Forgotten Horrors: The Nazi sub-camp system

(Above: The area around Sosnica mine. There is no remaining trace of the former sub-camp) Sosnitz subcamp was located in a former Polish army camp near Sosnica mine. The aim was to provide temporary accommodation for prisoners, a work party or ‘Aussenkommando’, engaged in demolishing the Polish army camp to provide materials for the construction of the main Auschwitz camp. Around 30 prisoners were involved, the Kommando being commanded by SS-Oberscharführer Franz Hössler. One prisoner record recalls that the prisoners lived in a flooded bunker. After the demolition of the army camp was completed, the subcamp was closed down (August 1940) and the prisoners returned to Auschwitz main camp. Not much else is known about Sosnitz.

  Lichtewerden sub-camp was located at a thread factory owned by Gustav Adolf Buhl und Sohn, a textile company, in Světlá, now in the Czech Republic. Around 300 women arrived there from Birkenau on 11th November 1944. They were mostly Polish Jews from Krakow, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and Hungary and were accommodated in two residential barracks, while two other barracks contained a kitchen, washroom, latrine and storage space. An electrified barbed wire fence surrounded the camp and there were wooden guard towers at the corners. The prisoners arrived by rail and were deposited to the west of the factory building where there were SS guards to meet them. They were then escorted by these guards to their accommodation. Each of the two accommodation barracks was divided into five rooms. One of the accommodation barracks served as an infirmary. These barracks were painted green on the outside with pink window shutters. In each of the rooms were 14-16 bunk beds, 2 tables and 4-5...

  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 ...