Vaivara concentration camp

Vaivara was the main camp of Nazi Germany's largest concentration-camp system in occupied Estonia (1943–1944). The complex comprised about 20 subcamps in north-eastern Estonia and was run by the SS.

The system and its command

The main camp operated from August 1943 to February 1944. Its commandants were Hans Aumeier (until November 1943) and then Helmut Schnabel. The camps were concentrated in the oil-shale region of north-eastern Estonia, where prisoners were used for forced labour in the mines and on defence works. The system included about 20 subcamps, among them Klooga, Ereda and Kiviõli.

The prisoners

An estimated 20,000 people passed through the Vaivara system, nearly 9,000 of them from the Vilna and Kovno ghettos. Most were Lithuanian Jews; prisoners also came from Latvia, Poland, Hungary and Theresienstadt. Vaivara was one of the few Nazi camps run by men who had also served at Auschwitz.

Forced labour and mortality

Conditions were severe: starvation rations, disease (above all typhus), cold and executions. More than 1,000 deaths are confirmed at the main camp; the toll across the whole system was far higher, though exact figures vary between sources. Prisoners who became unfit for work were often sent to be killed.

Liquidation and the Klooga massacre

As the Red Army approached, the camps were liquidated in stages from February 1944 and survivors were taken to the Stutthof concentration camp. On 19 September 1944, just before the Soviet forces arrived, prisoners were massacred at the Klooga subcamp and their bodies burned — the Klooga massacre is one of the largest Holocaust crimes committed on Estonian soil. See also the overview of the camps.

Sources: Vaivara concentration camp (Wikipedia).