Freiberg subcamp
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Freiberg was a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp located in Freiberg, Saxony.
In Freiberg in December 1943, preparations began for a subcamp of KZ Flossenbürg to house an outside detail at the Arado Flugzeugwerke (Arado Aircraft Factory). The planning and construction of the subcamp is an example of the collaboration between the armaments industry, the SS, and the Ministry of Armaments. The SS approved the application for the allocation of a prisoner work-detail that Arado had submitted within the context of the Jägerstab's (Fighter Staff) measures. In its building application, Arado was represented by a building commissioner of the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production (RMfRuK) based in Dresden. The Reich Industry Group (the lobbying organization for the armaments industry) for the Land of Saxony, Regional Office Dresden, undertook the planning of the subcamp.
Bureaucratic hurdles delayed the construction of the subcamp. When the first transport arrived on August 31, 1944, the barracks were not yet complete and the prisoners had to be lodged in the empty halls of a former porcelain factory.
According to concurring reports from many of the prisoners, they were personally selected at Auschwitz by Josef Mengele for deportation to Freiberg. He decided who went on the transport, who stayed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, and who was to be murdered immediately.
When the female prisoners were transferred to the still unfinished barracks in December 1944, they faced considerably worse living conditions. With bare feet and inadequate clothing, they were forced daily to walk half an hour in deep snow to the factory. Some also had to go to the Hildebrand munitions factory. The cold and wet concrete barracks, the brutality of the SS female guards, the physically draining work, and malnourishment soon claimed the lives of a number of prisoners. Though only five deaths were recorded in SS documents, the actual number may be higher.
Women who arrived at Freiberg pregnant and whose condition became apparent once they were there suffered especially. Priska Loewenbein (Lomova), a Slovak prisoner, gave birth to her daughter Hana on April 12, 1945, two days before Freiberg was evacuated. Other women gave birth during the evacuation transport or shortly after arriving at Mauthausen.
In addition to Hana, at least two more babies were born during the transport to Mauthausen. The three survived, much later learned of each other, and met at a 65th anniversary memorial at Mauthausen. If there were other babies, their fate is unknown. All three mothers survived to old age; in early 2012, one was still living in England at age 95, frail but with a clear, lively mind. None of the three fathers survived the war. Historians have found evidence that of the approximately one thousand women who began in Freiberg, about one hundred and twenty five definitely left Mauthausen alive. Possibly double that number actually survived, but starvation, disease and cold conditions claimed the majority.
The American soldiers (most from Patton's 3rd Army, mainly of the 11th Armored Division (Thunderbolts)) who liberated Mauthausen on May 5, 1945, were unprepared for what they found, but they quickly moved to help the sick and wounded. One young medic, Leroy Petersohn, age 22, a newspaper employee back home in Aurora, Illinois, not only provided medical help and supplies, but also some exceptional documentation. Within a week of arriving at Mauthausen he got use of a typewriter and made an extensive record of his observations. He also took numerous pictures and later gathered documents and artefacts. He gave valuable eyewitness testimony for people who had doubts about the facts of the concentration camps. Petersohn, members of his family and many members of the Thunderbolts befriended survivors of Mauthausen and formed a lifelong bond with them. Petersohn died in 2010, but he touched many lives in a quiet, heroic way. His writings and memorabilia are some of the clearest eyewitness reports touching on the above subjects. There were many thousands of prisoners at the Mauthausen liberation. This is just about the women transported from Freiberg.
Female SS guards, some of whom were recruited from the Freiberg area and some of whom came with the prisoners from Auschwitz, supervised the women. SS Unterscharfuehrer Richard Beck was in command at the camp and oversaw 27 SS Unterfuehrer and SS men, in addition to the females guards.
After work was halted on March 31, 1945, the prisoners at Freiberg were left on their own in the barracks. Food rations were reduced.
Prison demographics
The first transport arrived on August 31, 1944, with 249 primarily Polish Jewish women and girls from Auschwitz—whom the Flossenbürg commandant assigned prisoner numbers 53,423 through 53,671.
The second transport arrived on September 22, 1944, with 251 women from Auschwitz, also primarily Polish Jews, who were assigned prisoner numbers 53,672 through 53,922. The third transport was registered on October 12, 1944, delivering 501 Jewish women and girls—assigned prisoner numbers 53,923 through 54,171; 54,187 through 54,335 and 56,801 through 56,803—to Freiberg. This transport included 183 Czechs, 158 Slovaks, 90 Germans, 25 stateless persons, 23 Dutch, 14 Hungarians, 6 Poles, 1 Serbian, and 1 American. Additionally there was a Russian female doctor assigned with prisoner number 59,939.
The fact that the prisoners from each of the three transports were assigned consecutive numbers indicates that the transports were completely coordinated with the Flossenbürg main camp beforehand. In total, there were 1,002 women assigned to the outside detail at Freiberg. A strength report on January 31, 1945, still listed 996 women in the Freiberg camp.
Literature
Cziborra, Pascal. KZ Freiberg. Geheime Schwangerschaft. Lorbeer Verlag. Bielefeld 2008. ISBN 978-3-938969-05-2
