Auschwitz I Block 11

“From 1941-1943, the SS shot several thousand people at the Death Wall in the courtyard between Blocks No. 10 and 11.

Those who died here were mostly Polish political prisoners, and above all leaders and members of the underground organization, people involved in planning escapes and aiding escapees, and those maintaining contacts with the outside world. Poles brought from outside the camp were also shot here.

They included hostages arrested in reprisal for Polish resistance movement operations against the German occupation authorities.”* Source: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/visiting/permanent-exhibition/death-wall/

Block 11 and Block 10 in Auschwitz I

Block 11 Courtyard

This is the courtyard of the camp jail, Block 11; a jail in the middle of a concentration and death camp! The cells were in the basement. Observe the concrete walls built around the cell windows to further isolate prisoners. Scroll a bit further and you see the “Death Wall.”

Scrolling past the Death Wall, notice two posts in the concrete walkway.

On them were hooks with which to hang prisoners by their wrists bound behind their backs, thus dislocating shoulder joints. now see boarded windows of Block 10, where Dr. Carl Clauberg conducted sterilization and other experiments on women prisoners. Scrolling on, you see the street entrance to the courtyard.

For a painting from the survivor’s memory: Jan Komski’s Administrative Punishment

Auschwitz Blocks 10 and 11

Scroll a bit further to Blocks 21, 20, part of the complex of prisoner hospital buildings. The first view is outside of the Block 11 courtyard where prisoners were shot in the head against the black wall at the opposite end. Scrolling you see the entrance to Block 10.

Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg, a German gynecologist, carried out criminal sterilization experiments in this block from April 1943.

Next is a long street that led to the Crematorium. The low dark wooden building is the camp laundry. Scrolling further you see a guard tower and then a large red brick building outside the wall were warehouses for storage of Zyklon B (poison gas) and looted property of the Jews: suitcases, etc.

Scrolling past, you see the entrance to Block 11, the function of which is described in the previous video.

Auschwitz Block 11 Aerial View

The first view is from the outside of the Block 11 courtyard,
where prisoners were shot in the head against the black wall at its far end.

To the left of the courtyard is Block 10, right is Block 11.

Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg Block 10 Sterilization Experiments

The Krankenbau wasn’t the only place experimenting on people. Inside this prison all rules were off; standing cells are coming next, where crunched into a small space for 1 person, 4 would stand. Trial rooms where the trial is decided before you walk in the door.

Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg. who had open reign on prisoners to experiment, put some to death so they could learn from the autopsy:

“Clauberg set to work in barracks no. 30, part of the hospital complex in the women’s camp (sector BIa) in Birkenau, at the end of 1942.

In April of the following year, Rudolf Höss put block no. 10 in the main camp at Clauberg’s disposal. Between 150 and 400 Jewish women from various countries were held in two upstairs rooms…”

“These procedures were carried out in a brutal way. Complications were frequent, including peritonitis and hemorrhages from the reproductive tract, leading to high fever and sepsis. Multiple organ failure and death frequently followed. While some of Clauberg’s Jewish patients died in this way, others were deliberately put to death so that autopsies could be carried out.”*

*Reference: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/medical-experiments/carl-clauberg/