Nord Pas de Calais Camps Trail
(c) Marcus Roberts (2016). We gratefully acknowledge the support of an anonymous foundation and the Muriel and Gershon Coren Charitable Foundation.

History

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The Testimony of Edmund Weiss a Jewish prisoner of the Lager Tibor Camp System

Another further valuable account of the Jewish camps in Nord Pas de Calais, including, Lager Tibor is given by prisoner Edmund Weiss, a Czech Jew, to the British Intelligence services in May 1945, and who describes surviving the camp system from 1942 to 1945. The International Tracing Service records show that Edmund Weisz [sic] was born in Presov [Presovice?] in the Czech Republic (14 November, 1909) and was part of the Belgian cohort of deportees. He had initially been encamped in Boulogne Sur Mer (working for Ph. Holzmann), then Isques (for Leonard Hanbuch & Sohne) and finally Dannes and Condette (for Julius Berger), before he was liberated after being marched to Samer and Boulogne, making his escape from the latter location.

'On the 14 August 1942 I was sent by rail in a transport of 500 Jews from Antwerp to Boulogne. The transport was formed by the Chief of the Gestapo Holm. We were then taken to a Labour Camp situated in an old monastery called College Maria [= Lager Brauneck] in Boulogne under the command of Obertruppen Orgis. All our belongings were confiscated. We were employed 11-12 hours daily on road making, fortifications etc. The firm for whom we were made to work was a German firm named Holzmann. For the slightest misdemeanour we were punished with punishment drills, beatings and night roll calls etc. After a period of five weeks we were sent to Rue and held in a concentration camp at St Quentin near Rue. We arrived at the same time as another transport of 500 Jews. Treatment consisted of the usual beatings, stamping, kicking etc. I was employed as a camp Medical Orderly whilst other inmates were used for loading work. A fortnight after arrival, approx., the middle of October, all inmates, with the exception of Belgian subjects, semi-Ayrans and a few technical specialists were sent to Poland. I was left behind as medical orderly and dentist, with about 70 other inmates. The deportation was under the command of O'Stuvarn. Schmidt and carried out with the usual ill-treatment.

About the same time all Jews, in the other four concentration camps of Northern France, were deported to Poland. All the remaining inmates were then collected in one camp at Dannes-Camiers near Boulogne and were employed on road-making and fortification etc. The Officer in charge of this camp was [...] Kohler who excelled in brutality. In April 1945 a transport of 350 Russians, including children, arrived from Smolensk bringing the number of inmates at the camp up to 750. The Following transports also arrived:

May 1943: 200 Spaniards
Jun 1943: 250 Frenchmen
Dec 1943: 500 Frenchmen

After the invasion, the guards were reinforced, and the Camp Commandant was arrested for 'mild treatment of the Jews'. This man had replaced Koehler in Dec 1943. His name was Truppenfuh. Rutter, a non-party member and he was succeeded by Obertruppenfuh. Ullrich, an exceptional brutal type, notorious for his brutal treatment of Jews in Germany. At the end of August 1944 he decamped with all the valuables belonging to the inmates, leaving his guards (2 Germans and 14 Dutchmen) behind. At the beginning of Sep. 1944, we were all marched in the direction of Samer where we were put into a camp and left for 2 days without food and water. On Sept 5th we were marched to Boulogne and it was intended to entrain us from there to Germany. It was here I found an opportunity to escape and I remained eight days in hiding with the Stationmaster Eugene Streibig, 68, Rue Felix Adam and during the armistice, I left Boulogne with the population and surrendered to the English'. (19 May 45) (WO 208/3638 and WO 208/3656)

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