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Pollnhof

Pollnhof.JPG

According to Sabine Schalm, writing on Dachau KZ blog, Pollnhof was a sub-camp located on the Pollnhof Estate in Dachau. Only fragmentary bits of information about it survive unfortunately. In the 1970s, an investigation by the Central Office in Ludwigsburg provided a small insight into what went on here. The Estate belonged to one of the agricultural holdings in Dachau, situated near the camp and owned, managed and administered by the SS, alongside other holdings such as various plantations, a Kräutergarten (herb garden) and the Liebhof, a larger estate also in Dachau. It seems that around 50 prisoners worked on the Pollnhof Estate in and/or from 1942. The prisoners would rise at 6 am every day, apart from Sundays, which was not a workday, and walk 1.5 kilometres to the Estate, accompanied by SS guards. Once at the Estate, they would be separated into small groups and perform various agricultural tasks before walking back to the camp in the evening for the Roll Call.

[Rewrite this]The manor was led by a Sergeant, by the  name of Reise. He was also responsible for the distribution of work to be done and divided the prisoners into several teams.. A detachment commander did not exist on the Pollnhof but ten SS men who guarded the prisoners in the work was always present. The composition of the guards changed daily. While there were no killings of prisoners on the Pollnhof are known, but wines reports indicate of server mistreatments. If a prisoner was ought stealing a carrot or a potato on the field, he was immediately beaten on the spot and subsequently taken off the the working Kommando. Returning to the camp the delinquent would receive an additional beating (Prügelstrafe).
For a period of about four weeks from March 1945, alongside the daily coming and returning inmate commando from the camp, there was a permanent satellite camp on the estate for a limited period. Josef S. remembers that the six other Polish POW s and a Kapo was housed in a small room next to the horse stables. The approximate  opening date is given as  March 1 145, there was a good reason for this change. The prisoners were quartered on the Pollnhof because of the prevailing Typhoid fever epidemic in the Stammlager (Nain Camp). During this time, the eight prisoners took care exclusively of the horses on the farm. After four weeks, these prisoners continued to work on the farm, but they were then as the remaining commando again housed in the concentration camp.
About the fate of work commando Pollnhof survivors report that they marched out of the camp until 25 April 1945 to the farm. The inmate file of the  Polish protective custody prisoner Stanislaus Kiszka contains the the entry 'freed Pollnhof' (befreit Pollnhof). This is the only indication that, even after the 25th April 1945, there  were one or maybe several prisoners still working on the estate.
The old manor house still stands but is now a residential building surrounded by a densely built apartment area.

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