Haslach subcamp
The Haslach subcamps were established in September 1944 in the final phase of World War II as part of the underground relocation of armaments factories, which were to be housed in the tunnel system of a quarry near the town of Haslach in the Kinzigtal ( Black Forest ). A total of 1,700 prisoners were held in three satellite camps , which were subordinate to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp or the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp , who were used as forced laborers to expand the tunnels. At least 210 prisoners died from the prison conditions or were murdered by the SS guards .
prehistory
Since 1902, the built Hartsteinwerke volcano in a quarry on Urenkopf between Haslach and Mühlebach , located amphibolite from an as gravel particularly suitable rock. In November 1905, the Heidelberg quarry entrepreneur Philipp Leferenz took over the bankrupt gravel works, which had a two-kilometer cable car from the quarry to the loading station on the Black Forest Railway. From 1911 the amphibolite was also extracted in underground mining ; At the beginning of the 1940s there were several tunnels with a length of up to 400 meters. During the National Socialist era , the quarry received extensive state contracts until 1941, for example for the construction of the West Wall . In the Second World War, there were no major construction programs, so the quarry was closed in September 1942. The planned use of staff and machines in southern Ukraine did not take place due to the course of the war.
In April 1944, the Armaments Ministry confiscated the quarry in order to use it to protect against air raids in the course of the underground relocation of war-critical operations . The plan was to prepare around 18,500 m² of tunnel area, on which the Mannesmann company was to manufacture parts for the so-called V weapons under the code name “Barbe” . During an inspection in April 1944, representatives from the aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt also showed interest in the tunnels. In June 1944 the Todt Organization took over the construction management; Wayss & Freytag and Dohrmann were commissioned to carry out the construction . Concentration camp prisoners were made available to both construction companies.
Subcamp
The Haslach satellite camps came into being at the time of the evacuation of the Nazi forced camps in Alsace after the Allied troops landed in Normandy . The first camp, known as the Sportplatz or Barbe satellite camp, established in September 1944 , was a satellite camp subordinate to the Natzweiler-Struthof main camp.
On October 12, 1944, it was decided not to use the tunnel system in Haslach for Mannesmann, but for the production of armored parts by Daimler-Benz . The background to this was the destruction of the Daimler-Benz plant in Gaggenau by air raids in late September and early October. At the suggestion of the Daimler-Benz director responsible for the underground relocation, Karl Müller, more prisoners were transferred to Haslach in order to accelerate the construction work. The prisoners were originally held in the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp, which was set up in August 1940. Schirmeck served the German police authorities as an "education camp" in the course of the " Germanization " of Alsace and as a "security camp " in which preventive and " protective prisoners " were held. In Schirmeck, the prisoners had to do forced labor for Daimler-Benz; When the Schirmeck camp was closed, numerous prisoners were deported to the Rotenfels security camp to be used as forced laborers in the Gaggenau Daimler-Benz plant.
The two security camps were among the numerous forced camps that existed in the National Socialist area alongside the system of the actual concentration camps subject to inspection of the concentration camps. In the memory of the prisoners in particular, these forced camps are often perceived as concentration camps, and the conditions there were similar to those in the concentration camps. Since the Sportplatz satellite camp was not sufficient to accommodate additional prisoners and, in addition, prisoners from a concentration camp and a security camp were not allowed to be housed together, the “Vulkan” and Kinzigdamm satellite camps were created for the security camp inmates .
Outdoor camp sports field
On September 16, 399 prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp or the Dachau subcamp Allach arrived in Haslach. The prisoners, mostly French resistance fighters , who were held under the so-called Night and Fog Decree , had been transferred from Natzweiler to Dachau shortly before. Since the originally planned construction of concentration camp barracks below the quarry at Urenkopf in the area of today's federal highway 294 did not come about, the prisoners were housed in a storage shed of the Wehrmacht at the Haslacher sports field ( 48 ° 16 ′ 45 ″ N , 8 ° 4 ′ 43 ″ O ). The number of prisoners in the Sportplatz satellite camp rose to around 600 by December 1944; the prisoners came from 20 countries, mainly France (47%), the Soviet Union (16%) and Poland (12%).
The concentration camp prisoners were initially used to build an access road to the quarry and later to expand the tunnels. According to one surviving inmate, the inmates had to work ten to twelve hours a day. During the hour-long lunch break, there was a soup that - since it was transported to the quarry by cable car - consisted of lumps of ice in winter. The SS guards had punished prisoners who, because of their inadequate clothing, had made vests out of cement sacks with a stick. As a result of the hygienic conditions, diseases such as dysentery , tuberculosis and typhoid had developed in the camp , from which numerous prisoners died due to a lack of medication.
The guard team of the subcamp consisted of around 30 men from the 9th guard company of the Natzweiler concentration camp and was housed in the clubhouse at the sports field. SS-Oberscharführer Robert Hochhaus was the first camp commandant until December 1944; he was followed by Air Force officer Erwin Dold . Dold tried to improve the prisoners' living conditions and organized catering with the involvement of bakeries and butchers from Haslach. Other prisoners also died under Dold's leadership.
In mid-February 1945, the sports field sub-camp was closed. Some of the prisoners were transferred to the Dautmergen satellite camp and used in the oil shale extraction of the Desert company . Of the 254 prisoners who were transferred to the Vaihingen satellite camp, which was used as a “death camp”, 70 died in the following two months. Overall, a third of the concentration camp prisoners died in Haslach; the French historian Robert Steegmann calls Haslach “one of the most murderous subcamps” of the Natzweiler concentration camp.
"Vulkan" subcamp
From December 4, 1944, around 650 prisoners, mostly French resistance fighters and Ukrainians, were held in the quarry tunnels ( 48 ° 15 ′ 55 ″ N , 8 ° 6 ′ 44 ″ E ). The prisoners were originally imprisoned in the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp and then temporarily in the Rastatt fortress . In 1947, a former prisoner described the conditions of detention in the tunnel before a French military court:
“There were no beds or straw bags for the inmates, only a handful of wet straw, which was not replaced during the five months. There was neither fresh drinking water nor washing facilities, not to mention other social or hygienic facilities. The food was completely inadequate. The prisoners were always brutally mistreated and beaten. Millions of lice could arise because of this limitless neglect and became an almost unbearable torture for the prisoners. The consequence of these conditions was mass illnesses and death. "
The commander of the subcamp was Karl Buck , who already held this position in Schirmeck-Vorbruck. To prisoners, he described the accommodation in the tunnel as "good" and "bombproof". In February 1945 SS-Sturmscharführer Josef Kraus followed as camp commandant. According to statements from surviving inmates, both Buck and Kraus personally participated in the almost daily abuse of the inmates. Buck was also present at the shooting of prisoners. Kraus set guard dogs on prisoners who had seized the dog food out of hunger.
Kinzigdamm subcamp
The existence of a third sub-camp in Haslach became known in 1997 through research by the teacher Sören Fuß. In publications before 1997 it was wrongly assumed that the Kinzigdamm sub-camp was another name for the sports field sub-camp.
On December 10, 1944, another 300 prisoners arrived in Haslach. The management of the "Vulkan" camp refused to accommodate the inmates in the tunnel and recommended that the escort team shoot the inmates. This did not happen, instead the prisoners were driven back into the city and initially held under the town hall and later in a factory building. In the weeks that followed, the prisoners were gradually transferred to the Kinzigdamm satellite camp. This smallest camp in Haslach was to the right of the Kinzig not far from the Herrenberg street and consisted of two barracks that had been built by Dutch forced laborers in August 1944 for an unknown purpose ( 48 ° 16 ′ 54 ″ N , 8 ° 5 ′ 29 ″ E ) .
Most of the inmates of the Kinzigdamm subcamp worked in the tunnels. Other prisoners were "rented" to local companies as slave labor; work that was usually associated with better nutrition and more favorable working conditions.
liberation
In March 1945 many prisoners were evacuated to other satellite camps on so-called death marches ; For example, prisoners from the Kinzigdamm camp came to Sulz am Neckar . On March 28, those imprisoned in the tunnels were transferred to the barracks of the sports field camp. A large number of prisoners were released before the end of the war; she found accommodation with farmers and craftsmen as well as in church institutions in Haslach and the surrounding area. After the SS guards withdrew on April 13, the Catholic city pastor, August Vetter, made sure that seriously ill prisoners were admitted to the Haslach hospital. Vetter had previously supported Alsatian clergy among the prisoners. Haslach citizens helped the prisoners by laying out food on the prisoners' march from the camps to the quarry.
Associations of the 1st French Army liberated Haslach on April 21, 1945. In September 1946, French soldiers and former NSDAP members brought in for this purpose exhumed 210 corpses of concentration camp prisoners who had been buried in a mass grave on the edge of the Haslach cemetery. As far as the bodies could be identified, they were transferred to their hometowns. 75 unidentified dead from the camps are currently buried in a grave of honor at the Haslach cemetery. More dead prisoners are said to have been buried in the tunnels, others died in other camps or only survived their liberation for a short time.
Members of the guards were indicted in a French military court in Rastatt in 1947 . Karl Buck was sentenced to death, later pardoned to life imprisonment and handed over by the French to the German authorities in 1955, who released him. Erwin Dold was acquitted as the only camp leader accused in Rastatt, as prisoners confirmed in statements that he had campaigned for the improvement of prison conditions in both Haslach and Dautmergen. During the trial in Rastatt it was decided to blow up the tunnels on the Urenkopf. A first demolition, carried out in November 1947, failed due to the hardness of the rock. On April 28, 1948, 84 tons of explosives partially collapsed the tunnels. The tremors caused by this were registered by earthquake stations in France, Switzerland and Austria.
From August 1953 to December 1965, the French army used the area of the “Vulkan” quarry as an ammunition and explosives depot. In July 1970, the Haslach city council approved the establishment of a central garbage dump for the Wolfach district on the quarry site. After the district reform, the landfill was taken over by the Ortenau district in 1973 .
Commemoration
The barrack of the Sportplatz camp was the place of a meeting in October 1970 of 300 members of the Association of Persecuted Persons of the Nazi Regime (VVN), former prisoners and French resistance fighters, at which the dead from the Haslach camp were commemorated and a plaque was unveiled on the barrack. In 1979 the prisoners' barracks were demolished and a market hall was built in its place, on which the memorial plaque was attached. The two barracks of the Kinzigdamm camp were demolished shortly after the end of the war; in the present there are allotments there.
From the 1970s the Haslach teacher Manfred Hildenbrand researched the history of the local satellite camps as a "lone warrior"; the cooperation of the population is described as initially “very cautious”. The initiative to establish a memorial only came from the two SPD city councilors Sören Fuß and Herbert Himmelsbach in 1997. In 1997, Sören Fuß discovered the existence of the Kinzigdamm subcamp and began looking for contemporary witnesses who were still alive. Within half a year he was able to establish contact with 70 former prisoners and as many families of those who have since died. He was supported by Michelle Bicheray, the daughter of a concentration camp prisoner who died in Haslach.
The memorial can be reached from the B 294 600 meters after leaving Haslach in the direction of Freiburg via a road that climbs steeply for two kilometers to the left and a 500 meter long footpath ( 48 ° 15 ′ 49.4 ″ N , 8 ° 6 ′ 37 ″ E ).
On July 25, 1998, the Vulkan Memorial was inaugurated at the mouth of a water solution tunnel below the former quarry. It consists of a memorial designed by Haslach artist Frieder Haser. A lowered cross is surrounded by stones. There are benches around it. Twelve information boards on the drainage tunnel provide information about the three external camps.
200 former prisoners and family members also attended the inauguration. In the following years, further meetings of prisoners and family members took place in Haslach.
The Vulkan Memorial Initiative ( Haslach ) is a founding member of the association of memorials in the former Natzweiler concentration camp complex .
literature
- Uwe Schellinger: Haslach in the Kinzigtal (»Barbe«). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 6: Natzweiler, Groß-Rosen, Stutthof. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52966-5 , pp. 103-108.
- Sören Fuß: "Vulkan Memorial" Haslach in the Kinzig valley. In: The Ortenau. Publications of the Historical Association for Central Baden. 2001 (81) ISSN 0342-1503 , pp. 533-544 ( digitized version ).
- Sören Fuß: Vulkan Memorial. Haslach in the Kinzigtal. City of Haslach im Kinzigtal, Haslach 1998.
- Manfred Hillenbrand: The "hell" of Haslach. The two concentration camps “Kinzigdamm” and “Vulkan”. In: The Ortenau. Publications of the Historical Association for Central Baden. 1993 (73) ISSN 0342-1503 , pp. 456-479 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Vulkan concentration camp memorial
- Way of remembering Haslach
- Vulkan Memorial in Haslach at the Baden-Württemberg State Center for Political Education
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Hildenbrand: The "volcano" in Haslach in the Kinzigtal. Hard stone works - concentration camps - ammunition dump - garbage dump. In: The Ortenau. Publications of the Historical Association for Central Baden. 1977 (57) ISSN 0342-1503 , pp. 313-336, here pp. 313-326.
- ^ Hillenbrand, "Hell" , pp. 457ff.
- ^ A b Roland Peter: Armaments Policy in Baden. War economy and labor in a border region during World War II. (= Contributions to Military History , Volume 44) Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56057-3 , pp. 187f.
- ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel: Foreword. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 9: Labor education camps, ghettos, youth protection camps, police detention camps, special camps, gypsy camps, forced labor camps. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-57238-8 , pp. 7-15, here p. 7.
- ^ Hillenbrand, "Hell" , p. 459, Schellinger, Haslach , p. 104.
- ^ The Haslach-Barbe sub-camp: The deportees at the Struthof memorial.
- ^ Report by the French resistance fighter René Thalmann in the archive of the International Tracing Service , quoted in Schellinger, Haslach , p. 104.
- ↑ Camp “Sportplatz” at www.gedenkstaette-vulkan.de/
- ↑ a b Schellinger, Haslach , p. 105.
- ↑ Robert Steegmann: The Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and its external commandos on the Rhine and Neckar 1941–1945. Metropol and La Nuée Bleue, Berlin and Strasbourg 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-58-9 , p. 308.
- ↑ Foot, Vulkan Memorial , p. 535.
- ↑ a b Report by inmate A. Daul in the Rastatt concentration camp trial. In: Ortenauer Zeitung of February 25, 1947, quoted in Hillenbrand, "Hell" , p. 469.
- ↑ Foot, Vulkan Memorial , without pagination; Hildenbrand, "Hell" , p. 470.
- ↑ Foot, Vulkan Memorial , p. 535f.
- ↑ Fuß, Vulkan Memorial , p. 536.
- ^ Foot, Vulkan Memorial , p. 537; Hildenbrand, "Hell" , p. 471.
- ↑ Foot, Vulkan Memorial , p. 537.
- ↑ Hildenbrand, "Hell" , p. 467.
- ↑ Hildenbrand: "Vulkan" , pp. 313, 332.
- ↑ Hildenbrand: "Vulkan" , p. 333ff.
- ↑ Hildenbrand, "Hell" , p. 474.
- ↑ Sören Fuß, "Vulkan Memorial" , p. 538.
- ^ City of Haslach - Cultural Office in the Old Capuchin Monastery (ed.): Vulkan concentration camp memorial. Haslach in the Kinzigtal. Leaflet from around 2016.
- ^ City of Haslach - Cultural Office in the Old Capuchin Monastery (ed.): Vulkan concentration camp memorial. Haslach in the Kinzigtal. Leaflet from around 2016.
- ↑ Concentration camp memorials establish network of remembrance. December 22, 2018, accessed December 23, 2018 .
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