The expansion of
Flossenbürg concentration camp led to the establishment of subcamps, the first of which was established at
Stulln in February 1942 to provide forced labor to a mining company. Many of them were located in the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...
or across the border in the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...
. The vast majority were established after 1 March 1944. Initially, the subcamps were not involved in armaments production, which changed in the second half of 1944 due to a large influx of available prisoners and the activities of the ''
Jägerstab
The ''Jägerstab'' (Fighter Staff) was a Nazi German governmental task force whose aim was to increase production of fighter aircraft during World War II. Established in March 1944, it was composed of government and SS personnel, as well as repr ...
'', which sought to increase German aircraft production. The ''Jägerstabs dispersal of aircraft production spurred the expansion of the subcamp system in 1944 and resulted in the establishment of the two largest of the subcamps, at
Hersbruck
Hersbruck () is a small town in Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, belonging to the district Nürnberger Land. It is best known for the late-gothic artwork of the Hersbruck altar, the "Hirtenmuseum" and the landscape of Hersbruck Switzerland.
...
and
Leitmeritz. In the second half of 1944, 45 new camps were created, compared to three camps in the previous six months. The staffing these new camps was increasingly filled by
Luftwaffe soldiers, ''
Volksdeutsche
In Nazi Germany, Nazi German terminology, () were "people whose language and culture had Germans, German origins but who did not hold German citizenship." The term is the nominalised plural of ''wikt:volksdeutsch, volksdeutsch'', with denoting ...
'' SS men (ethnic Germans from outside the Reich), and
SS women, for the subcamps containing female prisoners. By April 1945, 80% of the prisoners were at the subcamps. Of all the concentration camp systems, Flossenbürg's subcamp system was one of the three most important to the
economy of Nazi Germany
Like many other nations at the time, Germany suffered the economic effects of the Great Depression, with unemployment soaring after the Wall Street crash of 1929. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he introduced policies ...
, along with those of
Dachau and
Mauthausen. __NOTOC__
List of subcamps
References
Citations
Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flossenburg
Flossenburg
Subcamps of Nazi concentration camps