AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

Aussenkommando...

A sub-camp opened in Chełmek (German: Chelmek) in October 1942. About 150 prisoners were placed in a barracks at the narrow-gauge railroad engine house. They were mostly Jews off the transports that arrived in early autumn from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. On orders from Joachim Schulz-Bundte, the trustee administering the local Bata shoe factory, they were to clean the ponds from which the plant drew the water it needed. Hunger, hard labor, and brutal treatment by the SS resulted in the death of 47 prisoners after two months in the sub-camp, with another 64 taken to the camp hospital in grave condition. In December, the last 34 prisoners were transferred to Auschwitz I, where the hospital records note their admission. At least 28 of them perished within the course of a month, which means that almost all the prisoners of this sub-camp died. 

Source: Auschwitz from A to Z. An Illustrated History