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Flossenbürg Concentration
Camp Site
In May 1938 a concentration camp was
established at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, near the Czech border.
This camp was originally intended for criminals, "asocial" persons,
and Jews, but it
grew to include political prisoners and foreign prisoners of war. The largest number of
the latter were Soviets. The site was chosen for its granite hills, and prisoners were put
to work in a large quarry.
Flossenbürg was liberated by the
U.S. Army on 23 April 1945. By that time, some 30,000 inmates had died in Flossenbürg and
its subcamps. (Memorials at the camp state the number as over 74,000, but recent research
indicates it was around 30,000.)
Among those killed were Admiral Wilhelm
Canaris, Pastor
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, General Hans Oster, and others involved in the plot to kill
Hitler on 20 July 1944 (see the Berlin page for
more details). These men had been arrested following the collapse of the plot, but they
were held in various prisons and camps until being sent to Flossenbürg, where they were
hanged on 9 April 1945, shortly before the liberation. (Google
Maps link)
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Flossenbürg
headquarters building, in the SS camp area. Today it houses a film room with an interpretive video. |
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original building of the SS camp also survives, just outside the
memorial grounds. It was the SS Casino (officers club and dining hall),
and is now a privately-owned restaurant. This building can be seen in
the period photos below, above the headquarters building (left) and over
the camp gate area (right). ( KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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| Some of
the camp officials and higher ranking SS personnel were housed in a
specially constructed housing area on a hillside near the camp. These
period log houses with stone foundations are still in use today. |
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On the left, the main gate to the
prisoner area of the camp, seen on 3 May 1945 following the liberation. The
gate motto "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Works Makes You Free) appeared
on the gate post at Flossenbürg, instead of the more common position of
the gate ironwork itself. These gate posts were later moved to the
memorial area called the "Valley of Death," overlooking the crematorium
(without the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign). (U.S. National
Archives RG 111SC-207008) |
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| The gate
to the prisoner area, with one of the gateposts, can be seen just to the
right of the small gatehouse building in the center of the period photo.
The buildings seen here were all razed after the war, except the two
large buildings in the center distance - the kitchen and laundry
buildings for the prisoners - and the guard tower on the hill. (KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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None of the period
barracks remain at the Flossenbürg site, but some hard buildings such as
the prisoners laundry and kitchen have been preserved, as well as three of the
original guard towers. (KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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| Another
view of the Flossenbürg camp, showing one of the guard towers on the
hillside beyond (left side of the photo). This tower can still be seen
on the site (the modern view is taken from down in the camp area,
looking past the prisoners kitchen building, which is being restored).
(National Archives) |
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A part
of one of the prison buildings where the Resistance prisoners were held
has been refurbished and now has a display on the
history of the camp. A memorial plaque on the wall outside honors Bonhoeffer, Canaris,
Oster, and others who were executed here in April 1945. (period photo from KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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On the
left, original barbed wire fenceposts can be seen beside the stairway
leading down to the crematorium. The Flossenbürg crematorium is
the original building. |
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crematorium was actually a small building with only a dissection room
and one oven. (U.S. Army photo) |
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| Ashes
from the crematorium were dumped in several locations, including this
"Pyramid of Ashes" (left photo, center), which is now part of
the "Valley of Death" memorial, adjacent to the crematorium.
The area includes a memorial at a mass execution site and the Square of
Nations, with memorial plaques honoring victims from every country
represented at Flossenbürg. The chapel was built of stones from
demolished guard towers (and incorporates an adjacent guard tower in its
structure). The "Valley of Death" is the oldest concentration
camp memorial in Bavaria (1946). |
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Two of the Flossenbürg casualties
were unknown American air crewmen POWs. This memorial in the Square of
Nations was placed by the Association of
Polish Veterans. |
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These markers was placed by
survivors of the Flossenbürg camp, in honor of their liberation by the
U.S. Army 90th and 97th Infantry Divisions. |
Flossenbürg
Quarry Site
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Flossenbürg quarry was located to the west of the camp. Prisoners
worked here quarrying granite blocks for Nazi construction projects,
under the direction of the SS company DESt (Deutsche Erd und Steinwerke
- German Earth and Stone Works). The quarry (and indeed, most of
Flossenbürg) was overlooked by the ruins of the Flossenbürg fortress.
These ruins figured in the 1974 film "The ODESSA File," when
John Voight's character, posing as an ex-camp guard to gain entrance to
the SS veterans group, correctly identified the fortress ruins as the
feature that could be seen from anywhere in the camp. Below, an SS guard
watches over a work detail, with the ruins of the fortress visible in
the distance. (KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg) |
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| The
quarry as it appeared in 1945, and the quarry site today. The quarry is still in
use. ( KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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| Some of
the original buildings of the SS quarry works remain today. The building
in the modern photo is the garage building seen at the upper left of the
period photo (the other buildings are no longer standing). ( KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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| These
buildings, part of a stonemasons workshop complex, also exist at the
quarry site. ( KZ-Gedenkstätte
Flossenbürg) |
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| Another
of the original stonemason workshop buildings at the quarry site. |
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| This
building located on top of the hill overlooking the quarry was the
administration building of the SS DESt company. |
Click here
to read eyewitness accounts of the Flossenbürg camp by its U.S. Army liberators.
Flossenbürg page (in German) -- http://www.gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de/
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum page
-- http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.jsp?ModuleId=10005537
Guide to Flossenbürg (English) --
http://members.tripod.com/~p_heigl/main.html
The Flossenbürg Messages (Geoff
Sullivan) -- http://cryptocellar.org/Flossenbuerg
Other concentration camp sites -- Dachau,
Buchenwald, Dora (Nordhausen), Sachsenhausen, S/III Jonastal, Mauthausen (includes Gusen), Ebensee
(Austria)
Memorial Museums for the Victims of National Socialism in
Germany -- http://212.68.78.12/gfue/de/index.html
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