Auschwitz I - Block 11 - memories

Prisoners of the penalty company that initially stayed on the first floor of block 3a were transferred to block 11. I remember that very well since I was also in the penalty company (Strafkompanie – SK) for 6 weeks. As SK prisoners we had to wear an additional mark in the form of black circles. (…) Prisoners in the penalty company, where all the Jews and priests were kept, as well as other prisoners sentenced for any violations, worked at rolling of a huge square located in the middle of the camp. There were approximately 40 of us. We dragged a huge road roller with two drawbars equipped with horizontal bars. Two prisoners held each bar. We had to drag the road roller running all day long, with one break for dinner lasting half an hour. The camp foreman was the famous Krankenmann, (…) a pathological person, bullying the prisoners, particularly the Polish ones, not to mention the Jews. He was terribly cruel to the latter.

Erwin Olszówka (no. 1141)

After about two weeks the penalty company was transferred to block 11. We were located on the ground floor in the last room on the left side of the corridor if you enter from block 28. The windows in the room were on the side of the square between blocks 11 and 10. The windows were boarded up. (…) There were no wooden cots in our room so we slept on straw mattresses. They were piled up during the day. At night we were brought two buckets for physiological needs, As soon as we were transferred to block 11 we were assigned to a German criminal prisoner named Krankenmann. He was also the Blockältester. Krankenmann was a sadist and abused the prisoners on all occasions. (…)

During my stay in the penalty company I did various jobs, I was mainly employed to level and plant the assembly square. At that time, that is in the second half of 1940, the assembly square was located at the old horse riding school. Then 8 blocks were built on that area. (…) I worked with the penalty company at the iron roller with two drawbars, dragged by more than 20 prisoners. The roll diameter was more than 160 cm I guess. We worked fast - running. (…) One day, Arbeitsdienst Otto Küsel suggested that we pour out the water with which the roller was filled. The roller became lighter and our work was easier. Unfortunately Krankenman found out about our trick and organised sports and made us pour the water back in as a penalty. I also worked outside the camp, within the old Tobacco Monopoly, demolishing bungalows and recovering the mortar from the bricks. I also worked at gravel mining from the Soła river and transporting it in wheelbarrows somewhere near Theatergebäude. We worked while running. (…)

Mortality in the penalty company was very high. Particularly many prisoners died during work. Some of them were murdered by Krankenmann personally. I think that during my stay in SK until December 1940 approximately 180 people died. The dead ones were replaced by new prisoners. Several or around a dozen new people were assigned to the penalty company, many Jews except for Poles.

Czesław Bartys (no. 710)

At the end of November, one evening, the names of engineer Walczyna and mine were called after we came back to the block from work. We were both transferred to one of the rooms on the first floor of block 11. It turned out we were located at the so called leaving quarantine. But our mates quickly made us aware of the fact that after the quarantine there are two options possible: either we are actually released from the camp or we are transferred to the prison. The quarantine was supposed to last 21 days, We ended our quarantine on December 11, 1942.

The quarantine didn’t mean that we could do nothing, since we had to work along with the penalty company prisoners removing rushes from the fish ponds. (…)

Those who were supposed to be released were not shaved any more. (…) On the day of release we received a bowl of soup and dry rations from the kitchen. Then we signed a document promising that we would keep secret what we went through in the camp. As concerns me and Antoni Walczyna it turned out that we were transferred to Lublin prison because the municipal authorities intervened for us. We learned that from our families after we were released from the prison. As professionals we were simply needed, and my family additionally reached the manager of the Lublin Landamt, a person named Weiss, who was probably bribed. And thanks to his intervention we were both released.

Józef Malison (no. 14705)

During my stay at the KL Auschwitz I parent camp I heard from my mates that Jewish prisoners from the Sonderkommando were staying in block 11. It was in 1942 or 1943 I guess. I suppose that they might have meant prisoners employed as heating operators (Heizer) at the camp crematorium active at the parent camp. (…) Those prisoners slept in block 11. They were probably located on the first floor. There were rumors that the mentioned Sonderkommando prisoners were transported by the SS officers to some place near Oświęcim, I suppose it was Żywiec and Sucha, where public hangings were performed.

Kazimierz Smoleń (no. 1327)