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08.07.2020

A European Arrest Warrant issued against a German citizen – former SS overseer (SS Aufseherin) in the Mittweida forced labor camp, a subbranch of the German KL Flossenbürg concentration camp

By the decision of 19 June 2020, at the request of the prosecutor of the Branch Comission of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Poznań, the District Court in Poznań issued a European Arrest Warrant against a German citizen and a former SS supervisor (SS Aufseherin) in the Mittweida forced labor camp, a subbranch of the German KL Flossenbürg concentration camp.

The former SS overseer in the Mittweida forced labor camp is a suspect in the investigation conducted by the Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Poznań for complicity in committing crimes against humanity on Polish citizens imprisoned in this camp. The list of accusations includes their killings and an intentional creation of the conditions aimed at their biological destruction in the years 1944–1945. So far, in the course of the investigation the data of two Polish women shot dead by the camp personnel have been established.

In addition, the abovementioned person has been accused of the participation in the "death march" of prisoners from Mittweida, through Hainichen and Freiberg, towards Prague, which took place after the evacuation of the camp, from 13 April to 8 May 1945. During the evacuation, the camp personnel shot dozens of physically exhausted female prisoners, including two Polish women who could not withstand the pace of the march. As for the remaining prisoners, they were threatened with biological destruction.

The Mittweida German forced labor camp was established on 9 October 1944. Women, including Polish women, largely the ones detained by the German authorities in connection with the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, were imprisoned there. In the course of the investigation, the data on 177 Polish citizens imprisoned in this camp and classified as "political" prisoners, who were assigned to a forced labor scheme with the Lorenz AG company operating for the defense industry. They performed heavy physical work 24 hours a day in the system of two shifts.

Living conditions in the camp threatened human existence. Food rations were scarce, and there was no medical care.  Bathing was forbidden, and until Christmas 1944 the prisoners did not receive winter clothing. The activities of the camp commanders, including SS overseers, consisted of inflicting terror on prisoners. They were regularly beaten and battered.

In the course of the investigation, a European Arrest Warrant was requested after the Polish International Police Cooperation Bureau within the National Police headquarters established that the suspect was a resident of Germany.

The alleged acts are punishable by imprisonment of not less than 12 years, 25 years’ imprisonment or life imprisonment.

Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish nation

Warsaw, 3 July 2020


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