Stutthof Concentration Camp

I visited this site in 2017 and I hope no one finds this question disrespectful to the memory of the place because it is a somewhat sensational topic. I was taking pictures so I could remember my experience, and when I was in the room with the bunks where people slept I seem to have captured a dark spirit in several pictures. Because it persisted in each shot, I was checking to be sure I wasn't casting the shadow or blocking the lens, but this was not the case. It appears as a solid object blocking the light, not as a dark shadow falling over geometry through space. I'm wondering if anyone else who has been to the site also had the same phenomenon in their pictures? Recently I learned about a documented police report where demons were captured on camera by a group of officers investigating a house where the family was reporting paranormal activity, and so it would seem that if there is a spirit present and it can be captured on camera, then I am not the only one who may have captured it in my pictures.

I visited the camp in 1975 when I was 13 years old. It was a truly life changing experience. I became a music educator and have shared the experience with many students. I remember how horrific the pictures were. To view the ovens and mass graves was something I shall never forget.

This account is unfortunately riddled with inaccuracies. The story of Spanner and the manufacture of human soap is largely fake news and the Russian estimates of deaths at Stutthof compiled at the time are likely to have been overstated. for political reasons. Equally mass gassings of inmates would not have been possible in the small gas chamber in the camp and there seems precious little evidence to support the contention that railway trucks were used as mobile gas chambers. But remove the fictional elements and you will find that the stark truth of a death toll in the tens of thousands and of callously casual murders in a forced labour camp in which inmates were fed only starvation rations is evil enough. And incidentally the original commandant Max Pauli wasn't executed for crimes committed at Stutthof but because if what he did at Neugamme, his next SS posting.

I am learning about Stutthof in my holocaust class and I came here to see when Stutthof was open and about Rudolf Spanner and the soap! Thanks!

i went there a few years ago , it made me cry! To think of what man can do to man .. and people sitting having picnics ! very mixed emotions

Visited Stutthof today. Left the camp with a strange and sad feeling. But I am really satisfied been there. Went by bus 870 from Gdansk glowne bus station. Departure once an hour.

do you know the exact day they opened the camp ?

I am trying to get some information on my mother's uncle.He had killed in Stutthof. My mother's uncle name is Eduards Ramanis. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Visited this camp in April this year, very somber, no tours, no need for guides. There were DVD of the camp avail,. Really strange to see postcards being sold of such a placr, who would anyone mail a postcard from place to......

I visited Stutthof in 97 when working in Poland on à projekt. very moving, however the polish person that I visited the camp with was very conflicted about visiting the camp since many poles, as well as russians, ukranians, latvians etc were no friends to the jews during this period. although the germans were the enablers of the holocaust its too simpel to think that all poles were heroes as some of the posts on this site suggest. this part Of poland had been part Of prussia before 1919. so thats only à gap of 20 years.

Wow

a most sobering visit. god help us from this ever happening again.

awesome

A terrible site it must have been. Well kept camp, but no (few) translations of comments to pictures into english or german.-. My wife and I was there last weekend and we took a Taxi from the hotel in the Old City of great Gdansk; Zloty 260,- back & forth incl that the taxidriver waited for us in 1 1/2 hours.

I am trying to get some information on my grandfather and his family. According to my father my grandfather was liberated from Stutthof, but was in Dachau for a period of time. My grandfather's name is Noham Buchinsky (Buchinski). Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I have just discovered that my father, Edmund Chilla, was a prisoner in Stutthoff. He was somehow released from there and went on to survive the war, eventually settling in the UK - meeting my mother and I am the product of that relationship.

i am trying to find out what war camp my grandfather was held in his name was jan eberhard /eberhardt

I visited Stuthoff in July this year while holidaying at Stegna close by. Stegna is a very pleasant summer holiday destination and the narrow guage railway which served the camp is still in use. I thought it was a constant reminder of how thousands of people had made a journey to there deaths in the camp on the same lines. Stuthoff itself is so quiet and green it is diificult to feel the real horror of the crimes perpetrated there (there are many accounts on the Web of the experiences of former prisoners). a must to visit.

It was shocking to see what all they poor people were put through but it was also very interesting and in some parts very up setting . I really enjoyed this trip and it is worth every minute of it!

can somebody tell me how to get to this place by bus from Gdansk? Thanks

Americans are still so ignorant about WWII. that I find myself teaching the history professionally (I am an English Professor) and in personal conversations. Since American's have come to think that the Holocaust was what happened during WWII, note that almost 20% of Poland's prewar population perished. In my family my grandfather was killed in a camp, my father Jan Sadanowicz (at 17) was imprisoned in Stutthof for over two years, I my mother (at 13) was taken to Germany to be a farm slave laborer. Please use "German Nazi" (not just Nazi) and "German-occupied Poland" when referring to the War. This way - perhaps - we can eliminate the often erroneous references (even in respectable American press!) to "Polish camps." Diane Ackerman's "The Zookeeper's Wife" is a great book on the German occupation of Warszawa. Peace. KZ

I recently did a paper for my Medical Law and Ethics class. I started with Hippocrates, then to Leonardo Da Vinci, and then on to the Holocaust. I have studied this time period off and on since I was a teenager, but dug pretty deep with my college paper. My heart goes out to all who have suffered such an atrocity. These are stories that need to be told until the end of time. I'm actually thinking of changing my course of study. I'm not really sure where to go with it, I just know that I need to do something.

Hi! I am Erasmus student and I would like to know how I can arrive to Stutthof by public transport. Could sb help me, please?

i visited Stutthof (2007) never been to a death camp before not sure if i ever want to go to another, having said that it was a experience i wont forget to see for yourself the conditions they endured ,the gas chambers,the cremertorium with its metal stretchers for burning the bodies,to the torture huts photos of men women and children that died there if you get the chance to see for yourself be prepared for a shock you will come away with sadness and horror.R.I.P. for all those who suffered and perrished there.Mick from Liverpool U.K. for all those who made snide comments and jokes on this page your nothing but sad pricks be grateful you were not of there generation

My family just returned from a visit to the Stuutthof Concerntration Camp. A long time wish as a parent was for my daughter see this with her own eyes vs. reading about it in a history book. The grounds are a sacred place. We had a local private guide, car and driver. We will never forget this sobering & horrifing experience. The piles of shoes, the gas chamber, and the pictures of the prisoners will always be in my mind and heart.

Good afternoon! What is the easiest/fastest way to travel from gdansk to the concentration camp? Thanks in advance for your help!

God bless all who were sent there and forgive all who did their miltary service in this place

I agree. To see people be so rude is heart breaking. A Camp like this should be honored and NOT diluted. Even an elementary school child could identify the difference in a time to goof around and a time to shut your trap.

So sad that people make offensive comments on this site, god bless all those who died at Stutthof Concentration Camp

So sad that people make offensive comments on this site, god bless all those who died at Stutthof Concentration Camp

A Polish friend of mine took me to see the camp at Stuttoff some time ago and I can still sense the silence and the atmosphere. Seeing the names of some lost souls on some posts was very sad for me to see. My friend said after he has never known me to be so quiet. Despite learning about history at school the sense of horror only hit me on this visit and I think on it often.

Hello, I am searching for information of a SS-hauptsturmfuhrer With the name Haupt.he has something to do in the history of my friends mother.He was hauptsturmfuhrer in the envirement of Nurnberg and played trombone. do you have any information of such. gratefully, monique wolters

I have been there twice, you don't speak as you look, only see and listen. It is a sobering reminder of what we are capable of. I pray it never happens again. I take anyone I can there.

When I Read This It Felt Like I Was Really There. Me And My Friend Were About To Cry. ]:

I have to do a research for this at school and i cry everytime i have to read about this cause its very sad

you pppl need to realize this is for research not for making stupid commmentns about something you know othing about!! get a life!!!!

You people below me are ridiculous and disrespectful...

i am a survivor of the holocaust and i dont see how this could possibly offensive. this is just stating facts of a sad story....p.s.....i love orlando bloom

im jewish and i find all these comments offensive >=(

i have to write a 1st person letter for school, so ima try to get into the prisoner's heads

I also have to do a project and its seems so sad X'((

I visited this camp back in the early seventies.I can vividly remember the pile of shoes taken from the prisoners it was about 6ft high.My imagination ran riot in the prison blocks which also incorporated a surgery a room about 10ft x 8ft.I think more used for experimental purposes than the welfare of the prisoners.I will never forget the tranquility of the whole area of the camp i never heard a bird whistle.

i have to do a project on stutthof for school and waht i have learned is verrrrrrrrrrry sad and depressing

wow i hate to think that things like this ever happened to ppl!!!! so forgeet hitler and his stupid nazi's

having visited this camp with some colleagues we were horrified tot see first hand the depths to which the German depravity descended. They were nand are Nazis

We visited Stutthof last Sunday but now reading these pages I realise how much deeper the horror was than I did when there. One sign perhaps of the beginnings of healing was a bird nest in one hut with the babies being fed. Other than that I could neither see or hear bird life.

My wife and I were on a Cruise recently and went to visit Stutthof. It is hard to beleive what happened to people at the camp. Please do not close your Museum because generations need to know the terrable things that appened in that camp. It is heart breaking but very impressive.

I am taking a great interest in the camps during ww2, having been to several, Auschwitz- Berkanau, Bergen Belsen,Treblinka, Soribor, Dachau to name but a few, Stutthof is on my list and I find that those who help retain the camps for this generation to see do a great job, we must ALL help towards this sort of crime against humanity NEVER happens again, I am an ex forces and I am unable to bring myself to understand WHY other human beings could do such things to other humans and WHY was it permitted to go on, I will find the answers I am looking for, the main one WHY?. God bless those who suffered and perished, at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

My Aunt is actually going to visit this camp on July the second. I can't believe that human beings could do this to other human beings, these serial killers, that is what they were, couldn't have suffered enough for their sick,twisted and sadistic crimes.

Thank you Poland for keeping the Stutthuf memory alive. We must never forget and you must preserve the camp for others to witness for all time.

I have been a visitor to Poland many times. I have many friends in Poland and know it to be a proud country. My father and mother worked in production of war goods in the United states during world war II , and my father in law was in the U.S. Army. He fought in many battles against the germans, and also was there in liberate the Polish People and the jews . The atrocities committed against the people were horrific. The German people at this time were the worst. These things whould never be forgotten, and atrocities such as this never allowed to happen again......I have been to many places in Poland and have viewed so much. I have to say to the Polish people God Bless you, You are a couragous and proud People. It is an honor to be your friend.

my father and his brother and cousins were put here on sept 9th 1939 to construct the camp i believe the germans cleared the whole village of all the men aged 15 and over to do this job,i visited the camp with my family in 2001 and i cannot believe that these things happened to the people of poland,my father never sp0ke about the war and i have been trying to find things out since his death in 1977, i think the polish people are all heros and should speak out to let every generation know what happened the writings in the history books do not do the people of poland justice GOD BLESS POLAND

wow yaeh i am in middle school too and i am doing research on this and its crazy

im only in midel school but i love learning about the holocoast, we hade to do a famious land mark research paper and i choose stutthof, all i have to say to the person that said that mr.rudolf spanner didnt make soap out of inosent people is that that definetly happend, thers pics at jewisgen.org

There was no mass production of soap! Get that straightened out.

What was done in these camps was horrible...No one should ever have to go through those horrible events

OMG this is so upseting a class is going to the holacost mueseum

I visited Stutthof in August 2008. We were driven there by a private taxi and did not realise until we were there that our driver's grandfather and grandmother had been there, one died there and one survived. It was an experience i will never forget. I did not know much about the holocaust before but this knocked me off my feet. It was a very sad place but a place where if you get the chance you must visit. I think every school child should be told about the holocaust in school.

In 1976, I toured this concentration camp between my jr. and sr. year in high school. I was a southern baptist, dating a jewish girl, so I was sensitive to the situation. My girlfriend's brother was along on the trip of a US soccer team touring the country. Many things I witnessed here rose every hair on my body; however, none so much as to see the family name of a family that I was doing summer yard work for, of dear friends of the very girl I was dating. To have a leader of a country (Iran) deny the existence of these atrocities, is as evil as those who perpetrated them. Put me in a room with him, and justice will prevail, or die... the latter is unlikely. America should awaken...concentration camps are already built here in the US...Google it...and it has nothing to do with race or ethnicity...just money. Get ready people...and God Bless...

i heard that this camp made soap from people's fat... i feel disgusted as to how the nazis could do this

I'm not sure what "John" meant when his review said "I loved it". This is a testament to man's inhumanity to man. Maybe the Polish government should reverse its policy about no children under 13 permitted. This lesson should be learned as early as possible in life.

Having visited stutthof last week(30th may 2008)I felt obliged to encourage anyone who gets the chance to visit the camp and pray that we can make sure that this murder and humiliation never again be allowed to happen.Poland is a beautiful country and the polish one of the friendliest nations i have met.

it was a sad time for everyone . i hope that it will never happen agian.there needs to be more information on this page.

i loved it

I visited the camp in September 2007. I was also aware of the silence and the lack of birds, however I was struck by the amount of butterflies, especially those flying in pairs. Each time I went into one of the huts I experienced nausea and headaches. The museum is a reminder of all those who suffered and are still suffering. May we never forget.

I remember upon entering the camp in 1986, the immediate sickly feeling in the base of my stomach,i also recall the eerie silence,no birds were singing all you could hear was wind russtling in the trees.You could feel the dead around you, welcoming you in.To this day i remember it all as if it was yesterday.

There is so little written about Stutthof concentration camp that it is nice to see that it is being mentioned. My stepfather was born in this camp, so we have visited on several occasions. Each time is striking. We should support these museums so that this history will never be wiped away and forgotten!

this place is a must see if you have any thoughts for those who perished