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