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Bad Nenndorf is a small town in the district of Schaumburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Its population is 10,210 (2005). It is situated approx. 12 km east of Stadthagen, and 25 km west of Hanover. Towards the end of the Second World War, the town served as the headquarters of the U.S. 84th Infantry Division under Major-General Alexander R. Bolling. It subsequently became part of the British Occupation Zone and was the site of a British interrogation camp.

Bad Nenndorf is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Nenndorf, which consists of the following municipalities:

• Bad Nenndorf
• Haste
• Hohnhorst
• Suthfeld

Internment camp

In 2005, British newspaper The Guardian published an article based on recently released Scotland Yard documents, that Britain had run a torture centre in Bad Nenndorf. This was run by a War Office department called the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC), and its original remit was the imprisonment of members of the Waffen-SS.

However, from 1945 to 1947 the centre was used to interrogate German prisoners, many of them communists suspected of espionage for Stalin. Torture included deprivation of food and sleep, exposure to extreme cold, isolation cells, threats of unnecessary surgery and the "water cell", in which prisoners remained in shallow water for extended periods of time. None of the several attempts at escaping the prison were successful, and outsiders helping escapees in their attempts were likewise imprisoned. According to records, 372 men and 44 women were kept prisoner in Bad Nenndorf. Three died and the health of several dozens was permanently affected. The operations were closed in 1947 after Scotland Yard learnt that inmates known to be innocent were being tortured. Four officers were brought before a military court, but only one was dismissed from the military.

On December 17, 2005, British newspaper The Guardian reported, having negotiated the release of the relevant documents with Scotland Yard (the embargo had expired). On January 30, 2006, Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported on British post-war activities in Bad Nenndorf, based on 800 pages of documents they received. In its April 3, 2006 issue, the Guardian published pictures of the emaciated German prisoners held in Bad Nenndorf. The Guardian wrote (regarding torturing German Communists): Harrowing photographs of young men who had survived being systematically starved, as well as beaten, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme cold, were considered too shocking to be seen.

An article in German newspaper Die Zeit implies that there were other internment camps such as Bad Nenndorf, but gives neither proof nor names of such camps.

References

1. ^ "ZEIT online - Mensch & Geschichte : Tommies als Täter". Retrieved 2006-07-21.
2. ^ "The Guardian - The interrogation camp that turned prisoners into living skeletons". Retrieved 2005-17-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
3. ^ "Transcript of NDR programme on Bad Nenndorf (PDF)" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-21.
4. ^ "NDR Fernsehen - Das Verhörlager Bad Nenndorf 1945-47". Retrieved 2006-07-21.
5. ^ "Guardian Special reports - The postwar photographs that British authorities tried to keep hidden". Retrieved 2006-04-03.

• Internments
• Samtgemeinden in Lower Saxony
• Torture
• Towns in Lower Saxony