Block no. 11 in Auschwitz

The transcription of the podcast

Block 11 at Auschwitz I was isolated from the rest of the camp. It served as a prison, an execution site, and the quarters of the penal company. Dr. Adam Cyra from the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about the unique history of the so-called Block of Death.

Block 11 in the Auschwitz camp played a specific role. It became, although not immediately, the camp prison. At the beginning of the war, in September 1939, it was hit by a bomb, and only in the autumn of the following year did renovations begin. When was it put into use, and what rooms did it consist of?

Block number 11 was earlier marked as number 13 when the camp was established in the spring of 1940. This block was one of the former barracks buildings because, in the interwar period, the buildings that would later become the camp housed Polish Army barracks, primarily occupied by the 2nd Battalion, which was part of the 73rd Infantry Regiment stationed in Katowice. As mentioned, this block was occupied by the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion. Although renovation began in the spring of 1940—since the block had a partially destroyed roof and broken windows—more intensive work took place in the autumn of 1940 and at the turn of 1940–1941. The basement of the block originally consisted of a single continuous space. The basement part was supported by columns. It was only during renovation that the basement of Block 11 was divided into 28 cells, and this work continued into 1941. The cells created after the renovation formed the camp’s prison — the Kommandanturarest. The basement cells of Block 11 took different forms. Most were regular cells where prisoners were held on the orders of the Politische Abteilung, the camp Gestapo, for violating camp regulations, for contact with the local population, or involvement with the resistance movement. In addition, there were dark cells. These dark cells had only a small window measuring 18 by 18 centimeters, which was further covered on the outside by a metal housing. Air could only enter the cell through small holes in this metal cover. Especially in winter, when snow fell, these holes would be blocked by snow, making it even harder for air to enter.

Prisoners were locked in the dark cells for periods ranging from several days to several weeks. It was one of the camp’s punishments. Prisoners sentenced to death by starvation were also locked in dark cells. There were several such selections for death by starvation in the camp in 1941. In later years, these selections were no longer conducted. The first selection for death by starvation was carried out on April 23, 1941. Among the ten prisoners sentenced to starvation were two Polish teachers: Professor Marian Batko from the Odrowąż Gymnasium in Chorzów and a geography teacher from the public school in Barcice near Stary Sącz. The next selections occurred on June 17 and June 24. But the most well-known selection for death by starvation took place on July 29, 1941, following the escape of a prisoner named Zygmunt Pilawski. The escape was successful, but in retaliation during the evening roll call, ten prisoners were sentenced to die by starvation. One of them was Franciszek Gajowniczek, a pre-war non-commissioned officer in the Polish Army, who began to cry, saying: “My wife, my children.” These words were heard by the Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe, who voluntarily offered to die in his place. The camp manager Karl Fritzsch, who conducted the selection, agreed to the exchange. Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the camp, but Father Kolbe was locked in the dark cell for over two weeks and ultimately killed with an injection on August 14, 1941. The mentioned escapee, Zygmunt Pilawski, was captured after several months and executed at the Wall of Death on July 31, 1942. The last such selection occurred on October 27, 1941.

There were several dark cells, but due to subsequent renovations, today only two of them remain in their original form: cell number 2 and cell number 20. Another special type of cell in the basement of Block 11 was the standing cells, of which there were four, built within cell number 22. Each standing cell had a floor area of 90 by 90 centimeters. Four prisoners were placed in one such cell. They entered through small openings at the bottom — wooden and metal hatches that were closed once the prisoners were inside. They spent the entire night in such a cell, unable to sit down. A night in such a cell was torture. During the day, they were taken to work like other prisoners. There were 28 cells. Most were regular cells, where prisoners were held primarily on orders from the camp Gestapo, but also potentially on orders from the camp commandant or the camp manager. The cells were overcrowded. As a result — especially in 1942–1943 — selections were conducted in the camp prison basement. The head of the camp Gestapo, Maximilian Grabner, would descend into the basement, accompanied by other Gestapo officers, the camp manager, and the Rapportführer. The cells were opened, and decisions were made about who would remain, who would be executed, and who would be returned to the camp or sent to the penal company.

In the early period of the camp, when the prison was already operational, only men were held there, but later, women were imprisoned as well. A particularly notable group held in this prison were the SS men.

These are already details of the prison’s history, but they are also important. The prison was divided by iron bars. In one part were men, and behind the bars, in another part, were women. There was even a difference in the cells — women’s cells had floors, and even bunks, usually two in each cell. It's also worth noting that for a certain time, the women's cells were numbered from 1 to 7. SS men were also imprisoned there for various infractions and violations of camp rules. In one of these cells in 1943, Rapportführer Gerhard Palitzsch was imprisoned after violating camp laws. He was held in the basement of Block 11. SS men were punished for abuses such as theft — for example, stealing Jewish property, valuables, food — and similar offenses.

What was on the ground floor of Block 11?

The penal company was located on the ground floor of the “death block.” It was established in August 1940 and moved to Birkenau only on May 9, 1942. The first block leader was the notorious sadist, murderer, and German criminal prisoner Ernst Krankemann. Prisoners in the penal company were treated with particular cruelty. They were forced to perform extremely hard labor, always running, driven by prisoner functionaries. Much of this work was done in the gravel pits outside the camp, mainly near the Theatergebäude, or the so-called old theatre.

Who was sent to the penal company?

Poles whose personal files were marked as particularly dangerous to the Third Reich – that is, Poles most involved in the resistance movement. Prisoners were also placed in the penal company for various camp infractions, sometimes completely trivial ones. But in the beginning, the penal company primarily included Jews and Polish priests. It’s worth remembering that in the early transports, during the first months, there were small numbers of Polish Jews deported along with Poles who had been arrested under similar circumstances. When new arrivals were registered and it was determined from the documents that someone was Jewish, that person was immediately assigned to the penal company. The same was done with Polish priests. SS functionaries encouraged violence and murder of penal company prisoners. They were brutally killed during labor using shovels, clubs, or other tools.

Prisoners in the penal company worked in the gravel pits, as mentioned earlier. They also built the camp’s perimeter fence. Barely able to stand, they had to carry and install concrete posts. They also performed other extremely hard labor. For instance, they dug foundations for newly constructed blocks. When the camp was already operating, eight new blocks were built in the roll-call square area. The foundations for what later became Block 15 and Block 4 were dug by penal company prisoners who were thrown into pits and murdered in various sadistic ways during work. Additionally, penal company prisoners pulled a heavy roller used to level camp roads. This roller had a diameter of two meters. The work was overseen by Ernst Krankemann, who would often sit on the roller’s beam and beat prisoners, forcing them to exert even more effort. Those who collapsed were sometimes crushed into the ground. The terror inflicted on penal company prisoners was extreme. In May 1942, the penal company was transferred to Birkenau, and afterward, prisoners undergoing entry and exit quarantine were held on the ground floor of Block 11.

Next to the penal company in Block 11 was the disciplinary company. Its terror was on a smaller scale, but to some extent comparable to that inflicted on penal company prisoners. This disciplinary company was located on the upper floor of Block 11. Both the penal company and the disciplinary company were created on the initiative of camp manager Karl Fritzsch. The disciplinary company existed only briefly – from May until roughly August or September 1941. There were differences between the types of terror inflicted on prisoners in the two companies. Prisoners in the penal company were not allowed to write letters, while those in the disciplinary company could. Disciplinary company prisoners often slept one or two hours less. They were woken up and forced to perform various tasks. They had to walk several kilometers on foot to Dwory and Monowice, where construction of chemical plants had begun. They also worked in gravel pits. Initially, the disciplinary company had several dozen prisoners; later, it grew to 180. When the penal company was transferred to Birkenau, the ground floor of Block 11 housed prisoners in entry quarantine. These prisoners did not work for several weeks but were forced to perform exhausting physical exercises and learn the camp regulations – including how to properly remove their caps. In this way, they were introduced to the conditions of camp life. That was the entry quarantine, but there was also an exit quarantine. During exit quarantine, prisoners would sometimes remain for longer periods. A prisoner released from the camp could not be weak, barely standing, or wounded – they had to be in relatively good condition.

Only once prisoners were deemed healthy enough by an SS doctor could they be released. They had to sign a declaration at the camp Gestapo that they would never speak about what they had experienced. They were given a document confirming their release, and an SS officer would escort them to the train station in Oświęcim, hand them a ticket to their place of residence, and upon arrival, they had to report to their local Gestapo office. According to prisoner testimonies, exit quarantine was discontinued in 1944.

In June 1942, a court was established for the Upper Silesia province of the Third Reich, with jurisdiction over Poles and Jews living in that area. Initially, the special court sessions likely took place in Katowice or the investigative prison in Mysłowice – it's hard to determine. The first police prisoners were executed on July 2, 1942, at the Death Wall, after being tried – either in Katowice or Mysłowice. From spring 1943, however, these special court sessions were held in Block 11, just to the left of the main entrance. When the head of the Gestapo from Katowice arrived with other officers, a special table was prepared, covered with green cloth, and the Gestapo officials sat behind it, led by the Katowice chief. The Gestapo chief from Oświęcim also participated. Initially, Dr. Rudolf Mildner led the Katowice Gestapo. Until September 1943, he sentenced approximately 2,000 police prisoners to death. From October 1943 to January 1945, these court sessions were presided over by Dr. Johannes Thümmler.

What did such a court session look like?

Prisoners were lined up in the corridor and called in one by one. It was a mockery of justice. Each prisoner was given a minute or two. Essentially, the court verified the prisoner’s identity and read out the death sentence. About 95% of the accused were sentenced to death. A few were incarcerated in the camp – none were released. It is estimated that from July 1942 to January 1945, at least 3,000 prisoners were executed. Initially, executions took place at the Death Wall. The last such execution took place on November 29, 1943. The final session of the special court in Block 11 took place on January 5, 1945. Over 100 prisoners, including about 40 women, were murdered inside crematorium No. 5, the only one still operating at that time. You mentioned the special court sessions that were held on the ground floor of Block 11 and that for a time, the entry and exit quarantine was also located there, before being moved upstairs. Who else was permanently present in Block 11, aside from prisoners or those awaiting trial? It should be noted that this block was under constant supervision – there was always an SS man present. It must be said that Block 11 was always locked, and regular prisoners had no right to enter it. Immediately after entering, on the right was the SS guard room. There were three SS men stationed there – two on day shift, one on night shift. They had keys to Block 11 and the courtyard gate, which was fenced. They also held keys to rooms on both floors and to the camp prison cells.

Additionally, a small group of prisoner functionaries lived in Block 11 – usually six or seven. These included the block master of the camp prison, who was responsible for keeping the cells clean, delivering food to prisoners in the so-called bunkers, removing waste in buckets, and carrying out the dead, if necessary. Bodies were left near the stairs, and orderlies from the hospital block came to retrieve them. Other functionaries included the block clerk, barber, medical orderly, and assistant to the block master.

You mentioned that Blocks 10 and 11 were connected by a wall, with a gate on one side. At one point, a wall was also erected in the courtyard of Block 11...

Not only were prisoners from the camp prison executed there, but more often prisoners were brought from the main camp for execution. These executions were sometimes ordered by external German offices, especially when a prisoner’s file was marked “return undesired.” Most executions, however, were arbitrary, carried out at the direction of the camp Gestapo, especially its chief Maximilian Grabner. Prisoners were brought for execution and, like those from the prison, stripped in one of two washrooms. Women undressed in the smaller washroom; men in the larger one or another designated room. Women were usually taken to execution only wearing a shirt; men were completely naked. The Bunkerkalefaktor, the prison block master, led the condemned by the arms to the Death Wall, where an SS man shot them in the back of the head. Executions by firing squad were already being carried out in the camp as early as November 1940 and early 1941, originally in the gravel pits outside the camp fence. Some were also held in the courtyard of Block 11 during this period.

From November 11, 1941, executions took place in front of the newly built Death Wall, where prisoners were shot with small-caliber weapons. The camp authorities intentionally chose November 11 — Poland’s Independence Day — as the date for the first mass execution. On that day, 76 prisoners were killed: 49 selected from camp blocks, and 27 already imprisoned in the camp jail. That day, 75 Poles and one German were executed. The last execution at the Death Wall of registered political prisoners from the camp took place on October 18, 1943. 54 Poles were shot — they were Polish Army officers, political activists, and members of the underground resistance led by Captain Witold Pilecki. Additionally, that day, 10 Jews, 3 Ukrainians, and one German were also executed. That was essentially the last execution of prisoners — primarily political — at the Death Wall, which was soon dismantled. In November 1943, Arthur Liebehenschel replaced Rudolf Höss as camp commandant and softened the camp’s policy. The extreme terror toward prisoners was eased somewhat.

I’d like to ask about a specific event that took place in Block 11 — the murder of Soviet POWs and Poles selected from the hospital using Zyklon B...

The victims included 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Poles selected from the camp hospital. They were locked in the prison cells and corridors. Ten additional prisoners from the penal company were added — they had been sentenced to death after the successful escape of Jan Nowaczek on September 1, 1941. Zyklon B pellets were thrown into the cells, causing the death of most prisoners in the basement. The next day, it turned out some were still alive, so an additional dose was administered, killing everyone.

Their bodies were removed by Polish orderlies from the camp hospital. These men undressed the murdered Soviet POWs and later reported that they found documents indicating some of the 600 Soviet POWs were actually Poles conscripted into the Red Army after the Soviet Union annexed the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic. The Soviet authorities had forced Polish citizens to accept Soviet citizenship. As a result, young Poles were drafted into the Red Army and some became victims of the gassing with Zyklon B carried out between September 3 and 5, 1941. Further gassings were later conducted in the morgue of Crematorium I.

In your book Voices of Memory: Functions of Block 11, you write about the types of offenses for which men and women prisoners could be punished. These punishments were carried out, among other places, in Block 11 or its courtyard. What types of punishments were these?

In Block 11, prisoners were hanged on posts. There were several such posts in the courtyard of Block 11, and this punishment was also carried out in the attic, where hooks had been attached to the rafters. Similar hooks were attached to the courtyard posts. Prisoners were hung by their hands twisted behind their backs, suspended by chains. Their feet could not touch the ground — at most just the tips of their toes. Usually, this punishment lasted from one to two hours. If the sentence called for a longer time, it would be divided over several days. It was a cruel and extremely painful punishment.

Were there punishments other than hanging by the arms?

Yes, there was corporal punishment. A prisoner had to lie down on a special bench, his legs secured, and he was beaten with a stick or club. He had to count the lashes aloud in German. If he made a mistake, more blows were added. This punishment was either administered in the room used by the Block 11 clerk — the same room where summary court sessions took place — or outdoors on the courtyard bench specifically designated for this purpose.

It has already been mentioned that Block 11 was a special place — constantly isolated and, above all, locked. SS men were always present. Was escape from the block even possible?

One might say escape was impossible — and yet, three prisoners managed to escape from this block. The first two were a Slovak Jew, Nikolaus Engel, and a Czech Jew, Josef Malina. There’s little information about Malina, but we know more about Engel. He was a Slovak Jew, born near Žilina. He attended school there and later completed his education at the Academy of Commerce in Brno. He also performed military service and was an officer in the Czechoslovak Army. He was brought to the camp in a transport of Slovak Jews together with his wife. Both were registered in the camp. After some time, his wife, weakened and ill, was chosen during a selection and murdered in a gas chamber. Nikolaus Engel, before ending up in Block 11, had attempted to escape twice. After the first attempt, he was captured and sent to the Auschwitz subcamp in Libiąż. There, he organized his second escape. For that, he was transferred to Block 11, from which he eventually escaped — through a trick — together with Josef Malina.

No prisoner had the right to leave the block on their own, except for a few tasked with bringing food from the camp kitchen — meals for SS men and starvation rations for the prisoners in the block. Engel and Malina left Block 11 with a food container, supposedly to get coffee for the prisoners. They discarded the container, and another Czech Jew joined them. We don’t know exactly how they managed it, but the three blended into a work detail leaving the camp and escaped.

The escape was successful, but all three were later captured. The fate of the two Czech Jews is unknown, but Nikolaus Engel’s was certain. Furious over the escape, the SS decided to make an example of him with a public hanging. It's important to add that there were two gallows standing in the courtyard of Block 11. Sometimes death sentences by hanging were carried out there, including public executions in front of other prisoners. Nikolaus Engel was to be hanged on one of these portable gallows. He had escaped with the two Czech Jews on July 14 and was recaptured on July 18, 1944. The gallows was prepared. The executioner was the block leader of the camp prison, a Polish Jew named Jakub Kozelczuk. Somehow, he partially cut the rope. During the execution, Engel broke free and fell through the gallows trapdoor. The execution was halted. He was not hanged again but was instead taken back to Block 11 and murdered later that day. Prisoner accounts differ: some say he was killed with a phenol injection; others claim he was taken to Birkenau and shot. The truth will likely never be known. In the cell where Nikolaus Engel was held, he left an inscription on the inside of the door to Cell 19. It read: “Engel Mikuláš, Žilina, Slovakia.” That is the last trace of his presence in the camp. That was one escape. I'd like to describe another daring escape that had been planned earlier by two Polish prisoners.

Józef Barcikowski, who worked in the surveying commando, and Zdzisław Walczak, who worked in the sewage commando — a unit that operated both inside and outside the camp — both had relatively easier opportunities for escape due to their outside assignments. But something happened that they hadn't anticipated: the camp Gestapo suspected Barcikowski, a Polish Army reserve officer, and imprisoned him in Block 11. Still, Walczak did not abandon the plan. Through the help of functionary prisoners involved in the resistance, they maintained secret contact and devised a plan to replicate Nikolaus Engel’s trick. Barcikowski left the block among a group of prisoners fetching soup for Block 11 inmates. Near the camp kitchen, he saw that Walczak was already on the premises. Walczak had been in Block 15 and had left a prison uniform in a prearranged location — one worn by the sewage work unit. Barcikowski quickly changed into it, took tools, and posed as a worker.

But the real challenge was how to pass through the main gate under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. Earlier, Walczak had approached the SS guard at the gate with another prisoner — a Hungarian Jew — reporting they were going to perform sewer maintenance. He gave his number and added “plus one.” The SS man didn’t note the second prisoner’s number. After entering, Walczak sent the Hungarian prisoner off on an errand inside the camp. Once Barcikowski was in uniform, the two approached the gate again. Walczak reported that he and another prisoner were leaving. The guard, unaware of the swap, let them through. They left the camp and hid in the Bauhof, a construction supply depot, until nightfall. By then, an alarm had been raised. Guard posts up to several kilometers from the camp were manned. Still, under the cover of darkness, the two crawled between the towers, reached the Soła River, crossed it, and arrived at the village of Łęki-Zasole near the bridge, where a contact from the Home Army unit "Sosienki" was waiting. This unit operated near the camp. It did not attack SS men directly but focused on helping prisoners and assisting with escapes. The contact led them to the partisan unit “Garbnik” of the Home Army in the Żywiec Beskid Mountains. This unit had over 100 soldiers, including about 20 Auschwitz escapees. Soon, Józef Barcikowski, the reserve officer, became its commander. Both Barcikowski and Walczak remained with the unit, conducting various operations against the Germans until the arrival of Soviet troops. Their escape was remarkable — not just because of its daring, but because they didn’t hide. Instead, they joined the resistance, determined to help other prisoners and to be ready to fight for liberation if the chance came.

You mentioned that Nikolaus Engel left an inscription in Block 11 — a trace of his very existence — but there are more such traces left by men and women prisoners in Block 11. They scratched them into the plaster on the walls or onto ceiling beams.

Yes, the inscription left by Nikolaus Engel on the door of Cell 19 is not the only trace left by prisoners in Block 11. There are many more. I’ll speak about the traces left by police prisoners. Among them were men, and in separate cells, women were also held. In two of the men’s cells, on the ceiling beams, there are several inscriptions made by prisoners. Usually, after the summary court sessions, the prisoners were murdered that same day. However, in two instances, including the one I want to mention now — October 31, 1944 — the death sentence was not carried out that day. Instead, the prisoners were taken to Birkenau the next day and shot, because by then the Death Wall had already been dismantled. These prisoners had managed to smuggle pencils into the cells, and sitting on the top bunk, they could easily write on the ceiling beams. The inscriptions are brief: names, dates, and statements like “Sentenced to death on October 31, 1944,” or “Dying for the Polish homeland, notify my family,” followed by the family’s address. There are several such messages. Many more can be found scratched into the plaster or on the inside of cell doors in the former camp prison.

At one time, I closely examined these inscriptions. Two in particular stayed with me — deeply moving ones. One is a series of drawings on the door of Cell 21, made by a Polish paratrooper officer from the elite “Silent Unseen” unit, Second Lieutenant Stefan Jasieński. After parachuting into occupied Poland in spring 1943, he first worked as an intelligence officer in the Vilnius region. Later, in summer 1944, he was sent to the Oświęcim area. His mission was to gather information on German forces and firepower — and also to assess possibilities for liberating the prisoners. But such an operation was never possible. The Polish Home Army partisans were too weak to defeat the heavily armed SS garrison of Auschwitz. Stefan Jasieński was wounded by the German gendarmerie at the end of September 1944. He was later imprisoned in Cell 21, where he died in the first days of January under circumstances that remain unclear. He left behind a series of drawings that form an illustrated biography: a saber, a tank, an airplane — all related to his military service. An eagle in a dive — the emblem of the Polish WWII paratroopers.

Another story is of a young Polish officer — an architect by training —and I want to share at least a few words about him. I was struck by an inscription I found in Cell 28, also on the inside of the door. I began to read:

"I just wanted to be human,
not a soulless digits clump,
Tie existence to the future,
and decipher acts of past
I was captured by betrayal
that placed me behind those bars,
but my honor won't be broken,
even by the killing squad."
Below that was written:
"Bern, Świercz, December 27, 1944"

After reading this, it became completely clear to me that the inscription had been made by Bernard Świerczyna, also a Polish Army reserve officer, deeply involved in clandestine military activity within the secret resistance organization founded in the camp by Captain Witold Pilecki. Świerczyna was caught during a failed escape attempt with four other prisoners. A bribed SS man was to drive them out of the camp in a laundry truck headed for Bielsko. There were two SS men — the driver and his assistant — but one turned out to be a traitor. The vehicle did not leave the camp but instead pulled up to Block 11. The fate of the escapees was grim. Two other prisoners suspected of aiding in the escape were also arrested. Five were publicly hanged on the roll-call square on December 30, 1944. One of them was Bernard Świerczyna — a heroic Polish prisoner from Mysłowice.

You said that Block 11 served many functions — housing the penal company for a time, housing exit and entry quarantine prisoners, and serving as a prison both for inmates and even for SS men. Can we estimate how many people passed through this block?

As for the number of prisoners held in Block 11, we can estimate that around 5,000 were executed at the Death Wall. These included prisoners from the camp jail, those brought from the main camp for execution, civilians — even women and children — who were brought in and executed there. Also among them were Soviet POWs — several hundred of whom were shot in December 1941. So we can assume that about 5,000 people died at the Death Wall. I reached that number after analyzing the various tragic events that took place in Block 11. Later, I noticed that in his testimony, Maksymilian Chlebik — a Polish prisoner from Karviná who returned there after the war — also estimated that approximately 5,000 prisoners died at the Death Wall. He was imprisoned in Block 11 during those executions. If we also count the prisoners of the penal company, the disciplinary company, those held in entry and exit quarantine, and police prisoners — some of whom were not executed but sent back to the camp — it’s impossible to give a precise number, because camp documentation is only partially preserved.

What kind of documentation from that time has survived?

There is one complete and very important document: the "Bunker Book." Initially, records of those imprisoned in the camp jail were kept only by SS block leaders, and they did so carelessly. During roll calls, prisoner counts didn’t match. The SS would enter the jail to count again. Roll calls would drag on, causing growing frustration among the SS. So the prisoner clerks in Block 11 — first Franciszek Broll, then Gerard Włoch, and later Jan Pilecki — decided to keep their own record book, where they accurately logged who was imprisoned, when, and for what reason. Two parts of this book were secretly copied in Block 11 on the initiative of Jan Pilecki. The original part of the Bunker Book, covering January 9, 1941, to March 31, 1943, was smuggled out of the camp, along with a copy of the second part, which covered April 1943 to February 1, 1944. This document is incredibly valuable. Jan Pilecki handed it over to the hospital prisoners, who then helped organize its smuggling out of the camp via prisoner Józef Róg. A civilian worker, Franciszek Walisko, received it outside and passed it through the underground network in Brzeszcze, eventually reaching the Home Army in Kraków. That book survived and was given to the Museum after the war. It is an extraordinary historical document. Thanks to it, we can precisely identify who was in the bunker from January 1941 to February 1, 1944. The entries include why the prisoner was jailed, birthdate, nationality in many cases, and what happened afterward. Whether they were executed at the Death Wall, sent to the penal company, or returned to the camp. Some entries were falsified on SS orders, but most are authentic. For those executed, the entry usually read “verstorben” (“deceased”), or simply the abbreviation “ver.”, or a red pencil cross — all indicating the prisoner had been killed.