Flossenbürg

Concentration Camp

Statement of A. Mottet

Foreman

RAISMES (Nord)

France

I was sentenced to death by the War Council of Lille in January 1944 for espionage and membership of the GAULISTE RESISTANCE GROUP FOR LIBERATION. I was taken to the Concentration Camp at Flossenbürg in Bavaria on the 21^st February 1944, and put into solitary confinement.

The Camp Commandant was Obersturmbannfuhrer SS Kegler, a native of Allgau, district of Bavaria. His adjutant was Obersturmfuhrer Baumgartner of Kuestrin, he was the real Commandant of the Camp, he alone looked after the prison cells as he was also in charge of preparing the prisoners for the SS Tribunal of Flossenbürg, which was in permanent sitting.

This Tribunal sentenced to death without the accused attending. The executions took place in the prison courtyard by either hanging or shooting in the neck. The victims were first taken to the bath-house – there Scharfuhrer Weihe (a native of Magdeburg) ordered them to take off all their clothes.

He then tied their hands on the back by means of a piece of wire, took off their rings and any religious insignia they had on them, tore up the photos of their families in front of them and finally led them to execution.

Weihe himself did the hangings. The executions by shooting were carried out by Sturmann Weisenborn, Willi (age 43, electrician from Eisenach/ Thuringia, SS volunteer since 1935) and Unterscharfuhrer Wolff, Gerhard (age 46, employee of the gas and electricity works of Wittenberg/ Elbe – Martin Luther’s birthplace – and living there in the Weinstrasse).

In charge of these executions was the Adjutant Baumgartner. If the victims were Russian he often had them whipped before the execution.

Also present were a civilian doctor from a place about 10 kilometres off Flossenbürg, who was attached to the SS, and the SS dentist, who pulled the teeth of the victims after death. The dead were then carried by ordinary prisoners on trolleys to the crematorium, where they were burned, together with people who had died of starvation or disease or maltreatment.

The civilians were not allowed to say a prayer or to give a farewell kiss to their dead comrades. Any suggestions of that kind drew insults and sarcasm. Afterwards the SS shared out any valuables the victims still possessed.

The prisoners who arrived at Flossenbürg from Special Courts or from outside working gangs (mostly Russian and Polish Officers) were held in cells stark naked, without towels, soap, blankets, toilet paper, heating, palliasses, very often 5,6 or 7 in the same cell, without food or water and sometimes they had to wait in this state four days for the execution.

Read the full story here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/mottet.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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