WROCŁAW - In Your Pocket

6
GROSS-ROSEN
Located about 65 miles southwest of Wrocław, the small,
inauspicious German village of Gross-Rosen (today known as
Rogoźnice) became the site of one of the largest and most brutal
concentration camps in the Third Reich. Opened as a small
satellite of Sachsenhausen in 1940, Gross-Rosen became an
independent camp less than a year later and quickly grew into
the largest in Lower Silesia with almost 100 sub-camps around
the region. Known for its harsh conditions and high mortality
rate, by the time the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army in
early 1945 an estimated 125,000 inmates had been processed
through its gates, 40,000 of whom never made it out alive.
Today the former site of the camp serves as a memorial for
those victims, as well as a public museum with several exhibits,
an enlightening film and plenty of space for reflection.
While names like Auschwitz and Dachau have been burned
into the collective consciousness, lesser known but no less
significant camps like Gross-Rosen serve to remind us of
just how extensive, efficient and horrifying Hitler’s concentration
camp system was. Those who take on the challenge of
travelling to Gross-Rosen can expect to leave not only with
an understanding of the history of the site and the tragedy of
the Holocaust, but also with a reaffirmed respect for human
life and the human spirit; the same respect for life that the
Nazi regime’s failure to possess plunged the people of Europe
into the worst hell imaginable only two generations ago.
Visiting the Museum
A visit to Gross-Rosen begins by visiting the parking
attendant just inside the entrance gate, whose small
kiosk also serves as the camp’s information desk. If you
came by car you’ll have to pay 3zł for parking, which is
essentially the camp’s admission price if you aren’t going
on a guided tour or interested in seeing the film. Admission
to the camp is officially free, but there’s really no
reason not to pay the nominal fee of 3/5zł to see the quite
excellent film; it’s offered in 30 or 60 minute versions
and can be viewed in the former SS Canteen building in
almost any language you want, whenever you’re ready.
At this window you can also pick up some valuable info,
maps and guidebooks to the camp in English.
Visiting the camp takes a minimum of 2 hours, but can take
up to 4 hours if you’re as thorough as we were. With travel
time it is basically a full day’s outing from Wrocław. Be aware
that there is no food or drink available at the camp, with
the exception of a small Nescafe coffee vending machine
near the bathrooms on the ground floor of the former SS
Canteen. Though the machine does have a button labelled
‘tomato soup,’ we strongly recommend you pack a lunch
for your visit, rather than try your luck pressing that button.
What to See
Gross-Rosen Museum ul. Ofiar Gross-Rosen 26,
Rogoźnica, tel. (+48) 669 18 87 79, www.gross-rosen.
eu. In addition to the film, the camp consists of three permanent
museum exhibits, as well as some small temporary
exhibits. Like most former concentration camps, after its
evacuation Gross Rosen was largely destroyed by the Nazis
and today not much remains of the former camp buildings
aside from their foundations and a few faithful reconstructions.
For visiting tourists, the main sights of the camp can
basically be divided into four sections, which we detail below.
The Former SS Camp and Canteen:
You’ll notice that Gross-Rosen today basically has two
gates - the main entrance gate from the road and the historic
entrance gate into the camp, beyond which prisoners were
confined. Originally, this large area between the gates - including
the present-day parking area and information point - was
occupied by the SS camp and administrative buildings of
Gross-Rosen. On the left side of the camp’s main road stood
the barracks for the SS officers, beyond which was the official
parade grounds and even a swimming pool for the officers.
Today the most important site for visitors, however, is the
former SS Canteen on the right side of the road.
This building likely owes its survival to the fact that it was
the most intact when the Red Army turned the site over to
Polish authorities. During the life of the camp, this building
was basically a recreation centre for off-duty SS men,
including a mess hall, kitchen, store rooms and casino.
Standing adjacent to it in a similar building would have been
the camp commandant’s office and headquarters. Today it
houses the Gross-Rosen Museum’s main exhibition - “KL
Gross-Rosen 1941-1945” - and screening rooms for the
film. All of the displays are in Polish, however they have been
thoroughly reproduced in English in a rather hefty booklet
that you should request from the museum attendant upon
entering. Giving a detailed history of the camp’s creation,
development and the cruel realities of everyday life there,
the exhibition covers everything from escape attempts to
the fates of the perpetrators. Including extensive first-hand
accounts, artefacts, plenty of maps - including a large
Wrocław In Your Pocket wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
3D scale model of the camp - and even original art made
by survivors, the exhibit is highly informative and upfront
without seeking sympathy . Don’t miss the shocking
stained glass windows in the first room, and bear in mind
that the only bathrooms in the camp are in this building
(both upstairs and down); they will seem really far away if
you need them later.
The Quarry:
Gross-Rosen owes its existence and its location to the granite
quarry located directly next to the camp. ‘Quarry means
death’ was the ominous phrase spoken by the camp’s
prisoners, who knew they wouldn’t last long if they were
assigned to work there. In the first two years of the camp,
however, it was unavoidable. As the camp grew, inmates
would quarry stone 12 hours a day on starvation rations
while being terrorised by SS officers only to build prison
barracks in the evenings. The camp’s own doctor, who went
on to work in other camps later in the war, described the
living conditions he saw at Gross-Rosen as worse than at
other camp for the simple fact that all of the prisoners were
employed in the quarry. The mortality rate was extremely
high and the average lifespan of a quarry worker at Gross-
Rosen was not more than 5 weeks. Make a right from in
front of the Prisoners’ Camp Gate and walk up a small hill
to see and reflect on this rather picturesque pit where so
many men were worked to their deaths.
The Prisoners’ Camp Entrance Gate:
Gross-Rosen’s most iconic
building is the completely
restored prisoners’ camp
entrance gate with its infamous,
obligatory and
insincere mantra Arbeit
Macht Frei (‘Work Makes
You Free’) emblazoned
above the granite archway,
beyond which there was
actually almost no chance
of freedom. Topped with
a watchtower, flanked by
two wooden guardhouses,
and surrounded with what
was once an electric fence, here you’ll find the museum’s
other two primary exhibits. In the guardhouse on the left
side is the permanent exhibit ‘Lost Humanity’ which gives
a general but succinct and enlightening overview of Europe
in the years 1919-1945, focussing on Hitler’s rise to power,
the growth of German fascism, the origin and development
of the concentration camp system - described as ‘Hitler’s
extermination apparatus’ - and the plight of Poland trapped
between two totalitarian regimes bent on expansion. In the
guardhouse on the right side is the exhibit ‘AL Riese - Satellite
Camps of the Former Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen,’
which details the sub-camps of Gross-Rosen located in the
Owl Mountains southwest of Wrocław along the modern-day
border of Poland and Czech Republic. Established in 1943
as the tide of WWII began to turn against the Third Reich,
the work camps of AL Riese were created to build what many
believe was to be a massive underground headquarters
for Hitler. The project was eventually abandoned, but not
before over 194,232 square metres of secret passageways
were dug into the mountains by prisoners, some 3,648 of
whom died during the work. While the exhibit does much to
explain why sub-camp Riese had such a high death rate, it
rather disappointingly doesn’t indulge in speculation about
Hitler’s plans for the project, which remains one of WWII’s
greatest mysteries. Displays in both guardhouse exhibits are
presented in English, Polish, French, German and Russian.
wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
GROSS-ROSEN
A Brief History
Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp came into being
on August 2nd, 1940 when a transport of prisoners
was sent to the SS-owned quarry on a hill above the
small German village of the same name (today known
as Polish Rogoźnice) and essentially forced to begin
building the camp themselves. Soon more and more
prisoners were being sent and by May 1st, 1941
Gross-Rosen had grown enough to gain the status of
a self-reliant concentration camp. Conditions in the
camp in its first two years were especially harsh with
12-hour work days spent excavating granite from the
quarry, insufficient food rations and violent abuse from
the SS officers and staff who were actually awarded
military decorations from Nazi command for inhumane
treatment of the prisoners and executions. While the
famous Nazi motto written above the camp’s gate
and divulged to the inmates was ‘Arbeit Macht Free’
(Work Makes You Free), the administration actually
phrased it a different way, operating the camp under
the acknowledged motto of ‘Vernichtung Durch
Arbeit’ (Extermination Through Work). At the camp’s
start prisoners were forbidden from receiving mailed
parcels, however the administration later reckoned
that changing the policy would allow them to continue
serving the same starving food rations. All packages
were inspected and any valuables were stolen, but
food was allowed; thus, in the Nazis’ view, people in
occupied countries became partly responsible for
feeding the inmates. Due to the deplorable conditions,
Gross-Rosen was regarded by the Nazis themselves
as among the worst of all the concentration camps.
An increasing emphasis on using prison labour in
armaments production lead to the large expansion of
Gross-Rosen in 1944, when it became the administrative
hub of a vast network of at least 97 sub-camps
all across Lower Silesia and the surrounding region.
While several hundred Jews had been prisoners
of the camp between 1940 and 1943, most of its
population were Polish and Soviet POWs. However
as camps further east began to be evacuated, a
vast influx of Jews began to arrive in Gross-Rosen,
including prisoners from Auschwitz for whom a whole
new annex of the camp was built specifically in the
fall of 1944. [Readers familiar with the story of Oskar
Schindler may know that some of his Jewish workers
were sent to Gross-Rosen on their way to Brünnlitz,
which was itself a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen located
in Czech Republic.] Between October 1943 and January
of 1945 as many as 60,000 Jews were deported
to Gross-Rosen, mostly from Poland and Hungary.
Gross-Rosen also had one of the highest populations
of female prisoners in the entire concentration camp
system at this time.
One of the last camps to be evacuated, in early February
1945 the Germans forced some 40,000 prisoners,
half of whom were Jews, on brutal death marches to
the west which lasted days, and even weeks in some
cases. With no food or water, freezing conditions,
and an SS policy of shooting anyone who looked too
weak to continue, many of the former inmates did not
survive to freedom. Gross-Rosen was liberated by the
Soviet Army on February 13, 1945. It is estimated that
125,000 prisoners went through the camp, 40,000
of whom perished.
September - December 2012
7