Chełmek · subcamp of KL Auschwitz
Record no. 9 of 45
Nothing is left
Two months of work in water at the reservoirs of the former Bata shoe factory. The subcamp was closed in December 1942.
Period of operation against the Auschwitz system
Distances in a straight line — approximate
Measured from the centre of the town, accurate to within a few kilometres.
Branch of industry in the register
Other
About a hundred and fifty prisoners deepened and cleaned the water reservoirs at the works taken over from the Bata company, operating under German management as Ota-Schlesische Schuhwerke AG.
Work in water, in autumn and winter, on camp rations, destroyed people at a rate that explains the short life of this detachment.
This is one of the few subcamps of which nothing at all remains. Even so, field research made it possible to establish the exact position of the camp and of the place of work.
At Chelmek, not far from the former subcamp, stands a monument to the victims of fascism, opened in 1969, together with plaques bearing names.
Archival photographs of this place
Photographs and documents from the time the camp existed are held and made available by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.
Sources — the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, archive and historical collections · Re-Finding the Sub Camps of Auschwitz, field research by the Tiergartenstrasse4 Association 2005–2008, subcamps-auschwitz.org · field documentation by Auschwitz Subcamps.
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