Flossenbürg concentration camp
Encyclopedia
Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel (SS)
Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg
, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria
, Germany
, near the border with Czechoslovakia
. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners passed through the camp. About 30,000 died there.
, Flossenbürg was a men's camp primarily for "antisocial" or "criminal" prisoners. The camp's site was chosen so that the inmates could be used as unpaid labor to quarry the granite found in the nearby hills. The quarries belonged to the SS-owned and -operated German Earth and Stone Works (DEST
) company.
s to Flossenbürg from Dachau.
In 1941 to 1942, about 1,500 Polish
prisoners, mostly members of the Polish resistance
, were deported to Flossenbürg. In July 1941, SS guards shot 40 Polish prisoners at the SS firing range outside the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Between February and September 1941 the SS executed about one-third of the Polish political prisoners deported to Flossenbürg.
During World War II, the German army turned tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners over to the SS for execution. More than 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war were executed in Flossenbürg by the end of 1941. The SS also established a special camp for a load of Soviet prisoners of war within Flossenbürg. Executions of Soviet prisoners of war continued sporadically through 1944. Soviet prisoners of war in Mülsen St. Micheln
, a subcamp of Flossenbürg, staged an uprising and mass escape attempt on 1 May 1944. They set their bunks on fire and killed some of the camp's Kapos, prisoner trustees who carried out SS orders. SS guards crushed the revolt and none of the prisoners escaped. Almost 200 prisoners died from burns and wounds sustained in the uprising. The SS transferred about 40 leaders of the revolt to Flossenbürg itself, where they were later executed in the camp jail.
There were over 4,000 prisoners in the main camp of Flossenbürg in February 1943. More than half of these prisoners were political prisoners (mainly Soviet, Czech
, Dutch
, and German
). Almost 800 were German criminals, more than 100 were homosexuals, and 7 were Jehovah's Witnesses
.
During the war, prisoner forced labor became increasingly important in German arms production. As a result, the Flossenbürg camp system expanded to include approximately 100 subcamps concentrated mainly around armaments industries in southern Germany and western Czechoslovakia.
On 1 September 1944, Flossenbürg became a training camp for extremely large numbers of female guards (Aufseherinnen) who were recruited by force from factories all over Germany and Poland. All together, over 500 women were trained in the camp and in time went on to its subcamps. Women matrons staffed the Flossenbürg subcamps, such as Dresden Ilke Werke, Freiberg
, Helmbrechts
, Holleischen
, Leitmeritz, Mehltheuer
, Neustadt
(near Coburg
), Nürnberg-Siemens, Oederan
, and Zwodau
, and it is known that six SS women (SS-Helferinnenkorps) staffed the Gundelsdorf subcamp in Czechoslovakia
.
By 1945, there were almost 40,000 inmates held in the whole Flossenbürg camp system, including almost 11,000 women. Inmates were made to work in the Flossenbürg camp quarry and in armaments making. Underfeeding, sickness, and overwork was rife among the inmates, and with the harshness of the guards, this treatment killed thousands of inmates.
It is estimated that between April 1944 and April 1945, more than 1500 death sentences were carried out there. To this end, six new gallows
hooks were installed. In the last months the rate of daily executions overtook the capacity of the crematorium. As a solution, the SS began stacking the bodies in piles, drenching them with gasoline, and setting them alight. Incarcerated in what was called the "Bunker," those who had been condemned to death were kept alone in dark rooms with no food for days until they were executed.
Amongst the Allied military officers executed at Flossenbürg were Special Operations Executive
(SOE) agent Gustave Daniel Alfred Biéler
(executed 6 September 1944). As Germany's defeat loomed, a number of the SOE agents whom the SS had tortured repeatedly in order to extract information, were executed on the same day. On 29 March 1945 13 SOE agents were hanged, including Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian
and Brian Rafferty. Together with his deputy General Hans Oster
, military jurist General Karl Sack, theologian Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Ludwig Gehre, Wilhelm Canaris
was humiliated before witnesses and then executed on April 9, 1945. At the time of his execution, Canaris had been decorated with the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Silver German Cross, the Cross of Honor and the Wehrmacht's Twelve and Twenty-Five Year Long-Service Ribbons. On 1 August 2007 a memorial was unveiled at Flossenbürg to their memory.
forces were approaching the camp, the SS executed General Hans Oster
, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
, Dr. Karl Sack
, Dr. Theodor Strünck
and General Friedrich von Rabenau
, who were involved in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler
, along with the French Resistance worker Simone Michel-Lévy
, who had managed to organize an uprising in the camp. On 20 April 1945, they began the forced evacuation of 22,000 inmates, including 1,700 Jews, leaving behind only those too sick to walk. On the death march to the Dachau concentration camp, SS guards shot any inmate too sick to keep up. Before they reached Dachau, more than 7,000 inmates had been shot or had collapsed and died.
By the time the U.S. Army freed the camp on April 23, 1945, more than 30,000 inmates had died at Flossenbürg. Troops from the 90th Infantry Division and the 97th Infantry Division found about 1,600 ill and weak prisoners, mostly in the camp's hospital barracks.
Forty-six former staff from Flossenbürg concentration camp were tried by an American Military for crimes of murder, torturing, and starving the inmates in their custody. All but five of the defendants were found guilty, fifteen of whom were condemned to death, eleven were given life sentences, and fourteen were jailed for terms of one to thirty years.
was opened at Flossenbürg. The ceremony was attended by 84 former inmates, in addition to the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko
, whose father was among the camp's inmates during World War II for five months.
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg
Flossenbürg
Flossenbürg is a municipality in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria in Germany. The state-approved leisure area is located in the Bavarian Forest and borders the Czech Republic in the east. During World War II, the Flossenbürg concentration camp was located here.- History :The...
, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, near the border with Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners passed through the camp. About 30,000 died there.
Pre–World War II
Before World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Flossenbürg was a men's camp primarily for "antisocial" or "criminal" prisoners. The camp's site was chosen so that the inmates could be used as unpaid labor to quarry the granite found in the nearby hills. The quarries belonged to the SS-owned and -operated German Earth and Stone Works (DEST
DEST
The D. E. S. T. , was an SS owned company originally created to procure and manufacture building materials for state construction projects in Nazi Germany DEST was a subsidiary company of Amtsgruppe W of SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt...
) company.
During World War II
During World War II, most of the inmates sent to Flossenbürg, or to one of about 100 sub-camps, came from the German-occupied eastern territories. The inmates in Flossenbürg were housed in 16 huge wooden barracks, its crematorium was built in a valley straight outside the camp. In September 1939, the SS transferred 1,000 political prisonerPolitical prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s to Flossenbürg from Dachau.
In 1941 to 1942, about 1,500 Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
prisoners, mostly members of the Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
, were deported to Flossenbürg. In July 1941, SS guards shot 40 Polish prisoners at the SS firing range outside the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Between February and September 1941 the SS executed about one-third of the Polish political prisoners deported to Flossenbürg.
During World War II, the German army turned tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners over to the SS for execution. More than 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war were executed in Flossenbürg by the end of 1941. The SS also established a special camp for a load of Soviet prisoners of war within Flossenbürg. Executions of Soviet prisoners of war continued sporadically through 1944. Soviet prisoners of war in Mülsen St. Micheln
Mülsen
Mülsen is a municipality in Germany, Landkreis Zwickau in the administrative region of Chemnitz, the Free State of Saxony. It is situated 6 km northeast of Zwickau....
, a subcamp of Flossenbürg, staged an uprising and mass escape attempt on 1 May 1944. They set their bunks on fire and killed some of the camp's Kapos, prisoner trustees who carried out SS orders. SS guards crushed the revolt and none of the prisoners escaped. Almost 200 prisoners died from burns and wounds sustained in the uprising. The SS transferred about 40 leaders of the revolt to Flossenbürg itself, where they were later executed in the camp jail.
There were over 4,000 prisoners in the main camp of Flossenbürg in February 1943. More than half of these prisoners were political prisoners (mainly Soviet, Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
). Almost 800 were German criminals, more than 100 were homosexuals, and 7 were Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
.
During the war, prisoner forced labor became increasingly important in German arms production. As a result, the Flossenbürg camp system expanded to include approximately 100 subcamps concentrated mainly around armaments industries in southern Germany and western Czechoslovakia.
On 1 September 1944, Flossenbürg became a training camp for extremely large numbers of female guards (Aufseherinnen) who were recruited by force from factories all over Germany and Poland. All together, over 500 women were trained in the camp and in time went on to its subcamps. Women matrons staffed the Flossenbürg subcamps, such as Dresden Ilke Werke, Freiberg
Freiberg subcamp
Freiberg was a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp located in Freiberg, Saxony.- History of the Camp :In Freiberg in December 1943, preparations began for a subcamp of KZ Flossenbürg to house an outside detail at the Arado Flugzeugwerke...
, Helmbrechts
Helmbrechts concentration camp
Helmbrechts concentration camp was a women's subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp founded near Hof, Germany in the summer of 1944. The first prisoners who came to the camp were political prisoners from the Ravensbrück camp in northern Germany....
, Holleischen
Holýšov
Holýšov is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It lies on the Radbuza River, some to the south-west from the region capital of Pilsen....
, Leitmeritz, Mehltheuer
Mehltheuer
Mehltheuer is a village and a former municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the municipality Rosenbach....
, Neustadt
Neustadt bei Coburg
Neustadt bei Coburg is a town in the district of Coburg in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 15 km northeast of Coburg, as its name indicates.-Local sudivisions:...
(near Coburg
Coburg
Coburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...
), Nürnberg-Siemens, Oederan
Oederan
Oederan is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.- Geography :Oederan is situated 14 km southwest of Freiberg, 17 km east of Chemnitz and about 50km west of Dresden....
, and Zwodau
Svatava (Sokolov District)
Svatava is a market town and municipality in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The municipality covers an area of 11.58 km² and as of 2007 it had a population of 1660....
, and it is known that six SS women (SS-Helferinnenkorps) staffed the Gundelsdorf subcamp in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
By 1945, there were almost 40,000 inmates held in the whole Flossenbürg camp system, including almost 11,000 women. Inmates were made to work in the Flossenbürg camp quarry and in armaments making. Underfeeding, sickness, and overwork was rife among the inmates, and with the harshness of the guards, this treatment killed thousands of inmates.
It is estimated that between April 1944 and April 1945, more than 1500 death sentences were carried out there. To this end, six new gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
hooks were installed. In the last months the rate of daily executions overtook the capacity of the crematorium. As a solution, the SS began stacking the bodies in piles, drenching them with gasoline, and setting them alight. Incarcerated in what was called the "Bunker," those who had been condemned to death were kept alone in dark rooms with no food for days until they were executed.
Amongst the Allied military officers executed at Flossenbürg were Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
(SOE) agent Gustave Daniel Alfred Biéler
Gustave Biéler
Gustave Daniel Alfred Biéler DSO MBE was a Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.Gustave Bieler was born in Beurlay in France. At the age of twenty, he emigrated to Canada where he settled in the city of Montreal working as a school teacher and then as an official translator for...
(executed 6 September 1944). As Germany's defeat loomed, a number of the SOE agents whom the SS had tortured repeatedly in order to extract information, were executed on the same day. On 29 March 1945 13 SOE agents were hanged, including Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian
Jack Agazarian
Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian was a British espionage agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive inside France...
and Brian Rafferty. Together with his deputy General Hans Oster
Hans Oster
Hans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
, military jurist General Karl Sack, theologian Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Ludwig Gehre, Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
was humiliated before witnesses and then executed on April 9, 1945. At the time of his execution, Canaris had been decorated with the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Silver German Cross, the Cross of Honor and the Wehrmacht's Twelve and Twenty-Five Year Long-Service Ribbons. On 1 August 2007 a memorial was unveiled at Flossenbürg to their memory.
Notable inmates
- Prince Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse, served as Governor of Hesse-KasselHesse-KasselThe Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...
as a member of the Nazi Party. He later fell out with the Party and was imprisoned at Flossenbürg in SeptemberSeptemberSeptember is the 9th month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of four months with a length of 30 days.September in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of March in the Northern Hemisphere....
1943. Great-grandson of Queen Victoria. - Wilhelm Franz Canaris, head of the Abwehr (military intelligence service) 1935–1944 and member of the German Resistance
- Kurt SchumacherKurt SchumacherDr. Kurt Schumacher , was chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and first Leader of the Opposition in the West German Bundestag parliament from 1949 until his death...
, future head of SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... - Dmitry KarbyshevDmitry KarbyshevDmitry Mikhaylovich Karbyshev was a Red Army general and Hero of the Soviet Union .-Early years:...
, Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
general, in 1943–1944 - Ignacy OziewiczIgnacy OziewiczIgnacy Oziewicz was a Polish military general. During the First World War, he served in the Russian Tsarist army in various NCO and officers' posts. In 1919, he joined the Polish Army....
, the first commandant of Narodowe Sily ZbrojneNarodowe Sily ZbrojneNarodowe Siły Zbrojne was a Polish, anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi paramilitary organization which was part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, fighting the Nazi German occupation of Poland in the General Government, and later the Soviet puppet state known as the Polish People's Republic... - Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, German Lutheran pastor and theologian - Rudolf ViestRudolf ViestRudolf Viest , was Czechoslovakian division general of Slovakian ethnicity, commander of the partisan army during the Slovak National Uprising and the only Slovak general during the interwar period in the first Czechoslovak republic.In the years 1920-1939 he was...
and Ján GolianJán GolianJán Golian was a Slovak Brigadier General who became famous as one of the main organizers and the commander of the insurrectionist 1st Czecho-Slovak Army in Slovakia during the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis...
, Slovak Generals and commanders of Slovak National UprisingSlovak National UprisingThe Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...
were probably executed in Flossenbürg
Death march and liberation
In early April 1945, as AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
forces were approaching the camp, the SS executed General Hans Oster
Hans Oster
Hans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, Dr. Karl Sack
Karl Sack
Karl Sack was a German jurist and member of the resistance movement during World War II....
, Dr. Theodor Strünck
Theodor Strünck
Theodor Strünck was a German lawyer and resistance worker, involved in the July 20 plot.-Life:...
and General Friedrich von Rabenau
Friedrich von Rabenau
Friedrich von Rabenau was a German career-soldier, general, theologian, and opponent of National Socialism.- Biography :Rabenau was born in Berlin to the physician Friedrich von Rabenau and Wally, née Noebel...
, who were involved in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
, along with the French Resistance worker Simone Michel-Lévy
Simone Michel-Lévy
Simone Michel-Lévy was a French Resistance worker. She had several pseudonyms - Emma, Françoise, Madame Royale, Mademoiselle Flaubert or Madame Bertrand - and is one of 6 female compagnons de la Libération .-Life:Joining the staff of the PTT in 1924, she was allowed into the...
, who had managed to organize an uprising in the camp. On 20 April 1945, they began the forced evacuation of 22,000 inmates, including 1,700 Jews, leaving behind only those too sick to walk. On the death march to the Dachau concentration camp, SS guards shot any inmate too sick to keep up. Before they reached Dachau, more than 7,000 inmates had been shot or had collapsed and died.
By the time the U.S. Army freed the camp on April 23, 1945, more than 30,000 inmates had died at Flossenbürg. Troops from the 90th Infantry Division and the 97th Infantry Division found about 1,600 ill and weak prisoners, mostly in the camp's hospital barracks.
Camp commanders
- SS-SturmbannführerSturmbannführerSturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
– Jacob Weiserborn – May 1938 – January 1939 - SS-ObersturmbannführerObersturmbannführerObersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
– Karl Kunstler – January 1939 – July 1942 - SS-HauptsturmführerHauptsturmführerHauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank of Hauptsturmführer was a mid-grade company level officer and was the equivalent of a Captain in the German Army and also the equivalent of captain in foreign armies...
– Karl FritzschKarl FritzschSS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch , was a German concentration camp officer and deputy, who first suggested and experimented with using Zyklon B gas for the purpose of mass murder.- Background :...
(Temporary Commander for 2 months) - SS-SturmbannführerSturmbannführerSturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
– Egon ZillEgon ZillEgon Zill was a German Schutzstaffel Sturmbannführer and concentration camp commandant....
– September 1942 – April 1943 - SS-SturmbannführerSturmbannführerSturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
– Max KögelMax KögelOtto Max Koegel was a Nazi officer who served as a commander at Lichtenburg, Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Flossenbürg concentration camps.-Early life:...
– April 1943 – April 1945
Flossenbürg Trial
The Flossenbürg War Crimes Trial began in Dachau, Germany, on the 12th of June 1946, and came to an end on the 22nd of January 1947.Forty-six former staff from Flossenbürg concentration camp were tried by an American Military for crimes of murder, torturing, and starving the inmates in their custody. All but five of the defendants were found guilty, fifteen of whom were condemned to death, eleven were given life sentences, and fourteen were jailed for terms of one to thirty years.
Holocaust museum
On 22 July 2007, the sixty-second anniversary of the camp's liberation, a Holocaust museumHolocaust museum
The term Holocaust museum may refer to:*Ani Ma'amin Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem*Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education & Tolerance*Florida Holocaust Museum*Holocaust Museum Houston*Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center...
was opened at Flossenbürg. The ceremony was attended by 84 former inmates, in addition to the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
, whose father was among the camp's inmates during World War II for five months.
See also
- Helmbrechts concentration campHelmbrechts concentration campHelmbrechts concentration camp was a women's subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp founded near Hof, Germany in the summer of 1944. The first prisoners who came to the camp were political prisoners from the Ravensbrück camp in northern Germany....
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- List of subcamps of Flossenbürg