Location: Aflenzer Straße 19-17, 8435 Wagna
The Graz-Leibnitz satellite camp of Mauthausen concentration camp existed from February 9, 1944 to the beginning of April 1945 and was constructed to enable an underground armaments production for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch plant. The maximum number of prisoners was reached in September 1944 with 701 people. The number of deaths in the camp is estimated by research to be “extremely high”.
The “Graz-Leibnitz” satellite camp in the village of Aflenz bei Leibnitz, one of 40 satellite camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp, existed from February 9, 1944 to April 1, 1945. It was constructed to enable the underground production of aircraft engine parts for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch-AG (SDPAG) Graz-Thondorf plant. Crankshaft and gearwheel production was to be relocated to the Aflenz Roman quarry. By July 1944, 8,000 m2 of underground space was to be made suitable for production under the camouflage name “Kalksteinwerke”. The first male prisoners – 201 to be precise – arrived on February 9, 1944 to set up the camp on a field on the road from Leibnitz to Retznei. The camp, which was surrounded by fences and barbed wire, consisted of four barracks for the prisoners, a prisoner kitchen, watchtowers and two SS barracks erected in front of the prisoners’ area. The camp guard consisted of around 50 SS men.
The number of prisoners peaked in September 1944 at 701. At this time, over 70 deaths and six escapes were recorded. The majority of the prisoners came from the Soviet Union, Poland, the German Reich and the former Yugoslavia. There were several major relocations of prisoners to and from Peggau and Mauthausen. After the Graz-Thondorf plant moved into the tunnel facility, up to 2100 people worked in Aflenz at times. The prisoners suffered from the hard labor, the lack of essential supplies and mistreatment by the SS. The former Polish prisoner Edmund Glazewski reported the following about the work in the tunnel: “The hard work was carried out day and night – in two shifts of 12 hours each – at great speed and had the purpose of transforming the previously unformed corridors and rooms into a kind of halls. The floor and walls were leveled and cut to size, the rooms were excavated higher and fixed with pillars for support. We were helped by jackhammers and drills, wedge hammers and closely guarded explosives. All the quarrying, stones and earth were transported out with tipper wagons on rails, carts and stretchers, and larger boulders were usually hauled out with tractors. The work was supervised by civilians.” – After the camp was disbanded on April 2, 1945, the remaining 467 prisoners were herded on foot over the Gaberl Pass to Judenburg and on to Ebensee concentration camp under the guard of 50 men. Sick prisoners and those unable to march were shot on this route.
Near Judenburg, 50 prisoners are said to have attempted to escape. In the end, a total of 407 prisoners reached the Ebensee camp on April 18, 1945. – In 1989, the municipality of Wagna erected a memorial plaque for the victims of the camp in Aflenz at the entrance to one of the quarry’s tunnels. In 2009, following an artistic competition, the inscription “Wächterhaus” (guards’ house) was added in large orange and red letters to a watchtower of the former concentration camp, which is still in ruins today.
Literature: Bertrand Perz, Leibnitz, in: Wolfgang Benz/Barbara Distel (eds.), Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Band 4 (Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück). München 2005, 386–389. Helmut Kandl/Johanna Kandl, Wächterhaus. In Erinnerung an die Ermordeten und Toten in Aflenz bei Leibnitz, einem KZ-Aussenlager von Mauthausen. Wien 2009.
Text: Markus Rieger-Roschitz / Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on War Consequences
