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Forgotten Horrors

The Nazi sub-camp system

Kottern

Kottern

The Traces of War website pinpoints the location of a memorial to the inmates of a camp in the Weidach district of Kempten on the southern edge of the town. This was the camp of Kottern, and as the Dachau KZ blog makes clear, it is not to be confused with the separate, and presumably much smaller sub-camp of Kempten (Kempten had a maximum of 300 inmates and was established in 1942, while Kottern - sometimes called Kempten-Kottern or, more properly, Kottern-Weidach, was established in 1943 contained up to 1,500 inmates).

The Traces of War website mentions that Camp Kottern-Weidach operated from 1 October 1943 to 27 April 1945 and that the inmates had to work on the fabrication of Messerschmitt aircraft. 17 inmates died and the remainder were evacuated to Dachau, where many of them died. This again identifies Kottern as a different camp to that of Kempten, with a greater number of inmates.

Dachau KZ blog provides a little more information about Kottern. The prisoners apparently came from a number of European countries, including Italy, Poland, Latvia and Yugoslavia. The prisoners were initially held in the 'Stiefel' guest house and then in a former spinning mill owned by Messerschmitt. In early 1944, the prisoners were moved to the Weidach district, where they were forced to build the barrack huts themselves. Dachau KZ blog mentions that were as many as 750 prisoners, with a former camp leader estimating 700 and later 1,000. According to Dachau's Strength Report of 3rd April 3, 1945, there were 751 prisoners in the camp, with at least 588 people a few days before liberation.

Dachau KZ blog names the commander of Kottern as SS- First Sergeant Fritz Wilhelm, who was killed in action in 1945. He was replaced by SS-First Lieutenant Georg Deffner and then SS First Sergeant Edmund Zdrojewski. As in Kempten, some of the prisoners in Kottern were beaten by the guards. Some of them were also forced to stand to attention in the cold. 

Kempten GE.JPG

(Left) Google Earth screenshot showing the approximate location of the memorial to the inmates of the Kottern-Weidach camp.

(Right) Wikimedia Commons image of the memorial.

Kempten memorial.JPG
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