Mülsen St. Micheln
The external concentration camp
During World War II, demand for arms and workers increased. For this reason, production of non-war-related items was halted and replaced by production of arms. This was also the case for the former textile factory "Richard Poenisch Nachf." in Mülsen St. Micheln. On January 27, 1944, the first transport of prisoners arrived from the Flossenbürg main camp and the ERLA Maschinenwerke Leipzig. A barbed wire fence and four watchtowers were built around the site.
The prisoners were housed in the basement while the assembly line for the Messerschmitt Bf 109, one of the most important fighter aircraft of the time, operated on the floors above.
After being suspected of sabotage and subsequently detained, Soviet prisoners set fire to their straw mattresses on the night of May 1, 1944. The SS prevented the evacuation of the inmates and shot fugitive prisoners. As a result, 198 concentration camp inmates died in Mülsen St. Micheln and at least 60 suffered severe burns. Afterwards two barracks were then built on the site.
More information about the external camp
Everyday life was characterized by violence and hunger. Nearly one-third of the prisoners died in Mülsen. Fifty-one of them were buried in a ravine near the factory, where a memorial stone can be found today.
The Verein für Ortsgeschichte und Brauchtumspflege Mülsen St. Micheln (Association for Local History and Customs) maintains the grave. The grave's location is marked on the map below.
Tadeusz Sobolewicz was a prisoner in the Mülsen subcamp. In his poignant memoir he recounts his experiences as a political prisoner in seven Nazi concentration camps and subcamps, including Mülsen St. Micheln. A young resistance fighter, Sobolewicz was arrested in 1941. He survived the fire in the Mülsen subcamp on May 1, 1944, among other things. Sobolewicz vividly describes the daily struggle for survival, the cruelty of everyday life in the camp, and the unbroken hope for freedom. It is an important testimony against forgetting and one of the most detailed accounts of the Mülsen subcamp. The english title is "But I survived".
(c) By courtesy of S. Fischer Verlag GmbH.
These two objects are owned by the Verein für Ortsgeschichte und Brauchtumspflege Mülsen St. Micheln (VOB). Unnamed prisoners crafted the items from aircraft steel and gifted them to individuals who provided them with food or offered other forms of support.
Eugene Zinn, who was a prisoner in Mülsen St. Micheln as well, also reports of such support, in his memory from an old SS man (video 2, minute 28:55):
I won't forget the one old, old, he must have been close to 60 years old, SS man. Every day this guy brought me a piece of bread. Every day. One day I was curious, I said: "Listen, I mean, everyone treats us like animals and things like that, why do you bring me this piece of bread?" - "So I will tell you something. My wife makes sure, that I bring a piece of bread to a prisoner here everyday, because my son is a prisoner in Russia and she says: 'if you give a prisoner here a piece of bread, somebody is gonna give a piece of bread to my son." I'll never forget this guy, like I can see him like now.'"
Assuming that 'B.B.' are the initials of the person who made the can, the following prisoners are possible manufacturers:
Bronislaw Balak *01.01.1927
in Mülsen St. Micheln since 09/12/1944 until the evacuation, was not registered in Leitmeritz
Boleslaw Borsenzkij (Boleslav Borzecki) *07.09.1896
in Mülsen St. Micheln since 05/10/1944 until the evacuation, was registered in Leitmeritz