Blechhammer Labor Camp
The Blechhammer labor camps formed a system of various camps for forced labor of the National Socialists during the Second World War in the vicinity of the village Blechhammer (Polish: Blachownia Śląska) in the Upper Silesian industrial area Heydebreck OS (today Kędzierzyn) . The remains of the camps and the concentration camp are located in the area of today's municipality of Kędzierzyn-Koźle, southeast of Opole and west of Katowice .
history
In April 1942, a forced labor camp for Jews was set up in Blechhammer , which later became an external command of the Auschwitz concentration camp . The much more comprehensive camp system consisted of (war) prisoner camps, workers' camps, penal camps, concentration camps and others during the Second World War. A concentration camp for Jews, the train station camp, also belonged to this camp complex . In total, there were around 48,000 forced laborers in Blechhammer, including 2,000 British prisoners of war. The Jews from the outpost of the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp formed a small part of them.
The Blechhammer camps were cleared on January 21, 1945. About 200 prisoners - unfit for transport and those suspected of hiding - were murdered immediately. Then about 4,000 prisoners from Blechhammer and about 6,000 from the sub-camps Neu-Dachs, Gleiwitz I, III and IV were sent on a death march , about 800 were murdered on the way. The death march began on January 21, 1945, when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated about 90 kilometers away. The survivors reached the Groß-Rosen concentration camp ; from there the Jews were brought to Buchenwald concentration camp and the prisoners of war to Dachau concentration camp in cattle wagons . Air strikes on these trains by the Allies claimed numerous other victims. Today the contours of the camps can still be seen in the landscape. Concrete watchtowers, fence posts, concrete surrounds and the crematorium have remained, the barracks have disappeared.
Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke AG
The IG Farben AG had an energy cost estimate for the work of the May 20, 1944 Upper Silesian Hydrierwerke AG created the lignite synthetic gasoline should produce for the German war economy. Some of the prisoners were used to build a hydrogenation plant . The labor for the labor-intensive operations of the two chemical centers came from the warehouse system. The strategic importance of this chemical site led to 15 attacks by B-24 bomber units of the American Fifteenth Air Force from bases in Italy in the second half of 1944 . The plant was bombed twice a week.
Survivors from the chemical plant reported that synthetic margarine and jam were also produced. The research in the field of synthetic food was intended to remedy supply bottlenecks of the Reich population. Since the majority of the guinea pigs fed the food produced became ill, the food was not placed on the market.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sixth ordinance for the implementation of the Federal Compensation Act (6th DV-BEG) . In: Bundesanzeiger Verlag (Ed.): Federal Law Gazette . No. 12 , March 2, 1967, p. 233-254 ( BGBl. 1967 I p. 233 ).
- ^ Work camp Blechhammer (Poland). In: jewishgen.org. Accessed April 22, 2018 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 17 ″ N , 18 ° 15 ′ 31 ″ E