Klooga was one of the largest sub-camps of the Vaivara\nconcentration camp and operated for the longest period \u2013 from September of 1943\nto 19 September 1944. Unlike most of the Vaivara camps, Klooga had no\nconnection to the shale oil industry in Eastern Estonia, and the prisoners were\nprimarily employed in production of military importance \u2013 the timber and concrete\nindustries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\n
The camp was established in September of 1943 near the\nvillage of Klooga. During the preceding occupation by the Soviets (1940\u20131941), the area had been turned into a sealed off military area. In the period of German occupation, the German\n\u201cOrganisation Todt\u201d, a state-run engineering and construction company,\nestablished a camp in Klooga. Before the arrival of\nJewish inmates, civilian workers were employed and to a lesser extent Soviet\nPOWs and ordinary criminal prisoners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\n
Later, a camp for the Estonian Waffen-SS Training and\nReserve Regiment was established near the Klooga camp.\nIngrian Finns and Russians from Leningrad oblast were evacuated from the front\nand brought to Klooga in the winter of 1943\/44. These evacuees were not\nprisoners like the Jews, but lived in a separate refugee camp in Klooga, and in\ncamps in the nearby villages of P\u00f5llk\u00fcla, Laok\u00fcla and Paldiski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\n
The Klooga camp was surrounded by a four-metre-high\nbarbed wire fence. The area of the camp was approximately 1,000 x 500 metres\nwith three two-storey brick buildings in the middle. Two of these were\nsurrounded by barbed wire and used to accommodate inmates. The third housed the\ncamp office and administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\n
The commander of the Vaivara concentration camp was\nSS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Hans Aumeier, who had previously served at the Auschwitz\nconcentration camp. The commandant of the Klooga sub-camp was a junior\nSS-officer, who had two deputies and also two or three SS staff members. In\n1944, before the camp was disbanded, the camp commandant was\nSS-Untersturmf\u00fchrer Wilhelm Werle. The Klooga camp guards were mostly members\nof the 3rd Company of the 287th Police Battalion, formed from among Estonian\nconscripts in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\n
When the Red Army re-conquered Estonia in August of 1944\nfrom German troops, more than 3,000 Jews in the easternmost camps of the\nVaivara complex were evacuated to Stutthof concentration camp. Before escaping\nto the west via Paldiski harbour near Klooga, the senior staff of Vaivara\nconcentration camp gathered at Klooga to organise the mass murder of the\nremaining prisoners in Estonia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Klooga was one of the largest sub-camps of the Vaivara concentration camp and operated for the longest period \u2013 from September of 1943 to 19 September 1944. Unlike most of the Vaivara camps, Klooga had no connection to the shale oil industry in Eastern Estonia, and the prisoners were primarily employed in production of military … <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/klooga.nazismvictims.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0-16943_ft.jpg\")
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