Vaihingen subcamp

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Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp memorial

The Vaihingen concentration camp was set up in August 1944 near Vaihingen an der Enz in the lower Glattbachtal, where a forced labor camp called "Wiesengrund" already existed about 500 meters down the valley . Formally, it was a satellite camp of the German Natzweiler concentration camp in the previously annexed Alsace (eastern France). This satellite camp, also known as the Wiesengrund concentration camp at the time and colloquially , which went through two different phases, existed until April 1945.

Wiesengrund concentration camp sculpture by Lothar Morlock

history

The prisoners initially housed in the concentration camp were 2,187 people persecuted as Jews who had been transported from the Radom concentration camp to Vaihingen via Auschwitz . They were used - in addition to around 900 forced laborers - on various construction sites of the “ Stoffel” project (idea of ​​a camouflaged multi-storey factory for the Messerschmitt AG aircraft factory) supervised by the “ Jägerstab ” (Air Force Ministry ) and should be exposed to “ destruction through work ”. Friedrich Berlinghof was the camp leader ; Commandant of the guard Wilhelm Lautenschlager . The plan was to build an underground armaments factory , in which on an area of ​​approx. 80,000 m² of parts for the Me 262 jet fighter were to be produced. The construction site was a former quarry company Baresel on the parcel "At Ensinger way." As early as 1942, the German armaments industry established itself in the quarry that had been abandoned by the Baresel company, because experiments were carried out with the catapult-launched Fieseler Fi 103 ("V1") cruise missile . The construction work on the “Stoffel” project was managed by the Todt Organization (OT). However, because of the course of the war and constant air raids, the project had to be abandoned at the end of October 1944, whereupon the majority of the prisoners were transported to other labor camps. From December 1, 1944, the concentration camp was used as the central "SS sick and recovery camp" for other concentration camps in southwest Germany. The term served to cover up the camp's destructive function. In fact, at that time it was a sick and death camp. From November around 2400 sick prisoners were z. B. from the Neckar camps between Heilbronn and Eberbach , from the Haslach concentration camp of the Natzweiler concentration camp and from the camps of the so-called company desert . Many of them died of exhaustion caused by a deliberate lack of food or illnesses that were not treated. In early 1945 broke out in a warehouse typhus - epidemic , which resulted in many deaths. Until April 1945, 1,578 prisoners were buried in the mass graves in the immediate vicinity of the camp. Other prisoners died in Vaihingen Hospital after the liberation. A total of 1700 people died in this concentration camp in a short period of time.

After the walking prisoners were transported to the Dachau concentration camp at the beginning of April , around 600 surviving prisoners were liberated here on April 7, 1945 by troops of the French 1st Army . The majority of them were quarantined in Neuenbürg (Kraichtal) from April 13th .

In 1954 the mass graves were opened, the bodies exhumed and examined. 223 victims were identified and transferred to their home countries.

Redesigned concentration camp cemetery (1958) near the memorial

1267 victims were buried in the newly designed concentration camp cemetery. The cemetery and a memorial stone were dedicated in 1958.

In 1990 an association was founded to build a memorial. Work on the concentration camp memorial took several years before it could be opened on April 16, 2005 in the presence of guests from France, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland and the USA. This work was supported by the European Commission , as well as the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg and various companies with grants and contributions in kind. An audio-visual presentation lasting around 20 minutes recalls the events of 1944 and 1945.

The topography of the concentration camp site has not been completely preserved since 1987 due to the new construction of the express railway line .

The Vaihingen / Enz Concentration Camp Memorial is one of the 12 founding members of the network of memorials in the former Natzweiler concentration camp complex .

Others

  • In front of the entrance, a sculpture by the Vaihingen master stonemason and sculptor Lothar Morlock focuses on the suffering and torments of the prisoners.
  • In addition to the eyewitness reports available in book form, there are numerous other documents (including many photos) in the archive of the Vaihingen / Enz Memorial, which is kept in the Vaihingen city archive and can be viewed there.

See also

Video documentation

  • Looking back - don't forget. Wendelgard von Staden's memories of the prisoners of the Wiesengrund concentration camp. DVD video film, color / b / w, 19 minutes, 2005
  • The other trip. Amsterdam - Vaihingen concentration camp. Jules Schelvis June 1943 to April 1945. DVD video film, color / b / w, 20 minutes, 1995

literature

  • Vaihingen / Enz Concentration Camp Memorial V. (Ed.): The Vaihingen / Enz Concentration Camp - From Labor Camp to Death Camp , brochure, 8th revised edition 2014.
  • Bärbel Böckle: The SS labor and sick camp Vaihingen / Enz (1944/45) . In: Series of publications by the city of Vaihingen an der Enz , Volume 2, 1990, pp. 141–193.
  • Hanns Grosspeter: With his back to the wall. Autobiographical accounts of everyday life and survival in the Vaihingen an der Enz concentration district camp . In: Series of publications by the city of Vaihingen an der Enz , Volume 4, 1985, pp. 179-325.
  • Brigitta Isermeyer, Albrecht Wittmann (eds.): Media case: Concentration camp "Wiesengrund", Vaihingen / Enz 2002. Learning stations, video, audio CDs, brochures.
  • Ursula Krause-Schmitt, Marianne Ngo, Joachim Schlör, Michael Schmid, Gottfried Schmidt (Red.): Local history guide to places of resistance and persecution 1933–1945 . Vol. 5: Baden-Württemberg , Part I: Karlsruhe and Stuttgart administrative districts , ed. from the study group "German Resistance". VAS, Verlag für Akademische Schriften, Cologne 1991, pp. 245–247.
  • Bernd Martin: The Wiesengrund concentration camp . In: Series of publications by the city of Vaihingen an der Enz , Vol. 4 (1985), pp. 135–178.
  • Manfred Scheck (Ed.): The concentration camp on the doorstep. Eyewitnesses report on the Vaihingen concentration camp called "Wiesengrund" . 4th, revised and expanded edition. Vaihingen an der Enz 2010.
  • Manfred Scheck: Vaihingen an der Enz ("Wiesengrund") . 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. 177-181.
  • Manfred Scheck: Forced Labor and Mass Death. Political prisoners, foreign workers and concentration camp prisoners in Vaihingen an der Enz 1933 to 1945 . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2014.
  • Jules Schelvis: A journey through darkness. A report over two years in German extermination and concentration camps . Unrast, Münster 2005.
  • Wendelgard von Staden: Night over the valley. A youth in Germany . dtv, Munich 1991 and other editions, ISBN 3-423-01738-4 , pp. 46–98.
  • Robert Steegmann: The Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and its external commandos on the Rhine and Neckar 1941–1945 . Metropol, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-58-9 .
  • Study Group German Resistance (Ed.): Streiflichter aus Persecution and Resistance 1933–45 , Issue 3, Ludwigsburg 1987.
  • Herwart Vorländer (ed.): National Socialist concentration camps in the service of total warfare. Seven Wuerttemberg external commandos of the Natzweiler / Alsace concentration camp . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1978 (= publications of the commission for historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg , series B, vol. 91).

Web links

Commons : Vaihingen satellite camp  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ After the liberation of France, this main German concentration camp only existed on paper; its existing SS staff served as the commandant for around 50 satellite camps. The staff changed location several times, from September 1944 it was in Guttenbach .
  2. ^ History of the camp ( Memento from October 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ The "Stoffel" project of the Todt Organization
  4. ↑ Quarantine in Neuenbürg ( Memento from October 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Concentration camp memorials establish network of remembrance. December 22, 2018, accessed December 23, 2018 .


Coordinates: 48 ° 56 '44 "  N , 8 ° 57' 14.9"  E