Litoměřice
Litoměřice Crematory
The death rate in Litoměřice concentration camp and the underground Richard
factory was very high, especially in winter and spring in 1945 where a typhoid
epidemic started to spread. 4500 prisoners would die in Litoměřice during one
year. At first, the dead would be taken to cremation in Ústí nad Labem or to
Terezín crematory. The number of bodies was so high that the two crematories
were not capable of burning all of them (moreover, there was lack of petrol at
the end of the war) and a quick solution was needed to solve the problem.
The Reich German called Fritz suggested building a new crematory at a brick-kiln
in Litoměrice. Nobody would have ever thought that the small building at the
brick-kiln could be a crematory. The building was without a chimney. The fouling
and the smoke were redirected by an underground canal into the chimney of the
running brick-kiln. No-one, apart from the Germans, knew that the smoke of the
brick-kiln was mixed with the smoke of the crematory. The crematory was operated
by Václav Pritzl (born on 4th December 1883), a local from Litoměřice. His
house was standing right beside the brick-kiln and the crematory. He gave the
court the evidence that 30 to 40 bodies would be burnt a day. The last bodies
were cremated on the 2nd and 3rd May 1945 after a big execution in a Small
fortress Terezín. According to his records, 405 or 406 bodies were burnt here
altogether. The salary for this work was 75 Pf per hour. The place has become a
memorial site today. A monument to the victims of the war stands in the middle
of the site.
interiér krematoria
pietní místo
Krematorium
Contact
Památky jinak, o.s.
Věra Gruntorádová
Tel.:774114586
e-mail:pamatkyjinak@gmail.com
http://www.pamatky-jinak.webnode.cz
