Fürstengrube concentration camp death march
The KZ-Fürstengrube-Todesmarsch (also known as death march from Auschwitz to Holstein hereinafter) was a death march of -inmates within the evacuation of the concentration camp Fürstengrube (a sub-bearing of the Auschwitz ) and other concentration camp prisoners. A lack of nutrition, illnesses, exhaustion, mistreatment and murders claimed numerous victims on this death march from January to May 1945 with several stopovers.
The death march took place under the direction of the last camp leader SS-Oberscharführer Max Schmidt (from Neuglasau near Ahrensbök in Holstein ).
course
From the Fürstengrube concentration camp to the Mittelbau concentration camp
On January 19, 1945, the evacuation of the camp began in the Fürstengrube subcamp in Upper Silesia due to the approaching Red Army troops . The liberation of the camp took place at the same time as the main camp Auschwitz on January 27th.
From the time of the evacuation on, there were still 1,283 prisoners, mostly of Jewish origin, in the Fürstengrube. Of these, around 250 were shot and the remaining 1000 prisoners were driven on a death march to Gleiwitz , deported there in open railroad cars and transported within 14 days via Mauthausen in Austria to Nordhausen am Harz and the Mittelbau concentration camp . During the transport, many prisoners who were inadequately dressed , unprotected and weakened by the camp detention could no longer withstand weather of minus 20 ° C. Some of the people who died during the journey were thrown out of the train. Their bodies were found along the railway tracks and buried in the adjacent cemeteries (e.g. in Ruppertsgrün / Beiersdorf ).
After the arrival of the few survivors of this transport, the prisoners were deployed in the underground weapons factory of the Oda-Werke in Blankenburg , a satellite camp of the Mittelbau concentration camp, where they had to make the so-called V-weapons V1 and V2 in forced labor .
From the Mittelbau concentration camp to Lübeck
After 4 weeks in the Mittelbau concentration camp, 200 surviving prisoners were collected and driven to Magdeburg . On the way there, the column encountered a group of 300 prisoners - mostly Soviet prisoners of war as well as Dutch, French and Belgians - who were driven on together.
The prisoners were loaded onto an open barge on April 9, 1945 and transported across the Elbe to Lauenburg and the Elbe-Lübeck Canal to Lübeck , where they arrived at the Lübeck-Vorwerk industrial port on April 12, 1945.
From Lübeck to Ahrensbök
From the industrial port Lübeck-Vorwerk of the prisoners were km wide on April 13, 1945 17 via Bad Schwartau (there were three people shot), Pohnsdorf , Curau (on the way there were shot 20 people) to Ahrensboek driven, she at 14 April 1945 reached. There the inmates were divided into two groups. One group was driven into a barn four kilometers away near Siblin , the other six kilometers into a barn near Glasau / Sarau.
The prisoners remained there until April 30, 1945. During this time, other prisoners were shot, but some managed to save themselves from continuing. The prisoners from Western Europe were rescued at the end of April by the Swedish Red Cross under Count Folke Bernadotte , known as the White Bus Rescue .
From Ahrensbök to Neustadt
At the beginning of May, the prisoners had to march via Süsel to Neustadt in Holstein . On the evening of May 1, 1945, 14 or 15 prisoners were shot in a barn in Süsel.
In Neustadt the remaining prisoners were shipped to the Cap Arcona . Most of the 4,600 prisoners who were on the ship at the time of the attack were killed in an attack by Royal Air Force fighter bombers , which led to the sinking of Cap Arcona on May 3, 1945 .
The dead are buried in the forest cemetery of the municipality of Timmendorfer Strand , the Cap Arcona cemetery in Neustadt and the cemetery of honor for the dead of the Cap Arcona and Thielbek disaster near Haffkrug .
Remembering the death march
- At the Rensefeld cemetery in Bad Schwartau and at the cemetery in Ahrensbök there is one grave for unknown concentration camp inmates.
- The death march is documented in a permanent exhibition at the Ahrensbök memorial .
- Steles: Since September 1, 1999, steles made of concrete and clay have been a reminder of the stations of the Fürstengrube death march in Holstein . Steles are u. a. in
- Lübeck (near Gustav-Radbruch-Platz )
- Lübeck (at the Tremser pond )
- Bad Schwartau on Rensefelder Straße
- Bad Schwartau near the Rensefelder Church
- Pohnsdorf (on the village square)
- Curau
- Bokhof
- Ahrensbök (at the kindergarten near the Ahrensbök church )
- Siblin (at the barn)
- Sarau (at the Sarau Church )
- Süsel (at the St. Laurentius Church )
- Neustadt in Holstein (on Lienaustraße)
The memorial pillar near Gustav-Radbruch-Platz in Lübeck
The memorial column at the Tremser pond in Lübeck
The memorial column in Bad Schwartau
The memorial column in Bad Schwartau - Rensefeld
The memorial column in Pohnsdorf
The memorial column in Curau
The memorial column in Bokhof
The memorial column in Ahrensbök
The memorial column in Sarau
The memorial stele on the field barn near Siblin
The memorial column in Süsel
The memorial column in Neustadt in Holstein
Explanatory board on the steles
Web links
- Ahrensbök memorial
- Ostholstein: Rediscover - Travel - See - Learn (PDF document) ( Memento from November 2, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) (1.95 MB)
literature
- Gerhard Hoch : From Auschwitz to Holstein. The Jewish prisoners from Fürstengrube. Hamburg 1990/1998
- Norbert Fick, Jörg Wollenberg : Ahrensbök. A small town under National Socialism. Concentration Camp - Forced Labor - Death March . Yearbook for local history - Eutin; Eutin 2004 (pp. 199–200)
- Jörg Wollenberg: Searching for traces from Ahrensbök to Auschwitz and back. The other memory and the limits of finding the truth. Yearbook for local history - Eutin, Eutin 2007 (pp. 257–298)
- Jörg Wollenberg: Count Folke Bernadotte's white buses. Concentration camp prisoners in Ostholstein between extermination and liberation; In: Jahrbuch für Heimatkunde 2010 (pages 248–278) ( Heimatverband Eutin ), Eutin 2011
- Manfred Bannow-Lindtke ( Ed .: City of Bad Schwartau) - Bad Schwartau under the swastika 1929-1945 (exhibition guide ), Bad Schwartau 1993 (Chapter "28. The concentration camp prisoners march through Bad Schwartau")
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jens Müller: One name is now known. In: Free Press. June 19, 2013, archived from the original on November 5, 2013 ; Retrieved July 11, 2013 .
Coordinates: 54 ° 2 ′ N , 10 ° 34 ′ E