DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS - PART 10 Alphabetical Order, L
DACHAU KZ - SATELLITE CAMPS - PART 10
Alphabetical Order
L
LANDSHUT
From September 1944 to the end of April 1945 there existed a sub camp of KZ-Dachau in Landshut (Niederbayern ). On the 1st September 1944, a construction team from Berlin , part of the organization Todt (OT) consisting of 60 men came to Landshut to clear the undeveloped site of the " Small parade ground " ,to build a supply depot for the Wehrmacht.
In the winter of 1944-45, a sub-camp for about 500 mostly Jewish prisoners was built, but separated from the OT camp, between Dieselstrasse and Siemensstrasse in today's industrial area, from a type of corrugated iron suitable as accommodation barracks. The inmates were used to work in the OT camp. The prisoners leveled the terrain, built roads, buildings and a railway connection to the railway network of the Reichsbahn. After air raids, the detainees performed cleanup work. At meals they received a three-pound loaf of bread for 15 men per day and a pound of margarine for 34 man per day. In the morning and in the evening there was a cup of coffee, and at midday a thin watery soup.
Landshut City
The guard team was set up from an SS unit, which was housed in a barrack right next to the camp. The camp leader was SS-Hauptscharführer Stoller, his deputy SS-Unterscharführer Henschel, who distinguished himself by his special brutality against the prisoners. According to a former prisoner Henschel beat the prisoner Walter Bär in January/February 1945 because of a minor offense in the laundry room with with an electrical cable end so that he died four weeks later from the injury he had suffered. He also beat Hugo Kozen with a belt-buckle (Koppelscloss) and kicked him with footsteps that he died there after his transfer back to Dachau on 22 April 1945.
In the few months a large number of prisoners died of illness and exhaustion. A part was killed suring air raids. In the mornings, the dead were driven by prisoners to on a horse cart tothe cemetery of Achdorf with and buried in mass graves at the outside of the the cemetery wall. A memorial tablet reminds that there 83 Jews died in the Landshut camp. In November 1961 the dead were exhumed and buried at the KZ- Honour Cemetery (Ehrenfriedhof) in Flossenbürg.
A few days before the arrival of American troops in Landshut on 1 May 1945, the guards left the camp on foot with the prisoners. The central office in Ludwigsburg of the Justice Administration undertook proceedings against Henschel, but had to stop their aim because the defendant could no longer be identified.
The Eduard Leiss paint factory and the Emslander furniture factory took over the halls of the OT after the war and rebuilt it to suit their requirements.
Author German Text: Georg Spitzlberger
LANDSBERG
The subcamp Landsberg of the KZ-Dachau existed from 14 July 1944 to 24 April 1945. It was not one of the eleven camps of the Kaufering complex of the KZ-Dachau. Neither should it be confused with the Landsberg DAG, which was a sub-command of the Kaufering complex. The camp was on the Fliegerhorst (Airfield) Penzing near Landsberg on the Lech and was therefore also known under the name Penzig or Fliegerhorst Penzig. The prisoners worked there for Dornier and Messerschmitt in the production of wing spans for fighter planes
Fliegerhorst Penzig
The Intake and Release Book contains 647 names, of which were about 400 Frenchmen who were assigned the Dachau prisoners' numbers from 72,000 to 74,000. The report of a former prisoner and laborer in the camp, Professor Albert Fuchs, shows that these were political prisoner who had been transported from France to Dachau in the spring of 1944. After the quarantine in Dachau, the first transport to the sub camps of Landsberg, d indicates 350 people, of which 330 were of French nationality, and had been placed in a gym on the Fliegerhorst Penzig. Later, Polish and Russians were also included with the prison numbers over 44,000. Fuchs reported that on April 8, 1945, about 200 prisoner arrived from evacuated camps to Penzig, above all, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians, as well as ten Frenchmen. There were also some isolated Jews among these transfers. The newly arrived prisoners were in a very bad condition of health. According to Fuchs, they compared the camp Penzig with other camps they had been in, as luxurious, because the prisoners had their own individual beds and no vermin. At the end of April 1945 there were still 429 prisoners present, with between 259 and 350 people up to the end of the war. 232 out of the total of 647 prisoners who had been transferred to Landsberg were brought back to Dachau because of illness or for interrogation, and some succeededeven to escape.
The guard platoon consisted of former members of the armed forces (Wehrmacht). The first camp leader, whose nam is not known, was in the camp until October 1944. According to Albert Fuchs, he was transferred to a camp of the Kaufering complex. The second camp leader was replaced after only a few weeks due to Work absences . The third leader was SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Wagner. Wagner had probably been transferred to Landsberg from the Dachauer sub camp Riederloh at the end of November 1944. He was one of the defendants in the Dachauer Processesl. After the death sentence which was passed on 13 December 1945, he was executed on 29 May 1946 in Landsberg am Lech.
He did did ask for mercy to commute his death sentence to life in prison and wrote the following:
"It is true that I have repeatedly beaten prisoners during my work, but only if they had committed any offense. I have never reported to punish them, and I know that they would have received much tougher penalties than my ears. This I have saved the lives of many prisoners''
He offered also to the sentenced to death, concentration camp doctor Claus Shilling to ask for its malaria trials. However, this gift of grace, supported by his wife and his mother, who had now been separated from him, was not accepted. The sentence was on May 29, 1946 in prison for war criminals Landsberg enforced
SS-man Wilhelm Wagner
in American internment. Recording from 1945
Under Wagner's leadership the working conditions and well being conditions of the prisoners deteriorated considerably. The workload and the working hours were prolonged, work output was monitored more closely, premiums decreased, and the commandos returned from their assignment to the camp were strictly searched. Nevertheless, the conditions in Landsberg were comparatively good. Murder, ill-treatment with consequently death and hunger did not belong to the experiences of the prisoners of this camp. However, the severe working conditions and the severe cold led to illness among the prisoners. According to Fuchs, there were only 250 prisoners in Penzing at the end of the year 1944/45. 80 had been sent to Dachau due to illness. The Red Cross packages, which arrived in the camp at the end of 1944 and early 1945, provided relief.
At the end of April 1945 the prisoners were taken to the collection center of the Kauferinger camp complexes,where they were attached in the march to Munich-Allach and Dachau.
On the Fliegerhorst Penzing of today, on whose territory the camp Landsberg was located, nothing reminds nothing reminds us of the sub camp that once stood there.
Author German Text: Edith Raim
LAUINGEN
Lauingen - view of city
The first detainees reached Lauingen in May 1944 and were first placed in the cellar of a production building of the firm Ködl & Böhm factory. In August, a further 300 prisoners came to Lauingen, which were "quartered" in the factory complex of Ernst Feller. The hygienic conditions were catastrophic, since there was no washing facilities for the prisoners, soon a lice epidemic did spread quickly. Because of the bad accommodation situation at the beginning of 1945, some barracks were built at Birkackerhof on the road Lauingen-Wittislingen, where all Lauinger prisoners were accommodated. The new camp was The camp commanders could not be found without a doubt. The prisoners remembered the name of the first commander 'Bautz', who was responsible until August 1944. However, he could not be identified as much as his successors 'Bessler' and 'Beck' in the course of the public prosecution. The supervision of the workplace was the responsibility of civilian masters. Because of allegedly inadequate work performance, one of them, Georg Brummer, was said to have mistreated prisoners. The Kapo of the Armory Factory Max Knoll as well as Walter Herderich, who was imprisoned as a criminal, were especially feared.surrounded by a brick wall; it was not secured by the usual electrical barbed wire and had no watchtowers
A total of 300 male prisoners worked in Lauingen. Among them, there were only a few Germans, most of them were 'professional criminals'. Almost half of the prisoners came from the Soviet Union. The division of labor took place in two twelve-hour shifts from six o'clock to 6 pm and from 8 o'clock to 6 o'clock. There were thus two working commandos. Approximately 60 per cent of the prisoners worked in the fabrication of aircraft components. The other prisoners were suffering from more severe working conditions. They were used in a barracks building commando at the Birkackerhof, and had first to march a daily distance of four to five kilometers to arrive at this place. On the other hand, they stood at the "pumping station" up to their knees in the water and had to drain water trenches. Selections of the exhausted men took place here. Those who were no longer able to work were killed in Lauingen according to the testimony of a survivor. (Statement, Stanislaw K., 23 January 1970, in Ludwigsburg, ZSt.IV410 AR 704/69).
The camp commanders could not be found without doubts. The prisoners remembered the name of the first commander 'Bautz', who was responsible until August 1944. However, he could not be identified as much as his successors 'Bessler' and 'Beck' in the course of any public prosecution. The supervision of the workplace was the responsibility of civilian professional masters (Meister) . Because of allegedly inadequate work performance, one of them, Georg Brummer, was said to have mistreated prisoners. The Kano of the Armory Factory Max Knoll as well as the Block Elder Walter Herderich, who was imprisoned as a criminal, were especially feared by the inmates.
The supply and provision of food is reported differently by survivors. Predominantly it was a catastrophe situation as described by them, so that some prisoners developed a hunger edema. Meat with noodles were occasionally served on Saturday and Sunday. Often they received only food that had been poor and foul. A complaint by the prisoners was supposed to have been carried out, and the camp commander introduced improvements.
The medical care of the prisoners was not done by SS doctors, but by the local physician Dr. Felix Kircher who was not familiar with the rules for the sick KZ-prisoners, he treated some patients in his private practice and took seriously ill inmates into the Lauinger hospital. When this was reported to the camp administration in Dachau, which resulted with an immediate ban on his treatment and the arrangement, of the establishment of a hospital in the sub camp Lauingen. The inmate doctor was then Fritz Barth, who also worked as a civilian in this profession. Serious prisoners were transported back to Dachau from now on. An X-ray study showed that almost ten percent of prisoners were sick. The TB patients were also transported to Dachau and subsequently, all new intakes were x-rayed to prevent infections of the healthy.
X-ray performance (Röntgen-Aufname)
On March 6, 1945, a transport with 380 prisoners from Bergen-Belsen arrived in Lauingen, but every tenth could only be registered as dead. The transport had started on 25th February with about 600 persons and was heavily hit during the destruction of Würzburg by US bombers Two thirds of the prisoners were killed. For ten days the prisoners did not get anything to eat or drink. Subsequently, a number of prisoners died of intestinal catarrh and debilitating. Dr. Kircher reported this to the health department, which led to his interrogation by the criminal police (Kriminal Polizei). The local Camp-SS informed the doctor that he had to cease his activities he done for them so far.
Shortly after the doctors departure, a typhus fever epidemic broke out in the camp. Many prisoners fell victim to it. There are no exact indications of the number of deaths. However, at the Lauingen cemetery, 62 detainees were buried, the number of dead was more likely about 100. In addition, there was the monthly sick-leave transport to Dachau, each with 50 detainees,who had a very low rate of survival.
Not only the physician Dr. Kircher, but also the employees of the company Ködel & Böhm were not indifferent about the fate of the prisoners. When shortly after the erection of the camp it became clear that the prisoners frequently and before all eyes were beaten by Kapos and SS-Personal, there was a strong protest from the civilian workforce, so the beatings were stopped on the companies premises. When a prisoner was hanged in Lauingen after an escape attempt, the company's staff protested, so that from then on, no executions were carried out in Lauingen.
St. Johannes Church - Lauingen
On the 12th of April the camp was dissolved. The prisoners had to march to Augsburg, where they were used for ten days to build anti-tank trenches. The reports here diverge in dealing with the fate of other prisoners. Some detainees reported that they had been transported to Donauwörth and had been bombed there, while others stated that they were liberated by the Americans in Meiningen near Augsburg. Finally, prisoners reported of a transport that went in different directions and ended up in Dachau.
The public prosecution was stopped in October 1978 because no responsible perpetrator could be identified. A memorial plaque is located on the outer wall of the church of the former cemetery of St. John.
Authors German Text:Albert Knoll/Zdenek Zofka
LIEBHOF
In the immediate vicinity of the Dachau Protective Camp, next to the Plantage and the Estate (Gut) Pollnhof of the German Research Center for Nutrition and Food, the farm Liebhof was located between today's Jakob Kaiser- and the Fünfkirchnerstrasse. About 800 prisoners worked in the management of a large 750 hectares plot. The prisoners returned to the camp at noon for lunch and in the evening to sleep in their quarters. They were guarded by a frequently different detachment of 30 SS members, who were deployed to the Liebhof for easy guarding duties after release from a hospital during their convalescence. Commander-in-Chief was SS-Sturmbannführer Moose and after him a not very well-known individual, by he name of Müller.
Six prisoners were living in a barrack at Liebhof and did not return to the main camp daily. They are still known by their names and came from Poland, Austria and the German Reich. The exact date of the opening of the sub-camp at the Liebhof can not to be verified. It is known by one prisoner that since summer, probably since July 1942, he has been lodged at Liebhof. The prisoners of this camp were mainly used in the agriculture sector, or used to transport coal, gravel or agricultural products with a horse-drawn cart to the Dachau railway station.
Dachau Railway Station
In the Dachauer trials, an SS-Wachmann announced in 1946 that the prisoners had to work in the morning from 7 am to 11.30 am and after lunch from 1 pm to 4.30 pm. Many detainees had made an under-nourished impression on him.
The sub-camp Liebhof existed, according to the strength of the KZ-Dachau, up to 26 April 1945. On the same day, 15 prisoners from the Stammlager (Main Camp) fled under the pretext to fetch from the Liebhof potato dishes. On the same evening, the 15 prisoners hid in an estate opposite the Estate (Gutshof)f on the Würmstrasse. The six prisoners of the sub-camp from Liebhof first joined the other escapees and procured civilian clothes. . They remained on the estate on the Würmstrasse, while the 15 other prisoners left for Mittendorf. On 28 April the former Liebhofer prisoners fell into the Dachauer 'Aufstand' {Revolt), during which the town hall was occupied and the insurrection which had been bloodily crushed by the SS troops. They were, however, not among the six prisoners who were killed. Today on the building on the site of the former Gutshof (Estate) are two residential blocks.
[The last paragraph should be read in the context of events taking place at that time, as American troops were already operating within the vicinity of Dachau and liberated the camp as such on April 29th 1945, the SS-guards proper about 1,000 (plus) with their families had already left for Tyrol - Austria, in the vacuum created, left wing elements including sOME KZ escapees tried to take control of the municipal administration. Literature, read:Hans Holzhaider: 'Die sieben vom Rathausplatz' Nünchen 1982,page 9f: sic]
.Author German Text: Sabine Schalm
LOCHAU
The camp Lochau near Bregenz was opened according to the official documents on April 7, 1945, and existed only for three weeks until the liberation on 27 April 1945. According to witness statements there were however already in March 1945 prisoners in attendance. It is the only sub-camp to have practiced in the Austrian province of Voralberg. The camp was located in an old brewery and is described as an empty, multi-story old building. The accommodation was arranged in a large hall on the upper floor of the brewery. The number of prisoners was between eight and twenty, mainly Yugoslavs, Slovenes, Poles and Germans. Among them, according to reports of prisoners,was a medical professor, an engineer, and an Argentine consul. In the Stammlager Dachau, a Pectin Test Station was set up in Block 5, Room 4. This entire laboratory of the station and the prisoners working there were transported by rail to Lochau, where the detainees were to continue the research work to obtain the blood stilling agent 'Polygal' in tablet form. The prisoners consisted of the transport personal for the laboratory equipment, carpentry work for the laboratory to establish a working room, for the continuation of the production of Petcin from beet residues. It had never been used on human experiments with the use of blood stools, as the prisoners had allegedly refused this process. The laboratory could only partially built in that short period. The location offered a certain freedom of movement which enabled the inmates contact with Polish Forced Labourers, who were able to provide them with additional food rations.
The building was not fenced with barbed wire, as normally was the case, where prisoners were housed in any number. [Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot. Wikipedia]
Lochau city
The commander was the 39-year-old doctor and SS -Sturnbannführer Kurt Friedrich Plötner, who had already performed in the Dachau base camp and Schlachter's in experiments with Petcin. The Austrian KZ-prisoner Robert Feix, was in Schlachters his Assistant. Plötner was not supposed to have behaved in a humane manner, so that the prisoners were not spared his abuse. The guard team consisted of five older SS men, who, however, fled except for one of them from advancing allied troops. Four Yugoslav detainees were also able to flee to Schlachters in the last few days, according to a prisoner, where a resistance group had been formed there. After a few days Plötner hid the equipment in the nearby village and had gone two to three days later to another nearby village before the arrival of the French troops, where he remained until his arrest. The actual liberation, [if you can call it that sic], took place on 30 April or 1 May 1945. Some prisoners remained in Lochau for another two to four weeks until their passports were ready to return to their home countries. Due to the collaboration with Plötner, Feix was arrested by the allied authorities in March 1946.
[After the end of the Second World War Feix was arrested by the Allies in March 1946 because of the cooperation with Plötner. [2] Between Feix and the brothers Scheinberger, the long legal dispute was concluded in 1952, with the result that Feix recaptured all the companies which were connected with Opekta, but lost its shares in the Pomosinwerke. ,Ref.: Wehttp://wikivisually.com/lang-de/wiki/Robert_Feix]
In the course of the investigation in 1973, the names of 13 prisoners were identified and six of them had been interviewed. Their statements are the most important sources of the events in the sub-camp Lochau. In 1970, the public prosecutor's office in Munich undertook proceedings against Plötner, who after the war had first disappeared but had lived under the cover name 'Schmidt' in northern Germany, he became an assistant professor at the University of Freiburg in 1952 and two years later extraordinary (ausseordentlicher) professor of medicine.
Author German Text: Albert Knoll
Sources/Acknowledgements
Wikipedia
Der Ort des Terrors Pages 378-
Vol 2 C.H.Beck, München 2005
Translated from German by:
Herbert Stolpmann von Waldeck
Design:d-stolpmann@gmail.comcontinued under Part 11
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