The project 'DenkMal! Todesmarsch Mülsen-Eibenstock 1945" is a collaboration between the LEADER regions Zwickauer Land and Westerzgebirge. The organisations responsible for its implementation are Alter Gasometer e.V. (Zwickau) and Kompetenzzentrum für Gemeinwesenarbeit und Engagement e.V. (Aue). The project aims to raise awareness of these local historical events. Our aim is to bring local history back into the public consciousness and learn from it. Together with young people, we aim to engage with history, developing and implementing new formats for commemoration and remembrance. We offer workshops and events on this topic for schools and interested members of the public.

Mülsen St. Micheln was one of the many external camps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, operating from 27 January 1944 to 13 April 1945. Over 1,000 prisoners were forced to work there for Erla Maschinenfabrik GmbH. As the Allied troops approached, the National Socialists had to decide what to do about the prisoners and the camps. Amidst the chaos of impending defeat, Heinrich Himmler reportedly issued his final order: 'No prisoner must fall into the hands of the enemy alive!' Consequently, the numerous Saxon subcamps were gradually evacuated in April 1945, with the prisoners being driven on foot towards the Czech Republic and away from the front. These evacuation marches would later become known as 'death marches' because many prisoners were murdered during this final phase of Nazi crimes.

On 13 April, the Mülsen St. Micheln satellite camp was evacuated, with the estimated 800 prisoners being driven through Saxon villages towards Litoměřice (Leitmeritz). Their route took them through Hartenstein, Schlema, Schneeberg, Zschorlau and Eibenstock. There, in Wolfsgrün, the remaining prisoners boarded a trainto the external concentration camp Leitmeritz, and around 350 prisoners eventually arrived there. Some escaped or died in air raids along the way.

83 sick people who were unable to walk were murdered on the sports field in Niederschlema and their bodies were buried in a nearby mine. Most of their identities remain unknown to this day.

(Titzmann 2024)

*Different sources provide different figures regarding the number of prisoners in the camp at the time of evacuation who were forced onto the death march. One basic text on the external camp and its evacuation estimates the number of prisoners to be 487 (Fritz Ulrich, Mülsen St. Micheln, in Orte des Terrors, Vol. 4, p. 205). Titzmann discusses this discrepancy:

"The figure of 787 prisoners who had to start the march in Mülsen St. Micheln contrasts with the figure of 487, which can also be found in other publications on the subject." This may be a transcription or typing error. The figure of 487 prisoners appears to be far too small. If one subtracts the nearly 90 people murdered in Niederschlema and the approximately 100 who escaped during the air raid in Leitmeritz, one arrives at the figure of at least 300 prisoners with whom Degner claims to have arrived in Theresienstadt. However, this would mean that the prisoners who escaped en masse, as described by many death march survivors, did not exist" (Titzmann 2015: 32 / translation by "DenkMal!")

After comparing the arrival and departure lists for the Mülsen satellite camp, we arrived at a figure of 772. However, further research revealed that not all prisoners appear on these transport lists; many only appear by name again as victims on the death march. Therefore, this number is probably very close to the number of prisoners stated by Titzmann.