Area of ​​interest of Auschwitz concentration camp

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Area of ​​interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp
(about 40 square kilometers)
Aerial photograph of part of the United States Army Air Forces area of interest dated December 21, 1944

The area of interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp (also the area of interest of KL Auschwitz ) was a restricted area of the Schutzstaffel for the Auschwitz camp complex in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War . In this area, shielded from the outside world, the largest concentration and extermination camp complex of the National Socialist German Reich was built . The area of ​​interest was located south of the confluence of the Soła with the Vistula near the city of Oświęcim (German Auschwitz ) and was partially limited by these rivers. The main camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp , the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp , workshops, SS operations and the agricultural operations of the camp complex and their associated sub-camps were located in the area of ​​interest that was last about 40 square kilometers . The area of ​​interest existed officially from the end of May 1941 until the liberation of the area by the Red Army at the end of January 1945, from June 1943 as an independent district .

location

Because of the different treatment of the population in the annexed Polish areas, the National Socialists created a police border, the crossing of which in 1940 was subject to approval for everyone; of course largely corresponded to the beginning of the war existing border, more but in Upper Silesia from getting by the former Autonomous Province Silesia moved and a smaller adjacent area to the side of the German pre-1939 territory and not in the east of it formed Oststreifen whose Population was seen and treated as inferior. The newly delimited district of Bielitz , in which Auschwitz was located, was cut up by the contradictory border defined in the Reichsgesetzblatt. The ordinance on the restriction of travel with parts of the territory of the Greater German Reich and with the General Government of July 20, 1940, Paragraph 1, Paragraph 1 No. b. mentions an inclusion only of the city ​​of Biala , which is intertwined with Bielitz , so that apart from Biala, the previous eastern border of the Autonomous Voivodeship Poland formed the police border and the area of ​​Auschwitz and Birkenau was in the eastern part of the Bielsko district, which could only be entered with "special permission" . On the other hand, the First Ordinance on the implementation of the Ordinance on the collection of a social equalization tax, which serves to discriminate against Poland in tax matters. From August 10, 1940 , which in its Paragraph 7 defined the "eastern strip" placed under a special regulation, a border along the Soła, which also followed the demarcation in the Bielitz area, which was documented as early as 1939. Regardless of the contradicting information about the border course, the area of ​​interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp bordered both on the area within the police border (north of the Vistula began the district of Pless ) and on the eastern strip beyond the Soła, which borders the area of ​​interest of the concentration camp to the east. According to research results by Klaus von Münchhausen , the police border running in the area of ​​the city of Auschwitz was no longer controlled in September 1941 and in May 1942, according to Reinhard Heydrich's order of May 12, its control was officially lifted, and the information boards there were also officially lifted removed soon after; however, this decree was not intended for publication. With the passport penalty ordinance of May 27, 1942, announced a few days later in the Reichsgesetzblatt, the criminal liability of crossing borders was generally re-regulated, but the 1940 ordinance on the restriction of travel only changed its paragraph 2, so that paragraph 1, which covers the border Biala stipulated that remained in force. The area of ​​interest of the concentration camp was between this western border at Biala, which officially could not be crossed without "special permission", and the eastern border on the Soła, which actually delimited the "eastern strip", but was neither marked nor controlled from May 1942 Auschwitz and Auschwitz train station.

Establishment of the SS area of ​​interest

A few weeks after the establishment of the main camp, the Higher SS and Police Leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski , who was responsible for the area, ordered the expulsion of the local population after the first successful escape of a Polish prisoner in July 1940. The Polish population should be evacuated from the area surrounding the camp within a radius of five kilometers in order to make escape impossible and to prevent escape assistance. First, the residents of the village of Zasole had to vacate their houses, which were then used by leaders of the camp SS and their families. As early as the turn of the year 1940/41 "the camp construction site in Auschwitz was so large that in the first overall development plan a distinction had to be made between protective custody camp, industrial yard, workshops, barracks area, military camp, SS settlement and agriculture". At the latest after the inspection of the camp by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on March 1, 1941, the latter also ordered the establishment of agricultural and breeding operations in the area surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp. In March / April 1941, following this decision, the Polish residents of the villages of Babice, Budy, Raijsko, Brzezinka (German: Birkenau ), Broszkowiece, Plawy and Harmeze had to evacuate their homes, leaving their belongings behind and were expelled. Only Poles, who were needed as skilled workers by the German occupiers on site, were spared this measure. Most of the vacant buildings were demolished by concentration camp inmates to make space for the expanding camp complex. Also in March 1941, Himmler decided to build a second camp in Birkenau, three kilometers from the main camp, which, as the largest extermination camp of the National Socialist German Reich, became the central site of the Holocaust . For the expansion of the constantly expanding camp complex, an area of ​​interest had therefore already been planned by the SS construction management . On May 31, 1941, the restricted area was officially declared an area of interest for KL Auschwitz . The later built Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp and the IG Farben Buna plant were not in the SS interest area, but east of the city of Auschwitz.

The camp area was "surrounded by warning signs, concrete walls, watchtowers and double-rowed, electricity-charged barbed wire fences that were illuminated at night". Members of the guard companies formed a guard ring on guard towers as a so-called small chain of posts around the live camp fence of the main camp and Birkenau. The large chain of guards was an extensive guard ring of manned watchtowers around both camps. SS men also patrolled the area of ​​interest.

Conflict over the demarcation of the SS area of ​​interest and the city of Auschwitz

The constant expansion of the camp led to conflicts of interest between the SS and civil authorities and party offices, as the city of Auschwitz was to be developed into a German model city . These disputes exclusively concerned questions of the demarcation between the SS area of ​​interest and the city of Auschwitz and controversial building projects. From the end of September 1942, on Himmler's instructions, representatives of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office , members of the camp SS, representatives of IG Farben and civil servants held a conference on these issues for almost a year in the so-called House of the Waffen SS opposite the Auschwitz train station . In the meantime, in January 1943, representatives of the civil authorities called for “landscape design” considerations to move the SS area of ​​interest including the camps.

District

In June 1943 the boundaries of the SS area of ​​interest were finally determined, which covered an area of ​​40 square kilometers. From this point on, the area was an administrative unit that was independent of the civil authorities and was now subordinate to the SS as an independent district. The commander of the main camp acted as official commissioner , who now also performed civil administration tasks - these were successively Rudolf Höß , Arthur Liebehenschel and finally Richard Baer . The camp registry office responsible for the SS area of ​​interest (registry office Auschwitz II) already became formally independent in January 1943, after disputes with the registry offices in Auschwitz and Bielitz had already arisen .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ordinance on the restriction of travel with parts of the territory of the Greater German Reich and with the Generalgouvernement. From July 20, 1940. German Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, 1867–1945 (archived by the ALEX project of the ÖNB )
  2. ^ Sibylle Steinbacher: A German "model town". The story of Auschwitz in World War II or: Between everyday life and mass murder. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . August 29, 2000 (archived on haGalil ).
  3. ^ [1] Reichsgesetzblatt 1940, part 1, p. 1008, digitized by the Austrian National Library. ALEX
  4. ^ [2] Reichsgesetzblatt 1940, Part I, p. 1095, digitized by the Austrian National Library. ALEX
  5. ^ [Territorial.de], "District Bielitz", footnote 1f
  6. ^ "Secret Reich Matter Auschwitz. The Nazi measures to camouflage the genocide of the Eastern European Jews "submitted to the historical seminar of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg in November 2013, [3]
  7. ↑ Münchhausen, pp. 256ff, 259
  8. ↑ Münchhausen. s. 260
  9. ^ [4] , Reichsgesetzblatt 1942, Part I, pp. 348, 350, digitized by the Austrian National Library. ALEX
  10. ↑ Angelika Königseder: The origin of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps . Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 83.
  11. ^ A b c Sybille Steinbacher: Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Munich 2004, p. 25.
  12. ↑ Angelika Königseder: The origin of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps . Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 83 f.
  13. ^ Israel Gutman (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust - The persecution and murder of the European Jews. 3 volumes, Piper Verlag, Munich / Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 , Volume I, p. 108.
  14. ^ Christoph Gunkel: Auschwitz concentration camp. Place to kill. In: Der Spiegel . January 26, 2015.
  15. ↑ Kathrin Kompisch: Women in concentration camps. Perpetrators and spectators . In: Ulrich Herbert , Karin Orth , Christoph Dieckmann : The National Socialist Concentration Camps - Development and Structure. Volume I, Wallstein, Göttingen 1998, p. 801.
  16. ↑ Booklets of Auschwitz, Volume 21, State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau 2000, p. 370.
  17. ^ Sybille Steinbacher: Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Munich 2004, p. 57 f.
  18. ^ Sybille Steinbacher: Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Munich 2004, p. 25, p. 58.
  19. ^ Sybille Steinbacher: Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Munich 2004, p. 58.
  20. ^ Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz death books . Volume 1: Reports. 1995, p. 19, p. 226.