Katowice - '45 Aid Society

Members of the Boys were slave labourers in the Katowice labour camp, a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration, extermination and labour camp complex.

The Auschwitz complex was operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The camp had 40 subcamps.

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

^{Memorial and Museum Auschwitz Birkenau, Poland.}

History

Aussenkommando Kattowitz was small subcamp of Auschwitz formed in January 1944.

About ten prisoners spent almost a year building a barracks and an air-raid shelter for the Gestapo in Katowice then known by its German name Kattowitz. Prisoners slept initially in the rooms in the cellar of the Gestapo headquarters. After three weeks they were moved to a shed of the local brickworks.

Dissolution & Liberation

On 31 January to 1 February 1945, prisoners were evacuated along with 50 Gestapo members by truck to Klodzko. From there they were deported on a rail transport to Ölsnitz.

Official Name:

Sonderkommando Kattowitz

Also known as:

Aussenkommando Kattowitz

Subcamp of:

Auschwitz

Period of operation:

January 1944-January 1945

Liberation:

Red Army

Dissolution of the Camp:

Katowice to Kłodzko

Slave labour:

Construction

Number of prisoners:

Type of prisoners:

Male

Memorialisation:

Today there is a plaque commemorating the camp on ul. Powstańców

Associated Boys:

It is possible that more members of the Boys than the one who has been identified were taken as slave labourers or on a death march to Katowice. Members of their family and friends may also have died in the camp or been gassed in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. The father of one of the Boys Moritz Vegh died in the camp in Katowice when he was murdered during the evacuation.

Aron Zylberszac
Chaim Mordka Hilf

Associated Camps:

Other subcamps of Auschwitz where members of the Boys were slave labourers that have so far been identified:

Babitz
Blechhammer
Budy
Freudenthal
Fürstengrube
Gleiwitz
Günthergrube
Jawischowitz
Laurahütte
Neu-Dachs-Jaworzno

Map: