagerhaus G Heritage Foundation' which commemorates the victims who died of the bombing of the Lagerhaus on 25 October 1944. Since 2021, a sculpture on the theme of forced labour by Carsten Bardehle, based on a design by Ella Nora Sloman, has stood in front of the building. 

The future of the building, which is not open to the public, is being discussed as part of the urban development plans for the district Kleiner Grasbrook. The owner, Lagerhaus G Heritage KG, has developed a vision of a “transformation into a living house” with initial concept ideas for a memorial site with public access for visitors. The Initiative Dessauer Ufer (IDU), founded in 2017, is intensifying the historical reappraisal, conducting tours, exhibitions (“Lagerhaus G time capsule”) and campaigns. It proposes creative and cultural economic and socio-cultural, district-related uses.

Further links

Informationen zum KZ-Außenlager Dessauer Ufer (Frauen)
Informationen zum KZ-Außenlager Dessauer Ufer (Männer)