Wilhelmshaven is an external Kommando of the Neuengamme camp on the North Sea, created in August 1944 and took up “duty” on 4 September 1944, with a convoy of 1,200 men, including 541 Frenchmen, arriving from Fort Hatry in Belfort (convoy from 28 August to 1 September 1944).

See testimony of Jean MEVEL : When we arrived, the camp was not finished and we had to remove a huge pile of clay that was obstructing the Place d’Appel, and to carry out brick transports with wheelbarrows, under the supervision of Kapos and… SS who were French. We were housed in the disused barracks of the Hitler Youth on the Alter Banter Weg.

Then, assignment to the Kriegsmarine Arsenal where we went on foot (4 to 5 km.). In this huge industrial complex, manufacturing workshops had been isolated and were reserved for us. They included :
– A large hall where we had to work as turners, machine steel parts under the control of German foremen, collect metal shavings with our bare hands (this was my case), make steel cables, weld all kinds of parts – very big or very small – with a torch or electric welding, almost without protection, cut huge metal plates with huge machines (remember: a Frenchman cut both his hands in front of me – suicide?), making different models with die-cutters .

-A large hall where we had to work as turners, machine steel parts under the control of German foremen, collect metal shavings with our bare hands (this was my case), make steel cables, weld all kinds of parts – very big or very small – with a torch or electric welding, almost without protection, cut huge metal plates with huge machines (remember: a Frenchman cut off both his hands in front of me – suicide?), making different models with die-cutters.  

Apart from that, there were other workshops, including:
– the carpentry shop where, among other things, pomegranate handles and gun barrels were made;
– the forge where castings for warships were made. It was a very hard job because the deportees were subjected to intense heat during their work, only to come into contact with the cold outside, and their clothes were pierced by incandescent metal shards.

All these buildings were surrounded by rows of barbed wire and closely guarded by guards.
The work was done 24 hours a day, in two shifts, one day shift and one night shift, each shift lasting 12 hours, with a half-hour break to eat a meagre meal (see testimony of Pascal Valliccioni). Following the allied bombings, teams were set up to dig up unexploded or time-delayed bombs – I was one of them (see testimony of Jacques Le Pajolec).

At the end of March 1945, we started to clear the workshops destroyed by the bombs. Faced with the scale of the disaster – sunken ships, submarines belly up,… – A ray of joy lit up our faces and we became happy – for a while.
The contribution of our workforce was to help build the so-called “pocket submarines”.
As a reminder, out of a total of 285 such submarines built, 133 were built in Wilhelmshaven from September 44 to April 45.

Of the 541 French Kommando, 173 were still “alive” in June 1945.

Testimony of  Raymond GOURLIN, matricule 43948

Voir une vidéo sur Wilhelmshaven (4 mn.)