Landsberg am Lech at the time of National Socialism

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The city of Landsberg am Lech played a special role during the National Socialist era .

Hitler's imprisonment, subsequent glorification

In 1924 Adolf Hitler served part of the fortress detention in Landsberg , to which he had been sentenced after the failed Hitler-Ludendorff putsch . It was here that Hitler wrote his programmatic work Mein Kampf . In addition to Hitler, other convicted National Socialists such as Rudolf Hess were imprisoned in Landsberg prison .

Memorial stone at the Stoffersberg concentration camp cemetery near Igling

From 1937 to 1945, Landsberg am Lech, with the prison cell in which Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf after his failed coup attempt in 1923 , was the third party of the National Socialists , alongside Munich , the “City of Movement” and Nuremberg , the “City of Nazi Party Rallies ” considered central site of National Socialism.

During the Nazi era, Landsberg became known as a meeting place for the Hitler Youth under the slogan "Landsberg - City of Youth" : Following the Nazi party rallies in 1937 and 1938, delegations of the Hitler Youth from all over the German Reich marched to Landsberg in the "Confession March of the Hitler Youth". In front of a ghostly backdrop with swastika flags , Hitler Youth banners and torch lighting, the final rallies of the so-called “Adolf Hitler marches” took place on Landsberger Hauptplatz and in the forecourt of the fortress detention center. In the Hitler cell, the Hitler Youth received the book Mein Kampf . Landsberg had become a “place of pilgrimage for German youth” and a “station for National Socialist education”, as Reich youth leader Baldur von Schirach called it. The prison with its "Hitler cell" was to be converted into the largest youth hostel in the Reich.

A gigantic parade stadium was also planned, which would have had larger dimensions than the entire historic old town of Landsberg. When German troops attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 , the “Reich Party Rally of Peace” scheduled for the next day was canceled and the “Adolf Hitler March” that had already started.

Landsberg did not get his prominent position in the “ Third Reich ” - as is often claimed in official portrayals of the city - “imposed from outside”. As early as 1933, Lechstadt marketed itself with all the means at its disposal as "Hitlerstadt" or " City of the Führer ", as a "National Socialist place of pilgrimage" and "Birthplace of the ideas of National Socialism". The "Hitler tourism" brought an economic boom; Finally, in 1938, 100,000 “ Volksgenossen ” visited Landsberg and the Hitler cell .

Largest concentration camp complex in the German Reich

In 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, the largest concentration camp complex in the German Reich was built around Landsberg and Kaufering with 12 external concentration camps . Other large camps had been built in the occupied territories. All the concentration camp commands were called “ Kaufering ”. 11 camps had the status of satellite camps of the Dachau concentration camp . In 1995 it became known for the first time through the publication of the citizens' association Landsberg in the 20th century around the critical homeland researcher Anton Posset in special issue 5 "The SS labor camp Landsberg 1944/45: French resistance fighters in the German concentration camp" that in addition to the previous the research work known 11 concentration camps around Landsberg / Kaufering another concentration camp in Landsberg, on what is now Landsberg / Lech air base. Mainly French slave laborers were housed there. The camp was not subject to the Dachau concentration camp command.

On June 18, 1944, the first transport with 1,000 prisoners from Auschwitz arrived in Kaufering. As part of the “Ringeltaube” armaments project, they were supposed to build three gigantic semi-underground bunkers for the production of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter . These large bunkers, along with other numerous buildings, such as workers 'accommodation, officers' villas and storage cellars, were located in Landsberger Frauenwald , known today as the Frauenwald industrial park . For this armaments project, thousands of prisoners from the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps , who were brought to the cordoned-off area via the Munich-Kaufering railway line (now a supply track for the Klausner Holz Bayern company), had to give their lives in the most cruel ways. The Americans continued to use the bunkers after the war. In addition, numerous outbuildings remained. Partly still visible to date in the Frauenwald, which after huge and extensive demolition work on the part of the city of Landsberg am Lech is increasingly being converted into an industrial park and in which well-known companies have already settled.

Until March 9, 1945 , the Luxembourg concentration camp priest Jules Jost registered 28,838 Jewish concentration camp prisoners in the external commandos . The original documents were first published in 1983 by Anton Posset and the newly founded Landsberg Citizens 'Association in their members' brochure. Because of the inhumane housing, because of hunger, cold and diseases such as B. Typhus , the exploitation of the labor force up to extermination, the prisoners called the 12 concentration camps of Kaufering / Landsberg "cold crematoria". By the end of October 1944, anyone who could no longer work was sent back to Auschwitz to the gas chambers. From November 1944, prisoners unable to work from the Kaufering / Landsberg concentration camp area were no longer deported , but died in the camp because the gas chambers in Auschwitz had already been blown up by the approaching Soviet troops. The bodies were buried in mass graves in the area . Shortly before the end of the war, the SS administration tried to “remove” witnesses from the concentration camp machinery by means of transport ( death marches ) and mass killings. Only about 15,000 prisoners survived the final phase of the extermination of the Jews in these camps and were liberated by the American army on April 27, 1945.

aftermath

The events in Landsberg am Lech have left many after-effects. In some cases the perpetrators are punished (see war crimes trials ), on the other hand it is discussed whether the war criminals should be pardoned. There are compensation procedures in which camps are set up for displaced persons and the emigration of victims from the region is carried out and prepared. The former prisoner-of-war camp of the US Army is also located near Landberg am Lech .

Some “cult sites” of neo-Nazism (for example the “fortress” ) are located in Landsberg am Lech. A “Schlageter stone” can still be found today as a monument in the wildlife park in the Pössinger Au in the Lechauen .

See also

literature

  • From Hitler's imprisonment to war crimes prison No. 1: The Landsberg prison in the mirror of history . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 1 . Citizens' Association "Landsberg in the 20th Century", Landsberg / Lech 1993 (34 pages).
  • Landsberg in April 1945: The End of the Holocaust in Bavaria: Death March and Liberation . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 2 . Citizens' Association "Landsberg in the 20th Century", Landsberg / Lech 1993, ISBN 3-9803775-1-2 (51 pages; collaboration on this edition: Wolfgang Habel; Helga Deiler).
  • The "National Socialist place of pilgrimage" Landsberg: 1933–1937: The "Hitler city" becomes the "city of youth" . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 3 . Citizens' Association "Landsberg in the 20th Century", Landsberg / Lech 1993, ISBN 3-9803775-2-0 (47 pages; collaboration on this edition: Helga Deiler ...).
  • The Kaufering concentration camp command, Landsberg 1944/45: The extermination of the Jews in the “Ringeltaube” armaments project . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 4 . Citizens' Association "Landsberg in the 20th Century", Landsberg / Lech 1993, ISBN 3-9803775-3-9 (55 pages; with a foreword by Joseph Rovan; collaboration on this edition: Helga Deiler ...).
  • French resistance fighters in the German concentration camp: the SS labor camp Landsberg 1944/45; 1945–1995, 50 years of liberation . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 5 . Citizens' association "Landsberg in the 20th Century", Landsberg / Lech 1995, ISBN 3-9803775-4-7 (58 pages; special issue; foreword by André Delpech; editor: Manfred Deiler…; collaboration on this issue: Helga Deiler).
  • The future emanated from the Landsberg DP camp: Landsberg 1945–1950: the Jewish new beginning after the Shoah . In: Landsberg in the 20th century: Thematic issues Landsberg contemporary history . tape 6 . Citizens' association “Landsberg in the 20th Century”, Landsberg / Lech 1996, ISBN 3-9803775-5-5 (51 pages; preface by Simon Snopkowski. Contribution to this edition: Angelika Eder…).
  • Dr. Hermann Kriegl: Adolf Hitler's “most loyal city” Landsberg am Lech: 1933–1945 . Ed .: Dr. Hermann Kriegl. 2nd Edition. Dr. Kriegl Verlag, Landsberg am Lech 2019, ISBN 978-3-938774-06-9 (updated new version 2018).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Landsberg SS labor camp - French resistance fighters in the German concentration camp