Block 11 (Auschwitz concentration camp)

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View of Block 11 (left) from the reconstructed Black Wall (photo from April 2014).

As block 11 (until August 1941 Block 13 ) or death block is a two-story brick building of the main camp of Auschwitz called in whose basement there until the evacuation of of July 1940 concentration camp was in January 1945, the camp prison. The inmates called the camp prison a bunker ; officially it was called the commandant's arrest . Many of the detainees there died as a result of the cruel detention conditions and mistreatment. Thousands of prisoners were shot in front of the Black Wall in the courtyard between Block 10 and 11 after bunker selections and police tribunal proceedings . In the autumn of 1941, the first mass gassing of people with Zyklon B was carried out in the basement of Block 11 . Because of these special functions, Block 11 as a prison within a prison is of particular importance in the terror system of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The crimes committed against prisoners in Block 11 were also the subject of proceedings in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial . Today Block 11 is part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and is open to the public. A scientific study on Block 11 is not yet available.

Establishment, structure and function of the block

Block 11 and the courtyard to Block 10 with the Black Wall in 2000
Transportable gallows, exhibited today in Block 11

From July 1940, the buildings of the former Polish artillery barracks in Oświęcim were increasingly used for the expansion of the Auschwitz concentration camp established there two months earlier. For this purpose, 18 brick buildings were partially raised in the old barracks, which was partly surrounded by a wall. A brick building with a tiled hipped roof at the southwest corner of the camp area was used for camp detention and special functions. This block was initially referred to as block 13 and after the camp was expanded from August 1941 (probably August 9, 1941) as block 11.

In addition to a ground floor and an upper floor, this building also had an attic and a basement that was used as a warehouse detention center. The prisoners also called the building the death block (in Polish: Blok Smierci ), as an introduction to camp arrest often led to the death of the prisoner concerned. The block's windows were barred. In the basement there were only tiny windows on upstream light shafts through which daylight could enter and air could flow in. On the upper floor of the block, the windows were later walled up except for a small crack.

The courtyard between block 11 and block 10 with the black wall was lined with high brick walls on the front sides of the two parallel buildings and thus protected from view. On the side of the courtyard facing the storage area there was a massive wooden gate consisting of two leaves with a lockable viewing flap that was locked from the inside. In addition to the black wall, where thousands of prisoners were shot in the neck with small- bore rifles , there were also two "transportable" gallows for executing prisoners and several stakes for enforcing the penalty of stake-binding .

Main camp : location of block 11 (bottom left, number u)

The main entrance to the block, accessible via a few stone steps, was on the front of the building in the direction of Lagerstrasse . To the right of the main entrance was a small black sign with the block number. The front door at the main entrance had a small flap through which people to be admitted were checked by the on-duty block leader . Block 11 within the camp was strictly isolated and always locked. Only the camp commandant , the protective custody camp leader , the report leaders, the head and the heads of the so-called Political Department (camp Gestapo) and the prison functionaries housed in this block had access to this block. Due to the security measures, an escape from Block 11 was practically impossible.

ground floor

From the main entrance, a wide main corridor divided the ground floor of the block into two halves. To the right of the main entrance there was initially the block leader's office. The following rooms contained the rooms of the prison functionaries employed in Block 11 (block clerks, block senior officers, etc.). In the middle of the block, a hallway led from the main corridor to the side exit of the block, through which the courtyard could be entered. Furthermore there were u. a. also washrooms and latrines.

Attic and first floor

Initially, the rooms of the punishment company (1940/42) and those of the education company, which only existed for a few months, were located on the upper floor or in the attic . At times, prisoners who were newly assigned to the camp were housed on the upper floor, as well as inmates who were about to be released, and prisoners of the SS.

Cell construction

The cell structure could only be reached from the ground floor through a permanently locked iron grille. The basement, like the ground floor and first floor, was divided by a wide main corridor, which was divided by two lattice doors. Cells 1 to 14 were on the left half of the camp street and cells 15 to 28 on the right. According to the block clerk Jan Pilecki, cells 1 to 7 were intended for female inmates. In addition to concentration camp prisoners , some cells were occupied by police prisoners , civilians and Ukrainian nationalists who had previously served in the SS. Prominent inmates were locked in cell 21. There were four standing cells in cell 22 ; other cells served as dark cells .

Camp arrest

The basement of the block was turned into a camp detention from the end of 1940. As early as July 1940, however, prisoners were committed to camp arrest in the block for the first time. Officially, the arrest area was as commandant's arrest referred. Unofficially, the prisoners called this cell structure a bunker .

Instructing authorities, reasons for imprisonment and sentencing

The camp prison was officially assigned to the camp commandant's office (Department 1). In addition to the camp commandant, the camp leader or, in particular, the head of the political department, could order a prisoner to be placed under camp arrest. As a rule, the prisoners were taken to Block 11 by the block leader on duty or members of the Political Department to carry out their camp arrest. Very rarely were prisoners also taken to Block 11 by prison functionaries and handed over to the block leader there, for example in the case of "aggressive debauchery" by homosexual prisoners. Such briefings were authorized by the camp commandant the following day. Reasons for admission were for example:

  • Sabotage or suspected sabotage.
  • Participation in the camp resistance or the suspicion of it
  • Contact with the civilian population or suspicion
  • Possession of food, valuables, etc. a. Things that were smuggled into the camp
  • Preparation for an escape, escape assistance , escape attempts or a corresponding suspicion as well as failed escapes
  • Violations of the camp regulations such as theft and other offenses as defined by the camp SS

The sentencing, whether and how long an inmate was locked in the holding cells or in a dark or standing cell, depended on the gravity of the offense. The prisoners were usually placed in detention for between 3 and 27 days, but in individual cases for a shorter or longer period. Two prisoners were even locked in the bunker for 260 and 210 days respectively. The camp Gestapo often picked up prisoners who had been assigned by the Political Department for " intensified interrogations " and severely abused them in the process. Some inmates did not survive the torture. Some inmates of the bunker committed suicide out of desperation while in custody .

Two narrow side aisles, which were parallel to each other, led off the main aisle. Access to the 28 holding cells was also secured via smaller corridors. The heavy cell doors were reinforced with steel fittings and equipped with a peephole . Cards with the inmates' personal details were affixed to the cell doors, and from 1943 a constantly updated overview board with the inmates in the bunker was in the block leader's office. In the cells there were only wooden bunk beds and a zinc bucket for the necessities .

Standing cells

In cell 22, the entrance to a standing cell is visible as an approximately square grid opening.

After SS leader Hans Aumeier , who had already “gained experience” in the Dachau concentration camp, took over the post of protective custody camp leader in the main camp at the beginning of February 1942, more stringent dark detention in the standing bunker was introduced as a punitive measure. In cell 22 of the detention center, four small standing cells with a floor area of ​​90 cm × 90 cm were set up by means of partition walls. According to witness reports, a standing cell was occupied by up to four prisoners, so that it was impossible to sit down or lie down. The cell was accessed through a small opening in the floor through which the inmate had to crawl. After the prisoner entered the standing bunker, the cell was secured by a wooden door reinforced with iron fittings. Since fresh air could only get into the cell through a five-square-centimeter opening, the prisoners also faced death from suffocation with this punishment. On the outer wall of the block 11, this opening was covered with a metal screen. This sentence was usually carried out at night, sometimes for more than ten nights, and during the day the inmates had to do forced labor . The prisoners detained there generally received no food for the entire duration of the sentence. In individual cases, inmates were locked in standing cells for several days without interruption. In addition, the inmates were not given any food or water and died as a result of the torture.

Dark and hunger cells

Candle on Maximilian Kolbe's death row, a gift from Pope John Paul II (2004)

Darkness was performed in cells 7, 9 and at times also 8 and 20. Instead of windows, as in the standing cells, there were only small air openings that were covered from the outside by basket-like sheet metal panels. There were only buckets in the cells for relieving themselves, the inmates who were interned there had to sleep on the concrete floor. This sentence was carried out anywhere from a few days to several weeks. If the detention center was overcrowded, the dark cells were also used as standing cells.

In some cases, arrest cells also served as starvation cells. This punishment threatened refugee prisoners, escape helpers or even hostages, who were punished instead of the fugitives as a deterrent. The best-known victim in a hunger cell was the Polish Franciscan minorite and Auschwitz inmate Maximilian Kolbe , who was sentenced to starvation on July 29, 1941 with 14 other inmates in retaliation for a successful escape from the camp. Kolbe made himself available to the head of the protective custody camp, Karl Fritzsch, for the initially selected prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek , who was very desperate because of the fate that lay ahead of him. Fritzsch accepted this exchange and Kolbe was locked in cell 18 with the 14 other hostages. After Kolbe had suffered in the hunger bunker until August 14, 1941 and had seen his fellow sufferers die, he was murdered by a phenol injection .

Bunker clearance

If the bunker was overfilled, so-called bunker emptying or clearing of bunkers was carried out at regular intervals on the initiative of the head of the political department, Maximilian Grabner , and the respective protective custody camp manager. Prisoners were selected for execution on the Black Wall. Grabner called these selections, which were supposed to create space for new inmates, "dusting bunkers". In doing so, the members of the camp SS selected the victims who, in their opinion, were most deserving of death, who were sentenced to death after a brief sham trial. The death row inmates had to undress in the washrooms, had their prisoner numbers written on their naked bodies with a copier and were then executed one after the other in groups of two on the black wall, where they saw the bodies of those who had already been executed, piled up in the courtyard.

These arbitrary executions were illegal even according to the regulations of the Nazi state, since the members of the camp SS were not allowed to decide on the death of prisoners on their own initiative and without orders from higher authorities such as the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). The murder victims were therefore listed as “dead in the prisoner infirmary”.

Bunker book

Page of the bunker book

From January 9, 1941 to February 1, 1944, the so-called bunker book was initially kept unofficially by the respective block clerk, in which prisoners placed in block 11 were recorded during this period. In addition to the full name, the prisoner category, prisoner number, date of birth as well as the place of birth, reason for imprisonment, the time of posting and discharge or the time of death were given. Due to discrepancies in the information provided by the incarcerated prisoners and the records in the bunker book, which was initially officially kept by the block leader, block clerk Franciszek Brol began to secretly keep his own bunker book in order not to endanger his own position and to document the crimes. After the records in the official bunker book did not agree with the determined block size during a prison roll call in March 1941, Brol was able to prove the correct size of the block with his own information. Therefore, the bunker book created by Brol and later continued by his successors was tacitly recognized by the camp SS. The bunker book consisted of two continuous volumes: Volume 1, comprising 146 pages, was kept until March 31, 1943; it lists 1,190 prisoners (including four double entries and one civilian). The second volume with 68 pages contains information on 952 prisoners. Pilecki made copies of the two bunker books and succeeded in getting the original of the first volume and a copy of the second out of the camp through Józef Cyrankiewicz .

The bunker book shows, among other things, that during this period 814 prisoners were committed to camp arrest by the political department and 335 by the protective custody camp leader. However, the number of inmates recorded in the bunker book does not match the actual number of inmates placed in camp arrest, as in four cases, in addition to an incorrectly registered civilian, there were double entries and several entries cite the repeated admission of a prisoner to the bunker: one each The inmate was locked in the bunker seven or six times, three inmates five times (including Josef Windeck ), four inmates four times, 17 inmates three times (including Bruno Brodniewicz , the camp elder with inmate number 1) and 101 inmates twice. According to nationality, the following groups of inmates were listed in the bunker books (more than 15 mentions out of 2137, a total of 1261 without specifying nationality): 422 Poles, 175 Germans and Austrians, 82 "Gypsies" and 61 Czechs. In this context, Jewish prisoners were recorded according to their nationality or under the heading “no information”. More than half of the bunker book recorded 2137 information on detainees included on labels so-called political prisoners (1241), and further (more than 100 mentions) Jews (286), in police preventive detention taken (as a career criminal or temporary Vorbeugehäftlinge referred) (259) as well as so-called anti - social . Most of the bunker occupants were between 30 and 50 years old (967) or between 21 and 30 years old (712). In exceptional cases, young people under the age of 16 and old people were also admitted to the bunker. The youngest bunker occupant was a thirteen-year-old Polish boy and the oldest was a 75-year-old old man; both were shot in 1943. 142 prisoners were transferred to the penal company after their arrest; at least 807 prisoners did not survive the bunker. However, the actual number of fatalities should not only be set higher due to the temporary entries in the bunker book: prisoners sentenced to punishment standing bunkers, female prisoners, police prisoners, prisoners from the camp executed on the black wall, Soviet prisoners of war , Ukrainian nationalists from the Zeppelin company , civil workers as well as members of the SS were not recorded in the bunker book. A number of entries conceal the fate of bunker inmates, and the prisoners who died as a result of their bunker detention in the camp are not recorded there either. The Austrian Major General Josef Stochmal , imprisoned as a special prisoner in cell 21 and executed in 1942, was also not listed for reasons of secrecy.

The original of the first bunker book and the copy of the second have been preserved. The bunker books are kept in the archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Bunker amnesty

After Arthur Liebehenschel succeeded Rudolf Höß as camp commandant in November 1943 , he gave the highest priority to maintaining prisoners' workforce during his six-month service. Conditions for the concentration camp prisoners in the camp improved under his camp command. Among other things, Liebehenschel issued a ban on beatings in the main camp, exchanged brutal kapos , ordered the suspension of "bunker clearings" and the subsequent shootings, ordered the removal of standing cells and issued a general bunker amnesty for the incarcerated prisoners. In the spring of 1944 those bunker inmates who had been sent to the bunker on the instructions of the Political Department or the protective custody camp management were transferred to the upper floor of Block 11 for release to the camp or other concentration camps.

On his instructions, the “Black Wall” was also dismantled. However, the shootings continued in Crematorium IV . Furthermore, he restricted the influence of the Political Department and had its well-known prisoner spy transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp at the beginning of February 1944 . The SS medical officer Eduard Wirths and the camp resistance associated with him played a considerable part in these measures . After Liebehenschel was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp in May 1944, conditions in the camp deteriorated again under his successor Richard Baer . Many of the innovations ordered by Liebehenschel were withdrawn.

First mass gassing in the bunker cells of Block 11

Substrate: "Erco cube" Zyklon B

In the late summer of 1941, the head of the protective custody camp, Karl Fritzsch , first tried out the method of killing Soviet prisoners of war destined for death using Zyklon B , which was otherwise used for delousing prisoners' clothing . During this first "experimental gassing" in the basement of Block 11, camp commandant Höß was not in Auschwitz. The exact date is not known. August 15, 1941 is accepted at the earliest, and even beginning of December 1941 at the latest. Most scientific accounts, however, name the 5th / 6th of the subsequent first mass gassing in the presence of Höß. September 1941. After Danuta Czech , the first mass gassing took place as follows:

Fritzsch instructed the prisoners released from the bunker as well as the prisoners of the penal company to vacate the first and upper floors of Block 11 and to bring pallets etc. to the attic. On the evening of that day, the prisoners were assigned to Block 5a, which was still under construction.

On the following day, about 250 sick prisoners were selected from the prisoner infirmary of the main camp by the SS medical officer Siegfried Schwela and brought to the basement of Block 11. Around 600 Soviet prisoners of war, mostly officers and political commissars , were also herded into the holding cells of the bunker. They had previously been selected from prisoner-of-war camps based on the Commissar's Order No. 8 of July 17, 1941 and designated for execution. The window shafts in the basement rooms of Block 11 were filled in with earth. Immediately before the doors were locked and sealed, members of the camp SS threw Zyklon B into the rooms in the evening after the camp was closed.

In the morning hours of the following day, the report leader Gerhard Palitzsch, protected by a gas mask , unlocked the cell doors and found that not all of the victims were dead. Then Zyklon B was again thrown into the cells and the doors were locked again. In the afternoon it was found that all prisoners and prisoners of war were dead. Another camp lock was ordered at night. After the gas had largely evaporated, prisoners (in particular from the penal company and from the prisoner infirmary), who had been obliged to maintain strict secrecy under threat of the death penalty , were taken to the courtyard between Block 10 and Block 11 for special work. The leading members of the camp SS Fritzsch, Palitzsch, Schwela, Maier and several block leaders were already there . A group of inmates equipped with gas masks had to carry the corpses from the basement to the ground floor, a second had to strip the corpses down to their underpants, a third had to carry the corpses from the first floor to the courtyard and a fourth had to load the corpses onto waiting trolleys. Meanwhile, under the supervision of members of the camp SS, the clothing of the dead was searched for valuables and the gold teeth were removed. The trolleys loaded with corpses were brought to the crematorium . This process could not be completed by dawn and on the evening of September 5, the same group of inmates had to end the transport of corpses to the crematorium after repeated closure of the camp. Due to the large number of bodies, the cremation took several days.

The camp commandant Rudolf Höß wrote in his notes on the first mass murder with Zyklon B in Block 11:

“The gassing was carried out in the holding cells of Block 11. I watched the killing myself, protected by a gas mask. Death occurred in the fully grafted cells immediately after throwing them in. Just a short, almost choked scream, and it was over. This first gassing of people did not really come to my consciousness, I was perhaps too impressed by the whole process. I remember the gassing of 900 Russians in the old crematorium that followed soon after, because the use of Block 11 required too much trouble. "

Police stand court

Police prisoners waiting room in Block 11

The first room on the left after the main entrance served as a waiting room for police prisoners, who were tried by the court martial of the Katowice state police headquarters, which met in the office of Block 11 from 1943 . The head of the local Gestapo took over the chairmanship of this court martial, which was called once or twice a month , initially until September 1943 by Rudolf Mildner and then by Johannes Thümmler . Furthermore, the Tribunal u. a. the head of the political department in Auschwitz concentration camp and his staff in the interrogation department and the camp commandant or the protective custody camp leader. Poles who had been arrested by officers of the local Gestapo for resisting the German occupiers or for other “offenses” such as smuggling were brought from the police prisons to block 11 for their trial without registration as prisoners. So-called ethnic Germans and prisoners who had already been sent to the camp were also among the defendants. The "confessions" of the accused men and women were already available.

The block clerk and Auschwitz survivor Jan Pilecki reported in the course of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial that around 100 cases with up to 200 defendants were negotiated in 60 to 90 minutes per session. The defendants had to wait in the corridor for their trial and were called on a list. Almost all of the accused were sentenced to death and executed in front of the Black Wall, only a few were sent to concentration camps.

Block leader

In block 11, the block leaders or their deputies worked in shifts 24 hours a day to monitor the inmates in block 11. In this context, the block leader essentially had the following tasks:

  • Entry and exit control to block 11
  • Control of the total number of prisoners incarcerated in Block 11 (strength report)
  • Accompanying prisoners from the camp area to Block 11
  • Confiscation of the property of inmates assigned to Block 11
  • Keeping the bunker book (SS members who were interned in Block 11 had their own bunker book)
  • Transferring the prisoner to the cell area assigned to him and executing the ordered treatment (in particular solitary confinement, bondage, standing bunker, dark detention, deprivation of food)
  • Supervision of the cleaning of the camp detention and the food distribution
  • Accompanying prisoners from arrest for interrogation in the Political Department
  • Storage of the bunker key
  • Participation in cell controls
  • Release from camp arrest
  • Flogging (corridor and block leader's room) and stake binding (attic) in block 11
  • Participation in the shooting of prisoners at the Black Wall

Block leaders known by name were the following members of the camp SS: Reinhard Eberle (1942–1944), Georg Engelschall (1941), Wilhelm Gehring (1941–1942), Ernst Kroh (1942–1943), Otto Lätsch (1943), Kurt Hugo Müller (1943), Otto Ogurek (1943), Bruno Schlage (1942–1943), Karl Seufert (1941), Heinz Villain (1941). Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch and Jan Pilecki also name Ludwig Plagge as well as Kurt Gerlach, Werner Kleinmann and Gustav Schulz. In addition, a member of the Political Department was assigned to supervise the police detainees in Block 11, who also prepared the meetings of the police tribunal. SS man Willi Florschütz took on this task.

Function prisoners

Among the inmates employed in Block 11, the respective block elders and block clerks held important functions. The block elder was responsible for the first and second floors in this block and, in particular, had to report the total number of prisoners in block 11 during roll call. In addition, he was initially responsible for overseeing the penal company that was located in Block 11 until 1942. The block elder was held by Ernst Krankemann , Johannes (Hans) Krümmel and Franz Teresiak, among others .

The block clerk had to do all the paperwork to monitor the inmates in Block 11 and in particular to record the block reports in writing. Well-known block clerks in Block 11, who also kept the bunker book, were the Polish prisoners Franciszek Brol, Gerard Włoch and Jan Pilecki. The prison functionaries in Block 11 had, among other privileges, relative freedom of movement in the camp. In contrast to other prisoners, they were exposed to less harassment and therefore had much better conditions for survival.

In the bunker, a kapo known as a killer was employed, whose area of ​​responsibility extended to the camp arrest. The normal tasks of the bunker calf factor included unlocking and locking the cells and distributing food to prisoners as well as cleaning the cell structure. Furthermore, he had to carry the corpses of the inmates who died in the camp arrest from the cell to the entrance of the cell building, from where they were removed from the inmate infirmary by corpse carriers. The bunker lime factor was supported in its tasks by an assistant. When checking cells, they sometimes had to interpret between camp SS and bunker inmates.

The Jewish prisoner Jakob Gorzelezyk (often incorrectly spelled Kozelczuk ), known as Bunkerjakob, became known, who arrived at Auschwitz on January 26, 1943 with a transport consisting of 2,300 Jews and was selected as one of the few for forced labor in the camp; 2107 people on this deportation train were immediately murdered in the gas chambers. Gorzelezyk was described by the Auschwitz survivor Filip Müller as an exceptionally strong and very muscular giant who, due to his extraordinary strength, was used as a cauldron in the bunker of Block 11. Before Gorzelezyk, the German Kurt Pennewitz and then the Polish prisoner Hans Musioł had taken over the tasks of the bunker calf factor or bunker capo.

The Auschwitz survivor and temporary bunker inmate Hermann Langbein characterizes Gorzelezyk on four pages in his book “People in Auschwitz”. In addition to his regular duties, Gorzelezyk was responsible for accompanying execution candidates to the Black Wall and holding the victims during their shooting. He was forced by the camp SS to assist in clearing the bunkers, to carry out flogging on prisoners and to hang them on the roll call area. Gorzelezyk was described by many Auschwitz survivors as extremely helpful because, for example, unlike members of the camp SS, he carried out the corporal punishment with care, transmitted messages from bunker inmates to other prisoners in the cell, cared for the tortured and provided prisoners with food. The Bunkerjakob had provided valuable conspiratorial help within the scope of his possibilities.

Evacuation and liberation of the camp

In the course of the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp due to the war, the prisoners still held in Block 11 had to go on a death march between January 18 and 23, 1945 . When they arrived in Wodzisław Śląski , however, they were not taken to concentration camps further west, unlike most of the prisoners, but were driven further west on foot. The destination of this group of prisoners was possibly the Groß-Rosen concentration camp .

On January 27, 1945 at around 3 p.m., the largely evacuated Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet units from the 1st Ukrainian Front . The liberation reminds on January 27, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism , which in Germany since 1996, is a nationwide, of statutory Memorial Day and the United Nations in 2005 for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust was declared .

Legal processing

In 1943, during the time of National Socialism , the SS judge Konrad Morgen initiated an investigation against the head of the Political Department Grabner . The trial against him in October 1943 before the SS and Police Court in Weimar , in particular for murder in 2,000 cases during the clearing of bunkers, was not concluded. Investigations were also started against camp commandant Höß and protective custody camp leaders Aumeier and Schwarz , but were not brought to a conclusion.

After the end of World War II , Aumeier and Grabner were sentenced to death in the Kraków Auschwitz Trial for crimes committed in Auschwitz and executed in January 1948, the latter “for the murder of at least 25,000 prisoners”. At that time, Höß and Schwarz had already been executed in the spring of 1947 in the former main camp and in Sandweier , respectively .

The clearing of bunkers and executions in connection with the crimes committed in Block 11 were important subjects of the proceedings during the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt ; Corresponding charges were made against the following defendants: Wilhelm Boger , Pery Broad , Klaus Dylewski , Franz Johann Hofmann and Bruno Schlage. During this trial, from December 14 to 16, 1964, a tour of the Auschwitz crime scene, which received much attention from the press, was attended by a judge and three public prosecutors as well as defense attorneys and the defendant Franz Lucas . The site visit should serve to clarify detailed questions in the procedure, including a. the hearing and visibility conditions were checked in block 11. The numerous statements made by Auschwitz survivors about the crimes in Block 11 were confirmed and those of the defendants were almost completely refuted: the calling of the names of execution victims from the bunker cells could be clearly heard and the courtyard between Blocks 10 and 11 with the black wall through the cracks of the Board cladding can be seen clearly from the windows of block 10.

Block 11 as part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Replica of the Black Wall in the former main camp of Auschwitz (2006).

Shortly after the end of the war - before the establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum - the first exhibition on Auschwitz was shown in the former main camp from mid-1945. In addition to the looted property shown in Block 4, Block 11 was also part of the exhibition. Many Poles traveled to Oświęcim for this exhibition to commemorate their relatives who were murdered there or to find out about the crimes committed in Auschwitz. Block 11 is open to the public as part of the exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The building is in the state it was in after the liberation of the concentration camp. The ground floor and basement are largely preserved in their original condition. Carved names and messages are still visible on the cellar walls. There is an exhibition on the resistance struggle on the first floor of the former death block.

While the ruins of the crematoria and gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp have become a symbol of the Holocaust, the former main camp stands for the "martyrdom of countless Poles". In this context, the Black Wall is an outstanding memorial to the “National Socialist Terror against Poland”.

literature

Web links

Commons : Block 11  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Irena Strzelecka: Construction, expansion and development of KL Auschwitz and its subcamps . In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Volume I: Construction and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 77.
  2. ↑ a b c Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp , Volume I: Structure and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 242 f.
  3. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, p. 110.
  4. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, p. 50.
  5. ↑ a b Note 14 on the Broad Report. In: State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS , Oswiecim 1998, p. 99.
  6. ^ Robert Jan van Pelt: Auschwitz. In: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New studies on National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Berlin 2011, p. 191.
  7. ↑ Note 33 on the Broad Report . In: Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS , Oswiecim 1998, p. 111.
  8. ↑ a b c d Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp , Volume I: Structure and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 244.
  9. ↑ Source: From the judgment of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court in the criminal case against Mulka and others of 19/20. August 1965 , 2nd section. In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, pp. 605 f.
  10. ↑ a b Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp , Volume I: Structure and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 243.
  11. ↑ a b c d Source: Judgment of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from 19./20. August 1965 , 2nd section. Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (ed.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 606.
  12. ^ A b Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: The Bunker Book . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 7.
  13. ↑ a b c Source: The prosecutor's jury charge at the Frankfurt am Main district court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from April 16, 1963 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 226.
  14. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 20.
  15. ↑ a b Irena Strzelecka: Punishments and torture . In: Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (ed.): Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Oswiecim 1999, Volume II: The Prisoners - Conditions of Existence, Work and Death , p. 464.
  16. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, p. 41.
  17. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp , Volume I: Structure and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 224.
  18. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz Booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 16.
  19. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Irena Strzelecka: Punishments and torture . In: Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (ed.): Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Oswiecim 1999, Volume II: The Prisoners - Living Conditions, Work and Death , p. 465.
  20. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, pp. 26, 28.
  21. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 32.
  22. ↑ Source: The prosecutor's jury charge at the Frankfurt am Main regional court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from April 16, 1963 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 339.
  23. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 34.
  24. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 14.
  25. ^ Irena Strzelecka: Punishments and Torture . In: Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (ed.): Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Oswiecim 1999, Volume II: The Prisoners - Living Conditions, Work and Death , p. 467.
  26. ↑ Note 15 to the Broad Report . In: State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS , Oswiecim 1998, p. 99.
  27. ↑ Thomas Grotum: The digital archive - construction and evaluation of a database on the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp , 2004, p. 294.
  28. ↑ “Life became precious again”. Michal Micherdzinski's memories of Maximilian Kolbe (PDF). Series of portraits of committed Christians, Archdiocese of Freiburg.
  29. ↑ Source: Judgment of the Frankfurt am Main regional court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from 19./20. August 1965 , sheet 225f. In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 737 f.
  30. ↑ a b Source: Judgment of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from 19./20. August 1965 , sheet 187ff. In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 713.
  31. ↑ Source: Judgment of the Frankfurt am Main regional court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from 19./20. August 1965 , sheet 229. In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (ed.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 2, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 739 f.
  32. ↑ a b c d State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz death books. Volume 1: Reports. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-598-11263-7 , p. 232 f.
  33. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz Booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 18.
  34. ^ A b Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: The Bunker Book . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 24.
  35. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch. In: Auschwitz notebooks. No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 25.
  36. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch. In: Auschwitz notebooks. No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 27.
  37. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 31.
  38. ^ A b Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: The Bunker Book . In: Auschwitz Booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 16.
  39. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Hefte von Auschwitz , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, pp. 29, 34.
  40. ↑ Thomas Grotum: The digital archive - construction and evaluation of a database on the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp , 2004, p. 234.
  41. ↑ a b Konrad Beischl: Dr. med. Eduard Wirths and his work as an SS medical officer in KL Auschwitz. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3010-9 , p. 54 f.
  42. ^ Sybille Steinbacher : Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50833-2 , p. 89.
  43. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 67.
  44. ↑ Martin Broszat (Ed.): Rudolf Höß - Commandant in Auschwitz. 20th edition. dtv, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-423-30127-5 , p. 240 and Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 , p. 117 .
  45. ↑ For the dating see Robert Jan van Pelt: Auschwitz. In: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New studies on National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-99-2 , p. 201.
  46. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 , pp. 117 ff. / Czech dates the mass gassing to September 3, 1941.
  47. ↑ Printed as document no. 24 with attachments by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen : "Commissar order ..." . In: Martin Broszat u. a. (Ed.): Anatomie des SS – Staats , dtv, Munich 1967, Vol. II, pp. 200–204.
  48. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, pp. 117 ff.
  49. ↑ Martin Broszat (Ed.): Rudolf Höß: Commandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographical records. , dtv, Munich, 1963/1989, ISBN 3-423-02908-0 , p. 126.
  50. ^ Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz death books . Volume 1: Reports , KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-598-11263-7 , p. 232 f.
  51. ↑ a b Source: The prosecution's jury charge at the Frankfurt am Main district court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from April 16, 1963 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, pp. 225 f.
  52. ^ Broad report . In: State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS , Oswiecim 1998, p. 104 f.
  53. ↑ a b c d Thomas Grotum: The digital archive - construction and evaluation of a database on the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp , 2004, p. 233 f.
  54. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: The Bunker Book . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 10.
  55. ^ Franciszek Brol, Gerad Włoch, Jan Pilecki: Das Bunkerbuch . In: Auschwitz booklets , No. 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 1959, p. 20.
  56. ^ Irena Strzelecka: Construction, expansion and development of KL Auschwitz and its subcamps . In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Volume I: Construction and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim1999, pp. 457, 468.
  57. ↑ Notes on the jury court charge of the public prosecutor's office at the Frankfurt am Main district court in the criminal case against Mulka and others of April 16, 1963 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 527.
  58. ^ A b c Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, 1980, p. 214 ff.
  59. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 , Reinbek 1989, p. 393.
  60. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 73.
  61. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 156.
  62. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 255.
  63. ↑ Source: The prosecutor's jury charge at the Frankfurt am Main regional court in the criminal case against Mulka and others from April 16, 1963 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition , Scientific Series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Volume 1, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2013, p. 228.
  64. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz , Frankfurt am Main, Ullstein-Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1980, p. 373.
  65. ↑ See Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. A personal dictionary, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 23f., 146f. and Hans Rubinich: 50 years of the Auschwitz Trial - uttering the unspeakable . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 19, 2013.
  66. ↑ Defendants in the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965) - sentence on www.auschwitz-prozess.de.
  67. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher: "Protocol of the Black Wall". The site visit of the Frankfurt jury court in Auschwitz . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): “Holding a court day over ourselves ...” History and impact of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial . Series: Yearbook on the history and effects of the Holocaust, Frankfurt 2001, p. 86 f.
  68. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher: "Protocol of the Black Wall". The site visit of the Frankfurt jury court in Auschwitz . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): “Holding a court day over ourselves ...” History and impact of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial . Series: Yearbook on the History and Effects of the Holocaust, Frankfurt 2001, p. 77.
  69. ↑ Susanne Willems: About the liberation of Auschwitz . In: Dachauer Hefte , No. 19, Verlag Dachauer Hefte, Dachau 2003, p. 294.
  70. ↑ Jochen August: Approaching Auschwitz: an attempt , publication series Polis 10, Hessian State Center for Political Education, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 10.
  71. ↑ a b Emeryka Iwaszko: Educational work with young people in the Auschwitz State Museum . In: Wulff E. Brebeck, Angela Genger u. a. (Ed.): On work in memorials for the victims of National Socialism - an international overview (= publications on work in the memorials for the victims of National Socialism, Vol. 1), Verlag von Aktion Sühnezeichen / Friedensdienste e. V., Berlin 1988, p. 82.
  72. ↑ Jochen August: Approaching Auschwitz: an attempt , publication series Polis 10, Hessian State Center for Political Education, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 9.
  73. ↑ Peter Gerlich , Krzysztof Glass: Coping or Preserving: Dilemmas of Central European Change , Austrian Society for Central European Studies, Vienna 1994, p. 200 f.
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