Lager IX Versen

History (info: Wikipedia)

In the summer of 1938, the camp was set up for 1,500 workers under the supervision of the Reichsarbeitsdienst, comparable to the Dutch work provision at the time. This withdrew from the west bank of the Ems in 1939, because only prisoners of war were allowed to work there. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) then took over the camp in September 1939 to accommodate prisoners of war there. The camp formed the centre of Stalag VI B Versen and was given Wesuwe and Fullen as annexes.

The regional authorities hoped to be able to house 16,500 prisoners of war in the seven camps of Stalag VI B and C from the beginning of October 1939. After the Reichsarbeitsdienst was disbanded in 1938, the prisoners of war were used as replacement workers. Initially, the camps of Stalag VI B Versen were populated by Poles, French and Russians. In December 1939 there were fifty prisoners of war in Camp Versen and in September 1941 about 300. On 1 September 1941 there were 10,659 French, 1,012 Belgian, 217 Polish, 960 South-East European and 8,668 Russian prisoners of war in Stalag VI B.

In May 1942, Stalag VI B Versen was incorporated into Stalag VI C Bathorn. From 1944, it functioned as a satellite camp of Neuengamme. It was then called Camp Meppen-Versen.  In 1943/44, the camp mainly took in Italian prisoners of war and from November 1944, prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp. Until March 1945, Camp Meppen-Versen remained an outpost of that concentration camp. When the Allies approached the camp, the remaining prisoners were directed to Neuengamme on foot via Meppen, Cloppenburg, Bremen and Hamburg. The seriously ill and those who could not walk were taken by truck to Farge near Bremen. The forty most seriously ill were shot on the spot.

Conditions

The prisoners had to work in the brick factories and the associated clay pits. They also worked in the peat. As the years went by, the conditions became worse. There was a lack of even the most basic facilities. Poor food, poor or no housing, very long working days, insufficient clothing, insufficient sanitary facilities and "that eternal rain" were the miserable conditions. They had to work from sunrise to sunset. The prisoners from Neuengamme were forced to build defenses, which were completely useless from a military point of view. From November 16, 1944 until mid-January 1945, the prisoners did not have a dry thread on their bodies. This cost many prisoners their lives. Many deaths were also due to the arbitrariness and mistreatment by the guards.

Escapes

Sometimes the prisoners had to work a few hundred meters from the Dutch border. The prisoners regularly tried to flee across the Dutch border. During these escape attempts the prisoners were shot at. Nevertheless, a few dozen escapes were successful. But in most cases the Netherlands sent the asylum seekers back. This often still meant the death of the refugee. In a few cases that attracted public attention, asylum seekers were not sent back to Germany, but deported to other countries.

https://www.gedenkstaette-esterwegen.de/geschichte/die-emslandlager/ix-versen.html

Versen, Friedhof für Opfer der Gewaltherrschaft

The cemetery contains the remains of 297 people who died in 1944/45 from the Meppen-Versen sub-camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. Their names and nationalities are written on four stone slabs in front of the entrance to the grave complex. Another 175 or so victims of this sub-camp who were buried here were returned to their home countries after an exhumation in 1953. As a result, a large cross and several memorials that had been erected in this cemetery after the war in German, Polish and Dutch with the names of the dead were removed.

In 1955, 71 "unknown" dead from the Börgermoor, Esterwegen and Neusustrum concentration camps were reburied here from the Bockhorst/Esterwegen cemetery (now the Esterwegen burial site). A floor slab in front of the entrance commemorates the Danish prisoners who suffered and died in Emsland, and a small plaque next to it commemorates the Italian military internees.