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| The outer SS area and the prison camp were surrounded by day by a long chain of sentries, since squads of prisoners were assigned to work in the SS barracks. From 1941 on, the prison camp with the special camp for Russian prisoners of war was secured by a double fence, which not only emphasised the unbridgeable separation between absolute ruler and slave labourers, but also served to fully isolate the prisoners from the outer world. While the inner fence consisted of thickly interwoven barbed wire, the smooth upper strands of the outer fence were electrified. The prisoners' area was secured both day and night by six large watch towers with heavy machine-guns, and hand grenades in the roofed-over balconies which circled them. In addition, there were 12 small sentry towers with light machine-guns and also four massive bunkers. | |
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| The crematorium was built in 1940-41 in a valley
directly outside the camp on the south-west side. Every day the corpse collectors went
from barrack to barrack and fetched the bodies of the prisoners. After the gold-filled
teeth had been torn out, the corpses were sent to the crematorium by means of a wooden
slide in a tunnel in the supporting wall. The crematorium was provided with a dissecting
table and a coal oven. In the last months the number of the dead exceeded the "capacity" of the crematorium. The corpses were then stacked beside it on a scaffold made of train rails and wooden poles, doused with fuel and set alight. As many as 400 victims were daily, and often even at night, burnt in the open here. |
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