Buna Werke at Monowitz
Ruins of factory in
former Monowitz camp
Photo Credit: Herb
Yeates
The Buna Werke was a factory for making
synthetic rubber; it was built in May 1942, six kilometers from
the main Auschwitz camp, by the German company called IG Farbenindustrie.
At first, it was one of the 40 sub-camps of the main camp, but
in November 1943, the Buna sub-camp became Auschwitz III with
its own sub-camps.
In the photo above, you can see part
of the solid concrete fence that surrounds the ruins of the factories,
which are still in existence today. When you enter the town of
Oswiecim, coming from the Krakow airport, the fence is the first
thing you see that tells you that the area around this town was
once the home of Nazi forced labor camps, where the Jews worked
as slave laborers. The fence stretches for miles and behind it
are some factories, built by the Germans, that are still being
used today. The factories and the ruins are off limits to visitors;
the tour groups do not visit the ruins, and even the private
tour guides refuse to take visitors there.
Monowitz factories
when they were operated by the Germans
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