World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseIn early 1938, German efforts to arrest individuals deemed undesirable by the Nazi Party had increased. Intending to exploit these individuals, SS chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the establishment of a new slave labor camp to quarry granite, which was in high demand for building projects planned by the Nazi Party. Scouting for a location for this new camp began in Mar 1938 under Oswald Pohl and Theodor Eicke, and they decided upon the small rural town of Flossenbürg in southern Germany late that month, which was conveniently located near four existing blue-gray granite quarries. In Apr 1938, the SS established a new company, German Earth and Stone Works (DEST), which would operate the camp. The first transport, containing 100 prisoners, arrived on 3 May 1938, and these first prisoners participated in the construction of the camp as well as working in the quarries alongside of civilians. In the subsequent months, newly arrested prisoners and transfers from Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald camps increased the camp population to about 1,500 by the end of the year. Three quarries were operational by the end of 1938. In Apr 1939, Pohl gave the order to expand the camp so that it could hold 3,000 prisoners. 55 prisoners perished at the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp prior to the outbreak of the European War in Sep 1939. In late Aug 1939, several Flossenbürg prisoners were murdered by poison, dressed in Polish Army uniforms, and dumped on the Polish border as false evidence of Polish aggression in order to justify for the German invasion of Poland. During the first month of the war, 1,000 political prisoners were transferred from Dachau to Flossenbürg as Dachau temporarily became a training camp for Waffen-SS soldiers; these prisoners would return to Dachau in Mar 1940. In Apr 1940, Czech and Polish protestors, resistance fighters, and others arrested for anti-occupation activities in conquered foreign lands arrived at the camp. In May 1940, the construction of a crematorium was completed to handle the remains of those perished at the camp. In Apr 1941, the fourth quarry began operations. In mid-1941, Germany turned on its ally, the Soviet Union; as war raged on in the Russo-German war, Soviet prisoner population increased sharply at Flossenbürg. In early 1943, one of the four quarries was shut down in order to shift the labor power toward manufacturing. German aircraft manufacturing firm Messerschmitt was foremost among the firms that acquired slave labor from Flossenbürg, paying DEST 3 Reichsmarks per day for a skilled laborer and 1.5 Reichsmarks per day for an unskilled prisoner. Arado, another aircraft manufacturing firm, made use of Flossenbürg slave laborers as well. Prisoners were also used in synthetic oil production and railway repairs. At this time, about half the prisoners were working in quarries and half in war production. By the end of 1943, the camp employed about 450 German guards (both SS and non-SS personnel) and 140 Ukrainian auxiliaries. In early 1944, as war production quickly became DEST's most profitable enterprise, only about 1,000 prisoners were still working in the quarries at Flossenbürg. The prisoner population increased dramatically during 1944, and by the end of the year, the camp system (main camp plus subcamps) was housing 40,437 prisoners; the number of guards increased as well, to about 4,500 near the end of the war, which included 500 female SS personnel. As of 14 Apr 1945, the date which Himmler ordered all concentration camps to be evacuated, the prisoner population (including subcamps) was 45,800, 16,000 of which were women.

ww2dbaseThe first Flossenbürg subcamp was created in Feb 1942 at Stulln, Germany, about 50 kilometers to the south of Flossenbürg, providing forced laborers to a mining company which operates in southern Germany and in occupied Czechoslovakia. Starting from late 1943, in order to expand Germany's war production capabilities, Flossenbürg created 48 additional subcamps for that purpose. The most well-known subcamps of Flossenbürg included Johanngeorgenstadt, Hersbruck, and Leitmeritz.

ww2dbaseThe main Flossenbürg camp was liberated by the US Army on 23 Apr 1945. Its subcamps were liberated by both American and Soviet troops. Somewhere between 89,964 to 100,000 prisoners passed through Flossenbürg and its subcamps. Among them, about 30,000 died from malnutrition, disease, hypothermia, exhaustion, executions, and the forced marches out of the main camp and subcamps at the end of the war. About half of the deaths occurred at the main camp. About 10% of the total death occurred before 1943, 15% between 1943 and mid-1944, and 75% in the final nine months of the war (autumn 1944 to May 1945). Some of the administrators and guards were tried and convicted in the Flossenbürg trial. Out of the 52 charged, 40 would be found guilty. 15 of them received death sentences, 11 received life sentences, and 14 received prison terms of varying lengths; some of the sentences would later be reviewed and lessened. In 2007, the site became a memorial and museum.

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Interactive Map

Photographs

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Timeline