Naujoks was born in Harburg on the Elbe, today part of Hamburg. He learned the trade of boilermaker in Hamburg and joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1919. He and his wife Martha were married in 1926 and had one son, Rainer. After the Nazisseized power in 1933, Naujoks was arrested. For over two years, he was sent to various prisons and concentration camps, including KoLaFu and by 1936, one of the Emslandlager, before finally being sent to Sachsenhausen. Beginning in November 1936, Naujoks worked as a prisoner in the camp administration and in 1939, was named Lagerältester "because of his unflappable calm and his organisational talent". In May 1942, he was ordered by Lagerführer Fritz Suhren to execute a fellow prisoner by hanging, but refused, a dangerous act of insubordination. He was able to survive the insubordination and to avoid executing the prisoner himself, but he was forced to stand next to the gallows during the hanging, which was made to be particularly slow and painful. In November 1942, he and 17 other prisoner functionaries in the clandestine camp resistance group were arrested, tortured and deported to Flossenbürg concentration camp for extermination. It was only through the solidarity with the prisoners there that he was able to survive the maltreatment from the guards.
Martha and Harry Naujoks' library, containing 2,000 volumes, was donated to the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen, making it the most comprehensive individual donation. Among the documents are files from the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi doctors, judgments for treason from the Volksgerichthof and files from the Nazi Party Chancellery. On April 16, 1999, there was an exhibition called, "Harry Naujoks — Lagerältester und Chronist des KZ Sachsenhausen" at the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen. It opened with presentations by Dr. Winfried Meyer, Prof. Nozicka of Prague, Ursel Hochmuth and Naujoks' son, Rainer.
Memoirs
Naujoks documented his memoirs and interviews with other former Sachsenhausen prisoners on a collection of taped recordings. He creates a vivid picture of camp life and the resistance work at Sachsenhausen. This recorded archive was transcribed into a book in 1987 by his wife, Martha and historian Ursel Hochmuth. Called My life in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 1936-1942, it was re-released with added material in the German Democratic Republic in 1989. His recollections were valuable because his position gave him access and the length of his imprisonment gave him insights. Naujoks chronicled both the indignities of daily life and the crimes of the Nazis at Sachsenhausen. Describing life at the barracks, he wrote, Sachsenhausen was built with 67 barracks designed to hold 100 to 120 people, but ultimately held 600. The population expanded dramatically in mid-1938, after the Nazis carried out their "Aktion Arbeitscheu Reich", arresting 10,000 "azociale" as being "work averse" and the "June Initiative", the first mass arrests of Jews. After these massive arrests, thousands of people were deported to concentration camps. Sachsenhausen's population went from 2,920 in May 1938 to over 9,200 in June 1938. Naujoks recalled the overcrowding. From July to September 1942, almost all of the pink triangle prisoners then at Sachsenhausen fell victim to a targeted SS extermination initiative. After liberation, Naujoks reported the murder of 200 individuals in this initiative.
Selected works
Nahrung für das Notstandsgebiet Hamburg, KPD, Hamburg
'Das Gestern soll nicht das Heute bestimmen, Sachsenhausen booklet, No. 3. Dortmund
Mein Leben im KZ Sachsenhausen 1936-1942. Erinnerungen des ehemaligen Lagerältesten.'' Edited by Ursel Hochmuth. Published by Martha Naujoks and the Sachsenhausen Committee for the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Röderberg-Verlag, Cologne. Also published by Dietz Verlag, Berlin and Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne,
