May 7, 1945, Hirzenhain, Germany:
Executed Jewish female prisoners exhumed from a mass grave near Hirzenhain, Germany.
"In March 1945, approximately 250 slave laborers, 200 of them women, were interned in a factory slave labor camp half a mile from Hirzenhain, near Buedingen, Germany. The prisoners were of mixed nationality and included Russians, Poles, French, and Belgians.
The camp was staffed by 15-18 SS men and 14 female civilians hired from neighboring towns. The factory, believed by American investigators to have been part of the Breuer complex, produced generators and airplane parts. At the end of March as Allied troops advanced, the labor camp at Hirzenhain had to be evacuated.
On March 25, 13 male prisoners were instructed by five SS guards to dig a large pit three-quarters of a mile northeast of Hirzenhain. The guards claimed that the pit was to be used for gasoline and gun storage in preparation for the arrival of Allied troops, but the following morning, when the prisoners were assembled for evacuation to Buedingen, they were taken instead to the pit and shot at close range in the back of the head. A total of 87 bodies were buried in the pit, and their clothing was burned in a pile next to the grave.
A German who assisted in the exhumation of the bodies, noted that there were only 11 men in the pit, all of whom were at the bottom. Although most of the bodies were fully clothed, some of the women were completely or partially undressed. All of the bodies had bullet wounds.
On May 7, five days after the exhumation of the mass grave, German civilians from the area were called upon to place the bodies in coffins, bury them in the local cemetery, and place wooden crosses above each grave. Attempts were made to identify the victims, but most of the records from the factory camp were destroyed in a fire set by the SS at the time of its evacuation.
The Third U.S. Army, Battery C, 261st Field Artillery Battalion were the ones to find the mass grave site after being told of it by local German civilians."
Source
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Executed Jewish female prisoners exhumed from a mass grave near Hirzenhain, Germany.
"In March 1945, approximately 250 slave laborers, 200 of them women, were interned in a factory slave labor camp half a mile from Hirzenhain, near Buedingen, Germany. The prisoners were of mixed nationality and included Russians, Poles, French, and Belgians.
The camp was staffed by 15-18 SS men and 14 female civilians hired from neighboring towns. The factory, believed by American investigators to have been part of the Breuer complex, produced generators and airplane parts. At the end of March as Allied troops advanced, the labor camp at Hirzenhain had to be evacuated.
On March 25, 13 male prisoners were instructed by five SS guards to dig a large pit three-quarters of a mile northeast of Hirzenhain. The guards claimed that the pit was to be used for gasoline and gun storage in preparation for the arrival of Allied troops, but the following morning, when the prisoners were assembled for evacuation to Buedingen, they were taken instead to the pit and shot at close range in the back of the head. A total of 87 bodies were buried in the pit, and their clothing was burned in a pile next to the grave.
A German who assisted in the exhumation of the bodies, noted that there were only 11 men in the pit, all of whom were at the bottom. Although most of the bodies were fully clothed, some of the women were completely or partially undressed. All of the bodies had bullet wounds.
On May 7, five days after the exhumation of the mass grave, German civilians from the area were called upon to place the bodies in coffins, bury them in the local cemetery, and place wooden crosses above each grave. Attempts were made to identify the victims, but most of the records from the factory camp were destroyed in a fire set by the SS at the time of its evacuation.
The Third U.S. Army, Battery C, 261st Field Artillery Battalion were the ones to find the mass grave site after being told of it by local German civilians."
Source
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
