Transport of concentration camp inmates to Tyrol

In late April 1945, close to the end of the Second World War in Europe, the government of Nazi Germany ordered that a number of high-profile prisoners should be moved to Tyrol, away from the advancing Western Allies. Eventually the inmates were liberated from their SS guards by regular German troops.

Transfer and liberation
On 17, 24 and 26 April 1945 141 prisoners from Dachau Concentration Camp were transferred to “Arbeitserziehungslager Reichenau”, Innsbruck, Austria. But the camp was not prepared to keep the prisoners. Instead the prisoners were sent to a hotel near Niederdorf/Hochpustertal 70 km northeast of Bozen, Italy where they arrived on 28 April.

The transport, which was composed of trucks and old buses, was guarded by several dozen troops from the SS and SD. On board were the camp's most important and prominent prisoners as well as family members of the 20 July plotters. The officers in charge, Obersturmführer Edgar Stiller and Untersturmführer Bader, had orders to kill all the prisoners if in any fear of capture.

Contrary to expectations, the Pragser Wildsee Hotel was unavailable as it was being used by three German Wehrmacht generals. A delegation from the prisoners' committee—that included Colonel Bogislaw von Bonin who had been imprisoned for allowing a retreat on the Eastern Front—made contact with the Wehrmacht HQ in Bozen and made known the identity of the high-status prisoners and the fear that they were to be executed before liberation by US troops.

A message was sent to Wehrmacht troops at Sexten 17 km east of Niederdorf commanded by Captain Wichard von Alvensleben, who decided to come and protect the prisoners with his soldiers.

On 30 April against the background of advancing US troops and Alvensleben’s unit, which had now surrounded the village, the SS guards decided to escape.

The free prisoners were then accommodated at the Pragser Wildsee Hotel until US troops marched into Niederdorf on 4 May.

List of the prisoners
(by country)