Fürstengrube

In 1943, a satellite camp to Auschwitz was set up in Myslowice. The camp consisted of six barracks surrounded by fences with barbed wire and guarded by four watchtowers. The commandant was SS-Hauptscharführer Otto Moll, who later became the head of the crematorias in Birkenau. Moll was replaced by SS-Oberscharführer, Max Schmidt. A total of about 60 SS officers served in the camp. The majority of the prisoners were Polish Jews and they were used as slave workers for excavations of a coal mine and for coal mining in an existing mine. The SS conducted regular selection of prisoners and those prisoners who were not considered to be able to work were sent back to Auschwitz. About 1,300 prisoners worked in the camp until the camp was evacuated in January 1945. As late as January 27, the same day that Auschwitz was liberated, SS murdered prisoners who were too sick to be evacuated, including by setting camp infirmary on fire. Only a few prisoners who remained in the camp survived by hiding.