Bensberg

 

Bensberg was a small subcamp established in a Nazi elite boarding school called the National Political Educational Institute (NAPOLA), which had moved into an 18th-century hunting lodge in Bensberg (a castle – Schloss Bensberg), twelve kilometers east of Cologne. SA-Gruppenführer Paul Holthoff, the school’s director, requested forced labourers to carry out repairs and extensions and in autumn 1943, 20 prisoners arrived from a subcamp in Cologne, although it is not known whether or not they were actually accommodated at the site.

The building became an official Buchenwald subcamp in late 1944. Reports state that prisoners slept in one of the cellars, which may have been used for storing bicycles. The subcamp was initially classified as a detachment of Construction Brigade III, based in Cologne. However, from mid-May 1944 it became known as “Napola Bensberg.”

Only 13 prisoners passed through the camp, making it the smallest Buchenwald subcamp. They were all skilled – roofers, carpenters, bricklayers and joiners. Nine of them were Czech, one was Soviet and three were French. The SS also employed civilian forced labour and prisoners of war at the site.

No infirmary or camp doctor is recorded, and no illnesses or injuries, although two prisoners were murdered by Hitler Youth members in the castle grounds in March 1945. Nor were there any SS guards and it is probable that Order Police officers from Münster supervised the prisoners.

SS chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the evacuation of the subcamp in November 1944, in the face of American forces reaching Aachen in October. The prisoners were moved to a former monastery in Hardehausen, near Warburg, around 200 kilometres away. This transfer is likely to have occurred in December 1944. “NAPOLA Bensberg” subcamp was renamed “NAPOLA Hardehausen” subcamp.

 

The castle was used as a boarding school after the war and in 1999 became a grand hotel. Two memorial plaques were installed in July 2025, remembering the subcamp and the two murdered prisoners.

For further information, see the Buchenwald Subcamp Portal.


 

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