Landsberg/Kaufering concentration subcamp complex

In order to protect against Allied air strikes, together with representatives from industry and the Protection Squad (SS), in 1944 the NS leadership decided to relocate German armaments production to bomb-proof production facilities.

The map shows the ten known locations of the former Landsberg/Kaufering concentration subcamp complex. Source: KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau

The organisation Todt (OT) was responsible for implementing the construction project, which found favourable geographical conditions in the Landsberg region for building three subterranean bunkers. Here is where the fighter aircraft are said to have been produced. The dangerous and backbreaking construction work was almost exclusively carried out by Jewish concentration camp prisoners.

As of June 1944, the largest subcamp complex of the Dachau concentration camp was developed in the Landsberg/Kaufering region. Up to 23,500 people were incarcerated there until the end of the war. Prisoners suffered from malnourishment, diseases and were exposed to constant acts of violence by members of the SS and OT. More than 6,500 people – known by name – perished in the Kaufering camps. 3,500 prisoners were deported to other camps such as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen where they were murdered or abandoned to their fate.

In late April 1945, the SS evacuated the camps owing to the approaching US American troops. With brute force, they forced thousands of prisoners to engage in so-called death marches via Dachau concentration camp towards the South.