Groß-Rosen

Groß-Rosen - darkometer rating : 8 - Though less well known than, say, Dachau or Buchenwald , Gross-Rosen was also one of the main large concentration camps in what was then Nazi Germany . The memorial site is today on territory that ended up as part of Poland after WWII , namely near Wroclaw , the former German city of Breslau, in Lower Silesia. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The camp at Gross-Rosen (spelled “ Groß-Rosen ” in the original German, Rogoźnica in Polish) was set up in August 1940, initially as a sub-camp of the longer-established Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin . But in May 1941 it was already turned into an autonomous concentration camp in its own right, i.e. with its own administration and its own system of sub-camps (nearly a hundred at one point). At first, the inmates were primarily involved in forced labour at the adjacent granite quarry – just like at Mauthausen , Natzweiler or Flossenbürg . In parallel to this they had also been forced to built the camp itself. But as the war dragged on, more and more work was diverted into other industries, in particular armaments production and related enterprises. Big-name companies such as Blaupunkt, Siemens, Krupp and IG Farben used slave workers from Gross-Rosen. Some even had workshops right at the camp itself (see below). Amongst the many sub-camps was also the “ AL Riese ”, where they had to work on the construction of a vast network of underground tunnels, which were either to serve as a new HQ for Hitler (cf. Wolfschanze ) and/or (more likely) as underground arms production facilities (like at Mittelbau-Dora or Ebensee ).