Bruno Brodniewicz (also spelled Brodniewitsch) born 22 July 1895 in Posen, was a German prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Brodniewicz was the first

Lagerälteste A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...

(camp elder), carrying prisoner tag number 1. He died in April 15–16, 1945 in

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...

Life

As a convicted criminal, Brodniewicz was transferred to a concentration camp during the late summer of 1934. He was held temporarily in the

Lichtenburg concentration camp Lichtenburg was a Nazi concentration camp, housed in a Renaissance castle in Prettin, near Wittenberg in the Province of Saxony. Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to ...

. 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 Gerhard Palitzsch (17 June 1913 – 7 December 1944) was a German Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of the SS. He was notorious for his brutal treatment of prisoners in Auschwitz concentration camp. Biography At the beginning of his career as an ...

from the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

were taken to the newly established concentration camp at Auschwitz. Brodniewicz was the first camp elder of the main camp of Auschwitz and remained in this position until 1942. He wore prisoner tag number 1 and was considered "Black Death" (Czarna śmierć) in the camp. As one of the "Greens" (so-called because their uniforms 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.Hermann Langbein: ''Menschen in Auschwitz''; Frankfurt am Main, 1980; S. 181 Brodniewicz 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 he was held in the satellite camp Eintrachthütte, then from September 1944 in the satellite camp Bismarckhütte. After Auschwitz was evacuated in January 1945, Brodniewicz was transferred to the Woffleben subcamp, where he also held the position of camp elder. He was last held in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated on 15 April 1945, he and other functionaries was presumably lynched by fellow inmates for his crimes.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.

Literature

* Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Univ. of North Carolina Press, 26 April 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, . * Till Bastian: Auschwitz and the 'Auschwitz Lie' mass murder and falsification of history. CH Beck 1997,

References

External links

"Prisoner photograph of Bruno Brodniewicz''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodniewicz, Bruno Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp personnel 20th-century German criminals 1895 births 1945 deaths People from Poznań People from the Province of Posen German people who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Male murder victims Polish people who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Kapos (concentration camp)