Block 10 (Auschwitz concentration camp)

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Main camp : location of block 10 (marked in yellow)
Block 10 at the top right of the picture, photo from August 1944
Block 10, image from October 2018

As block 10 , a building complex in is the main camp of Auschwitz called, which served as a test station for "medical" research from the 1943rd

Location

Block 10 was right next to Block 11 with the camp prison and was isolated from the rest of the camp. Access was only permitted to authorized persons.

Between Block 10 and Block 11 there was a courtyard and at the head end of it a wall with a bullet trap - known as the black wall in the camp language - on which executions of prisoners were carried out. Due to the proximity, the prisoners of both blocks became ear-witnesses of executions.

Use before 1943

From 1940 to 1942 Block 10 was used in addition to the barracks to accommodate the camp inmates. So-called educational prisoners were temporarily housed there in 1941 . In 1942 women were billeted for a few months until the end of the year the rooms were equipped with medical equipment for the establishment of a gynecological department. In April 1943 the rooms were made available to Carl Clauberg .

Use after 1943

The women housed in Block 10 were abused by the doctors Carl Clauberg, Eduard Wirths and Horst Schumann who worked there for their human experiments.

In 2011, the cultural scientist Hans-Joachim Lang published a book entitled Die Frauen von Block 10. Medical Experiments in Auschwitz , for which he was able to get contemporary witnesses to tell their stories. His book has been translated into several languages ​​(Finnish, Polish and Czech) and a revised edition was published in 2018.

In February 2012 Uwe Stolzmann reported on the book by Lang under the title Labor des Grauens in Deutschlandfunk Kultur . In June 2012, the magazine Der Spiegel reported on Block 10 .

In 2019, the film Medizinversuche in Auschwitz was made under the direction of Sonya Winterberg and Sylvia Nagel , whose subtitle -  Clauberg and the women of Block 10  - refers to the gynecologist Carl Clauberg, who was regarded as the "world's leading reproductive medicine specialist " . The film was broadcast on Arte in January 2020 .

In cooperation with Schering-Kahlbaum AG , Clauberg had developed hormone preparations, among other things, and was one of the fathers of the birth control pill . His “work on birth control and infertility is still part of the medical canon today - but without making any reference to his medical experiments in Auschwitz,” said ARD in the text accompanying the film.

While Clauberg pleaded guilty to his trial in the Soviet Union in 1947/1948, he denied the investigation that was initiated in Germany in 1955 and claimed that he “only helped and saved women” - according to the Austrian daily Der Standard .

The International Auschwitz Committee published in its  news from Auschwitz the report of a contemporary witness under the title December 8, 1944: A day at the research station of Dr. Clauberg .

Plaque

Memorial plaque on Block 10

A plaque commemorates the crimes committed by Clauberg from April 1943 to May 1944 in Polish, English and Hebrew . Some of the victims died of the treatment they received. Others have been murdered to be autopsied . The survivors suffered permanent damage. Other SS doctors carried out experiments on women in this block.

literature

  • Helmut Grosch: The Kiel gynecologist Carl Clauberg and the population policy of National Socialism . In: Eckhard Heesch (Hrsg.): The art of healing in disastrous times. Contributions to the history of medicine under National Socialism . Mabuse-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-925499-57-1 , p. 85-118 .
  • Hans-Joachim Lang : The women from Block 10. Medical experiments in Auschwitz . Weltbild, Augsburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8289-5857-9 .

Web links

Commons : Auschwitz I - Block 10  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Reinhard Tenhumberg: Auschwitz Block 10. Retrieved on February 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Lawaty , Marek Zybura (Ed.): Tadeusz Różewicz and the Germans . International conference on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Tadeusz Różewicz (2001) (=  publications of the German Poland Institute Darmstadt . Volume 17 ). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04814-X , p. 206 .
  3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Lang : The women of Block 10. Medical experiments in Auschwitz . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-455-50222-0 .
  4. ↑ In Finnish: Parakki 10. Naiset Auschwitzin koe-eläiminä. Minerva Kustannus, Helsinki 2013, ISBN 978-952-492-711-6 ;
    in Polish: Kobiety z bloku 10. Eksperymenty medyczne w Auschwitz. Świat Książki, Warsaw 2013, ISBN 978-83-7943-097-0 ;
    in Czech: Ženy z bloku 10. Lékařské pokusy v Osvětimi. Ikar, Prague 2014, ISBN 978-80-249-2394-9 .
  5. ↑ Hans-Joachim Lang : The women of Block 10. Medical experiments in Auschwitz . Weltbild, Augsburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8289-5857-9 .
  6. ↑ Uwe Stolzmann: Laboratory of horror. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. February 9, 2012, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  7. ^ Hans-Joachim Lang: Human experiments in Auschwitz. "If I were very little, I would scream in pain" . In: Der Spiegel . June 22, 2012 ( spiegel.de [accessed February 1, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Medical experiments in Auschwitz. In: ARD program. January 21, 2020, accessed January 31, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Medical experiments in Auschwitz. Clauberg and the women from Block 10. In: Arte Geschichte. Accessed January 31, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Medical experiments in Auschwitz. In: ARD program. January 21, 2020, accessed January 31, 2020 .
  11. ↑ The Unatoned Crimes of Auschwitz: The Women of Block 10 . In: The Standard . January 20, 2020 ( derstandard.de [accessed February 1, 2020]).
  12. ↑ December 8, 1944. A day at the research station of Dr. Clauberg. In: News from Auschwitz. International Auschwitz Committee , December 8, 2004, accessed February 1, 2020 .