Forced labour in the Kochem-Bruttig-Treis satellite concentration camp on the Mosel river

Forced labour in the Kochem-Bruttig-Treis satellite concentration camp on the Mosel river
 

In March 1944, a concentration camp was hastily erected in Kochem (today: Cochem) on the Mosel river, and in the two nearby localities of Bruttig (today: Bruttig-Fankel) and Treis (today: Treis-Karden). The camp was intended to provide labourers for an industrial facility. It was a part of what was known as the A-Vorhaben (“A-project”), which involved the relocation of armament production facilities to better protect them against bombing raids. Ten facilities in total had already been relocated to already existing tunnels and caves. The production site in Kochem was given the number “A7” and codename “Zeisig” (“siskin”). The production hall was to be built in a tunnel which was approximately 2.5 kilometres long, and which had been constructed for the Reichsbahn railways between Bruttig and Treis during the inter-war years. Since it had never actually been used for its originally intended purpose, the local inhabitants of the towns and villages nearby had used it to grow mushrooms; as a result, a large amount of dirt remained in the tunnel. As “A7”, it became one of the sites used by the Robert Bosch company to produce spark plugs underground. A special front company, WIDO GmbH, was even founded for this purpose.[8] In addition, a company called “Fix” from the Ahr valley region was responsible for the construction of the camp, and also undertook work on the tunnel – although the heavy work was always assigned to forced labourers.[9]

The first transport train carrying about 300 men arrived in Kochem on 10 March 1944. Apart from the guards and the first camp commander, Rudolf Beer, the people on the train were almost all prisoners of French origin. Since nothing had been prepared in advance, the prisoners were first herded into the ballroom of the local restaurant, “Schneiders”. The work began immediately after arrival: the tunnel was to be cleaned, converted and expanded. At the same time, work began on the construction of the camp compound in Bruttig and, a few days later, with a second camp in Treis, on the other side of the tunnel. Rather unusually, the camp was structured in three parts, since the camp staff responsible for various administrative tasks were ultimately based in several buildings in Kochem.[10] Of the first 300 prisoners to arrive, 232 were classified as “Nacht- und Nebelhäftlinge” (“night and fog prisoners”), suspected resistance fighters who were arrested and made to “disappear” without any information being provided to their families. Since they had been sent to Kochem by mistake – they were not permitted to be deployed in satellite camps – they were hastily transferred back to Natzweiler after just a few weeks.[11]

However, the number of prisoners increased rapidly; suddenly, there were over 1,500. This certainly compares with the size of a larger camp. By comparison, at the satellite concentration camp at the Adlerwerke factory in Frankfurt, which produced chassis for armament purposes, there were a total of 1,616 prisoners throughout the duration of the camp’s existence.

Meanwhile, at least 2,409 prisoners have been identified who were interned in the Kochem satellite camp. They came from Poland, the Soviet Union, France, Alsace-Lorraine, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the German Reich; their number also included stateless persons. The three largest groups of prisoners came from: Poland (1,078), the Soviet Union (578), France (324).[12]