Auschwitz I - Block 11
Description
A file of documents entitled Files of Block 11 contains 2,177 files of prisoners – men who stayed in block 11 of the Auschwitz I parent camp. The Files of Block 11 were kept by the block recorder. From January 9, 1941 to February 11, 1942 the position was held by Franciszek Brol (no. 1159). The function was then taken by Gerard Włoch (no. 7677), who continued to fill in the files of block 11’s prisoners from February 12, 1942 to December 20, 1942. The Files of Block 11 contain, among other things, the data of prisoners who were moved to the penalty company, those located in the bunker, those at the leaving quarantine or those located in the transport room. The file also contains the files of prisoners shot at the Death Wall.
Such files were kept for all prisoners registered in the camp. They were kept and stored in the block recorder’s office belonging to the block in which a given prisoner was staying at that time.
The Files of Block 11 were kept on printed forms (format: 10.5x15 cm), containing the prisoner’s basic data, mainly: full name (“Zu. u. Vorname” – Zuname und Vorname), camp number (“Nr.” – Nummer), the column of the danger type (“Gef. Art”) contained the nationality, date of birth (“Geb. Datum” – Geburtsdatum) and place of birth (“Geb. Ort” – Geburtsort), profession, block from which that prisoner came (“Block”), and the full name and address of the person to whom mail was sent (“Bevorzugte Post”). In some cases the recorder provided also: the kommando in which that prisoner used to work (“Arbeitskommando”), remarks column (“Bemerkungen”) containing the date of the prisoner’s admission to block 11 and location within block 11, e.g. the penalty company, quarantine for those leaving, camp arrest, and transport room, where prisoners were transferred to another camp.
Some of the files have the top corner of their first page highlighted with a coloured pencil. A coloured triangle created in that manner is of the same colour of the triangle (corner) worn on the striped camp clothing beside the prisoner’s number. Particular triangle colours refer to respective prisoners’ categories, e.g.: red – political prisoner, black – anti-social prisoner, green – criminal prisoner, etc.
Moreover, the recorder in squared tables marked with a diagonal line the number of incoming (“E” – Eingang) and outgoing (“A” – Ausgang) letters sent by the prisoner.
Most pages in the files are made by the recorder in handwriting, with a pen or pencil, the remaining are filled in with a typewriter.
Creation
The files of Block 11 refer to prisoners of different nationality brought to the camp between May 20, 1940 and November 30, 1942.
Having analysed all the files, it has been established that the recorder of block 11 made the first entries to the files on January 31, 1941. The last entries are dated December 10, 1942. That means that the Files of Block 11 constitute just a minor fragment of all the files created by the camp offices.
Preservation
The Files of Block 11 were found in the attic of block 11 in the parent camp by the members of the Chief Commission for Investigating German Crimes in Poland, Jan Sehn and Edward Pęchalski, during a visit to the ex-concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The statement of ex prisoner Otto Wolken (no. 128828) suggests that the prisoners mentioned in the files stayed in block 11 and were not transferred from it to any other block. Most of them died in block 11 or in the penalty company, some were transferred to other camps or prisons, several were released from KL Auschwitz. Therefore the files of those prisoners became invalid and were put away in the attic or were hidden there on purpose.
In 1962 the Chief Commission for Investigating German Crimes in Poland forwarded the Files of Block 11 to the Archive of the National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim.
Database: “Block 11”
The Digital Repository of the Museum scanned the Files of Block 11 and made a database out of it entitled “Blok 11” containing 2,195 personal records. Having entered the data from the Files, individual record were combined with visual material. Then the data of each prisoner were completed with personal data contained in other databases and source documents, stories, memories and surveys of ex-prisoners kept in the Archive. This allowed for the retracing and investigating of the life of each prisoner recorded in that source the creation of their biography.
The “Blok 11” database developed as described above was incorporated into the Central Register of Prisoners kept by the Digital Repository of the National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
