Footsteps of WWII · Poland
Stutthof Museum, Sztutowo
Camp memorial · 2 Sep 1939 – 9 May 1945
The story
Stutthof opened on 2 September 1939, the first German concentration camp set up outside Germany's borders in the war. Its first prisoners were Poles from Danzig and Pomerania, especially the educated and community leaders. About 110,000 people from many countries passed through it; around 63,000–65,000 died, including some 28,000 Jews, many of them women brought from the Baltic ghettos and from Auschwitz in 1944. From 1944 the camp also had a gas chamber. The evacuation began on 25 January 1945, and thousands died on the death march. Soviet troops reached the camp only on 9 May 1945. The memorial museum opened in 1962.
What to look for
Wooden barracks, the commandant's villa, the gas chamber and crematorium, and the 'Death Gate' through which prisoners entered. A large memorial stands by the crematorium. A short documentary film runs hourly in the cinema.
Plan your visit
Open daily: 8:00–15:00 from October, 8:00–18:00 from May; last entry 30 minutes before closing. Films hourly. Check admission and guiding on the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Museum of the Second World War, Gdańsk · 32 km
- Polish Post Office, Gdańsk · 33 km
- Westerplatte, Gdańsk · 33 km
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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