The site of a former concentration camp near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt, where more than 4,300 people were killed, has been sold to a real estate investor. The deal has caused consternation.
Between April 1944 and April 1945, thousands of prisoners from the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp built an 13-kilometer tunnel system beneath the Thekenberge mountains near Halberstadt. Fighter planes and V2 rockets would be built in the tunnels for the supposed “final victory”.
“The working and living conditions were so inhumane that… more than 4,300 people died in twelve months. people – as a result of workplace accidents, illnesses, executions and death marches. The monument now commemorates the suffering of these people and the history of the camp, and visitors can tour the tunnel system in question,” wrote the weekly “Spiegel”.
After the war, the facility was used first by the National People’s Army of the GDR and later by the Bundeswehr. In 1995, the area was sold to a private individual who donated the area, including the tunnels, free of charge to the Langenstein-Zwieberge Memorial Center built in 1976. However, the owner faced financial problems and the area became part of the bankruptcy estate.
Representatives of politics and civil society are wondering why the site was not purchased by the state government. A bankruptcy administrator in charge blames the government, which has made several offers to buy it, but all of them have been rejected.
The state of Saxony-Anhalt has been receiving purchase offers for many years – said jurist André Loeffler to “Spiegl”. However, they were rejected and “free use” was demanded.
The state’s Ministry of Culture firmly rejects the administrator’s claim that the government was not interested in purchasing the facilities. On the contrary, the offers received were unacceptable. On the one hand, because of the high price of more than one million euros, and on the other hand, because these offers did not contain any specific information about the property for sale – wrote the t-online portal.
The bankruptcy trustee was asked several times about the missing information but did not respond to the questions. As a result, the government was left with its hands tied because it never received a formally valid purchase offer.
Loeffler sold the tunnels to a Saxon investor for PLN 500,000. euros. The new owner Peter Jugl, a Saxon businessman specializing in “distressed properties,” has not yet revealed anything about his plans for the site. “We are interested in all types of properties. The larger the property, the more interesting it is for us,” his company’s website says.
“The state government is trying to reassure all those who fear that a former concentration camp could become a for-profit museum or something similar. Land use is strictly limited by a conservation order. All construction activity must be approved and commercial use is excluded,” t-online wrote.
