Kaufering concentration camp

Kaufering concentration camp

:"This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL."

Kaufering concentration camp was a network of subsidiary camps of the Dachau concentration camp.

With the intensification of the Allied air war against German industrial and military enterprises after 1943, the German Armaments Ministry and the Schutzstaffel (SS) agreed to accelerate construction of massive underground factories, using large numbers of conscripted laborers and concentration camp prisoners. Hundreds of satellite camps attached to major Nazi concentration camps were established throughout the German Reich in 1944 and 1945. Inmates were compelled to hollow out the sides of mountains or caves for immense systems of tunnels and factories that would be secure from Allied bombs. Those who survived these tasks were often used to build new weaponry, such as the Messerschmitt 262 (ME-262) jet-fighter or V-2 rockets.

In Bavaria, two major camp systems, Mühldorf and Kaufering, were set up as subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp. Its inmates provided the labor necessary to build subterranean facilities for fighter aircraft production in the Landsberg area. The region was chosen in part because of its favorable geological composition for the construction of mammoth underground installations, which were to be insulated by 9 to 15 feet thick concrete walls. To house the concentration camp prisoners, the SS created camps near the proposed industrial sites. At the Kaufering and Mühldorf camps, prisoners often slept in poorly heated and badly provisioned earthen huts, which were partially submerged in the soil and covered with earth to disguise them from the air. The larger of Kaufering's 11 camps each contained several thousand prisoners, the vast majority of whom were Jews. Disease, malnutrition, and the brutal conditions in the workplace and in the camps took its toll on the inmates, resulting in a high mortality rate.

As U.S. armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move.

In popular culture

Liberation of Kaufering was described in the episode Why We Fight of "Band of Brothers".

ee also

* List of Nazi-German concentration camps

External links

* [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006171 Kaufering] USHMM
* [http://www.kaufering.com Kaufering] Kaufering Online Memorial


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dachau concentration camp — American troops guard the main entrance to Dachau just after liberation …   Wikipedia

  • Kaufering — Infobox Ort in Deutschland Wappen = lat deg = 48 |lat min = 05 lon deg = 10 |lon min = 53 Lageplan = Bundesland = Bayern Regierungsbezirk = Oberbayern Landkreis = Landsberg am Lech Höhe = 585 630 Fläche = 17.70 Einwohner = 9884 Stand = 2007 05 31 …   Wikipedia

  • Liste Des Camps De Concentration Nazis — Cette liste comprend les camps de concentration, les camps de concentration de jeunes, les camps d extermination, camps de transit et divers autres camps similaires de la période du Troisième Reich. Sommaire 1 Camps de concentration des années… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Liste des camps de concentration nazis — Cette liste comprend les camps de concentration, les camps de concentration de jeunes, les camps d extermination, camps de transit et divers autres camps similaires de la période du Troisième Reich. Sommaire 1 Camps de concentration des années… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • List of World War II topics (K) — # K 25 # K ration # K class submarine (Soviet) # K is for Killing # K. P. K. Menon # K?ichi Kido # K?ichi Shiozawa # K?ki Hirota # K?s? Abe # K?saku Aruga # K?tar? Nakamura # KA BAR # Ka tzetnik # Kaarlo Mäkinen # Kaba Diawara # Kabaty # Kabayama …   Wikipedia

  • 12th Armored Division (United States) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=12th Armored Division caption=12th AD Shoulder sleeve insignia dates=15 Sep 1942 3 Dec 1945 country=United States allegiance= branch=AUSType= [Pimpalicousnmen] type=Armored Division role= size= command structure=… …   Wikipedia

  • 103rd Infantry Division (United States) — Infobox Military Unit unit name= 103d Infantry Division caption= 103rd Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia dates= 1942 1945 country= United States of America allegiance= United States of America branch= United States Army type= role= size …   Wikipedia

  • Edward Heffron — Edward Babe Heffron (born May 16, 1923) is an American former United States Army paratrooper. Born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was a veteran Private of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) attached to… …   Wikipedia

  • Norbert Frýd — (born Norbert Fried) (21 April 1913 – 18 March 1976) was a Czech writer, journalist and diplomat. He is known mainly for his autobiographical novel Krabice živých (A Box of Lives, 1956), in which he describes his experiences in Nazi concentration …   Wikipedia

  • Konzentrationslager — Die Konzentrationslager für Zivilpersonen (Abkürzung: KZ oder KL) wurden in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus zwischen 1933 und 1945 im Deutschen Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten von Organisationen der NSDAP errichtet. Es waren schließlich… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”