Artern subcamp

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The satellite camp Artern in Artern was a satellite camp initially the Buchenwald concentration camp , from the end of December 1944 the Mittelbau assigned. From November 20, 1944 to April 6, 1945, the camp was used for around 254 male concentration camp prisoners (end of December 1944). This subcamp of the Mittelbau camp complex was run by the camp SS under the name "Adorf" or "Rebstock neu".

Function of the camp and prisoners

From the end of August 1944, hundreds of concentration camp prisoners from the underground Buchenwald subcamp Rebstock were deployed to the Gollnow und Sohn company, which operated under the code name Geyer und Sohn. The work initially included the construction of a production plant for the production of floor parts and later electrical components for the V2 . Due to the war, at the end of 1944 the production facilities, the specialist staff and the prisoners were relocated from Dernau in the Ahr Valley to Artern in the “Goldene Aue” malt factory and the Kyffhäuserhütte. Up to 350 prisoners were initially temporarily housed in a sports hall and then in newly built concentration camp barracks . Due to the course of the war, there was no longer any series production. At least 40 prisoners died during the camp, probably more.

The camp was headed by SS-Oberscharführer Karl Schmidt , previously camp manager in the Laura subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. His deputy was SS-Unterscharführer Hans Klerch , who had previously worked in the Auschwitz concentration camp .

Final phase of the Artern subcamp

Between April 4 and the night of April 6, 1945, the Artern satellite camp was evacuated with several death marches towards Czechoslovakia and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . The number of prisoners who perished after the camp was closed is unknown. The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by Allied troops on April 15, 1945 . Further prisoners from the Adorf subcamp were released by partisans on May 8, 1945 on the Czech-Austrian border.

literature

  • Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp 1943-1945 Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition in the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0118-4 .
  • Jens Christian Wagner: Artern subcamp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 7: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 .
  • Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89244-439-0 .
  • Uli Jungbluth : Miracle weapons in the Rebstock concentration camp. Forced labor in the Rebstock camps in Dernau / Rhineland-Palatinate and Artern / Thuringia in the service of V-weapons . Rhein-Mosel-Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-929745-65-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943-1945 . Göttingen 2007, p. 183.
  2. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death , Wallstein Verlag, 2nd edition 2004 ( ISBN 978-3892444398 ), page 263
  3. ^ A b Jens Christian Wagner: Artern satellite camp. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The Place of Terror - History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , Volume 7. Munich 2008, p. 291.


Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 50 ″  N , 11 ° 18 ′ 28 ″  E