Plaque commemorating the victims that suffered and died in the former concentration camp in Albert Koenig Park

Tourist attractions

Description

In the years 1943-195, the Nazi concentration camp for forced laborers "Koenig-Park" was located on the site of the present sewage treatment plant in Gubin. The dark history of this place from 2017 is described in a memorial plaque with a watercolor floral motif of the artist and former prisoner of the camp Lenke Rothman (1929-2008) in the background of the text. The text by Andreas Peter reads: "During World War II there was a Koenig-Park camp here for French and Italian prisoners of war and Jewish forced laborers, including from Hungary and Poland. It was an external branch of the Groß Rosen concentration camp. Forced laborers had to work in the branch of the factory "Lorenz AG" on Ufer Str. Before their "death march" to Bergen-Belsen in early February 1945, few of them survived, unable to transport women and girls were murdered in the camp”.

Historical background

In August 1943, the concentration camp in Guben was opened, far from the eyes of the inhabitants of Guben, to the east of Neisse River. The camp in the forest, in the Koenig Park, is secured with an electric fence. Mainly Jewish women and girls from Hungary and Poland, prisoners of war from Italy and France, are imprisoned here. About 1,000 prisoners were transported daily to the C. Lorenz AG radio equipment factory in Berlin, which in 1943 was moved from its main facility to Guben due to massive air attacks on Berlin. The production was moved to the Berlin-Gubener Hutfabrik AG hall - previously the factory belonged to the Jewish founders Apelius Cohn and Hermann Lewin, who were forcibly expropriated in 1938 due to the nationwide, intensified repression of Jews.

Despite insufficient food, winter clothing and medical services, few survivors described the conditions in the camp as better than those in Auschwitz. In February 1945, the camp was liquidated, sending most of the prisoners on a "death march" to Jüteborg, from where they were later transported to the Bergen-Belsen extermination camp. 150 exhausted and unable to walk women and girls were murdered while still in the camp - their execution is well documented in the diary of the surviving Italian military prisoner Carlo Vico. To this day, however, the mass grave of the murdered victims has not been found.