Bruno Brodniewicz

Bruno Brodniewicz (also spelt Brodniewitsch) [1] (born July 22, 1895 in Posen,[2] † April 1945 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp) was a German prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp, the first Lagerälteste (camp elder)[3] carrying prisoner number 1.

Life

As a convicted criminal Brodniewicz was transferred to a concentration camp at the latest in summer 1934 and was held temporarily in the Lichtenburg concentration camp.[4] Brodniewicz was one of the first 30 prisoners, defined as the so-called professional criminals, who, on 20 May 1940 accompanied by the roll call officer Gerhard Palitzsch from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were taken to the newly established concentration camp at Auschwitz. He was the first camp elder of the main camp of the Auschwitz and remained in this position until 1942.[5] He wore prisoner number 1 and was considered "Black Death" (Czarna śmierć) in the camp. As one of the "Greens" (so called because of their uniforms which bore the green triangle identifying them as criminal prisoners) Brodniewicz was considered relentlessly brutal and is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of many fellow inmates. He decisively influenced the camp atmosphere in what was to become a reign of terror. Brodniewicz had illegally hidden gold and other valuables in his parlour, which the SS found after fellow inmate Otto Küsel (inmate No. 2) tipped them off. Brodniewicz was then sent to the punishment bunker in late December 1942 or early January 1943 and was replaced as the camp elder.[6] He then became camp elder in the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz, in June 1943 in the Jaworzno concentration camp, a sub-camp of Auschwitz, from April 1944 in the satellite camp Eintrachthütte and from September 1944 in the satellite camp Bismarckhütte.[7] After Auschwitz was evacuated in January 1945, Brodniewicz was first transferred to the Woffleben subcamp, where he also held the position of camp elder. He was last held in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where, after the camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, he was probably lynched with other functionaries by fellow inmates for his crimes.[8]

Literature

Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz . Univ. of North Carolina Press, April 26, 2004 Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz . Frankfurt am Main 1980 Reni Rieger: Emil Bednarek - prisoner in Auschwitz . Grin Verlag 2008 Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the Nazi concentration camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 . Till Bastian: Auschwitz and the 'Auschwitz Lie' mass murder and falsification of history. CH Beck 1997, ISBN 3-406-43155-0

References
  1. Till Bastian: Auschwitz und die ‚Auschwitz-Lüge‘, S. 33
  2. Hans Günther Adler: Auschwitz; Europ. Verlag-Anst., 1962; S. 170
  3. DER SPIEGEL 6/1979: Niemand kommt hier raus, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2012
  4. Herbert Diercks: Ausgegrenzt. "Asoziale" und Kriminelle" im nationalsozialistischen Lagersystem, Edition Temmen, 2009, S. 102
  5. Der Ort des Terrors Band 5, S. 287
  6. Hermann Langbein: Menschen in Auschwitz; Frankfurt am Main, 1980; S. 181
  7. Angaben aus: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (Hrsg.): Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Bd. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. C.H. Beck, München 2008, S. 185, S. 287.
  8. Sven Langhammer: Die polizeiliche Vorbeugungshaft in Preußen von 1933 bis 1937 am Beispiel des staatlichen Konzentrationslagers Lichtenburg in der Provinz Sachsen, in: Rundbrief der landeseigenen Gedenkstätten in Sachsen-Anhalt, Ausgabe 1, 2006 - Themenheft: Neue Forschungen zum KZ-System auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, S. 33 u. f.
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