Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, Flossenbürg, Germany

Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flossenbürg and near the German border with Czechoslovakia. The camp's initial purpose was to exploit the forced labor of prisoners for the production of granite for Nazi architecture.

In 1943, the bulk of prisoners switched to producing Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes and other armaments for Germany's war effort. Although originally intended for 'criminal' and 'asocial' prisoners, after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, the camp's numbers swelled with political prisoners from outside of Germany. It also developed an extensive subcamp system that eventually outgrew the main camp.

Before it was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945, 89,964 to 100,000 prisoners passed through Flossenbürg and its subcamps. Around 30,000 died from malnutrition, overwork, executions, or during the death marches. Some of those responsible for these deaths, including administrators, guards, and others, were tried and convicted in the Flossenbürg trial. The camp was repurposed for other uses before the opening of a memorial and museum in 2007.

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User Reviews

Dmitriy Ark (2 years ago)
A very sad and memorable visit. It is an important memorial to a terrible period in history. I recommend spending some time here.

Ralph Hershberger (3 years ago)
This is the place where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed just days before the allied forces freed the camp. This a somber memorial to history.

Donalia Clay (4 years ago)
Although it was closed by the virus, it was still hauntingly real. It was so cold and then it started snowing and one could just imagine how it was. So heartbreaking and so necessary! We should never forget where hatred for "different" people led us!

Craig Lanning (5 years ago)
Plan on visiting some time in my life. My grandfather along with many liberated the sub camps to flossenburg.

Bader Dabbagh (5 years ago)
A trip there is necessary to understand history and see it with one’s own eyes. Very sad yet very needed in those time of increasing hate in the world. RIP to all those who have lost their lives in the Concentration camps. You will shall never be forgotten.

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