Bunzlau

Member of the Boys were taken as slave labours to the Bunzlau labour camp, a subcamp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp.

The Gross Rosen concentration camp was operated by Nazi Germany.  The camp had 100 subcamps located in what is now the Czechia, Germany and Poland. 

The Boys were child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

History

Bunzlau I and Bunzlau II were located in Bolesławiec in Poland, which was then Bunzlau in Germany. Bolesławiec is located midway between Dresden and Wrocław, then the German city of Breslau.

Bunzlau I was established in May 1944, and Bunzlau II in October 1944 and both were male-only camps.

In Bunzlau I prisoners were used to work in the wood industry in the Hubert Land company. Bunzlau II camp was an armaments factory and prisoners assembled aircraft in Spinerei und Weberei-Concordia factory.

There were two branches of the Gross Rosen concentration camp in the town. One, at today’s Staroszkolna Street 18, was established in May 1944 as a camp for Jewish prisoners subordinate to the Schmelt Organization that had operated there since 1942. Between 1,000–1,200 Jews were held there, mainly Polish and Hungarian. They worked in several local armaments factories

Dissolution & Liberation

The camp was evacuated on 10/11 February 1945. A column of 541 prisoners after a few weeks of marching arrived at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where their transport was refused on 15 March 1945. Next the decision of further evacuation was made. Prisoners were loaded on open-topped carriages, and they went to Bergen-Belsen. How many prisoners were alive by the time they reached Bergen-Belsen, and how many were liberated by the British Army is unknown.

About 120 prisoners, who were incapable of marching, were left behind and were liberated by the Red Army.