Langenstein-Zwieberge

They were initially placed in an inn of the periphery of Langenstein, then, the convoys following one another, while waiting for the completion of the construction of the camp, in a barn, which still exists, located at the exit of the village.

The construction of the camp was completed in August 1944 with the electrified enclosure; 7 blocks plus the appendices (Revier, kitchen, etc.)

As of the first days of their arrival, the deportees started to dig galleries in the still virgin site of the hills of Thekenberge.

The principal goal of the excavations was to hide production facilities for the Junkers factories that would build new types of jets and weapons.

In March, the crematory couldn't continue its work for lack of fuel, and the bodies accumulated in a hut.

They emptied the cases into the pits and the downward file was going to seek a new loading until almost complete exhaustion of the mass grave.

On the evening of 9 April 1945, ahead of the advance of the American troops, who reached the Elbe, 3,000 survivors of the camp, in six columns of 500, escorted by the S.S. marched east.

[1][2] The first Allied soldier in the camp, First Lieutenant Raymond L. Reed, a medic with the U.S. 8th Armored Division writes, "Sometime between Apr.

10 – 15th I found Langenstein concentration camp when the townspeople told me there was a "Concentrations-lager" on the hill overlooking the town.

Drew my P-38 from my holster & opened the door of the 1st barrack & found a horrible sight – emaciated men 3 to 4 to a bunk, some dead, some alive.

"[3] First Allied infantry soldiers to discover the camp, PFCs Norman Panagos and Irving "Ike" Olshaker of M Company, 331st Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, report seeing German jeeps exiting the rear of the camp as the infantrymen approach the front gate.

In fact it was an "extermination" camp, the inmates being forced to work about 15 hour per day in the nearby mine on a small ration of dry bread and water.

Number presently is about 1100, all male, roughly divided as follows—300 Poles, 200 Russians, 200 French, 100 Belgians and Dutch, 200 Czechs and 100 Germans.

"[5] An excerpt from an article in Stars and Stripes, Friday April 20, 1945, reads, "The smell of death was there, even among the still living.