Goleszów (German - Golleschau)

 

Goleszów subcamp was located near Cieszyn, in the vicinity of a quarry and cement factory, operated by an SS-owned company called Golleschauer Portland-Zemment AG. The subcamp was established in July 1942 and was one of several early Auschwitz subcamps. The subcamp held around 400-500 prisoners, most of them Jews with some Poles. In spring 1944, these prisoners were joined by Polish, Czech and Hungarian Jews, bringing the total number of prisoners to over one thousand. The prisoners were held in a two-storey located next to the cement factory. There was a roll-call square and barracks for SS guards nearby.

The prisoners were put to work laying railway tracks, breaking stones, sifting coal, packing cement and stoking kilns that burnt lime for cement production. Prisoners working in the quarry loaded rocks into wagons. Almost 130 prisoners died, out of a total of 2,348, according to the subcamp record book. Some of them were shot, while others committed suicide. 

The camp was commanded by SS-Oberscharführers Erich Picklapp, Hans Mirbeth, and Horst Czerwiński and staffed by 51 SS guards. The prisoners were evacuated to Wodzisław Śląski in January 1945, from where they were transported by train to Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg.

The warehouse in which the prisoners were held. All other remains of the cement factory have been demolished. The site is now being encroached upon by an industrial estate.
Cement factory administration building



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