Death marches during the Holocaust
During the Holocaust, death marches (German: Todesmärsche) were massive forced transfers of prisoners from one Nazi camp to other locations, which involved walking long distances resulting in numerous deaths of weakened people. Most death marches took place toward the end of World War II, mostly after the summer/autumn of 1944. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, from Nazi camps near the Eastern Front were moved to camps inside Germany away from the Allied forces.[2] Their purpose was to continue the use of prisoners' slave labour, to remove evidence of crimes against humanity, and to keep the prisoners to bargain with the Allies.[3]
Prisoners were marched to train stations, often a long way; transported for days at a time without food in freight trains; then forced to march again to a new camp. Those who lagged behind or fell were shot. The largest death march took place in January 1945. Nine days before the Soviet
Earlier marches of prisoners, also known as "death marches", include those in 1939 in the
Overview
Towards the end of World War II in 1945, Nazi Germany had evacuated an estimated 10 to 15 million people, mostly from
Although most of the prisoners were already very weak or ill after enduring the routine violence, overwork, and starvation of concentration camp or prison camp life, they were marched for kilometres in the snow to railway stations, then transported for days without food, water, or shelter in freight carriages originally designed for cattle. On arrival at their destination, they were then forced to march again to new camps. Prisoners who were unable to keep up due to fatigue or illness were usually executed by gunshot. The evacuation of
The SS killed large numbers of prisoners by starvation before the marches and shot many more dead both during and after for not being able to keep pace. Seven hundred prisoners were killed during one ten-day march of 7,000 Jews, including 6,000 women, who were being moved from camps in the Danzig region. Those still alive when the marchers reached the coast were forced into the Baltic Sea and shot.[9]
Early marches
Chełm to Hrubieszów, Sokal and Belz
In December 1939, 2,000 male Jews from Chełm, Poland, were forced on a death march to the nearby town of Hrubieszów; 200–800 died during the march. At Hrubieszów, another 2,000 Jews were rounded up and forced to join the Chełm Jews.[11]
Lublin to Biała Podlaska and Parczew
In January 1940, the Germans deported a group of prisoners from the
Belz to Hrubieszow
In early June 1942, Jews concentrated in Belz were driven in a 60-kilometre (37 mi) death march to Hrubieszow. Those who could not continue on the way were shot by the SS guards. All death march survivors were deported along with about 3,000 Jews from Hrubieszow to Sobibor.[13]
End of the Terror
Auschwitz to Loslau
The largest
Auschwitz to Dachau
On 17 January 1945, when Russian troops were approaching the Auschwitz concentration camp, prisoners were sent on a march to Dachau concentration camp. The ten day journey was on foot and by cattle car: many prisoners were killed along the way.[18]
Buchenwald to Dachau, Flossenbürg and Theresienstadt
In early 1945,
Stutthof to Lauenburg
The evacuation of about 50,000 prisoners from the Stutthof camp system in northern Poland began in January 1945. About 5,000 prisoners from Stutthof subcamps were marched to the Baltic Sea coast, forced into the water, and machine gunned. The rest of the prisoners were marched in the direction of Lauenburg in eastern Germany. They were cut off by the advancing Soviet forces. The Germans forced the surviving prisoners back to Stutthof. Marching in severe winter conditions and treated brutally by SS guards, thousands died during the march.[9]
In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners were removed from Stutthof by sea, since it was completely encircled by Soviet forces. Again, hundreds of prisoners were forced into the sea and shot. Over 4,000 were sent by small boat to Germany, some to the
Dachau to the Austrian border
On April 24, 1945, the satellite labor camps around Dachau were being cleared out by the Nazis ahead of the advancing Allied troops, and some 15,000 prisoners were first marched to the Dachau camp, only to be sent southwards on a death march towards the Austrian border,[21] the path for which generally headed southwards, partly along the eastern shore of the Starnberger See, taking a left turn to the east in the town of Eurasburg and heading towards the Tegernsee.
By the second of May 1945, only some of the 6,000 prisoners sent on the death march were still alive; those in failing health had been shot as they fell. On that day, as the eastwards-marching prisoners had passed through
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Memorial in Wodzisław Śląski of the death march from Auschwitz Birkenau
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This memorial in Blievenstorf of the death march from Sachsenhausen concentration camp includes a red triangle emblem
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Memorial inWW2-era concentration camps)
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Holocaust cemetery in Nawcz for victims of the death march from Stutthof concentration camp
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Memorial plaque to the victims of the death march in Jena
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Memorial in Krailling for the death march from Dachau
See also
References
- ^ "Oral history interview with Benno Gantner". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ISBN 978-0-674-05049-5.
- ^ "Death marches". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Blatman 2011, p. 81ff.
- ^ ISBN 978-83-927256-0-2.
- ISBN 978-3-506-77044-8.
- ^ Blatman 2011.
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
- ^ a b c "Stutthof". U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
- ^ Wiesel, Elie (1960) [1958]. Night. New York: Hill & Wang.
- ^ Blatman 2011, p. 8.
- ^ Socha, Paweł. "The Nazi Labor Camp on 7 Lipowa Street". Sztetl.org.pl. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17.
- ^ Encyclopedia Judaica, cited by Jewish Virtual Library: Hrubieszow. Online: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0009_0_09282.html
- ^ a b c d "Wollheim Memorial". www.wollheim-memorial.de. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
- ^ a b "Death March from Auschwitz". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Pędziwol, Aureliusz (2021-01-29). "Nieznany marsz śmierci". Deutsche Welle (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
- ISBN 0688123643.
- ISBN 978-3-11-059604-5. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Lese, Weimar. "Die Todesmarsch-Stele in Weimar - Weimar-Lese". weimar-lese.de. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ www.gz-tm-dachau.de https://web.archive.org/web/20161003130634/http://www.gz-tm-dachau.de/img/uebersicht_big.jpg. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "Kaufering IV – Hurlach – Schwabmünchen". Kaufering.com. 19 January 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- ^ "Central Europe Campaign – 522nd Field Artillery Battalion". Archived from the original on 2016-03-20. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
Jewish prisoners from the outer Dachau camps were marched to Dachau, and then 70 miles south. Many of the Jewish marchers weighed less than 80 pounds. Shivering in their tattered striped uniforms, the "skeletons" marched 10 to 15 hours a day, passing more than a dozen Bavarian towns. If they stopped or fell behind, the SS guards shot them and left their corpses along the road.
- ^ "Search Results". www.ushmm.org. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ [As found on Google Earth https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNWPUhYWq785H_gux8qw1uAr7axokLXjXaaR44n=w720-h720-pd , with two photos of it taken by Ellen Haider]
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-679-77268-2.
- Death Marches of Prisoners Map (from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
- Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, A map of the Death March of Brandenburg.
- Todesmarsch Dachau: Death marches from Allach(in German)
- USHMM Photos page of Waakirchen and 522nd FA BN Nisei soldiers
- Memorial to the Death March Victims: Chelm and Hrubieszow, Poland
- The Death March to Volary, at Yad Vashem website