📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
The concentration camp was opened in June 1933 at the former renaissance palace in Prettin. The prisoners were opponents of the regime first, later also others, due to ideological and sociobiological reasons. The camp was used as an SS training centre and served as a pattern for other camps.
After its disbanding in august 1937 it served as a concentration camp for female prisoners, from 1941 to 1945 as a satellite camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. From 1933 to 1945, over 10.000 people were imprisoned there.
Their daily life was characterised by hunger, mistreatment, forced labour and bad hygienic conditions.
The castle was preserved in almost its entire historical structure, part of it is a memorial site. The focus of the work camp will be on the prisoners’ dormitories.
💼 What the programme involves
cleaning the attic, photographic documentation of the current condition, gathering historical traces, restoration work, creating a small exhibition about the former dormitories.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Open-plan tent on a camping site, next to a swimming lake, you need to bring your own sleeping bags, linen and pillows with you, camping beds will be arranged, self-catering at the kitchen bungalow, there are bikes for all volunteers.
📍 About the location
Prettin is a small town with 2.000 inhabitants, located in the Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (120 km southwest of Berlin). Today it belongs to Annaburg, which is 10 km away. Prettin was first mentioned in 965. In the 16th century Lichtenburg renaissance palace was built on behalf of Elector August I of Saxony.
⚠️ Requirements
Knowledge of German is desirable.
ℹ️ Additional information
Good leisure time facilities, e.g. swimming, miniature golf, bowling, trips along the river Elbe, to Wittenberg and Berlin are possible. It is planed for the volunteers to take part in a local dragon boat competition.