A few recollections of the prisoners’ hospital at Gross-Rosen

The author of this handwritten text, which appeared after his death, was a distinguished physician and social activist. His text has been edited by S. Kłodziński (see Przegląd Lekarski, 1968: 270-271). The title and additions in square brackets come from the editor. The content of Żegleń’s text has been verified by Gross-Rosen survivor Roman Olszyna, camp no. 2608 [original Polish Editor’s note].

I arrived in Gross-Rosen in a transport from Auschwitz on December 24, 1941 and received camp number 1486, although at the time there were just about 700-750 prisoners in the camp [they all had lower numbers]. The Gross-Rosen camp had been set up in May 1941.¹ Its commandant was Anton Thumann,² a cruel tyrant, who held this post till February 1943. He imposed a monstrous regime of discipline in the camp, and this was the reason for the drastic decrease in the number of inmates within just a few months.

At that time, there were very few Poles in the camp; most of the prisoners were green triangle³ German criminals, or anti-social prisoners and sexual perverts.⁴ They took up all the top jobs in the camp’s services, and as kapos and their assistants in the prisoners’ barracks. This lasted until the evacuation of the camp on February 10, 1945. Only a small number of Polish, Czech, or Russian inmates were later allowed to hold some offices in the camp. These German criminals were responsible for numerous atrocities against other prisoners, since the more crimes they committed, the greater their value for the camp authorities and SS-men. In Gross-Rosen, there was also a relatively small group of Dutch, Jewish and Czech inmates. But their number grew as more transports arrived. . . .

Starting from the spring of 1942, there were transports from other concentration camps, mainly from Auschwitz, so the number of Polish inmates was constantly rising. Moreover, a lot of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners arrived, and by 1943 Gross-Rosen comprised 22 barracks. Altogether, there were ten thousand prisoners [in the main camp and subcamps]. The numbers rose even more in 1944 as new transports with French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian prisoners and other nationals came, though there were not so many of these. They were assigned to work commandos in the munitions industry located in the vicinity of the camp. There were about 80 commandos⁵ and over eighty thousand prisoners. This figure was accounted for by prisoners sent to Gross-Rosen after Majdanek and Plaszow [in Kraków] had been evacuated and closed down in 1944.

New prisoners who arrived in Gross-Rosen in 1942-43 faced a real ordeal: they were beaten and harassed by sadistic German functionaries and SS-men; this was to show them what their lives in the camp would be like. [In particular,] prisoners were beaten during their bath in a large water tank [which could hold] about 10 people [at the same time]. The water was not changed until all the prisoners in the transport had been “bathed.” Baths of this type were conducted in 1942 and early 1943, as in mid-1943 a bathhouse equipped with showers was opened. In the next years, although officially the camp authorities put a ban on violence against prisoners, functionaries continued to beat prisoners but perhaps [not so intensively].

. . . At first, we slept on mattresses stuffed with sawdust. [The mattresses were put] on the floor and folded up for the day. Three-tier bunks were installed in the barracks in mid-1942, and there were straw mattresses on these beds. But there was only one blanket for each bunk. Prisoners from the entire block had to wash in a trough and share towels. These terrible camp conditions led to a trachoma epidemic in the spring of 1943; [over] 1,200 prisoners went down with it. The epidemic raged till the end of 1944.⁶

 The trachoma epidemic made the camp authorities install running water in washrooms and distribute a towel and a bar of soap to each of the prisoners.

Initially, there was only one cesspit serving as a toilet for the whole camp. But in mid-1942, English water closets and a water supply system were installed in the barracks. Earlier, there were outdoor slop buckets outside the barracks and inmates could use them during the night, going out barefoot both in winter and summer.

In 1942, prisoners got black “coffee,” sometimes with a little sugar for breakfast. Their midday meal consisted of soup made from frozen and rotten swedes, until the kitchen ran out of them. Some potatoes, and sometimes small portions of meat and margarine, were added to the soup. In spring, we had beetroot leaves, kohlrabi [leaves], nettles, again with potatoes, for our midday meal; supper consisted of 250 grams of bread and [watery] soup or coffee. Sunday “dinner” was a very diluted pea soup, which hungry inmates were looking forward to the whole week. The situation improved slightly in July 1942; prisoners were given “elevenses” and “afternoon tea” consisting of a slice of bread with margarine and a small piece of sausage. There was half an hour’s break for this meal, which could have been beneficial for prisoners if it were not “organized.”⁷ The inmates who distributed these rations “helped themselves” and their companions to the food, without sharing it out fairly to all the prisoners. In addition, the SS-men, other functionaries, and the “big-shots” in the particular work commandos could eat their fill. The same held for the camp kitchen. The German cooks took the food rations, especially margarine, meat and sausage allocated for all the prisoners, and distributed it to their countrymen. Every day, the kitchen was told how many prisoners there were in the camp and what the food ration per prisoner should be, but this was just a formality. The mortality rate was very high due to severe malnutrition.

The next camp commandant, Ernsberger,⁸ who arrived in February 1943, came down heavily on the swindlers and the food rations were slightly better. Sick inmates received “dietary” soup. Moreover, from the fourth quarter of 1942 on, prisoners were allowed to receive food parcels⁹ from their families, which made a significant contribution to saving hungry and emaciated forced laborers from starvation since the lucky inmates who received parcels gave their camp food rations away to their fellow inmates, even though usually they were selfish and did not want to share the food they got from home, but it still meant a lot in the camp conditions. Nonetheless, Polish prisoners were exemplary when it came to this form of solidarity (sharing food parcels).

Prisoners worked extremely hard, also because the rate at which work had to be done was set by the overseers, most of whom were German and forced prisoners to work faster by beating them with sticks. Many prisoners were so exhausted shoveling earth or carrying stones that they dropped dead. Every kapo or foreman wanted to be seen as a zealous and effective leader. The hardest work was in the stone quarry, on the sewers, or leveling the camp precincts. [Anyway,] every job in the camp was extremely heavy because hungry “slaves” had no strength but were forced to work until they dropped, and this was true especially from 1942 more or less until mid-1943. Later, the rate at which work had to be done relaxed. . . . Every prisoner was scared of being beaten and that made him work harder. Prisoners were hit in the face; functionaries devised various fancy forms of harassment, for example hard labor under strict supervision. In 1944, the official ban on violence made the fate of these slaves a little bit more bearable.

Here’s an example from the Breslau-Lissa commando. In mid-August 1942, one hundred and fifty prisoners including myself, were sent to complete the construction of four large SS barracks and level the ground surface of this sub-camp. Of these 150, only 17 survived to March 13, 1943. Later, another 150 prisoners were sent in. Before my return to Gross-Rosen main camp, [March 13, 1943] the abuses in the subcamp were dreadful: violence, hunger, and repressions if an attempt to escape occurred or was suspected. Hardly a week passed without four or five prisoners committing suicide by going on the Postenkette (electric fence surrounding the construction site). A well-aimed shot could save the prisoner from the torment of this abominable subcamp. Of course, shortages of manpower were replaced as soon as the corpses were sent off to the crematorium. In this subcamp, death claimed at least three times [more prisoners than] the total number of prisoners in the main camp.

Ecce 432. Artwork by Marian Kołodziej. Photo by Piotr Markowski. Click the image to enlarge.

Here’s another incident: we stopped working because a prisoner had escaped. We were all assembled in the square, and next to us 8-10 very emaciated POWs were ordered to lie down on the ground. The German staff began furiously trampling these POWs; the rest of us were tormented by having to keep running around the barrack for several hours. . . . Indeed, every prisoner was a slave, and no SS man ever thought of treating prisoners in a humane manner. . . . Every [SS man, kapo, block leader, and supervisor] had some kind of weapon, usually a long, thick stick, and he made full use of it, without restraint, though perhaps less severely after beating prisoners was officially banned. I saw prisoners being murdered in the quarry, where [the torturers] took the victims and ordered them to lie on piles of planks and beat them mercilessly; then they made them go up to the row of sentry towers that surrounded the camp or workplace, [where] a shot put an end to their torment. . . . The repressions [usually] affected individual prisoners or a group of prisoners at work or in a particular barrack. A severe regime of discipline [was imposed] for the entire time of the camp’s operations. A minor misdemeanor or fault was punished with disciplinary measures: the “culprit” was beaten up or sent to the penal commando or Sonderkommando (special commando) supervised by Kurt Vogel, which meant a slow death of starvation.

In the first three quarters of 1942, there was no medical care. The “doctors” were cut-throats Herman¹⁰ Lösche and Franz Grabowski (both now dead); Lösche was a hospital kapo and Grabowski was a male nurse; there were a few other German nurses. Dr Kazimierz Hałgas and I were in the POW camp . . . till June 1942, when we and the POWs were moved to the main camp and assigned to work in the Gross-Rosen quarry.

After the morning roll call, Lagerführer Anton Thumann inspected the sick inmates. First, he beat up and kicked emaciated inmates and then sent them to work in the commandos. He admitted only those to the prisoners’ hospital who had phlegmons or serious injuries. His period in office, which lasted until February 1943, was the hardest time, when the mortality rate was very high. No prisoner-doctor was allowed to treat patients until the last quarter of 1942; initially only one prisoner-doctor was appointed, from early 1943 there were two, and three from the summer of 1943. After the evacuation of Majdanek in the spring of 1944, many prisoner-doctors arrived and started work in five hospital blocks. Other prisoner-doctors were sent to treat patients in particular work commandos.

 By 1943, three of the hospital blocks were so overcrowded that two patients had to share a bed. There was a shortage of medications. But later that year, two new wards, one for infectious diseases and the other a surgical ward, were opened, so conditions improved, and there were more beds for patients, their numbers rising to about 2,500. There were more supplies of medications. I was in charge of the infectious diseases ward and looked after various kinds of patients. In 1944, I had a sufficient amount of medications. I have to say that epidemic typhus was not as bad in Gross-Rosen as it was in other camps and did not take so many lives. It arrived with the prisoners’ transports from Majdanek, but the epidemic was stopped because the infected prisoners were isolated off, and lice control was systematic. There were sporadic cases of typhoid fever, which claimed more lives than epidemic typhus throughout the entire operations of Gross-Rosen. The trachoma epidemic affected approximately 1,200 prisoners and lasted one and a half years, from the spring of 1943 to the end of 1944.

 From 1943 on, weak and emaciated prisoners were put in the Schonung (convalescents’) facilities in two blocks. Their numbers went up to a thousand. Dr Hałgas and I reported directly to the German Lagerarzt (SS camp physician), however, we were free to conduct admissions to the hospital wards and the convalescents’ blocks and discharge patients, sending them back to their work commandos. So we could help many prisoners by keeping them in the wards as long as possible. In 1944, the convalescents’ blocks were closed down, and patients were supposed to stay in the hospital blocks. The German camp physician, Schmidt¹¹ did not control the discharges, so we could help sick prisoners, of course facing the constant threat of “getting into his bad books.” I managed to keep trachoma prisoners for months on end in my infectious diseases ward, as this German doctor told me that he was not familiar with the disease. The next camp doctor was Richter.¹²

 Prisoners’ corpses were incinerated in the crematorium. . . . I cannot say how many prisoners were killed or died of emaciation. . . . When a transport of prisoners from Plaszow arrived in our camp in August 1944, the new prisoners received the camp numbers of prisoners¹³ who had died. My colleagues who worked in the camp office told me that the camp records of deceased prisoners were destroyed to conceal the high death rate.

. . . The most brutal criminals from Germany were sent to Gross-Rosen since it was practically impossible to escape from this camp. . . . [One of these criminals], hospital kapo Willi . . . , was my boss. This victimizer decided that patients with incurable diarrhea should be put on wooden beds covered with tarpaulin and kept there until they died. Willi and the hospital orderlies pilfered patients’ food parcels. He restricted our medical work and discharged patients himself, sending them back to their barracks and not allowing us to help or protect patients from abuse. So we could not perform our duties until mid-1943.

The camp’s authorities knew of innumerable cases of violence and harassment but did not react until the ban on violence was introduced. After that, a doctor who admitted a prisoner with visible signs of violence on his body was obliged to report it to the commandant, Ernsberger,¹⁴ who held this post from February 1943 until the evacuation. He imposed strict discipline in the camp; any prisoner who disobeyed an order was punished by being sent to the penal company or Sonderkommando. When he was drunk, he used to barge into the barracks at night and order prisoners to jump down and hide under their beds, it was supposed to be a kind of exercise; his favorite “sport” was breaking prisoners’ jaws with a punch. But he was very strict with those who pilfered prisoners’ food rations and punished them severely.

The camp was fully evacuated by February 1945.¹⁵ It was done in stages, each lasting a couple of days. My transport in a coal train of open cars took three days and nights until we reached Leitmeritz.¹⁶ At least one third of the prisoners did not survive the journey due to the terrible cold and hunger. The rest managed to reach the destination with their last ounce of strength. The day before the evacuation, we were given a one-kilo portion of bread and one tin of canned food, not enough for prisoners who were already suffering from hunger and emaciation. The rain and snow on the last day and night of the journey caused the greatest number of deaths; the rest of the weakest prisoners died on arrival in Leitmeritz. Over 1,600 prisoners were left in Gross-Rosen as they were too weak to be put on a train. I learned of this by accident when I overheard the hospital kapo reporting it to an SS man. [One of the SS men advised us confidentially] to volunteer for the transportation, so we concluded that all the prisoners who stayed behind would be murdered en masse in the camp. . . . Dr Kazimierz Hałgas stayed for the longest time with me in Gross-Rosen. . . .

***

Translated from original article: Żegleń, Józef. “Z rewiru w Gross-Rosen.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1969: 145–148.

1. Gross-Rosen was established in August 1940 as a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On May 1, 1941, Gross-Rosen became an independent, second-category concentration camp.^a
2. Anton Thumann (1912–1946) was an SS officer who served in various Nazi German concentration camps during World War II. After the War, Thumann was arrested by British occupation forces and charged with war crimes. In 1946 he was found guilty, sentenced to death and executed. In early August 1940, he was transferred to Gross-Rosen, which at the time was still a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. In early May 1941, Thumann became the Protective Custody Camp Leader of the now independent Gross-Rosen camp. From mid-February 1943 to March 1944 he served as the Protective Custody Camp Leader of Majdanek concentration camp. Due to his sadistic tendencies and participation in selections, gassing and shooting prisoners, the prisoners called him the “Hangman of Majdanek.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Thumann^b
3. German concentration camps operated a system of prisoner identification using camp numbers tattooed on prisoners’ forearms and sewed on their jackets, along with a badge showing a prisoners’ category. Common criminals wore a badge in the shape of a green triangle (and hence were known as “green triangles"). Polish (political) prisoners wore a red triangle marked with the letter “P.” https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles/^c
4. In the jargon of Nazi German propaganda, the epithet “anti-social” was applied to individuals who (allegedly) were “work-shy” and needed to be “resocialized.” “Sexual pervert” was a term which usually referred to homosexuals. Both groups were oppressed and individuals classified in them could end up in a concentration camp. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asoziale_(Nationalsozialismus); https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gay-men-under-the-nazi-regime^c
5. Żegleń must have meant subcamps. Nearly 125 thousand prisoners were held in Gross-Rosen and its subcamps from 1940 to 1945.^a
6. The trachoma epidemic lasted for several months, until the end of 1943.^a
7. In the prisoners’ concentration camp jargon, “to organize something” meant to acquire it by illicit or illegal means, e.g., by stealing it.^c
8. “Ernsberger” is a corruption of “Hassebroek,” the last commandant’s surname, probably reflecting the way prisoners heard his name pronounced, after all, they never saw it in writing.^b
9. On December 12, 1942, the commandant of Gross-Rosen Wilhelm Gideon issued new camp rules, allowing prisoners to receive food parcels.^a
10. His first name is misspelled in the Polish article. It should be “Hermann.” The sadistic activities of Lösche and Grabowski in Gross-Rosen are described at https://www.gross-rosen.eu/images/2020/04/Rozdział_2_cz1.pdf^b
11. Heinrich Schmidt was the camp physician of Gross-Rosen from April 24 to September 10, 1944. This “lax” practice lasted until September 10, 1944.^a
12. Dr Hermann Richter was the camp physician of Gross-Rosen from September 10 to 27, 1944, that is only for 17 days.^a
13. From June 10, 1944, the administration of Gross-Rosen gave new prisoners the numbers of deceased prisoners or of those who were transferred to other camps.^a
14. During its initial period, Gross-Rosen operated as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen, and the following two SS Lagerführer officers served as the camp commandants: SS-Untersturmführer Anton Thumann, and SS-Untersturmführer Georg Güßregen. From May 1941 until liberation, the following officials served as commandants of a fully independent concentration camp at Gross-Rosen: SS-Obersturmbannführer Arthur Rödl, May 1941 – September 1942; SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Gideon, September 1942 – October 1943; and SS-Sturmbannführer Johannes Hassebroek, October 1943 until evacuation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross-Rosen_concentration_camp^b
15. Żegleń was on the evacuation train that left Gross-Rosen on February 10, 1945. His destination was Leitmeritz, a subcamp of Flossenbürg.^a
16. Leitmeritz was the largest subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, operated by Nazi Germany in Leitmeritz, Reichsgau Sudetenland (now Litoměřice, Czechia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitmeritz_concentration_camp^c

a—notes by Dorota Sula, Expert Consultant for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes by Maria Kantor, the translator of the above article; c—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project.

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