Abtnaundorf massacre

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Dead inmate with glasses lying on the fence of the Buchenwald subcamp in Leipzig-Thekla. Photo taken in April 1945. Margaret Bourke-White wrote about this photograph in her 1946 book “Dear Fatherland Rest Quietly”: “A few had come so close to freedom that my heart bleeding when I saw them. A Polish professor who we were told was an aircraft engineer had squeezed halfway through the outer fence. The shrunken lower part of his body lay burned to ashes inside the fence, next to it his charred crutch, but the beautiful, shaved head of an intellectual lay outside, it wasn't even disfigured, even his glasses were still in place. They must have loved him very much, the survivors shed many tears for him. "
Two US Army soldiers take notes in the Leipzig-Thekla subcamp after arriving in Abtnaundorf. Before them lies a victim of the massacre. Photo from April 1945.

The Abtnaundorf massacre was a Nazi final phase crime in which at least 80 prisoners of the Leipzig-Thekla satellite camp were burned alive or shot on April 18, 1945 in Leipzig - Abtnaundorf .

Course of the massacre

About 300 sick prisoners were still in Theklaer Strasse / Heiterblickstrasse after the evacuation of the Leipzig-Thekla satellite camp on April 13, 1945. Many of them came from the evacuation transport of the Gassen subcamp of the Groß Rosen concentration camp . The prisoners who were left behind and unable to march had to darken and nail up the window openings of the concentration camp barracks on the instructions of SS men on April 18, 1945 . This wooden barrack was doused with fire accelerators and shot at by around twelve SS members and Volkssturm men , including bazookas and machine guns . The barracks began to burn down and sick inmates unable to walk burned on their straw sacks. Due to the heavy smoke development, many prisoners were able to escape from the camp and fled to a nearby labor camp, where Polish civilians hid them. Many prisoners were shot trying to escape or died as living torches trying to get over the barbed wire. At least 80 prisoners were burned alive or died from gunshot wounds and burns. Other inmates later succumbed to their serious injuries.

“ Panic broke out among the inmates. Some were mad and jumped into the fire. Others tried to escape through the door and windows. The SS men shot at all the prisoners who fled the barracks. For fear of the fire, I chose a window that led directly to the fence that surrounded the camp. Because I was too weak and too sick, I couldn't get out the window even though the window sill wasn't too high. I hung my head outside. My hands were already touching the ground. But my legs were still inside the barrack. I felt my clogs and pant legs burn. Suddenly someone grabbed my collar and pulled me out of the barracks. I came to when I was already behind the fence of the camp and found that my comrade Tadeusz Maciejewski had dragged me out of the barracks and out of the camp. "

- The survivor of the Abtnaundorf massacre Eugeniusz Wroniecki

Liberation and Post War

After the liberation of Leipzig, German civilians are confronted with the crime in the Leipzig-Thekla subcamp.

After Leipzig was occupied by US Army troops, the scene of the crime was filmed by members of the US Army Signal Corps . Excerpts from this documentary formed the first sequence of the documentary film Nazi Concentration Camps , which was shown during the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals . The victims of the massacre were buried on April 27, 1945 in the southern cemetery in Leipzig as part of a funeral service. The US Army investigated the Abtnaundorf massacre and also involved the Leipzig criminal police. The head of personnel at Erla-Werke Leipzig, SA leader Walter Wendt , and two SS men involved in the massacre were arrested by members of the US Army. Wendt was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in the main Buchenwald trial, but the imprisonment was later reduced to five years. Nothing is known of any other convictions in connection with the Abtnaundorf massacre.

A porphyry memorial commemorates the Abtnaundorf massacre on April 18, 1945

Since 1958, a memorial at the site of the crime has been commemorating the victims of the Abtnaundorf massacre. Its inscription reads: "At this point, 80 resistance fighters were burned alive by SS murderers on April 18, 1945". In the course of the erection of the memorial, a publication with the title: “What happened in Abtnaundorf?” Was published in 1958, but it was soon sold out. Memorial ceremonies for the Nazi victims are held here every year. There are files relating to the massacre in American, French and Polish archives. There are testimonies from 67 survivors of the massacre.

literature

  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52963-1 .
  • Karl-Heinz Rother: The Abtnaundorf massacre. In: Leipzigs Neue - Left monthly magazine for politics, culture and history. Issue 1 of January 23, 2009, p. 7 (pdf; 714 kB)
  • Karl-Heinz Rother, Jelena Rother: The Erla-Werke GmbH and the Abtnaundorf massacre. Published by the Bund der Antifaschisten eV (BdA), seat of Leipzig / Leipzig city association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime (VVN) 2013

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted in: Karl-Heinz Rother: Das Massaker von Abtnaundorf . In: Leipzigs Neue - Linke monthly magazine for politics, culture and history, issue 1 of January 23, 2009, p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. Beck, Munich 2006, p. 504f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Karl-Heinz Rother: The massacre of Abtnaundorf. In: Leipzigs Neue - Left monthly magazine for politics, culture and history. Issue 1 of January 23, 2009, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Quoted in: Karl-Heinz Rother: Das Massaker von Abtnaundorf. In: Leipzigs Neue - Left monthly magazine for politics, culture and history. Issue 1 of January 23, 2009, p. 7.

Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 4.7 "  N , 12 ° 25 ′ 28.9"  E