In May 1938 the SS opened a newly built Concentration Camp, Flossenburg, near the small town of the same name in north-eastern Bavaria.
Criminals and Anti-Socials in Flossenburg
The SS owned a quarry near to the Flossenburg camp and it was intended that the prisoners would be forced to work there. At first Flossenburg had a very low population and most of its inmates had been transferred from Dachau Concentration Camp. By the end of 1938 the population of Flossenburg began to increase steadily. The majority of inmates were criminals and anti-socials along with political prisoners and a small number of homosexuals.
Flossenburg during the Second World War
By 1940 as the war progressed so did the Wehrmacht’s expansion into Europe; Flossenburg began to receive prisoners of all different nationalities. Most of there were classed as political prisoners, such as people who belonged to the Polish resistance, there was also French, Dutch and Czech political prisoners. By 1941 Soviet POWs were brought to Flossenburg, they were kept in a separate sub camp to other prisoners; a large majority of these POWs were shot not long after their arrival.
Jewish Prisoners in Flossenburg
Flossenburg was another camp where the number of Jewish inmates held there remained relatively low until the closing stages of the Second World War. In early 1945 with the Allies approaching Germany from east and west the SS evacuated camps in these areas bringing an influx of thousands of Jewish prisoners to Flossenburg.
Conditions in Flossenburg
The inmates were forced to work in the nearby quarry and other factories that were built around Flossenburg and its sub camps, where conditions were atrocious, with many inmates literally being worked to death. As in all other camps inadequate rations and poor sanitary conditions meant that infectious diseases such as typhus and cholera were rife. What made Flossenburg different from other Concentration Camps was the large number of criminals there were particularly cruel to other prisoners, the criminals stuck together and formed their own hierarchy as they would do in a normal prison, their activities were largely overlooked by the SS guards.
Liberation of Flossenburg in 1945
As the Allies were approaching Germany in the final days of the Second World War, the SS began to evacuate Flossenburg as they had done already with others camps to the east and west. At this time, thousands of prisoners had arrived at Flossenburg when Buchenwald was evacuated. All prisoners who could walk were forced out of Flossenburg on Death Marches, heading towards Dachau. Although thousands of prisoners died en route, thousands more were liberated. There was less than 2,000 prisoners remaining in Flossenburg when US Forces reached it; unfortunately a number of these prisoners were severely ill and did not survive. Most recent estimates put the death toll in Flossenburg at around 30,000 people, although these figures can never be exact.
Sources
Burleigh, M. The Third Reich: A New History. London: Macmillan, 2001.
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