Gleiwitz IV

 

Gleiwitz IV was a sub-camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp network, located in the city of Gliwice (Gleiwitz), Poland. It operated from June 1944 to January 1945. It opened when around 80 Russian and Polish prisoners arrived from Auschwitz III Monowitz built barracks, fencing, kitchen, bathhouse and latrine on land held by the Wehrmacht. These prisoners were subsequently replaced by French, Hungarian and Polish Jews, including about 460 Jews from the Lodz ghetto who arrived via Auschwitz. There were also some prisoners from Italy and Czechoslovakia, with some German political prisoners.

The subcamp was commanded by SS-Unterscharführer Otto Arthur Lätsch (June to October 1944) and SS-Oberscharführer Josef Grobert (October 1944 to January 1945). It accommodated around 440 prisoners, including Polish, Russian, and Hungarian Jews, as well as Polish and Soviet non-Jewish prisoners, who were subjected to forced labour, converting army truck engines to run on wood gas, performing construction and labour tasks at the river port on the Gliwice Canal.

The prisoners suffered from severe deprivation, brutal treatment and exhausting work schedules, supervised by SS guards supported by Organisation Todt guards and Wehrmacht soldiers. It was evacuated on January 18^th to 19^th 1945 ahead of the advancing Soviet forces, the prisoners being forced to endure punishing ‘death marches’. One of these reached Sośnicowice only to be redirected to Blechhammer, where they were joined by other prisoners being evacuated from other camps. Some of them managed to hide until they were liberated. 57 prisoners too ill to walk were left in the camp infirmary, but the SS guards set the building on fire before leaving and shot anyone who tried to escape through the windows. Only two prisoners survived, by hiding among corpses.

One of the areas of the camp was located near the Schlegetterkaserne Keith Kaserne. This held Soviet POWs and forced labourers. The other areas of the camp covered an area of around 15 hectares.

Originally, the camp lacked even roofed accommodation, meaning that some prisoners had to sleep in holes dug into the ground while other prisoners constructed barracks, but when these were completed, there were still large areas not occupied by barracks or other buildings.

Some of the prisoners worked for Organisation Todt at the airport and the canal port, and also at the premises of Zieleniewski Maschinen und Waggonbau GmbH, where they converted truck engines to run on wood gas. After heavy bombing raids in November and December 1944, some of the prisoners were also put to work clearing out bombed buildings.

Kommando 3 and 6 worked at the canal laying down railway tracks and unloading materials for a gasworks. Kommando 2 worked in the Keith Kaserne, the headquarters of the military administration, where they constructed buildings and air raid shelters.

Food rations usually consisted of waste material such as potato peelings, which were delivered in special containers from Gliwice town. The prisoners diet was so meagre that many prisoners soon became ‘human skeletons’ (muselmänner). At any one time, the camp infirmary contained around 20-30 sick prisoners suffering from colds, chronic diarrhoea or boils and wounds that prevented them from working. The doctors working in the infirmary, Dr. Miklós Sebestyén from Hungary and his deputy Dr. Titkin, had been transported via Auschwitz to Gleiwitz IV from the Łódź ghetto. They suffered constantly from a lack of medical supplies.

Prisoner selections were held every few weeks. The selected prisoners were transported back to Auschwitz where they went straight to the gas chambers. A number of SS physicians carried out these selections, including Josef Mengele.

 

The Lagerführer of Gleiwitz IV, SS-Unterscharführer Otto Arthur Lätsch, had previously been a Blockführer at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. He was known for his brutal treatment of prisoners.

“I witnessed him murder a Jewish musician from Łódź” testified Izaak Herschenbaum. “What is more, he would also visit kommandos to see how the prisoners worked. One day, he also came to my kommando. He told me to fill a big wheelbarrow with concrete, and when I couldn’t lift it, he started beating and tormenting me, saying that I didn’t want to work. I explained to him that I wanted to work, but I couldn’t lift the wheelbarrow. Then, he wrote down my number and when I came back from work to the camp, he started tormenting me again, asking why I didn’t want to work. I repeated my explanation that I wasn’t avoiding work, but I was not able to lift the wheelbarrow. He started beating and kicking me so badly that I fell down. I was very weak. Lätsch made us exercise which always ended with a few casualties. They were taken to the Krankenbau (prisoner hospital) where they would usually die.”

Lätsch was demoted in October 1944, but remained at the camp as Rapportführer. He was succeeded by SS-Oberscharführer Josef Grobert, who, according to one former prisoner, was harsh but just. However, the guards treated the prisoners brutally just the same, behind Grobert’s back.

Lätsch is also remembered by former prisoner Jozek Stern:

“On 17 August 1944, I arrived at Gliwice, where defendant Lätsch held the position of Lagerführer. He treated us very brutally. We could never understand a word of what he said. He would just kick and hit us with a stick on the head and face. He stayed in the camp for several weeks and carried out unauthorized selections. He sent several dozen people, including my brother and brother-in-law, to the crematorium. A few days later, the defendant started coming to check on the work. When he came, SS men who were his subordinates would give us a sign to work hard, because otherwise we would be duly punished. One Saturday after work, he told us that the following day we would not go to work, and there would be a roll call instead. It was a roll call devoted to cleanliness. The defendant selected a person whom he considered dirty, took him behind the barbed wire gate, and shot him there. Then, he came back to the square and asked who used to sleep in the same bed with the man who had just been shot. The man’s brother, not having realized what had just happened, came forward, thinking that he must be as dirty as his brother. He was dragged out from the column and the scene repeated. It happened in front of all prisoners. Afterwards, selections were also carried out and each time several dozen people were sent to the crematorium….. One day, an order was given to shave our heads with a razorblade. They shaved us until we bled. The following day, the defendant came to us and hit us with a cane on the head, saying, “you dogs, your hair is too long.” Eventually, I was transported out of the camp.”

Former prisoner Mojzesz Zawadzki recalls:

“At some point in August 1944 I was sent with a transport of Häftlings from Auschwitz to the concentration camp Gleiwitz IV. At that time, Otto Lätsch was Lagerführer there. During my stay at that camp, he held this post until October 1944 and was then replaced by another German, whose name I can’t remember. Lätsch became Rapportführer. Otto Lätsch can be described as an absolute beast, who only waited for an opportunity to abuse someone. He beat and kicked people all over the body every day. He would sometimes kick in the face with his boot a beaten up prisoner lying on the ground. On top of that, he beat people with a rubber Knüppel (baton). He kicked me in the stomach when I worked as an installation electrician in his private apartment. He kicked me for failing to immediately understand an order that he gave me during work. At the end of 1944, I saw Lätsch shoot a Polish Jew, a Häftling named Strasberg. I was in the sick room that day and observed the whole incident through a window. Strasberg was pushing a cart with trash and another Häftling, a French man, was pulling it. The person who walked behind him that day was not a guard, but Lätsch himself. When they were several steps outside the gate, Lätsch drew his gun and shot Strasberg in the back of the head, killing him on the spot. Two people from the sick room had to carry the corpse to a special ditch. Lätsch hid this murder by reporting to Lagerführer that Strasberg tried to escape. I firmly declare that Strasberg was not trying to escape, he was pushing the cart the entire time.”

Lätsch was eventually captured by the Allies and handed over to the Polish authorities and thereafter tried in the Auschwitz trial in Krakow. He was sentenced to death by hanging on December 22, 1947 by the Supreme National Court in Krakow, which was carried out in Montelupich prison.