Abteroda concentration camp

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The former camp site near Abteroda.

The Abteroda concentration camp was a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp . It was on the edge of the village of Abteroda , today a district of Werra-Suhl-Tal .

description

The camp was located near the disused Abteroda potash mine. An underground production facility for the BMW aircraft engine factory in Eisenach was to be built there. Due to the advanced war situation , there were only a few free workers available and the work was very slow at the beginning. The production of aircraft engines for the Messerschmitt Me 262 , however, had the highest priority. For this reason, BMW and the responsible OT site management requested concentration camp forced laborers for the shaft work, the expansion of the machine hall and the production of the engines . The Buchenwald concentration camp made this available.

As early as 1937, the army had converted two pits near Berka / Werra into an underground ammunition storage facility for an ammunition facility , the Heeres-Munitionsanstalt Berka . One of these shafts, Alexandershall, was to be used by the Armaments Office from 1944 for the production of aircraft engines of the type 003 by BMW Eisenach. The army was able to prevent this, but was forced to leave the Abteroda shaft, which was adjacent to it, to the armaments office. As early as May 1944 work began on building an underground production facility. This had the code name Bear . The above-ground part of the facility was called Anton . In the final planning stage, the underground expansion should have an area of ​​16,000 square meters, with a storage area of ​​6,000 square meters.

The first 79 prisoners reached Abteroda on August 1, 1944. More followed within the next few months. At the end of January 1945 the maximum number of 230 forced laborers was reached. Most of them were French or Russian prisoners. Sick slave laborers were sent back to Buchenwald and replaced by new ones. The fate of these people is unclear.

The SS took over the surveillance of the prisoners . SS-Unterscharführer John was the leader of the command.

The forced laborers were housed in two warehouses. A two meter high fence prevented an escape. There were also four meter high watchtowers and searchlights. The forced laborers were strictly forbidden from contacting other groups.

Great progress was made after the forced laborers started their work. The approximately 60,000 hours worked each month were responsible for this. BMW paid costs of around 30,000 Reichsmarks per month to the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA) in Berlin.

At the beginning of April 1945, American troops reached the Hessian-Thuringian border near Creuzburg and Gerstungen . The Abteroda concentration camp was therefore closed on April 4th.

In 1966 the situation in the Abteroda camp was negotiated again in front of the Ludwigsburg central office of the regional justice administration . The aim was to find out whether inmates were murdered by SS personnel. The initial suspicion could not be confirmed according to witness statements. In April 1967 the proceedings were discontinued.

In May 2020, a memorial stone was erected on the initiative of the agricultural company that is the current user of the former camp site. BMW contributed to the costs.

literature

  • Thuringian Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Study Group of German Resistance 1933-1945 (ed.): Heimatgeschichtlicher Wegweiser to places of resistance and persecution 1933-1945 , series: Heimatgeschichtliche Wegweiser Volume 8 Thüringen, Erfurt 2003, p. 318, ISBN 3-88864-343-0
  • Constanze Werner: War economy and forced labor at BMW , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2005, p. 447, ISBN 3-48657-792-1
  • Frederic Gümmer: The role of underground relocation in German armaments production 1943-1945 , Grin Verlag, Hamburg 2008, p. 120, ISBN 3-63892-393-2
  • Frank Baranowski: The suppressed past. Arms production and forced labor in Northern Thuringia , Mecke Verlag, Duderstadt 2000, p. 57 ff., ISBN 978-3-932752-67-4
  • Frank Baranowski: Armaments production in the middle of Germany 1923-1945 , Rockstuhl Verlag, Bad Langensalza 2013, pp. 417–427, ISBN 978-3-86777-530-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jensen Zlotowitcz: Memorial stone in Abteroda put up noiselessly; Thüringer Allgemeine / Eisenacher Allgemeine from May 22, 2020

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 18 ″  N , 10 ° 4 ′ 30 ″  E