Sportschule
Sportschule (officially in German: Arbeitslager Langenbielau I, also known as the Reichenbach camp - a German subcamp of KL Groß-Rosen for men, located on the border of Bielawa (German: Langenbielau) and Dzierżoniów (German: Reichenbach)
History
Sportschule was originally a labor camp (German: Arbeitslager), founded in 1941 and transformed into a section of the Groß-Rosen concentration camp on September 3, 1944. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire, there was a kitchen, a field hospital and barracks for SS and prisoners but the number of barracks for prisoners is disputed: some sources say there were ten and others that their number was about sixteen. The number of prisoners is also disputed: it could be 2,000 or even 7,000, but the number of victims is unknown. The prisoners were mainly Jews from Poland, but also Jews from other European countries, for example Hungary, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Only from January 1945 onwards were not only Jews placed in the camp.
Sportschule was subordinate to the women's camp Arbeitslager Peterswaldau, located in Pieszyce. Both camps, together with Arbeitslager Langenbielau II, were subordinate to one commander, Karl Ulbricht.
The tenants of the camp's slave labor were mainly the weaving mill Christian Dierig AG, which adopted the name Siling I during the war and produced weapons. Prisoners also worked for the companies Jordan (Siling II during the war), Zill u Knebich, Hansen u. Flechtner, Telefunken, Krupp, Rebich, Richter u Schäder (Blockhäuserbau for the duration of the war), Flugzeugfabrik "Preschona", Goldschmidt and Radiofabrik Hagenuk. In 1945, prisoners were used to dig trenches. Those who could not work were taken to the hospital in Kolce. Until the end of January 1945, the dead were transported to the camp and later buried on site. In February of the same year, some prisoners were transferred to KL Dachau. On May 8, 1945, the Sportschule prisoners were liberated by Soviet soldiers.
After the war, a state farm stood on the grounds of the Sportschule. Currently [when?] the grounds of Sportschule are privately owned and one of the barracks has been converted into a residential building.
Footnotes
1): a-b-c-d-e http://www.gross-rosen.pl/fotki/filie-zd/50.jpg.
2): City and municipal office in Pieszyce [online], www.pieszyce.pl [accessed on 26-11-2017] (Polish).
3): a-b Nazi camps on Polish territory 1939–1945. 1979.
4): Slave labor during the war [online], City Hall in Bielawa, March 16, 2006 [consulted on 27-12-2008] [archived from the address 17-12-2007].
Categories: Gross-Rosen. History of Bielawa (Langenbielau). History of Dzierżoniów (Reichenbach).
Published on july 3, 2024 by the editors of the Joods Monument