A German town is considering turning a former concentration camp complex into a barracks to host refugees.
Schwerte, a town of 50,000 south of Dortmund, has come under strong criticism after the local council suggested that 21 refugees seeking asylum there could live in the Nazi building.
Schwerte hosted a forced-labour camp during the Nazi regime, a sub-camp to Buchenwald, where an estimated 56,000 people were put to death.
None of the prisoners’ accommodation in the Schwerte camp remains, but the quarters of the SS overseers are still intact. The council proposes that these barracks be used by the refugees.
Birgit Naujocks, director of the North Rhine-Westphalian Refugee Council, described the decision as “extremely questionable.”
"The plans recall bad memories and sinister pictures", said Ms Naujocks, who recommended the town use shipping containers to temporarily house refugees like others in the region.
Schwerte council spokesman Carsten Morgenthal said that using containers was too expensive.
Speaking to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine newspaper, Mr Carsten said the former camp was preferable because they had been used to house refugees once before, 20 years prior. In the meantime, they had also been used as the location for a kindergarten school, as a warehouse and a studio.
