Holzen subcamp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former location of the Holzen subcamp on a meadow with the house where the SS camp leader lived in 1944 and 1945 (2020)

The Holzen subcamp was a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp that consisted of four concentration camp barracks and several functional buildings from September 1944 to April 1945 . It was located on the edge of the village of Holzen in what is now Lower Saxony . The camp was occupied by at least 1,100 and possibly up to 2,000 concentration camp prisoners . They had to do forced labor for armaments projects under the code names Hecht and Stein within the underground armaments complex in Hils . When the US troops approached, the prisoners were transported by train to the Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps . No remains of the buildings of the camp on a meadow have survived above ground.

prehistory

After the Allies had gained air superiority over Germany from 1943 onwards , in the summer of 1944 the plan arose to develop the Hils into an armaments focus in the German Reich. The widespread pit and tunnel system of Deutsche Asphalt AG offered ideal conditions for the underground relocation of the armaments industry . The densely wooded Hils also provided above-ground production facilities with protection from enemy air raids. Accordingly, production facilities for the manufacture of fighter planes and other armaments were created under the direction of the Todt Organization and according to the plans of the Jägerstab . More than 10,000 forced laborers were temporarily employed in over 30 camps at Hils, with the Lenn camp with around 5,000 forced laborers being the main camp of the armaments complex.

Function of the camp and prisoners

The camp was set up in September 1944 as a fenced tent camp on a meadow on the Greitberg about two kilometers northeast of Holzen. The first occupation took place with 250 prisoners who were brought by train from the Buchenwald concentration camp to Holzen. These included 187 French, Poles, Czechs, Italians and other nationalities. The Holzen prison camp with six stone barracks, which had recently been occupied by around 500 prisoners from the Hameln prison, was within sight . In addition, there was a hut camp for Italian military internees in the immediate vicinity , who could move around freely. The concentration camp prisoners from Buchenwald built roads and railways in the forest for armament purposes. In November 1944 another transport with 250 prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp arrived. Due to the weather and the increased number of prisoners, the camp was moved to a barrack camp on the edge of Holzen, which the prisoners had previously set up. It consisted of four prisoner barracks, a kitchen, an administration building and a guard. The approximately one hectare site was secured with an electric fence. At the end of 1944 the camp was occupied by around 500 prisoners, of whom around 250 were French, among whom around 30 were Jews. The sickness rate was initially around 40 prisoners and increased to over 90 prisoners in early 1945.

At the beginning of March 1945 another transport arrived with over 600 prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp, who were destined to start arms production in Hils. At the time, the camp was occupied by around 1,100 people, but inmates estimated that up to 2,000 people were housed in the camp. The number of deaths during the camp is estimated at around 30.

Eviction of the camp

When American troops approached, the camp was evacuated. On March 31, 1945, almost 700 prisoners were brought to Buchenwald concentration camp on freight cars. The remaining 350 prisoners were transported by train to the Salzgitter-Drütte concentration camp on April 5, 1945 . The SS also cleared this camp and on April 7, 1945 around 4,000 prisoners were transported in a train towards the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. During a long stop at the Celle train station, the 9th Air Force carried out a heavy air raid on Celle on April 8, 1945, targeting the station and killing hundreds of prisoners. After fleeing in the chaos of the air raid, the Celle massacre occurred , in which around 170 prisoners were murdered.

Inmate drawings

Two French concentration camp prisoners made records during their camp that have been preserved. Firstly, there are 40 portrait drawings by Camille Delétang (1886–1969). He handed them over to a Polish inmate who took them to Poland after the camp was liberated in 1945 and handed them over to the Auschwitz Memorial in 1970 . About 150 other drawings by Camille Delétang and written notes by the inmate doctor Armand Roux (1886–1960) did not appear again until 2012. They were in a folder that Armand Roux carried with him on April 8, 1945 when he was transported by train to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. During the air raid on the train station in Celle, a fellow inmate tore the folder from him. A few days later, a resident found the container in her allotment garden and handed it over to her son-in-law in 1945. He handed the folder with the records in 2012 to the Mittelbau Dora Memorial . Most of them are portrait drawings of prisoners as well as drawings of the camp and scenes from everyday camp life. Since the prisoner number of the person portrayed was usually given on the drawings, they could be identified. More than half did not survive the transport after the warehouse was cleared.

In 2013, the memorial used the records that became known in 2012 to design a traveling exhibition entitled Rediscovered , which was shown at German, French and Polish exhibition locations.

Cemetery of honor

Area of ​​the cemetery of honor near Holzen

After the war, a cemetery of honor was laid out near Holzen , where 84 dead men of various nationalities are buried. Some of them had previously been buried in the Holzen community cemetery and were reburied. Among those buried are 29 mostly unknown dead from the subcamp.

literature

  • Detlef Creydt, August Meyer: Buchenwald concentration camp, Holzen branch in: Forced labor for the wonder weapons in southern Lower Saxony 1943–1945. Steinweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1993, ISBN 3-925 151-57-5 Volume 1, pp. 134-144.
  • Detlef Creydt (Ed.): KZ Holzen in: Forced labor for industry and armaments in Hils 1943–1945. Verlag Jörg Mitzkat , Holzminden 2001, ISBN 3-931656-37-3 Volume 4, pp. 127-136.
  • Jens-Christian Wagner (Ed.): Rediscovered. Testimonies from the Holzen concentration camp. Accompanying band for the traveling exhibition. Published on behalf of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1350-7 .
  • Armand Roux: In the sign of the zebra (translation from French: Sous le signe du zèbre ), Holzminden, 2015

Web links

Commons : Holzen satellite camp  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Bruno Laberthier: find pictures at faust-kultur.de from 2013

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 19 ″  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 28 ″  E