The Memorial has recently received a package from the Muzeum Tradycji Niepodległościowych in Lodz, Poland. Wojciech Zrodlak, a museum employee, had discovered a bundle of documents in a cabinet and sent them to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp. The documents were presumably donated to the museum in the 1980s by Sergiusz Jaskiewicz, a former prisoner of the Kaltenkirchen satellite camp. In 1985 Jaskiewicz became the representative of the Polish Amicale Internationale de Neuengamme in Lodz and since then maintained contact with former prisoners all over the world.

In addition to the documents the Memorial had already had at its disposal, the package contained new ones as well, such as the Kaltenkirchen camp register kept by Jaskiewicz who worked as the camp Clerk during his imprisonment there. It is a record of names and prisoner numbers of the people imprisoned and murdered in Kaltenkirchen. Memorial had previously only possessed a copy of the Register.

The bundle of documents consists mostly of historical photographs. Apart from the photos of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellites taken in 1945, there are photos showing Prisoners performing forced labor at the Messap armament factory. Moreover, there are photos of a number of perpetrators taken by the British military administration during the investigation targeting Hamburg functionaries under the Nazi rule as well as numerous commemorative events programs and newspaper cutouts.

“If you want to gain an insight into the landscape of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellites, you should take a look at these documents.”
Reimer Möller, archivist