Gunskirchen satellite camp

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The Gunskirchen satellite camp , also called Gunskirchen concentration camp (in Nazi jargon, other names for the camp were also “Wels”, “Wels I”, “Notbehelfsheimbau” and “SS-Arbeitslager Gunskirchen”.), Became three in Upper Austria at the end of 1944 Set up kilometers south of Gunskirchen as a satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp . From the end of March 1945, mainly Hungarian Jews were housed in this camp , who died there en masse.

Independent of this, there was a "Wels II" camp between March 25 and April 13, 1945, from which 2,000 prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp and the Ebensee satellite camp were used to clean up the station.

history

The first indications of the camp in the pristine forest area are available for December 27, 1944; At that time around 400 prisoners were busy building the subcamp. These prisoners were initially housed in a former school building in the village of Gunskirchen. A controversial statement refers to March 12, 1945 as the date for “setting up the camp” in the forest. This camp became a reception camp for Jewish Hungarian prisoners who had previously been deployed in the construction of a south-east wall on the border with Hungary , were "evacuated" to Mauthausen and found shelter there in tents.

According to Daniel Blatman, those responsible wanted to move the more than 15,000 prisoners from the tent camp because the inadequate accommodation and sanitary conditions would endanger the entire camp. The amalgamation of Jewish prisoners in a separate camp was most likely also because of Heinrich Himmler's directive that Jews were to be kept as an important pledge.

These prisoners - including women and children - left the main camp in three groups between April 16 and 28, 1945. For the weakened prisoners, these marches to Gunskirchen, 55 kilometers away, became death marches . Numerous people died on the way or were shot by the guards. Presumably there were 1,500 fatalities.

The makeshift barracks in Gunskirchen were soon completely overcrowded. In the last few days before the liberation, supplies collapsed; 150 people died in the camp every day. The dead were buried in mass graves, some remained in the camp.

liberation

SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Schulz announced on May 3, 1945 that he would hand over the camp to the Americans. On the same day, employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived at the camp and tried to secure supplies. On 4th / 5th In May 1945 the US Army reached the camp and found 5,419 exhausted prisoners, of whom more than 1,000 later died. According to initial American estimates, 3,000 dead were in mass graves or still unburied in the camp. Other estimates were based on 4,500 bodies in 1946.

Processing and commemoration

In 1979, 1,227 dead were exhumed from mass graves and buried in the Mauthausen Memorial . A memorial stone in the forest near Gunskirchen bears the inscription: "On May 4, 1945, the Gunskirchen concentration camp was discovered and liberated at this location by the 71st Infantry Division of the United States Army."

In 1982 a memorial was erected on Bundesstrasse 1.

Mauthausen subcamp Gunskirchen, panel 1
Mauthausen subcamp Gunskirchen, plate 2

literature

  • Doris Fath-Gottinger: The Hungarian Jews on their death march to the Gunskirchen concentration camp . Univ., Diss., Linz 2004, (not viewed)
  • Florian Freund: Gunskirchen (Wels I). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X , pp. 368-370.
  • Ernö Lazarovits: My way through hell. A survivor tells of the death march . Translated from the Hungarian by Ingrid Hauseder. With contemporary historical contributions by Heimo Halbrainer. Steinmassl, Grünbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-902427-65-6 , ( Edition Geschichte der Heimat ).
  • Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder. From the Hebrew v. Markus Lemke . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 3-498-02127-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florian Freund : Gunskirchen (Wels I) In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (Hrsg.): Der Ort des Terrors. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-52964-1 , p. 368.
  2. ↑ Florian Freund: Wels II. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-52964-1 , pp. 444f.
  3. ↑ Florian Freund: Gunskirchen (Wels I). P. 368 and note 1.
  4. ^ Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 386f.
  5. ^ Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 388.
  6. ^ Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 392.
  7. ^ Province of Upper Austria: Chronicle 1946 / Daniel Blatman: The death marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 392 names 1220 victims discovered in mass graves.
  8. ^ Province of Upper Austria: Memorial to Gunskirchen concentration camp satellite camp

Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 45.4 ″  N , 13 ° 56 ′ 25.9 ″  E