Wiesendorf concentration camp

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The Wiesendorf concentration camp was a satellite camp of the Alsatian concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof . It was in Won Wiesdorf the then independent municipality Württemberg Wasseralfingen that part of the city today Aalen is.

prehistory

Even before the opening of the Wiesendorf camp, there were several camps in Wasseralfingen. Prisoners of war and deported foreign workers had to work in arms production for the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke (SHW) and the Alfing Kessler machine factory . The foreign labor camps were administered by the German Labor Front and the prisoner-of-war camps by the main camp in Ludwigsburg. Since the smaller camps in the village and in rural communities in the catchment area, many restaurants (e.g. Schlegel, Henneshaus, Sand, Lamm, Sängerhalle, TSV gymnasium, ore pit 5, ore pit 10) were not sufficient to accommodate them, there were six around Wasseralfingen new warehouse opened:

Warehouse in Wasseralfingen
Name, place opening Number of barracks for operation
“Südlager”, Stiewingstrasse 1941/42 (expanded in 1943) 8th SHW
"Nordlager", above Schafgasse 1942 (expanded in 1943) 7th SHW
"Erzstollenlager OT", Viktoria-Sportplatz 1944 6th OT
"Ruckenlager", north of the factory premises 1942 12 Alfing
"Kappelberglager", on the Kappelberg 1942 10 Alfing
Wiesendorf I 1944 5 SHW

The Wiesendorf concentration camp

From August 1944 a new warehouse was built in Gewann Wiesendorf between today's streets Moltke-, Braunenberg-, Flieder- and Kolpingstraße , next to a warehouse for foreign workers of the SHW that had existed since February 1944. The foreign labor camp had already been occupied by Russians in February 1944, mostly from the Leningrad area. The second camp was opened on September 27, 1944 as an external command of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in Alsace .

The newly opened camp consisted of 4 barracks, 3 of which were inside a double barbed wire fence. The fourth barrack was for the guards. The inmates slept in an angular barrack with two bedrooms. Both camps together had an area of ​​2.8 hectares. The inmates of the concentration camp were guarded by nine SS subordinates and 25 SS men, e. Some of them were transferred from the Air Force shortly before, and carried out three OT sub-leaders and 30 OT men. The 62 guards in total were therefore of different military origins.

The prisoners were arrested by German units during the fifth week of the Warsaw Uprising (including September 6-7, 1944) and were housed a few days in the transit camp 121 Pruszkòw and selected there before being transported. There was no need for a special reason for the arrests, since all of Warsaw was evacuated by the Germans on Hitler's personal orders as revenge for the uprising. The transport by train to Dachau took several days, as the trip was mostly carried out at night to protect against air raids. On September 12, 1944, the transport with 3,034 prisoners arrived at the Dachau concentration camp , where the prisoners were housed for quarantine in blocks 19 and 25, selected again and divided into different groups. They received the prisoner numbers (No. Da) from 104,840. 1,060 prisoners came to Mannheim-Sandhausen (No. Na 29.241-30.300) and 1,000 prisoners to Frankfurt-Katzbach to the Adlerwerke (No. Na 36.585-37.835). 400 prisoners from Block 25 for Wasseralfingen were transferred to the Natzweiler concentration camp on September 25, 1944 (No. Na 36.184-36.583). On September 27, 1944 at 11.00 a.m. the transport arrived in Wasseralfingen with a freight train. When the prisoners were taken over, the commanding officer of the camp, Hauptscharführer Mäder, etc. a. complained about the lack of a change of clothes and coats. Both were never turned off. From September 29, 1944, the majority of the prisoners had to work for companies commissioned by the OT construction management for the Nepheline construction project , such as Heil- und Littmann, Suka, Staud and GHH in Wasseralfingen. The smaller part was used as accommodation for the OT in October 1944 at Alfing's account when the ore tunnel camp was built. 4 Germans who had been interned in various concentration camps for several years were transferred to Wasseralfingen on October 12, 1944 as prison functionaries , "Kapos", from the Kochendorf satellite camp (2 × BV = professional criminal, 1 × SAW = saboteur on military service , 1 × Aso Zig = anti-social gypsy), where they made themselves accomplices of the SS by mistreating the Polish prisoners. There was also a Polish Jewish camp doctor who was transferred from the Vaihingen / Enz concentration camp on October 18, 1944. Command leader Mäder was replaced by Oberscharführer Weiss in October 1944.

The aim of the construction work was to relocate the production of the Alfing Kessler works to protect against air raids in tunnels, as these manufactured aircraft parts essential for the war effort (crankshafts, propeller hubs). After completion of the first production tunnels, excessive corrosion was found on the underground machines due to the high humidity, which severely impaired production. The other planned construction work was canceled.

The external command was last mentioned on February 2, 1945. The camp was closed in February; 120 sick prisoners were transferred to the sick camp in Vaihingen / Enz , most of the others to the Neckarelz concentration camp and the smaller part to the Auerbach concentration camp near Bensheim. The two transport lists for Vaihingen / Enz from January 16, 1945 and February 2, 1945 only show prisoner numbers (Na) of the group that arrived in Wasseralfingen on September 27, 1944.

Memorial stone on the Schillerlinde for the prisoners executed there

33 dead concentration camp prisoners are registered with the Wasseralfingen registry office. The death list of the Vaihingen concentration camp (sick camp) shows around 100 deaths from the Wasseralfingen group, the most common cause of death being AKS (“general loss of strength” due to malnutrition). There are also other deaths in the Neckar camps as well as deaths during and after the evacuation of these camps to Dachau. A total of 196 prisoners are on death lists, 164 were verifiably liberated, and the whereabouts of 45 prisoners are unclear. The 4 prisoners who were executed by an execution squad at the Schillerlinde am Braunenberg in autumn 1944 are also among the unresolved, as their names are not known .

The Stuttgart Public Prosecutor's Office ( Central Office Ludwigsburg ) carried out preliminary investigations into possible homicides (most recently Az. 86 Js 69/72). Although there was sufficient evidence that prisoners had died as a result of abuse, the investigation was terminated by an order dated June 23, 1977. Based on the witness descriptions, only bodily injuries resulting in death can be assumed. After this long period of time, an intention to kill can no longer be proven in individual cases.

Shortly after the dissolution, the former Wiesendorf concentration camp was occupied by an SS company. The total of 37 16 to 17 year old SS men were killed by members of the US Army in the Lippach massacre while defending the nearby village of Lippach .

After the Second World War , seven of the nine barracks in this double camp were demolished by 1950. The remaining two were also demolished in 1954 and 1957, respectively. Today only the foundations of the Wasseralfingen concentration camp in the area of ​​today's house at Moltkestrasse 44/46 are preserved. The camp was not brought to mind again until the 1980s through publications by the then city ​​archivist of Aalen, Karlheinz Bauer .

literature

  • Karlheinz Bauer: An external unit of the Natzweiler concentration camp in Wasseralfingen . In: Geschichts- und Altertumsverein Aalen e. V. (Ed.): Aalen Yearbook 1984 . Konrad-Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8062-0406-3 , p. 345-384 .
  • Karlheinz Bauer: perpetrator or victim? Johann Warack. In: Wolfgang Proske: perpetrators, helpers, free riders, victims of the Nazi regime from the Eastern Alb. Kugelbergverlag, ISBN 978-3-945893-05-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ registration cards for foreigners, city archives and archive Aalen Arolsen
  2. ↑ According to the registration cards for foreigners (Aalen City Archives), Belgians were moved from the Iran-Halle (penal camp on the Alfing grounds) to the new camp at the beginning of November 1944. In addition, employees of the Todt Organization also lived here. On the registration cards of the Belgians, this warehouse is referred to as the ore mine warehouse OT.
  3. ↑ State Archives Ludwigsburg - EL 402/1 Bü 536
  4. ↑ registration cards for foreigners Municipal Archives Aalen
  5. ↑ State Archive Ludwigsburg, EL 317 III Bü. 931 + 932
  6. ^ Image of the Wiesendorf double camp, Aalen city archive
  7. ↑ Aerial photo of Wasseralfingen from April 1945, Aalen City Archives
  8. ^ Memories of J. Kubicki on the homepage of the Sandhofen Concentration Camp Memorial
  9. ↑ Peter Koppenhöfer: The Place of Terror Volume 6, Page 125 . Ed .: Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel.
  10. ↑ Arno Huth: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine . Ed .: State Center for Political Education.
  11. ↑ State Archives Ludwigsburg, s. O.
  12. ^ Archives Arolsen
  13. ^ List of the dead of the Vaihingen concentration camp, Arolsen archive
  14. ↑ State Archives Ludwigsburg, s. O.
  15. ↑ toiled to death for "nepheline" , Swabian Post , September 26, 2011th

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '54.2 "  N , 10 ° 6' 40.5"  E