Hirzenhain is a municipality in the
Wetteraukreis
The Wetteraukreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis and Lahn-Dill-Kreis.
History
The distri ...
, in
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It is located approximately 45 kilometers northeast of
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. It has a population of around 2,800.
History
From 1943 to 1945 the area was the site of ''
:de:Arbeitserziehungslager Hirzenhain'', a camp for forced labour by convicted criminals and prisoners of war, run by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
. On 25 March 1945, shortly before the end of the war, a troop of
SS killed 87 inmates of the camp. There is a memorial to the victims in the municipality. The dead were reinterred at
Arnsburg Abbey in 1960.
References
Wetteraukreis
{{Hesse-geo-stub