Towards the end of the Second World War there was a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Helmstedt. Here, prisoners had to build underground halls for armaments factories under the worst conditions. Archaeologists have now carried out a research excavation for the first time to examine and document the relics of this Walbeck-Weferlingen concentration camp subcamp. They found remains of the barracks, but also the prisoners’ personal belongings.
The era of National Socialism and the Second World War is of enormous importance for our history – not least because of the lessons we can draw from it today. But now only a few contemporary witnesses from the Third Reich are still alive. This makes archaeological research that documents and preserves the physical relics of the Nazi era and its victims all the more important. These include in particular the remains of the numerous concentration and labor camps that were built on the territory of the German Reich during the Second World War.
Forced labor for an underground arms factory
One of these camps was near the town of Weferlingen near Helmstedt. From August 1944, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was set up in the Walbeck district near a former potash mine under the code name “Gazelle”. Around 500 male prisoners had to expand production halls for the German armaments industry underground and under the worst conditions. The aim was to create production halls with an area of more than 70,000 square meters at a depth of 350 to 780 meters underground. This was intended to protect armaments production, including at the Niedersächsische Motorenwerke (NIEMO), from Allied air raids.
To carry out the difficult work, prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp were taken to the Walbeck-Weferlingen subcamp. They were initially housed in tents, later in barracks or in the underground construction site itself. The forced laborers had to sleep on straw sacks in the cold, dark tunnels of the mine. Hunger, the clammy cold and the hard physical work weakened the prisoners so quickly that many became ill and new workers had to be brought from Buchenwald to the satellite camp every week. At the beginning of 1945, the underground facilities were sufficiently completed that parts for aircraft and submarines could be produced there. On April 12, 1945, US troops reached the Walbeck-Weferlingen subcamp and freed the surviving prisoners.
Remains of barracks, fences and personal items
“The Walbeck-Weferlingen camp can be viewed as an example of several camps in Saxony-Anhalt that were built in the area of armaments transfers,” explains the Saxony-Anhalt State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology. However, so far there have been no targeted research excavations in such camps and the written sources only provide limited insight into the lives of the prisoners and the conditions in these work camps. Because the remains of the Walbeck-Weferlingen camp were increasingly at risk from pirated excavations, archaeologists from the state office, together with the Association for Walbeck History and Heritage Preservation, carried out a research excavation in the camp area for the first time in October 2025.
During the two-week excavation campaign, the focus of the investigation was on the locations of the former camp barracks and the open-cast potash mine adjacent to the camp. The archaeologists managed to uncover and document numerous remains of the camp, including the foundations of the barracks, parts of a former latrine building and the remains of barrier fences. With the help of metal detectors, the team was also able to recover some of the former prisoners’ personal belongings that they had left behind in the barracks when they were liberated or transported back to Buchenwald. Such finds and objects are important archaeological evidence of the crimes of National Socialism, but also the memory of the victims, as the state office explains.
The results complement the memorial and research work of the Association for Walbeck History and Homeland Preservation on the Walbeck-Weferlingen subcamp and other places of forced labor in the Walbeck area. In the longer term, the plan is to present the results of the research excavation and the finds on site.
Source: State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt