As with many other camps, the inmates of Lauingen worked on aircraft production for Messerschmitt, assembling parts for fighter aircraft. According to Dachau KZ blog, Messerschmitt rented premises in Lauingen owned by Hödel & Böhm, a local landmascinenfabrik (agricultural equipment factory), and the Ernstfeller cloth factory, for the production of aircraft parts.

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The first prisoners entered Lauingen in May 1944 and were initially held in a cellar beneath a factory production hall owned by Ködl & Böhm. An additional 300 prisoners arrived in August 1944 and were moved to the Ernst Feller factory. Standards of hygiene were appalling, with no washing facilities which resulted in an outbreak of lice. This prompted the construction of a number of barracks at Birkackerhof on the Lauingen-Wittislingen road and this became the new subcamp. The first camp commandant was named 'Bautz' according to some former prisoner accounts. He remained in this post until August 1944. His successors were named 'Bessler' and 'Beck'. The workplaces were supervised by civilians, one of whom, Georg Brummer, mistreated the prisoners. The Kapos in the armaments factory were Max Knoll and Walter Herderich, both of whom appear to have been feared by the prisoners. The complex was enclosed by a brick wall, with no barbed wire or watchtowers. 

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Most of the 300 prisoners who worked in Lauingen were criminals. Almost half of them were Russian, although there were also a number of Germans. Prisoners worked two 12-hour shifts from 6am to 6pm and 8pm to 6am. Approximately 60 percent of the prisoners worked on aircraft components while the remainder worked in a pumping station at Birkackerhof, requiring an initial daily march of four to five kilometres. Upon arrival, they had to stand in water up to their knees draining trenches. Anyone unable to work was shot, according to the testimony of a former prisoner (Statement, Stanislaw K., 23 January 1970, in Ludwigsburg, ZSt.IV410 AR 704/69).

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Food was generally poor quality and included occasional servings of meat with noodles on Saturdays and Sundays. However, at least one of the camp commanders introduced improved food rations upon receiving a complaint from one of the prisoners. Local physician Dr. Felix Kircher provided medical care, usually in his private medical practice but also administering some of the more seriously ill prisoners to the local hospital. However, this was reported to the parent camp at Dachau and Kircher was immediately banned from treating the inmates. Another civilian doctor, Fritz Barth subsequently took over as camp doctor. The most seriously ill were transferred back to Dachau and an X-ray survey was conducted that revealed ten percent of the prisoners were sick. Those suffering from TB were also transferred to Dachau, while at Lauingen all new inmates were X-rayed in order to prevent a re-occurrence of infection. Following each examination, the camp medical committee removed the dead. The seriously ill prisoners were 'liquidated'. 

 

Slovakian historian Professor Koloman Gajan was arrested in December 1944 and was held captive in six different concentration camps until the end of the war, including Sachsenhausen, Bergen-Belsen, Kaufering, Landsberg, Lauingen, and Allach. He fell ill with typhus during his stay at Lauingen.

 

“I was at the exit of the building, I even felt that some ‛good’ guy took my shoes off" said Gajan, speaking to The Memory of Nations. "Some unknown people had already written me off. When the committee came, everybody able of reporting had to stand up and say his/her number and ‛Melde gehorsam, gesund’ (able to report, healthy). I saw my friends looking at me and waiting to see if I would stand up or not. They almost hypnotised me to help me get up and report. How it happened I cannot say even today, but I got up and reported myself. The committee did not have time to deal with us so they passed on. Right after that, I fell".

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Fortunately, some friends of Mr Gajan's took him behind a barrack where he was able to warm himself in the sun. “As if by magic, I got well" he added.

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By March 1944, there were 3,000 prisoners in the camp. Most of them were Jews, political prisoners, and prisoners of war. 380 prisoners arrived from Bergen-Belsen on 6th March 1945, but every tenth prisoner among them was dead due to an American air raid on Würzburg. The party had set out from Belson on 25th February with 600 prisoners. Dr Kircher reported that several of them died of intestinal catarrh and debilitation. Kircher was subsequently interrogated by the Kriminal Polizei and the local SS informed him that he was to stop providing medical care to the prisoners. An epidemic of typhus then broke out. The number of deaths caused is unknown but 62 inmates were buried at Lauingen cemetery and the total number of deaths was probably around 100. On top of this must be counted the monthly trip to Dachau, each of which transferred 50 prisoners to Dachau, of whom few are likely to have survived.

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Beatings of the prisoners by Kapos and the SS were not well received by the local population. Employees of Ködel & Böhm made complaints resulting in a cessation of beatings on company premises. A further protest in response to the public hanging of a prisoner who had tried to escape resulted in executions in Lauingen being stopped.

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The camp was closed on 12th April and remaining prisoners marched to Augsburg where they were put to work for ten days building anti-tank trenches. Some inmates were taken to Donauwörth where they were hit by an air raid. Others were liberated by the Americans in Meiningen near Augsburg. The remainder were taken to Dachau.

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A public prosecution in 1978 was closed down because none of the perpetrators could be reliably identified, but a memorial plaque was later fixed to the outer wall of the church of the former cemetery of St. John.

 

Original authors of the German accounts: Albert Knoll/Zdenek Zofka