Chelmek

 

The Baty shoe factory - towards the top of the picture, close to a stretch of woodland, there is visible what appears to be the trackbed of a railway, with two surviving buildings. This may be the surviving remnants of the engine house.

Chelmek subcamp opened in October 1942 with around 150 prisoners held in a barracks near the engine house of a narrow gauge railway. Most of the prisoners were Jews from France, Belgium and The Netherlands who worked at cleaning the ponds used by the local Bata shoe factory as a water source. The prisoners were brutally treated, with hunger and hard labour along with persecution by the SS guards claiming the lives of 47 prisoners and requiring another 64 to be admitted to hospital in a severe condition. The final 34 prisoners in the camp were transferred to Auschwitz I in December 1942, where at least 28 of them died. Thus almost all the prisoners held in this subcamp died. 

Further information and photos: Subcamps of Auschwitz


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