Plauen (Cotton Mill) Subcamp
September 1944 – April 14, 1945
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Plauen cotton mill, 1925 (Stadtarchiv Plauen)
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Former cotton mill in Plauen, 2018 (Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial / Photo: Rainer Viertlböck). Today, in the former cotton mill there is a shopping center.
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Prisoners
200 women, half of whom were Polish, and a third Russian, Italian, French, along with women from four other countries.
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Forced labor and quarters
Due to suspicions of typhus, the women spent the first three weeks in quarantine. They then worked in manufacturing different types of lamps for Osram; following air raids they were deployed in debris clearing.
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The women were quartered on the second floor of a disused cotton mill, where they also had to work. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, the windows of the dormitory were welded shut. A prisoners’ kitchen was set up on the ground floor. Two foremen helped the women, while most of the Osram employees were stern and unfriendly.
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Guards
Head overseer Else Tomaske and 12 female overseers. Detail leader Dziobaka was responsible for all the three subcamps in Plauen.
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Death toll
No verified deaths.
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Disbanding of the camp / end of the war
The cotton mill was destroyed on April 11 by an air raid. The camp was evacuated on April 14, with the prisoners sent in the direction of Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), and after a long death march liberated near Tachau (Tachov).
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Commemoration
None