Establishment of the Camp

The earliest surviving documents pointing to concrete plans for the establishment of a sub-camp in Trostberg are dated to the end of October 1944. In a letter to the District Administrator (Landrat) of the district of Traunstein, a copy of which also went to the mayor of the town of Trostberg, the official in charge of the Bavarian State Minister of the Interior, also Reich Defence Commissioner for the Reich Defence District Gau München-Oberbayern, communicates the "requisition of an area of 1,000 sqm in Hall 1 of the Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoffwerke in Trostberg". In effect, the SKW hall later used by BMW for production was thereby requisitioned.

The plot of land on which the sub-camp was built was also owned by the SKW. There is no indication in the files of the Trostberg town archive, the Traunstein surveying office or the Munich State Archive that the plot in question ever changed owner. The site of the camp was therefore presumably requisitioned for the purposes of the Schutzstaffel (SS) as operator of the camp and of Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) as operator of the production housed in the halls of the SKW.

The AL Trostberg was, like most camps, built within a very short time. The wooden barracks were assembled from prefabricated parts, and the other parts of the camp were also quickly built. The construction of the various parts of the sub-camp had to be carried out by prisoners. These prisoners, who had to build their own prison, were called the advance detail (Vorkommando). The Trostberg advance detail consisted of 20 prisoners who were brought from Dachau concentration camp to Trostberg on 3 November 1944.

Just one day later, on 4 November 1944, a further 247 prisoners were transferred to Trostberg. Within a very short time, the camp had thus been completed to the extent that at least the fencing and a rudimentary accommodation of the prisoners were in place.