Gross Rosen Quarry
4,253 views · Published 17 September 2011 · 5:24 · Indexed 21 September 2026
Channel: Alan Heath · 2011 · Education
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alan-Heaths-History-Page/173472422695696 Gross Rosen was set up in the summer of 1940 following the purchase a few months earlier of the quarry by the SS -Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH (SS German Earth and Stone Works) which can be seen in this film. The quarry had been purchased from a private company and some of the staff of that company were kept on as overseers of the prisoners. Initially a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen, it became an independent camp on 1 May 1941. Whereas the quarry was the raison d'etre of the camp, from 1943 onwards increasing numbers of prisoners were required in a huge complex of sub camps across Lower Silesia and into Moravia and Upper Silesia at Aslau, Bad Salzbrunn, Bad Warmbrunn, Bautzen, Bernsdorf, Birnbaeumel, Bolkenheim, Brandhofen, Breslau, Brieg, Brunnlitz, Bunzlau, Christianstadt, Dyhernfurth, Faulbrueck, Friedland, Funfteichen, Gabersdorf, Gablonz, Gsassen, Gebhardsdorf, Gellenau, Gorlitz, Graeben, Grafenort, Gross Koschen, Grunberg, Grulich, Halbau, Halbstadt, Hartmannsdorf, Hirschberg, Hochweiler, Hohenelbe, Kamenz, Kittlitztreben, Kratzau, Kretschamberg, Landeshut, Langenbielau, Liebau, Libenau, Maerzdorf, Mittlesteine, Namslau, Neuhammer, Neusalz, Niesky, Ober Altstadt, Parschnitz, Peterswaldau, Reichenau, Reichenbach, Sackisch, Schatzlar, Schweidnitz, Treskau, Waldenburg, Weisswasser, Wustegiersdorf, Zillertal and Zittau. At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross-Rosen complex had up to sixty subcamps located in eastern Germany and occupied Poland. In its final stage, the population of the Gross-Rosen camps accounted for 11% of the total inmates in Nazi concentration camps at that time. A total of 125,000 inmates of various nationalities passed through the complex during its existence, of whom an estimated 40,000 died on site and in evacuation transports. Gross-Rosen was known for its brutal treatment of NN (Nacht und Nebel) prisoners, especially in the stone quarry. The brutal treatment of the political and Jewish prisoners was not only due to the SS and criminal prisoners, but to a lesser extent also due to German civilians working in the stone quarry. In 1942, for political prisoners, the mean survival time was less than two months. Due to a change of policy in August 1942, prisoners were likely to survive longer because they were needed as slave workers in German industries. The largest population of inmates, however, were Jews, initially from the Dachau and Sachsenhausen camps, and later from Buchenwald. During the camp's existence, the Jewish inmate population came mainly from Poland and Hungary; others were from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Greece, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and Italy. The camp was liberated on February 14, 1945, by the Red Army. My channel on you tube : http://www.youtube.com/alanheath is one of the most prolific from Poland. I have produced around 1,900 original films. My big interest in life is travel and history but I have also placed films on other subjects Please feel free to ask questions in the public area or to comment on things you disagree with. Sometimes there are mistakes because I speak without preparation. If I see the mistakes myself, I make this clear in the text. Please also leave a star rating! There are a number of films here on the packaging industry. This is because I am the publisher of Central and Eastern European Packaging -- http://www.ceepackaging.com - the international platform for the packaging industry in this region focusing on the latest innovations, trends, design, branding, legislation and environmental issues with in-depth profiles of major industry achievers. Most people may think packaging pretty boring but it possibly effects your life more than you really imagine! Central and Eastern European Packaging examines the packaging industry throughout this region, but in particular in the largest regional economies which are Russia, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Austria. That is not to say that the other countries are forgotten, they are not, but obviously there is less going on. However the fact that there are so many travel related films here is not from holidays but from business trips attending trade fairs around the region. Every packaging trade fair is a new excuse to make another film!
