Exhumed Female Bodies WW2

Noid · #1 ● 02-12-2014, 10:40 PM

The corpses of female prisoners exhumed from a mass grave near Hirzenhain lie out in a field. The original caption reads, "Jewish women died from burtality and malnutrition lying in the field awaiting to be buried by the civilians at the Hergenhein concetration camp, Germany.According to the Signal Corps caption, the photo was taken on May 6, 1945.

In March 1945, approximately 250 slave laborers, 200 of them women, were interned in a factory slave labor camp half a mile from Hirzenhain, near Buedingen. The prisoners were of mixed nationality and included Russians, Poles, French, and Belgians. The camp was staffed by 15-18 SS men and 14 female civilians hired from neighboring towns. The factory, believed by American investigators to have been part of the Breuer complex, produced generators and airplane parts. At the end of March as Allied troops advanced, the labor camp at Hirzenhain had to be evacuated. On March 25, 13 male prisoners were instructed by five SS guards to dig a large pit three-quarters of a mile northeast of Hirzenhain. The guards claimed that the pit was to be used for gasoline and gun storage in preparation for the arrival of Allied troops, but the following morning, when the prisoners were assembled for evacuation to Buedingen, they were taken instead to the pit and shot at close range in the back of the head