Königstein Subcamp
November 15, 1944 – March 17, 1945
Codenames: "Schwalbe II", "Orion", "Brabag"
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Aerial view of the Castle Königstein, 2019 (Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial / Photo: Rainer Viertlböck). The first prisoner camp was located on the grounds of the parking lot seen in the foreground.
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The prisoners were forced to build the second, bigger prisoner camp on the other side of the street in the forest (Aerial view 2019: Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial / Photo: Rainer Viertlböck).
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Prisoners
By the end of 1944, 990 prisoners were transferred to Königstein from the subcamp Böhlen, under the authority of the Buchenwald concentration camp. 540 were from the Soviet Union. Along with 160 Polish, 60 French, 50 each Italian and Czech, over 20 German and 15 Belgian, there were prisoners from seven other countries in Königstein.
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In March 1945, 220 prisoners were transferred to Bergen-Belsen, another 50 to Buchenwald.
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Forced labor and quarters
Earth and tunnel work to relocate the production of aviation fuel underground. The subcamps of Königstein, Mockethal-Zatzschke, and Porschdorf were under the authority of the Geilenberg unit. Edmund Geilenberg was given the task to revive the fuel industry, destroyed by air raids.
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The prisoners were quartered five kilometers away from the camp, partly in a guesthouse, partly in round huts made of board. Later they were forced to build a fenced-in barracks compound.
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Guards
According to the accounts of many survivors, the contingent of some 160 SS guards, which included numerous soldiers of the German general army, brutally mistreated the prisoners.
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Death toll
The extremely strenuous quarry and tunnel work, exacerbated by insufficient food rations, claimed the lives of more than 70 men. Many ill prisoners were transported to the Leitmeritz subcamp and died there.
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Disbanding of the camp / end of the war
On March 17, 1945 the subcamp was disbanded. The prisoners were taken to Leitmeritz in open boxcars and liberated there in the beginning of May.
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Commemoration
A stela memorializes the prisoners of the subcamp