Börgermoor
In northern Emsland outside a small town called Bockhorst, the Nazis established a concentration camp in June 1933. The camp was also called Emsland I because it was the first of fifteen camps that the Nazis established in Emsland (for further information on Emsland see Esterwegen). The camp was under the control of the Prussian interior ministry and there were about 1000 prisoners in the camp, mainly political. The prisoners were forced to work to expand the camp and build a new camp in Esterwegen about 10 kilometres east. Barely a year later, the concentration camp was dismantled and Börgermoor became a prison and was placed under the Prussian judiciary. The camp existed until April 1945.
Current status: Demolished with monument (2011).
Location: 53° 01'03.25 N 7° 31'27.21 E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Kogon, Eugen: The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them (2006).
The other fourteen Emsland camps were Aschendorfermoor (II), Brual-Rhede (III), Walchum (IV), Neusustrum (V), Oberlangen (VI), Esterwegen (VII), Wesuwe (VIII), Versen (IX), and, Fullen (X), Gross-Hesepe (XI), Dalu (XII), Wietmarschen (XIII), Bathorn (XIV) and Alexisdorf (XV). All camps are razed but there are either monuments and/or information boards similar to the one at Borgermoor. The exception is Esterwegen where a museum has been established that covers all Emsland camps.