Forgotten Horrors: The Nazi sub-camp system

  Bensberg was a small subcamp established in a Nazi elite boarding school called the National Political Educational Institute (NAPOLA), which had moved into an 18th-century hunting lodge in Bensberg (a castle – Schloss Bensberg), twelve kilometers east of Cologne. SA-Gruppenführer Paul Holthoff, the school’s director, requested forced labourers to carry out repairs and extensions and in autumn 1943, 20 prisoners arrived from a subcamp in Cologne, although it is not known whether or not they were actually accommodated at the site. The building became an official Buchenwald subcamp in late 1944. Reports state that prisoners slept in one of the cellars, which may have been used for storing bicycles. The subcamp was initially classified as a detachment of Construction Brigade III, based in Cologne. However, from mid-May 1944 it became known as “Napola Bensberg.” Only 13 prisoners passed through the camp, making it the smallest Buchenwald subcamp. They were all skilled – roofers, carpe...

The site of the Leimbach camp   The site of the Ludwig Renntier subcamp is in Leimbach, on the eastern edge of Bad Salzungen. As at Heinrich Kalb, the SS accommodated the prisoners at Ludwig Renntier underground in an old mine chamber at the Kaiseroda I potash shaft in Hambach.    The Kaiseroda potash shaft They slept on the floor of the chamber on straw. No water supply was available there. From February 1945, an additional accommodation site was established, in a factory building on the site of a former potash plant in Leimbach. This was being used as an ammunition factory at the time. It included an infirmary, kitchen and clothing store. A political prisoner by the name of Ernst Hausmann was appointed by the SS as camp elder. Sixty-three escape attempts are recorded for this site, with one mass escape involving at least 27 prisoners. For further information, see the Buchenwald Subcamp Portal . The Kaiseroda potash shaft seen from the nearby road      

  The Heinrich Kalb site is upper left. In the spring of 1944, the potash mines along the Werra River began to be used for underground aircraft components production by BMW, which wanted to move part of its aircraft engine factory into these mines, particularly the mine owned by the Wintershall Group near Bad Salzungen. To help facilitate this, the SS established two new subcamps in early 1945, codenamed “Ludwig Renntier” and “Heinrich Kalb.” Prisoners from the Heinrich Kalb subcamp were forced to work at the Heiligenroda III mine complex in Springen, located approximately 12 kilometres northwest of Bad Salzungen. The prisoner accommodation was actually 300 metres underground, in a large disused gallery of the mine. This meant that sanitary and hygienic conditions there were awful. Despite this, although the arrangement was originally intended to be temporary, it became permanent, with prisoners only allowed to visit the surface for brief intervals. 500 prisoners from Buchenwald we...