During World War II, Germany operated a forced labour subcamp of the Nazi prison in the town in Zwickau, and a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. About 1,000 prisoners, half of whom were deported from German-occupied Poland, a quarter from the Soviet Union, and the remainder mostly Jews from various other countries, were imprisoned as forced labour in the latter. 246 prisoners died in the subcamp, and were mostly cremated in nearby Reichenbach im Vogtland, and the remaining were evacuated in a death march, during which many also died.
