Würzburg subcamp

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The Würzburg subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp existed from April 17, 1943 to March 22, 1945. Up to 58 prisoners were used in construction work on a military hospital of the Waffen-SS , which was located on the premises of the university mental hospital in Würzburg .

history

The Würzburg military hospital set up in August 1941 was one of many similar SS facilities that opened after the beginning of World War II . The military hospital attached to the mental hospital of the Würzburg University was used to care for traumatized or traumatized SS members. The head of the hospital was Werner Heyde , Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology in Würzburg since 1939. Heyde had joined the SS in 1936 and in the following three years had drawn up reports on the basis of which decisions were made about the sterilization or castration of concentration camp prisoners. Between 1939 and 1941 Heyde was involved in a leading position in the National Socialist murders of the sick in " Aktion T4 " and the murder of concentration camp inmates in " Aktion 14f13 ". Due to his position and his relationships within the SS, Heyde is considered the "initiator" of the Würzburg subcamp.

One month after the subcamp was established in April 1943, 20 concentration camp inmates were held in Würzburg. In July 1943 the number of prisoners had increased to 58. The majority of the prisoners were classified as political prisoners by the SS, and some “ preventive prisoners ” and two homosexuals can be found in the prisoner lists . According to a list dated February 28, 1945, there were 50 prisoners, predominantly of Polish and Russian nationality, in the satellite camp at that time. In contrast to other satellite camps, there was only a small exchange of prisoners between the main camp in Flossenbürg and the satellite camp in Würzburg.

The concentration camp prisoners were initially housed in their own barracks in the emergency prison in Würzburger Friesstrasse, a place of detention of the Würzburg Gestapo . The emergency prison opened in September 1942 because the local prison was overcrowded. The Gestapo mainly used the emergency prison as a transit prison for the transfer of forced laborers and Soviet prisoners of war to the concentration camps . Guarded by the SS and dressed in blue-and-white striped camp drills , the prisoners of the subcamp marched in the morning and in the evening from the emergency prison through the Würzburg city area to their place of work, the clinic premises at Füchsleinstrasse 15, and back. From autumn 1943 a cellar of a clinic building secured with barbed wire served as accommodation for the prisoners.

The prisoners were mainly used in the expansion and renovation of the university mental hospital. There is evidence of the construction of hospital barracks, air raid protection facilities, a storage facility and work in the outdoor area. From December 1944, the prisoners were also deployed in the Waldhaus in Steinbachtal, an excursion restaurant outside of Würzburg, which the SS had confiscated for the hospital. In addition, the prisoners appear to have been used by SS and Gestapo members on private construction projects. The SS hospital department provided the 20-strong guards who were under the direction of a commando officer who was responsible for the main camp in Flossenbürg.

On August 18, 1943, the escape of a prison functionary during the morning march to the clinic ended with the inmate's murder: Herbert Lehmann, an inmate classified by the SS as " anti-social ", was arrested a few hours later with the assistance of the mayor of Karlstadt . An SS commando dispatched on Heyde's orders shot Lehmann on the way back, according to the report of an SS-Oberscharführer, during another attempt to escape. According to the autopsy report, Lehmann was murdered by a shot in the neck from very close range.

In post-war statements, the majority of the prisoners described the prison conditions in Würzburg as better than in the main camp in Flossenbürg or in other satellite camps. The hygienic conditions were a little less catastrophic and the food prepared in the hospital kitchen was better. Nuns of the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer employed in the clinic initially served the prisoners with food in porcelain plates at a festive table, according to the reminder report of prisoner Josef Kohout . This was prevented by an SS-Oberscharführer who reprimanded the nuns with sharp words and called the prisoners a “gang of criminals” who had to eat their food from tin bowls. Subsequently, the prisoners' supply deteriorated significantly, resulting in malnutrition and illness. During the marches through Würzburg as well as during the work assignments, the prisoners had selective contacts with the local population. The Gestapo files document the case of a 23-year-old who sent cigarettes and stationery to a concentration camp inmate. The woman was taken into "protective custody" for three weeks ; if she did so, she was threatened with concentration camp detention.

During the air raid on Würzburg on March 16, 1945 , the prisoners' accommodation on the clinic premises was badly damaged. In the following days, the concentration camp prisoners were presumably used to clean up the city, before they were transferred by train to Flossenbürg on March 22nd. Most of the prisoners from Würzburg were likely to have taken part in the Flossenbürg prisoners' death march to Dachau from April 20 . How many of the prisoners died is unknown.

Post War Investigations

The central office of the state justice administrations for the investigation of National Socialist crimes initiated investigations into the Würzburg subcamp in 1967. In preliminary investigations, the Würzburger Kripo tried to track down former prisoners and members of the guards. The investigation focused on possible violent deaths, since other offenses were already statute-barred at this point . The murder of Herbert Lehmann, documented in the files of the Würzburg Gestapo, remained unknown to the investigators. The proceedings were discontinued in November 1975 because there were no indications of criminal offenses that could still be prosecuted.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Subcamp Würzburg. Website of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial. Accessed February 16, 2020.
  2. ↑ This assessment by Skriebeleit, also in Würzburg ?! , P. 302.
  3. ↑ Skriebeleit, Also in Würzburg ?! , P. 312.
  4. ^ The prisoner report in: Heinz Heger: The men with the pink angle: The report of a homosexual about his concentration camp imprisonment from 1939–1945. Merlin-Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-87536-215-2 , p. 98f, quoted in Skriebeleit, Also in Würzburg ?! , P. 309.

literature

  • Jörg Skriebeleit : Würzburg. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Flossenbürg. The Flossenbürg concentration camp and its satellite camps. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56229-7 , pp. 270-273.
  • Jörg Skriebeleit: Also in Würzburg ?! - On the history of an unnoticed satellite camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. In: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kunst. 56 (2004), ISSN  0076-2725 , pp. 293-316.

Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 19 ″  N , 9 ° 56 ′ 23 ″  E