page_title: Leitmeritz concentration camp
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Leitmeritz concentration camp / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Jiří Sozanský, Memento mori, 1992, Litoměřické krematorium
context_page_description: Leitmeritz was the largest subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, operated by Nazi Germany in Leitmeritz, Reichsgau Sudetenland. Established on 24 March 1944 as part of an effort to disperse and increase war production, its prisoners were forced to work in the caverns Richard I and II, producing Maybach HL230 tank engines for Auto Union and preparing the second site for intended production of tungsten and molybdenum wire and sheet metal by Osram. Of the 18,000 prisoners who passed through the camp, about 4,500 died due to disease, malnutrition, and accidents caused by the disregard for safety by the SS staff who administered the camp. In the last weeks of the war, the camp became a hub for death marches. The camp operated until 8 May 1945, when it was dissolved by the German surrender.
context_section_description: The Elsabe production lines were dismantled and shipped to the Soviet Union as war reparations, while the barracks were returned to use by the Czechoslovak Army, and used until 2003. The crematorium is the only part of the former camp open to the public. Nearby,  a memorial to the victims of the camp designed by the Czech artist  Jiří Sozanský, was unveiled in 1992. The memorial and the surviving archives of the former camp are administered by the Terezín Memorial. Leitmeritz is known as "one of the most infamous and best researched Flossenbürg subcamps"; the Terezín Memorial has sponsored research into the camp's history. In 2014, Audi (the successor to Auto Union) released a report by Audi historian Martin Kukowski and Chemnitz University of Technology academic Rudolf Boch that it had commissioned into its activity during the Nazi era. According to the report, the company bore "moral responsibility" for the 4,500 deaths that occurred at Leitmeritz.
  In 1946, former Schutzhaftlagerführer Karl Opitz was convicted of responsibility for the execution of thirty prisoners and sentenced to life in prison by a Czechoslovak court. In 1974, former guard Henryk Matuszkowiak was convicted and sentenced to death in Poland for committing fourteen murders at Leitmeritz. In 2001, Julius Viel was convicted by a German court of murdering seven Jewish prisoners in an anti-tank trench in the spring of 1945, despite having claimed to be in Vienna when the murders were committed. The information which led to his conviction was given by a Hungarian-born former SS man, Adalbert Lallier. More than 360 witnesses were interviewed by the prosecutors.
caption: Memorial to the victims of the camp, designed by Jiří Sozanský [cs]
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D7000", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:17 22:15:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "876", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "990", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9253", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/25", "EXIF FNumber": "14", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:09:09 18:01:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:09:09 18:01:46", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "19/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "22", "EXIF SubSecTime": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "844", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "33", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}