The End of the Camp

In contrast to other National Socialist camps, the Trostberg sub-camp was not cleared by a death march. For the prisoners this was a great stroke of luck, because the death marches, during which in the last weeks of the war thousands of prisoners at the end of their strength were driven through remnants of the "German Reich", very often ended with the prisoners' deaths. The prisoners died of exhaustion or were murdered by their guards in a final act of barbarism and in an attempt to silence the witnesses of National Socialist crimes.

The Trostberg sub-camp was instead partially "evacuated" in the spring of 1945. This means that some of the prisoners were transported to the Dachau main camp, while the prisoners who remained in the camp were liberated by American soldiers in Trostberg on 4 May 1945. When the American soldiers reached the Trostberg sub-camp on 4 May 1945, they still found about 300 prisoners there. However, these were not exclusively prisoners of the AL Trostberg.

On 2 May, two death marches converged in Trostberg. One was a death march from Buchenwald concentration camp, routed via Flossenbürg concentration camp. The 250 prisoners of the march from Buchenwald were driven south from Flossenbürg concentration camp on 20 April 1945. The route led via Höll, Frauenbiburg and Altötting. The second death march, which arrived in Trostberg on 2 May, came from Leonberg concentration camp and was led from there in a south-easterly direction via the camps of Plattling and Ganacker. It consisted of 300 prisoners who were at the end of their strength. Some prisoners from the two death marches were handed over to the local camp as they marched through Trostberg. Nothing is known about the exact circumstances; presumably, however, they were prisoners no longer able to march. For the prisoners of the two death marches who remained in Trostberg this perhaps meant rescue, because the remaining prisoners were driven onwards in the direction of Traunstein already on 2 May 1945. On 3 May 1945, just shortly before the arrival of American soldiers, members of the SS guard unit committed a terrible massacre in Surberg. They shot indiscriminately at the defenceless prisoners of the death march led via Trostberg, murdering 66 prisoners.

Even before the arrival of Allied soldiers on 4 May 1945, part of the guard unit of the AL Trostberg had fled. In the power vacuum of the last days of the war, as in many other concentration camps, acts of revenge by some prisoners against their tormentors also occurred at the AL Trostberg. The reconstruction of these events proves difficult. It seems relatively certain that an SKW engineer was killed by some prisoners. A contemporary witness reports that former concentration camp prisoners had tied a crankcase to the unknown engineer, then tied him behind a motor vehicle and dragged him through Trostberg.

The procession is said to have finally come to a halt in the old town (between today's police building and the inn "Steiner Keller"). There the engineer, of whose death unfortunately no documents exist, is said to have been beaten to death by the prisoners.

In early May, three SS members were also killed in Trostberg. They were Leopold Bauer, born on 28.10.1919 in Slawaten. According to his death certificate, Bauer died on 10.05.1945 in the Trostberg district hospital from a skull fracture. And Alfred Holtz, born on 01.01.1922 in Warsaw. Holtz died on 05.05.1945 in the Trostberg district hospital from a stomach wound. For the third SS man killed, unfortunately no information exists about his name, place of birth or cause of death. The unknown SS man died on 05.05.1945 in the Trostberg district hospital.

About the circumstances under which the three SS men were killed contradictory information exists: while the Trostberg pastor reports that the SS men were beaten to death by prisoners, a contemporary witness recounts that some SS men of the Trostberg camp were led by the American soldiers, after their arrival, into the wood behind the camp and shot there. As a synthesis of these statements, it seems likely that the SS member Leopold Bauer, who died on 10 May of the consequences of his head injury, was severely injured by prisoners of the camp and died as a result of these injuries. The two SS men who died on 5 May 1945, on the other hand, were presumably shot by US soldiers.