Redl-Zipf concentration camp

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The transformer bunker of the Redl-Zipf concentration camp

The Redl-Zipf subcamp , alias Schlier , was a satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in the municipality of Neukirchen an der Vöckla in Austria. From 1943 it was used for the production of V2 engines . In 1945, the Aktion Bernhard counterfeiting unit was relocated here.

history

After bombing raids on Wiener Neustadt in October 1943 and on the Rax factories housed there, armaments industry facilities were increasingly built underground. The beer cellars of the Zipf brewery were chosen because they were relatively insensitive to bomb attacks for geological reasons and because a siding led directly from the Redl-Zipf station on the Westbahn to the brewery area. "Steinbruch-Verwertungs GmbH, Schlier Operation" was chosen as the code name of the armaments company; Schlier because there is a marl deposit near Zipf. The "Steinbruch Verwertungs GmbH" was based in Attnang-Puchheim , the expansion and administration were in the hands of Dr. Rickhey and SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Fritz Loth.

The Redl-Zipf concentration camp was a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp . The construction was carried out under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Georg Bachmayer , the opening was on October 11, 1943. The number of prisoners in the camp fluctuated greatly, with 1500 to 1900 forced laborers from France, Italy, Poland, the Soviet Union and Spain as the highest level . After the prisoners had expanded the tunnel system, a rocket test rig for the V2 “ retaliatory weapon ” began operating in early 1944 . In the "Vorwerk Schlier" in Zipf around 500 engines were tested before they were installed in the V2 and fired at England. In addition to the engine test bench, the system also included a system for generating liquid oxygen and a transformer bunker. The prisoners also built a feeder track for the railroad. Many scientists, engineers, skilled workers and administrative employees worked in the facility. The guard was provided by the SS , members of the SD and by a separate Wehrmacht unit to protect Zipf and the surrounding area. Their number exceeded the population of Zipf.

Accidents and explosions during the test operation of the engine test bench claimed several deaths on February 29, 1944 and August 28, 1944. a. Ilse Oberth, the daughter of the rocket researcher Hermann Oberth . As a result, the engine tests were delayed, and oxygen production was also paralyzed at times. After the second explosion, engine tests were no longer started, only the production of liquid oxygen was carried out.

In the course of the war, part of the Nibelungen works was also relocated to the tunnel system.

From April 1945, the Schlier camp also housed the 141 prisoners of the Aktion Bernhard counterfeiting detachment, who were brought to Zipf from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

The Mauthausen Committee Austria puts the maximum number of prisoners in the camp at 1,500, according to other sources at 1,900 people. At least 267 prisoners lost their lives in this concentration camp; Sick prisoners were transported back to the Mauthausen concentration camp or gassed in the Nazi killing center in Hartheim , so that the number of those killed can also be significantly higher.

The camp was evacuated on May 3, 1945 under the last camp commandant, SS-Obersturmführer Adolf Bendele , and the prisoners were transported to the Ebensee concentration camp on trucks and sometimes on foot . The SS then set the camp on fire on May 4, 1945, so that today only individual foundation walls of the camp barracks can be seen. The plant itself still exists today, the transformer bunker can be visited, but the tunnels are located on the brewery's premises and are only accessible as part of a guided tour. A memorial stone reminds of the concentration camp site. ARGE Schlier is trying to make the site more accessible to the public.

Remnants and memorial

The concentration camp memorial at the Zipf parish church

Nothing can be seen of the barracks of the camp itself. Today the area is a meadow.

Still preserved today and freely accessible

Not freely accessible because they are located in the area of ​​the brewery

A memorial could not be erected on the territory of the municipality. A memorial was erected next to Zipf's church in the municipality of Vöcklamarkt .

  • The "supply house". Headquarters of the SS administration

  • One of the bunkers where the engines were made. The height of the room was twice as high as the width

  • One of the two engine test stands. The noise could be heard up to 20 km away

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Kriechbaum, Christian Limbeck-Lilienau: Zipf - "Schlier". In: Christian Hawle, Gerhard Kriechbaum, Margret Lehner: Perpetrators and victims. National Socialist violence and resistance in the Vöcklabruck district 1938–1945. A documentation . Published by Mauthausen-Aktiv Vöcklabruck. Library of the Province, Vienna et al. 1995, ISBN 3-85252-076-2 , ( Publ. P No 1 ).
  • Paul Le Caër : A Young European in Mauthausen 1943–1945 . Published by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Federal Ministry of the Interior - Ref. IV / 4 / a, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-9500867-3-0 , ( Mauthausen Studies 2).
  • Cyril MALLET: Le camp de concentration de Redl-Zipf 1943-1945. Edition Codex, Bruz, 2017, ISBN 978-2-918783-11-4
  • Cyril MALLET: V2 rockets in the brewery cellar . The Redl-Zipf concentration camp 1943-1945. Edition Mauthausen, Vienna, 2018, ISBN 978-3-902605-23-8 ,
  • Cyril MALLET: Redl-Zipf alias Schlier 1943-1945 Camp annexe du camp de concentration de Mauthausen en Autriche annexée, Master's thesis, University of Rouen - France 2014
  • Hannes Koch: Schlier. The historical background of the last surviving "V2" Troebwerk test stand.
  • Robert Bouchal, Johannes Sachslehner : Underground Austria - forgotten tunnels, secret projects. Publishing group Styria, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-222-13390-9 .

Literary processing

  • Reinhard Palm: Zipf. Thomas Sessler Verlag, Vienna 1987. (also published in: Neue Rundschau 3, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988)
  • Walter Kappacher : Silver Arrows. Roman 2009, ISBN 978-3-423-13873-4
    The novel tells of a (fictional) engineer who designed racing cars for the German Auto-Union in the 1930s and was then transferred to Zipf during World War II to do the rocket tests to accompany.

Movie

  • Code name Schlier - documentary by Wilma Kiener and Dieter Matzka, absolut Medien, 1984.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Less secrets about the “Schlier Secret Project” derstandard.at, accessed on September 5, 2011.
  2. ↑ Thuringia's secret world of secret underground facilities, for rockets and jet planes. [1]
  3. ^ Mauthausen Committee Austria
  4. ↑ Cyril MALLET: V2 rockets in the brewery cellar . The Redl-Zipf concentration camp 1943-1945 . Edition Mauthausen, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-902605-23-8 , p. 187-205 .
  5. ^ ARGE Schlier
  6. ^ Arge Schlier [2]

Coordinates: 48 ° 2 ′ 22 ″  N , 13 ° 30 ′ 17 ″  E