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Brody MunicipalityAL Gassen (1944-1945) - a place whose history requires further source-based reconstruction.
AL Gassen was a male subcamp of KL Gross-Rosen, north-east of the former Gassen, today Jasień. This account brings together information from the Gross-Rosen Museum, Arolsen Archives, Buchenwald records and published court judgments. Where the evidence is incomplete, the next research steps are identified rather than filled with assumptions.
Organisation of the subcamp began in summer or early autumn 1944; a first larger prisoner transport arrived at the end of September. At least about 700-800 people were held there, mainly Poles and citizens of the Soviet Union, as well as prisoners of other nationalities.
Prisoners were used in Focke-Wulf aircraft production. German court material indicates that aircraft tooling was manufactured in the halls of the former Flöther/Raussendorf factory.
Sources describe hunger, violence and inadequate medical care. Archaeological work by IPN in 2018 confirmed elements of camp infrastructure.
The findings do not yet permit a complete reconstruction of every burial location or every prisoner’s fate.
The main evacuation began on 12 February 1945 towards Leipzig. Before it, a separate transport of 55 sick prisoners from Gassen was admitted to KL Buchenwald on 23 February 1945.
Leipzig-Thekla documentation records 580 people from Gassen; 20 entries record death before formal registration. The Gross-Rosen Museum estimates total evacuation losses at at least 120 people.
Some prisoners were incorporated into the Buchenwald system and taken to Leipzig-Thekla/Erla-Werke. This link is visible in administrative records and name lists.
Published judgments also address the evacuation march and crimes against prisoners regarded as unable to continue.
The history of AL Gassen is part of the history of present-day Jasień. The photographs show the memorial to the subcamp victims and selected places in the town. They locate the narrative in the real urban landscape and are not a reconstruction of the camp.
Arolsen Archives makes public package 2351000 available: nine documents directly referring to Gassen, Leipzig and Erla-Werke. A further important collection is 8094500, covering the transition from Gross-Rosen to Buchenwald/Erla Leipzig. The findings are compared with the Gross-Rosen Museum and published judgments LG Köln 40-31/74, BGH 2 StR 216/80, LG Köln 59-19/80 and BGH 2 StR 259/81.