The second Marcellus flood, in January 1362 destroyed cultivated land on the entire Frisian North Sea coast and the important trading town of Rungholt, which was by the sea at that time. Whole stretches of land were flooded and Husum, further inland to the east of Rungholt, now became a port city and gained increasing commercial importance. Today the picturesque city attracts tourists and the regular crab market invites you to "pound crabs" at the harbor. Husum also keeps the memory of the atrocities of the Nazi regime during the Second World War from 1939 to 1944 alive with the Husum-Schwesing concentration camp memorial. A particularly cruel relic from this time: "The hydrant is a symbol of the sadistic arbitrariness of the concentration camp guards (see picture 2). As a punitive action, the prisoners had to sit on it with outstretched arms and legs for hours ..." The balance was hard to hold and whoever fell down received a beating. Many prisoners died after this perverse ordeal.
