Bruno Brodniewicz


Bruno Brodniewicz was a German prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp, the first Lagerälteste 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. 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. He wore prisoner number 1 and was considered "Black Death" in the camp. As one of the "Greens" 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 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. 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.
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.

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 : The place of terror. History of the Nazi concentration camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, .
Till Bastian: Auschwitz and the 'Auschwitz Lie' mass murder and falsification of history. CH Beck 1997,