In March, we reported that the monument commemorating the Gross-Rosen subcamp in Bolesławiec had disappeared. Fortunately, it turned out that it was undergoing modernization. We asked Zdzisław Abramowicz, a history enthusiast, why this monument is so important to Bolesławiec:
The ZHP Scout Troop in Świdnica, in whose area of operation the former Gross-Rosen concentration camp is located, took part in collecting soil from all the subcamps for placement in urns. In Bolesławiec, the collection of soil from the former Bunzlau I camp was given a ceremonial setting.
The site was prepared by the plant operating in that area at the time. Among the birch trees growing at the former site of the barracks, a square measuring approximately 2 metres on each side was marked out, cleared of leaves and symbolically fenced off.
On 14 September 1985, representatives of the plant, headed by its director, instructors from the Szare Szeregi ZHP Troop in Bolesławiec, and a delegation from the “Perełka” troop of the ZHP Troop in Świdnica gathered there. The director addressed those present, recalling the period of the Second World War.
Next, a girl scout from the “Perełka” troop read the testimony of a prisoner of the AL Bunzlau I subcamp. The command “Attention!” was given, and soil was placed in a metal urn brought for the purpose. The ceremony concluded with the director’s thanks for preserving the memory of the site’s wartime past.
At the main camp in Rogoźnica, the urn was set into a special wall bearing plaques with the names of all the subcamps. It bears the inscription “AL Bunzlau I”.
And he adds:
Later, a memorial boulder bearing the following inscription was placed at the entrance to the plant grounds:
“On this site
during the Second World War
there was a subcamp of the
concentration
camp Gross-Rosen
From this site, on 14 September 1985,
scouts from the Perełka troop
of the ZHP Troop in Świdnica collected soil
for the Camp Museum
in Rogoźnica.”
