Golleschau subcamp

The concentration camp Golleschau in Goleszów (dt.Golleschau) was about 60 km southwest of Oswiecim (dt. Auschwitz) and was sub-camp . It was from 15 July 1942 as the first permanent sub-camp of Auschwitz I expanded. A cement factory found on site was taken over as an SS company and named Golleschauer Portland-Zementfabrik AG .

camp

Emergence

In July 1942, a detachment of ten prisoners from the main camp partitioned off rooms in the two-storey company building, barred windows and erected an electrically charged barbed wire fence. Watchtowers were not built until 1944.

The guards consisted of forty to sixty SS men; At times, Wehrmacht soldiers and armed security personnel were used to reinforce the situation. SS-Oberscharführer Erich Picklapp, SS-Oberscharführer Johann Mirbeth and SS-Unterscharführer Horst Czerwinski are listed as camp leaders .

Prisoners

In 1943 around 450 prisoners were on duty. In October 1944, the highest number of inmates was reached with 1059 prisoners - including 1008 Jews mostly from Hungary .

Most of the inmates worked in shifts from four to twelve o'clock or from twelve to seven o'clock in four nearby quarries. Others were employed in the cement works, building lines and tracks, and in packing; only seven percent were employed as skilled workers. By March 1943 alone, more than 80 prisoners had died in the infirmary. The bodies were cremated in the Auschwitz crematoria . At least ten prisoners were "shot while trying to escape".

Clearance

The liquidation of the camp took place in four stages and began on December 4, 1944 when 15 Polish prisoners were transported to Mauthausen via the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . On 18 and 19 January 1945 began for 900 prisoners death marches , in camps of Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg ended. One hundred Hungarian Jews were transported in two wagons on February 21, 1945 and ended up four days later after an odyssey in the Brünnlitz subcamp , a subcamp of the Groß-Rosen concentration camp. There Oskar Schindler took care of the 81 survivors of the transport, who then waited for their final liberation.

The 37 sick people who were classified as unfit for transport were convinced that the guards would shoot them when the last prisoners had left. However, they were left behind in the camp and liberated by the Soviet army a few days later.

post war period

Legal dispute

Because of the killing and mistreatment (sometimes resulting in death) of many Jewish prisoners, the Bremen Regional Court negotiated against Golleschauer " prison staff". In November 1953 the following people were found guilty: Helmrich Heilmann (6 years imprisonment), Joseph Kierspel (life sentence) and Johann Mirbeth (6 years). The acts took place not only in Golleschau, but also in the Obertraubling satellite camp and during the evacuation of both concentration camps.

Commemoration

There has been a memorial plaque on the site of the camp since 1969. There is a permanent exhibition in the Goleszów Culture House. The creation of a nature trail through the quarries and the camp site was "in planning" in 2006.

media

literature

Danuta Czech : Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Rowohlt, Hamburg, 1989. ISBN 3-498-00884-6 .

Andrea Rudorff: Golleschau (Goleszow). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , pp. 240-243.

LG Bremen, November 27, 1953 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. XI, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1974, No. 379, pp. 497-657 Killing and mistreatment (sometimes resulting in death) of Jewish prisoners in KL Golleschau, during the evacuation of KL Golleschau on the 'death march to Loslau', in KL Obertraubling and during the Evacuation march from KL Obertraubling to KL Dachau, mainly by the camp elder and a Kapo .

Web links

Photos and short text (German)
History page of Gmina Goleszów (Polish)

Individual evidence

^ Czech's Auschwitz calendar

↑ Andrea Rudorff: Golleschau (Goleszow). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , p. 241. There also information on convictions of offenders.

↑ To the rescue of the Golleschau Jews: mietek-pemper.de

^ Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 135.

↑ Justice and Nazi Crimes Volume XI, Procedure No. 379, file number: LG Bremen 3Ks2 / 53. See: Justice and Nazi Crimes is available as an online version. ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

49.73491 18.732923Coordinates: 49 ° 44 ′ 5.7 ″ N , 18 ° 43 ′ 58.5 ″ E

[1] Czech's Auschwitz calendar

[2] Andrea Rudorff: Golleschau (Goleszow). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , p. 241. There also information on convictions of offenders.

[3] To the rescue of the Golleschau Jews: mietek-pemper.de

[4] Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches 1944/45. The last chapter of the National Socialist mass murder . Reinbek / Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02127-6 , p. 135.