British prisoners of war near the Auschwitz camp

The transcript of the podcast

One of the groups of eyewitnesses to the crimes perpetrated at the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz were British prisoners of war, who were forced to work on the construction of the IG Farbenindustrie factory. The building site was located in the immediate vicinity of the Auschwitz-III Monowitz camp and a few kilometers from the Auschwitz I main camp. British prisoners of war were also employed the mines in Libiąż and Jaworzno, where later Auschwitz sub-camps were established. Dr Piotr Setkiewicz, head of the Museum Research Center, talks about the history of British prisoners of war near the Auschwitz camp.

In the history of Auschwitz, we talk about prisoners of war mainly due to the tragic story of the Soviet prisoners of war, who were incarcerated at the Auschwitz concentration camp. But at the edge of the story of Auschwitz, we can also see the presence of the British POWs, who were not incarcerated in the camp, but appear in the different stories of the Auschwitz complex, mainly through use of the slave labor by different German companies, so why the decision was taken to bring the British POWs to this area?

These decisions were taken, in most cases, at the beginning of 1943, at the moment when Auschwitz concentration camp was closed, and could not been used as a source of slave labor for German companies in the eastern part of Upper Silesia. That was probably the reason why the directors of local companies: coal mines, steel works and many other enterprises began to look for other sources of workers, laborers, who might be used in these factories because at the same time, many German workers were conscripted to the army, the Wehrmacht, and more or less at a same time many Polish local workers were sent to perform slave labor in Germany. And, with the beginning of the British-American air offensive against Germany, some German companies began to move apart of their potential and production in the western part of Germany into Silesia, so these were the reasons why German industry, particularly at the end of 1942 and beginning of 1943, began to look for new workers. And because the prisoners of Auschwitz were not available at this moment, because of typhus epidemic that prevailed in Auschwitz during the second part of 1942. The companies began to ask the local employment offices, the Arbeitsamts, about other potential source of labor, and the Arbeitsamt answered that there are some British prisoners of war available, and they might be used for this purpose, had been transferred from the major POW camp in Lamsdorf (Łambinowice) or in Cieszyn, into many smaller individual commandos in Silesia, and among them were two larger groups of British prisoners of war, one of them was about 400 people, sent to the city of Jaworzno to work in five coal mines that belonged during the war to the German company called Energieversorgung Oberschlesien. These were not actually British prisoners, but Jews, who volunteered to the British Army in Palestine at the beginning of war, and then they were sent to Greece together with the British Expeditionary Corps, and after the withdrawal of British forces from Greece, the members of this engineering companies were simply left alone on beaches of Attica and taken prisoner by Germans. So, then they were moved to the other camps in Germany, and eventually to Jaworzno and also, more or less at the same time, the second group of these Engländer-Kreta Juden, as they were called in the German documents, two hundred of them were moved to coal mines in Libiąż. Both these localities were situated not far from Auschwitz, in the case of Jaworzno about 20 kilometers and in case of Libiąż it was just 5 kilometers, so the prisoners who were at the last locality could see from a relatively close distance the flames over the horizon, the clouds of smoke from the crematoria in Auschwitz, which had certain negative consequences for the employing company that ran this coal mine, that was a part of huge German concern called IG Farben-Industrie.

The story of slave labor of British POWs in Jaworzno and Libiąż had consequences, because they didn’t seem to be the most efficient workers.

Practically, at the very moment they appeared in these two labor camps, the administration of the German companies began to complain that the efficiency of work is very low, that in many cases these British-Jewish prisoners protested against the cruel treatment, the beating that resulted in some situations that even ended up, in the case of Jaworzno, in two cases of deaths of British prisoners by the German auxiliary Werkschutz, the security guards of these coal mines and therefore, the members of the delegation of the Red Cross in Berlin were alarmed about these facts and they visited Jaworzno, and after series of negotiations and exchanging of the letters it was stated, that these prisoners, although Jewish, they could not be treated in that brutal way, and certain standards of Geneva Conventions should be kept, even in the case of Jewish prisoners. That arose some problems, the administration of this company complained many times about low efficiency of work, about high rate of sickness among the POWs, for example in Janina-Grube in Jaworzno, in local coal mine, forty British prisoners claimed that they cannot work in the coal mine, because of lack of few things, for example. So, that was the reason why, on the one hand, because of the protest, because they tried to work as slow as possible, the administration of coal mines was not satisfied with their employment. And more or less in June 1943, the director of these coal mine asked the administration of POW camp in Lamsdorf to exchange the British Jews to the Aryan British prisoners, as they assumed the British would work faster and better, that was the one reason, and the second was that they expected that Jews, perhaps, did not worked satisfactory, because they, first of all, were told by the local Polish miners, that their compatriots, the other Jews, who lived in the eastern part of Upper Silesia, were concentrated in the ghettos, that many of them have been killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp and that might have been the reason why they behaved in such way. In one letter, sent by the director of Jaworzno coal mine, it was stressed that, “even Soviet prisoners of war were better to work in our coal mine than Jews from Sosnowiec.” Perhaps, there was another reason of low efficiency of work, because these Jews realized that many of their friends, even the members of families, who stayed in Poland before they emigrated to Palestine, they suffered a lot, and they were being murdered by the Germans, so perhaps that was the reason why they didn’t want to work with the satisfactory efficiency.

So, in this first stage, the company decided to replace the British Jewish prisoners of war with non-Jewish British prisoners of war. Did the situation improve?

Not at all, because, as we know again from the reports of the administration of these coal mines, that the British behaved in a way that irritated managers, that they also protested against the conditions of work, because they did not, for example, received rubber shoes, they usually ended their work one hour or even two before shift, so there was a lot of protest, there was a lot of conflicts between the managers and the guards in coal mines, because when they could see British who would not want to work at all, who were sitting and smoking cigarettes, so that they tried to force them to go back to work, when they protested, that resulted in some conflicts and even some German supervisors were beaten by the British. And the problem for the administration of those coal mines was that they practically had no tools in their hands to force the British to work faster. As an example, the director of coal mine in Jaworzno wished to organize a special punishment company for the British prisoners of war who didn’t want to work, but this plan was rejected by the administration of POW camp. So, the Germans wished to limit the limitation of food given to the worst workers or introduce some new measures, like prohibiting those who didn’t work to go to cinema. Of course, this didn’t work at all and after about two weeks, again, both directors of these companies from Jaworzno and Libiąż began to complain and asked the concentration camp in Auschwitz to replace British prisoners of war with prisoners of Auschwitz. In their eyes, we have certain positive consequences, because in their barracks, which were originally built for British, as it was the case for Libiąż, 300 British prisoners of war could be replaced by 900 prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp, which resulted in substantial saving of money for construction of new barracks by the company. In the result of number of meetings and after a visit to both of the sides by commander of Auschwitz Rudolf Höß, the decision was taken to send the prisoners of Auschwitz to Jaworzno, and later on also to Libiąż, that was in the late summer of 1943.

Hearing this case, the link between British POWs and prisoners of Auschwitz was indirect, because of attitude of the British, the company decided to move to the different kind of slave labor, and sub-camps of Auschwitz near the coal mines were created. A different situation is we look at the story of IG Farben plant near Auschwitz, because in this case we can see the presence of British POWs around the IG Farben factory, where prisoners of Auschwitz also worked.

Practically, it is difficult to find the reason why IG Farben decided to hire relatively large number of British prisoners of war, because at this time, the Auschwitz concentration camp seemed to be large enough to cover all the needs of IG Farben for slave labor. However, despite the practical fact, that there were about 80-90 thousand prisoners in Auschwitz at that moment, many of them were sick, could not work, they stayed in hospitals, many other worked in the camp or were used by the Bauleitung, the construction office of the camp to set up new barracks for the construction of new sectors of Birkenau camp and so on. So practically, IG Farben has a problem in acquiring large number of prisoners from Auschwitz, perhaps they also believed that British prisoners could be used for more complicated kinds of work, as they expected they could be, for instance bricklayers or something like that, while prisoners of Auschwitz were used for simple kinds of work, like digging foundations, levelling the ground, the construction of the streets, etc. So, these were probably the reasons why in September 1943 the first groups of British prisoners of war came to Auschwitz. They were British, but obviously not all, many of them represented different parts of British Empire, there were some POWs from New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, as well as some British Jews, who accidentally were among these British prisoners of war, and practically, they were the only Jews in Auschwitz that could feel relatively safe during the war, because still, the Germans considered them the POWs, who were protected by the provisions of Geneva Convention.

What can we say about the situation and life conditions of the British POWs at IG Farben?

The IG Farben built altogether eleven camps around their factory at Auschwitz-Monowitz for different categories of workers, including camp No. 4 for Auschwitz inmates, but there were also many people from practically all European countries: Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Bohemia, many so-called Ostarbeiters, Ukrainians, Russians and so on. Interestingly, when we look at population density of residents of these barracks, it clearly reflects the Nazi racial hierarchy, because, for instance, in the camp No. 1, built for German workers, where many German specialists and engineers were moved from other IG Farben plants to Auschwitz, many of them were supervisors, managers, foremen and so on, so they had around 8-9 square meters per person at their disposal. In the camps for French workers there were around 4 square meters, and practically, it was the same density in the barracks that were built for British prisoners of war, the camp was called Lager Nummer 8, which was situated about one kilometer from the factory, so if we look at the size of the barracks or windows, the living conditions were relatively good or comparable with the standard of living of French forced laborers. Workers from Poland and particularly, from Soviet Russia, had to live in the barracks where the standard of living was much worse. In the terms of nutrition, the situation of British prisoners of war was again similar to the other categories of forced laborers, they complained at the bread, they complained at the amount of chestnuts flour, that the quality of soup was unsatisfactory, nevertheless, the British had access to relatively rare goods, they could receive food parcels from the Red Cross, their families from Britain, and in this way, they had the good quality cigarettes, chocolate and such articles that were very rare and very precious at black market in the factory or at the construction site, so when they had cigarettes, they could exchange them for anything they wished, so in this way, the situation of British prisoners of war was much better than many other categories of workers, who were employed by IG Farben. We also know that British distributed some of these articles among the Polish workers and prisoners themselves, this was stressed in one of the reports written by one of the deputy directors of Mr. Faust, that the behavior of British prisoners of war cannot be accepted and that was also because of moral standards of German guards were far below satisfactory, that they distributed this food and cigarettes among the prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp, and something must be done in order to change this situation. Again, as in the case in the two previous camps in Jaworzno and Libiąż, the military administration of POW camp could not do much in order to increase discipline and productivity among the British prisoners of war. That was almost immediately when they were brought to Auschwitz, a delegation of British prisoners came to the Lagerführer, the head of the camp, they protested against this transfer, because they said that the Geneva Convention forbade employment of prisoners of war in military factories, and because IG Farben works was intended to produce petrol for German Luftwaffe, it was going to be a military factory. However, the Lagerfürher brought his pistol, put it on the desk and said, pointing to this pistol: “This is my Geneva Convention, and if you like, you can be sent to the work in the coal mines”, that was his reaction. Practically, the prisoners of war had to work there, IG Farben had a lot of problems with the discipline, the British who worked slow, or who disappeared somehow at the construction site for a long time, so nevertheless, because of lack of workers, IG Farben decided to keep the British prisoners of war until the very end, however, gradually, the number of the British POWs in Monowitz declined, from over 1200-1300 up to about 600 in the middle of 1944, the remaining prisoners of war were sent back to Lamsdorf or to the other construction sites in Blechhammer in Upper Silesia.

In some of the sources, we can even find photographs of British POWs in the Monowitz camp, and we can see them lined as a football team.

Thanks to the parcels of the Red Cross, they could receive quite normal, ordinary clothing for the football players, as visible in pictures, there were at least three different teams, there was the so-called soccer representation of England, Scotland and Wales. In the middle of 1944, British POWs were transferred from Camp No. 8 into a smaller Camp No. 6 called “Pulverturm”, so these photographs were taken at the moment of their transfer.

What do we know about the nature of contacts between British POWs at Monowitz and the concentration camp prisoners?

This new camp was situated very close to the camp for Auschwitz inmates, so the British could see from the very close distance, what was going on there. Also, they could watch working places on the construction site, where the prisoners were beaten, sometimes even murdered by the guards, so they knew what was going on there, and they tried to do something in order to help the prisoners, for example, we know it from the testimonies by prisoners themselves and testimonies of British prisoners of war, who became very valuable witnesses during the Nuremberg Trials after the war, during the Trial of IG Farben, for instance. But we also know it from the reports by the SS, in which we can read that some prisoners were walking among the British prisoners of war, and they were begging for food, or they had some food or soup that was stolen from the British prisoners of war. However, on the other hand, we know from the testimonies, that these articles were not actually stole, but the British willingly offered their food to the prisoners, because, in most instances, they were not hungry, or they did not want to eat this awful soup that was given to them. So, thanks to the British prisoners of war, perhaps some prisoners managed to survive.

It seems that the conditions for British POWs, despite that they were guarded, and despite that they had to do rather harsh slave labor, was, we can say, bearable, especially when we compare it to the conditions of some slave laborers and the concentration camp prisoners, who were at the lowest part of this hierarchy of workers. Were there any victims among the British prisoners, who worked at Monowitz?

We know that only one British prisoner of war was shot by the German guard, because he expressed kind of resistance against the orders given by the guard, but much more victims were the result of American bombing raid on Monowitz factory in August 1944. The problem was that British prisoners could not enter the air raid shelters, that were practically kept only for the German members of the staff, and one bomb exploded, unfortunately, directly among the group of British prisoners, and 39 of them were killed, the bodies were buried at the local cemetery in the city of Oświęcim.

You mentioned that the British POWs were eyewitnesses of brutal treatment by the SS towards the prisoners of Auschwitz, that their camp was located very close to the Auschwitz-III Monowitz camp. Do we know what they knew about the nature of Auschwitz in general, what they knew about the extermination activity going on there? Are there any sources, the testimonies of British POWs about that part of Auschwitz story, because one thing should be clear to our listeners, that we use “British POWs at Auschwitz”, meaning the town of Auschwitz, the name of the concentration camp is simply the same, it is important to know that those British prisoners of war were not prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp, but they were the prisoners of the POW camp, they simply stayed close to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In terms of legal procedures, that were implemented after the war against the war criminals, the members of the SS, but also the managers of IG Farben, the British prisoners of war represented the very particular group, that was from other categories of witnesses, because they were British, they were relatively safe in the camp and at the working places, however they could see almost everything that was going on at the construction site with their eyes, very closely, and as much as practically all other residents of Oświęcim during the war, they knew what was going on at the other bank of the Soła river, because they could see the camp from the very close distance, about 5 kilometers, the flames and the smoke of Birkenau, they could talk from time to time, despite it being forbidden, with prisoners, particularly Jews, who have lost all members of their families after the selection at the ramp at Birkenau, so they knew what was going on in Auschwitz, they tried to inform the representatives of Red Cross about it, that was rather late, in the second half of 1944, when those British had such an opportunity and that was the time, when the Western Allies perfectly knew, what was going on in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nevertheless, their testimonies during the trials of war criminals after the war were considered very valuable, and they were good in terms of historical accuracy.

Something that is very paradoxical in this story is the presence of Jewish-British POWs, both in Jaworzno and Libiąż, and you also mentioned a small group of Jews in Monowitz, while the Third Reich is doing everything to exterminate Jewish people and those British Jews, because of the legal protection, were excluded from Nazi plans, and I think it is something very paradoxical, that few kilometers away, there are people, who by Nazi ideology are Jews and are considered as the enemy of ,,Aryan people” in their ideology, but they cannot do much about it. Did they tried to do something about it?

As we know, particularly in the case of these two groups of Jewish-British prisoners of war in Jaworzno and Libiąż, Germans, who were not members of the SS, but the guards from the staff of the Lamsdorf camp, the members of the German army, of the so-called Fusiliers, but there were also security guards at the coal mines of the so-called auxiliary security guards, these were the German civilians, who has received a number of rifles and ammunition, and their task was to guard the prisoners in the coal mines, so the places, where they work. So, they clearly tried to treat the British Jews worse than it was the case of ordinary, non-Jewish British prisoners. More or less at the same time, the administration of German POW camps attempted to isolate British Jews from the rest of the prisoners and keep them separately to send them to some separate camps, nevertheless, British protested against it, and British government warned the Germans, that if they try to do so, the British military administration of the German POW camps would do the same with the Germans, so that was why until the very end of the war, British Jews in the British uniforms in Germany were left alone, and were not persecuted in any particular way.

What was the story of these camps at the end of the war? The change in Jaworzno and Libiąż and the resignation from the work of British POWs didn’t end the presence of the British in this environment, however it was much smaller, and, of course, the camp at Monowitz functioned until the liberation of Auschwitz.

That was also the case of the camp in Jaworzno, where the small group of British prisoners of war stayed until January 1945, and that was also the case of the prisoners in Monowitz, over 500 of them, who still stayed in Oświęcim, they were evacuated on foot to the camps located in the middle part of the country.