Auschwitz II - Block 22b
Description
In the Book of Block 22B female prisoners residing in barrack 22 in sector BIb of the women’s camp in Birkenau were recorded alphabetically.
On 24 November 1944 the prisoners from the women’s camp, located in sectors BIb and BIa in Birkenau were transferred in the following way: those who were healthy went to sector BIIb (the former family camp for Jews from Terezin), the sick ones to BIIe (the former family camp for Gypsies), and some to the extension of the camp (Lagererweiterung) in Auschwitz. Probably most of the prisoners from block 22, recorded in the Book of Block 22, were transferred to the block in sector BIIb. Some ended up in the hospital in section BIIe. Some were placed in KL Auschwitz.
The record of block 22 in women’s camp was kept by a female prisoner of an unknown name, employed as a recorder of this block.
The writer recorded the names of the Block’s 22 prisoners in a notebook of A4 size. The document in question is bound in hard covers. In the middle of the first page there is an inscription “Blockbuch” and then “Block 22.B” below. The next pages of the Book of Block 22 include columns drawn by hand, in which Schreiberka (the female writer) entered the following information: the camp number (“Numer” – Nummer), nationality (“Nat.” – Nationalität), name and surname (“Name”), date of birth (“Dat.” – Datum), remarks (“Bem.” – Bemerkungen).
In many entries there is a triangle (a wedge) drawn next to the information about nationality, the colour of which corresponds to the colour of the triangle worn on the striped uniform next to the camp number. The separate colours represent corresponding prisoner categories, e.g. red – political prisoner, black – antisocial prisoner, green – criminal prisoner. The last column, “Remarks”, contains the date and place of the transfer from block 22. The writer noted there, for example, the prisoner’s transfer to the penal unit (SK).
The 92-page Book of Block 22B was kept in an alphabetical order. To make the search for a particular name easier, a piece of paper with a letter on it was glued at the edge of every page.
Creation
The Record Book of Block 22 was kept between 29 September 1944 and 17 January 1945. It contains 1637 entries about the female prisoners of various nationalities, brought to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau in the period between 26 March 1942 and November 1944.
Preservation
Eugeniusz Nosal (no. 693), an inhabitant of Oświęcim, contributed to the preservation of the document. On 16 May 1945 he handed the Book of Block 22B to the District Commission to Investigate Nazi Crimes in Cracow. Then it was handed over to the Main Commission to Investigate Nazi Crimes in Warsaw, from where in August 1970 it was borrowed by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim in order to make microfilms. Eventually the archives of the Museum were enriched by this document on 2 July 1971.
Database: “Block 22B”
The original entries in the Book of Block 22B were used to develop in the Digital Repository the database of “Block 22B”, which was established in 2000. This database contains 1637 personal records of the female prisoners, who were included in the Central Register of Prisoners kept by the Digital Repository of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
