AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

A sub-camp established in Bruntal (German: Freudenthal) in Czech Silesia, at that time within the borders of Sudetenland, which was annexed to the Reich. In October 1944, more than 300 Jewish women prisoners from Hungary and Bohemia were transferred there from Birkenau (women from BIIc, Durchgangsjuden). Fifty more women followed in January 1945. They were quartered in three masonry buildings on the grounds of the Emerich Machold textile mill. The prisoners worked a single daytime shift of about 10 to 12 hours. Some of them were employed as seamstresses, sewing uniforms for German soldiers and other items, and some women worked the looms and spinning frames. A handful of women spent their days in the camp as cleaners, servants for the overseers, or cooks. The director of the sub-camp was SS-Oberscharführer Voss, and the commander of the 17 to 21 men in the SS sentry unit was SS-Hauptscharführer Paul Ulbort. Additionally, three SS Aufseherinnen were employed to oversee the prisoners.

The sub-camp existed until May 6, 1945, when the SS men heard that the Red Army was entering the city. The Germans donned civilian clothing and fled. The Soviets did not appear in Freudenthal until two days later. 

Source: Auschwitz from A to Z. An Illustrated History