KZ-Gedenkstӓtte Neuengamme - 81st anniversary of the liberation
From 2nd to 4th May 2026, Peter and Moira attended the KZ-Neuengamme concentration camp, 81st anniversary of liberation commemoration events. This concentration camp was the main camp to the three satellite camps that Peter’s mother, Kitty, was sent to in early 1945. These were at Porta Westfalica, Fallersleben and Salzwedel (where she was eventually liberated by the US army). The Neuengamme camp is located close to Hamburg. On Saturday, Peter and Moira were given a personal 3-hour tour of the camp by one of the freelance historian’s working there. KZ-Neuengamme was a forced labour camp. It housed political and Resistance prisoners from all over Europe. The prisoners worked in the brick factory onsite - located there because the ground in the area and surroundings was clay. They were required to dig the clay by hand, load it into trucks and then push these heavy trucks up a very steep ramp into the factory. Many prisoners died from exhaustion, but just in case, the Nazis installed a gas chamber onsite. Towards the very end of the war, the Nazis evacuated the camp and sent many prisoners out on ships into the Baltic sea from Neustadt to remove evidence of what had taken place from the approaching Allies. The ships were not marked as holding prisoners and were subsequently bombed by the Allies who thought they carried Nazi troops. Around 7,000 prisoners died. The Nazis knew this would be the case. On Sunday 3rd May in the morning, Peter and Moira joined relatives of the 7,000 prisoners who had died to be taken out into the Baltic Sea to the exact spot where the ship, Cap Ancona, was bombed. They all laid roses into the sea and held a minute’s silence.
In the afternoon Peter and Moira attended the 81st anniversary of liberation of KZ-Neuengamme commemoration ceremony. There were speeches from Professor von Wrochem, Director of KZ-Gedenkstӓtte Neuengamme, Carola Veit, President of the Hamburg Parliament and other dignitaries and survivors. It was a moving afternoon. Peter and Moira were particularly moved by these words from Carola Veit,
“Eighty-one years ago today, on May 3, 1945, World War ll came to an end for Hamburg, even before the Allies officially liberated the entire country five days later on May, 8. At the time, the official line was usually: “liberated from Nazi tyranny.” As if the Nazis had been some kind of foreign occupying power or invaders who had forced the Germans to commit these terrible crimes. But the truth is: the Germans had elected this undeniably far-right government themselves, and many - far too many - had approved of its actions for years, supported it, or at least done nothing to oppose it, or simply looked the other way. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the truth, and if we wish to commemorate, we must not base it on a trivialisation, not even a well-intentioned one.”
On Monday 4th May Peter and Moira took part in a panel discussion with local students. They were joined by Martin Liebl whose mother Dagmar Lieblová was an Auschwitz survivor, like Kitty. Both Martin with Peter and Moira gave a high level summary of their respective mother’s stories of survival and then took questions from the assembled students. It was a very good interactive session. Sadly Martin’s mother, Dagmar, died in 2018.
Peter had previously visited KZ-Gedenkstӓtte Neuengamme in 2010 together with Kitty, for a series of events for survivors and their children. When Peter reviewed some of the photographs taken from that time, he found one with Martin’s mother, Dagmar sitting behind Kitty and himself. That photo is the last one in the gallery, below.
Peter and Moira have now visited all the concentration camps that Kitty was sent to after being evacuated from Auschwitz Birkenau and having endured the horrific death-march.
