Dragsbæklejren

Facts

From recreation to airbase to refugee camp

By Jakob Seerup, Museumsinspektør, ph.d., Statens Forsvarshistoriske Museum (9 stories)

From recreation to airbase to refugee camp Thisted barracks, also known as 'Dragsbæklejren' (Dragsbæk camp), was originally acquired by Thisted local council in 1930 as recreational grounds. But following the outbreak of the Second World War, the grounds were commandeered by the German Kriegsmarine, which used them as a base for seaplanes. After the war, the site served yet another function when it was used as a refugee camp for some of the many thousands of Baltic and other refugees who arrived in Denmark after the war ended. In the years up to 1950, the camp housed up to 1,000 refugees at a time. Today, Dragsbæklejren is the headquarters of the Danish Ministry of Defence's Emergency Management Agency .

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Story written by Jakob Seerup

Time / Periode 1950

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”Our Lord, given that you once were a refugee, we pray that you may protect all those of us with no abode". In translation, these are the words engraved on a monument erected by Lithuanian refugees at the former camp, Dragsbæklejren, in gratitude for how well they had been treated. Some 750 Lithuanian refugees lived in the camp after the Second World War. The monument consists of a stone relief bearing the Lithuanian coat of arms and a wooden cross. It is also a monument to the country the Lithuanian refugees had left during the war. The majority of the refugees never returned to Lithuania, which in the meantime had become a Soviet republic under Stalin. A number of them remained in Denmark, but the majority travelled on to the USA and elsewhere in Western Europe.