Before and throughout the Second World War, the Nazis and the Third Reich opened a huge
network of Concentration camps in which they employed many sadistic SS guards and members
of staff.
These men and women were tasked with inflicting such suffering onto the prisoners of the camp,
and a number after the end of the Second World War were sentenced to death and executed for
their crimes.
But there were a huge number who were never brought to trial, many of these were murderers
and complicit in the horrific crimes.
There was one concentration camp found inside of the Fichtel Mountain region of Bavaria
in which 30,000 people were killed inside of.
Flossenburg Concentration Camp’s numbers swelled to a large amount during the conflict,
but despite the hundreds if not thousands of staff working there, only a small number
were executed for their crimes which took place there.
Join us today as we look at, ‘The justified executions of the guards of Flossenburg,’
remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
As the Nazis increased their stranglehold over Germany, the SS and the Gestapo began
to round up huge numbers of those deemed undesirable by the state.
The plan was to use these prisoners in slave labour, and the intention was to use them
to quarry granite which was in high demand in the huge building projects across Germany.
On the 24th March 1938, a site near to the small town of Flossenburg was chosen for the
creation of a concentration camp because of its location close to a blue-tray granite
quarry.
It was a rather remote site and was not close to a rail junction or a huge city, and Flossenburg
was a poor rural area, which had 1200 people living there with most of the people working
in the local quarries.
Initially, the plans were to build 8 barracks and in April 1938 the SS guards arrived and
the following month 100 prisoners from Dachau arrived.
More prisoners joined the camp, and Himmler visited to see how things were going.
The new prisoners had to create the camp themselves, and they started making the barbed wire fences,
and the work was heavy and dangerous with prisoners firstly living in makeshift barracks.
At the same time as the camp was being made, many were being sent to the quarries and as
the barracks were completed, guard towers, sewer systems and other infrastructure was
being made.
The prisoners who were dressed in polish uniforms during the false flag operation to justify
the German invasion of Poland came from Flossenburg as they had died from the conditions there.
By September 1939, more prisoners were arriving at Flossenburg and the numbers of the camp
increased with a number of foreign prisoners being kept there.
Initially mostly those who were resistant to the Nazis were housed at the camp, but
following the outbreak of the Second World War a large number of Polish prisoners of
war and Soviet POWs arrived there.
Many would spent many months recovering at Flossenburg as the conditions in other camps
were so bad they were not fit enough to work.
However over the years the camp would expand to a huge site of slave labour with dozens
of thousands of people being sent there.
Working there were many guards including 500 SS women who were part of the guard force
at the camp, and as it went on there were many more sub camps established.
There were four quarries that were found close to the main camp, and there were a huge number
of accidents there which resulted in many prisoner deaths.
The work inside the quarry was hard and dangerous, but there were some prisoners were were trained
as specialist stonemasons.
Much of the stone cut was used in projects such as the creation of the Autobahn, and
Flossenburg became one of the most prosperous concentration camps.
But as time went on the quarries were shut down, and the focus became armaments and specifically
creation of aircraft parts.
Prisoners were used to create parts for Messerschmitt Bf109s, and they would make the different
parts inside the camp.
In terms of conditions at Flossenburg, the quarries caused a higher death rate.
Prisoners suffered with a severe lack of fresh water, and rather cold and wet weather due
to the location of the camp and the clothing they were given was not adequate with many
suffering from hypothermia.
As the camp became overcrowded also, the barracks became full and the prisoners were forced
to sleep and work in shifts to maintain productivity, but disease also ran rampant there.
The undernourished prisoners caught many deadly diseases such as dysentry which at times even
shut down the camp, and typhus also ran rampant killing thousands in September 1944 and January
1945.
Around 30,000 prisoners died there, and many also died inside of the sub camps.
Guards would force prisoners to work incredibly hard, but in the final months of the camp
things broke down.
The large number of transports caused conditions to get much worse, and the death rate increased
hugely, and there was not enough space inside of the infirmary.
Because of this all sick prisoners were sent to Bergen-Belsen, and a police force was established
made up of Ethnic German prisoners who mistreated and beat the other prisoners badly.
Himmler would order the evacuation of the camp, and it was said that ‘not a single
prisoner must fall into the enemy hands,’ and as soon as this was received the plans
were made to evacuate Flossenburg.
Many prisoners were loaded on trains and one of these was strafed by American aircraft
which killed many, but thousands more were force marched to camps such as Dachau.
These marches were horrific, and at many of the sub camps, the SS would massacre Jewish
prisoners before evacuating.
The death marches from Flossenburg cost the lives of around 7000 prisoners.
However, as the war was coming to an end the focus shifted to placing those who worked
at Flossenberg on trial.
The US Army appointed 11 investigators, and many members of staff who worked there were
arrested and 51 defendants were indicted at the Flossenburg Trial.
The defendants were tried before a US military court at Dachau between the 12th June 1946
and the 22nd January 1947, and all pleaded not guilty.
33 of them were lower ranking members of the SS, 16 were former prisoners who were given
roles such as capos, and two were civilians.
At trial a huge number of witnesses came forward to testify about what happened at the camp,
and how many guards would kill and brutalise prisoners without a care, and would give them
little food and how poor the treatment was there.
Most of the defendants were accused of neglecting, mistreating and killing prisoners inside the
camp and also on the death marches, and most of the accused were members of the SS or the
Waffen SS along with the prisoner functionaries.
On the 22nd January 1947, the judges announced the sentences and 15 death sentences were
given out to those who worked at the camp.
Later three of these sentences were reduced to life imprisonment, however those executed
were; Konrad Blomberg the Head of the political department, Christian Mohr a high ranking
guard, Ludwig Schward the Head of the Hersbruck sub camp, Bruno Sierra the Head of a guard
company, Albert Roller the Head of the Legenfeld sub camp, Erhard Wolf a Block Leader and head
of the camp’s prison, Josef Wurst who worked in security outside the camp at the quarries,
Cornelius Scanner, the command leader of two sub camps, Josef Hauser Christian Eisbusch
and Will Olschewski and August Ginschel who were Kapos.
All of the condemned were then transferred to Landsberg Prison to await their executions.
They were kept here for a number of months and at this time Landsberg and the gallows
there were very busy with hundreds of Nazi war criminals being executed on the structure
there.
On the 3rd October 1947, the majority of men found guilty for their crimes at Flossenberg
were executed.
They were all brought from their cells on after the other, and were then flanked by
many American guards and members of staff.
They were led up to the gallows accompanied by a priest, who remained with them until
they were handed over to the executioner.
The executioner then made his preparations, and the hands and arms were checked that they
were secured, before a black hood was placed over the heads of the men.
After this the noose was placed, and then quickly the lever was pulled releasing the
trapdoor and the men plunged to their deaths.
They were then quickly placed in a coffin after death had been confirmed by a doctor.
Despite around 30,000 prisoners dying inside the barbed wire fences of Flossenberg, very
few guards and members of staff actually faced justice at the end of the war.
Most of the guards managed to evade capture and would never face a judge or up to their
crimes.
There were scores of female guards also brought to the camp, but none of these really ever
faced trial or the hangman’s noose.
What is for certain though is that the conditions at Flossenburg were brutal and horrific, and
the work that the prisoners were forced to do was back-breaking, dangerous and incredibly
hard.
Today many of the crimes of Flossenburg Concentration Camp remain untold.
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