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St Gilgen

St Gilgen.JPG

St Gilgen is a picturesque village situated near Lake Wolfgang, east of Salzburg. In April 1938, the commander of Dachau concentration camp, Hans Loritz, bought a large plot of land here, subsequently bringing from Dachau a group of nine Jehovah's Witnesses and one Polish prisoner, explaining that they were being brought to a new sub-camp. However, the prisoners were instead put to work constructing a villa for Loritz. This means that the additional entry on the ITS list of St Wolfgang is probably, according to the Dachau KZ blog, a confused identification, the two entries therefore being one and the same location. Dachau KZ blog also states that the party of prisoners were locked up in the local jail and that the local population of St Gilgen were very aware that they were concentration camp slave labourers.

In 1941, Loritz became the commander of Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Officially, the prisoners working in St Gilgen were still administered by Dachau, so Loritz sent another party of prisoners from Sachsenhausen, who were also Jehovah's Witnesses, to Dachau. These prisoners, now Dachau inmates, joined the construction project at St Gilgen. However, winter stopped work and these prisoners were transferred back to Sachsenhausen.

The prisoners at St Gilgen were accommodated at the villa itself. They worked on the construction of a gatehouse and on the creation of a garden with terraces and ponds with various water features. They were guarded by three SS guards commanded by Franz-Xaver Trenkle Woldgangsee. Survivor accounts vary with regard to working conditions, however some report injuries to the prisoners, some of which were the result of mistreatment by Trenkle, inflicted on them because they were apparently not working fast enough. 

It seems that other SS officers besides Loritz owned property in or near St Gilgen. Thus the prisoners also worked for Arthur Liebehenschels, the head of the Central Office of the SS Economic Main Administration. Loritz himself was subjected to disciplinary proceedings in 1942 relating to corruption and black market charges, resulting in his transfer to Norway. This transfer resulted in most of the prisoners being transferred to Sachsenhausen, with others being moved back to Dachau. The villa remained in Loritz's possession and was occupied by his wife and two sons.

After the war, Loritz tried to escape arrest by the allies and subsequently committed suicide. The villa was confiscated by the Republic of Austria in 1957 and sold to a private buyer. Loritz's family returned to Germany. The villa still exists, but there is no trace of the sub-camp itself. The investigation of the matter was closed in 1975.

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