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The People of Goleszów Remember the Prisoners of Golleschau, an Auschwitz Sub-Camp

January 23, Bielsko-Biała (PAP) Thanks to the efforts of the local government in Goleszów, in the Cieszyń Silesia region of Poland, a memorial chamber dedicated to the prisoners of the Auschwitz-Golleschau sub-camp will be opened, along with an educational trail. Preliminary work is underway. PAP has learned from staff members at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Goleszów local government that the opening is scheduled for May.

Paweł Stanieczek of Goleszów Commune said that two rooms in the local cultural center will be turned into a memorial chamber containing objects associated with the prisoners. Igor Bartosik, head of the collections department at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, pledged to supply original furnishings from prisoner blocks, including bunks.

The memorial chamber will also contain photographs documenting the prisoners’ life and work, the help they received from local civilians, and the resistance movement. Exhibits will include photographs of five murals that Auschwitz prisoners painted during the war on the walls of the Goleszów cement factory, now closed. The murals were removed in 2000 and added to the collections at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

They were painted by a French Jew, Jean Bartichand, who was deported from the Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz. Drawn in charcoal, the murals depict slave labor at the cement factory and quarry in the Golleschau sub-camp.

Paweł Stanieczek said that, in addition to the memorial chamber, there will also be an educational trail on the grounds of the cement factory and the quarry.

Golleschau sub-camp was opened in July 1942 at a cement factory belonging to Ostdeutsche Baustoffwerke GmbH - Golleschauer Portland Zemment AG. At its peak, in October 1944, it held 1,059 prisoners, of whom 1,008 were Jews. Some of them performed slave labor in the factory and nearby quarries. The sub-camp was liquidated on January 18-21, 1945.