Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Blechhammer Arbeitslager
Blechhammer labor camp

As early as June 17, 1942, prisoners were being sent to the Blechhammer chemical plants, POW camps, and forced labor camps.
Two plants in the area, Blechhammer North, south of Sławięcice, and Blechhammer South at Azoty were nicknamed "Black Hammer" by Allied bomber aircrews.

On April 1, 1944, Blechhammer Arbeitslager was established as a sub-camp of Auschwitz III.
Prisoners declared "unable to work" were sent by the camp administration to Auschwitz II Birkenau to be exterminated, while able workers were sent from Auschwitz to Blechhammer.
The total number of forced laborers working at Blechhammer Arbeitslager and neighboring sub-camps reached 48,000 people, which included 2,000 British POWs.

Near the end of 1944, the Germans began evacuating Blechhammer Arbeitslager, and on January 21, 1945, the evacuation officially started.
The prisoners were sent to other camps, force marched, via Kole - Neustadt - Glucholazy - Neisse - Otmuchow - Zabkowice Slaskie - Schweidnitz - Strzegom, for several days, with little to eat, except for bits of bread and margarine.
Many prisoners died of exhaustion and hunger, or were shot by the SS officers.

On February 2, 1945, survivors from Blechhammer Arbeitslager reached Groß-Rosen Konzentrationslager. while one camp went to Regensburg,or to Landshut,
The survivors who stayed for 5 days, were loaded on the train to Buchenwald.
Of the prisoners force-marched over five days to Bergen Belsen, about 20% died enroute.