DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS - PART 9 Alphabetical Order, K

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                             
                                                DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS
                                                          PART 9 Alphabetical Order
                                                                          K 

KÖNIGSSEE


The sub-camp Königssee in the county of  Berchtesgaden existed from the  the 2nd to the 9 September 1944. About 20 male prisoners mainly Building tradesmen, renovated a mansion of Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler in  Schneewinkl, as well as at an estate of the Grossadmiral Karl Doenitz (Dönitz). They also built a bunker. On the construction sites, Reichsdeutsche (German Nationals) were present, who acted as functionaries and were mostly older than their fellow inmates, who came from several European countries. A witness reported that Himmler had been informed regulary about the progress of the work on the sites. The accommodation for the inmates was in a barrack or rather what could be called a barn (Scheune) near the construction sites.  Former prisoners reported about comparatively good food. They were able to move relatively freely at the workplace. The medical care was also satisfactory. A camp doctor from KZ-Dachau treated the sick or injured. In this subcamp Königssee there were, according to the survivors, no abuse or killings. The SS staff and the commanding officer apparently behaved correctly. The social reality of the prisoners thus showed that they were much better than in the main camp in Dachau.

                                                   

                                                                           Königssee

Shortly before the dissolution of the camp three prisoners escaped: Andreas Baier was however again taken on 4 November 1944. After his capture, he had been sent back to Dachau, but  had to sew the ESCAPE Patch on all his clothing and would thus be treated differently from other prisoners. The others, Heinrich Weigand and Bertram Buchheit were apprehended while they run into a check-point at  Berchtesgarden and taken into the local jail, and on January 11, 1945, returned to the overcrowded Stammlager -Dachau. Their fate is unknown, [but server punishment was meted out, especially against escapees.sic]
. A decision of the Central Office in Ludwigsburg to investigate the case, opened in 1969, but was terminated in 1979 without results.

Author German Text: Gabriele Hammermann


KOTTERN

The Dachauer sub-camp Kottern in the district Kempten (Allgäu) existed from the 1st October 1943 until the 27th April 1945. The prisoners came from numerous European countries. The survivors of the camp came mainly from Italy and Poland as well as from Yugoslavia and Latvia. At first the prisoners were housed in the 'Stiefel' guest house, then in a former spinning mill and weaving mill,which were the property of  Messerschmitt, which they set aside for disposal. Not until the beginning of 1944 were they in the actual camp in Kottern-Weidach, within the  municipality of Durach, in barracks, which they had to build themselves. The camp is said to have had an average of 750 prisoners. The former camp leader estimated the number of detainees to be 700 and later up  to 1,000. According to the report of Dachau's Strength Report from  April 3, 1945  751 prisoners were in the camp, but had at least 588 people a few days before liberation.


                                     Kottern - Allgäu -Bavaria
The picture Himmelberg was uploaded and shared by user HeleneT on panoramio.com




The prisoners wee employed in the Messerschmitt factory and at Kemper (workshop for tanks and combat vehicles in Kottern-Weidach.) In July 1944 the Messerschmitt factory was bombed, which affected the camp as well.

The camp commander was SS- First Sergeant Fritz Wilhelm, who was killed in action near Budapest - Hungary in March 1945, then came SS-First Lieutenant Georg Deffner, who changed from Kempten to Kottern. When he was relieved, the SS First Sergeant Edmund Zdrojewski, who came from Thorn, became a camp leader from February 1945 onward s. He had served in KZ-Mauthausen and in 1943 served as deputy camp leader of the Jewish forced labour camp Krakau-Plaszo.
Compared to the sub camp Kempten, conditions were much poorer in Kottern. Even the former camp commandant Deffner admitted after the war that the accommodation was "no longer quite sufficient".

Some prisoners also became victims of the arbitrariness of the guards. Prisoners were reportedly humiliated and beaten because of  attempted escape,s after recapture and returned to the camp they received their punishments and often died from he severity. Others are said to have been forced to stand at attention (Strafstehen) in the winter's cold and have died during the transfer back to Dachau.

In the case of Kottern-Weidach, the Registrar of Durach,recorded two dead prisoners from the camp, the student Adrian van de Ven, who died on September 16, 1944, furthermore according to information from SS-Sturmmann Kroha, also the former policeman Mario Comini who died on 15 October 1944, both apparently of the flu. [As the Registrar is the official of the 'Standesamt', one can assume the dead were buried in a local cemetery,sic]  The former Camp Commander Deffner had a list prepared for the sub camp Kottern-Weidach. durig 1953 of the deceased for the period from 1 February 1943 to 20 April 1945, which shows a total of 17 deaths. The dead were brought back to KZ-Dachau by autumn 1944 and then buried in a cemetery near Fahls. In addition, many inmates were transferred to Dachau for their incapacity to work or illness. For example, a transport on the 7 September 1944 had 87 prisoners returned.  
                                                     Picture of Durach

  On April 14, 1945, 60 prisoners from Munich-Allach were taken to Kottern, on April 29, 1945 35 prisoners from the sub-camp fishing after Kottern. From April 25, 1945 the camp was evacuated, and the prisoners marched towards the Alps for three days, until American troops freed in Pfronten.

Before an American military court in Dachau, the former camp commandant, Deffner, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on February 11, 1947, for his participation in criminal offenses at sub-camps Kempten, Kottern and Kaufering. German investigations, which began in the 1970s, were stopped without charges, because the witnesses often knew the deeds only by hearsay. Detected members of the security team - who no longer were air force service personnel (Luftwaffe) and had been affiliated to the Waffen-SS - contested the killings of prisoners. No other possible perpetrators could be identified.

On the site of the former sub-camp lies the residential settlement of  Weidach, at the church of St.Joseph reminds a stele initiated by pupils to the former camp.
Enter picture of Waidach


Author German Text: Edith Raim

Sources/Acknowledgements

Wikipedia

Der Ort des Terrors Pages 375-

Vol 2 C.H.Beck, München 2005

Translated from German by:

Herbert Stolpmann von Waldeck

Design:d-stolpmann@gmail.com

                                                  Sub Camp Kaufering can be viewed under:        http://dachaukz.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/prologue-dachau-kz-satellite-camp.html

                                                                   Appendix 




EDMUND ZDROJEWSKI
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edmund Zdrojewski (born August 24, 1915 in Thorn, † 30 October 1948 in Krakow) was a German SS leader and was active in various concentration camps. After the Second World War he was sentenced to death and hanged.

                                                                                                
Zdrojewski began his camp service in the Upper Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen and from 1943 worked as deputy camp leader in the Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow. In November 1944, he replaced  the SS Camp Commandant Wilhelm Wagner, as the camp leader of the Riederloh sub camp which was sub ordunate to the Dachau concentration camp, at Kaufbeuren. From February 1945 he was the camp commander of the sub camp Kottern-Weidach near Kempten until its llibertion by the  Anerican Army.






THE TRIAL

In post-war Poland, 16 SS members of the camp personnel of the Plaszow concentration camp and six SS members of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau were prosecuted in one of several trials. The County Court of Krakow condemned the deputy camp leader of the Plaszow concentration camp Edmund Zdrojewski (responsible for Jewish prisoners) and Lorenz Landstorfer (responsible for Polish prisoners) and Ferdinand Glaser on 23 January 1948 because of war crimes to death by hanging. The other defendants were imprisoned between one and fifteen years. One defendant was released. The three death sentences were carried out on 30 October 1948.


In his book on Amon Leopold Göth, the commander and butcher of Plaszow, Edmund Zdroyevsky, Johannes Sachslehner reckons, they were  the hard core of the killers around Göth. It is said, to have feared Gorth, and at the same time had been in his power.

(Correction made to Wikipedias text made by HKS 1.12.2016)

                                                                                      Continued under Part 10




                                                                                          
                                                                                                                 
                                                  

DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS - , Alphabetical Order K Part 8

                                        

                                            DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS - PART 8
,                                                               Alphabetical Order

                                                                             K

KARLSFELD

The first mention of the sub-camp Karlsfeld OT (Organization Todt) dates in the International Search Service in Arolsen as at  1 July 1944. Some barracks in the nearest area of the sub-camp Munich-Allach were separated and became then an independent camp under the designation 'OT-Camp Karlsfeld '. On July 17, 1944, SS-Hauptscharführer Johann Kastner took over the supervision of the sub-camp as Camp Leader. He remained in this position until the 20th August 1944, before moving to Kaufering, camp XI. His successor at Karlsfeld was SS-Hauptscharführer Leonhard Meyer, who was sent to Mühldorf in February 1945. The camp management of the last months until liberation is unknown.

                                          

                                         Memorial depicting KZ_Inmates at Karlsfeld

The former prisoner Max Mannheimer recalls a commanding officer, Jäntzsch, who was characterized by particular cruelty when he turned a shepherd dog on prisoners. Albert Büchl was also a temporary commander. No details are known about the OT members who supervised the construction work of this subcamp. Like Munich-Allach (Rotschweige), Karlsfeld OT was a subcamp of the Allacher camp complex and belonged to the camp commander of the subcamps Allach (BMW).
   Johann Kastner stated after the war that an average of 750 prisoners, mainly Jews from Romania and Hungary, were imprisoned in Karlsfeld. The majority of the prisoners worked on the repair of bomb damaged railway tracks at Karlsfeld station. Other detainees were used for bunker construction for BMW Komando Sager & Woerner, where the most difficult working conditions prevailed.  The prisoners of this 'death squad' had to leave the camp at five o'clock in the morning before the general roll-call had started, to the construction site, about  three to four kilometers away, and returned to the subcamp only after 7 pm. On the construction site, 50 kg heavy cement bags had to be carried at running pace (Laufschritt), gravel dug out  and the concrete mixer operated. Meyer, the camp leader, drove a vigorous and laboriously exhausting method with weakened prisoners.
   Particularly feared among the prisoners was, besides camp leader Meyer, the camp Kapo Christoph Knoll, who particularly struck Jewish prisoners viciously. In addition to Kapos, a list of names dated 12th August 1944 mentions 22 functionaries. Camp Elder was Willi Schulz but only temporarily in this position. The prisoner Ernst Landau remembers the medical team of: Dr. Hermann Kessler, Dr. Imre Wirtmann, Dr. Johann Sander and Dr. Vilmos Barszony. Kapo in the Medical Center was Ludwig Meyerhofer. The camp-clerk  was Waldimir Pirnath and his deputy, abducted from Romania Dr. Elemer Deutsch. Work-assignment clerk was Zoltan Friedmann. Some of these mentioned were Jews.

                                               

                                                         Karlsfeld, as it appears now

  Especially in the working group Sager & Woerner, as well as in railway construction, prisoners died because of the severe working conditions and the mistreatment by the guards or Kapos. Between 18 September 1944 and 22 November 1944, 36 dead prisoners were returned from Karlsfeld to Dachau. The transfer lists also provides information that prisoners were transferred to the KZ-Dachau. In the autumn of 1944, While a 'selection' was taken place of sick and incapacitated inmates, who were deported to be exterminated at Auschwitz.. In February 1945 a further 120 to 150 prisoners were selected, whose whereabouts are unknown. Detailed information on the deaths of subcamp Karlsfeld is not available. In the camp Allach, Stefan Lason stated after the war that the deaths of the camp complex Allach were listed as being transferred to Dachau, and therefore the death rate was deliberately kept low. This coincides with the evaluation of the entry and exit book of the KZ-Dachau of March 1945, according to which less than 20 deaths were recorded.

                                              

                                                  Liberation of Allach Concentration Camp

   On the 2th November 1944, 1046 female prisoners were detained at the subcamp in Karlsfeld as reported in the Dachau satellite commando listing. Two days later these women were transferred into the KZ-Ravensbrück. It remains unclear whether the women were actually in Karlsfeld, or whether this is a confusion with the camp Rotschweige, near Dachau. As to this  confusion, it was stated that women prisoners had already been accommodated there since 19 June 1944, and the females were not occupied again in Karlsfeld until 11 April 1945. On April 11, 1945, a transport with 191 women from the Natzweiler sub camp in Geislingen arrived in Karlsfeld. These female prisoners no longer came there to work at all.
   Like others, the sub camp Allach (BMW), and Karlsfeld was the target of transporting prisoners from other evacuated camps in the last stages of the war. On the 20th April 1945 {Hitler's birthday, he must have been happy,sic] for example, the inmates of the subcamp Überlingen were relocated into the overcrowded camp Karlsfeld. On April 25, some of the prisoners were evacuated by rail in a southerly direction (without any particular destination) however, the transport was freed on 1 May in Staltach by American Troops.

                                               

                                                                       Staltach , Germany

Camp Leader Leonard Meyer was sentenced to life imprisonment in the context of the Dachau trials in 1947 and discharged on 16 February 1962. Johann Kastner was sentenced to death, but already released in 1950. Christopher Kmoll was sentenced to death in the Dachauer Hauptverfahren (Main Trials)  in 1945 and hanged in Landsberg on 29 May 1946. In 1975, the central office in Ludwigsburg determined offenses against the former Kapo Josef Zepf, which was discontinued in 1977.

View YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4WZuJvNSv8

Authors German Text: Alvert Knoll/Sabine Schalm

KAUFBEUREN

The subcamp for men Kaufbeuren (Allgau), had an average of 300 prisoners, and was first mentioned on 23 May 1944. They came from Reichs Derutschland , Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Soviet Union and other countries. On 3 April 1945 there were 327 prisoners in the camp. It was probably im April 1945 that the camp was cleared, This meant that between the  26th and 29th April 1945 the number of prisoners was down to only 21. Most of the prisoners were evacuated by train in the direction of Munich-Allach in the middle of April 1945, and some of them were still forced to make their way through the Bavarian Oberland on the death march

                                             

                                                                    Kaufbeuren-Germany

The camp was located on the factory premises of a spinning mill, on the 4th floor, the complex was surrounded by a two meter high barbed wire fence, which  had been erected when the building was planned to keep prisoners. The detainees were accommodated in two hall-like rooms, which contained wooden sleeping bunks , three bunks high, for four prisoners in each. There was a ward with eight beds, which was cared for by a male  medical nurse, and also temporarily a prison physician. The functionary prisoners were all Reichsdeutsche (Germans), Camp Elder from September 1944 was the German-speaking Polish prisoner Kurt Brenner, who had been imprisoned at the KZ-Dachau since 1942. One of the Block Elders was Heinrich Baer. Some prisoners had previously been imprisoned in subcamp Allach or were sent back there after their term of  imprisonment in Kaufbeuren had been completed. Most of the prisoners were used by BMW and produced engine crank shafts for aircrafts during  day and night shifts. Approximately 30 prisoners also worked at the Swabian timber company in Kaufbeuren, while 20 prisoners were engaged in the kitchen and administration of the daily camp essentials..
   Deaths were not known in the sub cmp Kaufbeuren. Baer, the former most prominent Block Elder, gave this statement after the war. Theft from comrades, however, were punished by beatings; These execution of the sentence was then reported to the main camp in Dachau. The camp leader was the SS-Untersturmführer Wilhelm Becker, who was born in Holshausen. Former prisoners did not charge him any offences
   Near towards the end of the war in April 1945  made  it possible and easier for some detainees to flee from the camp with the help of foreign workers and civilians. For example, on April 18, 1945, eight prisoners were reported as absconded from  Kaufbeuren. In the course of the systematic verification of concentration camps as such, , the central office of the Landesjutiz administration from 1969 also determined the subcamp Kaufbeuren. Intentional detainee disturbances were not established.
 The building in which the sub camp was located now serves again as a factory.

Author German Text: Edith Raim

Sources/Acknowledgements

Wikipedia

Der Ort des Terrors Pages 357-

Vol 2 C.H.Beck, München 2005

Translated from German by:

Herbert Stolpmann von Waldeck

Design:d-stolpmann@gmail.com

                                                         Continued under Part 9: