Ganacker subcamp
The Ganacker subcamp in der Erlau was a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp from February 20, 1945 to April 24, 1945. The concentration camp was named after the prisoners' location, the Landau -Ganacker airfield , Lower Bavaria .
In 1938 the Flossenbürg concentration camp in the northern Upper Palatinate was turned over to be used as a labor camp. In 1939 it was designed for around 3,000 prisoners and expanded accordingly. The main camp Flossenbürg were later organizationally subordinate to around 100 subcamps. In the Ganacker subcamp, north of Landau an der Isar, prisoners were housed who were supposed to carry out projects that were important to the war effort, mainly the expansion and maintenance of an air base.
Whether the subcamp was opened at the end of 1944 according to statements made by locals or not until February 21, 1945 according to records, has not been definitively clarified. It was initially housed on the grounds of the Landau-Ganacker airfield. A fighter squadron was stationed there. A new concrete runway had to be built for the Me 262 to operate .
When the air raids increased, the satellite camp was relocated to Erlau, about 2 km as the crow flies from the airfield, near Wallersdorf . The Erlau is a near-natural deciduous forest west of Wallersdorf. The warehouse was built north of the Munich- Plattling railway line and south of the former federal highway 11 at the edge of the forest. It was in front of a wood, the "Pfarrerholz".
There were about 500 male prisoners, mostly Jews. They came from all over Europe. The concentration camp prisoners had to live there under poor conditions. They vegetated in damp holes in the ground, the "Finns", in rain and snow. In terms of living conditions, it was one of the toughest and most notorious camps. At least 138 prisoners were killed. The Jew Israel Offmann imprisoned there at the time, who barely survived, described the conditions in the Ganacker subcamp in a radio interview as follows: “Auschwitz was a 5-star hotel and Ganacker was hell.” Offmann had experienced both camps and was able to compare them. Israel Offmann continues: “Compared to other camps, Ganacker was a temporary solution. In poorly furnished dwellings, the prisoners lay like marmots in excavated caves in the ground that were covered with straw. "
On April 23, 1945, the SS began to “clear” the subcamp in the Erlau. The US Army was to be expected every day. From March 2, 1945 to April 23, 1945, 138 prisoners perished in the subcamp. It was probably seriously ill, totally exhausted and unable to walk.
The corpses were makeshift buried in the little wood behind the camp and in a nearby wooded area to the west of it. Some of the prisoners were then buried at the nearby St. Sebastian church and reburied in the Flossenbürg concentration camp cemetery of honor in 1957.
literature
- Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X .
- Georg Artmeier: The external commandos of the Flossenbürg concentration camp: Ganacker and Plattling. In the association “Die Förderer” Landau ad Isar (ed.): Historical home sheets on the lower Isar and Vils. 1990/91, pp. 5-139
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ganacker subcamp , Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial website. Retrieved July 6, 2016
- ↑ Copy of the interview on page 29 in the generation of the grandparents in dialogue with young people about the Ganacker subcamp on the outskirts of Wallersdorf. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 29. PDF
Web links
- Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4, pp. 117ff.
- Generation of grandparents in dialogue with young people about the Ganacker subcamp on the outskirts of Wallersdorf. School project (PDF file; 7.31 MB)
- Wallersdorf (DGF, concentration camp cemetery). on: alemannia-judaica.de
Coordinates: 48 ° 43 ′ 9 ″ N , 12 ° 43 ′ 30.8 ″ E