Narrow Bridge to Life

In 1944, when a large part of Eastern Europe had already been liberated by the Red Army, and after Normandy, more than 60 new forced labor camps were established in Lower Silesia, Germany, adding to the approximately 40 camps that already existed. Inmates were Jews from Hungary and Poland (deported from the Lodz ghetto as well as inmates from "Schindler's List.") These camps became satellites of the infamous Gross-Rosen concentration camp, and were the last to be liberated. Throughout its existence, the Gross-Rosen camp and its satellites had a special relationship with Auschwitz-Birkenau as its main provider of inmate slave labourers for its armaments factories. This is why, although the process of genocide was proceeding at top speed, some Jews were diverted from the gas chambers and sent to work at Gross-Rosen. Inmates were assigned to munitions factories and other factories owned by the giant private concerns, such as Krupp, I.G. Farben, and Siemens. Jewish inmates were also used in the construction of Hitler's secret headquarters in the local Eulen Mountains and the building of underground tunnels for secret weapons. The book adds greatly to our knowledge of the complexity of German policy toward the Jews and the policy of forced labour; it describes the daily life of the Jewish slave labourers; and traces Reich economic policy and the huge concerns that used slave labour.