Thanks to the recent guidance of Jewish Gen members, I was able to get a copy of my grandfather's restitution (reparations) file from Germany.  In it, he states that he was held in the Neustadt Weinstrasse labor camp in 1933 and in Obermoschel Palatinate prison in 1934.  I wonder how I can locate documents from these locations that would give information about his detention.  In addition, I wonder if there are diaries or narratives about the experiences of prisoners in these places or similar labor camps/detention centers.  Thank you, Melissa Kahn

For the Neustadt camp there is a memoria site in German), its web site is here:
http://www.gedenkstaette-neustadt.de
there is a lis of inmates here:
http://haeftlingsdatenbank.gedenkstaette-neustadt.de/start/
They have more information such as interviews with survivors and historical research, not all online, so maybe worth contacting.
For Obermoschel, there is not much information except that it was a "civil" labor camp. It is mentioned in the book:
Krause-Schmitt, U., Kaiser, A., Weinmann, M., International Tracing Service. (2001). Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem =: (CCP). 4. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007560807/Cite
I did not consult the book because it is not available online, but it could be in some university library. As far as I could find out it lists only the name.
Presumably this was one of the many mini-camps were only a few inmates were detained to work for one company or local authority.
If you have not already done so, contact the Arolsen Archives (formerly ITS).
https://arolsen-archives.org

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Andreas Schwab, Montreal, Canada

Could you please post how you get reparations files from Germany? My father in law  had a large amount and we would like the details. Lustig in Berlin. Thank you
eleanor Lind

Hello Eleanor,

Since your father-in-law was from Berlin I suggest starting with http://www.wga-datenbank.de/ which is an index of restitution files from the Berlin office.

Megan Lewis
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933-1945 published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum includes the early camps.  While the articles do not list prisoners' names they do include footnotes and suggestions for further reading.  You can download the entire volume for free at https://www.ushmm.org/collections/plan-a-research-visit/electronic-resources#encyclopedias.  The early camps are in Part A.

You can search for oral histories, archival materials, publications, photographs and historic film in the Museum's Collections Search catalog https://collections.ushmm.org.

Megan Lewis