The electric fence at Auschwitz-Birkenau

[Konrad Hagen]

Hello. I am wondering if anybody could answer some questions I have about the electrified perimeter fence at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Was it kept live 24/7 or was the current switched on and off at specific times. Also could the guard choose which sectors of the fence to make live or was it a case of everything going live when the switch was flicked. Was a siren or other form of warning given before switching on the current?

[Alborg]

I recall reading that the external fence at Birkinau was only electrified between the evening & morning roll calls? Same thing with the guards occupying the outer perimeter towers as the prisoners were working in outside details during the day. I've read so many books on the subject that I need to back track to find the exact details but yes different sectors could be turned on or off.

[Konrad Hagen]

Thank you, Alborg. If you ever do track down that book with the fence details please post the information here.

[siwiec]

There is one Auschwitz museum publication probably worth checking, although I have not read it. It is The Architecture of Crime. The Security and Isolation System of the Auschwitz Camp, ed. by Teresa Swiebocka, published in 2008.

http://auschwitz.org/en/bookstoreproduc ... 135.html#2

[Alborg]

There is one Auschwitz museum publication probably worth checking, although I have not read it. It is The Architecture of Crime. The Security and Isolation System of the Auschwitz Camp, ed. by Teresa Swiebocka, published in 2008.

http://auschwitz.org/en/bookstoreproduc ... 135.html#2

That's the book that I may be thinking of? I ordered that one and other books from the Auschwitz museum. Lots of interesting info in that one regarding the fencing & also has some prisoner stories regarding escapes as well as what is being done to preserve the fencing now. Recommended if you have any interest in that area. Also, many of the museums publications are translated into German & English to help those who can't read Polish. The only draw back is the time that it takes for the books to get to Australia.

[Konrad Hagen]

Thank you siwiec, I have now ordered the book and will post any interesting information obtained from it here.

[Konrad Hagen]

Some technical information on the electric fences used at the Auschwitz Stammlager and Birkenau.

Electrical current for the fence, as indeed for the entire Auschwitz camp, was supplied by a power line from the electrical generating plant in Siersza Wodna. Two separate lines ran from the main substation in Babice: to the main camp and to Birkenau, and to a range of other destinations including the city of Oświęcim, the train station, the tannery, etc. The transformer station at Babice stepped the current running to the main camp up from 5,000 V to 30,000 V. There, in turn, at another substation located in the grounds of the former Tobacco Monopoly building, the voltage was stepped down to 6,000 V, and then finally to 400 V, at which point it was connected directly to the camp fence. This was a three-phase current (400 V, inter-phase current 231 V, and phase current 0 V). As a result, when prisoners escaping from the camp (Jerzy Tabeau and Roman Cieliczko, as described later) attempted to short-circuit it, they managed to cut off the power to only a portion of the fence, and in places that came as quite a surprise to them.25

The Architecture of Crime, pp.21-22

Taking into account as well as the internal fencing between the individual sectors ("camps") and the separate fencing on the grounds of the crematoria and sector BIIg ("Kanada"), the total length of the Birkenau camp fences would be 17,189 meters. Adding the fencing segments planned later 109 (Zaun 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40) brings the total fencing at Birkenau up to 18,668 meters.

Since transmission of low-tension electric power over long distances involves a considerable loss of energy, the Birkenau camp fence, much larger than that of the Auschwitz I-main camp, would also use a significantly higher voltage―760 V. The problem of electricity supply was solved in the following way: current at tension of 5 KV was sent from the main substation in Babice to the Birkenau transformer station, where it was first stepped down to 400 V, and then distributed to individual grids inside the camp. The cable supplying current to the fence was an exception―it passed through an additional transformer, which stepped the inter-phase voltage up to 760 V, while maintaining the same zero-phase tension of 231 V. 110

The Architecture of Crime, p.52