Landsberg

Landsberg was located to the north of the town of Landsberg am Lech. It is often easily confused with the Kaufering camp system, particularly Kaufering I (later renumbered Kaufering III). However, Dachau KZ blog identifies the location as being on the Fliegerhorst (Airfield) Penzing near Landsberg on the Lech. For this reason, it was also known as Penzig or Fliegerhorst Penzig. The camp was in operation from 14th July 1944 to 24th April 1945 and the prisoners were employed on the production of wings for fighter planes for Dornier and Messerschmitt.

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An 'Intake and Release Book' from the camp mentions around 647 names of which about 400 were French. These were apparently political prisoners who had arrived at Dachau in spring 1944, according to former prisoner and labourer Albert Fuchs. Later arrivals included Polish, Russians, Ukrainians, French and a number of Jews. Fuchs mentions the arrival of around 200 prisoners on 8th April 1945, in poor condition, who rated Penzig favourably compared to other camps, praising the provision of individual beds and lack of vermin. At the end of April 1945, the camp held 429 prisoners, reducing to between 259 and 350 as the war ended. Out of a total of 647 prisoners brought to the camp, 232 returned to Dachau because of illness or for interrogation. Some prisoners also managed to escape.

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The camp was guarded by a platoon of former members of the Wehrmacht. The name of its first commandant is not known, but it seems he remained at Penzig until October 1944 when he was transferred to one of the Kaufering camps. A second camp commander was replaced after just a few weeks. The third commander was SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Wagner who may have been transferred from Riederloh in late November 1944. Under his command, conditions in the camp deteriorated considerably. Working hours were increased and the prisoners were closely watched. Wagner was a defendant in the Dachauer trials and was executed on 29th May 1946 Landsberg am Lech.

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According to the website Landsberger Zeitgeschichte, the French prisoners at Penzig were resistance fighters who had been sentenced by Petain's special courts and deported to Germany in February 1944 after the prison revolt in Eysses. Penzig was officially designated 'Dachau 3K' and it was located in the airfield's gymnasium (an aerial reconnaissance photo of the building can be found here). The guards were initially drawn from the Luftwaffe, then from the Volkssturm. The prisoners were forced to repair the airfield runway after it had been destroyed by allied bombing raids and also to defuse unexploded bombs. Towards the end of the war, the French resistance fighters were forced to march for two days to the subcamp at Allach.