Photos showing the Abtnaundorf Massacre at the "Leipzig-Thekla" Concentration Camp on 18 April 1945.

68 original photos, 13 x 18 cm, b/w, stamped and pencil marked on verso.

Loose in a Gevaert box.

Very poignant set of photographs showing the devastation left after one of the most horrific crimes committed during the Nazi tyranny in Leipzig. More than 80 prisoners were burnt to death in a barrack building of the "Leipzig-Thekla" concentration camp, or murdered while trying to escape over the barbed wire perimeter fence on 18 April 1945. During WWII many tens of thousands of people were deported to Leipzig to work as forced labourers. They were employed in particular in the arms industry. The condition under which the forced labourers lived was harsh, but prisoners of war and civilian forced labourers from the Soviet Union as well as concentration camp inmates were treated worst. From 1943, 6 sub-camps of Buchenwald concentration camp were established in Leipzig and its vicinity. The "Leipzig-Thekla" sub-camp of Buchenwald concentration camp comprised 3 camp sites each for approx. 1.000 male prisoners. They were used as forced labourers in aircraft production as well as in construction and clear-up work outside the factory premises of the Erla-Mashinenwerke GmbH. After the dissolution of many concentration camps in occupied Poland the "Leipzig-Thekla" camp became crowded. On 13 April 1945 approx. 1.500 prisoners were forced to go on a "death-march". Another 300 prisoners remained in the camp unable to escape the infamous "Abtnaundorf massacre" on 18 April 1945. "Twelve SS men locked up the sick prisoners in a barrack building, poured petrol over it and set fire to it using grenade launchers and machine guns. Many of the prisoners who managed to escape from the burning building were killed by the perpetrators with automatic weapons. Using the dense smoke to hide, some prisoners managed to escape to the nearby living-quarters of the Polish civilian workers of Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG), who took them in and hid them. Others were shot or beaten to death by civilian residents in the immediate vicinity" (zwangsarbeit-in-leipzig.de). 67 persons are known to have survived, but most victims are still missing to this day. These set of photos highly probable was part of the documentation made by the investigative team of the US Army that arrived just short after the massacre and documented the crime scene. This material was used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials against the main war criminals.
Ref. https://www.zwangsarbeit-in-leipzig.de/en/de/nazi-forced-labour-in-leipzig/abtnaundorf-memorial/long-text.