Lager I Börgermoor

History  (info Wikipedia)

Camp Börgermoor was built in 1933 as a prison camp for opponents of National Socialism. Skilled workers were the first prisoners selected. They were forced to build their own camp. The prisoners also built the Esterwegen camp and were deployed in the development of the peat area.

In 1943, the camp was transferred to the judiciary. Camp Börgermoor is listed as number 155 in the official list of German concentration camps. At the Emslandlager, the camp is known as Lager I Börgermoor. The Moorsoldatenlied was also created in this camp. This song also became internationally known through the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. During the Second World War, convicted soldiers of the Wehrmacht were held in the camp; later, French, Belgian and Dutch resistance fighters were also imprisoned in the camp. At the end of the war, a Wehrmacht research prison was established in camp Börgermoor.

Conditions

The prisoners had to do heavy labor for a long time. They were not given any machines. They were given inadequate and incomplete clothing, poor food and were regularly abused. Sometimes they were attacked by incited dogs. People died as a result. The "night of the long slats" was a drama. Someone had violated the smoking ban, whereupon all the prisoners from the offender's barracks were chased out of that barracks in the middle of the night. Outside they had to run the gauntlet. They were beaten with long slats with nails in them.

After the war

After the liberation, the camp was temporarily used to accommodate refugees. For this purpose, Börgermoor was taken over by the justice department. In the sixties of the last century, the barracks were demolished. All that remains of the camp is a bricked-up air raid shelter for the former guards, a few elevations in the landscape and here and there some remains of rubble. A memorial plaque with the text 'Nie wieder Faschismus' and a stone with the first verse of the song 'Die Moorsoldaten' are reminders of the camp period.

https://www.gedenkstaette-esterwegen.de/geschichte/die-emslandlager/i-boergermoor.html

Monday 22nd July 2024

New info panels, a photo of the camp, and a wooden statue of a moor soldier. The text on the stone, the first verse of the song 'Die Moorsoldaten', is unreadable.