Hurlach is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the district of
Landsberg in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in
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 ...
.
Liberation of Hurlach "satellite" camp of Dachau
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Kaufering concentration camp IV, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp, was located about a mile south of the village Hurlach. The camp was discovered by soldiers of the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion of the
12th Armored Division led by Capt. John P. Jones around noon on April 27, 1945. The
SS began
death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Conven ...
ing prisoners to Dachau pending the US arrival; at camp IV, they killed hundreds of prisoners by setting fire to the barracks. Colonel Edward F. Seiller, commander of the 12th Armored Division's Military Government, took control of the camp and had some 250 civilians from the nearby town of Landsberg brought to the camp and made them bury the dead prisoners.
On April 29, 1945, advance scouts of the US Army's
Nisei
is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...
522nd Field Artillery Battalion, a segregated
Japanese-American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
Allied military unit in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, encountered a "set of barracks surrounded by barbed wire", and liberated what turned out to be the "Kaufering IV Hurlach" slave labor camp, which housed some 3,000 prisoners, which was one of some 169 "satellite" camps of the infamous
Dachau concentration camp.
In 2000, the concentration camp complex gained international recognition through the collaboration of
Anton Posset with the film crew of
Steven Spielberg and
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
. Liberation of one of the Kaufering IV subcamps of Dachau was depicted in Episode 9 "Why We Fight" of the TV mini-series
Band of Brothers. Through the photographs of the American/French liberators and the documentation of the survivor's reports collected by
Anton Posset, the camp was reconstructed in England for the mini-series.
The American army discovered the Holocaust (original film from Kaufering IV) and Band of Brothers
– Citizens´ Association “Landsberg in the 20th Century”
References
External links
* ttp://www.buergervereinigung-landsberg.org/english/historicalfacts/history.htm The Holocaust in the Landsberg area- Citizens´ Association "Landsberg in the 20th Century" (English)
Landsberg (district)
{{Landsberg-geo-stub