Kaunitz dormitory

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Kaunitz dormitory

The Kaunitz Dormitory (Czech: Kounicovy koleje ) in Brno (Brno) , Czech Republic , is a student residence of the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Brno . During the German occupation of the country (veiled Nazi term: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , 1939–1945) the German Gestapo set up an internment and prison camp here (Gestapo prison).

The student residence previously belonged to the Masaryk University in Brno and later to the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Brno and is located in the Brno district of Žabovřesky. The building consists of two apartment blocks.

history

The building was built between 1922 and 1923 according to the plans of the architect Karel Hugo Kepka . The building was financed by Count Wenzel Robert von Kaunitz and named Kounic student residence in his honor .

When the National Socialists closed all Czech universities in the occupied part of the country in November 1939 in the special action in Prague , 173 of the students housed in the Kounic student dormitory were arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . All other students had to move away. From January 1940 the building served as a prison for the Brno Gestapo branch . By April 1945 tens of thousands of prisoners passed through the "Kounic dormitory", especially those from the political resistance , before they were transported to other German concentration camps in Austria or Germany.

At least 800 people were murdered by hanging or shooting in the courtyard . The last pseudo- execution took place on April 18, 1945. On April 26th Brno was liberated by the Red Army .

After the end of the war, from April to June 1945, Germans were imprisoned and tortured here by Czechs. According to some German witnesses, at least 2,000 people were killed. According to the Czech historian Tomáš Staněk , the number of post-war fatalities was at least 300 people.

monument

In 1976 a monument “Victory over Fascism” was unveiled in the courtyard, and since 1978 the building and monument have been declared a National Cultural Monument.

literature

  • War crimes - things no one understands . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1951 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gestapo prison in Brno. In: The Federal Archives. March 27, 2001. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Národní Kulturní Památka Kounicovy Studentské Koleje. In: GOtoBRNO. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Vojtěch Šír: Popraviště v protektorátu Čechy a Morava. In: Fronta.cz. March 10, 2010, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  4. ↑ War Crimes - Things Nobody Realizes . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1951 ( online ).
  5. ^ Tomáš Staněk: Internment and Forced Labor: The Camp System in the Bohemian Lands 1945–1948 . R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-944396-29-3 .
  6. ↑ Miroslava Menšíková: Vítězství nad fašismem. In: Internetová Encyklopedie dějin Brna. March 10, 2010, accessed April 12, 2014 .

See also

Coordinates: 49 ° 12 ′ 29.4 "  N , 16 ° 34 ′ 56.3"  E