Former youth concentration camp and later extermination site in the Uckermark

“[...] we revelled in life. We were so young that we still had so much vitality within us. We’ve probably been scarred by those difficult times. We’re probably different from what we would otherwise have become. [...] But otherwise, we’re happy to be alive.”
Quote from Stanka Krajnc Simoneti following her liberation from the Uckermark concentration camp

The exhibition focuses on the Uckermark concentration camp, where young women* and girls* were imprisoned, tortured and humiliated. From 1942 to 1945, a total of around 1,200 girls* and young women* were imprisoned there.
The majority of the minors (under 21) were sent there because, during the Nazi era, they had been labelled ‘anti-social’ by the social welfare authorities
. Some of the young people were detained for other reasons, such as political resistance.
In January 1945, the SS (‘Schutzstaffel’) set up an extermination site in a large part of this camp and murdered approximately 5,000 women*,
including many from the neighbouring Ravensbrück concentration camp and other camps, shortly before the end of the war. Many were Jewish women*.
Today, almost nothing remains of the former camp. The visible remains consist mainly of buildings and roads dating from the period after 1945 and the
camp’s use by the Soviet Army. Only in a few places are the camp’s foundations still visible.

Organised by the Hamburg group of the Initiative for a Memorial Site at the former Uckermark concentration camp, the exhibition comprises 26 panels. Topics include a chronological overview of the Uckermark concentration camp, biographies of the girls and women imprisoned there, forensic biological investigations, and its role as a later site of extermination.

The exhibition can be visited free of charge in the STRAZEsaal from 6 June to 19 July on Sundays and Mondays from 2 pm to 6 pm, and by appointment.