Bright , Frank , fl 1990s

Schwarzheide concentration camp, 50 km north of Dresden, a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen, was established in July 1944 initially to house 1000 Jewish slave labourers who were to work in the Braunkohlen-Benzinwerkes (Brabag) nearby. Such was the importance of this factory to the German war effort that it had been bombed on several occasions and for the whole of June 1944 was completely put out of action. Once the complex had recovered from this last assault, preparations were made to transfer inmates from Auschwitz, who had all lost their families in the aftermath of the liquidation of the so-called 'Familienlager' in Theresienstadt. Several inmates from Sachsenhausen had been sent over to fill posts of responsibility to administer the camp. It was a brutal regime, in which many inmates were worked to death. In addition many died or were injured as a result of Allied bombing attacks, mainly because they were not evacuated or given protection during air raids.