Leipzig-Thekla subcamp

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Remains of the completely burned down wooden barracks of the Buchenwald satellite camp in Leipzig-Thekla after a massacre by the SS. Photo from April 1945

The subcamp Leipzig-Thekla in Leipzig was a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp that existed from the beginning of March 1943 to April 1945 for over 1,450 male concentration camp prisoners (March 1945). The prisoners had to do forced labor at Erla Maschinenwerk GmbH.

Structure and function of the camp and prisoners

The Leipzig-Thekla subcamp was established in March 1943 as a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and last comprised three locations. The Theklaer Straße / Sandgrube warehouse in Thekla was the only one of the three warehouses that was not located directly on one of the premises of Erla Maschinenwerk GmbH. The Wodanstrasse warehouse in Heiterblick was located in a fenced area in the main plant (Plant I) of Erla Maschinenwerk GmbH, as was the warehouse section Theklaer Strasse / Heiterblickstrasse in Abtnaundorf on the site of Plant III. The prisoners were used at the Erla Maschinenwerk to assemble aircraft parts for the Messerschmitt Bf 109 . Production at Erla Maschinenwerke came to a standstill at the beginning of March 1945 at the latest due to Allied bombing.

Prisoners

The mostly political prisoners were mostly Poles, French, Czechs and citizens of the Soviet Union who were transferred from the Buchenwald concentration camp to Leipzig-Thekla at the end of 1943 (900) and 1944 (1800). By the time the Leipzig-Thekla satellite camp was closed, at least 109 prisoners died due to inhumane working conditions, lack of food, illnesses, abuse by the camp SS and Allied bombing. Sick prisoners and those unable to work were transferred back to Buchenwald.

Final phase of the camp

A dead prisoner hanging over the barbed wire fence of the Buchenwald subcamp in Leipzig-Thekla after the massacre

From the disbanded Groß-Rosen concentration camp and its Gassen subcamp , around 2,000 prisoners arrived in evacuation transports to the Leipzig-Thekla subcamp by the beginning of April 1945 and were sent on a death march on April 13, 1945 with thousands of inmates from Leipzig subcamps . Only about 300 prisoners saw the liberation in Teplice .

On 18 April 1945, at least 80 of the 304 in the camp Theklaer street / Heiterblickstraße remaining sick and disabled prisoners march fell by the Gestapo employees , members of the SS and Volkssturm men perpetrated massacre Abtnaundorf victim.

After the end of the war

Obelisk Theklaer Strasse / Heiterblickstrasse

At the end of June 1945, Erla Maschinenwerke was wound up and the factories dismantled. The main factory and the warehouse located there had already been destroyed by bombing. The Theklaer Straße / Sandgrube camp was later used for resettlers. In the remnants of the camp Theklaer Straße / Heiterblickstraße in Abtnaundorf, workshops for furniture production were set up. Since 1958 an obelisk has been commemorating the victims of the Abtnaundorf massacre with the inscription: "At this point on April 18, 1945, 80 resistance fighters were burned alive by SS murderers".

Forced Labor Memorial in Leipzig

Since 2001 there has been a memorial for forced labor in Leipzig on the site of the former camp , with, among other things, changing exhibitions and events.

literature

  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52963-1 .
  • Harry Stein: Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent historical exhibition . Published by the Buchenwald Memorial. Wallstein, Göttingen 1999. ISBN 3-89244-222-3 .
  • Karl-Heinz Rother, Jelena Rother: "The Erla-Werke GmbH and the Abtnaundorf massacre", ed. from the Bund der Antifaschisten e. V. (BdA) Headquarters Leipzig / Leipzig City Association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime (VVN) 2013

Web links

Commons : Subcamp Leipzig-Thekla  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps , Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald . Beck, Munich 2006, p. 502ff.
  2. ^ A b Karl-Heinz Rother: The massacre of Abtnaundorf . In: Leipzigs Neue - Linke monthly magazine for politics, culture and history, issue 1 of January 23, 2009, p. 7.


Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 4.8 ″  N , 12 ° 25 ′ 28.9 ″  E