Concentration camp subcamp Roßla

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The Roßla subcamp was a subcamp of the Mittelbau concentration camp that existed from August 31, 1944 to April 5, 1945 for up to 120 male concentration camp prisoners . The external warehouse, consisting of two buildings, was located on the site of a sugar factory in Roßla and had previously been used as a warehouse for the Reich Labor Service .

Function of the camp, inmates and camp management

The prisoners were housed in a building which was fenced in with barbed wire and provided with privacy screens. Another building in the sub-camp was used for storage purposes. Most of the prisoners, who came from the Soviet Union , performed forced labor for Mittelwerk GmbH and had to partially assemble and maintain A4 units . In this satellite camp, living and working conditions were relatively tolerable compared to other satellite camps of the Mittelbau concentration camp. Only one prisoner was shot while trying to escape.

From February 1945 camp leaders were SS-Unterscharführer Dötsch and SS-Oberscharführer Welzel. SS-Unterscharführer Herbinger was deputy camp leader for an unknown period of time.

The prisoners of the subcamp had to go on a death march to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on April 5, 1945 and were liberated by Red Army soldiers on May 1, 1945 near Schwerin .

Kelbra branch

A branch of the Roßla subcamp for 60 male prisoners was located in Kelbra from November 2, 1944 . The prisoners were housed in the "Sängerhalle" restaurant, the windows of which were secured with barbed wire and the entrances were guarded. Most of the prisoners, who came from the Soviet Union and Poland , did forced labor for the Rudolf company and did warehouse work (A4 components) in the cellars of a nearby, former brewery. In this branch, too, the living and working conditions were relatively tolerable compared to other Mittelbauer subcamps. At the time of the existence of this concentration camp branch only one death from malnutrition was known. SS-Unterscharführer Walter Christoph acted as camp leader.

The prisoners of this branch also had to start a death march on April 5, 1945 via Blankenburg, Wittenberge to the Wöbbelin concentration camp , where the survivors were liberated on May 2, 1945 by members of the US Army . Many weakened prisoners were killed on this death march from abuse and the use of firearms. The responsible camp leader Christoph was acquitted in 1976 in Krefeld for lack of evidence .

The former brewery where the prisoners were used for forced labor still exists today. The "Sängerhalle" restaurant was put back into operation after the end of the war and is still there today. A memorial plaque could not be attached to the building to this day due to feared business damage. This action, initiated by private individuals, failed in 2007.

literature

  • Andrè Sellier: Forced labor in the rocket tunnel - history of the Dora camp , zu Klampen, Lüneburg 2000, ISBN 3-924245-95-9 .
  • 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: Subcamp Roßla. 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943-1945 , Göttingen 2007, p. 198.
  2. ^ A b Jens Christian Wagner: Subcamp Roßla. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The Place of Terror - History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , Volume 7, Munich 2008, pp. 329f.
  3. ↑ a b c Jens Christian Wagner: Kelbra satellite camp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The Place of Terror - History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , Volume 7, Munich 2008, p. 315f.

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 45.4 "  N , 11 ° 4 ′ 13.5"  E