Lüddemann camp, Oker/Harlinerode, Goslar

Photos: Udolf/Stadtarchiv Goslar and Frank Jacobs.

Background

According to official statistics from the Süd-Hannover Braunschweig district employment office from June 1944, of a total of 868.000 workers in the district, there were more than 300.000 foreigners, of whom 227.000 were civilian workers, while 70.500 were prisoners of war (for a map of the administrative districts in the Great-German Reich, see here). About 5.000 of these lived and worked in Goslar. Lead, copper and zinc from the Rammelsberg mountain on the northern edge of the Harz range were in high demand for the war industry. Several camps were set up to house constantly arriving forced laborers, in particular Ukrainians and Russians following Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.

After the end of WWII, Goslar was situated in the British zone, just some 20 kilometers west of the new border that divided East (GDR) and West (BRD) Germany. The nearest border crossing was between Eckerkrug and Stapelburg (map). Thus, Goslar was a destination for released forced laborers, prisoners of war and political refugees fleeing from the Red Army. According to Dr. Peter Schyga, 500 persons crossed the new border each day, and was brought by bus or train from Eckerkrug to Goslar. From the beginning of October to the end of November 1945, more than 22.000 refugees arrived in Goslar. Most of these were transported to other areas in the British Zone.

The dissolution of the Nazi regime, an urgent need to rebuild the local, regional and state administration, and the influx of thousands of refugees aggravated the already difficult post-War social and economic conditions. In order to handle all the newly arrived refugees, a welfare and social committee was established in Goslar in June 1945. From September 25 the same year, a housing committee was set up to administer camps and apartments for the DPs.

The Lüddemann camp

The Lüddemann camp was built between Oker and Harlingerode to house the forced laborers working at the Chemische Fabrik Dr. Ernst Lüddemann in Oker/Harz. During the war the company produced prefabricated barracks of wood-cement. After the war, the former camp for forced laborers was transformed into a refugee camp, and became one of two camps for Ukrainian refugees in the Goslar region. According to information I received from Dr. Friedhart Knolle, the Lüddeman camp probably housed about 1.000 refugees, and contained a grocery store, a bakery, a sports court, a small church and a pub. Some of the buildings of the camp are still existing.

The UNRRA team number 124 was responsible for the Lüddemann camp and had its headquarters in Goslar. According to Jenny Carson, Team 124 was one of two principal teams run by the Friends Relief Service (FRS) in post-war Germany (p. 71).

The Lüddemann camp's DPAC (Displaced Persons Assembly Centre) number was 2913. In my grandparents' documents which I received from ITS, they were registered in DP-Camp Goslar, which  had the designation DPAC 50, 90, 104, 2913 and 2933.

I have found several sources that mention the Lüddemann camp in Oker/Harlingerode. I will summarize them here.

The Ukrainian wanderer

The Ukrainian wanderer (Український скиталець), was published in the Lüddemann camp on January 7th, 1948. I was able to locate a copy in the library at the University of Toronto. The 6 pages long newspaper provides a unique glimpse into the history of the camp.

On page 4 there is a description of the camp, called camp 'Zaporizhzhya' ('Запоріжжя'). I will translate the article here:

After the defeat of the fascistic Germany, a group of Ukrainian workers under the leadership of engineer Tymkov, started repairing the old barracks of the factory Lüddemann in August 1945. Earlier forced workers from various countries lived in these barracks. Ukrainians from all over the Goslar district converged here singly and in groups. The place was flooded by Ukrainians, and much work was done to get the exterior of the new village in order. Ruins were demolished, the area was levelled out, and walking paths were made. A wanderer's camp emerged.

Soon after much work was also done in cultural education. An elementary school was built, headed by the experienced pedagogue Mrs. Pakholkova, and there were organized courses for non-literate, courses in English, kindergarten and workshops. Despite the lack of intellectuals, a national-cultural life developed rapidly. Already in April 1946, a camp choir and dancers performed in Braunschweig together with six choirs and choreography groups of different nationalities. The choir under the direction of M. Koval was awarded first place.

September 15 was an important day in the camp, when the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, built by the hands of the very refugees of the camp, was ceremoniously consecrated. Pastor M. Moskalyk tirelessly educated the parishioners in the spirit of the truth of Christ's science.
In September the same year a congress for Ukrainian engineers and technicians in the British zone took place in the camp. Representatives from almost every Ukrainian camp were present.

Every day the camp grew stronger. A theatrical group was organized, which under the artistic leadership of the actor and director Mrs. Vursova successfully staged the plays "Tattered", "Three to select from", "Oh, do not go, Hrytsya". On the initiative of Mr. V. Okipnyuk a CYM [Ukrainian Youth Association] center was established, which activated over 50 boys and girls. The CYM building, painted in a Ukrainian style, decorated with a tryzub or trydent, flags and portraits of authors and heroes of the liberation struggle, creates a national corner, which will stay in the hearts of our youth.

With a feeling of deep gratitude and respect we will remember our fellow resident dr. Korchemnyj, who equipped the camp ambulatory and who, unfortunately, in the near future will go to Canada.

The camp leadership continuously strives to foster the best Ukrainian national traditions and customs in our community, which finds itself in a foreign country, in a strange land. Therefore, it is no wonder that guests who come to us, confirms with pleasure: "Yes, 'Zaporizhzhya' is really a Ukrainian camp!"

With certainty we can say, that from the time of the establishment of our camp we have celebrated every national holiday and memorial day.

Work on all spheres of life in the camp is conducted without any protest. Mr. V. Okipnyuk was elected leader of the camp in October 1946. Despite his young age, he has a good experience in managing a complex camp structure. Thanks to his gentle character, camp life flow calmly and confidently, creating a good image of our people in a foreign land. The Camp Council, headed by Mr. V. Tkachuk, participant in the liberating competitions 1917-1921, enjoys a general honor and respect from all the inhabitants of the camp, and in friendly cooperation with commandant Mr. Okipnyuk cares about improving the living conditions in the camp every day, leading it in the spirit of national unity and mutual tolerance.

Beginning from May 1947, 126 persons left the camp, of whom 122 went to Great Britain, 3 to Canada, and 1 to the US. Upon arrival to the UK, our fellow Ukrainians gave a number of concerts and organized an exhibition of Ukrainian embroidery, which impressed the English as is evident from the photos in English magazines. 

Such is the history of the Ukrainian camp 'Zaprizhzhya' in a few lines. We wish its inhabitants at the occasion of the second anniversary of the camp's existence, that they retain unity and consent among themselves, and not lose hope of a happy return to the Motherland.

The newspaper also has an article about the Ukrainian Construction Group that was established in Goslar and the Lüddemann camp. At first 37 workers were active in the group, and during two years 301 workers were involved in the assignments that the group was able to get. Most likely my grandfather was part of that group. He was a carpenter, and my grandmother told me that he did construction work while they lived in the Lüddemann camp.

Vira Smereka

Vira Smereka was born in Sumy oblast in 1923, and was taken as a forced laborer to Germany in 1942. She met her future husband in Berlin in August 1943, and in February 1944 they escaped together from the labor camp, and later ended up in the Harz region. After the war they were moved to the Lüddemann camp in Oker, where Vira started working in the Ukrainian school and lead various study groups. In May 1947, Vira and her husband emigrated to Bradford in the UK. She died May 2010, 87 years old.

Vira Smereka published several books and poems. One of her books, The Girl from Ukraine, published in 2009, is an autobiography in which she writes about their time in Goslar:

By midday, we arrived at a town called Goslar, in the Harz Mountains. It was the first time in my life that I had seen mountains. They were almost as high as the clouds, and I longed to climb up and explore them. I wanted to climb to the very top. We were to settle there. The town was full of refugees, and there was no accommodation left except for a large school hall. We all settled on the floor and were glad for a small space. Young and old were mixed together; professors, teachers, writers, scholars, labourers, farm workers and children. [...] The following day, Ivan went through the town to look for a room and found a small attic. I moved in. It was in a terraced house on the outskirts of Goslar. [...] Goslar was a town to which many hospitals had evacuated their patients during the War, and it had not been bombed. There were no ruins like there were in other towns we had travelled through, but there were hundreds upon hundreds of refugees. Each nationality gathered together in different parts of the town. Ivan soon found a group of Ukrainians and somehow they found a large meeting room.

The forced repatriation of Soviet citizens was confirmed, and I was one of those classed as Soviet. And although Ivan had Czechoslovakian documents, there would be no way in which Stalin would tolerate marriage to foreigners. If we returned home together we would be forced to separate, and we would both be punished in the process. The stories which continued to spread through the community were like clouds of poisonous smoke, and they filled us with excessive anxiety. We were ordered to leave our accommodation and were moved into camps on the edge of town. There were two such camps: ours was Oker, just over a mile from the centre of Goslar. [...] To reach the camp we had to walk across open fields. The harvest was over and the sandy earth already felt cold. It took us nearly an hour to get there. The camp was situated in the fields and was surrounded by a wire fence. A watchman stood at the gate. For once, the watchman was a Ukrainian. He wore a national, blue and yellow armband on his sleeve. After looking at our papers, he led us into the commandant's office. A tall, blond man greeted us politely and examined the papers again. We were shown an empty room in one of the barracks. These were the married quarters. We were very pleased to be given a room of our own. There was a bed, a table, a few chairs, and in the corner of the room there was an electric stove with one ring. [...]

The camp was large. It had its own church, a choir, a school and a dramatic society. Everyone there was Ukrainian, including the administrators, and the only exception was an English supervisor. We received our ration of food and began to lead a Ukrainian community life which was complete. My husband and I both sang in the choir. I was also asked to teach, and I took charge of an elementary class of about twenty eager young children. [...]

In a way, Oker camp was like living in a mini republic with a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. We all loved it. The priest was young, tall and very kind. We cleaned and decorated the church and then sang with all our hearts every Sunday and every feast day. (p. 281-296).

In 1986, Vira described her experiences from Goslar and the Lüddemann camp in the article In Goslar, between the mountains of Harz, in an edited book about Oleh Shtul-Zhdanovych, politician and editor in chief of the Ukrayinske Slovo (see here, page 153-156, in Ukrainian). She writes:

The camps Petersberg and Lüddemann (Пітерберr і Лідеман), or Oker, were built not far from Goslar. Our people lived there. Soon we [Vira and her husband] also got an order to move there. In the camps, politics was discussed, almost amounting to a 'Ukrainian revolution', which was sometimes bloody. And it was to these camps that Oleh Shtul arrived without any commotion. He did not speak as a politician or a fighter, but as a teacher of Ukrainian history, language and sociology. People gathered, filled the big hall and listened to the quiet words of the teacher. I still remember the main points from the lectures of Oleh Shtul of that time, and, revising them, I once again realize what valuable knowledge Oleh Shtul gave us all then. It was the most appropriate policy we had heard living in the camp. And for this knowledge the listeners of Shtul probably remained grateful to their teacher for rest of their life. [...]

When we were ordered to move to the camps, we ended up in the camp Lüddemann-Oker, which was further away from Goslar. Soon after Oleh and Kateryna Shtul left Goslar. It was a very different life in the camp, which took all our attention and time: the Ukrainian community life, with a choir, a theater ensemble, a school of Ukrainian studies, a church and endless political discussions. We immersed into this life together with everyone else, and it seemed that we created Ukraine in a foreign country, forgetting that we were foreigners in a foreign land, without our homeland, relatives and surroundings. That life lasted until the spring of 1947, when one by one travelled to different countries of the world.

For two newspaper articles about Vira, one in BBC (part one and two and one in the Telegraph and Agnus)

Margaret McNeill's diary

Margaret McNeill was a FRS volunteer, and according to Jenny Carson she worked in FRS Team 100 (p. 77).

In her book By the rivers of Babylon, she writes:

So far we knew very little about the Ukrainians. Audrey had visited one large Ukrainian camp before the intellectual Latvians took up all her time, and the stories she had brought back had so intrigued Jill and Sammy that they went chasing off to find two more Ukrainian camps reputed to be in the neighbourhood, and returned full of their finds.

'You never saw such a place as one of them is,' Jill reported. 'Jennifer, it must be moved. The huts look like brokendown hencoops. It's called the Railway Camp because the Germans had foreign railway workers living there. It's really awful, but the people just shrug their shoulders about it and smile and shake their heads. But wait till you see the other camp, tucked right away in the pinewoods at the foot of a waterfall.'

[...]

As well as the small Railway Camp which Jill had found, there was the large Ukrainian camp in the town; and the Major had decreed another was to be got ready at a disused cement works out in the country, into which the numerous Ukrainians who were scattered individually or in tiny groups all over the area were to be gathered. It was arranged that Desmond should concentrate on the work in the camps themselves, and that I should get the future members of the new camp registered and moved when the building was ready.

[...]

We talked about the imminent closure of the hotel [the Golden Sun] and I explained to 'Franz Josef' [Margaret did not use real names in her diary, and this man had an appearance of the 'old Kaiser Franz Josef school'] that the Ukrainians would be moved to a new camp which was being got ready at a place called Lindemann [Lüddemann], several miles out of the town. The old man looked perturbed and asked for further details about the exact position of the camp, which was a disused cement works in an open lonely spot.

'The people will not want to go,' remarked Mr. Klymischenko evenly.

I launched into a brisk assurance that everything possible would be done to make the camp habitable, stressing the fact that the people would not live in wooden huts, but strong little cement buildings.'

'It is not a matter of accommodation,' said 'Franz Josef,' becoming rather conspiratorial, 'but here in town among many people, we feel safer. Out there, four miles nearer the Russian zone, we would be isolated. Suddenly - in the night - anything might happen. They could swoop down and kidnap us before any alarm could be given.'

According to McNeill, there were some 20 camps in the Goslar region under the Quaker teams jurisdiction. The Lüddemann camp belonged to the district Harlingerode.

References and further reading:

Peter Schyga, 2017. Goslar 1944-1953. Hoffung - Realitäten - Beharrung.

Peter Schyga, Frank Jacobs and Friedhart Knolle. "Gebt uns unsere Würde wieder" - Kriegsproduktion und Zwangsarbeit in Goslar 1939-1945.

Peter Schyga, Frank Jacobs and Friedhart Knolle. Letters from Ukrainian forced laborers

Friedhart Knolle, http://www.knolle.privat.t-online.de/lager.htm

Margaret McNeill, 1950. By the Rivers of Babylon. A story based upon actual experiences among the displaced persons of Europe.

Jenny Carson, 2009. The Quaker Internationalist Tradition in Displaced Persons Camps, 1945-48. In Warlands. Population Resettlement and State Reconstruction in the Soviet-East European Borderslands, 1945-50, edited by P. Gatrekk and N. Baron.


Special thanks to Ulrich Albers at the Stadtarchiv Goslar and Dr. Friedhart Knolle (NGO Spurensuche Harzregion e.V.)