The Ladelund concentration camp, located 20 km north-east of Niebüll on the German-Danish border, was set up as a satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp on November 1, 1944, as part of the construction of the so-called Friesenwall. The Friesenwall was a planned but only partially completed fortification that was to be built on the German North Sea coast towards the end of World War II. The concentration camp near Ladelund was responsible for the construction of trenches and gun emplacements for a militarily pointless "blocking position" south of the Danish border. The camp was disbanded on December the 16th, 1944. Within the month and a half that it existed, 300 out of over 2,000 prisoners died.

The site, on which a labor camp of the Reich Labour Service (RAD) and later the subcamp was established in 1938, is located north-east of Ladelund in the former district of Südtondern (in today's district of Nordfriesland, Amt Südtondern) near the Danish border. About eight kilometers from the actual camp is the train station in Achtrup, where 2000 prisoners from many European countries arrived in covered goods wagons. The prisoners had to walk from Achtrup to Ladelund. Ladelund was chosen as a subcamp because of its location, the existing RAD camp area and the good transport routes.

In 1938, the Reich Labour Service set up a barracks camp for 250 young men north-east of Ladelund. They built a 34-kilometer road parallel to the Danish border from Süderlügum to Flensburg; this was called the Betonstraße (concrete road) or Panzerstraße (tank road). They also worked on drainage measures, wasteland cultivation and reforestation. The Ladelund labor camp was not enclosed or guarded.

On August 28, 1944, Hitler ordered the construction of the so-called Friesenwall on the North Sea coast. 16,000 prisoners of war were used for the construction, as well as 6,000 concentration camp prisoners, who were transferred from Neuengamme concentration camp to newly built subcamps in Engerhafe (2,000 prisoners) in Ostfriesland, Meppen-Versen (3,000 prisoners) and Dalum in Emsland (1,000 prisoners) and Schwesing (up to 2,500 prisoners) and Ladelund in Nordfriesland.^[1]

In October 1944, the conversion of the labor camp into a satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp began. It was fenced in with barbed wire and given four watchtowers. On November 1, over 2000 inmates from Neuengamme were sent to the camp. They arrived at Achtrup station in goods wagons. Most prisoners were classified as "political" according to the concentration camp system - except the Kapos - and came from all over Europe. They had been arrested as resistance fighters, hostages or forced laborers. The largest group came from the Netherlands; many came from the village of Putten. More than 600 Dutch men aged 17 and over were arrested in Putten on October 1, 1944, as part of a punitive action on behalf of the German Wehrmacht commander. The "Putten raid" was considered a reprisal action after resistance fighters had attacked a Wehrmacht off-road vehicle near the village. One occupant of the vehicle and one resistance fighter were killed.

On December 2, 1944, the prisoners were taken to the Amersfoort transit camp and from there to Neuengamme concentration camp. Of the 588, only 48 returned, the others perished in Neuengamme concentration camp or in other concentration camps, including Ladelund, where the first prisoners soon died as a result of the inhumane conditions.

Ladelund was originally set up as a Reich labour service camp for 200 to 250 men. After it was converted into a subcamp, over 2000 prisoners were housed here in 50-meter-long and eight to ten-meter-wide unheated barracks. Between 80 and 120 prisoners were packed into a barrack room measuring just under 40 m². Only the "oldest person in the barracks" had his own bed; the "barracks servants" shared a bed. All the other prisoners slept on the floor or rough wooden frames close together, without straw sacks or mattresses, only on scattered straw. The sanitary facilities had not been upgraded in the course of the conversion to a subcamp and were still from the old labor camp. Like the kitchen, they were sufficient for a maximum of 250 people. The hygienic conditions in the camp were catastrophic; vermin and diseases spread. Despite the adverse weather conditions in November and December 1944, the barracks were not heated. In addition, many prisoners had to do hard labor, especially in the anti-tank trenches. An anti-tank trench was four to five meters wide and three to five meters deep. Exposed to malnutrition and the beatings of Kapos, prisoners often worked eleven to twelve hours a day in freezing water.

The prisoners had already arrived in Ladelund malnourished and weakened, and now they were subjected to rations that were in their official version starvation rations. In Ladelund, they did not even receive these, as the commandant withheld food. The death rate was soon so high that the subcamp in Neuengamme was considered a "death camp".

On December 16, 1944, the Friesenwall had become completely pointless due to the new military situation. The camp in Ladelund was dissolved and the surviving prisoners were taken back to Neuengamme.

In 1945/46, the camp grounds near Ladelund were used as a military hospital for the aftercare of amputated soldiers. From 1946 to 1959, up to 200 refugees and displaced people were housed here. After that, the barracks were gradually sold by the responsible district administration and the land was handed back to the tenant. In 1970, the last remaining barrack was demolished after the state, district and municipality had compensated the owner with 5500 DM.