The Forgotten Camp: Auschwitz III-Monowitz

Auschwitz III-Monowitz was one of the biggest sub-camps of KL Auschwitz (also included in KL Auschwitz was Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and dozens of subcamps). The camp was established by Nazi Germany in October 1942 at the request of IG Farben executives to provide slave labor for their Buna Werke (Buna Works) industrial complex.

IG Farben was a German chemical and pharmaceutical multi-industry company that used the slave labor provided by Auschwitz III-Monowitz to manufacture synthetic rubber and liquid fuels. Monowitz held over 11,000 prisoners, the great majority of whom were Jews, in addition to non-Jewish criminals and political prisoners. Thousands would die in the camp itself as a result of forced labor and the inhospitable conditions; thousands more would be gassed at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

On January 18, 1945, all prisoners in Monowitz whom the Nazis deemed healthy enough to walk were evacuated from the camp and sent on a death march to a subcamp near the Czech border. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army of the Soviet Union liberated Auschwitz III-Monowitz, freeing the remaining prisoners of the camp. Among those who survived Auschwitz III-Monowitz were Primo Levi, author of If This Is a Man (1947), and Elie Wiesel, author of Night (1960), who was a teenage inmate there along with his father.

The video below is part of an interview given by a survivor of Auschwitz III-Monowitz, Herman Gottesman, where he describes forced labor, terrible living conditions, and lack of food in Monowitz.

(Video provided by USC Shoah Foundation)