Langensalza concentration camp

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The concentration camp Langensalza was in the Unstrut-Hainich district belonging to Bad Langensalza . It was a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and served the Junkers company as a production site for aircraft parts between December 1943 and April 1945 , with concentration camp prisoners being used as cheap labor under the supervision of the SS .

prehistory

The original production building belonged to the North Wool Group until 1932 , which sold it to Kammgarnwerke AG from Eupen . From December 20, 1943, the Junkers factories relocated part of their production to Langensalza. The factory produced wings for both the Ju 88 and the FW 190 fighter aircraft . Between March 1944 and April 1945, neighboring buildings belonging to the colored weaving mill Gräsers Witwe & Sohn served as storage space and accommodation.

The project was kept secret under the name "Langenwerke AG".

Prisoner situation

The deployment of concentration camp prisoners in Langensalza was planned for the long term. This is indicated by documents from 1944. At the same time, it must be pointed out that the manufacture of aircraft parts was not possible with prisoners who could be replaced at any time. Due to the longer training period required, the fluctuation in the camp was significantly lower than in many other concentration camps.

The number of deaths was relatively low compared to other concentration camps. Documents speak of two deaths in December 1944, 16 in January 1945, and two additional deaths each in February and March 1945. At the same time, instead of caring for them in the company's own hospital ward, sick inmates were immediately relocated to Buchenwald , so that the sickness rate was artificially kept extremely low.

The first 100 concentration camp prisoners from Buchenwald reached the camp on October 21, 1944. Within a few weeks, their number rose to around 500. Langensalza developed into a central camp for escaped prisoners who were later picked up again. These were "marked" on the chest and back with a red dot and a circle in order to make aiming easier when trying to escape again. Prisoners from the Auschwitz , Dachau , Flossenbürg , Groß-Rosen , Natzweiler , Neuengamme and Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück camps were interned in Langensalza. Their number reached 1,458 by the beginning of 1945 and did not drop below 1,000 by the end of the war. This could be due to the fact that Buchenwald's capacity was full at that time, as the Auschwitz and Groß-Rosen camps were in the process of being dissolved. At the same time, however, specially trained prisoners were probably called in to meet the pressure to succeed under the Nazi regime.

The prisoners were either housed in the neighboring worsted factory, which offered around 200 accommodations, or in barracks opposite the aircraft factory.

Due to the war, work in Langensalza came to a standstill from around March 1945. On April 3, 1945, 1,177 prisoners had to march into the main camp on the orders of the SS. The last records of the Langensalza concentration camp from April 11, 1945 indicate 59 prisoners who were certainly transferred to Buchenwald shortly afterwards.

Todays situation

To this day there is neither a plaque nor any other reference to the former camp on the site of the concentration camp. A garden colony covers the area, of which the foundations were still visible until the 1990s.

literature

  • Frank Baranowski: Secret armaments projects in southern Lower Saxony and Thuringia during the Nazi era. Mecke, Duderstadt 1995, ISBN 3-923453-69-8 .
  • Frank Baranowski: The suppressed past. Mecke, Duderstadt 2000, ISBN 978-3-932752-67-4 .
  • Frank Baranowski: Armaments production in the middle of Germany from 1923 to 1945 Rockstuhl Verlag, pp. 392–402, ISBN 978-3-86777-530-4

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 9 ″  N , 10 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  E