Trostberg served a BMW engine factory on the edge of the town, located in a hall of the chemical company Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoffwerke (SKW - now AlzChem),  that was involved in the production of the BMW 801 engine, used in both bomber and fighter aircraft, although inmates also worked in the chemical factory itself.

 

A website dedicated to the memory of the inmates of Trostberg states that the camp was established at the end of October 1944, with construction of the camp taking place in early November. The numbers of inmates were reported in January 1945 to be 951, seven of whom died from poor nutrition and the impacts of hard labour, lack of medical care and abuse. Most of the prisoners were from Eastern Europe or Russia. At least 121 of them were returned to Dachau because of their weakened condition. The facility had been moved to Trostberg from Munich because of allied air raids. The BMW Group archive mentions that during a bombing raid on the facility, the inmates of Trostberg, Soviet POWs, were moved into the forest, where three of them died. According to a 2005 article in The Irish Times, hundreds of prisoners worked in the factory, in the halls and various underground areas. These locations were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by SS. Towards the rear of the SKW hall there was a furnace where prisoners were forced to work on experiments in iron production. Other prisoners worked at workbenches and on machinery producing gears and crankcase blanks for the BMW 801 radial engine. If any component was faulty, it was usually counted as sabotage and the prisoner responsible was executed.

 

In addition to working in the BMW factory and in SKW, prisoners were also used by the city authorities to build an air raid shelter. The camp was partially evacuated from March 1945, leaving 300 prisoners remaining who were liberated by American soldiers on 4th May 1945. Parts of the site are now allotment gardens. A small memorial in a corner of the Trostberg cemetery commemorates the camp.

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The camp was bordered on its east and south sides by a nearby forest, which also belonged to SKW. Some of the employees of the company lived in houses nearby and the company also operated a farm called "Gut Götzing". Former Dutch inmate Dingenius Linke describes the location as being "typically Bavarian, very beautiful with mountains and valleys". Given that the camp was located on the side of a hill, it was clearly visible from many locations in the town of Trostberg itself. This was exacerbated by the presence of the watchtowers surrounding the camp. The townsfolk were thus very aware of the camp and its occupants. Some of them even came into contact with inmates, although it was forbidden to approach the camp itself. Since some of the prisoners worked in the town, it was occasionally possible to surreptitiously give some of them food. 

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The camp was surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire and the access road was blocked by a barrier. The hall in which the prisoners worked for BMW was located in the middle of the SKW facility. It was separated from other areas and guarded by SS. Some SKW workers were able to enter the hall in which the prisoners worked, again enabling limited contact in areas that were out of sight of the guards or simply when the guards weren't looking. Some of the workers bartered with the prisoners, giving them food in return for jewelry that the prisoners had made. One witness recalled that the manager of the farm used to leave some tobacco grown on the farm itself under the fence where it was collected by inmates. 

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Accommodation at the camp consisted of wooden barracks made from prefabricated components. The construction of many parts of the camp was carried out by an advance party of 20 prisoners who were brought to the site from Dachau on 3rd November 1944. 

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The camp also consisted of a warehouse near the factory, 110 metres by 160 metres in size, thus enabling a total area of 18,000 square metres or 1.8 hectares. A pebbled area ran between the two barbed wire fences, preventing any escapees from moving silently. Four watchtowers stood at the corners of the camp. There were four barracks, each measuring 85 metres by 6 metres. Each barrack was equipped with ovens for heating and three-tier bunks. Several prisoners occupied each tier, enabling between 300 and 500 prisoners per barrack. Former prisoner Leendert Johannes van der Burg recalls that the prisoners "practically had to sleep on each other because of the lack of space". 

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The fourth barrack served as an infirmary in which, at first, ten, and later 30 bunks were located for the most infirm prisoners. Some of the prisoners employed as doctors and nurses also slept here.

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In addition to the barracks, there were a number of other buildings including a kitchen and laundry and toilets. Outside the camps northern fence, another barrack was located to accommodate the SS guards.

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Prisoners were subjected to harsh treatment, hardly any medical care, poor hygiene and illness. This meant that many of them became emaciated with some of them dying as a result. A Slovenian prisoner by the name of Miroslav Kriznar recorded that "the prisoners worked in the factory and starved, so that diseases broke out that would not otherwise have occured, and if so, only in a relatively mild form. The prisoners suffered terribly from these diseases, the cause of which was inadequate and insufficient nutrition. They started to die". 

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At least seven prisoners died during their imprisonment at Trostberg as a direct result of their treatment. However, the total number of prisoners who died because of the conditions is much higher, with many prisoners dying after the camp was liberated. Soviet prisoner Ivan Kuzmeko is known to have died in the Trostberg District Hospital on 4th June 1945, one month after he was liberated. Other prisoners, suffering from infectious diseases such as TB or typhus, were transferred to Dachau main camp where they died. 

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In July 1945, bodies of the prisoners buried on the site itself were exhumed by former members of Trostberg Nazi Party and reburied in a mass grave inside the local cemetary. The remains were relocated in November 1945, either to the prisoners home areas or to the cemetery at the Flossenburg Concentration Camp Memorial.

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The 300 prisoners encountered at the camp by American soldiers on 4th May 1944 were not exclusively inmates of the camp itself. Some of them were abandoned at the site from two death marches, one from Buchenwald and another from Leonberg, that had passed through the town. As the Americans approached, some of the prisoners turned on their oppressors. In one such incident, an engineer from SKW was killed by being dragged through the streets of Trostberg behind a truck with a crankcase attached to his body. On 3rd May, some of the remaining SS guards were also killed by prisoners. Leopold Bauer died on 10th May in Trostburg hospital of a fractured skull while Alfred Holtz was shot in the stomach, dying in the hospital on 5th May. A third SS man was also killed, but the circumstances of his death are unknown. Some accounts suggest that this man, along with Alfred Holtz, was killed by American soldiers rather than by prisoners. 

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According to an article by Michael Falkinger written for a Trostberger online magazine, the city council of Trostberg discussed the installation of a memorial commemorating the camp. This project was discussed as an addition to the already-existing memorial stone and grave at Trostberg cemetery. The plan was for two memorial plaques to be attached to the wall next to the memorial stone. Photo montage of the intended memorial below by Susanne Augenstein

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