Malchow Concentration Camp - Conditions and Life in The Camp

Conditions and Life in The Camp

Day-to-day conditions in the camp were almost unbearable. The prisoners were forced out of their will to stand at attention for roll call, twice a day, like most regular concentration camp prisoners would have to do. The prisoners were guarded under the watchful eyes of the Schutzstaffel (SS) female guards and their German Shepherd Dogs. The SS were very cruel, but probably one of the harshest female guards at Malchow was the SS wardress by the name of Luise Danz. She was transferred from the main camp of Ravensbrück to Malchow and became commandant of the camp. While stationed at Malchow, she killed a young girl by violently stomping on her.

In Malchow, the prisoners barely received anything to eat and were forced to kneel on sharp gravel stones. Body searches and beatings were routine at Malchow. Although residents of the town of Malchow were not allowed to have any contact with the prisoners of the camp, some townspeople provided the inmates with supplies of food. When they were discovered by the SS, they too were imprisoned in Malchow. Aside from starvation and exhaustion, many prisoners also died during many epidemics of diseases such as tuberculosis and typhus. Some types of forced labor that the prisoners had to do were producing mines, collecting nettles from children’s playgrounds, cleaning the factory and town, building canals for the hospital of Malchow, and doing horticultural work.