Landshut Slave Camp

Organisation Todt - Lager

Report about:

"Das Aussenkommando Landshut des Konzentrationslagers Dachau"
("The External Kommando Landshut of Concentration Camp Dachau")
Ms. A. B., Germany - With Many Thanks to City Archives Landshut -
- In Reference to the Author - Thanking for his help - : Prof. Dr. Georg Spitzlberger, Landshut, Germany

This will be a shortened but not a short report - with a number of examples.
It was not easy for me to get a full picture of this "Aussenkommando Landshut".
- The report was confusing because of these many different details inside:
- I am still thinking about a number of at least two camps - because in the text
you find information about prisoners from KZ Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg,too.
So I asked the author, Prof. Dr.Georg Spitzlberger, how to understand his description.
It turned out that he himself was a contemporary witness of those days in Landshut:
- A 14 years old boy.

Prof. Dr. Spitzlberger describes an "OT -Lager" (Organisation Todt - Lager)
which was in Landshut from September 1944 to the end of April 1945.
There were about 500 prisoners and they came from different concentration camps
- from Dachau as well as from Sachsenhausen - Oranienburg....

Summing Up:

"According to current definitions it was an extension branch for work but all in all you get
the repulsive view of a labor camp with people in lack of freedom and held under inhuman
circumstances which resulted with death for more than 80 prisoners"...
(Spitzlberger, see title, page 151/152).

"There they came again"......
The boy was 14 years old when he met four or six thin prisoners in the street.
He had some apples with and he described how he let one apple roll to them -
being deeply scared -he watched one prisoner biting into this apple and his fear grew:
What would the guard do? Would he shoot?...But nothing happened.
Then the boy was able to dare to think:.. That he should have better shared all the apples...
....But what would this guard have done..."
(Spitzlberger:"Kindheit unter Kreuz und Sternen" -"Childhood under Cross and Stars")

In December 1944 a building squad of the "Organisation Todt" with about 60 people came
from Berlin to Landshut. They settled where was the former "Kleiner Exerzierplatz"
nearby the railway line Landshut - Plattling. There they built their baracks:
- A supplying camp for Wehrmacht with an administration barrack and 24 halls.....
Some time later in winter 1945 a separate Jewish camp was built, too.
About 500 Jewish people had to live in corrugated iron baracks..
.....there was an SS- Guard barrack, too.
Some prisoners spoke German; others were foreigners....
(Emslander, page 11)

2.) Continuance of the Slave Camp ( - Different descriptions - )

"This was the so called "Aussenkommando Landshut/ Bayern" - first mentioned in Sept.1944.
In Dec. 1944 Simon Klapstein arrived with his fellow sufferers in Landshut...when later
they were transported to Muehldorf am Inn.."
(Report of Simon Klapstein, Isar Post, 8 March 1946)

"Closing - or Evacuating: 22./24 April 1945 - to Wasserburg" (witness report)

"SS - Baubrigade und Eisenbahnkommando (Railway- Kommando) Landshut and Ahrain,
Bayern to 27.4.1945" (International Searching Service)

"Concentration Camp Kdo. of Dachau, working for OT Geraetelager Landshut established
20.12.44, 500 prisoners closed 6.2.45" (Dachau transfer books and invoices)
( Weinmann, page 556)

"Concentration Camp Kdo. of Sachsenhausen, starting mid April 44 and split into three details
viz., Sachsenhausen, Friedrich Kraus-Ufer in the former Auer factory and Berlin-Lichterfelde
...Berlin-Lichterfelde was soon closed, the prisoners being transferred to Friedrich-Kraus-Ufer,
in Oct.44 this Kdo. was reinforced and split into two details: Baubrigade 2a - Baubrigade 2b.
A Baubrigade 2c seems to have worked in Ferch..On 25.2.1945, 500 pris. have been
gathered from the detail 2a, 2b and 2c and an "Eisenbahnkommando" was established,
which went to Nuremberg, Regensburg, Landshut and Ahrain".(Weinmann, page 365)

"In February the camp was closed and they pushed the totally exhausted persons
towards direction Geisenhausen ." (Kagerbauer, in Ziegler-Schultes, page 397)

"On the End of War, before the Americans arrived on 1st May 1945, - the prisoners marched
over the Weinberg towards direction South into an unknown direction."
(Witnesses?L reports, Koenig, from 8 May 1989 and 23 April 1990)

"Some days before the American invasion the guard companies left the camp on foot
with the Jewish people. How far they came up to the American invasion is not known.
(Emslander, page 12)

3.) Guarding Staff and Working Deployments

"The Jews were taken for works under strictest SS-guarding in the OT-camp. There was built
a works siding to the rail network of the Reichsbahn, streets were built, the region was
levelled off and buildings were put up." (Emslander, page 11)

"In December 1944 Simon Klapstein arrived with his fellow sufferers in Landshut. They came
from Landsberg am Lech, 500 men, all of them Jews, 60 SS men accompanied them."
(Isar Post Nr. 16, 8 March1946)

"Bad was camp leader, SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Stoller, who was hanged meanwhile in Dachau,
worse was his deputy, SS-Unterscharfuehrer Henschel...(Isar Post, Nr. 16, 8 March 1946)

..."They had to load in and out cement, produce cement, had to do clearing up operations
after the air raids." (Isar Post Nr.16, 8 March 1946

"When leaving from the front, I visited the devasted Central Station Landshut and watched the
KL- prisoners from Berlin-Oranienburg who were brought daily from Furth by train."
(H. Trautmann, report from 17.4.1982)

4.) Prisoners

"The Jews were accomodated in corrugated iron baracks. Where they came from
has not become public. A majority spoke German. But there were foreigners, too.
There were about 500 Jews in the camp." (Emslander, page 11)

Out of the "Henschel - records" known Prisoners of the Aussenkommando Landshut:

William W. Wermuth came to the NL(sub camp) Landshut in January 1945.
He had taken Henschel to court from Hartfort USA, on 7 May 1968.
Hugo Kozen died in Landshut, January or Feb. 1945 (tortured by Henschel)
Walter Baer died after a transfer to Dachau on 22 Feb. 1945 (tortured by Henschel)

Former Prisoners of Camp Landshut who are listed as Witnesses in the "Henschel- records"

Louis Borgh from Marietta/ Georgia
Michael Braitberg from North Balwyn/ Australia
Dr. Meir Basler from Holon/ Israel
Hans Peritz from Pittsburgh /USA
Josef Gordom from Silverspring /USA
Paul Abramowitz from Chicago / USA
Josef Abir from Ramat Gan /Israel
Simon Klapstein from Monsey /USA
Nahama Alfandary - residence unknown
Motek Brajtberg, - residence unknown
Henrik Deutsch, - residence unknown
David Azy - residence unknown
Gustav Mass, deceased
Michel Borkowsky, deceased

5.) Living Conditions in the Camp

"The Jews were in a bad state of health. In those few months, many of them died
because of diseases and exhaustion." (Emslander, page 12)

"Baracks with walls, thin like paper, a sort of dog huts, through whose the wind whistled and
in whose the coldness entered directly. Heaters were there, but it was not allowed to use them.
..Food they got only one three-pound bread for 15 men a day, one pound margarine for 34 men;
in the morning and evening you got a cup of coffee, at midday a thin water soup.The prisoners
did not get meat, at least sometimes stinking horses meat on which they got a bad stomach.
Sometimes they got black pudding for 500 men - for ten days 22 and a half pound......
.....many many of them were very sick.....they could not get medical treatment, because the
two camp doctors, prisoners themselves, had neither material nor medicine...."
(Isar Post, Nr. 16. 8 March 1946- interview-report with Simon Klapstein)

6.) The Dead

"The dying rate through hunger, diseases and hard work was very high as well as
in most of the sub camps." (Puvogel, page 84)

"In these few months many persons died of diseases and exhaustion.
Always early in the mornings at 4 .00 the dead were driven by the prisoners with a so called
"panje- cart" to the cemetery Achdorf and buried there outside at the cemetery wall outside of
the former areal." (Emslander, page 11)

"It was frightening, every day in the early morning the barrage was opened and coming out
was a hand-cart full of deads...in front two prisoners tugged the cart and at the back
four prisoners had to shove to move it at all. The bodies were transported to the Achdorf
cemetery where they were buried in mass-graves."
(Kagerbauer, in: Ziegler-Schultes, page 396)

Four former prisoners reported about killing and torturing the prisoners -
five others declared they had not noticed any murder delicts in the sub camp Landshut;
the proceedings were abandoned because the defendand could not be identified anymore.

"In Winter 1944/ 45 the NS- Organisation Todt
Set up a supplying camp of Wehrmacht
At the "Kleiner Exerzierplatz".....
Here up to May 1945 83 Jews died due to the inhuman imprisonment.
They were buried at this place,
Outside of the former North wall of the cemetery Achdorf,
They were exhumed in November 1961
And buried in the KZ- Honor - Cemetery Flossenbuerg.
The deads' names are not known."( - Text of the plaque at Cemetery Achdorf - )

Sources and Literature:

-Akt "Henschel" SS-OSCHA im KL Dachau" der zentralen Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltung
Ludwigsburg (TV 410 AR 1371/68)
- Auerbach, Hellmuth, Institut fu?Nr Zeitgeschichte Muenchen: Brief vom 19.12.1989
- Emslander, Hans: Gedenktafel im Friedhof Achdorf fuer KZ-Angehoerige, Landshut 1981
- Internationaler Suchdienst (Hrsg.) Vorlaeufiges Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager
und deren Aussenkommandos sowie anderer Haftanstalten unter dem Reichsfuehrer-SS
in Deutschland und deutsch besetzten Gebieten(1933-1945), Arolson, Februar 1969.
- Isar-Post Nr. 16, 8. Maerz 1946 (Interview Simon Klapstein)
- Kagerbauer, Max (Erlebnisbericht) in : Ziegler-Schultes, Seite 396-397
- Kimmel, Guenther: Das Konzentrationslager Dachau, in Bayern in der NS-Zeit, Teil 2
- Klapstein, Simon (Interview), in Isar Post Nr. 16, 8. Maerz 1946
- Kloppert, Wilhelm (Bericht), in Emslander, H. Gedenktafeln, S. 10-11
- Koenig, Maria, muendliche Berichte vom 8.5.1989 und 23.4.1990.
- Spitzlberger, Georg: Das Aussenkommando Landshut des Konzentrationslagers Dachau,
Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins fuer Niederbayern 114-115,1988-1989,151-162
- Puvogel, Ulrike: Gedenkstaetten fuer die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Schriftenreihe
der Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung, Bd. 245, Bonn 1987.
- Trautmann, Heinz: Bericht vom 17.4.1982
- Trautmann, Heinz: LZ Juli 1990, Seite 42.
- Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Aussenkommandos
gemaess ??42Abs. 2 BEG, Bundesgesetzblatt Nr. 64 vom 24. September 1977, S. 42
- Weinmann, Martin: Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem, Frankfurt/Main 1990
- Ziegler-Schultes, Hildegard: Entweder - oder, Arbeiterbewegung in Landshut 1933-1949,
Bd. 2, Landshut 1987.

Links

Address of city municple office:

Street location:
Stadt Landshut
Altstadt 315
84028 Landshut

Post office address:
Stadt Landshut
Postfach
84026 Landshut

Email: hauptamt@landshut.de

City web site :

http://www.landshut.de

http://www.landkreis-landshut.de/startseite.asp?NAVIID={FB6C6D42-2306-4304-A37B-085203A2584B}

Gerta's story:

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/index.php?
content=phi_individuals_kurt_gerda_klein_uu.htm

For photos of old town Landshut, see www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de

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