Those Who Died in the Buna/Monowitz Concentration Camp
In the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp, at the I.G. Auschwitz construction site, and in the gas chambers of Birkenau, 25,000 to 30,000 prisoners perished, all of whom had previously been used as forced laborers by I.G. Farben in Auschwitz. We have no information about many of them; we know neither how they lived in the camp nor what the circumstances of their deaths were. For some who died in Buna/Monowitz, clues are provided by the recollections of surviving comrades who bear witness to their death. On that basis, we would like to list here the few names and facts of death that are known to the Norbert Wollheim Memorial at this time, allowing them to represent the many unknown victims. Expansion of this list is of major importance.
The SS kept an exact register of the ill and weak who were transported from the prisoner infirmary (HKB, Häftlingskrankenbau) of the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp to the Auschwitz I or II (Birkenau) concentration camps. Among the prisoners, it was common knowledge that these inmates in most cases were promptly murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau; only in rare instances were people from these transports saved from such a death by chance or by great good luck. Some of these so-called transfer lists (Überstellungslisten) of the Monowitz HKB (from January 1943 to December 1944) are published here: in memory of those who are no longer known to anyone, and of whom no one speaks. Often the names and dates can be deciphered only with difficulty, owing to the circumstances in which these “transfer lists” were created and the time that has elapsed since then.
The list is incomplete because of the gaps in the documents passed down to us, and it needs to be expanded. We will be happy to add information about prisoners who perished or were murdered in the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp. Please contact us by e-mail.
(SP; transl. KL)