Modern educational approaches, a bilingual design, and a striking outdoor expansion bring the plight of forced laborers into the public eye.

Wiesbaden looks back on a dark chapter in its history. From March 1944 to March 1945, a satellite camp of the SS Special Camp Hinzert was located on the former riding and tournament grounds “Unter den Eichen.” At that time, the SS relocated its facilities to the outskirts of the city due to Allied air raids. “To build these alternative sites, the SS requested prisoners from the concentration camp in the Hunsrück,” explains Dr. Katherine Lukat, head of the Memorial Sites and City History Division at the City Archives.

“On March 20, 1944, the first 57 prisoners arrived in the city. At its peak, the SS interned around 100 men here,” Lukat continues. The prisoners belonged to a group of victims little known in Germany. “Most of the prisoners came from Luxembourg,” says City Archives Director Dr. Peter Quadflieg. “During World War II, nearly 1,600 men from the occupied Grand Duchy alone were deported to the Hinzert concentration camp,” explains Quadflieg, who himself has conducted research on Luxembourg during World War II, including for his master’s thesis. “These were men who, in Luxembourg—which the Germans were attempting to Germanize—refused to serve in the Wehrmacht, resisted, or supported the resistance.”

In Wiesbaden, the concentration camp prisoners were forced to perform hard labor. For instance, the men renovated official residences for high-ranking SS officers such as Jürgen Stroop. Stroop, a key figure in the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, was at that time the Higher SS and Police Leader for the Rhine/Westmark region, with his headquarters in Wiesbaden. The concentration camp prisoners also cleared bomb debris in the city center and worked in Wiesbaden factories.

In addition, the SS forced the prisoners to build a bunker. This was intended to protect the staff of the city’s SS offices, which had been relocated from the city center to the “Unter den Eichen” area on the edge of the forest. “On December 18, 1944, bombs fell on the site. Six Luxembourgish concentration camp prisoners died in this attack,” explains Lukat. “The SS denied them access to the bunker under threat of armed force.” Supervision at the concentration camp satellite camp was taken over by police reservists who were too old for military service. “Intensive research made it possible to reconstruct the biography of one of the guards. It serves as an example of how the men were prepared for their service at the concentration camp and what legal consequences serving at the satellite camp had after 1945,” Lukat continues.

Only the concrete bunker survived the passage of time. All other SS barracks on the tournament grounds disappeared immediately after the end of the war. The camp itself was dissolved on March 26, 1945, and the remaining prisoners were transferred to Frankfurt am Main. Some managed to escape. They hid in the immediate vicinity of the camp grounds and waited for the arrival of the U.S. Army.

The Wiesbaden satellite camp remained forgotten for a long time. It was not until the late 1970s that calls for the establishment of a permanent memorial began to grow. On November 9, 1991, then-Mayor Achim Exner opened the first permanent exhibition in the “Unter den Eichen” bunker. With the opening of the exhibition, the municipal government of the state capital of Wiesbaden designated the bunker as a memorial site. After 35 years, this exhibition is being redesigned and expanded to include new findings from historical research on individual fates. 

A new permanent exhibition now commemorates the more than 100 prisoners of the Wiesbaden concentration camp satellite camp. Its impact extends beyond the interior of the bunker. Large-format panels in the outdoor area make the memorial visible. They place the six Luxembourgers killed on December 18, 1944, at the center of attention. Dr. Hendrik Schmehl, Head of the Cultural Affairs Department, emphasizes the significance of this presence. Commemoration now also takes place in public space. “By extending the exhibition to the outdoor area, the memorial is now more easily recognizable as such. The commemoration of the men who lost their lives on the grounds is now the central focus,” says Schmehl.

The City Archives, as the managing body for the “Unter den Eichen” memorial, began research for the now-revised exhibition in 2021. “After a prolonged closure during which the new exhibition was set up, the memorial can now reopen as usual,” explains Quadflieg. “From the development of the new exhibition concept through the design of the outdoor area to the construction of the exhibition, it was an intensive process that has now come to a conclusion with the new, visually appealing exhibition, designed according to current standards of memorial and remembrance work.”

A central aspect is multilingualism. The exhibition texts are consistently written in German and English. Accompanying materials are also available in French. This is a deliberate gesture toward the descendants of the detainees from Luxembourg, France, and Belgium. “During the planning phase, the City Archives maintained close contact with the home communities of those who were deported,” adds Schmehl.

As part of the redesign of the permanent exhibition, the City Archives, with support from the municipal building authority, also modernized the building services, carried out urgently needed renovation work, and installed safety lighting in the bunker.

The permanent exhibition will be officially reopened with a ceremony on Tuesday, May 12. Due to limited space at the memorial site, attendance at the opening is by invitation only. However, starting Saturday, May 16, the memorial will once again be open to the public. As was the case before the redesign, the memorial is open every Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Guided tours for groups can also be requested at other times and on weekdays. Those interested should contact the City Archives directly by email: stadtarchivwiesbadende.