From June 1944 until April 1945, in the area of the Bavarian city of Landsberg am Lech, there operated 11 sub-camps of the Dachau concentration camp, all of which shared the same name, i.e. Kaufering. As inmates of these camps, the prisoners had to build underground bunkers that were to be used as plants aimed at the production of Messerschmitt Me 262 war aeroplanes. This was the largest complex of Dachau sub-camps, and they imprisoned 30,000 Jews mainly from countries occupied by Germany, above all from Poland. Most prisoners did not survive - they died as a result of inhumane working conditions, hunger, cold and disease. Until late November 1944, prisoners who were considered unsuitable for work were sent away to the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp. As of November 1944, more than 6,400 prisoners died in the Kaufering camps, and they were buried in 12 local cemeteries (in mass graves).
Nowadays, however, it is not possible to precisely establish the place where each victim was buried.
The prisoners of the Kaufering VI – Türkheim camp worked in the Messerschmitt AG plant and, as of January 1945, were made to dig trenches, build shelters and tidy up and clean the town. A great number of prisoners died as a result of disastrous living conditions. Additionally, in 1945, the outbreak of a typhoid epidemic caused the death of a further 400-500 persons. They were buried in anonymous mass graves in the forest. After the camp’s liberation on 8 May 1945, the American troops uncovered these graves and had the remains exhumed and buried in the area of the present-day cemetery. In 1950, the area was developed as a war grave site.
Now, to the left of the entrance there is a memorial stone devoted to the victims. A paved path leads to the chapel with a cross and a Star of David. On its left and right sides there are five headstones that bear the victims’ names, including that of a child.
