Magdeburg, a major industrial center deep in the German Reich, was a significant site during World War II. It housed 30 forced labor detachments from the Stalag XI-A POW camp for 4,500 Allied POWs, a camp for Sinti and Romani people, and three subcamps of Buchenwald, imprisoning mostly Jewish and Soviet, Polish, and Jewish women. In April 1945, dozens of prisoners were massacred by the Volkssturm and Hitler Youth, with survivors sent on death marches to Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. Magdeburg was heavily bombed by British and American air forces, with an RAF raid on January 16, 1945, destroying much of the city center and killing an estimated 2,000–2,500 people.
