WROCŁAW - In Your Pocket

8
GROSS-ROSEN
Getting There
The sites for Nazi concentration camps were often
dictated by existing infrastructure and the ease of
transporting prisoners there by rail (see: Auschwitz-
Birkenau). Gross-Rosen is a bit of an anomaly in
this regard, in that it is not easy to visit if you don’t
have a car. Located in Rogożnica, 65km west of
Wrocław on the road between Strzegom and Jawor,
if you do have access to a vehicle the journey takes
about an hour.
By train: There are a half dozen connections from
Wrocław to Rogoźnica throughout the day, but you’ll
notice that none of them are direct. Most make a
change in Legnica or Jaworzyna Śląska and the travel
time is anywhere between 1hr 20mins and 2hrs
45mins, with a total cost of 14-20zł depending on the
train. To check the exact times go to rozklad-pkp.
pl which has limited but effective English language
functionality.
Unfortunately getting to Rogoźnica train station is not
the end of the journey. Gross-Rosen Concentration
Camp is about another 3km from the train station
and with no buses the only way to get there is on
foot, or by flagging down a ride. The walk is not difficult,
but it is slightly uphill the whole way and takes
about 30mins. Ironically, this is the same walk that
prisoners were forced to make, albeit under gunpoint
by SS men with dogs as the German peasants of the
village spat and threw stones at them; those that fell
from exhaustion were often shot or beaten. Puts it
in perspective, no?
Getting to the camp on foot: If you are standing
on the small, crumbling station platform facing the
tracks, head to your left, making another left when
you get to the road about 100m away. This road
takes you down a residential street into the village
of Rogoźnica leading to a church, around which
you’ll make another left and then a relatively quick
right onto ul. Ofiar Gross Rosen (Victims of Gross
Rosen Road). On this road you’ll pass the town’s
only two shops, which you might be wise to stop in
considering there will be no later opportunities to
purchase food or drink at the camp (bear in mind
that you’re in a village and these shops close early,
especially on weekends, if they are open at all). At
the fork in the road with the large cross, stay left
following the signs to ‘Muzeum Gross-Rosen.’ This
is basically the half-way point and the rest of the
way is a slight uphill grade straight to the gates of
the camp, which you can’t miss.
The Prisoners’ Camp:
Passing through the main gate visitors have the opportunity
to wander the grounds of the camp where informational
markers explain the buildings that once stood there and their
significance. Though mostly ruins and foundations, among
the objects that have been preserved are the basements of
the prisoners’ bathhouse, kitchen and one of the barracks,
the original camp bell, sections of the original camp fence,
the field crematorium, and the ‘death wall’ where mass executions
were committed. Restoration work is ongoing and
some barracks have also been recently rebuilt to hold future
exhibits where some small temporary displays currently exist.
Immediately to your left upon entering the camp is the roll call
square and camp gallows. It was here that prisoners were
forced to gather twice a day to be counted, a process which
often took hours in inclement weather. Show executions for
those that broke the rules were also commonplace. Escapes
attempts were frequent, but rarely successful and those that
were captured were executed and displayed on the square,
often dressed in clownish outfits with painted cheeks and
signboards hanging off their dead bodies proclaiming, ‘I’m
back with you again.’
The most interesting and evocative objects are in the far right
corner of the camp, including a towering stone mausoleum
into which prisoners’ ashes from the pits surrounding the
nearby crematorium were placed in 1953. Close behind, a
large, rather symbolic dead tree stands above the execution
wall, around which dozens of personal monuments have been
placed by the families of camp victims. On the other side of
the fence a wooden watchtower has been reconstructed on
what was actually an additional annex of the camp added in
the later stages of the war to house prisoners relocated after
the evacuation of Auschwitz. Unfortunately the territory of what
was known as the ‘Auschwitz Camp’ is currently off-limits to
tourists (which is a shame because the views from the tower
would be impressive). Q Open 08:00 - 18:00. From October
open 08:00 - 16:00. 30min film 3zł, 60min film 5zł. Foreign
language guided tours available if arranged in advance: groups
of up to 15 people 70zł; groups up to 50 people 120zł.
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