Joseph Winter (1891 Siebnach – 16.6.1945 in Bergen-Belsen Camp after liberation)

Joseph Winter and his wife Barbara lived in Augsburg before they moved to Munich in 1942. The merchant couple had two sons. However, the younger one died as a child. The Winter family was incarcerated in March 1943, and deported to the ’gypsy camp’‘ Auschwitz-Birkenau a few days later. All of their possessions were confiscated. In the camp, the inmates suffered from starvation, forced labor and completely insufficient hygienic conditions. Barbara Winter died a few weeks after arrival in the ‘gypsy camp’. At the end of October 1943, their 26-year-old son Julius Winter was examined in the surgical department of the concentration camp and probably also operated on. He died shortly after this.

Joseph Winter was transported to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1944, where he had to do extremely difficult forced labor, first in the Mittelbau-Dora Satellite Camp and later in Harzungen. To protect it against bomb attacks, the production of the Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke was supposed to be shifted to underground tunnels. The transport and hard work had weakened Joseph Winter so much that he had to spend a few days in the camp infirmary. After his release, he was reassigned to the most difficult labor once again. The Harzungen Satellite Camp was evacuated in February 1945. Together with more than 4000 inmates, Joseph Winter was probably taken to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp by train. British troops liberated the camp on April 15, 1945. After just a few weeks of freedom, Joseph Winter died on June 16, 1945 in Bergen-Belsen as a result of his incarceration.