SS military training area Bohemia

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SS military training area Bohemia
  • Military training area
  • Reich Protectorate
  • The SS military training area Böhmen (until 1943: SS military training area Beneschau ) was a military training area of the Waffen SS during the Second World War in occupied Czechoslovakia .

    history

    The establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia situated military training area Beneschau was formally decided on November 1, 1941 after in the summer of 1941, the decision had been made about it. The corresponding preparations began at the beginning of 1941 under the command of the SS site commander of Prague, Julian Scherner .

    The training area between the Vltava and Sasau rivers was bordered in the north by the road from Benešov via Týnec nad Sázavou to Kamenný Přívoz and the confluence of the Sasau with the Vltava. Its western extension reached to the valley of the Vltava. To the east, the Tábor - Votice railway formed the border. In the south the military area extended to the road from Líchovy via Dublovice to Sedlčany . From 1943 the seat of the General Staff was the Konopiště Castle (German: Konopischt ).

    On September 1, 1942, the first phase of the forced resettlement of 71 localities around the Neweklau market , which was completed by the end of 1943. A total of 17,647 people had been displaced by then for the creation of the 44,000 hectare military site. In September 1943, the military training area was given the name SS-Military Training Area in Bohemia . In 1943, the evacuation of the city of Beneschau and other places began. This means that a total of 65 communities with 144 settlements were evacuated and 30,986 people were displaced. 5682 houses and 8619 families were affected by the eviction.

    After the German surrender, the military training area was closed. From May 1945, the evacuated residents returned to their hometowns devastated by the exercises. The repopulation was completed by the end of 1945.

    Affiliated facilities

    The SS-Artillery-School II Beneschau , the SS-Panzergrenadier-Schule Prosetschnitz or later called SS-Panzergrenadier-Schule Kienschlag, the SS-Panzerjäger-Schule Janowitz , the SS-Pioneers were connected to the SS-Wach-Company of the military training area -School Hradischko , the SS-Pionier-Technische Lehranstalt, the SS-Sanitäts-Schule Prague-Beneschau including the SS-Lazarette Prague-Podol, the SS-Lazarett in the war blind school Prague and the Reichsschule für physical education Prague. On June 1, 1944, the SS Junk School Prague-Dewitz was affiliated.

    Labor and concentration camps

    In addition, various labor camps were gradually set up on the site, which were originally intended to accept only Czech or German prisoners who were needed as labor at the practice site, but this restriction was later lifted. The following institutions were created:

    • some “special education camps” for (male) adults who refused to work
    • some “special camps” for prisoners who were descendants of mixed Jewish families or spouses of Jewish women
    • Prison camp for members of the SS who have become a criminal offense and for political prisoners
    • as well as other "special labor camps"

    From around 1943 onwards, some of these camps were converted and expanded into branches of the Flossenbürg concentration camp . Due to catastrophic conditions, for example in the Vrchotové Janovice concentration camp, around half of the prisoners died in 1945 as a result of a typhus epidemic. The most notorious camp was in Hradishko , where numerous prisoners were shot at the end of the war.

    Commanders

    literature

    • Jörg Skriebeleit: Hradischko (Hradištko) . 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. 154-156. (The satellite camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Hradischko.)
    • J. Hoffmannová, J. Juněcová: Zřizování cvičiště zbraní SS Benešov a poválečná obnova území, 1942–1950. Facsimile, Státní ústřední archiv v Praze, 1985.
    • Jaroslava Krausová: Cvičiště SS u Benešova (Vysídlování obyvatelstva a jeho poválečný návrat). Diploma thesis, Charles University, Prague 1996.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ Jörg Skriebeleit: Hradischko (Hradištko) . In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.), The Place of Terror: History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps . CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X , p. 154.
    2. Historie vzniku výcvikového prostoru (1. část) [History of the creation of the practice area, 1st part], Czech, online: www.urocnice.eu , accessed on March 3, 2010.
    3. a b c Historie vzniku výcvikového prostoru (3rd část), 7) Koncentrační tábory [History of the creation of the training site, 3rd part, concentration camp], online: www.urocnice.eu , Czech, accessed on March 3, 2010.

    Coordinates: 49 ° 46 '  N , 14 ° 31'  E