Category:Dachau (subject)

KZ Dachau (see Holocaust Children Studies)

The Schwanger Kommando

The Schwanger Kommando was a group of seven pregnant, Hungarian Jewish women imprisoned in one of the Kaufering sub-camps of Dachau in December 1944. Though pregnant women and their babies were almost never permitted to survive, this group was allowed to bear their children, possibly as a bargaining chip for their SS overseers to use when the Allies conquered Germany. They were forced to work in the prisoners’ laundry. Despite appalling sanitary conditions and the lack of food and heat, all seven mothers gave birth to healthy babies between February and March 1945. As late as 13 March 1945, the head SS camp physician issued an order for the mothers to be transferred from Dachau to the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Thankfully the order was not carried out. All were liberated in Dachau in May 1945.

Pictured left to right are Eva Schwartz (Eva Fleischmannovà) with her daughter Maria; Dora Loewy (Dora Löwy) and her daughter Szuszi; Boeszi Legmann (Elisabeth Legmann) with her son Gyuri; Suri Hirsch (Sara Grün) with her son Yossi; Miriam Schwarcz Rosenthal (Miriam Rosenthal) with her son Laci (Leslie); Magda Fenyvesi (Magda Schwartz) with her son Judit, and Ibolya Kovacs (Ibolya Kovács) with her daughter Agnes.