Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Each installment of Ben's Tours takes you on a visit to a special place. This time, join me for a little urban exploring inside the former Union Werke site, a Nazi munitions factory that was part of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. It opened in late 1943 under control of the Weichsel Union Metallwerke armaments firm, and more than 1200 slave labourers worked to produce explosives.
Today, this massive building lies empty and abandoned, is covered in graffiti, and is clearly used as a site for drinking and partying. It does not seem a fitting condition for a building that led to so much misery, and that played a key role in the October 1944 Sonderkommando Uprising. Also, do yourself a favour and look up The Heart of Auschwitz, a handcrafted birthday card made for prisoner Fania Fanier, and given to her around a work table in this building (currently part of the collection of the Montreal Holocaust Museum).
Each installment of Ben's Tours takes you on a visit to a special place. This time, join me for a little urban exploring inside the former Union Werke site, a Nazi munitions factory that was part of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. It opened in late 1943 under control of the Weichsel Union Metallwerke armaments firm, and more than 1200 slave labourers worked to produce explosives.
Today, this massive building lies empty and abandoned, is covered in graffiti, and is clearly used as a site for drinking and partying. It does not seem a fitting condition for a building that led to so much misery, and that played a key role in the October 1944 Sonderkommando Uprising. Also, do yourself a favour and look up The Heart of Auschwitz, a handcrafted birthday card made for prisoner Fania Fanier, and given to her around a work table in this building (currently part of the collection of the Montreal Holocaust Museum).
