German town to send refugees to the camps

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.de/20150113/town-suggests-moving-refugees-into-former-concentration-camp-site

Town to house refugees in concentration camp

The small town of Schwerte is considering making a home for their refugees out of the barracks of a former concentration camp.

The town in North Rhine-Westphalia now faces heated criticism after the city council said that the 21 refugees could live in what used to be the quarters of SS overseers during World War II the Westdeutsche Allgemeine (WAZ) newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Schwerte was home to a forced-labour camp, a sub-camp of nearby Buchenwald, where Polish prisoners repaired train locomotives. None of the prisoners' accommodation is left standing, but the guards' barracks remains.

Director of the North Rhine-Westphalian Refugee Council, Birgit Naujocks, told radio broadcaster Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk that the decision was extremely "questionable".

"The plans recall bad memories and sinister pictures", said Naujocks, who also questioned why Schwerte could not have used shipping containers, as others have, to house the refugees.

Spokesman for Schwerte Carsten Morgenthal told WAZ that using containers was not an option because of cost reasons.

He also said the barracks were more suitable to make into a refugee home because they have previously been used to house refugees on one occasion 20 years ago. They have also been used to house a kindergarten, a warehouse and most recently a studio.

Up to 700 Polish workers were forced into labour there by the Nazis while it was used as a work camp between 1937 and 1945.

About 56,000 people died there, including nearly 12,000 Jewish people, according to Stern.

[celedhring]

"The plans recall bad memories and sinister pictures", said Naujocks, who also questioned why Schwerte could not have used shipping containers, as others have, to house the refugees.

Honestly, as creepy as it may be, if the alternative is living in a shipping container I'd rather take the barracks.

[Syt]

Oh, I agree.

In Dresden, heart of the "Pegida" protests, a hotel owner had to rescind his agreement to house refugees in his hotel. 5,000 signatures were collected by neighbors against it, he was threatened on social networks, and xenophobic slogans were sprayed onto the walls of his hotel.

[Ed Anger]

[Zanza]

I am sometimes surprised how insensitive people are. How about we don't use former concentration camps for anything but remembrance.

Schwerte was home to a forced-labour camp, a sub-camp of nearby Buchenwald

Eh? That's like 300km or so apart.

[Maladict]

Honestly, as creepy as it may be, if the alternative is living in a shipping container I'd rather take the barracks.

Plenty of people here live in shipping containers, mostly students. They're not that bad.

[Syt]

I am sometimes surprised how insensitive people are. How about we don't use former concentration camps for anything but remembrance.

Schwerte was home to a forced-labour camp, a sub-camp of nearby Buchenwald

Eh? That's like 300km or so apart.

From Wiki: "The railway facility in the eastern district of Schwerte became a branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1944. The camp had 445 prisoners in August and 670 in November 1944. The number of escapees was comparatively high, in November 1944 48 prisoners escaped. The camp in Schwerte was disbanded in December 1944 and the remaining prisoners were brought back to Buchenwald."

[Syt]

Apparently they branched out all over the place. McDonalds has nothing on them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_subcamps_of_Buchenwald

[CountDeMoney]

"The plans recall bad memories and sinister pictures", said Naujocks, who also questioned why Schwerte could not have used shipping containers, as others have, to house the refugees.

Honestly, as creepy as it may be, if the alternative is living in a shipping container I'd rather take the barracks.

I don't know, we thought using Abu Ghraib as a prison was a good idea too, since it was easier than building a new one.  Didn't go over so well.

[11B4V]

Yea, what a horrible idea. Then again leave it to the Germans to be efficient.

[Admiral Yi]

No one seems to have asked the refugees what they think.

[derspiess]

They get to live in the guards' quarters.  Not sure what the big deal is.

[11B4V]

The only way to make this a worse PR disaster, would be for a headline to read, "Germans find final solution to the immigration problem."

[CountDeMoney]

The only way to make this a worse PR disaster, would be for a headline to read, "Germans find final solution to the immigration problem."

  That would've been awesome

[11B4V]

No one seems to have asked the refugees what they think.

Regardless it is a horrible idea.