concentration camp in the town: the history of the Ladelund subcamp and its aftermath.

More than 2,000 prisoners were crowded into the Ladelund subcamp by the SS from November 1 to December 16, 1944. The camp was only built to hold 200 people and thus, despite the harsh weather conditions in Northern Friesland in late fall, most of men had to sleep on the bare floor. The prisoners were quickly debilitated as a consequence of overcrowding, catastrophic sanitary conditions, totally inadequate food and medical provisions, lack of warm clothing and brutal treatment by the guards. Three hundred people died in the Ladelund camp during the six weeks of its existence. With the end of World War II evacuees, refugees and displaced persons were housed in the barracks of the former concentration camp. The last refugee families left the camp in 1959 and the last barrack was torn down in 1970. Since then the area has been used for farming. In 1985 the Ladelund Church parish leased a small section of the grounds and established a memorial site there.