Memory of forced labor: the legacy of the Kempten Allgäuhalle

Memory of forced labor: the legacy of the Kempten Allgäuhalle

The Allgäuhalle in Kempten, originally built in 1927/28 as a "animal breeding hall", has a dark story that is closely linked to the time of National Socialism. After its construction, the hall served as an event location for various events, including an Adolf Hitler campaign speech on July 31, 1932, which was visited by 15,000 to 20,000 spectators. In the following years the "Brown Mass" of the NSDAP took place and the hall was a center for the National Socialist propaganda.

Between March and June 1940, the Allgäuhalle was used to register Polish forced laborers. During this period, 3,567 Polish workers were exposed before they were added to the work. In July 1943, an Eastern worker camp was built, which housed civilian workers from Eastern Europe. These workers worked mostly in agriculture or with member companies of the "Eastern worker deposit company Kempten".

The role as a concentration camp

From April 1944, the Allgäuhalle served as the outer warehouse of the Dachau concentration camp. During this time there were up to 700 prisoners who had to do forced labor in the regional armaments industry under extremely hard conditions. Most of the prisoners were political prisoners, especially French. Attempts to escape were brutally punished, and no longer work -capable prisoners had to be brought back to Dachau. A total of around 5,000 concentration camp prisoners were registered in the Allgäu between 1944 and the end of the war.

The history of the Dachau concentration camp began on March 22, 1933 when the first prisoners arrived. The camp was originally built on the site of a powder and ammunition factory. Under the warehouse commander Theodor Eicke, a strict storage regulations were introduced, which allows the SS men to exercise violence on prisoners. These measures were exemplary for the brutality that political opponents expected throughout National Socialist Germany, while the Nazis were established a dictatorship and other political parties were banned. These aspects illustrate the system of persecution, which led to a massive violation of human rights that continues to this day.

commemorate and remember

Today, a plaque has been reminiscent of the Nazi past of the Allgäuhalle since 1999, which has been a listed building since 2015. The Kempten City Council is currently examining the future use of the area. In order to document the atrocities of this time, a hiking exhibition of drawings by the French prisoner Paul Bermond will be seen from September 19. These works of art are an important testimony to the unbearable conditions that many prisoners had to suffer during their detention.

throughout Germany and beyond, there are a variety of memorial sites that are reminiscent of the victims of National Socialism. An overview can be found at Wikipedia

The Allgäuhalle not only stands for a sad past, but also warns society not to forget the teachings from this time. The current debate about their future use and the planned exhibitions are a step in the right direction to keep awareness of the atrocities of the National Socialists.