Former Nazi Concentration Camp Oranienburg

Beschreibung

From March 1933 to July 1934, the town of Oranienburg was the site of one of Germany's first concentration camps. The Reichstag Fire Decree (Reichstagsbrandverordnung), issued on 28 February at Hitler's initiative, suspended the constitutional articles that guaranteed civil liberties. The National Socialists persecuted their political opponents on this legal basis until the end of the Third Reich and took them into "protective custody" ("Schutzhaft"). Prior to this, Reich Cabinet member Hermann Göring had already taken control of the Prussian police as 'Reich Commissioner for the Prussian Ministry of the Interior', instructed the police to co-operate with SA, SS and Stahlhelm veterans and set up an auxiliary police force ("Hilfspolizei") made up of them. In the middle of the town of Oranienburg, a local SA squad set up a concentration camp on 21 March 1933 on the site of a former brewery, primarily for members of the labour movement, the KPD and the Social Democrats. On 14 July 1934, the SS dissolved the concentration camp in the wake of the ‘Röhm Putsch’ and transferred the inmates to other camps.