| Gross-Rosen | |
|---|---|
| Nazi concentration camp | |
 Gross-Rosen entrance gate with the phraseArbeit Macht Frei | |
  Location of Gross-Rosen within Nazi Germany | |
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| Other names | German:Konzentrationslager Groß-Rosen |
| Commandant |
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| Operational | Summer of 1940 – 14 February 1945 |
| Inmates | mostlyJews,Poles andSoviet citizens[1] |
| Number of inmates | 125,000 (in estimated 100 subcamps) |
| Killed | 40,000 |
| Notable inmates | Boris Braun,Adam Dulęba,Franciszek Duszeńko,Heda Margolius Kovály,Władysław Ślebodziński,Simon Wiesenthal, RabbiShlomo Zev Zweigenhaft[2] |
Gross-Rosen was a network of GermanNazi concentration camps built and operated byNazi Germany duringWorld War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-dayRogoźnica inLower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland,[1] directly on the rail-line between the towns ofJawor (Jauer) andStrzegom (Striegau).[3][4] Its prisoners were mostlyJews,Poles andSoviet citizens.[1]
At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross-Rosen complex had up to 100 subcamps located in eastern Germany and in German-occupiedCzechoslovakia andPoland. The population of all Gross-Rosen camps at that time accounted for 11% of the total number of inmates incarcerated in the Nazi concentration camp system.[1]
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KZ Gross-Rosen was set up in the summer of 1940 as a satellite camp of theSachsenhausen concentration camp from Oranienburg. Initially,the slave labour was carried out in a huge stone quarry owned by theSS-Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH (SS German Earth and Stone Works).[4] In the fall of 1940 the use of labour in Upper Silesia was taken over by the newOrganization Schmelt formed on the orders ofHeinrich Himmler. It was named after its leaderSS-Oberführer Albrecht Schmelt. The company was put in charge of employment of prisoners from the camps with Jews intended to work for food only.[citation needed]
The Gross-Rosen location, close to occupied Poland, was of considerable advantage.[5] Prisoners were put to work in the construction of a system of subcamps forexpellees from the annexed territories. Gross Rosen became an independent camp on 1 May 1941. As the complex grew, the majority of inmates were put to work in the new Nazi enterprises attached to these subcamps.[4]
In October 1941 theSS transferred about 3,000Soviet POWs to Gross-Rosen for execution by shooting. Gross-Rosen was known for its brutal treatment of the so-calledNacht und Nebel prisoners vanishing without a trace from targeted communities. Most died in thegranite quarry. The brutal treatment of the political and Jewish prisoners was not only in the hands of guards and German criminal prisoners brought in by theSS, but to a lesser extent also fuelled by the German administration of the stone quarry responsible for starvation rations and denial of medical help. In 1942, for political prisoners, the average survival time-span was less than two months.[4]
Due to a change of policy in August 1942, prisoners were likely to survive longer because they were needed as slave workers in German war industries. Among the companies that benefited from the slave labour of the concentration camp inmates were German electronics manufacturers such asBlaupunkt,Siemens, as well asKrupp,IG Farben, andDaimler-Benz, among others.[6] Some prisoners who were not able to work but not yet dying were sent to theDachau concentration camp in so-calledinvalid transports.
The largest population of inmates, however, wereJews, initially from the Dachau and Sachsenhausen camps, and later fromBuchenwald. During the camp's existence, the Jewish inmate population came mainly from Poland andHungary; others were fromBelgium,France,Netherlands,Greece,Yugoslavia,Slovakia, andItaly.
Following the unsuccessful PolishWarsaw Uprising of 1944, the Germans deported 3,000 Poles from theDulag 121 camp inPruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Gross-Rosen.[7] Those Poles were mainly people of 20 to 40 years of age.[7]
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At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross-Rosen complex had up to 100subcamps,[1] located in eastern Germany and German-occupied Czechoslovakia and Poland. In its final stage, the population of the Gross-Rosen camps accounted for 11% of the total inmates in Nazi concentration camps at that time. A total of 125,000 inmates of various nationalities passed through the complex during its existence, of whom an estimated 40,000 died on site, ondeath marches and in evacuation transports. The camp was liberated on 14 February 1945 by theRed Army. A total of over 500 female camp guards were trained and served in the Gross-Rosen complex. Female SS staffed the women's subcamps ofBrünnlitz, Graeben,Gruenberg, Gruschwitz Neusalz, Hundsfeld,Kratzau II, Oberaltstadt,Reichenbach, and Schlesiersee Schanzenbau.
TheGabersdorf labour camp had been part of a network of forced labour camps for Jewish prisoners that had operated underOrganization Schmelt since 1941. Thespinning mill where the female Jewish prisoners worked had been "Aryanized" in 1939 by aVienna-based company called Vereinigte Textilwerke K. H. Barthel & Co. The prisoners also worked in factories operated by the companies Aloys Haase and J. A. Kluge und Etrich. By 18 March 1944 Gabersdorf had become a subcamp of Gross-Rosen.[8]
One subcamp of Gross-Rosen was theBrünnlitz labor camp, situated in theCzechoslovak village ofBrněnec, whereJews rescued byOskar Schindler were interned.[citation needed]
The Brieg subcamp, located near the village ofPampitz, had originally been the location of a Jewish forced labour camp until August 1944, when the Jewish prisoners were replaced by the first transport of prisoners from the Gross-Rosen main camp. The camp was mostly staffed by soldiers from theLuftwaffe and a few SS members. Most of the prisoners were Polish, with smaller numbers of Russian and Czech prisoners. Most of the Poles had been evacuated from thePawiak prison inWarsaw; others had been arrested within the territory controlled by theReich or had been transported fromKraków andRadom.[8]
Brieg's camp kitchen was run by Czech prisoners. The three daily meals included 1 pint ofmehlzupa (a soup made from water andmeal),[9] 150 grams of bread, 1 quart of soup made withrutabaga,beets,cabbage,kale or sometimesnettles, 1 pint of black "coffee" and a spoonful ofmolasses. Sometimes "hard workers" calledzulaga would be rewarded with a piece ofblood sausage or rawhorsemeat sausage,jam andmargarine. Prisoners also received 1 cup ofKnorr soup per week.[8]
During the Gross-Rosen initial period of operation as a formal subcamp ofSachsenhausen, the following twoSSLagerführer officers served as the camp commandants, theSS-UntersturmführerAnton Thumann, andSS-UntersturmführerGeorg Güßregen. From May 1941 until liberation, the following officials served as commandants of a fully independentconcentration camp at Gross-Rosen:
The most far-reaching expansion of the Gross-Rosen system of labour camps took place in 1944 due to accelerated demand for support behind the advancing front. The character and purpose of new camps shifted toward defense infrastructure. In some cities, as inWrocław (Breslau) camps were established in every other district. It is estimated that their total number reached 100 at that point according to list of their official destinations. The biggest sub-camps includedAL Fünfteichen inJelcz-Laskowice, four camps in Wrocław,Dyhernfurth inBrzeg Dolny,Landeshut inKamienna Góra, and the entireProject Riese along theOwl Mountains.[10]
After the war, the former camp was under control of the occupying Soviet forces until April 1947, when it was taken over by Polish administration.[11] In 1953, a memorial to the victims designed by Adam Procki was unveiled.[11]
On 12 August 1948, the trial of three Gross Rosen camp officials, Johannes Hassebroek, Helmut Eschner and Eduard Drazdauskas, began before a Soviet Military Court. On 7 October 1948, all were found guilty of war crimes. Eschner and Drazdauskas were sentenced to life imprisonment and Hassebroek was sentenced to death, but this was later commuted also to life imprisonment.[12]
From the 1950s to 1970s, the former camp was under the care of theAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Historic Museum of Wrocław.[13] In 1958, the first museum exhibition was created.[14] In 1963, the site of the former camp was added to theRegistry of Cultural Property of Poland.[14] In 1976, it became a branch of the District Museum inWałbrzych.[14] The Gross-Rosen State Museum was opened in 1983, after efforts by survivors fromWarsaw and Wrocław.[14]
On 10 May 2002, a ceremony to commemorate 19 officers of theSpecial Operations Executive murdered by Nazi Germany at Gross-Rosen in 1944, was held at the museum, with the participation of the families of the victims, various Polish officials and war veterans, and ambassadors of theUnited Kingdom,Canada andFrance.[15]
Since its creation, the museum has been most visited by Poles, followed by Germans, according to data up to 2013.[16]
Media related toGross-Rosen concentration camp at Wikimedia Commons
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