Freudenthal

 

A sub-camp of Auschwitz located in Bruntal (the Czech name for the town). More than 300 Jewish women prisoners were located there in October 1944, mainly from Hungary and Bohemia, having been transported from Birkenau. Fifty more women followed in January 1945.

They were put to work in the Emerich Machold textile mill, working a single daytime shift of around 10-12 hours. Some of the prisoners worked sewing German uniforms as seamstresses, while others worked on looms and spinning frames. A smaller group of women worked as cleaners, servants or cooks. The women were accommodated in two wooden barracks on the site.

The camp was commanded by SS-Oberscharführer Voss. There were around 20 men in the SS guard unit commanded by SS-Hauptscharführer Paul Ulbort, and there were also three SS Aufseherinnen supervising the prisoners.

When on 6^th May 1945 the SS heard that the Russians were entering the city, they changed into civilian clothing and fled. The Russians entered the city two days later.

Prior to WW2, the Emerich Machold mill was a prominent local business, owned by Wilhelm Machhold, who also sat on the advisory board of Deutsche Bank Sudeten. The mill was the biggest employer in the town. After the outbreak of war, part of its production facilities focused on manufacturing mineral enriched fruit drinks for German troops.

In 1944, a group of British POWs were held in a barrack next to the factory, having been transported there from Stalag VIIIB at Lamsdorf.

 (Above: Main entrance gate to the sub-camp with female prisoner barrack on the right)

The Freudenthal sub-camp was closely associated with the Zwangsarbeitslager for Jews, established by the Schmelt Organisation in late 1942. This employed around 200 Jewish women who helped to make fruit drinks. These prisoners were accommodated in three masonry buildings on the site. The Zwangsarbeitslager for Jews was taken over by Auschwitz concentration camp in late 1944 when the 30 women from Auschwitz II Berkenau arrived. These new arrivals, along with the 50 other women arriving in 1945 were accommodated in wooden barracks.

The biography of Rifleman Alec Jay of 9th Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion of the Queen Victoria´s Rifles service number 6896204, written by his son John Jay, describes the accommodation holding the British POWs:

“The POWs billet was a stable block near the factory entrance, comprising a dormitory accommodating twenty men in double bunks, a recreation room, a washroom and toilets. Swiss inspectors reported that the stoves and lights were ´good´ and prisoners had one bath per fortnight. The food was cooked by a POW in a small well equipped kitchen and rations were ´satisfactory´ Dirty clothes were taken to a laundry, and the cook could visit local shops to buy small items… Thomas Moonie, … was supplied with the necessary drugs while seriously sick prisoners attended the town Lazarett. Mail was regular…..Overall E352 was ´fairly satisfactory´ although provision for leisure time was primitive and Moonie asked the YMCA to provide items such as football, quoits, playing cards, a Monopoly set and a gramophone. Alec was told he would work eight hours a day, six days a week.”

 (Above: Female prisoner barrack - with blue roof)

The biography also describes the sub-camp:

“The SS had constructed a ´mini concentration camp´ behind the mill where 300 Jewesses….. were used for slave labour for Macholds….. The accommodation at Freudenthal was less primitive than Auschwitz-Birkenau stable-block wooden billets. The buildings were of stone, the bathrooms were tiled and prisoners were allowed to heat water for washing. Each slave had a bunk with a straw mattress and blanket. Emmerich Machold son of the company´s founder was a relatively enlightened exploiter of slave labour. Turning fifty in 1944 and ´quite a handsome man´ with a French wife, Machold provided some comforts, according to Judith Angell (an Auschwitz prisoner) who came from Romania. He let his slaves have a little library and a radio and gave them waste wool to knit pullovers. Angell knitted socks, mittens and a hat for Machold´s daughter who lived with her parents in a house near the factory. Another Romanian, 28 year old Ileana, later described the factory as heaven after Auschwitz.”

“ … Machold thought they should eat in the civilian canteen, but the SS insisted on a tougher regime-two slices of bread per day, soup and ersatz coffee. Yet sometimes civilians on the day shift would leave apples near their machines, having seen the Jewesses’ emaciated state as they arrived for the night shift. They would even benefit from small acts of kindness by the factory chef. The Germans banned POWs from bringing Red Cross food into factories, but Alec also did what he could for the Jewesses in their striped Auschwitz uniforms. There were occasional opportunities to slip them food and cigarettes at the start and end of their shifts, although it was hard to get past their whip wielding guards, including Aufseherinnen….. ´We helped as much as we could but that wasn´t very much´said Alec. ´It was very difficult to get near enough even to throw them a few cigarettes.”

Some of the prisoners were as young as 12. There were also a few Poles and Germans alongside the Hungarians and Bohemians. One of these Poles was a teenage girl called Ella from Krakow:

“ When Kracow´s ghetto was liquidated Ella was taken to Płaszów concentration camp… One morning Amon Göth (commandant of Płaszów) selected Ella but then changed his mind and decided to conduct an experiment in pain. Thus Ella was placed on a table and beaten into unconsciousness by Ukrainian guards. After two years, an emaciated and enfeebled Ella was transported to Auschwitz, where she was sent to Mengele´s clinic and stripped naked to stand in line for his selection process. She was however, warned by a women nearby of what might happen, so when Mengele momentarily left the room she jumped out of a window and blended in with women being assembled for work parties, thus joining a transport to Freudenthal”

Helena Kubica wrote a history of the Freudenthal sub-camp in which she suggests that there may have been a male camp there also. This might have been established in 1943 or 1944 and associated with the Freudenthaler Getränke GmbH enterprise. Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss mentioned this sub-camp at his trial and two former prisoners, Erwin Olszowka and Franciszek Targosz from the Auschwitz I Schreibstube also mentioned it.

However, two pieces of evidence indicates there was no such male sub-camp at Freudenthal. First, a former prisoner by the name of Otto Wolken found a prisoner list for the Auschwitz male prisoners in January 1945 and this does not mention Freudenthal in its list of sub-camps. Secondly, there is no mention of any male prisoners in the biography by John Jay.