Concentration camp external command Valepp Jagdhaus Himmler

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The concentration camp external command Valepp Jagdhaus Himmler existed from November 1, 1942 to November 30, 1942 and from September 16, 1944 in Valepp (municipality of Schliersee ). The work detail consisted of prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp and was one of the Dachau satellite camps . It was used to convert a former customs house into Heinrich Himmler's hunting lodge .

Geographical location

The Valepp settlement is located south of the Spitzingsee in Upper Bavaria on the border with Austria. Until the 1930s it consisted mainly of a forester's house with a guesthouse and outbuildings, as well as a winter room for woodcutters, a house for the hunters and a chapel slightly above. A few hundred meters further south was the Ochsenalm. Between this and the chapel, the Reichsbauamt built three customs service residential buildings on a level area in 1937.

Conversion of the building

When Austria was " annexed " to the German Reich in March 1938, the customs houses were no longer needed. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler owned a private house in Gmund am Tegernsee and sometimes went hunting in the nearby mountains. He became aware of the unused customs houses and intended to have them converted into a hunting lodge for his needs. For this purpose, the building inspection of the Waffen-SS and Police, Reich Süd, located on the premises of the Dachau concentration camp, requested the plan for the middle of the three customs service residential buildings from the Miesbach district office by telephone in autumn 1942 . The plan was to install an additional chimney for Himmler, to cover three roofs with wooden shingles, to install a sewer system and an improved driveway, as well as general renovation and conversion work.

Work commitment of the prisoners

Prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were used for the work. Initially intended were mainly prisoners from the group of Bible Students (today Jehovah's Witnesses), who had already proven themselves in the construction of a villa for concentration camp commandant Hans Loritz in St. Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang in Austria. Because this work assignment was considered a “good” work detachment, the political prisoners in the “work assignment” department ensured that people in their group were more involved.

A detachment consisting of 20 prisoners carried out the first work in November 1942, until the onset of winter at the beginning of December made it impossible to continue. The continuation of the work by mainly Polish prisoners began in June 1943 and dragged on until the end of August of the same year. A third labor assignment with ten prisoners can be proven for mid-September 1944. This command was replaced on October 5th, because at a social get-together between the SS guards and women employed in the forester's lodge, a Polish prisoner tolerated the soldiers and asked to dance, which was forbidden at the time. The whole group was brought back to the Dachau camp and locked in the camp prison for 6 weeks. The Pole received an additional 25 blows with the stick. In exchange, a group consisting mainly of Bible Students was brought in to complete the work. The renovation work was completed at the end of October.

The prisoners were housed on the upper floor of the winter parlor, the guards usually consisting of four to five SS men on the ground floor. This building was on the site of today's parking lot. The treatment of the prisoners was tolerable, the security very lax.

Post war history

Training center of the THW

Heinrich Himmler used the hunting lodge very rarely. It was demolished in 2000, and another of the original three buildings was demolished in 2003. The remainder has so far been used by the Technical Relief Organization as a training center and rest home.

Neither the Valepp forester's lodge nor the last of the former customs service buildings are reminded of the forced labor of the concentration camp inmates.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Federal Ministry of Justice : Directory of the concentration camps and their external commandos in accordance with Section 42 (2) BEG No. 1508, Valepp, Miesbach district, construction management, November 1, 1942 to November 30, 1942 and from September 16, 1944, external command of the concentration camp Dachau
  2. ^ Prisoners' statements, Federal Archives Ludwigsburg - BA-Ludw. IV 410 AR 1214/69 sheet 41 Statement by Paul Respondek
  3. ↑ Report of changes in the labor deployment of the Dachau concentration camp with the note: From the external command RF-SS Valepp to the Akdo. Fischbachau transferred, October 23, 1944: 9 names - Archive of the Dachau Memorial Site - DaA 35,675, sheet 165.

Coordinates: 47 ° 36 ′ 51 ″  N , 11 ° 53 ′ 44 ″  E