Melk concentration camp

Melk concentration camp (also called Melk labor camp and KZ Melk, A.K.Me.) was a forced labor unit for men, attached to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Mauthausen, Upper Austria. Prisoners there were assigned to the construction of an underground ball-bearing factory for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG company. Established on January 11, 1944, approximately 14,390 prisoners were transported to Melk, where at least 4,896 perished. The camp was liberated on May 5, 1945.

In January 1944, a Kommando of Mauthausen concentration camp was established in Melk, Lower Austria, in the former abandoned barracks of the Wehrmacht pioneers Freiherr von Birago, then located in the Reichsgau Niederdonau, about 100 km east of Linz. An initial detachment of approximately 500 prisoners arrived on April 11, 1944 to prepare the facilities for up to 7,000 inmates. The camp officially opened on April 20 and 21, 1944.

The prisoners were housed in 18 blocks, some of which were equipped with military equipment recovered from the Wehrmacht. The Quarz GmbH company, responsible for the forced labor operation, supplied beds, straw bags, and blankets. Initially, the camp had relatively better facilities than many other concentration camps, but this situation quickly deteriorated due to overcrowding and catastrophic sanitary conditions. In total, 14,390 prisoners from at least 26 countries were held in the Melk Kommando. The camp's initial capacity of 7,000 prisoners was not reached until mid-September 1944.

Beginning in September 1944, prisoners evacuated from the main Natzweiler camp were transferred to Melk, followed from January 1945 by deportees from Auschwitz. According to historian Hans Maršálek, the camp reached its maximum capacity on January 30, 1945, with 10,352 prisoners. The main national groups consisted of Poles, Hungarians, French, Soviet citizens, Germans, Italians, Greeks, and Yugoslavs. Prisoners from other countries, including Albania, Egypt, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey, and the United States, were also interned there. Approximately 30% of the prisoners were Jewish.

The last transport of 2,000 deportees arrived on January 29, 1945, from Auschwitz and included 119 children aged 9 to 15. A crematorium was built in the autumn of 1944; between December 1944 and April 1945, more than 3,500 bodies were cremated there. Transport documents indicate that 1,440 sick or wounded prisoners were returned to the main camp at Mauthausen as unfit for work (arbeitsunfähig). The death register kept by the camp doctor records 4,802 deaths at Melk, including 1,019 in January 1945 alone- more than 30 deaths per day. Approximately one-third of the prisoners transferred to Melk died within the first six months of the camp's existence.

SS statistics indicate the nationalities of the dead as follows: 1,575 Poles; 1,432 Hungarians; 546 French; 388 Soviet citizens; 302 Italians; 174 Yugoslavs; 150 Germans and Austrians; 101 Greeks; 36 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians; 26 Dutch; 22 Czechs; 17 Norwegians; 12 Spaniards; 9 Belgians; 3 Swiss; 4 Luxembourgers; 2 Turks; 1 Portuguese; 1 Albanian; and 1 stateless person.