Annaburg



Annaburg was a remote subcamp situated just off the road between Annaburg and Schweidnitz (Schweinitz), three kilometres away from Annaburg. It served Siebel Flugzeugwerke A.G., based in Halle an der Saale (to the west of Annaburg), which had relocated part of its production to a factory in Annaburg. According to local residents’ stories, construction of the camp began in September or October 1944. It was located next to a wooded area on a flat, sandy rise known as the ‘White Hill’. The site was obscured from view from the road by a small stretch of woodland known as the ‘Goat Thicket’. Access was via a farm track. The first batch of prisoners arrived in January 1945. 

Building materials for the construction of the camp were delivered by a light railway. The camp consisted of three wooden barracks for the prisoners and a fourth stone barrack for the SS guards. An electrified barbed wire fence with three watchtowers surrounded the camp and there was a high wooden fence on one side to hide the site from passersby. Warning signs were installed every 100 to 200 metres warning people not to approach the area.

The SS barrack was located to the left of the entrance gate and contained a guardroom, office and mess hall. It also had a basement. There was a guard hut by the gate. Civilians delivering supplies were sworn to secrecy, lest they end up in a camp themselves.

According to records held by Buchenwald, there were around 100 prisoners in January 1945.

Most of the prisoners were politicals from Poland and the USSR, with others from Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. There was one German man named Karl Reich, who was considered a ‘career criminal’. The youngest prisoner was 15-year old Leszek Przyłuski from Warsaw, who arrived with his father Władysław, who did not survive.

The plant in Annaburg was located in two large halls of the Annaburg Earthenware Factory (established in 1833), covering an area of 1,600 square metres. The prisoners, who had to march three kilometres to reach their place of work, manufactured components, including the transport and launch carriages for V-1 flying bombs, working in 12-hour shifts with one Sunday as rest day every four weeks. Half the prisoners were regarded as skilled by the SS, the rest as unskilled.

 The earthenware factory in Annaburg

With no infirmary at the camp, a Soviet prisoner, Leonid Orlov, who was a trained medic, provided some medical care, but individual sick prisoners were transferred to Halle and presumably returned to Buchenwald.

One prisoner, 48-year-old Walenty Pelka from Warsaw, was one of seven sick prisoners returned to Buchenwald. He died of pulmonary edema there. No prisoners are known to have died in Annaburg itself.

The prisoners were guarded by 20 SS men, with SS-Hauptscharführer Franz Noll as camp commander, who also acted as commander of the guard detachment in Halle. He was subject to investigation but this was discontinued in 1975 due to Noll’s death.

The camp was evacuated on 16th March 1945. Eyewitnesses reported that all materials were disassembled and recycled and so nothing now remains of the camp.

For further information, see the Buchenwald Subcamp Portal.

 

 


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