Columbia concentration camp

Columbia concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin. It was one of the first such institutions established by the regime.

Originally called Strafgefängnis Tempelhofer Feld the building, which contained 134 cells, 10 interrogation rooms and a guardroom, had been built as a military police station but fell empty in 1929. However as soon as the Nazi Party came to power the building, which by then was known as Columbia-Haus, was made into a prison, with 400 inmates held by September 1933.

The prison, initially staffed by both Schutzstaffel and Sturmabteilung members, was largely unregulated until 1934 when it was placed under the command of Walter Gerlach and his adjutant Arthur Liebehenschel.