Vechelde

In summer and in autumn of 1944 almost 2,000 prisoners were transported from Auschwitz concentration camp to forced labour for the Büssing-NAG company. At least 200 of them, mainly Polish Jews from the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Łódź), were transferred to Vechelde, where part of production was moved to the premises of a former jute weaving plant. Prisoners performing forced labour were placed in two halls located in the vicinity. As a result of their former stay in Auschwitz concentration camp, transport to Vechelde and primarily of hard 12-hour labour every day, poor nutrition, lack of health care and medication as well as violent treatment by SS officers, many of them did not survive until liberation. The bodies of the deceased were burned in the Braunschweig crematorium and their ashes were scattered. SS liquidated the Vechelde sub-camp in late March or early April, and the remaining prisoners were transferred to other concentration camps.

In October 1989, the commune of Vechelde placed a memorial plaque at the location of the former entrance gate to commemorate the victims of the camp. In November 1998 there was an exhibition presenting the camp, organised in the Town Hall.

List of deceased Polish nationals who lost their lives in the Vechelde sub-camp (original spelling preserved):

FRÖLICH ABRAM * 06.12.1920 † 01.03.1945

KOLASZYŃSKI ARON * 12.07.1921 † 22.02.1945

WDOWIŃSKI HERMAN * 15.03.1905 † 27.02.1945