Programme highlight: guided visit to the Stutthof Memorial
Duration: approximately 5–6 hours
Hitler’s invasion of Poland triggered a wave of mass arrests in the Free City of Danzig. Around 1,500 people were detained on the first day of the war alone, primarily Poles active in the city’s social and economic life and committed members of Polish organisations. On 2 September 1939, approximately 150 of these prisoners were taken to Stutthof, marking the beginning of the concentration camp’s tragic history. Stutthof was initially used above all for the systematic destruction of the Polish intelligentsia in Gdansk and West Prussia.
From 1942, transports also arrived from other occupied territories, and Stutthof increasingly developed into an international concentration camp. In June 1944, it was incorporated into the implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” and became a site of mass murder. Within five years, the camp expanded from 12 hectares and approximately 3,500 prisoners in 1940 to 120 hectares and around 57,000 prisoners in 1944, with a network of 39 subcamps. More than 110,000 men, women and children from 28 countries and over 30 nationalities were imprisoned there. The camp was liberated on 9 May 1945 by troops of the Soviet 48th Army of the Third Belorussian Front.
During your visit, an expert guide will lead you through the memorial. For groups, we can also arrange historical workshops and archival work at the Stutthof Museum, providing a deeper and more direct engagement with history.
The Cracovia Reisen package includes:
