Camp Buna was officially called Bunalager and later Auschwitz III. Buna was a forced labor camp within the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex built and guarded by members of the German army during World War II.

Description

Camp Buna measured approximately 546 by 295 yards and was surrounded by barbed wire fences guarded by members of the German SS armed with rifles and machine guns.

Labor

Prisoners held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were used as slave or forced labor in the IG Farben factory. To reduce the distance prisoners had to march to the factory, the Buna Camp was built in 1942.

Housing

When first completed, Buna contained barracks or blocks 85 by 25 feet in size, which eventually held around 250 prisoners sleeping between two and four to a wooden plank bed built to sleep one inmate.

Hygiene

Prisoners worked 9-hour days at the IG Farben Factory, followed by 4 hours of construction work on the camp. Dirty clothes were dried on beds, which were also used for eating rationed meals of soup.

Prisoners

Those held at Camp Buna were taken from all over Europe and included Jews, homosexuals, Communists and gypsies, all of whom were dehumanized by having their heads shaved and names replaced by numbers tattooed onto their arms.

Death

A large portion of the inmates at Camp Buna died due to starvation, savage treatment and execution. Those who were unable to work were shipped to the Birkenau camp and murdered in gas chambers.

Source:

Jewish Virtual Library: Buna

Holocaust Survivors & Remembrance Project: Auschwitz-Birkenau

Wollheim Memorial: Prisoner Housing