Elsteraue is a municipality in the

Burgenlandkreis Burgenlandkreis () is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . History The district was established as Landkreis Burgenland by the merger of the former Burgenlandkreis and Landkreis Weißenfels as part of the reform of 2007. ...

district in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

, in eastern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is situated near the

White Elster The White Elster (, ) is a river in central Europe. It is a right tributary of the Saale. The source of the White Elster is in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic, in the territory of Hazlov. After a few kilometres, it flows into easte ...

river, about southwest of

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Districts

It is divided into many municipal districts: *Bornitz *Draschwitz *Göbitz (Göbitz, Maßnitz, Torna) *Könderitz (Könderitz, Etzoldshain, Minkwitz, Traupitz) *Langendorf (Langendorf, Döbitzschen, Staschwitz) *Profen (Profen, Beersdorf, Lützkewitz) *Rehmsdorf (Rehmsdorf, Krimmitzschen, Sprossen) *Reuden (Reuden, Predel, Ostrau) *Spora (Spora, Nißma, Oelsen, Prehlitz-Penkwitz) *Tröglitz (Tröglitz, Alt-Tröglitz, Kadischen, Burtschütz, Stocksdorf, Gleina, Techwitz)

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the present-day district of Tröglitz was the location of a subcamp of the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

, and some 8,600 prisoners, mostly Jews, passed through it. The prisoners were subjected to

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

, poor food rations, and harassment by the SS, and over 850 died there, while other exhausted prisoners were sent back to Buchenwald, and many were then sent to the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

and murdered there. Among the prisoners

Imre Kertész Imre Kertész (; 9 November 192931 March 2016) was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was ...

, Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature. In April 1945, the camp was evacuated, with some 3,000 surviving prisoners sent by train towards German-occupied Czechoslovakia, and at least 380 prisoners massacred by the SS and German civilians during the transport, in Reitzenhain on the pre-war Czechoslovak-German border.

References

Burgenlandkreis Holocaust locations in Germany {{Burgenlandkreis-geo-stub