Bizarre image-the billboard advertising on the SS tower......very weird and surreal.
Bizarre image-the billboard advertising on the SS tower......very weird and surreal.
William
"Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."
Hi Carl , another detailed thread that just goes to highlight once again the vast size of the Auschwitz complex and it's sub-camps. It is a horrifying thought that this huge establishment is only one of thousands of camps throughout the Third Reich. Leon.
Located nearly two miles away from the memorial shown earlier in the thread, which serves to commemorate the entire Buna Werke zone and particularly, those who died and suffered within it, is the much smaller Monowitz memorial. This marker, standing on the site of the former camp known as Monowitz, is easily missed as it is tucked away down what is now a side street off the main Fabryczna road.
Also pictured below is a former SS shelter - note the block in front of the entry point, designed to shield shrapnel from falling bombs, and a view down the road that ran through the camp itself.
Carl
camp road...
Private property located on the grounds of the former Häftlingsküche, largest of all structures at the Monowitz camp.
Evening Carl, as I recall when we tried to see some of the towers and shelters from the Monowitz area that you had previously seen, we found that they had recently been destroyed/demolished! Is there still a lot of destruction of history going on around Auschwitz or are the authorities changing their stance? Leon.
Hi Leon,
To the best of my knowledge, the museum does not own much of the land/area and the Polish government does not/has not seen fit to maintain the few remaining structures directly related to the Monowitz camp. Remember too that we are talking about a vast area - you know, as you have been there, but to those who have not, consider that the boundary around the huge industrial zone at Auschwitz-III stretches for miles along both sides. Numerous camps were erected to supply the considerable workforce required to not only perform the slave labour within the facilities but also to maintain and improve/develop the site over the time it was in operation.
A number of period sections of the outer walls, many original factory buildings/installations and such are still extent at the industrial area today, yet little of the actual satellite camps that covered much of the immediate vicinity exists today, save for some period fence posts, barracks foundations, a few structures such as the Monowitz smithy/workshop and numerous SS shelters. One can only hope that the reminders are not removed yet, as ever with materials related to these former sites of terror that fall outside of the museum direction, only time will tell...
Carl
Also, when we stopped during our recent study trip - at the exact spot where we paused for photographs when you visited, the first thing I said was "well, that's new..." - a new private concern appear to have opened facilities very near or even directly on the site where Lager-VI "Pulverturm" once stood - this was the closest of the satellite camps to Monowitz and although far from one of the largest in terms of its dimensions among the satellites located around the industrial area, it still measured several hundred metres in length and had around twenty-five purpose built barracks/structures.
Carl
Below is an attachment showing the location of the Monowitz and Lager-VI Pulverturm camps in relation to each other and also, the vast Buna complex. Red and yellow outlines mark the camp boundaries, although the Monowitz camp was expanded later, yet unfinished.
Carl
There are all kinds of military installations around that place . . . I stopped counting, after finding more than three or four in one day - just driving around with our eyes open. Here are two more "bunkers" to add to your post:
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