(28 March 2016) On the evening of April 21, 1945, Soviet troops opened the doors to the labor camps of the Treuenbrietzen area, a town located 70 kilometers southwest of Berlin, intended for prisoners of war and forced laborers of different nationalities, employed in the Kopp & Co and Dr. Kroeber & Sohn companies. On April 23, however, after the Soviet troops continued their advance, a German military unit separated the Italian military internees from the rest of the prisoners and slaughtered them in a quarry near the village of Weinbergen. Of the 127 confirmed victims, only 111 could be identified. 71 years after the massacre, the Italian Embassy in Berlin and the City of Treuenbrietzen remember the victims with a memorial service scheduled for Sunday 24 April, coinciding with Liberation Day. The appointment is at 11am at Rathausplatz Treuenbrietzen (Brandenburg), for subsequent visit to the location of the massacre. (Sip)

Treuenbrietzen

In the Treuenbrietzen area, a town located in Nickel, there were some labor camps (Arbeitslager) that housed about 3,000 workers and prisoners of war of various nations. They were used by the factories of Kopp & Co., which manufactured ammunition for the infantry and tracer bullets, located a short distance from each other. Not far away, there were the warehouses of the company Dr. Kroeber & Sohn, which produced precision instruments.