Opening of Nohra Concentration Camp

Date: March 3, 1933 • Location: Nohra, Germany

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1933–1945.

The first Nazi concentration camp was opened in Nohra to reduce overcrowding in prisons from the arrest of German Communists.

Nohra was the first of the early Nazi concentration camps in Germany, established 3 March 1933 in a school at an airfield in Nohra. The camp was administered by the interior ministry of Thuringia. The inmates were exclusively communists and included half of the Communist party group in the Thuringian state parliament. Prisoners were not forced to work or systematically abused, but had to suffer from poor hygienic conditions and did not have beds. The camp was closed down after a few months, and the building was demolished in the 1950s. A plaque commemorating the camp was installed in 1988 but taken down in 1990; as of 2023 there is no memorial board for the camp.