Annaberg Forced Labor Camp

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The Annaberg forced labor camp was a Nazi forced labor camp near Sankt Annaberg (or Annaberg from 1941) in the district of Groß Strehlitz (Gau Silesia or Upper Silesia) established by German authorities in 1940 . It was initially intended for the use of forced labor in the construction of a new Reichsautobahn route. It was one of 16 labor camps for the expansion of the planned RAB 29 (today's Polish A4) from Wroclaw to Katowice .

First, Polish forced laborers were brought into the camp. From autumn 1940 they were replaced by Jewish prisoners from the assembly camps in Bendzin (Będzin) , Sosnowitz (Sosnowiec) and Czeladź . At that time the camp was called Reichsautobahnlager, Judenlager or Judenlager-Arbeitslager, later a forced labor camp (ZAL) . The forced laborers had to work a two-shift system seven days a week (12 hours each). The sick and otherwise unfit for work were sent back to the assembly camps in Bendzin and Sosnowitz. Instead of the dead or those who were sent back, new groups of prisoners were brought in by Jews. From the summer of 1941, Soviet prisoners of war were used. Their high death rate in the following winter, triggered by the inhuman living and working conditions, meant that in spring 1942, Jewish Poles were reinstated in the camp as replacements.

The type of work included:

  • Civil engineering work on the Reichsautobahn Breslau-Katowitz, shaft, civil engineering and clearing work after the bombing of plants
  • Work in a shoe factory, kitchen and warehouse work

From November 27, 1942, the camp was used as a Jewish sick camp, to which those from the other RAB forced labor camps were brought who would most likely recover quickly and could still be used for work. This Jewish sick camp existed for about seven months. During this time 54 Jewish prisoners died. From June 1943 the sick were transported to the forced labor camp in Brande , which in turn was dissolved in August 1943 and the sick and unfit for work were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

In August 1943 a staff of SS Brigade Leader Schmelt moved from Sosnowitz to the camp in Annaberg. The Schmelt organization , a sub-organization of the SS, was responsible for up to 177 so-called labor camps and had more than 50,000 slave workers. On September 30, 1944, 1,437 Jewish forced laborers from Annaberg were admitted to Auschwitz. 411 men were registered as prisoners and 1,026 were killed in the gas chamber. With the liquidation of the camp in January 1945, the prisoners who were still alive from Sosnowitz / Annaberg were sent on a death march.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ St. Annaberg (men's camp) on the Tenhumberg family, accessed January 27, 2017
  2. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Arbeit und Vernichtung reconsidered: Organization Schmelt's camps for Polish Jews from the annexed part of Upper Silesia. In: Sozial.Geschichte Online , issue 7, 2012, pages 10–39
  3. ↑ 24.-30. September 1944 ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Chronology of the Holocaust, accessed January 27, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.holocaust-chronologie.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 58 ″  N , 18 ° 10 ′ 25 ″  E