It was organized in the summer of 1943 at the Fürstengrube hard coal mine in the town of Wesoła, approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) from Auschwitz concentration camp.

Coal production at the new mine was anticipated to start in late 1943, so construction was treated as very urgent; however, that plan proved to be unfeasible.

On September 4, 1943, the Auschwitz labor office reported that 129 prisoners were working at the Fürstengrube subcamp; by July 1944 that number had risen to approximately 1,200, 85 to 90 percent of whom were Jews.

SS Master Sergeant Otto Moll was named the subcamp's first commandant; he served in that position until March 1944.

Prisoners did not receive the required protective clothing and they were constantly vulnerable to beatings and abuse from the mine's civilian staff as well as prisoner-foremen.

In spite of the hard conditions and fight for survival, despite the beatings and persecution, there were attempts to maintain a cultural life at the subcamp, in the form of band concerts and plays.

In response, Commandant Moll personally shot a randomly selected group of prisoners in front of their fellows and left their bodies on the assembly ground until the next shift returned.

In the spring of 1944, a group of prisoners dug a tunnel from a barrack, but during an inspection five German Jews were apprehended in it; they were later hanged.

In late August 1944, yet another Russian prisoner was shot; he had attempted to escape in a freight car leaving the new mine construction site.

In September, November, and December 1944, the Polish and Russian prisoners were moved to the Flossenbürg, Buchenwald, and Mauthausen concentration camps.

The next day, January 21, the SS loaded approximately 4,000 prisoners into open railway cars bound for Mauthausen.

The authorities at Mauthausen did not accept the transport, however, as the camp was overcrowded, but sent the train on to Mittelbau (Dora), where it arrived on January 28.