Near Oświęcim, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
Built by
IG Farben
Operated by
Schutzstaffel
Commandant
Heinrich Schwarz
Original use
Factories for producing synthetic rubber and chemicals including Zyklon B
First built
October 1942
Operational
October 1942 – January 1945
Inmates
Mainly Jews
Number of inmates
Around 12,000
Killed
2,500
Liberated by
Red Army on 27 January 1945[1]
Notable inmates
Primo Levi, Victor Perez, Elie Wiesel, Fritz Löhner-Beda
Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (Arbeitslager) run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust.[2] For most of its existence, Monowitz was a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp; from November 1943 it and other Nazi subcamps in the area were jointly known as "Auschwitz III-subcamps" (KL Auschwitz III-Aussenlager). In November 1944 the Germans renamed it Monowitz concentration camp,[3] after the village of Monowice (German: Monowitz) where it was built, in the annexed portion of Poland. SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Heinrich Schwarz was commandant from November 1943 to January 1945.
The SS established the camp in October 1942 at the behest of IG Farben executives to provide slave labor for their Buna Werke (Buna Works) industrial complex. The name Buna was derived from the butadiene-based synthetic rubber and the chemical symbol for sodium (Na), a process of synthetic rubber production developed in Germany. Other German industrial enterprises built factories with their own subcamps, such as Siemens-Schuckert's Bobrek subcamp, close to Monowitz, to profit from the use of slave labor. The German armaments manufacturer Krupp, headed by SS member Alfried Krupp, also built their own manufacturing facilities near Monowitz.[4]
Monowitz held around 12,000 prisoners, the great majority of whom were Jews, in addition to non-Jewish criminals and political prisoners. The SS charged IG Farben three Reichsmarks (RM) per day for unskilled workers, four (RM) per hour for skilled workers, and one and one-half (RM) for children. The camp contained an "Arbeitsausbildungslager" (labor education camp) for non-Jewish prisoners viewed as not up to par with German work standards. The life expectancy of Jewish workers at Buna Werke was three to four months; for those working in the outlying mines, only one month. Those deemed unfit for work were gassed at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.[5][6][7]
Primo Levi, author of If This Is a Man (1947), survived Monowitz, as did Elie Wiesel, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Night (1960), who was a teenage inmate there along with his father.
^"Timeline for I.G. Farben and the Buna/Monowitz Concentration Camp". Wollheim Memorial. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
^"Auschwitz III-Monowitz". Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
^Cite error: The named reference Lasik2000p151 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Synthetic Rubber: A Project That Had to Succeed (Contributions in Economics and Economic History) by Vernon Herbert & Attilio Bisio.Publisher: Greenwood Press (11 December 1985) Language: English ISBN 0313246343 ISBN 978-0313246340
^Anatomy of the Auschwitz death camp by Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum. Indiana University Press (1998). ISBN 025320884X, ISBN 978-0253208842.
^Night by Elie Wiesel. Bantam (1 March 1982). ISBN 0553272535, ISBN 978-0553272536.
^The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton. Basic Books (August 2000). ISBN 0465049052, ISBN 978-0465049059.
and 24 Related for: Monowitz concentration camp information
Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentrationcamp and labor camp (Arbeitslager) run by Nazi Germany in occupied...
Schmaltz, Florian (2009). "Monowitz". In Megargee, Geoffrey P. (ed.). Early Camps, Youth Camps, and ConcentrationCamps and Subcamps under the SS-Business...
subcamp of Monowitzconcentrationcamp located in or near Bobrek, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, and was part of the Auschwitz concentrationcamp complex...
against humanity for his use of slave labor from the Auschwitz III–Monowitzconcentrationcamp. In 1948 he was sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment, but released...
camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp...
an SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and concentrationcamp officer who served as commandant of Auschwitz III-Monowitz in Nazi-occupied Poland and Natzweiler-Struthof...
part of Germany until 1945, was placed under the command of Monowitzconcentrationcamp. Blechhammer, which had initially about 3,000 male and 200 female...
became the most notorious of the camps. Auschwitz III, or Monowitz, was a labour camp. In addition to the three largest camps, Auschwitz consisted of several...
of IG Farben AG. He was involved in the planning of Monowitzconcentrationcamp, a satellite camp of KZ Auschwitz. Fritz ter Meer was sentenced to seven...
built in Nazi concentrationcamps, most notably in the Monowitzconcentrationcamp (known as Auschwitz III), part of the Auschwitz camp complex in German-occupied...
of a Nazi concentrationcamp. He held the highest rank and was the most important member of the camp unit. The commandant directed the camp headquarters...
Gross-Rosen concentrationcamp, the number of subcamps was 97. The Auschwitz camp complex (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz) had...
in the exploitation of enslaved laborers and for testing drugs on concentrationcamp prisoners. 1951 — Hoechst AG was re-founded on December 7 in Frankfurt...
guard company at Auschwitz main camp, then later the one at Monowitzconcentrationcamp from August to October 1944. During his time at Auschwitz, Kollmer...
tonnes of the 729 tonnes sold in Germany in 1942–44 were sold to concentrationcamps, amounting to about 8 percent of domestic sales. Auschwitz received...
rubber) plant—known as Monowitz Buna Werke (or Buna)—near the Monowitzconcentrationcamp, part of the Auschwitz concentrationcamp complex in German-occupied...
houses, hospitals, fields, concentrationcamps and purpose-built extermination camps. The six major extermination camps and eight major euthanasia extermination...
SS-Oberstgruppenführer in 1944. Heinrich Schwarz – Commandant of Auschwitz III-Monowitzconcentrationcamp from 1943 to 1945. Franz Schwede – The first Nazi elected as...
the German Luftwaffe staffed dozens of concentrationcamps, and posted its soldiers as guards at many others. Camps created for the exploitation of forced...
and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) with thousands of prisoners each, the number of satellite camps was 48. Stutthof concentrationcamp had 40 subcamps officially...
enslavement and deportation to slave labor on a gigantic scale of concentrationcamp inmates and civilians in occupied countries, and of prisoners of war...
time, from forced ("unfree") labour provided through governmental concentrationcamps. BASF (leader of the chemical industry of the IG Farben) built a...
Memorial Official website with commemoration for victims of Buna-Monowitzconcentrationcamp. Retrieved April 18, 2010 The Friends of the Sachsenhausen Memorial...
Polyurethane Prontosil Resochin Zyklon B People Other American IG Buna Werke IG Farben Building IG Farben Trial Monowitzconcentrationcamp Category Commons...
Global Information
