Crime Without Punishment: The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children During the German Occupation, 1939–1945 8323348065, 9788323348061

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The present book aims to provide a comprehensive outline of the issues of extermination, Germanization, and the suffering of Polish children under the German occupation. The authors realize that German crimes against Polish children were accompanied by crimes against Poles committed by Soviets and Ukrainians (the massacre of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia lasted from 1943 until 1947). With this monograph, we wish to pay tribute to Polish child victims of World War II. The whole world knows about the child victims of the Jewish Holocaust and justly commemorates them. Yet, the world has remained silent on the holocaust of Polish children, silent on the subject of their extermination and martyrdom. Will the world still refuse to know? from The Introduction

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

When a person having a certain degree of knowledge on historic events in Europe listens to the contemporary academic, publicist, or political discourse, they are faced with a great lie on the topic of World War II, which consists, among others, in narratives using the phrase “Polish death camps” and accuse Poles of participation in the Holocaust of Jews. This assumption, held by modern Western people, contradicts historic facts and yet appears to be so common that even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, spoke of “Polish death camps”. The Western world of the present day does not seem to notice that these camps were built by the Germans within Polish territory under occupation; that it was the Germans who exterminated, first and foremost, Polish citizens.

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

Edited by Janina Kostkiewicz

Jagiellonian University Press

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

Edited by Janina Kostkiewicz

Jagiellonian University Press

Reviewer Prof. dr hab. Zenon Jasiński Cover designer Sebastian Wojnowski Proofreading Matthew Dundon Atominium Specialist Translation Agency

With the financial support of the Institute of Pedagogy, Faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków

© Copyright by Janina Kostkiewicz & Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego First edition, Kraków 2020 All rights reserved

No part of this book may by reprinted, or reproduced, or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now known, including photocopying and re-cording, or in any information storage, or retreival system without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

ISBN 978-83-233-4806-1 ISBN 978-83-233-7093-2 (e-book)

Jagiellonian University Press Editorial Offices: ul. Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Krakow Phone: +48 12 663 23 80, Fax: +48 12 663 23 83 Distribution: Phone: +48 12 631 01 97, Fax: +48 12 631 01 98 Cell Phone: +48 506 006 674, e-mail: [email protected] Bank: PEKAO SA, IBAN PL80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction (Janina Kostkiewicz) .........................................................................................

7

Janina Kostkiewicz, The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II ........................................................................

13

Andrzej Kołakowski, A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945 ................

31

Helena Kubica, Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz ..................................................

45

Beata Gola, Dorota Pauluk, Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination ................................................................................................

71

Beata Kozaczyńska, When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943 ............

99

Magdalena Gajderowicz, Ryszard Skrzyniarz, Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts) ........... 115 Krzysztof Ledniowski, Beata Gola, The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street ....................................................................................................... 131 Dawid Wieczorek, The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II ....................................................................................................................... 151 Danuta Drywa, The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp ................................. 163 Aldona Molesztak, Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners ............... 179

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Table of Contents

Elwira Kryńska, The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II ............................................................................. 197 Adam Massalski, Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945 .......................................................................... 225 Andrzej Ryk, The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950 ........................................................................................................................... 247 Małgorzata Michel, The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans ...................................................................................................... 257

INTRODUCTION

“Crime without punishment”1… a laconic description of German crimes against Polish children presented in the second chapter of the present monograph by Andrzej Kołakowski. Crime without punishment would not be possible if it was not for The Forgotten Holocaust2 of the Polish Nation during World War II. When a person having a certain degree of knowledge on historic events in Europe listens to the contemporary academic, publicist, or political discourse, they are faced with a g re at lie on th e to pi c o f World War II, which consists, among others, in narratives using the phrase “Polish death camps” and accuse Poles of participation in the Holocaust of Jews. This assumption, held by modern Western people, contradicts historic facts and yet appears to be so common that even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, spoke of “Polish death camps”. The Western world of the present day does not seem to notice that these camps were built by the G er m a n s w ithin Polish ter r itor y und e r o cc up at i o n; th at i t w a s th e G e r m a n s w h o exte r m i n ate d , f i r s t a n d fo re m o s t , Po l i s h c i t i z e n s o f various ethnic origins: Polish, Jewish, Roma, and others; it is also hardly ever mentioned that the first prisoners of Auschwitz were Poles. German historical policy, implemented during the period of enforced communism in Poland, resulted in the fact that the Germans have “shared” their responsibility for waging World War II… with the nation they harmed the most, the Poles. At present, German publicists, academicians, and politicians hardly ever protest against lies assigning guilt to the Polish

1

2

The title of our book refers to the well-known Fiodor Dostojewski’s novel Crime and Punishment (see e.g. F. Dostojewski, Crime and Punishment, transl. Philip McDonagh. Dublin: Arlen House 2017). This is a reference to Richard C. Lukas’ book titled The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939–1944 (1986).

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Introduction

nation3, which had been attacked militarily, exterminated, ruined, and robbed and which had been the first to fight against the German conquest, for the holocaust of the Jews in the first place. Particularly painful was the German crime against children, Polish citizens, committed during the occupation years of 1939–1945. This is a tragic period in the history of childhood in the Europe of the modern era. The present book focuses on children of Polish ethnicity, since extermination of children of Polish citizens of Jewish origin has been discussed in great detail by numerous sources released all over the world within the scope of research on the Holocaust of the Jewish nation.4 However, publications and research on the extermination, Germanization, and the suffering of children of Polish ethnicity are scarce. Researchers devoted to the subject of the extermination of Polish children write that the losses during World War II “totalled no less than 2,225,000 children” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 190). This number includes Polish child citizens of Jewish, Polish, Roma, and other nationalities. In order to be able to speak of extermination and suffering of Polish children, we must remember that this took place within the scope of the forgotten holocaust of the Polish nation. Before we can discuss this, the background situation of Poles during World War II should be recalled. Let’s begin with the Munich conference (1938), after which the world soon realised that the Germans wanted war. This was confirmed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939), whose confidential part described a joint aggression on Poland and division of its territory between Germany and the Soviet Union. Then, there came the German aggression on Poland 3

4

A German newspaper, “Frankfurter Rundschau”, has been ordered by Warsaw district court to issue an apology to Maciej Świrski for publishing an article in which the Poles were accused of collaboration with the Germans and participation in the Holocaust (https://kresy.pl/wydarzenia/polska/sad-nakazal-niemieckiej-gazecie-publikacje-przeprosin-za-posadzenie-polakow-o-udzial-w-holokauscie/?utm_source=notification&utm_medium=browser) (access: 25.06.2019). The list of sources on the suffering of Jewish children is long: see for example: I. Olejnik (2018), Bibliografia getta łódzkiego 1945–2017, Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy “Nomos”. Retrieved from: https://docplayer.pl/113528234-2-bibliografia-getta-lodzkiego.html (access: 20.06.2019); A. Buchowska (2006), „Te dzieci są moje!” Losy białostockiego transportu dziecięcego z 5 października 1943 roku w relacjach świadków. „Studia Podlaskie”, vol. XVI, pp. 179–208; Zagłada Żydów, https://pamiec.pl/pa/edukacja/wystawy/ii-wojna-swiatowa/zaglada-zydow/39136,Siostry-matkami-zydowskich-dzieci-Siostry-Franciszkanki-Rodziny-Maryi-wobec-Zagl.html (access: 20.06.2019); R.C. Lucas (2018), Dziecięcy płacz. Holokaust dzieci żydowskich i polskich w latach 1939–1945, Warszawa, Replika.

Introduction

9

on September 1st 1939 and the USSR’s aggression on Poland on September 17th 1939. The armed resistance of Polish armies lasted until October 3rd 1939; the Polish government fled to London; and in the spring of 1940, Stalin shot approximately 22,000 Polish officers – POWs (in Katyn, Kozielsk, Starobilsk, Ostashkhov, Mednoye, Bykivnia). The Polish lands remained under occupation, a solely German occupation from June 22nd 1941 until the end of the war (after the German aggression on the USSR). Under the German occupation, Poles organised the Polish Underground State which had no matching equivalent in the world. The State featured a secret judiciary, secret educational system, postal service, organisations providing aid, and, first and foremost, the largest underground (secret) army in the world, known as the Home Army (established on February 14th 1942, disbanded on January 19th 1945), consisting of roughly 380,000 sworn members, the National Armed Forces (1942–1947), and state authorities in exile (President, government, military authorities). Each activity of these bodies which was discovered was punished by the Germans by means of mass public executions of civilians. The Poles fought against the German and Soviet occupiers u n a i d e d . Treaties signed before September 1st 1939 on mutual military aid were breached both by England and France. After this breach of faith, these countries were bold and immoral enough to accept military aid from the Poles: the military intelligence of the Home Army (including decoding the Enigma encryption device), diversionary and sabotage actions against the Germans, participation of Polish soldiers and Polish military units in a number of battles of World War II, for example the contribution of Polish pilots to the Battle of Britain (despite which repayment for fuel and equipment was demanded from the ruined Poland), participation in the battle for France, the Normandy landings, and the battle of Berlin. It was the Polish army to whom the victorious outcome of the Monte Cassino, Tobruk, and a number of other battles should be assigned. An army formed in the USSR by Polish exiles in Siberia marched alongside Soviet armies from Lenino to Berlin; General Anders’ army marched along a trail of combat through Asia, Africa, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Poles constituted Europe’s fourth largest allied army. During the Yalta conference (February 1945), Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin handed Poland over to be governed by a communist international represented by Stalin. The allies did not permit the Polish army to participate in the victory parade in Berlin. The levy paid in Polish blood that contributed to the victory over Nazism was disregarded (until the present day, the

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Introduction

British have not revealed the archives on the plane “crash” in which the head of Polish government in exile, General Władysław Sikorski, lost his life). While the Western world was enjoying peace, in Poland and its neighbouring countries, a new version of the brave new world of Socialism and Communism in its Marxist-Stalinist guise was implemented (by torturing and destroying those representatives of the Polish nation who desired freedom). The holocaust of Poles, including the holocaust of Polish children, which took place under these circumstances, is confirmed by population loss. The number is commonly rounded off to 6 million citizens of the Republic of Poland, including roughly 3 million Polish citizens of Polish nationality and roughly 3 million Polish citizens of Jewish nationality. In fact, these losses were much larger, the discrepancy resulting from the changes of Polish borderline after World War II, unfavourable for the country, and from the deaths of many Poles under the Soviet occupation, which is clearly visible when Polish statistical yearbooks for 1939 and 1947 are compared. In 1939, the population of Poland totalled 35.1 million people. The statistical yearbook of 1947, in “Table 2. Changes to the population in the current territory of Poland”, gives the number of 23.9 million (Rocznik, 1947) as the population for 1946. Thus, the sum of losses among Polish citizens resulting from World War II totalled roughly 11.2 million people, including roughly 3 million Polish citizens of Jewish nationality. We must remember that both the repatriation of Polish children and the historical policy of remembrance of Polish World War II casualties were executed by authorities which represented the Communism imposed onto Poland (they were characterized by a huge overrepresentation of national minorities). These authorities restricted both the recovery of children kidnapped by the Germans and repatriation of Polish people from the USSR. They also imposed their own narrative – the most blatant example consisting in the renaming of German crimes as Nazi crimes. It must be also remembered that, until 1990, all publications in Poland were censored.

* The present book aims to provide a comprehensive outline of the issues of extermination, Germanization, and the suffering of Polish children under the German occupation. The authors realize how fragmented and superfi-

11

Introduction

cial the treatment presented here is when faced with the complexity of the subject. They are also aware of the fact that German crimes against Polish children were accompanied by crimes against Poles committed by Soviets and Ukrainians (the massacre of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia lasted from 1943 until 1947). With this monograph, we wish to pay tribute to Polish child victims of World War II. The whole world knows about the child victims of the Jewish Holocaust and justly commemorates them. Yet, the world has remained silent on the holocaust of Polish children, silent on the subject of their extermination and martyrdom. Will the world still refuse to know? Janina Kostkiewicz Jagiellonian University Kraków, July 20th 2019

Bibliography Lukas R.C. (1986), The Forgotten Holocaust: the Poles under German Occupation 1939–1944, Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. Lukas R.C. (2012), Zapomniany holokaust: Polacy pod okupacja niemiecką 1939–1944, Przedmowa Norman Davies, transl. Sławomir Stodulski, ed. 2, Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy „Rebis”. Mały rocznik statystyczny 1939 (1939), Warszawa, Nakładem Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego. Rocznik statystyczny 1947 (1947), Warszawa 1947, Nakładem Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego. Hrabar R., Tokarz Z., Wilczur J.E. (1979), Czas niewoli, czas śmierci. Martyrologia dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Warszawa, Interpress.

JANINA KOSTKIEWICZ JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

THE GERMAN POLICY OF EXTERMINATION AND GERMANIZATION OF POLISH CHILDREN DURING WORLD WAR II

Ab strac t : This chapter is an attempt to explore the scope and methods used by Germany in its extermination and Germanization policy aimed at Polish children in the years 1939 to 1945. Children were sent to prisons and concentration camps, pseudomedical experiments were conducted on them, they were sent into forced labor, and planned mass abductions of them were conducted for the purpose of Germanization. The German leadership remained firmly convinced that the crimes they committed on children would never see the light of day; they erased all traces of the children’s origins, changing first and last names, and dates of birth. This extermination and Germanization of Polish children was part of a long-term plan to secure the ultimate end of annexing the Polish lands to Germany. By means of the Germanization and extermination of Polish children, an “age-old problem” was meant to be solved; it was to be a measure to prevent a future generation of Poles from striving to regain the pillaged lands of their fathers. Ke y w o rd s : Children in prisons, concentration camps, pseudomedical experiments on children, forced labor using children, abduction of children for Germanization purposes

Introduction The struggle and resistance of Poles against the German expansion to the east was one of the most tragic moments in the history of Poland, and the persistence and identity of the Polish nation. At the turn of the 18th century, in the indigenous Polish lands taken by force by Germany, Russia, and Austria during the Partitions, a Germanization policy, directed at those who constituted the foundation of a nation’s endurance, the child, intensified within the German language zone. “The struggle for the child and for the young generation was a central element

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of the conflict between the two nations in Silesia, Pomerania and Greater Poland” (Orzechowski, 1960, p. 17) throughout the entire 18th, 19th, and the first half of the 20th centuries. The centuries-long and criminal expansion of Germany at the expense of Poland resulted in an obvious – from the Polish post-war perspective – classification of the German crimes committed in Poland during World War II (1939–1945) as “Nazi crimes”. The narrative in which German crimes against Poles are described with the use of the adjective “Nazi” instead of German is also enrooted in ideology – German National Socialism (Nazism) was a form of socialism after all. And socialism could not be discredited in any way during the times of the Polish People’s Republic. These aren’t all the factors and motives that inspired the use of the term “Nazi” instead of German. Nowadays, no specialist research is needed to determine that the Germans have assigned their crimes to the “Nazis” and have been executing a policy of blaming others, in particular Poles, for the atrocious Second World War which they started. World War II unleashed by Germany and, first and foremost, the military aggression on Poland on 1st September 1939 was not intended as a solely military action. On this occasion, Drang nach Osten and Lebensraum required a war against the biological tissue of the conquered Polish nation. In order to execute their plan, the Germans built a network of concentration camps in Polish territories; they managed these camps and carried out the extermination of the “racially imperfect” and all those who resisted. The first prisoners of KL Auschwitz were Polish nationals, including young adults and children. The scope of German crimes against the Poles is expressed first and foremost by human losses. It is also illustrated by destroyed villages, towns, cities, such as Warsaw, 95% of which was burned to the ground with bombs, as well as many others; by villages pacified and burned down; by the ruthless exploitation of the agricultural, forest, and mining economy; and by the plundering of factories, libraries, art collections, and the personal property of Poles (furniture, table wear, elements of interior design of Polish palaces and manor houses, including two trains full of furniture and artwork which were shipped from the Lubomirski family palace in Łańcut alone). The most horrifying are the human losses clearly visible when statistical yearbooks are compared. In 1939, the population of Poland in 1939 totaled 35.1 million people.1 The statistical yearbook of 1947, in “Table 2. 1

Mały rocznik statystyczny 1939 (1939), Warszawa: Nakładem Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego, p. 10.

The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children…

15

Changes to the population in the current territory of Poland”, gives the number of 23.9 million2 (data for 1946) as the population for 1946. Thus, the sum of losses among Polish citizens resulting from World War II totaled circa 11.2 million people3, including circa 3 million Polish citizens of Jewish nationality. This number obviously includes the losses in the eastern part of the Second Republic of Poland (extermination carried out by the Soviets, including deportations to Siberia, and massacres of Polish people committed by Ukrainians from 1943 to 1947), which are not discussed in the present volume. Losses during World War II “totaled no less than 2,225,000 children” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 190). This number includes Polish child citizens of Jewish, Polish, Roma, and other nationalities. The scale of these crimes against children is enormous; no less than 200,000 children – and these were only children of Polish nationality – were kidnapped for Germanization purposes alone. Of these, only approximately 15–20% returned to Poland after the war (Hrabar, 1960, p. 23).

1. The scope of German crimes against Polish children in Poland under the occupation When discussing the topic of the extermination of children of Polish nationality, we must emphasize that the German aggression on Poland of September 1st 1939 wasn’t only a military action. The ideals of Drang nach Osten and Lebensraum were accompanied by a plan to achieve the numerical superiority of Germans in Europe, but the population of the Polish nation was to be reduced as well in order to make new living space for the Germans. German leaders spoke of the necessity to remove circa 20 million Poles from Polish territory, and extermination as well as resettlement into Eastern Siberia (after conquering the USSR) were proposed as solutions. In the beginning, we need to ask what the motives and organizational directions of the German crimes were. Based on the criminal ideology of

2 3

Rocznik statystyczny 1947 (1947), Warszawa: Nakładem Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego. As a result of the decision made by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, the territory of Poland was reduced. Polish people living in the Eastern borderlands of the Republic of Poland suffered too: extermination, deportations, and detention in camps destroyed the population of the eastern part of Poland.

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German National Socialism4 (Nazism) which entailed racism, antisemitism, and anti-Polonism, a whole range of political interests emerged. One of the obstacles preventing their execution was the biological resilience of Polish people on the eastern border of Germany. Attempts to strengthen the German nation with the “Polish element” were made. Subsequently, a system of Germanization was developed and continually improved. “Within the scope of the struggle for Polish children – Silesian, Masurian, Warmian – a whole intricate system of nurseries, kindergartens, care centers, summer camps, etc. was employed.” (Orzechowski, 1960, p. 17). While stigmatizing every “contamination” of Nordic blood with a Slavic element, a complementary theory of so-called related or “equally valuable” blood was created within the scope of Germanization strategy. This was sought, in first order, among Kashubians, Masurians, Silesians, highlanders from the Beskidy and Zakopane regions, as well as in Polish territories incorporated into the Reich (the Łódź and Poznań provinces) and in the General Government – as far east as the Zamość region. The Germans had to rush, because, in order to gain the position of a superpower and leadership in Europe, the German nation was expected to reach 100 million people, which wouldn’t have been possible through the natural rate of population growth. “Although (…) children of other nations were victimized by these kidnappings as well, including Russian, Czech, Yugoslavian, French, Norwegian, Belgian, and Dutch children, (…) a   p l a n n e d a n d s y stematic Germanization plan was executed only with regard to Polish children” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 22). The extermination of Polish children was executed within the context of the occupation of Poland. Inscriptions saying Nur für Deutsche (Only for Germans) were placed on trams, cinemas, libraries, museums, park gates, and children’s playgrounds. In order to be able to travel, permits from the German authorities were required; a curfew was introduced; a supply policy was based on a ration coupon system which covered roughly 15% of the demand and, even so, couldn’t always be exchanged for food. In 1942, during a meeting of Reich commissioners, Hermann Göring, speaking of the occupied territories, said that he didn’t care if the Poles “were starving to death” as long as the problem didn’t affect the Germans. Appointed as the Eastern Commander in 1939, Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt said: 4

During the interwar period, modern totalitarian systems (communism/bolshevism, German National Socialism, fascism) were criticised by conservative and nationalist circles (Kostkiewicz, 2019).

The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children…

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We, the Germans, must conquer our neighbors twice. So we will be forced to destroy ⅓ of the population of the adjacent areas. We can do this through systematic malnutrition, which ultimately gives a better result than machine guns. This kind of destruction works most effectively, especially among young people (United, 1945, as cited in: Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 27).

As a result, under the ration coupon system, the caloric value for Polish children equaled ⅓ of the rations for German children under the age of 3, while for children above 3 years of age, the respective value equaled only ¼ of the rations for German children. Polish people were completely deprived of welfare. Due to malnutrition, almost half of the children in Warsaw in the year 1942/1943 faced the threat of tuberculosis; in the region of Krosno, roughly 80% of children suffered anemia (Doccumenta, 1945, in: Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 28–31). The German occupier deprived Polish children not only of the right to their own nation, but also the right to live and develop. Against the background of the generally dramatic living conditions of Poles under the German occupation, an image of intentional extermination activity emerges. The German crimes against Polish children took various forms. The following ones were practiced by the Germans in Poland: • extermination of children of Polish nationality: for example by shooting, beating to death, crushing, smashing infants’ heads against a wall, injection (that is killing by a phenol intracardiac injection), slow starvation to death – mostly in camps and German orphanages for children of Polish forced laborers in Germany and Austria; • death and unimaginable suffering of children subjected to pseudo-medical experiments; • planned kidnapping for Germanization purposes: unmeasured suffering: starvation and brutal corporal punishment for speaking even single words in Polish; death from cold, hunger, and exhaustion during transportation and due to lack of medical assistance; • emaciation of children through labor in camps and special centers.

2. Polish children in German prisons Upon entering Poland, German troops of all kinds murdered civilians, in particular those who defended their homeland and fought against the invading occupier. Direct and indirect, as well as group and individual

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methods of extermination were applied to children and teenagers in the same way as to adults. “It has been determined that, during the first 55 days from the introduction of military administration in the occupied Polish territories, starting September 1st 1939, 112 executions of children under the age of 14 were carried out (…). Within that period, 124,640 people in total were murdered, including 1006 children, 96 infants, and 1737 juvenile persons” (Datner, 1967, as cited in: Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 50). Children and teenagers continued to be shot until the final days of the occupation. Polish children were imprisoned on a mass scale. German criminal law was “adapted” to wartime conditions as early as in the first quarter of 1940. “A special criminal law of December 4th 1941 concerning Poles and Jews within all territories of the Reich went into force on January 1st 1942” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 53). Further amendments made it even stricter, as 12-year-old children were treated as adults. Polish children were imprisoned for their own “crimes” (such as going into parks or playing on a playground for German children only or for trading goods in order to acquire food) or on behalf of their parents if they weren’t present at home. Farmers’ children were arrested for untimely contingent supplies, for cooperation with the resistance, for their parent’s involvement in fighting the occupier, and in many other situations. For example, at the Kraków prison on Montelupich street, where 20,000 people were detained during the war, there was a cell for children under the age of 10; on average, roughly 70 children were jailed there at any given time to be relocated to camps or shot later; roughly 50,000 people in total were imprisoned at the Rotunda prison in Zamość, out of which approximately 10% were children; in the spring of 1942, 30 scouts aged 13–16 were shot at Fort VII in Toruń; at Pawiak prison in Warsaw, children were imprisoned for so-called minor sabotage (from there, they were sent to, among others, Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Ravensbrück), approximately 30 children were born in Pawiak cells; a huge number of children were detained at Mysłowice prison as a result of the Oderberg plan, which aimed at the extermination of Polish families in Silesia. As late as in 1979, Polish researchers wrote that prison-related crimes against Polish children had not yet been thoroughly researched (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 54–56).

The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children…

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3. Children in German concentration camps Children were sent to camps mainly as a result of deportation of entire families, their own or their parents’ participation in resistance, from children’s prisons and internment camps, when they were classified “negative” as Polish children racially useless for Germanization purposes. Jewish children were sent to camps along with their parents or guardians to be exterminated for racial reasons (extermination of Jewish children is not discussed in this chapter: see Introduction). The first prisoners of Auschwitz were Polish political prisoners sent to the largest German concentration camp in the first transport from Tarnów in June 1940 (Jewish prisoners began to be transported there as late as March of 1942). Thus, for almost two years, Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was a death camp for Polish people. From January 7th until December 22nd 1941, the Germans shipped 16,762 male Poles, including 398 Polish boys, to Auschwitz.5 Further large transports of entire Polish families or mothers with children took place after the displacement plan executed in the Zamość region in the years 1942–1943, after the Warsaw Uprising – from August until October 1944 (for further data on children in Auschwitz: see the chapter by H. Kubica). Polish children in Auschwitz transported there along with the dislocated people of the Zamość region met a cruel fate (Kozaczyńska, 2014), most probably approximately 500 out of 35,000 dislocated children died there. One of the witnesses describes the “needling” (killing with an intracardiac phenol injection) procedure conducted on children transported with other Poles from the Zamość region (these were entire families from rural areas and their IDs were stamped Umsiedler) and detained at KL Birkenau. In the winter of 1942–1943, “circa 90 boys [from that transport] were brought by Palitsch to block 20 and they were killed there with injections by an NCO paramedic, Scherpe” (Biuletyn, vol. XII, p. 37–38). These were Polish boys aged 8 to 14 years. The same procedure is described by Helena Kubica, who wrote about subsequent events: “For the third time, a group of 80 boys 5

From approximately mid-1941, apart from Poles, prisoners of other nations were transported to KL Auschwitz to be exterminated: Czechs from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Yugoslavians – mostly Slovenians, Russian POWs (…). From 1942, as a result of the incorporation of KL Auschwitz into the programme of total extermination of Jews from all over Europe, in 1944, the area of deportations covered all European countries within the German zone of influence (Piper, 2008, p. 373).

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was brought from Birkenau to the main camp on March 1st 1943. These were boys aged 13 to 17, of Polish, Russian, and Jewish nationality from the Zamość region and other parts of Poland” (Kubica, 1995, vol. IV). The only German concentration camp in the world created solely to detain children was the camp in Łódź at Przemysłowa street. It was located in the middle of the Jewish ghetto and only Polish children were imprisoned there. Those who tried to escape were caught by Jewish police and handed over to the Gestapo. They then returned to the camp where they were subjected to particularly sophisticated forms of torture from the camp staff (Witkowski, 1975).

4. Pseudo-medical experiments on children As the official website of the Auschwitz museum states, pseudo-medical experiments were inspired by “Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, along with Ernst Grawitz, SS and police head doctor, and Wolfram Sievers, secretary general of the Ahnenerbe Society and the head of the Waffen SS Institute for Military and Scientific Research. The administrative and financial aspects were manager by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Bureau (to which concentration camps were subject from 1942), while all specialist analytical tests were conducted by the Waffen SS Institute for Hygiene managed by Joachim Mrugowsky, PhD MD, professor of bacteriology at the Medical Department of Berlin University. Centrally planned experiments were supposed to serve either the army (some of them aimed at improving the soldiers’ health) or help to implement the post-war plans (e.g. regarding population policy), or to strengthen racist theories (among others, by spreading claims of the superiority of the Nordic race). Independently of the centrally planned experiments, a number of Nazi doctors experimented on prisoners on commission from German pharmaceutical companies, medical institutes, or to develop their personal interests and scientific careers” (http://www.auschwitz.org, 2019). Pseudo-medical experiments were conducted in a number of places: first and foremost, in concentration camps, but also in hospitals, orphanages, nurseries. There is no comprehensive report on this issue, because documentation is incomplete and the number of child victims is difficult to assess. These are selected excerpts: in Auschwitz, camp B II f, 49 twins were earmarked for medical experiments. Apart from that, “a group of over 300 child twins was qualified for dr. Joseph Mengele’s experiments (…).

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SS officers first took external, anthropometric measurements, followed by X-rays and morphological tests and surgical experiments. These were described in detail in Dr Miklos Nyiszli’s testimonies. He worked on autopsies of twins and sent preparations from their organs to the Institute of Anthropology in Berlin. Mengele was trying to find a way for Aryan women to give birth to as many twins as possible” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 59). On the day of evacuation of Auschwitz, January 17th 1945, out of these 49 twins kept in the male hospital ward B II f and out of the 300 subjected to Dr Mengele’s experiments – only approximately 100 were still alive (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979). Pharmacological experiments were conducted in Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Monowitz (Auschwitz III). Documentation is incomplete, but it suggests that the research started in the autumn of 1941, that is after Helmuth Vetter arrived in Auschwitz, and lasted until 1944. These experiments were conducted on commission from pharmaceutical companies and according to their instructions (Okoniewska, 2017). In 1960, a Polish researcher on the fate of Polish children during the German occupation wrote that among the institutions operating within the Polish territory, where “Polish children were subjected to criminal medical experiments, there was a facility called Medizinische Kinderheilanstalt in Lubliniec, Upper Silesia, and a nursery in Cieszyn at 37 Frydecka street” (Hrabar, 1960, pp. 86–88). The preserved documentation, although incomplete, suggests that children from the age of eight months to eighteen years were directed to the hospital by German courts and welfare institutions. In Lubliniec, the children were experimentally administered barbiturate products, mostly Luminal in large doses, from 0.1 to 0.6 per day, regardless of age (…). Initially, all the children vomited after they had been given Luminal, some of them seemed to be adapting (…). After some time, they got a high fever, stopped eating, made growling sounds, had foaming mouths, sometimes with blood, and they eventually died. (…) in the so-called ward B, 235 children aged one to fourteen years were administered Luminal. Of these, 221 died (Hrabar, 1960, p. 88).

Further, the author states that from August 1942 until November 1944, 94% of the children directed to the ward died there. Children up to the age of 2–3 years stayed at the Cieszyn nursery. The testimonies of nurse Ruta Heczkówna suggest that the staff used cruel methods:

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they were beaten, tortured, pinched. During feeding time, they were placed on laps with their head down, their noses were clenched (…) and a portion of food was poured into their throats (…) while they were being punched in their heads. The children were so scared of the feeding time, that they would beat themselves and hit their heads against the floor on seeing a nurse” (Hrabar, 1960, pp. 88–89).

Such behavior was exhibited by an emaciated boy who returned to Poland in 1946 – in January 1945, the nursery had been evacuated to Germany – we do not know what was the purpose of this massacre of little children (we may assume psychological experiments).

5. Forced labor of Polish children Forced labor imposed on Polish children was one of the instruments of extermination. The obligation to work applied to children above the age of 12 in the territories incorporated into the Reich and above the age of 14 in the General Government. In real life, the lower age limit was dropped arbitrarily: in Reichsgau Wartherland, in the summer of 1942, children over the age of 7 were employed in the harvest; in the autumn of 1943 in Poznań, 10-year-old children worked sorting potatoes for 10 hours per day; near Gniezno, 12-year-old Polish children were employed in construction works related to the engineering of lakes. Labor camps were particularly harsh and exhausting for children. These were situated in Andrychów (Kielce province), Chełmiec near Nowy Sącz, Biłgoraj, Poniatowa, in the Lublin region (both Polish and Jewish children worked here extracting peat), Blachownia Śląska, and many other places. Many thousands of Polish children were sent through Jugendamt to Germany to work in various factories and on farms. Such examples are numerous: Fritz Sauckel, appointed in 1942 as the German government’s proxy for labor, issued an order for the employment of 500,000 girls as domestic help for large families; throughout the occupation, children aged 11–17 worked at the Krupp armaments factory and, in 1944, even 6-year-old children were employed there and a camp for child laborers was established (Trials, 1949, p. 1409, as cited in: Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 37). The testimonies of a doctor from the Wuppertal labor camp mention 10-year-old girls working for the arms industry, starving to death. During the Nuremberg trials, it was proven that the Germans caused extreme exhaustion in 8–10 year old children by forcing them, by means of

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beatings and abuse, to work as much as adults and then killed them later on (Cyprian, Sawicki, 1956, pp. 765–774). The extermination of Polish male youth was also aided by the Construction Service (Baudienst) established in May of 1940 in Kraków by Hans Frank (Kraków was being prepared to become a German administrative center in this part of Europe). This method of extermination consisted in the unpaid slavery of young people stationed in barracks, terror and the provision of poor food rations. After being in operation for a year, Baudienst totaled 120,000 youth workers. Dislocation and confiscation of farms was another method of extermination. Principal dislocation plans included the resettlement of the residents of Gdynia, a town and harbor built from scratch by Poland during the interwar period; the resettlement of the residents of Gdańsk, Tczew, Wejherowo, and the Pomerania region; from Reichsgau Wartherland, 600,000 were resettled (to camps established in Potulice, Smukała, Cerekwica, Chodzież, Kazimierz Biskupi, Komorów, Gnieźno, Stutthof, and Turek). Separate dislocation plans were executed in the Żywiec region (Aktion Saybusch) and in the Zamość region; these were addressed towards farmers whose land was confiscated. In total, dislocation actions conducted by the German authorities within the Polish territories in the years 1939–1945 (excluding dislocation of prisoners and liquidation of concentration camps), affected 2,478,000 Poles (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 43).

6. Planned kidnapping of Polish children for Germanization purposes taking into account their education level Researchers on the topic of kidnapping and the Germanization of Polish children claim that the system was most likely planned by the Office of Racial Policy (Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP). “This office was a central forge of criminal ideas on racial and political issues based on pseudo-scientific premises” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 28). On November 25th 1939, the Office delivered to Himmler a 40-page report titled “An approach to the population of former Polish territories form the racial and political perspective”, in which a separate chapter was devoted to “racially valuable” Polish children who were to be brought up and educated for the benefit of the Reich. “Children taken into account cannot be older than eight to ten years, because usually true re-nationalization, that is ultimate Germanization, is possible up to

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this age only” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 28). In a document of May 15th 1940 titled “Several thoughts on treating other nations in the East” (Einige Gedanken über die Behandlung der Fremdenvölker im Osten), Himmler wrote: “every year, 6–10 years old children in the General Government are classified and divided into racially valuable and racially worthless” (as cited in: Hrabar, 1960, p. 103). Racially valuable children were taken away from their parents by force, detained in internment camps (e.g. in Kalisz) and directed to Germany for Germanization. A prominent SS officer said to his soldiers on September 16th 1942: “Any good blood (…) wherever you come across it in the East, you can take it [for Germany – JK], or kill it” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 30). For others, only a 4-grade educational system was planned with the following teaching program: counting to 500, signing ones name, inculcation of the premise saying that “It is God’s order for the Polish nation to be obedient to Germans (…). Himmler didn’t consider reading skills necessary” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 29). A whole system of harassment based on the promise of improvement in conditions and the reduction of death threats in return for pledging loyalty to Germany (which was usually accompanied by signing the Volksliste) was created. For the purposes of Germanization and deportation of Polish children, the Germans created a whole administrative structure consisting of: 1. State authorities, which adopted the general guidelines and implementation paths of this policy: the Reichführer SS, head of German police (RFSS), Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Nation (RKFDV), and the minister of internal affairs (Reichsminister des Innern). 2. Authorities issuing regulations and executive orders: the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHD), “Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle” (VOMI), and the NSDAP. 3. Institutions set up to execute the plan: Lebensborn e. V, Deutsche Heimschulen, Nationalssozialistische-Volkswohlfahrt e. V. (HSV), Kinderlandverschickung (KLV), Erweitere Kinderlandverschickung (EKLV), Gauselbstverwaltung, and the Kreishauptmann offices in the General Government. 4. Auxiliary authorities and bodies: youth offices (Jugendamt), welfare institutions (Fürsorgeamt), Reichsadoptionsstelle, Ressetlement Center (UWZ), German courts, work agencies, health centers, and the Gestapo (Hrabar, 1960, pp. 34–35). Some of Roman Hrabar’s findings on these organizations are worth a closer look. For example, Lebensborn, established on H. Himmler’s ini-

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tiative in 1935, widely commented on by historians, was “protected” from trial thanks to, among others, as Hrabar writes, the fact that “within the first several month after warfare ended, the records of the Lebensborn central office were sunk by the American occupation authorities in the River Inn in Bayern” (Hrabar, 1960, p. 37). The search for Polish childrenn educated by Deutsche Heimschulen remains a complete mystery. We know that the institution Germanized Polish children (and the children of other neighboring nationalities) aged 6–12 years. A special role was assigned to facilities for Polish boys in Niederaltreich, Gau Bayreuth in Bayern, and for girls in Achern in Baden (Lebensborn was in possession of these children’s records). This is where the children’s names were changed. Three Polish children who had been through that experience testified for the Military Tribunal in Nuremberg during trial no. 8 (Hrabar, 1960, p. 38). All records and traces of the activity of Deutsche Heimschulen were destroyed. Hrabar and other employees of the Polish Red Cross undertook an effort to carry out unannounced inspections of these schools whose addresses were known. They found no traces and no information on what had happened to the children. The Germanization of Polish children was aided by the German judicial system, both in Germany and in the occupied Polish territories. The courts would use not only every pretext but also lies to take children from Polish families and guardians, let alone children of mixed-nationality couples. Before children intended for Germanization arrived in Germany, they were subjected to racial research and were detained in a number of centers established by the Germans within Polish territory, such as the camps in Łódź, Kalisz, and many others. Also, the “capacity” of centers conducting racial research and medical examinations resulted in the fact that the children were kept in dramatic conditions, due to which many died (of hunger, cold, untreated diseases). The situation of a child sent for Germanization was multifaceted and diversified. It depended on the environment to which the child was relocated, their age and psychological stature, consciousness of their true origin, and the common decency of Germans, which was usually lacking. German families which took in the kidnapped children, very often related to the SS, usually adopted brutal methods of upbringing. The children were insulted as “Polish swines”, “Polish bandits” and this happened within a society in which the mere fact of being a Pole was considered insulting. The children were also usually forced to work beyond their endurance (Hrabar, 1960, p. 79). In facilities and institutions controlled by the SS and Lebensborn where Polish children were detained, an unimaginable rigor was imposed. A ban

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on the use of the Polish language was exercised through various punishments, such as lashing, starvation, locking in solitary confinement, brutal beating for violating the ban on writing letters to parents, and confiscation and destruction of incoming letters (when a letter was delivered because a child managed to violate the ban). Karol Karwinowski from Łódź described his experiences in the following way: In Niederaltreich, we were placed at a boarding school where 100 boys were already staying. The school commandant was called Hartmann (…). For using the Polish language, we were punished with hunger and beating, but you had to stand straight when the teacher, an SS officer, would slap you in the face as many times as he wished. We were also punished by exhausting several-hour-long workouts, we performed the exercises holding various loads, such as a gun, helmet, backpack (Hrabar, 1960, p. 82).

The program of taking children away from their Polish families was planned and consciously executed not only by German leaders elected democratically, but also by the whole German society. After the war, this crime was forgotten also due to the actions of the American occupation zone authorities, as exemplified in the sinking of the Lebensborn central office’s documentation in the River Inn in Bayern referred to by R. Hrabar (Hrabar, 1960, p. 37). Also, procedures and conditions imposed on parents who wanted to retrieve their children kidnapped by the Germans prove that the latter were favored. Here is an example: on September 28th 1946, UNRRA headquarters informed Wacław Hołubowicz (Olsztyn province), who had been looking for his son Franciszek, that they “placed the child in the care of the Ploeg family (detailed address data followed) and he is under the supervision of local German authorities. The Polish Red Cross learned about the situation too late (…) Little Franciszek died on December 9th 1946 (…). Whether there is a  c au s e-and-ef fe c t-rel ationship between the child’s death and the fact that his father was found is unclear” (Hrabar, 1983, p. 140). This opinion was expressed in 1960 by a Polish lawyer who experienced German occupation and knew German hatred for the Poles first-hand. Roman Hrabar gives an example of a Czech girl (with which he became familiar while working with a Czech named Ondraček): The Military Administration in Hesse refused to give a child back, because a German woman, Hannel, opposed the idea. They referred to an USFET order of May 11th 1946 (Hrabar, 1983, p. 155). The same lawyer appointed by Poland to

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search for the kidnapped children wrote that in 1947 he received a letter of notice saying that the Military Board had no intention of extending his and his co-worker’s accreditation within the American zone, because the territorial scope of their activity covered all of Germany. At the same time, the lawyers received a memorandum on searching for children compiled by E. Dunkel of Iserlohn in the British zone. Dunkel proposed the formation of a committee consisting of seven people. The committee would decide on the future of the children found using such criteria as: 1) is the child provided good care by their German foster family and are their prospects for the future reasonable; 2) are their prospects for the future assured if they are returned to the country demanding the child back (Hrabar, 1983, pp. 153–156). Similarly, evidence of Deutsche Heimschulen operations wasn’t secured – after the war, children attending these schools disappeared along with all of their records, a fact which was discovered by Roman Hrabar and his co-workers who carried out unannounced inspections of school buildings accompanied by representatives of the American zone authorities. Nowadays, the abovementioned facts may be interpreted as permission given by the Allies for further persecution of the victims (Polish citizens) and for saving those guilty of the outbreak of World War II (the Germans).

Conclusions German leaders believed that their crimes against children would never see the light of day; the children’s origin was blurred by changing their given and family names, and dates of birth. German fears provided foundations for these crimes and, in 1943, Himmler referred to children as “their parents’ most dangerous avengers” (Hrabar 1960, p. 22). Thus, extermination and Germanization of children was, in the long run, a method to “secure” the outcome of the final and ultimate battle for the incorporation of Polish territories into Germany. The long-standing problem was thus resolved: attempts of new generations of Poles to retrieve their stolen fatherland could be prevented. Immediately after the end of the war, UNRRA carried out a search for lost children, because the Polish Red Cross had not yet formed its structures. In the spring of 1946, the PRD Main Delegation was established in Arolsen in order to launch PRC units in all occupation zones of Germany. Also, the Consular Department of the Polish Military Mission in Berlin

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undertook the search. The PRC Information Office in Warsaw regularly forwarded lists of children, including detailed personal data as well as the circumstances and location in which they were taken away from their families, to PRC Delegations. The PRC also organized the transport of children with hospital trains from June 5th 1946 until January 31st 1948. The Silesia-Dąbrowa District of the PRC is in possession of 28 000 records of children repatriated at that time from Germany and Austria. The current General Records of the Office of Information and Tracing of the Polish Red Cross consists of over 7 million individual records (Ulotka PCK, 2019) containing information of the fate of Polish people and foreigners lost during World War II.

Bibliography Auschwitz 1940–1945. Węzłowe zagadnienia z dziejów obozu. Założenie i organizacja obozu (1995), vol. I–V, eds. W. Długoborski, F. Piper, Oświęcim: Wydawnictwo Państwowego Muzeum Oświęcim-Brzezinka. Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce (1948), vol. IV, Warszawa. Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce (1960), vol. XII, Warszawa. Cyprian T., Sawicki J. (1956), Sprawy polskie w Procesie Norymberskim, Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. Datner Sz. (1967), 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo MON. Hrabar R.Z. (1960), Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich. Uprowadzenie i germanizowanie dzieci polskich w latach 1939–1945, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R.Z. (1983), Janczarowie XX wieku, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R.Z. (1968), Na rozkaz i bez rozkazu. Sto i jeden wybranych dowodów hitlerowskiego ludobójstwa na dzieciach, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R., Tokarz Z., Wilczur J.E. (1979), Czas niewoli, czas śmierci. Martyrologia dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Interpress”. Kostkiewicz J. (2019). Polski nurt krytyki totalitaryzmów, in: Pedagogika. Podręcznik akademicki, eds. Z. Kwieciński, B. Śliwerski, Warszawa: PWN. Kozaczyńska B. (2014), Nie było kiedy płakać. Losy rodzin polskich wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny 1942–1943, vol. 1–2, Siedlce: Stowarzyszenie Tutaj-Teraz. Kubica H. (1995), Dzieci i młodzież w KL Auschwitz, in: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Węzłowe zagadnienia z dziejów obozu, eds. W. Długoborski, F. Piper, vol. 2, Oświęcim-Brzezinka: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Memoriał: Die Bedeutung des Polen – Problems f. die Rüstungswirtschaft Oberschlesien. Doccumenta Okupationis (1945), ed. K.M. Pospieszalski, vol. I. Poznań: Instytut Zachodni.

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Okoniewska K. (2017), Zbrodnicza medycyna. Eksperyment farmakologiczne i doświadczenia z użyciem środków chemicznych przeprowadzane na więźniach z Auschwitz, “Studia Historyczne”, R. LX, vol. 1(237). Orzechowski M. (1960), „Przedmowa”, in: R.Z. Hrabar, Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich. Uprowadzenie i germanizowanie dzieci polskich w latach 1939–1945, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Piper F. (2008), Funkcje KL Auschwitz. Eksterminacja, eksploatacja i dystrybucja siły roboczej, Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis No 3039, Wrocław: Studia nad Faszyzmem i Zbrodniami Hitlerowskimi, vol. XXX. Lucas R.C. (1986), The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939–1944, Lexington–Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. Lucas R.C. (2012), Zapomniany holokaust: Polacy pod okupacją niemiecką 1939–1944, Introduction: Norman Davies, trans. S. Stodulski, ed. 2, Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy „Rebis”. Today’s Children Tomorrow’s Hope. The Story of Children in the Occupied Lands (1945), London: United Nations Information Organization. Witkowski J. (1975), Hitlerowski obóz koncentracyjny dla małoletnich w Łodzi, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. Zapisy terroru. Volume 6. Los kobiet i dzieci (2019), eds. A. Gutkowska et al., Warszawa: Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego. Online references http://www.auschwitz.org/historia/eksperymenty (access: 10.07.2019).

ANDRZEJ KOŁAKOWSKI UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK

A CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT: THE EXTERMINATION OF POLISH CHILDREN DURING THE PERIOD OF GERMAN OCCUPATION FROM 1939 TO 1945

Ab strac t : The subject of this article is the martyrdom of Polish children during the period of German occupation, 1939–1945. The crimes that Germans committed on children on Polish soil have usually been described within a broader context and this specific subject has not been thoroughly discussed to date. It has been embedded in the general context of war crimes, and it is also worth noting that historians have focused on the infanticides of Jewish children. As for the ordeal of Polish children, worthy of note is the literature on the “Children of Zamojszczyzna”. Polish children at large, however, remain to an extent the forgotten victims of the war. Many of those crimes were never punished or were even utterly ignored by German courts. Therefore, remembrance of those past atrocities not only fills a historiographical gap but can also be seen as a duty to the youngest victims of the war. Ke y words : The Second World War, War crimes, Polish children, extermination, German occupation

Word War II was an event without a precedence in history, the main reason for this being its total nature. In earlier martial doctrines, the goal of the army was the destruction of the enemy’s military capability, control over its territory, access to its natural resources etc. The war that broke out in September 1939 in Poland was waged with the aim of destroying the Polish nation and reconstructing the social order according to the dogmas of National Socialism. Hitler clearly declared his plans for the destruction of Polish society. On August 22nd, 1939, he ordered his soldiers to kill all Poles without mercy – men, women and children alike – because it was the only way for Germans to gain their lebensraum (Lucas, 2012, p. 25). On another occasion he reminded his subordinates that the war they were waging was supposed

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to be a “war of annihilation” (Lucas, 2012, p. 26). These are only a few examples of Hitler’s statements, proving that Polish children were not accidental victims of the war. They suffered according to a precise plan. One could ask whether there is any point in coming back to this oft-discussed subject, regarded by many as exhausted, 80 years after the outbreak of the war. There are many reasons for doing so. The most important of them are in my opinion the modern tendency of blurring the line between the victims and the perpetrators, the fact that German war crimes are often limited to the Jewish Holocaust, as well as a false belief that the atrocities of the Third Reich have been properly atoned for.

The question of guilt Every trial is a response to a crime committed. The task of law enforcement is to identify the perpetrators and assess the scope of guilt, as well as to administer punishment. It can be argued that none of these objectives has really been achieved in this case. The approach to German atrocities has been selective, few apart from the Nazi leadership have been found guilty, and a large number of war criminals have avoided persecution. As a result, soon after capitulation, the general opinion in Germany was that the ongoing trials were victor’s justice, and not a victory of justice. According to Paweł Kosiński, this feeling intensified in the 1950s when many Nazi dignitaries were freed as a result of revision trials (Kosiński, 2015, p. 56). An example of this phenomenon is the book by Paul Hausser, former SS Oberstgruppenführer, published in 1953 in Bonn. In his arguments against the injustice of the International Military Tribunal the author mentions, for instance, the fact that the SS had been judged to be a criminal organization (Kosiński, 2015, p. 58). It can be argued that soon after the end of the Nuremberg trials, Germans started to gradually shed their feeling of guilt. Although collective responsibility is not in the spirit of the Latin legal tradition, it would be hard to argue that the crimes committed on Polish children during the war stemmed only from the criminal instincts of individual soldiers. Their barbarity was deeply ingrained in the norms of National Socialism. In 1933, Hitler addressed Hermann Rauschning, the President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, with these words: “Yes, we are barbarians! We want to be barbarians, it is an honored title to us” (Wieliczko-Szarkowa, 2015, p. 7). It’s hard to assess to what degree Hitler’s

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opinion was shared by ordinary Germans, but its reflection can be found in the behavior of German soldiers towards Polish people, in the treatment of Polish forced laborers by German citizens, as well as the conduct of German officials in occupied Poland. The collective guilt of the German nation was affirmed by German intellectuals F.W. Foerster and Karl Jaspers. In one of his works, published in 1946, Foerster warned against the absolution of Germans, saying that Hitler had expressed aloud something which other Germans had been merely whispering about (Foerster, 1946, p. 1). Jaspers analyzed the German responsibility for the hell of World War II and classified four aspects of German guilt: criminal (pertaining to the crimes committed by individuals), political (guilt of the leaders), subjective moral guilt (defined by the individual conscience of the person), and metaphysical guilt, the kind of guilt he ascribed to all Germans alive after the war (Małecki, 1947, p. 39). It appears that a proper insight into the crimes committed on Polish children can only be gained by considering the problem of guilt in these four aspects. While analyzing articles about the responsibility for the crimes, one cannot help but notice the curious terminology. As Joanna Lubecka points out, the term “German crimes” became inconvenient soon after the war and was mainly used in vernacular speech. On the Polish territory occupied by the USSR. it was replaced by euphemisms as the Soviet occupation zone in Germany was transformed into the GDR. It became necessary to differentiate between the “bad” Germans from West Germany and the “good” ones in the GDR, hence the terms “Hitler crimes” or “fascist crimes” came into use. This did not change in the 1990s because of the German-Polish reconciliation and Polish ambitions to join the EU. Germany was perceived as the main Polish ally in this cause, hence blaming Germans was seen as inadvisable from the political point of view. It was then that the term “Nazi crimes” came to use (Lubecka 2011, pp. 12–13). Paradoxically, a change in this respect was only brought by the appearance of the offensive expression “Polish death camps” in the world press. As the term “Nazi” was ambiguous (being a Nazi was not dependent on nationality), Polish authorities were forced to single out German responsibility for the crimes. It must be observed, though, that putting the blame on the former German state is still not very popular amongst European political elites. Modern Germany understandably admits the criminal nature of the Third Reich in official statements, but, as reported by Dutch press, former SS members from Belgium and the Netherlands still receive German pensions paid from the funds for the victims of the

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war (telegraph.nl, wgospodarce.pl, niezalezna.pl, międzynarodowe.com, tvp.info, telewizjarepublika.pl). As the Nuremberg trials ended in 1949, the issue of German war crimes became obsolete to the Western world. Speaking in terms employed by Jaspers, it must be noted, though, that during the trials only the leaders were convicted. The German populace undoubtedly gained an understanding of the scale of the genocide from the trials, however, as observed by the German historian Norbert Frei, Germany was symbolically purged from guilt – the “guilty” were convicted, and the ones who had loyally supported them for many years and enjoyed the privileges reserved for the übermensch could feel excused (Frei, 2011, p. 71). It should be observed that the sentences were relatively lenient. An example of this were the trials of German doctors: out of 23 war criminals responsible for euthanasia and human experiments only seven were sentenced to death and just as many were acquitted. Every doctor sentenced to prison was free before 1960 (although some of them had received life sentences). Psychoanalyst Alexander Mitscherlich, who prepared a report on the participation of the medical community in organized crime, became, according to Frei, “the most hated man in German medicine”. In the view of the German doctors’ union, if only 350 out of 90,000 doctors in Germany committed war crimes, the medical community as a whole did not break the Hippocratic Oath (Frei, 2011, p. 30). Mitscherlich claimed that there had been an entire apparatus making it possible for the 350 doctors to commit the crimes (Frei, 2011, p. 32). Worth noting are also the post-war careers of the criminals. Hans Heinze, one of the main doctors supervising the euthanasia process, became the head of a children’s pediatric clinic after the war. Werner Catel, responsible for “extinguishing the life of children” was absolved in the denazification trials and led a pediatric clinic in Kiel until his death. In 1964, he was acquitted of taking part in the Aktion T4 by the National Court in Hanover. Ernst Wentzler, who had signed death sentences for “deformed infants”, was also acquitted of charges by the court in Hamburg (Wieliczko-Szarkowa, 2015, p. 182). The court’s arguments were that although killing children was illegal, “destroying mere human corpses and empty shells” might not be something totally immoral (Frei, 2011, p. 33). It is worth noting that immediately after the end of the Nuremberg trials, the death sentence was abolished in Germany, which allowed the people who were responsible for the war crimes in Poland to feel safe. The trials of German industrialists, lawyers or even Wehrmacht officers were conducted in a similar way. A good example of this is the trial

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of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. It was conducted only because of American pressure, and even Winston Churchill took part in the fundraising campaign to provide a defense attorney for the “hero of Sevastopol” (Frei, 2011, p. 142).

Judging the crimes Though the crimes committed by Wehrmacht soldiers in Poland from 1st September 1939 onwards were investigated by the Commission on Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation, the trials rarely ended in convictions. Most of these convictions happened shortly after the war (the trials were conducted for show or by martial courts during assizes). The vast documentation that had been gathered in Poland and given to the German prosecutors was not properly utilized. The trials in Germany were discontinued on various pretexts (Kulesza, 2004, p. 3). The trials for shooting Józefa Rojek, a young girl who did not speak German and laughed in response to a German soldier, and for using a grenade to kill Marianna Król, a child who hid in the basement because she could not run away with the adults (I am omitting the other victims here as they were adults), were discontinued on June 2nd 1981. Justifying the decision, the prosecutors said that those homicides had been committed in retaliation during war time or had been part of fighting the “criminal resistance movement”, and therefore did not constitute war crimes (Kulesza 2004, p. 4). It was even decided that throwing a grenade into the basement Marianna Król was hiding in did not classify as cruelty (which in the opinion of the prosecutors needed to involve prolonged torture of the victim). The prosecution also claimed that German soldiers had been justified to treat the civilian populace as a threat because the Polish radio had called on all Poles to resist. It is curious that even many years after the war the German state still treated the Polish resistance as a “criminal organization”. The investigation of the pacification of Złoczew committed by the th 17  Infantry Division was discontinued on the pretext of the low credibility of Polish witnesses, as their testimonies were not consistent with the war diary of the Division. Events that were hard to justify for the judges, such as soldiers crushing the head of a one-and-a-half year old child with a rifle butt, were simply dismissed as homicides resulting from blood lust and not from racial hatred. For such an act, though criminal, the limitation period had already passed. An important reason for discontinuing the trials was

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also the impossibility of identifying the perpetrators (Kulesza, 2004, p. 6). The prosecutor Witold Kulesza from the IPN openly said that such a way of conducting trials “clearly demonstrated the principal assumption of the proceedings, which was that Polish civilians contributed to the homicides committed by German soldiers through their active resistance and hostility” (Kulesza, 2004, p. 5). The aforementioned examples demonstrate the nature of the proceedings before German courts. Worth noting is the curious take on the limitation period of the crimes. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany states that the limitation period for crimes committed during the war starts from May 8th 1945; however when it comes to Poland this date is set to September 1st 1939, because according to German courts in the first part of the war there were no political obstructions to prosecuting the crimes committed by German soldiers (Kulesza, 2004, p. 9). This opinion was based among others on the testimonies of the staff officers from the 1st Panzergrenadier Regiment, who said that they would have punished criminals according to applicable martial law had they known about the crimes. The German prosecutors “did not find the statements of witnesses unbelievable, especially as the German martial jurisdiction was perfectly in-tact at least in that period of the war” (Kulesza, 2004, p. 9). Even though it must be said that identifying the direct perpetrators of the crimes is indeed extraordinarily difficult (after all, the Polish witnesses did not know the identities of the German soldiers who committed the crimes), it was certainly possible to identify the responsible units and their commanders.

Exemplification of the crimes The crimes committed on Polish children took many forms, from planned extermination (including mass murders in concentration camps and abortion), through debilitating forced labor and homicides committed during the pacification of villages and towns, to stripping the children of their identity during the Germanization process. It is interesting that this premeditated barbarity was given a legal framework by the German state. Law is an attribute of the state, and with the German army came new regulations, including those directed at the youngest generation. The regulation from September 14th 1939, On the treatment of minors in martial and special courts, stated that a minor could be tried as an adult if they

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exhibited a level of development equal to adults (Adamska, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). As the regulation from October 4th 1939, On the defense against dangerous juvenile criminals, came into effect, minors could even be sentenced to death. Both documents constituted the legal basis on which German courts sentenced the Bydgoszcz youth to death and sent minors to forced labor camps. It is worth observing that even on the territories incorporated into the Reich, juvenile Poles were exempted from German criminal legislation for minors, which allowed for harsher sentences. Under the Polenstrafrecht a minor could be sentenced to up to 10 years in a camp, and if they were tried by the so-called People’s Court, to 15 years or death. The exemption of Polish youth from German legislation was justified by the fact that the role of German law was the upbringing of youth for the benefit of German society, which was not applicable to foreigners (Adamska, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). Young Poles were to spend their sentences in complete isolation from Germans, in the so-called Straflager, equivalent to high security prisons. Minors worked there for an hour longer than in German high security prisons and were assigned the hardest tasks, all in a very rigorous environment. The supervisor could administer disciplinary punishment, such as limiting food to bread and water or putting the minor under internal arrest for 1 to 6 months (which was not included in the time served in prison). He could also prolong the work day by an hour (Adamska, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). Work constituted a specific kind of biological destruction. In Greater Poland alone there were 272 thousand children and youth of 10–18 years of age employed in industry and farming (Chróścielewski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). Although the age threshold for work was 14, the labor office in Poznan called all children from the age of 12 to work, and it is known that even children as young as ten were employed (Chróścielewski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1) Employment conditions for juveniles were not regulated by law, which resulted in long work hours, limited access to medical care, punishments such as whipping or being sent to a “rehabilitation labor camp”, as well as no leave. All of the above combined with not enough time for rest or entertainment contributed to physical and mental exhaustion. It must be noted that juvenile workers were very profitable for Germany. Minors received 40% of adult compensation for the same amount of work. It is estimated that Germany profited by half a billion marks on juvenile labor (Chróścielewski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1).

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Executions The executions performed by the invading German army were varied in nature but had the same aim: to sow fear in the hearts of Poles. One of them was described by private Kluge, who witnessed the murders committed in Świecie by an SS unit. “On Saturday, October 7th 1939, while patrolling the town I heard they had shot a large number of Poles at the Świecie cemetery and that more people would be executed on Sunday.” Kluge went to the cemetery on that Sunday morning and witnessed the shooting of women and children. He described one such execution: a woman with three children from 3 to 8 years old was told to lie down in a previously dug hole and was murdered by a shot to the head from a distance of 30 centimeters. According to the report, 10 children from 3 to 8 years old were killed that day. Even more brutal was the murder in Piaśnica. Elżbieta Ellwart witnessed the killing of a two-year-old child. According to her testimony, an SS soldier was tearing the child apart, then hit its head against a tree several times. This method of killing children was also confirmed by other witnesses (Ciechanowski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). On November 11th 1939 in Gdynia Oksywie, a German policeman shot dead two boys trying to pick up Polish books being thrown out of a window by the new German residents. On December 27th 1942 in Lubawa (in the Pomeranian voivodeship), members of Gestapo shot dead the Szacki family on the pretext of their hostile attitude toward Germans. As reported by Barbara Szacka, having shot their parents, they came back to the house where the two 2-month-old twins remained. One of the Gestapo members grabbed one of the children, tore it in half and threw the remains out of the window. Barbara did not know what happened to the other child, having fainted (Ciechanowski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). According to incomplete information from 1979, just in the Pomerania region Germans killed 1110 children from 0 to 10 years old, 225 children from 10 to 14 years old and 548 children from 15 to 18 years old (Ciechanowski, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). More such testimonies could (and perhaps should) be quoted; however, it would seem that no numbers are really needed to portray the scope of the crime, as its magnitude is expressed in every individual act of cruelty, every inhuman relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Abortion constituted a particular form of exterminating children. This pertained in large part to the children of forced laborers. The mothers were persuaded into agreeing to the procedure. An injection causing preterm

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birth was used, and after birth the newborn would be left unattended, resulting in swift death. If the mother did not agree, she would be relegated to intensive labor, which led to miscarriage. The witness Anna Czekaj, who testified before the District Commission on the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, said that she had been being persuaded into an abortion. She was told that she would not be able to raise the child in the camp. Another woman, Janina Macka, was sent to the camp in Piła immediately after becoming pregnant. Poor conditions in the women’s barrack and a food shortage (the women were living on a diet of stolen potatoes) resulted in her child’s body being covered in ulcers after birth. She had to leave it unattended when she went to work. After three months she decided to leave her son under the care of an older married couple. Maria Fajka was also forced to have an abortion. She gave birth in the camp at Piła, just like Janina Macka. She said that the women giving birth were not provided any sort of humane conditions. After birth, they slept on the bare floor and their beds were not even filled with straw. A large part of the children born in the Piła camp died. Among the various causes of death in the register, one cannot find anything about the living conditions in the camp; worth noting however is the description of the newborns with phrase “unfit to live” (Goździcki, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). The children classified for abortion were those born to “racially worthless” parents. If the mother still insisted on giving birth, the child was taken to a special care facility. This was based on the decision of the SS Reichsführer and the Chief of German Police from July 27th 1943. The decision comprised of several points: racially worthless children were to be taken to “child care facilities for foreigners”; labor offices were to report all pregnant women; and racially worthy mothers were to remain in the lebensborn institutions and could not leave the Reich (Goździcki, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). These “care facilities” were in fact infant extermination centers. The primary means of killing was starvation. On August 11th 1943, Himmler wrote in a letter “as no stance has been taken on this matter [whether to raise or kill the children of forced laborers – AK], and, as I’ve been told, we should keep up appearances in front of eastern laborers, infants are to receive insufficient nutrition which inevitably will lead to death within several months” (Goździcki, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). During the proceedings against Berthold Heill, Karl Musse, Gertrud Becker and Anni Juger, the investigation conducted by the Polish Military Mission showed that the corpses of starved newborns were put in the bathroom, where they sometimes lay until they rotted, and then were taken away

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in the margarine boxes to be buried or cremated (Goździcki, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). In the Brunswick facility, 174 infants were killed in this way from May 1943 to July 1944, and 153 died from July 1944 to May 1945. In this so-called “maternity ward for Poles and eastern laborers”, mothers could feed their children for eight days, after which they were separated. The high mortality rate was explained by a particular disease called “hospitalismus”. Similar was the situation in Leberweit (where infant mortality rate reached 65%) and the nursery in Velpke, where 84 children died within half a year. The cause of their death was reported as “general physical debilitation”. Ernst Wirtz, a Krupp employee, testified in the Nuremberg trials that when he visited children’s barracks, he saw infants from 0 to 2 years old whose arms were thinner than his thumb. According to him they were lying naked on prison bunk beds and rubber sheets. In response to his question about child mortality, forced laborers in the camp said 50–60 children died every day (Goździcki, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1). Along with the mass murders, worth mentioning are the individual acts of barbarity committed by “ordinary Germans”, the owners of farms where forced laborers worked. They could perhaps be treated as regular crimes if not for the fact that the perpetrators were not only not persecuted, but were also enabled by the authorities who helped them hide their crimes. The case of Herman Feidler, accused by Zofia Kubicz of killing her twoand-a-half year old child, can serve as an example (IPN Główna Komisja, sygn. 164/4309). Zofia Kubicz was a forced laborer working for Feidler. She testified that her child always stayed close to her until one day it went missing. After 22 hours, its body was found in the Weser river. According to the mother, its neck was deformed and showed fingertip bruises, which suggested strangling. She claimed the child was strangled and the n thrown into the river afterwards. As the river lay 2.5 km from the farm, it is hard to believe that the child wandered there by itself. An autopsy was not allowed and she could not even inform her husband, who worked at a nearby farm, of the tragedy (IPN Główna Komisja, sygn. 164/4309). Mass murders also took place in care facilities on Polish soil, as proven by the reports of underground organizations. One such report states that in January 1943 in Łomaczów in the Zamojszczyzna region, Germans murdered over a hundred children in a nursery (Sprawozdanie, IPN BU, sygn. 2210/282/2) According to a document prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in London (department of processing news from the homeland), a significant number of children were transported from the Pawiak prison to concentration camps on November 12th 1942. The document fur-

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ther states that children under 12 were murdered immediately after arrival in the camp (Dokument MoIA, IPN BU, sygn. 2210/282/2). The London MoIA also informed of street roundups. Over 2 thousand children aged 14–15 were captured and transported to Germany in one such roundup on November 6th 1942 in Warsaw. Many young people died during transit while attempting escape or from diseases and cold. An example of this is the case of about 300 children (most likely from the Zamojszczyzna region) who froze to death and were buried in the Łąck woods nearby Gostynin. As Stefan Wasilewski and Joanna Kowalik testified before the District Commission, in the winter of 1942/1943 several cargo wagons filled with children arrived at the Płock-Radziwie station. The investigation showed that a large part of those children froze to death and were buried in the nearby forest (IPN BU, sygn. 2205/32). During the analysis of the Commission’s polls in 1972 a note was discovered with the information that about 300 children were murdered by Germans near the train station in 1942. 12 inhabitants of Ciechomice and the nearby regions interviewed in this case testified that they saw a large number of children (again, around 300) being led to the woods by German soldiers. Nobody saw the group return to the station (IPN BU, sygn. 2205/32). The proceedings were mostly based on witness testimonies. Exhumation was considered but ultimately rejected by the decision of prosecutor Banasiński. In his opinion, it was unnecessary as the perpetrators could not be identified. This does not make a convincing justification, for it seems to signal a lack of interest in solving a crime committed against a large number of Polish citizens. Finding the bodies would confirm the witness testimonies and help establish the way in which the children died. What is more, victims buried in unmarked graves deserve a decent burial. The events described here constitute only a small part of the suffering which Polish children had to endure during the German occupation. These could be treated as mere examples that should not be generalized. It is hard to ignore, however, that each such example tells a story of a suffering child whose only wrongdoing was having been born to Polish parents. Even though German atrocities committed during World War II have been widely described, whether they are widely known is very arguable. Richard Lucas said that “until 1986 no American historian thoroughly described the fate of Poles under the German occupation” (Lucas, 2012, p. 13). To paraphrase him, one could say that in spite of the wealth of evidence, no monumental work has been published to date on the extermination of the youngest generation of Poles.

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Bibliography Foerster F.W. (1946), Odpowiedź Churchillowi, „Tygodnik Powszechny”, vol. 46. Frei N. (2011), Kariery w półmroku. Hitlerowskie elity po 1945, Warszawa: Świat Książki. Kulesza W. (2004), Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce-wrzesień-październik 1939 r., in: „Z największą brutalnością…” Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce, wrzesień-październik 1939 r. (2004), materiały z wystawy, eds. J. Bohler, P. Kosiński, P. Łyskowski, Warszawa: IPN, Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny. Kosiński P. (2015), Recepcja procesów norymberskich w zachodnich strefach okupacyjnych, in: Wina i kara. Społeczeństwa wobec rozliczeń zbrodni popełnionych przez reżimy totalitarne w latach 1939–1956, ed. P. Pleskot, Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Lubecka J. (2011), Karanie niemieckich zbrodniarzy wojennych w Polsce, „Zeszyty Historyczne WiN”, vol. 34. Lucas R.C. (2012), Zapomniany holocaust. Polacy pod okupacją niemiecką 1939–1945, Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy Rebis. Małecki Z. (1947), Dwie koncepcje winy niemieckiej, „Wiadomości”, vol 39. Wieliczko-Szarkowa J. (2015), III Rzesza. Zbrodnia bez kary, Kraków: Wydawnictwo AA. Documents Adamska J., Wykonywanie w więzieniach sądowych kary obozu karnego wobec nieletnich narodowości polskiej, Międzynarodowa sesja „Dziecko w okresie II wojny światowej”, sygn. IPN, Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1. Akta karne Hermana Feidlera, IPN Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciw Narodowi Polskiemu Warszawa, sygn. 164/4309. Chróścielewski E., Dzieci i młodzież wielkopolska w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Międzynarodowa sesja „Dziecko w okresie II wojny światowej”, sygn. IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1. Ciechanowski E., Okupacyjne losy młodzieży i dzieci polskich na Pomorzu, Międzynarodowa sesja „Dziecko w okresie II wojny światowej”, IPN, Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1. Dokument Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych (dział opracowywania wiadomości z Kraju), Londyn 24.02.1943, IPN BU, sygn. 2210/28.2. Goździcki T., Wojenne losy dzieci polskich na Pomorzu Zachodnim w okresie II wojny światowej, Międzynarodowa sesja „Dziecko w okresie II wojny światowej”, IPN Kraków, sygn. 1/267/1. Sprawozdanie z najważniejszych wydarzeń w Kraju za okres od 9 do 16 stycznia 1943 r., IPN BU, sygn. 2210/282/2. Zamordowanie około 300 dzieci w wieku od 3 do 5 lat zimą 1942 lub 1943 r. w Ciechomicach, gminie Łąck, powiat Gostynin, IPN BU, sygn. 2205/32.

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Internet sources http://wgospodarce.pl/informacje/60285-weterani-ss-otrzymuja-wysokie-emerytury https://medianarodowe.com/emerytury-hitlera/ https://niezalezna.pl/259774-emerytury-hitlera-nadal-wyplacane-niemcy-troszcza-sieo-kombatantow-waffen-ss https://telewizjarepublika.pl/niebywale-emerytury-hitlera-nadal-sa-wyplacane-niemcy-troszcza-sie-o-kombatantow-waffen-ss,76566.html https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/3181374/34-nederlanders-ontvangen-hitler-pensioen?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic https://www.tvp.info/41673071/niemieckie-emerytury-dla-szwedzkich-ssmanow

HELENA KUBICA SEN. CURATOR EM. AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU MUSEUM

POLISH CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN AUSCHWITZ

Ab strac t : Beyond any doubt, children and adolescents of Polish nationality were among the first persons to be sent to Auschwitz together with adults. The issue of their extermination and suffering in this camp is difficult to discuss separately because of the international nature of the community of prisoners. For this reason, some of the documents cited below refer exclusively to Polish children, while others relate collectively to Jewish, Polish, Roma, and children of other nationalities. The article indicates the main groups and periods of the influx of Polish child prisoners to Auschwitz (children of the Zamość region, youth involved in the resistance movement, children of the Warsaw Uprising, and others) along with the methods of their extermination. Ke y words : children in Auschwitz, methods of extermination, Poles in Auschwitz, German extermination camps of World War II

Introduction The first political prisoners of Auschwitz were Poles brought from the prison in Tarnów on June 14th, 1940 numbering 728 men, among whom there were at least 67 boys under 18 years of age. At least one of them, Stanisław Klimek (camp prisoner number 468), was only 14 years old. Teenage boys, including high school and university students, were also taken in subsequent transports of Poles to Auschwitz from Wiśnicz, Kraków, Warsaw, and the Silesia region. They were arrested in the spring of 1940 as part of the terrorizing repressive measures taken against Polish society, such as the so-called Extraordinary Pacification (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion – AB), or captured during raids or street roundups. Many of them were involved in underground activities against the German occupiers, for example, distribution of leaflets or illegal press. Some were arrested for trying to cross the Slovak and Hungarian borders to join the Polish army forming in France (Strzelecka, 1983, pp. 69–144).

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That political prisoners and juvenile persons were sent to the camp is confirmed by the surviving fragments of the lists of registered and newly arrived prisoners in Auschwitz (the so-called Zugangslisten), which include dates of birth. The documents covering the period from January 7th to December 22nd, 1941 state that there were at least 398 adolescents and children among the 16,762 Poles imprisoned in Auschwitz during that period, the youngest of whom were aged from twelve to fourteen (APMA-B, Z. Zugangsliste, v. 1–5). Transports of Polish women to the camp from April 1942 were similar: 14- to 17-year old girls were among the prisoners. These prisoners included girl scouts, students arrested for collaborating with the resistance movement, often only suspected of underground activities, and those arrested as part of the German repressions against Polish youth. These facts are only known from the accounts of survivors, since no camp documents describing the numbers of children and young females have been preserved. In mid-December 1942 a number of Polish families displaced from the Zamość region were brought to KL Auschwitz in connection with the plans for the German colonization of that region. The mass expulsion and pacification campaign in the Zamość area began on November 27–28th, 1942 and lasted continuously until the first days of August 1943. About 300 villages inhabited by over 110,000 Polish families were displaced or pacified, and handed over to German settlers with all the belongings of the previous inhabitants. The settlers were intended to form a Germanic “bulwark”, a barrier between “indigenous” areas of the Third Reich and the Slavic East. In Zamość, a non-resident branch of the Central Emigration Office in Łódź (Umwanderzentralstelle Litzmannstadt-Zweigstelle Zamosc) was organized which allocated the expelled Polish population to specially created collective camps, first in Zamość, and later also in Zwierzyniec and Budzyń. “Racial examinations” were carried out there, which resulted in the division of the displaced persons into four groups. Children assigned to the first two groups were directed to the camp in Łódź for Germanization. Families from the third and fourth groups were separated according to the criterion of age and ability to work. Those able to work were sent as slave laborers to Germany. Out of the two latter groups, persons unable to work were filtered out, i.e. “racially alien” children under fourteen years of age and people over sixty years of age, the elderly, and disabled people. It was these who came to Auschwitz (Kubica, 2004, p. 18).

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As is clear from the surviving German documents, 3,000 Poles (three trains of 1,000 people each) were planned to be sent from the camp in Zamość to Auschwitz each week. In actuality, three transports reached Auschwitz, on December 13th and 16th, 1942, and on February 5th 1943, carrying a total of 1,301 people, including at least 173 children and adolescents (girls and boys) aged six to 18. Only 18% of these Poles survived Auschwitz. Most died within two to three months from their time of arrival (Kubica, 2004, p. 32), since this was during the period of greatest terror, hunger, and ruthless killing of prisoners unable to work in the camp. After several weeks in the male sector of the Birkenau camp (BI b), almost all the boys were transferred to the hospital block no. 20 in the main camp (Auschwitz I) and given lethal phenol injections. False death certificates stating natural causes were issued for these boys. Among the first children killed in this way were the two youngest boys from this group: the nine-year-old Tadeusz Rycyk and the 12-year-old Mieczysław Rycaj, put to death on January 21st 1943 when the camp authorities discovered that the boys’ mothers had smuggled them into the women’s camp disguised as girls. On February 23rd 1943, 39 more boys transferred from Zamość were killed. A few days later (March 1st), under the pretext of organizing a transport of prisoners to participate in a nursing course, another 82-person group of pre-teen prisoners of Polish, Russian and Jewish nationalities, among them another 16 boys from the Zamość area, were chosen during the morning roll call at the men’s camp in Birkenau to be killed immediately (APMA-B. Serial No. D-Au 1-5. Morgue register). Girls from the Zamość region in the women’s camp (sector BIa) were not mass killed by injection in this way. However, the terrible sanitary conditions that prevailed then and there, above all, typhus and frequent selections conducted among the women, caused a huge mortality rate among the girls. Only 44 of them survived Auschwitz. The above findings differ significantly from the ones according to which roughly 500 children from the Zamość area were killed at KL Auschwitz (Wnuk, 1972, p. 189).

From the Warsaw Uprising As a result of the Warsaw Uprising, which broke out on August 1st, 1944 and lasted for 63 days, in August and September, another large group of children and adults displaced from Warsaw was brought to Auschwitz.

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In the first period of the Uprising, at the beginning of August 1944, the inhabitants of Warsaw who survived the mass pacification of the areas occupied by the Germans were sent to the transit camp in Pruszków (Dulag 121). From there, some of the prisoners were deported to forced labor in Germany, and some to the concentration camps in Auschwitz, GrossRosen, Mauthausen, and Ravensbrück. Almost 13,000 Poles were brought to Auschwitz in that period, among them about 1,500 children and adolescents, from infants to 17-year-olds of both sexes. Most children were brought in transports on August 12–13th 1944, involving more than 5,820 people. Another transport brought in more than 3,000 men, women and children on September 4th, 1944. On September 13th and 17th, almost 4,000 men arrived, among them nearly 300 boys below 18 years of age. A list of men with names and dates of birth sent to KL Auschwitz after the Warsaw Uprising was prepared illegally by prisoners (APMO. Mat. RO, v. VIIIa, the number list). In total, the transports of civilians from Warsaw included at least 842 boys under 18. Regarding the number of girls who arrived in transports from Pruszków, according to an incomplete census of women and girls (drawn up illegally in 1944 based on original German lists smuggled out by female prisoners employed in the clerks room of the women’s camp in Birkenau, including only the last names of 3,743 women and girls out of the 4,970 brought in total), there were more than 650 under-18 girls (Zespół Oświadczenia, v. 66, k. 71–73, account of prisoner Pawełczyńska). Of that number, at least 340 of them were children under 15. Furthermore, as we know, based on a statement on the employment of female prisoners in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, dated October 8th 1944, in a separate block (barrack No. 16) designed for Polish children from the Warsaw transports, there were still 370 girls (APMA-B. D-AuII-3a, v. 8/1, daily list).

Other groups When discussing Polish children and youth in Auschwitz, one cannot ignore those who were imprisoned together with adults in Block 11 (“the Death Block”) as so-called police prisoners, held by the Gestapo in Katowice, from 1943. They were arrested for alleged “crimes against the war economy of the Third Reich, for political crimes or offenses”, but in reality mainly for petty thefts due to hunger or for food smuggling, or escaping

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from forced labor, as well as their alleged participation in the resistance movement. The children and juveniles were tried by the Police Interim Court (Standgericht) performing the hearings in one of the rooms on the ground floor of Block 11, and they were usually sentenced to the death penalty. The executions of the victims of the Interim Court were held mostly under the “Death Wall” in the courtyard of Block 11, and from 1944, next to the crematoria of Birkenau, immediately after the sentence was made. Inventories made illegally by the camp resistance movement show that on September 2nd 1943, the Interim Court sentenced 94 people to death, including eight persons under 17 years of age. One of the victims, Leokadia Samarzyk, was only nine years old. Similarly, on October 22nd, November 29th, and December 29th 1944, the court sentenced to death some juveniles under 18 years of age next to adults (APMA-B. Mat. RO, v. IV, k. 254–259). An eyewitness account of one of the hearings at the Interim Court is shocking: A boy of 16 is brought in. Hungry, he had stolen some food from the store, therefore he is classified as one of the few criminal cases. After reading the death sentence, Mildner [Dr. Rudolf Mildner, head of the Katowice Gestapo, who heard the trial – HK] slowly puts the paper on the table and turns a penetrating gaze on the small, pale figure standing against the wall in his threadbare outfit. Slowly, emphasizing every word, he says: “Do you have a mother?”. The boy looks down and responds in a barely audible voice, choked with tears: “Yes.” “Are you afraid of death?” The butcher with his bull neck examines people. He sadistically delights in the victims’ terror. The boy does not make a sound. He is just trembling. “We will shoot you today”, Mildner says, trying to make his voice sound like an oracle (Wspomnienia, 1980, p. 149).

Children and juveniles of both sexes were also among the Poles killed in the executions at the “Wall of Death” in the main camp (Au I) and at the crematoria of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. They were not included in the camp records, nor sentenced by the Gestapo Interim Court in Katowice. This is confirmed by testimonies and accounts of prisoners who were multiple eyewitnesses of such executions, as well as materials collected by the camp resistance. The victims were often arrested with their whole families, probably for political reasons (for being members of secret organizations, officers, as hostages), and transferred to Auschwitz in order to be subjected to immediate execution.

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A Polish prisoner, physician Dr. Bolesław Zbozień, working in 1942 as a nurse in Block 21 (male hospital) in the main camp, witnessed an execution with other inmates, which he describes in his report: Once, I do not remember the exact date, on the street of the main camp, we met Palitzsch [SS-Hauptscharführer Gerhard Palitzsch, who personally executed prisoners using small arms, under the Wall of Death – HK] leading a man and a woman in front of him. The woman was carrying a small child in her arms, and two more children around the age of four and seven were walking alongside them. The whole group went into Block 11. Me and my colleagues managed to reach Block 21. From the window of the upstairs room we peered at the courtyard of Block 11, standing on a table located in this room. The scene that played out before our eyes will forever remain in my memory. The woman and the man did not resist. Palitzsch was making them stand in front of the Wall of Death. (...) the man was holding the child standing on his left by the hand. The second child was standing between them, also holding them by the hands. The mother hugged the youngest one to her chest. Palitzsch first shot the infant in the head. The shot in the back of the head blasted through the skull. The baby wiggled like a fish, but the mother cuddled it closer to her. Palitzsch then fired a shot at the child standing in the middle. The man and the woman, possibly the parents, still stood motionless, like stone statues. Then, Palitzsch struggled with the oldest child who refused to be shot. He rolled the child on the ground and standing on his back, he shot him in the back of the head. Finally, he shot the woman and the man (APMA-B, Statements team, vol. 70, k. 59–160).

Other former prisoners were also witnesses of similar executions. They describe them in their testimonies, for example, Franciszek Gulba and Stefan Markowski (APMA-B, Statements team, k. 46 and v. 65, k. 107). An unknown number of juvenile prisoners of Polish origin (boys and girls) also stayed in the camp as part of the group of approx. 11,000 socalled correctional prisoners (Erziehungshaftlinge – EH). After the women’s camp was created in Auschwitz in March 1942, the prisoners brought there also included pregnant women. Although a regulation issued by the head of the Reich Main Security Office prohibiting sending pregnant women to concentration camps was in force, in practice it was not observed. Moreover, this did not concern women brought to the camp from the mass expulsion and pacification activities.

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Until May 1943, both pregnant women and newborns were killed as part of the “euthanasia” action conducted in the camp in 1941 under the codename of 14f13. The birth of children was not recorded in the documentation of the camp. Such was the fate of, among others, Polish women from the Zamość area brought to the camp pregnant whose children were born there. From June 1943, registration of babies born in the camp was initiated (except for children of Jewish origin). They were assigned consecutive camp numbers as prisoners; girls were registered with the numbers from the current series of numbers intended for women prisoners, and boys from the current camp prisoner number series for men. The numbers were tattooed on the newborns’ left thigh or buttock, in rare cases on their arms. Camp numbers were not tattooed on children born to German and Polish women brought from Warsaw in August 1944 after the Warsaw Uprising. The fact of childbirth in the camp would be reported by the camp’s Registry Office (Standesamt II). All births would take place in the hospital for women inmates, the so-called sick bay. Women gave birth on a chimney draught running along the barracks in front of other women patients. The conditions under which the children were born are described, among others, by Stanisława Leszczyńska, a Polish prisoner performing the function of a midwife acting from May 1943: “We lacked everything: dressings, aseptics of any kind, medicines, even water to wash the baby and the mother” (Leszczyńska, 1965, pp. 104–106). After the birth, the baby was returned to the mother. In the sickbay, the mother could stay with her child for several days, up to a dozen, after which the infants were taken away from the mothers and placed in separate barracks. The mothers returned to their barracks and were directed back to work. It was only in 1944 that separate barracks for mothers with infants were created in the camp. The camp authorities did not provide any linen, diapers, or blankets. The children did not receive any special food, or even milk. The mothers, as long as they had milk, which was rare for their depleted bodies, could breastfeed their children. They generally did not have adequate amounts of milk and frequently the babies would die a slow death by starvation. In 1944, pregnant women and ones in childbirth received so-called diet food based on skim milk while in hospital, which caused huge mortality rates among newborns. It is unfortunately impossible to determine the number of children born in KL Auschwitz, as there is no comprehensive documentation. We only know that, especially in the second half of 1944, following the arrival of civilians from Warsaw, many Polish children were born there.

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According to the partially preserved documentation from the camp, on January 10th 1945, there were still 247 pregnant and postpartum women in the women’s camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and 156 children aged from one day to three years.

Children’s fate in the camp The fate of children and young prisoners in 1940–1943, in principle, was no different from the fate of the adults. Just like the adults, they suffered from hunger and cold. They were forced to do hard labor exceeding their physical capabilities. They were punished for the slightest infractions. Such was the story of 16-year-old Czesław Kempisty, a Pole from Warsaw, who was hanged on a ceiling beam by his hands twisted behind his back for taking a few rutabagas from a wagon he was unloading and tossing them to other starving prisoners. Young prisoners were detained in the camp prison and shot dead, like a 15-year-old Pole from Kraków named Józef Kocik, suspected of a planned escape. Polish children were also subjected to medical experiments in the camp. Adult prisoners tried as much as they could to aid and support the children, using all means available. The prisoner functionaries, and those who worked in the work commands had the greatest potential in this respect, as their duties would give them the possibility to “organize” (i.e. obtain illegally) some clothing, food, or medicines for them. Prisoner Dr. Jan Malinowski, a Pole from Warsaw, took not only Polish boys, such as those from the Uprising transports, under his care, but was also involved in the rescue of Jewish children. Similarly, in the women’s camp, prisoners from the medical and nursing staff, including the Polish doctors Dr. Janina Kościuszko and Dr. Katarzyna Łaniewska, selflessly devoted themselves to aiding the children (APMA-B, Zespół Proces Hössa, v. 6, k. 30–31; Zespół Oświadczenia, v. 20, k. 4–7, v. 73, k. 158, v. 15, k. 79).

Liquidation of Auschwitz With the start of the gradual evacuation of the Auschwitz camp, in the initial phase from August to January 1945, persons under 15 and older teens were taken from the camp along with the adults. Many Polish boys from the Warsaw transports were sent together with adult prisoners (of-

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ten their fathers, older brothers, or guardians) to other German camps, including KL Natzweiler – a subcamp of the Dautmergen camp (more than 100 boys, including a number of children aged 10 to 15 years), to KL Flossenbürg (more than 140 teenage boys), and Mauthausen (at least 95). In these transports, even boys as young as 9–10 years old were found. On November 13th 1944, a group of 50 teenage prisoners, also from Warsaw, was sent to the Landeshut sub-camp (in Kamienna Góra), subject to the Gross-Rosen camp (Kaczmarczyk, 1982, p. 190). Additionally, from August 1944, a group of more than 1,000 girls including ones under the age of 15 was taken away, together with adult women (often their mothers or sisters) to concentration camps in Germany, including Ravensbrück and its sub-camps, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, and Flossenbürg. These girls were of Polish, Russian, and Jewish nationalities. Most of them were Polish and Hungarian citizens. The beginning of 1945 in the camp was a period of rapid intensification of evacuation, which was caused, among others, by the January offensive of the Soviet Army. In the final stage of the evacuation of KL Auschwitz, i.e. from January 10th to 17th 1945, Polish children from Warsaw who still had mothers or guardians in the camp were reunited with them and evacuated by trains to camps located on the outskirts of Berlin: Blankenburg, Köpenick, Reinickendorf, and Henningsdorf, which were daughter camps to Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg and Buchenwald. On the basis of the German documents, accounts and memoirs of former prisoners carried by these transports, we know that in this period, five transports left Auschwitz-Birkenau, including 609 women and girls, and at least 95 minor boys. In these transports there were also some female prisoners with their camp-born children, as well as pregnant women. They were described as “transports of mothers with children,” mainly transferring Polish women from Warsaw (APMA-B, Zespół Wspomnienia, v. 246, k. 79–80, v. 129, k. 89, 93; Zespół Oświadczenia, v. 89 b, k. 79–85). However, not all Polish children were moved in these transports. On January 18th 1945, the majority of prisoners were led out of the camp. Together with the adults, the pedestrian evacuation transports also included minors, even small children. This last stage of the pedestrian evacuation, dubbed as the “death marches”, was particularly hard for all the prisoners, in particular for children or pregnant women. A prisoner from Warsaw, Alina Cielemięcka-Naciążek, who was a participant of a “death march”, then pregnant, recalls:

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Suddenly, we heard the cries of a prisoner taken by labor pains. Unable to go on, she stepped into a roadside ditch and sat down. We were overtaken by horror. We could not be of any help to her (...). We hoped so much that the pregnant woman would remain in this ditch and under the cover of the night she might crawl to a house standing nearby (...). But, the Nazi villains did not spare even this laboring woman. A few steps on, we heard shots fired by an SS man who murdered the woman in labor and the baby in her womb (APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia, v. 91 p. 10).

Eulalia Grzywna, a 15-year-old Pole from Warsaw driven with adult women during pedestrian evacuation of the Birkenau camp, along with other young girls from the barracks for Polish children (brick barrack 16 in BIa sector), recalls this nightmare years later: Feeble children and prisoners did everything to just go ahead, not to be left behind. At the rear of the column there walked an SS man who shot dead those unable to walk. A 12-year-old colleague named Krysia was walking with us. I do not remember her last name. She was an orphan. Her mother died in the Auschwitz camp. Krysia was on her last legs, she was not actually walking, but we were supporting her from both sides. She asked us to leave her behind. In the end, the SS man, walking beside us, ordered her to stay. He waited a moment and when we walked a little away, he shot her (APMA-B. Zespół Oświadczenia, v. 66, k. 142).

Between January 22nd and 27th 1945, a number of prisoners in relatively good physical condition, in fear of liquidation, left the camp, taking children with them, taking advantage of the absence of German guards. In this way, the eight-year-old Wanda Ociepka was freed from Birkenau. She had been brought to the camp with her family from Warsaw in August 1944. The seven-year-old Krystyna and the nine-year-old Anna Jaxa-Bykowska from Warsaw were moved out of the camp and taken in by a group of female prisoners from the town of Oświęcim and its surroundings (APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia: v. 32, k. 129; v. 87, k. 162; v. 43, k. 100). Around January 22nd 1945, women such as Zofia Ulatowska with her two children, Hanna and Jerzy, left the camp at Birkenau (APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia: v. 160 pp. 76–77, account of J. Ulatowski, prisoner No. 192823; v. 71, k. 38–39).

1. Afanasjew Georg (Afanasjew Jerzy). Personal admission card to the Auschwitz camp Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

2. Temler Richard (Temler Ryszard). Personal admission card to the Auschwitz camp Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

3. An application from the German police from Katowice for place Augustyna Borowiec in a camp for Polish children in Łódź Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

5. Documents of Polish resistance movement Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

4. Documents of Polish resistance movement

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

6. Czesława Kwoka, a Pole, was born on August 15th, 1928 in Wólka Złojecka. She came to Auschwitz with her family (her mother died in February 1942) after a deportation operation from the Zamość region. She died on March 12th, 1943.

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

7. Mieczysław Piotrowski, a Pole, was born on September 11th, 1927 in Warsaw. He was brought to Auschwitz from the Pawiak prison in Warsaw on April 6th, 1941. He died on April 15th, 1942

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

8. Krystyna Trześniewska, a Pole, was born on December 8th, 1929 in Majdan near Zamość. She came to Auschwitz with her father (who died there) as a result of a deportation operation. She died on May 18th, 1943.

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

9. Stanisław Kos, a Pole, was born on October 30th, 1927 in Jodłowa near Tarnów. He came to Auschwitz together with his half-brother, Jan Czech, in the transport of 933 men (Poles) on April 5th, 1941. He died in November 1941.

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

10. Ewa Urbanowicz, a Polish woman, was born on March 1st, 1926 in Warsaw, scout of the Warsaw Region. She was arrested for little sabotage (Wawer) on June 9th, 1942, tortured in the investigation, brought to Auschwitz on November 13th, 1942. She died on February 12th, 1944.

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

11. Józef Kocik, a Pole, was born on February 6th, 1927 in Krakow. He was sent to Auschwitz from the Montelupich prison in Krakow in a group of 68 Poles on June 3rd, 1942. Shot under the Wall of Death on February 13th, 1943, along with 15 other Poles. The Germans falsified the death certificate by writing pneumonia in as the cause of death.

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

12. Augustyna Borowiec, a Pole, was born on January 21st, 1929 in Jaworzno. She was arrested by the Gestapo on March 13th, 1943. She arrived in Auschwitz on April 2nd, 1943 in a group of 123 Polish women. She was moved to a children’s camp in Łódź (branch Dzierżąźnia)

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

13. Rozalia Kowalczyk, a Pole, was born on July 30th, 1928. She arrived in Auschwitz on April 2nd, 1943 in a group of 123 Polish women (her brother Kazimierz was in Auschwitz). She was moved to a children’s camp in Łódź (branch Dzierżąźnia)

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

14. Maria Matlak, a Pole, was born on February 1st, 1928 in Łodygowice near Cracow. She arrived in Auschwitz on April 2nd, 1943 in a group of 123 Polish women (her brother Kazimierz was in Auschwitz). She was moved to a children’s camp in Łódź (branch Dzierżąźnia)

Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

15. Edmund Fijałkowski, a Pole, was born on May 29th, 1925 in Kalisz. He arrived in Auschwitz on August 21st, 1942 by a collective transport of 64 Poles. Killed with an injection of phenol in the heart together with a group of 80 boys (Poles and Russians) from the Zamość region. The Germans falsified the death certificate by writing infection with phlegmon in

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Conclusions More than 700 children and juvenile prisoners younger than 18 and of various nationalities, including almost 500 children under 15, lived to see freedom at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Among the liberated ones, at least 207 children and 54 adolescents (girls and boys) were Polish (ethnic Poles and Polish Jews). From the Warsaw transports alone, at least 125 children (girls and boys) remained in Auschwitz-Birkenau, including 19 born in the camp. Children liberated from KL Auschwitz were extremely malnourished, emaciated almost down to the weight of their bones, while others had symptoms of kwashiorkor such as a distended abdomen. Some of them, who worked in the camp, had frostbitten limbs. Almost every child had lice and strep boils. Most had eye disease. A forensic medical committee determined that most of them were suffering from diseases acquired in the camp: 60% suffered from vitamin deficiency and general malnutrition, 40% had TB; each child was 5–17 kg underweight, despite the fact that the majority were brought to the camp in the second half of 1944. Some of the children were so emaciated and sick that, often despite arduous efforts on the part of hospital staff, they were not saved. Most deaths among children occurred in February and March. Some of the sick children were taken in February to hospitals in Kraków, where some of them died. Many of the children, in addition to losing their parents and homes, lost their health forever and had to be treated until the end of their lives. Sometimes they spent years in hospitals, preventoriums or spent their lives at home as invalids. Neuroses, tuberculosis, anemia, cardiovascular disease, respiratory or kidney disease were included in the lasting aftereffects of the camp. Psychologically, the “camp syndrome” is most commonly characterized by emotional disorders, a distrustful attitude towards other people, and a reduced ability to concentrate; on the somatic side, it may lead to premature atherosclerosis and coronary or cerebrovascular disease, chronic gastrointestinal diseases, rheumatism, premature involution, persistent neurasthenic features, and anxiety or depressive disorders (Półtawska, 1967, p. 89).

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Bibliography Kaczmarczyk L. (1982), Więźniowie małoletni w obozie koncentracyjnym Gross-Rosen i jego podobozach, in: Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, Warszawa: PWN. Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940–1944 (2000), eds. F. Piper, I. Strzelecka, vol. III, Warszawa–Oświęcim: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Oświęcimiem – Muzeum Austwitz-Birkenau. Kubica H. (2004), Zagłada w KL Auschwitz Polaków wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny w latach 1942–1943, Warszawa–Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Kubica H. (2014), Z powstańczej Warszawy do KL Auschwitz, „Głosy Pamięci”, nr 10. Leszczyńska S. (1965), Raport położnej z Oświęcimia, „Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim”, vol. 1. Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim (1974), ed. Cz. Madajczyk, t. l. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. Obozy przejściowe dla ludności cywilnej na ziemiach polskich w latach 1939–1945 (1967), Warszawa: Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa. Półtawska W. (1967), Stany hipermnezji napadowej (Na marginesie badań tzw. ,,dzieci oświęcimskich”), „Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim”, vol. l. Strzelecka I. (1983), Pierwsi Polacy w KL Auschwitz, „Zeszyty Oświęcimskie”, vol. 18. Wnuk J. (1972), Eksterminacja dzieci na Lubelszczyźnie, in: Dziecko w obozie hitlerowskim, Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku. Wspomnienia Pery Broada (1980), in: Oświęcim w oczach SS. Rudolf Höss, Pery Broad, Johann Paul Kremer, Oświęcim: Wydawnictwo Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Documents APMA-B (Archiwum Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau), Zespół Wspomnienia, vol. 246, k. 79–80, wspomnienie b. więźnia Jacka Kruczkiewicza, vol. 129 k. 89, 93. APMA-B, Zespół Zugangsliste, vol. 1–5 (listy nowo przybyłych więźniów). APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia, vol. 160, s. 76–77, relacja Jerzego Ulatowskiego, więźnia nr 192823, vol. 71, k. 38–39. APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia, vol. 89 b, k. 79–85, relacja więźniarki Jadwigi Aleksiewicz-Machaj. APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia, t. 32, k. 129, relacja Marii Czaickiej-Żaczkiewicz; vol. 87, k. 162, relacja Stanisławy Stelmaszczyk-Kidy; vol. 43, k. 100, relacja Marii Matlak. APMA-B. Syg. D-Au 1-5, Książka kostnicy – daty: 21.01.1943, p. 46; 23.02.1943, pp. 77–78; 1.03.1943, pp. 83–85.

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APMA-B, D-AuII-3a, t. 8/1, dzienny liczbowy wykaz zatrudnienia więźniarek w KL Auschwitz-Birkenau z 8.10.1944 r. APMA-B, Zespół Oświadczenia, t. 70, k. 59-160, relacja Bolesława Zbozienia. APMA-B, Zespół Proces Hössa, t. 6, k. 30–31, zeznanie b. więźnia Otto Wolkena złożone 24.04.1945 r. w Krakowie przed Komisją dla Badania Zbrodni Niemiecko-Hitlerowskich w Oświęcimiu. APMA-B, D-AuII-3/4. Notatnik „Lagerstärke”, notatnik pisarki raportowej z żeńskiego obozu w Birkenau. APMA-B, Zespół Wspomnienia, t. 246, k. 79–80, wspomnienie b. więźnia Jacka Kruczkiewicza; vol. 129 k. 89, 93, wspomnienia b. więźniarki Jadwigi Aleksiewicz-Machaj. APMO, Mat. RO, vol. VIIIa, wykaz numerowy (z nazwiskami i datami urodzenia) mężczyzn skierowanych do KL Auschwitz po wybuchu Powstania warszawskiego. Zespół Oświadczenia, t. 66, k. 71–73, relacja b. więźniarki Anny Pawełczyńskiej.

BEATA GOLA JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

DOROTA PAULUK JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

SUFFERING OF CHILDREN IN AUSCHWITZ – BIOLOGICAL AND MENTAL EXTERMINATION

Ab s t r a c t : This article addresses the biological and mental extermination of children at the KL Auschwitz camp. Physical extermination was executed through starvation, poor sanitary conditions, and the spread of diseases, the inability to meet basic biological needs, the elimination of children in gas chambers and by burning them on bonfires, beatings, the murder of newborns, or Doctor Mengele’s pseudo-scientific experiments. In accounts by prisoners and witnesses, the extermination camp is depicted as a well-organised system of mental abuse of children. The article presents the way young prisoners functioned in inhumane living conditions dominated by ruthlessness, death, and fear, where meeting their basic needs was made impossible, where they were deprived of humanity, but also, how they learned to survive within the camp reality. Ke y w o rd s : Auschwitz, children, extermination camp, physical and mental suffering

The scale and enormity of suffering endured by children during World War II cannot be described in words, but as long we continue to speak of it – including those of us who were born many years after the war and know this subject only from written records, books, and camp memories we preserve the memory of those who deserve to be commemorated forever. The suffering of children in KL Auschwitz consisted of enormous physical and emotional extermination. The largest concentration camp established within Polish territory, KL Auschwitz, was designed for inmates from southern Poland and Silesia. The parent camp, along with two camp complexes, Birkenau and Monowitz, which were established after the population of villages adjacent to the town

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of Auschwitz was displaced, constituted the largest German/Nazi death camp, witnessing the extermination of 4 million people from all over Europe under German occupation, including children (Boczek, Boczek, Wilczur, 1979, p. 57). Construction of the Auschwitz camp was commenced at the turn of April and May of 1940 and as early as on June 14th 1940, the first transport of 700 inmates, including a number of young Poles, but no children under the age of 14, reached Auschwitz. On March 1st 1941, Heinrich Himmler visited Auschwitz for the first time and ordered the expansion of the parent camp. Thus, three kilometers from the main camp in Auschwitz and several hundred meters from the demolished village of Brzezinka, whose population had been displaced, development of another camp, Birkenau, began in October 1941 (Klee, 2001, p. 381; Ternon, Helman, 1973, p. 123). The biological extermination of children was obviously accompanied by mental exhaustion caused, first and foremost, by hunger, horrific sanitary conditions, and inability to fulfil basic biological needs of the human body, such as the need to take in food, water, the need to rest and sleep, and even the physiological needs related to excretion or defecation in a humane manner. Within camp conditions, these needs underwent deprivation. Sanitary conditions created for inmates, including children, newborns, and expecting mothers contributed to diseases which decimated the camp population. One of the key strategies of biological eradication was the planned extermination in gas chambers as well as the system of punishment, by torture and beating to death, applied to prisoners within the camp. The German torturers showed no regard for the children’s age, which guaranteed no special rights or better treatment. Children were brutally murdered, even the youngest ones, in their mother’s wombs; pregnancies were terminated at various stages (Ternon. Helman, 1973, pp. 146–147). Occasionally, SS soldiers shot women in labor; newborns were drowned in buckets, cast as prey to rats or trained German Shepherd dogs who would tear them apart; their bodies were fragmented in pseudo-medical experiments; their heads were smashed against a wall; they were killed with phenol injections into the heart; children were brutally beaten, tortured during interrogation, impaled, sent into gas chambers, burned on bonfires after a shot in the back of their heads or even burned alive; they were objects of pseudo-medical experiments, which, after days of tests, painful and derogatory to their dignity, ended in the simultaneous death of twins or decapitation; children (even as young as nine-year-olds) were sentenced to death by shooting or hanged on gallows. Children deprived of all care were forced to do heavy, murderous physical labor.

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Biological extermination by hunger In KL Auschwitz, children were destroyed by hunger, the most cost-effective type of murder which required no investment and ensured the effects most desired by the torturers. During the Auschwitz trial, Nurse Judith Sternberg testified that on numerous occasions she lifted the dead bodies of those who had passed away the day before to search for bread. “There was so much hunger, we would eat garbage. People who have never experienced hunger won’t understand what it means and how much it hurts” (Klee, 2001, p. 384), she recalled. Children suffered from hunger even more severely, because, biologically speaking, they were at a stage of intense physical growth. It must be noted that the deprivation of food affected the whole person as an integral, holistic, indivisible whole. Hunger was not limited to the digestive system only, to hunger pangs, it was not located in any specific part of the body. It consumed the whole person, in a way, it was stuck in the brain, making them think of eating all the time, thus the bedtime stories children told one another before they would fall asleep often related to things they used to eat at home. Simultaneously, persistent sensation of hunger weakened their systems, making some of them faint; the lack of physical strength for physical activity and labor could result in muscle tremor, dizziness; it affected the ability to evaluate the environment and situation, modified emotions, caused irritability and nervous tension. It had an impact on cognitive abilities as a result of deficient blood circulation in the brain, that is, in terms of biochemistry, an insufficient supply of blood glucose (a basic nutrient) to all structures of the brain. Hunger changed human behavior, children turned into little animals; they crowded and pushed their way to the soup pots during meal hours risking being trampled, insulted, or beaten; they would search for leftovers in garbage piles, or steal slices of bread. They directed a huge majority of their energy into satisfying their hunger. At the same time, they could be saved by an extra portion of some disgusting soup they wouldn’t even look at on their first day in camp. The soup was served as lunch and was given to them at noon. It consisted of roughly half a liter of liquid with pieces of kale or turnip leaves, less often with unpeeled potatoes or other vegetable pieces, sometimes with a small addition of millet, margarine, or rye flour. As Wanda Witek-Malicka wrote, based on interviews and written accounts, some pieces of information on how inmates of the KL Auschwitz children’s block were fed suggest that the youngest children, up to the age of

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10, had a different diet from other inmates. They were given a thin slice of bread with a tiny bit of butter and, sometimes, marmalade spread by the head woman of the block with her fingers. For lunch, children were served a soup called melka – a sweet dish resembling overcooked beets. “That melka made me… I was bleeding on both sides when I was going to the lavatory”, a boy recalls (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 145). Camp food often resulted in food poisoning in children who took in food contaminated by microorganisms, bacteria, fungi, or pathogen protozoa. This is no wonder since the inmates, children included, would eat anything digestible they could find: moldy bread, rotten or barely cooked vegetables, wormy cheese, etc. Despite this, they would long for and dream of their meal hours throughout the day. Bogdan Bartnikowski recalled: I will take bread into my mouth in a little while! I will chew it slowly, until it turns into a thin mash, then I will swallow it and finally, for a moment I won’t feel that mad pulling and burning sensation in my stomach (…). The distribution was over, it was time for the most important thing – eating. The biggest celebration, the most beautiful moment of the day. You wait so long for it to come (Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 28, 129).

Not everyone was able to bear this rhythm enforced by meal times. Drastically unmet demands for nutrition, both in terms of quantity and quality, led to a slow death by starvation. In many children, malnutrition caused edema within the stomach area. An extreme form of starvation suffered by adult prisoners was the state called Muselmann. The term was used by inmates to refer to a person in a terminal stage of physical and mental exhaustion who would not react to external stimuli. Depending on the duration of starvation, symptoms could include swollen lids, feet, legs, thighs, and buttocks – as a result of prolonged standing during the assemblies. Stupor and indifference to everything, lack of control over reactions and physiological needs in the state of Muselmann was closely related to the starvation of inmates (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 54). A professor with the University of Paris, Guy Laroche, in an opinion for the International Military Tribunal trials in Nuremberg, stated that the food rations in the occupied countries allow for the claim that the Germans were applying a “rational scientific method for the decline of the health of adolescents and adults” (Witkowski, 1975, p. 13). Hoping to destroy no less than ⅓ of the population of the adjacent territories in order to exceed their neighbors’ population by the double, they decided they could reach that goal by systematic

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malnutrition, which, as Marshal Rundstedt would go on to say, “all in, provides better results than machine guns. Extermination is more efficient, in particular in young adults” (Sosnowski, 1962, as cited in Witkowski, 1975, p. 13).

Physical extermination in gas chambers Gas chambers witnessed the death of children of all ages, beginning with the youngest ones. The chronicle of Auschwitz includes a record stating that on July 9th 1944, empty strollers were taken from the crematory to the railway station. There were so many of them that the marching column of five strollers in each row needed over an hour to reach their destination (Czech, 1967 as cited in Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 61). Most probably, these strollers were shipped to the Reich. Murdering children in gas chambers with poisonous gas was dreadful. Zyklon B, packed in green-painted cans, was transported near the gas chambers by a car with the international symbol of the Red Cross for the sake of keeping up appearances. The greenish been-sized crystals were poured through low concrete chimneys into tin pipes with grills installed inside the chamber filled with naked people of all ages. Zyklon B reacted with air and released a gas which poisoned people, irritating their throats and causing them to cough until suffocation. Within under several minutes, a whole transport of people, often up to three thousand people, was dead. A group of Sonderkommando inmates would then enter the chamber to remove the dead bodies. They would see the bodies formed into a twisted stack in the middle of the room. The gas released from the crystals contaminated the lowest layers of air first and rose up to the ceiling. The bewildered people scrambled onto one another; the higher they climbed, the later they would die. Miklós Nyiszli, Doctor Mengele’s assistant and camp doctor who saw these scenes wrote, “If only they were be able to think, they would realize there was no point in scrambling upon their parents, wives, children (…). I notice that at the bottom of that pyramid, there were newborns, children, then women and elders, with the strongest men at the top” (Nyiszli, 1996, p. 38). Human bodies with bleeding noses and mouths, filthy because death was accompanied by defecation, had to be untangled with great effort by tying ropes to the joints of the bodies’ clenched fists. They were then transported to crematories, whose daily capacity was 5,000 people, which, with four crematories operating in Auschwitz, totaled 12,000 people murdered every day using this method.

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Tragic living conditions within the camp and their effects The prisoners lived in barracks and stables furnished with long and narrow wooden bunk beds. Each bed consisted of up to three bunks that had to accommodate two or three people each. Wider bunks (in brick barracks), also made of wooden plunks, with brick side walls accommodated from eight to ten people. “Ten boys sleep on every bunk of the bed – eight side by side and the two smallest ones at their feet” wrote B. Bartnikowski (2016, p. 57). If anyone had to get down from their bunk to go to the bathroom during the night, they usually were unable to return to their place and were forced to sleep on the ground. The floor was usually a compacted earthen floor which flooded during heavy rains so the prisoners had to stand in mud, water, and feces. The barracks had no heating systems, thus low temperatures in frosty winters and stuffiness on hot days took their toll, killing the less resistant and more exhausted inmates, children, and elderly. The barracks were filled with the omnipresent odor of dirty bodies, sweaty, sticky in the summer; dirty blankets and feces spilling from buckets stored by the entrance. These buckets were supposed to be used during the night when inmates were forbidden from leaving their barracks but the buckets were not provided in sufficient numbers. Meeting physiological needs in the camp involved a huge extent of deprivation – human beings were treated in a thoroughly mechanistical and biologically reductionist manner. The prisoners were deprived of the chance to decide when they wanted to meet these needs. They were not allowed any intimacy. It was not like “going to a more private place”. In Birkenau in 1942, the bathrooms took the form of open-air pit latrines (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 137). Sometimes, there was a rod mounted along the pit. Later on, latrines were located inside the barracks. These were horizontal concrete panels with holes covering trenches draining off the feces. These sanitary installations were used in public, in front of everyone else and on command. Several dozen prisoners were supposed to defecate at the same time. This procedure, despite the fact that the prisoners were trained to do so, was a humiliating experience. In the case of children, it even posed serious danger. Having walked to the latrines in groups of several hundred, they crowded and pushed around, because they had to use the place quickly and not everyone was able to before the final command. In such situations, little children occasionally got trampled. They were afraid to sit on the panel for fear of falling into the pits through large holes. The whole structure was

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dirty and stained with feces. If a person suffered from durchfall (bloody diarrhea), they tried not to leave the latrine (Witek-Malicka, 2018, s. 138). Those who didn’t manage to use the lavatory or had diarrhea used their mugs or soup bowls instead, which was prohibited. Defecation in secret within the camp’s premises could be punished with beating. In such conditions, the prisoners were unable to wash as well. Even if there was access to water, it was always cold and stained brown with rust. Water dripped from openings drilled in pipes located above washbasins which resembled a pig’s feeding trough. The prisoners had no soap or toothbrushes and had to rush. With such conditions making it impossible to observe basic hygienic norms, infestations of various insects such as bedbugs, flea, and lice proliferated. At night, huge bedbugs fell down on the children from the ceiling panels and emerged from all corners of the beds, leaving them unable to sleep. Bedbugs disgusted and frightened young victims. Parasites could even feed on the prisoners’ bodies in wounds that wouldn’t heal and secreted puss. It must be added that a number of prisoners suffered from phlegmon, an acute inflammation of tissues. If lesions developed within the face, they were cut open. On top of that, there were rats, which would bite children in the soft, protruding parts of their bodies: noses, ears, feet, toes, and fingers. Elżbieta Grembicka-Sobczyńska recalls: These rats were running on children’s legs. I woke up because I felt a weight on my legs. And I realized it was a rat (…). I was lying down petrified, I couldn’t move. I was disgusted and paralyzed with fear at the same time. And it started to walk along my body, it reached my arm and when it reached my arm, I twitched and it ran away (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 142).

The barracks were infested with lice and fleas, which caused a typhus epidemic among the prisoners. Inmate and doctor Alpatowa stated that during the typhus epidemic in late 1943, “Lice were everywhere, on the floor, in the beds, on the walls, on people, they crunched beneath our feet” (Klee, 2001 p. 387). Typhus, a severe infectious disease caused by bacteria, resulted in the death of many tens of thousands of inmates in Auschwitz. The disease is caused by Rickettsia bacteria transferred by lice. Rats and mice serve as a reservoir for the bacteria which, transferred by fleas, spread epidemic typhus among humans. A person could become infected when they scratched their skin, when they spread lice or their feces on damaged skin, or when lice were feeding on them. Symptoms included sudden fever, headache, a swollen face, redness of conjunctiva and eyeballs,

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a rash on the palatine uvula and on the skin taking the form of red spots and pimples turning into ecchymotic hemorrhages. An infected person suffers from increased thirst, goes into delirium, loses weight rapidly due to increased consumption of energy, catabolic metabolism of fat reserves, increased urination, and loss of sodium chloride which causes prolonged edema. It is hard to imagine such symptoms in a person who is already exhausted by camp conditions and heavy physical labor and thus exceedingly thin, weak, and with compromised immunity. Additionally, patients suffer from hyperesthesia, lose consciousness, their visceral nerves are paralyzed, and degenerative changes develop within the heart, glia, and medulla oblongata. Changes to the nervous system may result in complications, such as meningitis or meningoencephalitis, and pneumonia. From week four onwards, changes to the nervous system may remit. People with increased individual immunity could recover spontaneously after about four weeks. As Stanisława Leszczyńska writes in her Raport położnej z Oświęcimia (Report of a Midwife from Auschwitz), there were so many lice in the camp that no one could escape the disease, typhus infection was unavoidable (Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 17). Moreover, “the sick were fed mostly overcooked weeds with about 20% rat feces” (Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 17). To prevent the spread of epidemic typhus, rats and mice as well as lice and fleas are controlled and vaccinations are used today. But in KL Auschwitz, the method applied to fight the existing typhus epidemic was to direct all inmates of a given block to gas chambers, including ill inmate-doctors and convalescents. Therefore, if possible, cases of epidemic typhus were concealed from Lagerarzt (camp doctors) and medical records were forged. Initially, SS doctors did not pay attention to fighting the causes of typhus. But then the epidemic began to threaten the SS Staff and after the death of a camp doctor in May 1942, clothing and barracks were disinfected more often and the prisoners were allowed to wash in bathhouses. The typhus epidemic was brought under control only as late as in 1944.

Biological extermination of newborns The Auschwitz concentration camp, that place of torture, was also a place where children were brought to life. Due to the fact that, until April 1943, expecting mothers and newborns were killed with injections as part of the “euthanasia” program, women tried to conceal their pregnancies and would stand in the back rows during assembly.

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1. Corpses of children abandoned at the Auschwitz camp – photo taken after the liberation of KL Auschwitz Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

The story of a midwife from Auschwitz who assisted over 3,000 childbirths gained fame. At the outbreak of World War II, Stanisława Leszczyńska and her husband became involved in aiding Jews and were, as a result, arrested by the Gestapo along with all four of their children. Stanisława and her daughter were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The midwife managed to keep her German documents confirming her professional qualifications. When the German midwife, Schwester Klara, got sick, Leszczyńska went to see the camp doctor and offered to help women in labor. She was assigned this task in May 1943. As she wrote in Raport położnej z Oświęcimia (Report of a Midwife from Auschwitz): Until May 1943, children born inside the camp were brutally murdered: drowned in a barrel. These procedures were executed by Schwester Klara and Schwester Pfani. (…). After each childbirth, a loud gurgling sound and sometimes a prolonged splash of water could be heard from their room. Soon afterwards, [the mother – editor’s note] could see the body of her child cast in front of the block to be torn apart by rats (Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 19).

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Probably from May 1943, non-Jewish newborns were no longer killed. Jewish babies were sentenced to a dreadful death; they were not allowed to be fed and died of starvation. Leszczyńska explicitly pictured childbirth conditions in camp: Infections, odors, and all sorts of bugs were common in the ward. There were plenty of rats who bit into the noses, fingers, toes, and heels of severely ill women, who were exhausted and couldn’t move on their own. (…) Rats, fattened on corpses, got as big as cats. (…) they were attracted by the foul smell of severely ill women, who couldn’t be cleaned or had no clean clothes to change. I had to manage a supply of water to wash the birthing woman and the newborn on my own and it took me about 20 minutes to bring a single bucket of water (Leszczyńska, 1991, pp. 14–15).

However, as she accounted in Raport położnej z Oświęcimia (Report of a Midwife from Auschwitz), despite the horrifying amount of filth, insects, rats, and infectious diseases, not a single mother or newborn died of childbed infections. Something incredible was happening; as she suspected perhaps “the severely emaciated bodies were far too poor in nutrients for the bacteria” (Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 17). Later on, with more difficult childbirths and when there were complications such as placental ablation, S. Leszczyńska was aided by Polish female doctors working in other words, Janina Węgierska or Irena Konieczna. She also trained a prisoner (back then, a nurse), Dr Elżbieta Pawłowska, to assist at childbirth, in particular how to prevent perineal tear. As Pawłowska recalled: “We never had a perineal tear” (Pawłowska, as cited in Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 42). Significantly, “All the babies born in the concentration camp – against all expectations – were alive, cute, and plump. Nature opposed hatred and fought for its rights, stubborn and invincible, with an infinite supply of vitality” (Leszczyńska, 1991, p. 21). At the same time, the midwife noticed the miracle of life and its power embodied in the youngest creatures in Auschwitz. She noted: Among these dreadful memories, one thought, one theme recurs in my consciousness. All children were born alive. Their purpose was to live! Only thirty survived the camp. Several hundred were taken to Nakło in order to be denationalized, over 1,500 were drowned by Klara and Pfani, over 1,000 children died from cold and hunger” [this approximated data does not include the period until April 1943] (Leszczyńska, 1991, pp. 20–21).

Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Source: Memorial And

4. Death certificate

Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Source: Memorial And

3. Death certificate with a forged cause of death

5. Death certificate Source: Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

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S. Leszczyńska opposed drowning children and didn’t want to obey orders from camp authorities, who prohibited the cutting and tying of the umbilical cord in Jewish children. They were to be cast into a bucket along with the placenta immediately after birth. Yet, after Leszczyńska delivered such a baby, she would wash it with cold water or an herbal brew, wrap it in gauze and place it next to its mother on the bunk under the blanket (Kubica, 2010, pp. 11, 41). The midwife realized that, in camp conditions, the baby could starve to death very soon (Jewish women were not allowed to feed their children), but she was convinced that children should die in their mothers’ arms and not in a bucket of water. The midwife knew that a woman cannot be forced to remember such a sight.

Death of children due to pseudo-medical experiments In Auschwitz, medical experiments, mainly on twins (also on multiple pregnancies), on the physiological and pathological aspects of dwarfism, and on the causes of noma faciei, also known as cancrum oris, were carried out; the issue of inheritance in twins and dwarves, as well as the possibility of changing the color of the iris were also researched. Twins and dwarves lived in better conditions in Block 14 of Camp B II f and were given better food so that malnutrition wouldn’t interfere with the results excessively. In the experimental block, children would undergo all possible medical tests: “Blood tests, lumbar puncture, exchange blood transfusion between twins and countless other tests, all of which are painful and exhausting” (Nyiszli, 1996, p. 42). Children subjected to hours of meticulous examination and tests were frightened, cold, and tired. Their supervisor, nurse Elżbieta Piekut-Warszawska, also a KL Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoner, recalled that the children would get up at six in the morning and walk nearly a mile to the clinic. Anthropometric tests were conducted with the use of protractors, compasses, and calipers. These tests lasted for hours, from 2 up to 5 hours, and they were done with the utmost precision, every possible parameter was measured and the twin’s results were compared. The test room was very cold by late September and early October, there was no heating system inside and the children were stripped naked all the time, waiting their turn. After the measurements, X-rays were taken. The final tests – blood morphology – were particularly traumatic. Blood samples were taken from children’s fingers and veins, sometimes two or three times from a single victim. The children screamed, tried to defend

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themselves, they were so scared of injections they would not allow themselves to be touched by the medical staff who used physical violence to conduct the tests (Piekut-Warszawska, as cited in Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 24).

E. Piekut-Warszawska also helped children who were administered drops into one or both of their eyes. Chemical substances irritated the children’s eyes. As she wrote: The effects of these practices hurt the victims. Their lids were severely swollen, they experienced burning sensations and excessive tearing. (...) Since the children suffered a lot and I didn’t know what substance they were administered, my instincts told me to get some water or whey to apply to their hurt eyes. The swelling wouldn’t go away, but the children reported that the burning sensation was alleviated (Piekut-Warszawska, as cited in Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 26).

“The Angel of Death”, as Josef Mengele was called, wanted to change the children’s eye color in these experiments. He carried them out on Roma and Jewish children and then on Polish and Belarussian ones as well (Kubica, 2002, p. 20). The congenital anomaly known as heterochromia, that is when a given person has one blue and one brown or green eye (Latin heterochromia iridium) or there are two colors within the iris of a single eye (Latin heterochromia iridis), occurs extremely rarely. As a result of such experiments, the children lost their eyesight partially or completely and infants even died. Out of 350 children subjected to Mengele’s pseudo-experiments, less than 100 survived (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 59). According to M. Nyiszli, an inmate-doctor who performed autopsies in the camp under Doctor Mengele: These experiments, disguised as medical examinations, conducted in vivo, that is on a living organism, fall far from a comprehensive study on twins from the scientific point of view. They are relative. They provide scarce data. Therefore, they are followed by the succeeding and most important stage of research, analysis based on autopsy, a comparison of normal and abnormal or diseased organs. But in order to enable that, there must be corpses. Because autopsy and analysis of individual organs must be done simultaneously, the twins must die at the same time. Therefore, they die at the same time in the experimental barrack of the Auschwitz concentration camp, at Camp B II d; Doctor Mengele takes their lives away (Nyiszli, 1996, pp. 42–43).

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This was the final stage of research on twins; they died almost at the same time, one after another. Auschwitz enabled Mengele not only to observe and measure twins in order to compare them while they were still alive, he also made them die together and studied their corpses. In this way, he was able to compare their normal or diseased organs. One of the survivor twins also mentioned that Mengele supervised the way his assistants “could puncture various places on the back with a needle”, including spine punctures. These procedures, conducted on little children, sometimes caused loss of consciousness, deafness, or even death in the case of younger children (Lifton, 1985). Pseudo-experiments of barely any scientific value caused the children, Mengele’s “lab rats”, immense pain.

Mental suffering of children in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau The 20th century was to bring a radical change in the position of children within the family and society. Psychology and pedagogy made huge progress, while educational concepts emphasized the importance of the environment for the harmonious and comprehensive development of children. A Swiss educator, Ellen Key, hoped the new century would become “the century of the child” and would be a favorable time for enhancing children’s potential for development, both physical and mental (Key, 2005). In Poland, Janusz Korczak pointed to the fact that kindness, trust in the child, and observing the child’s right to dignity and respect constitute the basis for the development of responsible citizens capable of making the future world a better place (Korczak, 2012). His pedagogical program focused on a belief that there are no children; instead there are little people with a different scope of experiences and a different comprehension of the world. As a medical doctor and educator, he exhibited profound knowledge of their physical and mental development, knew their needs very well and thus, throughout his career in care and education, he tried to minimize the effects of post-war trauma in his orphaned wards. He also accompanied them on their way to the gas chamber in Treblinka, where they were murdered in 1942. Against all hopes of educators and psychologists, the 20th century turned out to be the hecatomb of the child. In particular, during World War II, children were murdered on a mass-scale in death “factories” created solely for that purpose. One of them was the German Nazi extermination camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The biological and mental extermination of chil-

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dren representing various ethnic groups, including Polish children, was carried out there: Based on partially preserved camp documentation and estimated data, it was determined that among the over 1.3 million people deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, there were approximately 232,000 children and teenagers under 18 years old. This number includes approximately 216,000 Jewish, 11,000 Gypsy, and no less than 3,000 Polish children as well as over one thousand children of Belarussian, Russian, and Ukrainian ethnicity. (…). Out of that number, only slightly over 23,500 children were registered in the camp (out of the total 400,000 registered prisoners) (Los dzieci. Dzieci z Auschwitz, The Fate of Children: The Children of Auschwitz).

Within the camp, little prisoners not only ceased to be children but also humans. The German Nazis treated them as if they were enemies of the Third Reich and its ideology as much as adults: “they were starved, beaten, humiliated, forced to do heavy physical labor, and intimidated just like adult prisoners” (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 24). Even two-year-old children would wear a camp number and a red triangle, Winkel, indicating that they were political prisoners. Perceived as useless, they were deprived of the opportunity to meet their basic needs, as creatures with no personal or national identity, they were used as lab rats in Doctor Josef Mengele’s pseudo-medical experiments. The majority of children unfit for physical labor were directed to the gas chamber during preliminary selection at the platform, others died of exhaustion, diseases, and starvation. But even the most resistant ones who managed to survive experienced unimaginable physical and mental suffering. Each day of their stay in the camp was marked by extremely negative emotions, fear in the first place. Traumatic camp experiences caused profound and irreversible effects discussed in detail in medical sources, recorded in witness accounts (including those from camp torturers), or recalled by child prisoners.

The camp as a system of impact on children’s mental lives Through its specific layout, methods of conduct, communication with prisoners, mutual relationships, and presence of particular people, the Auschwitz camp created an atmosphere and system of impact that shaped

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the mental life of the children living in it. The level of mental and emotional maturity did not allow the children to fully comprehend their surrounding reality. This, on the one hand, protected them from the brutal environment, but increased their sense of fear, confusion, disorientation, and uncertainty: a prisoner told Jadzia, that she would go out through that chimney. The girl clang to her mother: “I can’t climb the chimney”. Later on, it seemed natural to Jadzia that people go out through the chimney. (…). The camp left nightmares as a reminder. Always at the child’s eye level: high polished boots and a dog’s mouth (Gietka, 2005, p. 3).

The Nazis created inhumane living conditions and a system of impact contradicting not only the child’s developmental needs, but also human nature. Every day in the camp, children learned that there are no human beings, there is only a crowd of nameless creatures, whose fate solely depends on the ruling group, that is head men and women of blocks, people wearing uniforms or doctor’s scrubs. Children arrived in the camp at a point when their individual identity had not yet been formed. On the other hand, within the camp environment, day by day, they underwent a process of dehumanization and were deprived of respect and dignity. Through participation and observation of camp life, they learned that they were useless and meaningless; they were only lab rats in pseudo-medical experiments. Instead of names, they had to know their camp numbers, which served as the only identification differentiating them from other prisoners. Every day, they experienced humiliation; they were the target of insults, curses, and contempt: “In the camp, there was no regard for people. My impression is that the more severe the pain that was inflicted on us was, the bigger was the joy for the torturers,” recalls Urszula Koperska, who was eight years old when she arrived in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau camp (Winnik, 2018, p. 48). Children, deprived of the support of their loved ones, would easily believe that SS soldiers were superhumans, whom they must obey and serve. What is more, the torturers evoked ambivalent emotions. The mere sight of them would stir fear and terror, but on the other hand, they inspired appreciation and admiration, because they differed from other prisoners exhausted with suffering. Little inmates remembered them as people of exceptional personal charm, likeable, cheerful, with impeccable looks and outfits. Yet, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau Staff comprised carefully selected employees, including criminals from Germany, people from dysfunctional

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families and poor environments, as well as representatives of the intelligentsia, medical doctors with psychopathic disorders (Użarowska, 2016; Spitz, 2019). Thus, children’s trust and innocence was faced with the cynicism and ruthlessness of camp torturers, who would give candy or bread to twoor three-year-olds in order to calm them down and before bringing them into the gas chambers. When Doctor Mengele picked them for his experiments, he pretended to care for them, fed them better, and excused them from physical labor in order to prepare them properly for tests and procedures which often ended with their death. This way, he earned the trust of these children, who called him “Uncle” (Lifton, 1985). Children’s senses and imagination were strongly affected by constant elements of camp reality: the barracks, bathhouse, bunk beds, crematory chimneys, high voltage barbed wire, guard towers equipped with machine guns and spotlights, the assembly square, platform, Block 11. What scared the children were the barking dogs, gunshots, SS soldiers shouting, the sounds of alarms, music played from loudspeakers. Little prisoners remembered the smell of burned people, dirty striped uniforms, unwashed bodies, and the taste of the food they were given. They were disgusted by the omnipresent rats and parasites; they were scared of people in military uniforms and white scrubs. Children retained the memory of the camp as a place dominated by a clear message that human life is worthless. They learned this truth every day, watching the routine count of human corpses and living prisoners which did not differentiate between the two. Not people, but numbers mattered; they had to add up at all times, otherwise penalties, including the death sentence, were imposed. Continuous contact with people of unnatural appearance – starved, dirty, bruised, with shaved heads and dressed in striped uniforms – scarred them for life. The daily sight of neatly stacked corpses, people dying in pain, or shot to death, first evoked shock and disbelief and sometimes induced mental torpidity. One of the little prisoners, Urszula Koperska, recalled many years later: On the day I sneaked off to see my mother, I came across a truck. The sight would have been shocking for an adult, let alone an eight-year-old girl! The entire bed was filled with naked corpses of emaciated people. Twisted arms and legs. All bones and skin. Like still tree branches, scattered around without any order. You cannot forget this. I was scared. The occupation taught me to live in fear, but this situation cannot be compared to any other (Winnik, 2018, p. 51).

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The commonness of death and dead bodies formed an unreal and distorted image in the children’s minds. They were surprised by the sight of the sun, but not by omnipresent corpses. Even after they left the camp, they were astonished that people could die of natural causes (Dzieci z rampy, Children from the Ramp, 2016). In camp, monotonous rituals coexisted with unexpected situations which worked as strong aversive stimuli. A consistent daily routine was enforced. Wake-up call, assembly, counting the dead and alive, meals, sleep, and even physiological needs were subjugated to a precisely defined schedule. Children were deprived of any stimuli needed for their development. They had no right to autonomous activity. The chaos and disorientation in little prisoners were increased by ridiculous situations and activities, such as the cheerful music played from loudspeakers when children were separated from their mothers, during murderous physical labor or executions (Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 12). As J. Witkowski reports, the camp band played beautiful tunes not to cheer the children, but to drown out their screams and cries when they were burned on bonfires (Witkowski, 1975, p. 13). The camp was also a place full of hardly foreseeable events, which amplified the confusion. Children going to shower were unsure whether there would be water or gas running out of the showerheads. Fear was also induced by situations that could not be predicted and were followed by punishment. Such events left an imprint in the memories of, among others, Barbara Doniecka: Suddenly a German man stood in front of me and looked me in the eye for a long while. I looked at him, but I didn’t know how to behave, so I lowered my eyes and closed them. He the lifted his whip and hit me in the face with it. I cried but I didn’t make a move. (…) I remember that when the SS soldier walked away, I looked in the sky and asked for the second time ever: “God, why would you allow this to happen? I am standing straight like a good girl, you see everything and you are capable of everything, and yet you let him hit me for no reason”. So I prayed God would let me survive all of that. All that fear, fear for my life and my loved ones’ lives, fear of the danger that surrounded me all around, doubt in God himself – this cannot be described in words (Winnik, 2018, p. 110).

Little prisoners remembered sophisticated corporal and mental punishment, the movement of a cane or doctor Josef Mengele’s gesture signifying a death sentence or pardon, as recalled by one of little inmates:

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Meanwhile, an SS soldier in white scrubs examined my skin lesions and spoke in Polish with little care: “It’s not contagious. She can live”. I was pardoned. I didn’t realize back then how serious my position was. The doctor could have sentenced me to death and yet I escaped it once more (Winnik, 2018, p. 50).

Fear was evoked by exemplary executions, baths, smoke coming out of chimneys, extra assemblies on hot days and during severe frost (Dzieci w KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2018). It was accompanied by a certain atmosphere of drama designed to amplify that fear in children and their parents. Descriptions of such situations recur in memoirs: The assemblies always filled us with terror. You never knew what was going to happen and literally anything could. In front of the adults’ block, people were beaten and shot. (…) I reluctantly go back to the day when one of the SS soldiers called my number first during the assembly. I was petrified. My mother’s words of dozens of people sent to death instantly came to my mind. I cannot describe how I felt. It soon turned out that on that day the Germans weren’t picking numbers but dark-eyed girls like me (Winnik, 2018, p. 110; see also Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 69).

Mental suffering of children due to and in loneliness The most incomprehensible thing for the children was their separation from their families and the lack of their loved ones when their care and support was needed most. Before they arrived in camp, children experienced the results of war trauma related to the loss of relatives. They witnessed roundups and crimes. They heard adults speaking of concentration camps. They admitted they had not understood much, but they adopted negative emotions. But they remembered well enough the transport to the camp: the lack of space, crowds, stuffiness, but also the panic among adults which infected them as well. “‘Dear God, where am I, what place is it?’ I thought. And I got my answer soon enough. One of the men stepping out of the car looked around and screamed with tears in his eyes, ‘For Christ’s sake, it’s Auschwitz!’” recalls Barbara Doniecka, who was travelling with her mother (Winnik, 2018, p. 105). Although children had trouble understanding the situation, they feared the mere place and what was going to happen there, because their loved ones were unable to hide negative emotions:

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Mother was shocked. (…) Her condition frightened me. At that moment, I didn’t remember that a year earlier I had overheard adults talking of the Auschwitz camp and all the dreadful things happening there. The report was so gruesome that I forbid myself from listening till the end and calmed myself down with the conviction that such a thing could never happen to me (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 113).

Children who survived the camp describe it from the perspective of the hunger and physical pain they suffered, but also from the perspective of longing for their loved ones. The moment of separation from their parents was a source of immense mental suffering. The first selection on the platform was often the most traumatic experience, for many it was the last time they saw their relatives. As W. Witek-Malicka noted: “All descriptions of the last moments spent with parents and the sudden separation are similar in one way – they are saturated with a single domineering emotion which drowns out even fear: the unspeakable longing and despair” (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 116). KL Auschwitz-Birkenau can be seen as a place where an experiment on the psychological effects of deprivation of needs or on the limits of children’s capacity for mental suffering with regard to their separation from the most important people in their lives was conducted. In a blink of an eye, they were deprived of their parents’ love and a sense of security. For little prisoners, the camp was a place of mental suffering endured in loneliness: the days usually passed peacefully, although we missed our parents. (…) Sometimes a block headwoman, if she was in a good mood, would allow us to see mother. These were beautiful yet short moments. For a while it seemed it was safe and we were to return home. But after we parted, hope and enthusiasm faded, recalled Urszula Koperska (Winnik, 2018, p. 52).

The desire for physical contact with their mothers was the children’s most important and identifiable need. Barbara Doniecka, just like many other prisoners, recalls the moment when she was separated from her loved ones as the most traumatic camp experience. She also presented a horrific description of her friend’s death caused by separation from the girl’s mother: One day, the warden allowed her to see her mother hoping this would calm the girl down a bit. Cuddling with her mother, Helena stopped weeping for

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a while, but when they were separated again, the apogee began. She suffered so much and got such strong spasms that she died of longing the following night, lying down next to me on our bunk (Winnik, 2018, p. 109).

The memories of little prisoners create an image of their helplessness with regard to the suffering of their loved ones. Hanna K. Ulatowska remembered her reaction to her mother being humiliated: “I lived the most tragic moment of separation from my mother. (…) The view of mother pulling a cart as if she was a horse. In dreadful frost. Even now, it fills me with sadness” (Gietka, 2005, p. 7). Little prisoners remembered their feelings well when they were forced to look at the naked bodies of their own parents: “She couldn’t accept public stripping. And she had never seen her mother naked before. Her mother. Her sanctity. She tried not to look below the face” (Gietka, 2005, p. 5). The sensation of shame also accompanied Bogdan Bartnikowski, who wrote: I am standing naked and covering my boy parts with my hands. I am ashamed. (…) First, when I took off my shirt in a huge dressing-down room, I didn’t dare to look up. Mother… as naked as I was, neighbors from the house we used to live before we got here, and a crowd, crowd of people… And although after a long period of fearful waiting for what was going to happen to us next, I wasn’t a bit less frightened, the necessity to move along into the long corridor forced me to lift my head, to look (Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 15).

One permanent desire experienced by children in the camp was a longing for any form of contact with their mothers, their sight, touch, cuddle, but their expectations were minimal, they hoped mainly not to hear of their mothers’ death. They risked their life to seek this relationship, for example to visit their mothers in hospital (….), or, as Bogdan Bartnikowski did, they took up work for their sake: “We are standing opposite each other, looking at each other. I can see happiness and shock in her eyes. Happiness because I’m here, so close, and shock (…) I know, I’m horribly dirty, ragged…” (Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 48). Child prisoners recall how their mothers risked their lives to see them, gave them their food ratios, medicine, ointments. Their care for their children was also expressed in the way the mothers thought of their future. They would remind them of their names, origin, they instructed them where and to whom they should go after the

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war or how to survive in camp by lying that they were older, which would allow them to take up work and survive: [Mothers – editor’s note. DP] had a separate block and they weren’t allowed to visit their children, although they tried to come up to the windows. Thanks to that, we knew that mother was near. I remember that one day mother unexpectedly came to my assembly field. I already knew where I was and what the flame burning in the crematory chimney meant. I sat on her lap and listened to dates I had trouble remembering: my mother’s, father’s, and brother’s birthday. She also gave me an address to relatives with whom we didn’t keep in touch. She said I could find them there “just in case”. But she never explained what “just in case” meant. She would never reveal how she truly felt knowing her children could die any moment (Fijewska, 2017).

In the Auschwitz camp, parents were tortured by the pain and suffering inflicted upon their children. The Head of the Auschwitz extermination camp, Rudolf Höß, admitted during his trial: One day two little children got so lost in a game that their mother was unable to stop them. Even the Jews from the special unit didn’t want to take the children away. I will never forget the look of a mother begging for pardon, a mother who knew what was going on (…) I nodded to an NCO and he took the resisting children to the chamber accompanied by the heartrending cry of their mother who followed them (Boczek, Boczek and Wilczur, 1979, p. 50).

Having to watch their children, both the older ones and newborns, who were tossed into buckets full of feces, into furnaces, or behind the barracks for rats to prey on them, die caused unimaginable suffering to mothers. Excerpts from stenographic reports from the trials of SS officers include testimonies of witnesses who depicted brutal scenes happening within the camp: “The head of crematories, Moll, took a child away from its mother. He tossed that child into the boiling human fat that accumulated in drains around the hole and told his prisoner functionary: ‘I will now go and have a decent meal, I have done my work’” (Zychowicz, 2017). Examples of similarly cruel actions taken by the camp top managers, that is Rudolf Höß (Kobylański, 2018) and Josef Mengele (Lifton, 1985), were described in memoirs and testimonies of former prisoners.

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Children’s mechanisms for coping with mental suffering Separated from the external world and their loved ones, children instinctively adapted to the conditions of camp life by fighting to survive. They did not resist when they were subjected to pseudo-medical experiments: We were taken to the territory of the “Angel of Death”, the notorious Doctor Mengele. We had heard dreadful things about him from older girls, who had been kept in the camp longer. Yet, we couldn’t have known what he was doing in Auschwitz. For several days, we were taken several times a day, to the room in which he worked. We were given some eyedrops and injections. Even today I have no idea what we were administered. We didn’t resist, there was no point. There was nothing we could do (Winnik, 2018, p. 111).

The camp rule of survival was to stay invisible to the torturers and obey camp rules unconditionally. Little prisoners quickly learned that they had to reject the norms they had been taught at home and fight for their survival, for example for food. Those who managed to endure emphasize that they mastered self-discipline, optimism; they constantly repeated to themselves they had to live for their loved ones. They also recall that, upon entering the camp, they quickly stopped crying and gave up any other behavior that might have seemed childish. They remembered kind gestures, mutual comfort, and advice given by their peers and other prisoners: “Older, experienced prisoners would tell us that if we were hungry, we should move as little as possible, save our strength, it would be needed later on” (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 197; Świadkowie Epoki, Witnesses to an Epoch, 2019). They recall instructions given by their parents: “Before father was transported to Dachau, he managed to teach an 11-year-old in striped trousers tied high up his chest lot of things. For example, that you need to chew bread for a long time. As long as it takes to melt in your mouth” recalls Kazimierz Kozłowski (Gietka, 2005, pp. 3–4). Despite unfavorable conditions within the Auschwitz camp, children tried to realize their children’s natural needs, such as that of play: wasteland all around, no tree nor a blade of grass. Stiff twisted corpses in a cart by the barracks. Sometimes, they were stacked up to the roof.

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Indeed, the “atmosphere” didn’t encourage play. But sometimes we would run in front of the barrack because someone poked somebody else. And shouted “tag”

– recalls Barbara Doniecka (as cited in Winnik, 2018, p. 112). Also Elżbieta Sobczyńska remembered camp playtime: “we would play marbles on our bunk beds. It was a skill game in which you had to toss and collect stones. Apart from that, we talked, about food mostly. In camp, the bunk bed was a place to sleep, eat, and play, so, for me, it became a symbol of fate and stabilization” (Fijewska, 2017). Games were also a way to express unmet needs and give a vent to traumatic experiences: “In the eating game, sometimes such words were spoken: ‘(…) take this delicious lamb, eat it before they take us to the crematory’” (Winnik, 2018, s. 115). Children would escape into the world of fairytales and daydreaming to forget the camp reality: Mother! She enters the room, reaches for me, I want to embrace her, but my legs are stiff, I can’t walk towards her, I only touch her hand with the tips of my fingers, I know it for sure I am touching her! I open my eyes. Yes. It was a dream, it was only a dream again (Bartnikowski, 2016, p. 51).

Returning to the past relieved the suffering, but also made the children miss their parents and the world as it used to be even more. Consolation in all that pain, suffering, and loneliness was brought by little toys made by their mothers, discussions with peers, singing, prayers, memories of their homes and holidays. Going back to the memories of the past was Urszula Koperska’s method of coping with the camp reality: “We, I and my friends from the bunkbed, would come back to the ‘delicious’ memories. We talked about the things our mothers used to cook and our favorite dishes. In camp, this was our main ‘pastime’” (Winnik, 2018, p. 52).

Summary Data suggests that approximately 7% prisoners of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau at the time it was liberated were children under the age of 15 years (Witek-Malicka, 2018, p. 70). Their suffering, mental in particular, did not end when they left the camp and the war ended. Some of them died

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of exhaustion caused by diseases and starvation. Some of them were condemned to wandering. The orphaned ones waited to be adopted. Even those little prisoners who had parents were marked by the profound and irreversible effects of post-camp trauma which changed their entire lives. They would come to demolished houses, where their mothers and fathers struggled with both illness and severe injuries, as well as economic problems, trying to find a place in the post-war reality. Within such circumstances, children’s camp experiences could not have been treated as seriously as they should. Thus, unprocessed traumatic events must have increased their mental suffering. Discovering their own identity was a challenge to little prisoners. The orphaned ones didn’t know their names or date of birth. The number and fate of Polish children classified as “racially valuable” and relocated to German families, where they were subjected to the process of Germanization, remains unknown (Hrabar, 1983). To execute this task, the Germans created an organized system comprising various institutions, including the Nazi organization of Lebensborn. This institution, which was officially promoted as an association for care and charity, in fact was to “ensure model breeding of elite leaders needed to execute the tasks of the ‘Thousand-Year Reich’” (Hrabar, 1975, p. 10). Lebensborn centers, operating in Poland under the occupation and Germanizing children of all ages, also took their toll.

Bibliography Bartnikowski B. (2016), Dzieciństwo w pasiakach, Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Boczek H., Boczek E., Wilczur J. (1979), Wojna i dziecko, Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia. Hrabar R. (1975), „Lebensborn”, czyli źródło życia, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R. (1983), Janczarowie XX wieku, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R., Tokarz Z., Wilczur J.E. (1979), Czas niewoli, czas śmierci. Martyrologia dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Interpress. Key E. (2005), Stulecie dziecka, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie „Żak”. Klee E. (2001), Auschwitz medycyna III Rzeszy i jej ofiary, transl. E. Kalinowska-Styczeń, Kraków: TAiWPN Universitas. Korczak J. (2012), Prawo dziecka do szacunku, Warszawa: Biuro Rzecznika Praw Dziecka. Kubica H. (2002), Nie wolno o nich zapomnieć. Najmłodsze ofiary Auschwitz, Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau.

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Kubica H. (2010), Kobiety ciężarne i dzieci urodzone w KL Auschwitz, Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Leszczyńska S. (1991), Nie, nigdy! Nie wolno zabijać dzieci, scientific description B. Bejze, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sióstr Loretanek. Nyiszli M. (1996), Byłem asystentem doktora Mengele. Wspomnienie lekarza z Oświęcimia, transl. T. Olszański, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo TRIO. Spitz V. (2019), Doktorzy z piekła rodem. Przerażające świadectwo nazistowskich eksperymentów na ludziach, transl. J.S. Zaus, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Replika. Ternon Y., Helman S. (1973), Historia medycyny SS, czyli mit rasizmu biologicznego, Warszawa: Państwowy Zakład Wydawnictw Lekarskich. Winnik S. (2018), Dziewczęta z Auschwitz. Głos ocalonych kobiet, Warszawa: Muza. Witek-Malicka W. (2018), Dzieci z Auschwitz-Birkenau. Socjalizacja w obozie, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Nomos. Witkowski J. (1975), Hitlerowski obóz koncentracyjny dla małoletnich w Łodzi, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. Online references bielo1906. (2016, 1 March), Dzieci z rampy [video file], https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Aj-WW6UaFFE. Fijewska M. (2017), Gdy zaczął się dla niej koszmar, miała tylko dziesięć lat, wp.magazyn, https://magazyn.wp.pl/artykul/gdy-zaczal-sie-dla-niej-koszmar-miala-tylko-dziesiec-lat. Gietka E. (2005), My, dzieci z Auschwitz, “Tygodnik Przegląd”, https://www.tygodnikprzeglad.pl/my-dzieci-auschwitz/. Kobylański T. (2018), Życie codzienne w willi komendanta Oświęcimia, “Polityka. Historia”, https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/historia/1534501,1,zycie-codzienne-w-willi-komendanta-oswiecimia.read. Kowalski W. (2015), Sadyści z Auschwitz. Oprawcy, którym zabijanie więźniów sprawiało nieskrywaną radość, na:Temat. Historia, https://natemat.pl/131313,kaci-z-auschwitzbestie-o-pogodnych-twarzach-ktore-zabijaly-z-nudow. Krzysztoń D. (2016), 5 faktów na temat życia i okrucieństwa Josefa Mengele, Blaber. Multiblog, https://blaber.pl/kultura/okrucienstwa-jozefa-mengele/. Lifton J.R. (1985), What Made this Man? Mengele, “The New York Times Magazine”, https:// www.nytimes.com/1985/07/21/magazine/what-made-this-man-mengele.html. Los dzieci. Dzieci z Auschwitz (b.d.), Materiały Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau, http://www.auschwitz.org/historia/los-dzieci/. Luteranie (2018, 1 March), Dzieci z KL Auschwitz-Birkenau – wspomnienia Hanny Gajkowskiej, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSWbYNfVgcY. Luteranie (2018, 1 March), Dzieci z KL Auschwitz-Birkenau – wspomnienia Alicji Hintz-Zdybskiej, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMNN64idhmc.

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Świadkowie Epoki (2019, 1 January), Spotkałam doktora Mengele w Auschwitz – Irena Wiśniewska, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EHF8IfwL5k. Użarowska M. (2016), Psychopaci w kitlach – jak nazistowscy lekarze eksperymentowali na ludziach, “Rzeczpospolita. Historia”, https://www.rp.pl/Historia/310279865-Psychopaci-w-kitlach---jak-nazistowscy-lekarze-eksperymentowali-na-ludziach.html. Zychowicz P. (2017), Auschwitz oczami katów, “Rzeczpospolita. Historia”, https://www. rp.pl/Historia/304289988-Auschwitz-oczami-katow.html.

BEATA KOZACZYŃSKA SIEDLCE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

WHEN THERE WERE NO MORE TEARS LEFT TO CRY: THE TRAGIC FATE OF THE POLISH CHILDREN DISPLACED FROM THE ZAMOŚĆ REGION IN 1942–19431

S u m m a r y : The Children of Zamość are a symbol of the martyrdom of Polish children during the World War II. Their tragic fate was made even worse by the incredibly brutal methods used by the Germans beginning in the earliest phases of the deportations. They were torn away from their parents by force during racial selection at the transit camp in Zamość (UWZ-Lager Zamosc), were Poles awaiting deportation were interned. Polish children from Zamość were also interned at other transit camps, such as the one in Zwierzyniec or at KL Lublin (Majdanek) and KL Auschwitz, where they were killed with lethal injections of phenol into the heart (the so-called practice of “needling”), and also at the extermination camp at Kulmhof (Chełmno nad Nerem). To this day the fate of thousands of Polish children carried away from Zamość into the Third Reich for Germanization remains unknown. Those who were not earmarked for Germanization were deported by the Germans in cattle cars (“death transports”) to the Warsaw district. Ke y w o rd s : German occupation, the Children of Zamość, deportation, Germanization, camps for Poles, the Zamość region

Introduction During World War II, approximately 2,250,000 Polish children perished as the result of military and terrorization actions carried out by Germany. At least an additional 200,000 children were transported out of Poland in order to be Germanized. Only about 15 per cent of these children never returned home (Theiss, 2012, p. 80; Wieczorek, 1982, p. 12). The German 1

This work is the result of the implementation of research project No. 2017/25/B/ HS3/01085, financed by the National Science Center in Krakow.

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crimes carried out against Polish children in 1939–1945 constitute a crime of genocide, and therefore a crime against humanity. As stated in the justification of the Nuremberg trial (No. 9), “This crime spared neither women nor children, the protection of whom, until then, had been regarded as a duty by even the most ruthless and barbaric enemy” (Pilichowski, 1982, p. 39). Among the great crimes committed by Germany during World War II, the crimes against the Polish children of the Zamość region are particularly tragic. During this time, as Germany attempted to implement the General Eastern Plan (Generalplan Ost), it experimented with expelling native populations from areas subsequently to be settled by German colonists.2 The choice of the Zamość region for German settlement was determined by many factors primarily involving geography, strategy, and economic considerations. The Germans emphasized in particular the fact of a “tradition” of local German colonization.3 The Polish children displaced from the Zamość region shared the fate of adult prisoners in the transit camps in Zamość and Zwierzyniec. They were exposed to the brutality of Germans who terrorized them and showed them no mercy as children, but treated them as adults. The Germans sent some of these children to concentration camps, including KL Lublin (Majdanek) and KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where they were killed with injections to the heart. The children were also sent to the Kulmhof extermination camp (Chełmno nad Nerem), where they were killed in gas chambers. Stolen from their parents, they were taken to the Reich for Germanization or forced labor, where they died of overwork or sickness. To date, the fate of at least 4,454 Polish children deported from the Zamość region to the Reich for Germanization is unknown. Most likely they lived in ignorance of their Polish origin. Perhaps some are still alive, with all trace of their Polish identity obliterated.

2

3

Generalplan Ost was a long-term plan for the German colonization of Eastern Europe over a period of 20 to 30 years which involved the expulsion, Germanization, and/or biological extermination of between 46 to 51 million people, including Poles, living in this area. More on the assumptions of the General Eastern Plan: Mącior-Majka, 2007. Descendants of German colonists who originally settled around Zamość in 1784–1785 were still living in the area. They had long sincebeen fully Polonized and no longer knew the language of their ancestors. Only their family names, such as Albinger, Szpringer, Tor, Weiler, and Paul, testified to their German origin.

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Too small to carry a rifle: approximately 35,000 Polish children were displaced from the Zamość region The German deportation of the native population of the Zamość region began on the night of November 27,1942 in the villages of Skierbieszów and Sady. Previously, on November 12, 1942, an order of H. Himmler (No. 17 C on determining the first settlement area in the General Government), had identified the Zamość region as the “first area for German settlement” in the General Government (Text of General Regulation No. 17 C by Reichsführer SS regarding the identification of the first settlement area in the General Government, Zamojszczyzna – Sonderlaboratorium SS…, 1979, p. 169). 110,000 Polish residents of the Zamość region, including about 35,000 children, living in 297 villages, found themselves in the displacement zone. Displacements, often combined with pacification measures, were carried out intermittently until mid-August 1943. This action was the most tragic of the German occupier’s crimes, and had no precedent in all of occupied Europe with the exception of the the so-called solutions to the Jewish and Roma “problems”. Polish families living in the Zamość region experienced terrible tragedy. Innocent and defenseless children were too small to carry a rifle to protect themselves from being murdered. The events that took place in this area exceeded in horror everything that the Polish nation had experienced during the three years of German occupation. The broad expulsion of people from land that had been passed down from generation to generation was brutal. The Germans spared neither women, even pregnant women, nor children, nor the elderly.

The tragedy of the Zamość children began with expulsion from home The German expulsion of the Poles from the Zamość region came without warning. Commotion, noise, the clatter of heavy boots, screaming, the slamming of doors... “Half an hour”, “school”, “square”, “twenty kilos”, “hurry” – these are the words remembered by Stanisław Węcławik, then a 15-year-old resident of Skierbieszów who was driven from his family home in one of the first villages where expulsions were carried out (Węcławik, 2014, p. 33). Some children left their homes barefoot (Klukowski, 1947,

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p. 59) and without warm clothing, as many parents of large families had no time to dress their children properly. Germans and Ukrainians in German service burst into homes at dawn, woke up the sleepy, surprised residents, and ordered them to gather immediately at an assembly point in a square or near a school or church. Poles were given ten to 15 minutes, occasionally 30 minutes, and very rarely a whole hour, to pack up and leave home. Once everyone was assembled, “preliminary” segregation was carried out, with some adults remaining in the village to serve future German colonists. It often happened that farms of displaced Poles were taken over by German settlers brought from various regions of Europe in a single day. The remaining displaced persons were transported, usually by carts, to the transit camp in Zamość. Some children, left in hiding places by parents who hoped to avoid the expulsion, died of hunger. One mother, who was captured during the deportation and imprisoned in a transit camp in Zamość, paid the highest price. She is mentioned by C. Głównaka, a former prisoner: “I personally saw a woman hanging on the camp fence who had been shot by a soldier while trying to escape. The prisoners said she was desperate because she had left behind children in hiding” (Główka, 2014, p. 167).

Children from the Zamość region as prisoners at the Zamość Transit Camp (UWZ-Lager Zamosc) The next stage of the displaced persons’ or deal took place in the transit camp in Zamość. This was one of two camps used in the deportation operation, with the other located in nearby Zwierzyniec. The camp in Zamość was created on November 18, 1942, at the site of a former camp for Soviet prisoners of war (Stalag 325).4 In testimonies given by GKBZN/GKBZH in Poland, former prisoners of the camp recalled that they witnessed pregnant women giving birth in carts before they were taken to the transit camp in Zamość. “During such deliveries”, testified witness M.C., “the Germans gave no assistance, and

4

The transit camp in Zamość operated until January 18, 1944. Although it could accommodate approximately 7,000 prisoners, it was often overcrowded. It consisted of about 16 wooden barracks of various sizes, outbuildings, and stables, surrounded by a fence of double barbed wire. About 40,000 people passed through the transit camp in Zamość (Zyśko, 1979, p. 106; Więzienia i obozy…, 1969, p. 98.

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help was provided only by companions in misery. The Germans did not allow the women and their babies – if the babies lived – to be transferred to the camp hospital. They had to wait in transition barrack No. 5 for registration, which often took two days. Mostly such women and children died (Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Warszawie [dalej A IPNW], GK, sygn. 196/255, k. 39 [Protokół Jana Sehna, Kraków, 26 II 1947]).5

Light hair and blue eyes: racial selection at UWZ-Lager Zamosc It was behind the gate of the transit camp in Zamość that the tragedy of the displaced inhabitants of the Zamość region began. After registration, children were subjected to racial selection and were assigned to one of four groups depending on their “racial value”. Selection was carried out by special “commissions” operating with ruthlessness and precision to identify Nordic features, including blond hair, blue eyes, and the right shape of the face, ears, and nose. After this, families were separated. Germans tore children away from their mothers ruthlessly and brutally. They were relentless, ignoring the screams, sobs, and heartrending weeping of the children. Individual barracks, separated by a barbed wire fence, were provided for each group. Children were placed in the worst of the wooden barracks, which had formerly been stables for horses. The conditions in which the children lived were terrible. One witness remembered the following picture of barrack No. 16, in which “racially worthless” children were kept: It was a barrack without a floor, so the on the ground clay mixed with water to form a layer of mud several centimeters deep. On top of this were the children’s bunks. The children were very pale, often covered with sores. When food was brought, they all threw themselves at it, beating each other to push their way to the bowls. Some of them no longer had the strength to leave their bunks, and even at mealtimes they remained motionless. I also saw dead children lying in the mud waiting to be transferred to the morgue. Children up to the age of 14 stayed in this barrack. The mortality rate among the inhabitants of the barrack was high. I found this out when I was 5

The Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland was created in 1945. In 1949 it was renamed the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland.

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in the morgue in connection with the removal of a body from our barrack. The morgue was located in one of the barracks. One whole corner was filled with the bodies of deceased children. A carter came and transported the dead twice every day (Archiwum Państwowe w Zamościu [dalej APZ], OKBZHwL, sygn. 4, k. 224v-225 [Protokół przesłuchania świadka Wawrzyńca Ł.]).

Children housed in the barrackes were usually left to the care of the elderly, most of whom were sick, infirm and, vulnerable. Many children did not survive the painful separation from their parents. Sentenced to hunger and illness, they often could not withstand the extremely difficult conditions of the camp, and died. Although the camp in Zamość was formally a transit camp, in fact it operated as a concentration camp for children under the age of 14 (Resolution of the Supreme Court in Warsaw, Chamber of Labor and Social Security of 4 October 1982, reference number III-UZP-5/8). Starvation food rations, the absence of measures for hygiene and sanitation, the lack of medicine and proper medical care, lice and the spread of infectious diseases, and the cruelty of the camp operators all lead to the rapid physical and mental deterioration, and frequently to the death, of the prisoners, children and the elderly in particular. Barefoot children without warm clothes were the first to die. During the transport of displaced Poles from Skierbieszów, the three youngest children of six siblings were transported on a cart sitting in a barrel filled with feathers because their parents had had no time to dress them all. One father with five small children wrapped their bare feet in paper and carefully lined their cart with straw (Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej…, 1968, p. 75). Did they survive? The children in the camp starved and died. The child mortality rate was extraordinarily high. It is known from accounts of former prisoners that during epidemics of infectious diseases as many as 40 or more children died in a single day. One former prisoner recalls that “the stench was suffocating, and bugs were everywhere. The children, covered with scabs, were crying. They were waiting for death and dying slowly. Children died of poverty and hunger. Corpses were taken away every day” (APZ, Konkurs „Tygodnika Zamojskiego” „Kiedy przyszli podpalić dom…”, 1982 (M. Konopka, Konkurs na wspomnienia, refleksje „Kiedy przyszli podpalić dom”, s. 3 – mps. Ruszów [b.d.], nr pracy 98).). Testimonies of former prisoners contain shocking descriptions of the camp operators’ terrorization of the displaced persons, and the sadistic

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behavior of camp commander Artur Schütz towards both children and adults. Schütz was a ruthless and cruel torturer. He drowned children in feces in camp latrine pits, and killed them by grabbing them by their feet and slamming one child’s head against another’s (Kozaczyńska, 2018, p. 137). One witness, a nine-year-old child at the time, testified: I remember a shocking accident when a mother took a child out of the barrack, the child was maybe three years old, to handle a physiological need, but at that time the latrine was occupied, so she stood the child next to the barrack, which he saw. He tore the child out of the mother’s arms, kicked her, and threw the child into the latrine. The child drowned there” (A IPN O/Lublin [Oddziałowa Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Lublinie], Akta w sprawie obozu wysiedleńczego w Zamościu, sygn. Ds. 239/67, t. 3 [Protokół przesłuchania Stanisławy S., Zamość, 2 VII 1966], k. 355).

And this was not a single case – there were more of them.

Transporting children into the unknown in cattle and freight wagons The fate of many of the children deported from the Zamość region into the unknown during the winter of 1942–1943 in cattle and freight wagons (“death transports”) was tragic. When the Germans transported prisoners from the camp, the prisoners were not told where they were being taken. Most often transports were formed under the cover of night. The prisoners stood in the cold for hours waiting to hear their names read out. Many children died of cold in the camp square while awaiting deportation.

40 German marks for a Polish child Cold, defenseless, and unaccompanied children, separated from their parents and transported from the the Zamość region in sealed freight wagons headed to an unknown direction, began to arrive in Warsaw at the beginning of January 1943. This city, despite the terror and repression of the German occupier, reacted. Underground newspapers provided information about displaced children seen at Warsaw railway stations. Information was also provided about

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“silent wagons” standing on side tracks near the Bródno district, carrying children who were probably already dead because they made no sound. At the end of the month, transports with displaced children from the Zamość region were seen in Łódź, Pabianice, Zduńska Wola, Sieradz, and Poznań. In Łódź and the surrounding area, the immediate reaction of residents to the news of the transport of children from the Zamość region led to German repression. In March 1943, Poles managed to buy a certain number of children from the Zamość region from transports in Pomerania. At railway stations in Bydgoszcz, Chojnice, Tczew, and Gdynia, Germans sold Polish children for 40 German marks. This was the value of the life of a Polish child from the Zamość region.

The fate of children in “death transports” Children identified as “racially worthless” during the racial selection process were transported by Germans to various parts of the General Government. In January 1943, the underground magazine Żywia urged Poles to save Polish children stolen away from their parents in the Zamość region and taken to the unknown (Ratować dzieci! ..., 1943). Wherever transports with children arrived, the Polish population hurried to help them, and with great determination managed to keep many of them alive. Not all children, hungry, dirty, and crowded in unheated and unsanitary cattle wagons, survived the inhumane transport process. During the winter of 1942–1943, the Germans sent 5,321 children and elderly persons in six “transports of death” from the transit camp in Zamość to the Warsaw District. One of these transports, carrying 998 people, mostly children and the elderly, arrived on January 31, 1943 in Siedlce (my hometown) (Kozaczyńska, 2006, p. 60). “The unloading took place on a side track in the open”, one of the witnesses testified. “The people were taken in carts by local people within a few hours. How many were in the wagon I did not count, but it was crammed” (A IPNW, Akta w sprawie „Zbrodni hitlerowskich w Lubelszczyźnie”, sygn. SAL-193/II, k. 7 [Protokół przesłuchania świadka Wiktora K.]). Nine people, both children and adults, were found to have died in the wagons (Kozaczyńska, 2012, p. 132). Despite great efforts, not all of the deceased were identified. A protocol from the morgue of the city hospital made note of “a girl, surname unknown, around 6 months, barefoot, brown T-shirt, pink sweater, and white cap with blue stripes”(Kozaczyńska, 2012, p. 135). Sister Anna Fabiańska of the Congregation of St. Vincent de

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Paul went directly to the train station from Siedlce City Hospital. She recalls: “In one of the carriages I saw a mother who had no more tears left to cry sitting over the corpses of her two sons, five and seven years old, who had not been able to survive the harsh conditions” (Kozaczyńska, 2006, p. 49–50).6 In another part of her memoirs we read: “People were begging for water, because during transportation it was considered a great crime to scratch off snow from a window frame to drink” (Kozaczyńska, 2006, p. 50). 32 of the most seriously ill, including most children between nine months and 11 years old, were immediately placed in the local city hospital. Despite immediate aid, not all children were saved. Tragically, many of them died in the days and weeks following their arrival in Siedlce as the result of illnesses contracted during their stay in the transit camp in Zamość. During the first two weeks of February 1943, 33 people were sent to the city hospital, mainly children between the ages of two and 13. In addition to general exhaustion, they suffered from inflammations of the lungs, colon, and kidneys, as well as measles, diphtheria, anemia, emphysema, and moderate or severe frostbite. Typhus was suspected in several children. According to the report of Dr. Mieczysław Piotrowski, the children admitted to the hospital were in “deplorable condition”. They were dirty and infested with lice. Most suffered from pneumonia (A IPN O/Lublin [Oddziałowa Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Lublinie], sygn. Ds. 373/67, t. 5, k. 21 [Protokół przesłuchania świadka M. Piotrowskiego z 7 VII 1966]). Survivors, however, had a chance for “new parents” and a “new home”. Some children were adopted. Most, however, returned to their homeland after the liberation of Siedlce in the summer of 1944, or after the end of World War II.

Children from the Zamość region as prisoners in KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau Children identified in the transit camp in Zamość as “racially worthless” were also deported to KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau. In the winter of 1942 –1943, that is, during the initial phase of displacement in the Zamość region, the Germans sent three transports from the camp in Zamość to KL Auschwitz, which included 1,301 displaced Poles (Kubica, 2004, p. 32). Among 6

During the racial selection process, Germans sometimes left mothers with their children in the camp when the children were older, or sick, and therefore unsuitable for forced labor in the Reich. These mothers were sent with their children to the barracks and then transported.

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the children in the first transport was 14-year-old Czesława Kwoka, who had been expelled from Wólka Złojecka in the Zamość region. She was brought to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau on the night of December 12, 1942, together with her mother Katarzyna, born in 1896, and other prisoners. The deportation of this young girl and other Poles expelled from the Zamość region was essentially synonymous with their extermination (only a few prisoners displaced from this area survived). With regard to Czesława and other Polish children from the Zamość region, the Germans were ruthless, killing them with injections to the heart as they also killed Jewish children in this camp. On March 12, 1943, Czesława Kwoka was killed by an injection of phenol directly into her heart. The death certificate stated the official cause of her death as: Kachexis bei Darmkatarrh (an obstruction of the bowel). A little earlier, on February 18, 1943, her mother Katarzyna was also killed. As the cause of death, her death certificate stated: Sepsis bei Phlegmone (sepsis due to phlegmon) (Kubica, 2004, pp. 86–87). Photographs from the camp records of Czesława Kwoka’s and her mother are preserved at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. The photographs were taken by Wilhelm Brasse, a Polish prisoner who was assigned to take photographs for the purpose of keeping camp records. According to his account, before he took photos of Czesława she was beaten with a whip by one of the overseers to force her to obey. Germans also used Polish children in the pseudo-scientific experiments conducted in this camp, and children from the Zamość region perished in unexplained circumstances. One witness testified: I, along with my wife and parents, was sent to Oświęcim, and in our transport I saw Polish children over 10 years of age who had been displaced from the Zamość region. At first, these children were with us in Brzezinka. After a week, the Germans took these children and, as they said, took them to Oświęcim No. 1 (to the main camp – BK). Where they actually took them I don’t know, but the fact is that none of these children returned (Wnuk, 1961, p. 116).

Children from the Zamość region as prisoners KL Lublin (Majdanek) The fate of Polish children from the Zamość region at Majdanek (KL Lublin) was tragic. The Germans deported to this camp about 9,000 Poles, including children, mainly from the Biłgoraj and Zamość villages in the Zamość region (Kiełboń, 2006, p. 18). After returning from Majdanek, Mieczysław

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Klimczak weighed only 11 kg. He was nine years old. Many of the displaced persons from the Zamość region did not survive the extremely difficult conditions prevailing in this camp (Archives of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor in Warsaw, Records of Terror [Accounts of Janina Suchodolska and Kazimierz Wdzięczny, https://www.zapisyterroru.pl]). The prisoners’ difficult situation was exacerbated by the fact that they were mostly brought there from transit camps in Zamość and Zwierzyniec, and only a few were sent directly from the displaced villages in the summer of 1943. Janina Kiełboń noted the difficulty of adapting to camp conditions: “The crowding in the barracks, the spread of disease, and the death of family members, all this made the situation worse. Children were lost in the crowds and the turmoil, and desperate mothers literally becamse insane fearing that they would not find them”(Kiełboń, 2006, p. 12). Children at Majdanek were also reported to be insane (A IPNW, GK, sygn. 166/187, t. 3 [Protokół przesłuchania świadka Julii K., 1946]). In August 1943, there were 2,106 displaced persons from the Zamość region at Majdanek, and 1,022 people from the transit camp at Krochmalna Street in Lublin (Kiełboń, 2006, p. 18). The most seriously ill were placed in Lublin hospitals, including at the hospital of St. John of God. According to Ryszard, “human skeletons” were brought to the hospital’s infectious ward, where 44 children died in one day (Jędrzejewski, 1969, p. 265). According to the accounts of doctors dealing with the rescue of these children, frequently the hospital staff was unable to conduct an examination and make a diagnosis because the children died so quickly (Archiwum Państwowego Muzeum na Majdanku w Lublinie, Zbiór relacji i pamiętników, sygn. VII/M – 208 [Relacja prof. dr Myssakowskiej i dr. Stanisława Grodzkiego, mps., Lublin, 28 V 1968]).

Children in the shadow of displacement and pacification in the Zamość region Children from the Zamość region also died during the mass executions carried out by the Germans in villages as pacification measures (these executions accorded with the principle of collective responsibility). In December 1942, the inhabitants of one of the villages near Zamość were shot by the Germans in retaliation for the burning by Polish partisans of a village inhabited by German colonists. “The village was surrounded”, testified Joseph Scharenberg, who participated in the murders.

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The order was: one group begins at the top and one at the bottom. Two are to enter each house. Everyone is to be shot on the spot. With a heavy heart we went to the first house. There we found the whole family of five. They spoke German. They were Poles evacuated from Poznań. We delayed executing our orders and asked Sergeant Hoefner’s group commander for instructions. Only when he insisted on carrying out the orderd did we do so. We told the people to lie on the floor and shot them. I shot a girl who was 18 or 19 years old and a 12 year old child. It was very hard for me because they spoke German. It all lasted only a few minutes (A IPNW, GK 175/253, k. 7 [Odpis zeznania Josepha Scharenberga, załącznik do pisma Polskiej Misji Wojskowej do Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, Augsburg 9 VI 1947]).

A great tragedy took place on June 1st, 1943 in Sochy, a village located at the edge of the Solska Forest in the Zamość region. The village was razed to the ground and its inhabitants, numbering about 200 people and including children, were murdered by the Germans. Białowola and Sochy are just two of the many villages in the Zamość region which were subjected to pacification measures in which the Germans cruelly murdered Poles and their children. Even for babies in the cradle the Germans showed no mercy. Here is one example. At the end of January 1943, during the pacification of Dzierźnia in the Zamość region, an 11-month-old baby in the cradle was left in the care of her grandmother in one of the houses. The grandmother’s description of the savage murder of this child is shocking. I saw a German approaching our house. I was frightened and so I ran and hid. The baby sleeping in the cradle woke up. I looked through a small hole and saw a German enter the room and look around. He came to the cradle in which the child was lying. The German pulled out a gun, but left. He came in a second time and drew his pistol again, but left again and went out into the hall. After a short while the German came back from the hall, approached the cradle, covered the child’s face with a blanket, and fired two shots at the child, who was 11 months old (APZ, Konkurs…; A. Mysłakowski, Wspomnienia popełnionych morderstw przez żandarmerię niemiecką w czasie okupacji na terenie Zamojszczyzny. Wspomnienie II, Komarów [rękopis, b.d.]).

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Germans transported children from the Zamość region to the Reich for Germanization Apart from the expulsion of the native Polish population of the Zamość region and its subsequent resettlement by German colonists, an additional aim of the displacement effort was clearly the Germanization of selected Polish children (Hrabar, 1960, p. 74). Unfortunately, it is not now possible to name the children stolen from parents in the Zamość region and deported to Germany because their fate remains largely unknown. In general no source documents exist with the exception of a few transport lists prepared by employees of the Polish Care Committees in Zamość, Zwierzyniec, and Lublin. (This information was obtained from Germans or Poles preparing or accompanying these transports. A IPNW, GK, sygn. 164/310, t. 2, k. 160 –161) On the basis of this information, it is known that during the period of July 7–August 25, 1943, the Germans transported about 4,454 children, aged between two and 14, from the Zamość region to the Reichin 29 transports. However, this figure most likely an underestimation. There is no doubt that thousands more children were forcibly taken from their parents in the Zamość region and destined for Germanization. Their whereabouts remain unknown, and documentary traces of their origin have been obscured. Even if some managed to avoid deportation, many never regained their identity. These children may still be alive today, unaware of their Polish “roots”. Despite the passage of more than 75 years since these tragic events, to this day there still live people who, as children, were sentenced by the Germans to the agony of displacement, separation from their parents, suffering, starvation, and possible extermination and death. Such survivors were recognized after the war as “Children of the Zamość Region”. This special recognition extends to children who under the age of 14 were held as prisoners in transit camps in Zamość and Zwierzyniec, and also to children who spent at least one day in concentration camps. Among them are war orphans. These children, traumatized by displacement and the loss of family and home, were forced to grow up prematurely. Throughout their lives they have carried the burden of their experiences. Today they are the last “Guardians of Remembrance” who have personally experienced displacement, concentration and extermination camps, cattle cars, death marches, and gas chambers. They have lived through this and been able to survive. For many of them this experience is a raw and permanent wound. The memory of the tragedy of the Polish children of the Zamość region

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who were torn from their homes, robbed of their parents, and sentenced to suffering, misery, and death, is a page which must be preserved and cherished in the book of our national memory. (Transl. John Maksymowicz)

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Theiss W. (2012), Sieroctwo wojenne polskich dzieci (1939–1945). Zarys problematyki, “Przegląd Pedagogiczny”, nr 1(80), http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1. element.desklight-3afc3c43-12bc-4e0b-b667-9b46080f4372/c/Wieslaw_Theiss_Sieroctwo_wojenne_polskich_dzieci.pdf. Węcławik S. (2014), Ten epizod historii Zamojszczyzny tworzyliśmy pierwsi, in: Nie było kiedy płakać. Losy rodzin polskich wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny 1942–1943, ed. B. Kozaczyńska, t. II, Siedlce: Stowarzyszenie Tutajteraz, współpraca: Fundacja „Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie”. Wieczorek J. (1982), Dzieci w latach drugiej wojny światowej, in: Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. C. Pilichowski, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Więzienia i obozy w dystrykcie lubelskim w latach 1939–1944, Zeszyty Majdanka (1969), eds. E. Dziadosz, t. III, J. Marszałek. Wnuk J. (1961), Dokumenty zbrodni hitlerowskiej, in: Dzieci polskie oskarżają, eds. J. Wnuk, H. Radomska-Strzemecka, Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy „Pax”. Zamojszczyzna – Sonderlaboratorium SS. Zbiór dokumentów polskich i niemieckich z okresu okupacji hitlerowskiej (1979), ed. C. Madajczyk, t. 1, Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza. Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej (relacje wysiedlonych i partyzantów) (1968). ed. A. Glińska, Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy „Pax”. Zyśko W. (1979), Hitlerowska Centrala Przesiedleńcza – Ekspozytura w Zamościu – i urzędy współdziałające w realizacji akcji wysiedleń i osadnictwa niemieckiego na Zamojszczyźnie (na podstawie zespołu akt Archiwum w Lublinie),„Archeion”, no LXVIII. Documents Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Warszawie, GK, sygn. 196/255, p. 39; GK, sygn. 166/187, t. 3; GK, sygn. 175/253, p. 7; GK, sygn. 164/310, t. 2, p. 160–161. Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Lublinie (Oddziałowa Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Lublinie), Akta w sprawie obozu wysiedleńczego w Zamościu, sygn, Ds. 239/67, t. 3, p. 355; Akta w sprawie zbrodni dokonywanych przez Niemców w okresie okupacji na dzieciach, sygn. Ds. 373/67, t. 5, p. 21; Archiwum Instytutu Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego w Warszawie, Zapisy Terroru (Relacje Janiny Suchodolskiej i Kazimierza Wdzięcznego, https://www.zapisyterroru.pl). Archiwum Państwowego Muzeum na Majdanku w Lublinie, Zbiór relacji i pamiętników, sygn. VII/M – 208 (Relacja prof. dr Myssakowskiej i dr. Stanisława Grodzkiego). Archiwum Państwowe w Zamościu, Konkurs „Tygodnika Zamojskiego” „Kiedy przyszli podpalić dom…”, 1982, M. Konopka, Konkurs na wspomnienia, refleksje „Kiedy przyszli podpalić dom”, s. 3 – mps. Ruszów, n.d.; A. Mysłakowski, Wspomnienia popełnionych morderstw przez żandarmerię niemiecką w czasie okupacji na terenie Zamojszczyzny; Wspomnienie II, Komarów, rękopis, n.d.; Akta Okręgowej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Lublinie, Delegatura w Zamościu, sygn. 4, p. 224v–225.

MAGDALENA GAJDEROWICZ LUBLIN

RYSZARD SKRZYNIARZ THE JOHN PAUL II CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LUBLIN

CHILDREN OF THE ZAMOŚĆ REGION IN THE MAJDANEK CAMP (IN SELECTED ARCHIVE FILES AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTS)

Ab s t r a c t : The issue of the fate of those displaced from the Zamość region is extremely difficult and complicated from a researcher’s point of view. The main problem is the lack of documentation, and incomplete or illegible records. Therefore, some facts cannot be determined. However, thanks to the existence of a document such as the “List of displaced persons from the Zamość region released from Majdanek on 7–13/08/1943” and to the memories of the witnesses, it is possible, although only to a limited extent, to reveal the pages of history. Such an attempt has been made in this chapter. Ke y w o r d s : Children of the Zamość region, Majdanek, concentration camp, German occupation

Introduction Attempting to examine a specific fragment of the reality of World War II seems to be an extremely difficult task. Several factors contribute to this problem, including the increasing time interval since the events of the last century and (especially important in light of this discussion) the lack of documentation which could organise the happenings of the past. It is no different when it comes to the forced displacement of the people from the Zamość region during World War II. The first difficulty encountered by a researcher trying to explore this issue is the incomplete documentation kept by the army and by the occupier’s institutions. It is well-known that at the end of military operations, the frightened Germans tried to cover the traces of their crimes, destroying

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everything that could incriminate them, from files, through buildings, and often including people. An additional problem with the documentation – not only regarding the children of the Zamość region, but also children in the Majdanek concentration camp in general – is the fact that very often the presence of a minor in the camp was not recorded at all. Occasionally, the name of a child who arrived at the camp was written on the corner of the guardian’s file (most often it was the mother, but there were cases when this role was performed by a grandmother, sister, or other relatives with whom the child was sent to the camp or when the child was orphaned). This analysis was undertaken in order to present the problem of the fate of the children relocated from the Zamość region and transported to the Majdanek camp. After considering the above-described difficulties, the question arose: do any documents exist that could illustrate this problem? The answer is yes, but only in a limited scope. The reflections in this article can be divided into two research lines. In the first one, the emphasis is put on statistics, while in the second one it is on the emotional aspect, including the historical background. The following article will address these issues. For the first analysis, lists of displaced persons scheduled for release from the Majdanek camp from August 7th to 13th 1943 will be used. The second is based on personal accounts of displaced persons (who were children during the displacement operation), as well as of employees of the St John of God hospital in Lublin. It is worth mentioning that the original spelling of the memories of former prisoners has been preserved. The materials described above were obtained as a result of a query carried out in the Archives of the State Museum at Majdanek. Due to the fact that these sources relate to a specific aspect of a person’s life, they fall under the specific category of biographical research. Therefore, the basis for conducting this study became the biographical method as understood by Mieczysław Łobocki (2009, p. 299); as a fundamental research method, it cannot, however, be used autonomously. This means that when employing this approach, we must also refer to other methods and techniques: in this case, it is document analysis. The findings presented in this work are a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research. The lives of those imprisoned in concentration camps is always marked by tremendous pain. However, owing to the innocence of the youngest, their fate seems to be especially tragic. As individuals unsuitable for performing labor, children were left alone at best and murdered at worst. In order to organise the research process, it was necessary to adopt a specific year of birth, which would constitute the upper age limit at which

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a prisoner would still be considered a child. It sometimes happened that 14–17-year-olds were detained at Majdanek for underground activities, which meant that they were classified as political offenders and sent to work on par with adults (Woźniak, 2018, p. 242). The Germans’ perception of 14 as the upper limit of childhood may also be evidenced by the fact that minors above this age were treated as adults and sent to work in Germany (Jaczyńska, 2012, p. 299). Therefore, for the purposes of this discussion, it has been assumed that a child is a person not older than 14 years, i.e., born in the years 1929–1943.

Displacement from the Zamość region: General outline Historians consider the operation of displacement and colonization implemented by the Germans in the Zamość region from 1941 to 1943 to be an experimental phase of the Generalplan Ost, i.e., the General Eastern Plan. It was developed on the order of Henrich Himmler, the head of the German police and the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationhood. It should be noted that the resettlement program comprised two versions. The first one was probably designed at the end of 1941 by the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) and mostly concerned population policy in the occupied eastern territories. The second one, from 1942, was authored by Professor Konrad Meyer-Hetling, the head of the planning department in the Reich Commissioner’s Office for the Strengthening of German Nationhood. In this document, emphasis was placed on the legal and economic issues of the colonization and Germanization of the conquered eastern territories (Kozaczyńska, 2011, p. 11). The RSHA planned to colonize Eastern Europe over the course of 20–30 years. To achieve the goal, various measures were deliberated, including forced displacement, Germanization and biological extermination of about 46–51 million people living in territories which the Germans coveted (Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji…, 1968, p. 10; Madajczyk, 1961, pp. 93–109). The first areas intended for a trial displacement and then Germanization were four south-eastern districts: the Tomaszów, Biłgoraj, Hrubieszów and Zamość districts (Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji, 1968, p. 10). The Zamość region seemed to be of particular interest for military, political and economic reasons. According to the future plans, this area was supposed to constitute a “Germanic protective embankment” that would mark the future border of the Greater Reich (Markiewicz, 1967, p. 15). An additional

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advantage was the fertility of the local land and – interestingly – its esthetic features. It was resolved that the Renaissance city of Zamość was “worthy of Germanic culture” (Kiełboń, 2006, p. 5). The first, somewhat experimental, attempts at displacement in the Zamość region were carried out between November 6th and 25th 1941 when 2,098 people from seven villages were relocated. The actual resettlement began two years later on the night of November 27–28th 1942, and lasted until August 1943, including 297 villages from the Zamość, Hrubieszów, Biłgoraj, and Tomaszów districts, generally referred to as the Zamość region. Previous studies reported that about 110,000 inhabitants were affected, of which nearly 30,000 were children (Kozaczyńska, 2011, pp. 13–15). The displacement process itself was carefully planned and often very brutal. Officers of the police, gendarmerie, Gestapo or SS surrounded the village at night or in the morning, and then entered people’s houses, waking them from their sleep. They were then driven from their houses and herded in one previously designated place (e.g. school, church, or road exit). The whole occurrence was accompanied by yelling, beatings, and insults. If anyone tried to escape, they were immediately shot (Kozaczyńska, 2011, pp. 13–15). The terrorized population was brought to transit camps: first in Zamość, and then in Zwierzyniec (Jaczyńska, 2012, pp. 187, 209). It was there that the fate of the resettled was to be sealed. Depending on their age, health, and general appearance, the prisoners were assigned to different categories. This was done by putting an appropriate stamp in each person’s file. The symbol AA was given to a displaced person who was to be transported for forced labor to Germany, RD to an old, sick, or disabled person, and Ki to a child. The stamp with the letters AG was intended for a person who was able to work and was to remain as a worker on a farm assigned to the Volksdeutsche, while EC meant suitable for Germanization, and KL was assigned to those to be sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, Polish name: Oświęcim) (Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji…, 1968, p. 14). Over time, deportations to Auschwitz ceased, and the resettled persons were instead sent to the closer Lublin camp (Kiełboń, 2006, p. 8). The relocated civilians had great difficulty adjusting to their new conditions. Suddenly deprived of all their possessions, they did not understand the new situation. They also lived in appalling conditions, be it in transit camps or at their destinations. All this caused numerous nervous breakdowns. The children suffered the most difficult plight. Janina Kiełboń (2006, pp. 12–13), illustrating the situation at Majdanek, writes: “Children were getting lost in

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the crowd and turmoil in the camp, and desperate mothers were losing their minds, fearing that they would not find them”. Lack of food, water, diapers and clothes added to the misery of the youngest children.

The deaths of the children of the Zamość region in light of the available files: General outline The basis for the analysis of the fate of the children from the Zamość region was a list of resettled persons held at the Majdanek camp, scheduled for release from August 7th to 13th 1943. It was prepared by the officials from the Zamość branch of the Resettlement Headquarters, and then developed by the employees of the Lublin branch of the Central Welfare Council, which attempted to help the displaced (Kiełboń, 2006, pp. 20–21). The list was prepared by both German and Polish officials; it, therefore, contains many errors, e.g. in the spelling of names. Age data is a particular problem. It turns out that mothers often provided incorrect dates of birth for their children (later than in reality), believing that, thanks to this, the children’s chances of being treated better and more leniently would be increased. The prepared list was sent to the Majdanek camp, where it was compared with the current camp record. It became apparent that many people whose release was sought had died or had been sent as forced labor to the Third Reich, which was noted in the census. The second type of document that may be extremely helpful are the archived files from hospitals to which the displaced persons who were released from the camp and who required hospitalization were sent. Unfortunately, this source also proves to be unreliable, because it is incomplete. In addition, on the available copies of the files, information on dates of birth is frequently missing, which makes it impossible to determine people’s ages. Additionally, some of the files are simply illegible. The tables contained in this article will, therefore, be based on the abovementioned list of displaced persons scheduled for release from the Majdanek camp from August 7th to 13th 1943. The table below (table 1) contains numerical data indicating the fate of the children. The third column contains information about how many children died in the camp, and in the fourth and fifth columns, we see how many children shared the fate of their parents and were transported with them to the Labor Office in Lublin or Zamość, and then for labor to the Third Reich, or released from the camp.

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Table 1. The fate of the children that were displaced and taken to the Majdanek camp Year of birth

Total number of children who were displaced and transported to the Majdanek camp

Number of children who died in the camp

Number of children who were handed over to the Labor Office in Lublin or Zamość, and then sent to work in the Third Reich

Number of released children

61

7

17

0

1942

86

24

26

1

1941

108

19

29

0

1940

91

13

28

1

1939

113

11

35

0

1938

133

3

35

0

1937

112

4

37

2

1936

102

2

26

1

1935

125

4

36

0

1934

114

0

35

0

1933

122

2

33

0

1932

81

2

34

0

1931

81

1

25

0

1930

53

2

28

0

1943

1929

27

0

20

0

Total

1409

94

444

5

Source: Archives of the State Museum at Majdanek, reference number Fig. 139, “Lists of displaced persons from the Zamość region released from Majdanek on 7–13/08/1943”, edited by K. Tarnawski; “List of displaced persons scheduled for release from the Majdanek camp from August 7th to 13th 1943”, in: J. Kiełboń, Wysiedleńcy z Zamojszczyzny w obozie koncentracyjnym na Majdanku 1943 (Displaced Persons from the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Concentration Camp 1943), pp. 81–180.

A total of 1,409 children under the age of 14 were brought to the camp. The largest group, 133, were children who were born in 1938, and the smallest group, 27, were born in 1929. Death in the camp was widespread and also affected the displaced. In analyzing the table above, it can be concluded that younger children, i.e. between the ages of one and four, died much more often. Older children suffered this tragic fate much less frequently, and those were usually individual cases. The younger children were probably weaker, and thus less resistant to the conditions in the camp. It should be mentioned here that there were many more deaths in the camp after the deportation operation. After being released from the camp, some people, both adults and children, were sent to Lublin hospitals, where not all were successfully saved (Wnuk, 1969, p. 212).

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Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp…

Apparently, when the camp authorities received a list of displaced persons proposed for release, some of those included on it were no longer prisoners of the camp. The minors shared the fate of their parents, who were dismissed or sent to the Labor Offices in Lublin or Zamość, where they were assigned to forced labor in Germany. Only five children were released, while there were 444 children transported to the Labor Offices. The second aspect that is worth singling out is the planned destination of the prisoner’s transport. The Central Welfare Council (RGO), seeking to release the resettled civilians, had to provide them with a place to live, since their farms were no longer available. Therefore, they decided to take advantage of the help of the local population and distribute the released people among local farms. Thus, the list contained information about the town to which the particular family would be allocated. Table 2. Towns to which children and their parents were to be sent The children’s year of birth Town to which the family was sent 1943

1942

1941

1940

1939

1938

1937

1936

Bełżyce

6

Brzeziny

2

9

6

7

10

15

12

10

5

12

3

14

10

3

4

Bychawa

1

Jastków

4

13

7

13

8

11

10

13

6

9

2

7

8

10

3

Jaszczów

5

2

4

2

2

4

3

1

Konopnica

4

7

4

5

8

5

7

4

Krzczonów

5

5

4

9

8

4

8

4

Lubartów

5

1

8

3

8

5

5

7

Ludwin

2

1

3

3

2

4

3

4

Łęczna

0

0

2

1

1

0

0

2

Mełgiew

5

5

4

6

6

7

13

3

Niedrzwica

2

5

5

3

4

6

4

6

Niemce

6

2

8

4

11

13

8

6

Piaski

1

2

2

6

0

7

6

5

Piotrków

4

6

8

4

8

6

5

6

Piotrowice

4

5

6

3

3

8

6

4

Spiczyn

0

4

3

1

2

2

3

2

Wojciechów

5

4

8

9

9

14

6

13

Zemborzyce

0

4

5

7

2

4

0

5

Total

61

86

108

91

113

133

112

102

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Table 2 continued Town to which the family was sent

The children’s year of birth

Total

1935

1934

1933

1932

1931

1930

1929

Bełżyce

7

17

7

2

9

2

2

121

Brzeziny

10

10

8

8

7

5

1

102

Bychawa

9

12

14

7

13

2

2

135

Jastków

8

7

10

3

6

5

2

90

Jaszczów

4

2

4

0

3

1

0

37

Konopnica

8

4

4

7

1

2

3

73

Krzczonów

10

5

11

2

6

2

3

86

Lubartów

5

2

9

2

2

0

0

62

Ludwin

2

2

4

1

2

0

1

34

Łęczna

0

1

1

0

1

0

0

9

Mełgiew

13

4

6

7

4

9

2

94

Niedrzwica

4

5

8

4

8

4

2

70

Niemce

5

7

4

5

5

5

0

89

Piaski

5

6

4

2

1

1

0

48

Piotrków

7

11

7

8

2

3

4

89

Piotrowice

7

7

3

9

6

3

2

76

Spiczyn

4

0

4

1

0

0

0

26

Wojciechów

13

9

10

8

5

7

3

123

Zemborzyce Total

4

3

4

5

0

2

0

45

125

114

122

81

81

53

27

1409

Source: Archives of the State Museum at Majdanek, reference number Fig. 139, “Lists of displaced persons from the Zamość region released from Majdanek on 7–13/08/1943”, edited by K. Tarnawski; “List of displaced persons scheduled for release from the Majdanek camp from August 7th to 13th” 1943, in: J. Kiełboń, Wysiedleńcy z Zamojszczyzny w obozie koncentracyjnym na Majdanku 1943 (Displaced Persons from the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Concentration Camp 1943), pp. 81–180.

Table 2 contains figures regarding the plans for the allocation of children (along with their families) to particular towns. As the data show, most children, as many as 135 between the ages of 0 and 14, were to go to Bychawa, whereas the smallest number of children – only nine – were allocated to Łęczna. Many of them had to be immediately taken to hospitals, where some died. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find the answer to the question of how many managed to survive because archival documents are incomplete and often illegible.

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The history of children of the Zamość region based on selected personal accounts A child’s innocence was not an obstacle for the Germans. The youngest were treated as brutally as the adults, as, regardless of age, they did not belong to the “Master Race”. The lives of the child survivors were different. After a short stay in the transit camps, some of them, considered “worthy” and “valuable”, were sent deep into the Third Reich, where their birth records were changed, they were forbidden to use their native language and they were subjected to the process of Germanization (Tokarz, 1969, p. 206). Others, also separated from their parents, were sent in freight cars to “welfare villages”, where local people helped them by organising food, places, medicines, and medical care. Unfortunately, due to the disastrous living conditions in the transit camps, followed by a journey in cattle cars during a period of extreme frost, the death rate among the displaced persons was enormous. Often during the stops, Poles bought German children from the guards, paying from 50 to 100 PLN for them. Some of the children affected by the tragedy of resettlement were transported together with their parents to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Their fate was exceptionally cruel, because after arriving at the camp and being separated from their parents, they were killed with a phenol injection (Wnuk, 1969, pp. 210–211). In the last phase of the relocation, i.e., in June and July 1943, also after a short stay in the transit camps at Zamość or Zwierzyniec, children and their families were sent to the Majdanek camp (Jaczyńska, 2012, p. 299). Here, as a result of the dreadful conditions prevailing in the camp, they died, were sent with their parents to Germany or were released. An attempt at a scholarly description of the fate of the children of Zamość, however scrupulous, will not reflect the atmosphere surrounding the displaced people. This can be done – though to a small extent – by analyzing the memories of those events. Below, selected personal accounts of children of the Zamość region and employees of Lublin hospitals will be summarized.

1. Janina Buczek-Różańska The author of this report came from the village of Bidaczów Nowy, which was pacified on July 3rd 1943. Janina was relocated, together with her parents and little brother, initially to the transit camp in Zwierzyniec, then to

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Majdanek, and eventually the whole family was sent to Germany as forced labor. The woman recalls the very moment of deportation as follows: I saw many Germans in the field (…). Mom drowned the fire in the bread oven with water. The bowl was full of dough; she didn’t manage to bake it. Without having eaten a piece of bread, we went into the unknown. Assembly on the square, machine guns, dogs (…). I was very afraid, like our people in the cart escorted by a German, I’m sorry, not a German, a Ukrainian gendarme1, because they had different uniforms, so it was easy to tell them apart. He shot a man who was standing somewhere in the field. It was the first time a man was killed in my presence. It was far away, but how terrible, what tragedy. Since then, I’ve been scared of gunshots (APMM, Zbiór nagrań wideo).

The author of the testimony recreates scenes seen through the eyes of a child. It shows contrasting images that underscore the tragedy of the situation: on the one hand, she relates that she saw many German soldiers, while on the other hand, her memory wanders to bread dough that was never baked. She probably associated the bread with the warmth of her family home. Then she describes the moment of pacification, with short phrases: “assembly on the square, machine guns, dogs”. This form of expression may indicate the tense atmosphere that prevailed at the time and engulfed the woman, as well as when she was delivering the account of the events. It is worth noting that the testimony seems to be interrupted at this point. In fact, we do not learn about what happened in the square, and the next sentence refers to the road on which the displaced persons travelled in horse-drawn carts. In the quoted account, this is the first moment when Janina describes her emotions, namely fear. Then an event which seems to be a life-changing experience in the woman’s life is quoted. This event is the murder of a man who, for unexplained reasons, was not with all the other inhabitants of the village, but “somewhere in the field”. The author admits that it was the first killing committed in front of her eyes, but from the structure of the sentence one can conjecture that it was not the last. It was perhaps also the first moment when she and the other people realized the gravity of the situation. This experience made the author of the report afraid of gunshots. After the report of the displacement of the village, Janina goes on to describe her first impressions after arriving at the Majdanek camp. 1

Ukrainians in the German army were also involved in the pacification operation (Kozaczyńska, 2011, p. 16).

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Around noon, around two or maybe three o’clock, we were brought to Majdanek. Before us was a large gate, watchtowers, and I was still conscious, I was still carrying some bundles and my mother was carrying my brother Maniuś. And my father was also carrying some bundles. Later they threw them out on the way. People were throwing suitcases along the road, there was a large transport, there were the first corpses; people usually chose to sit by a ditch and die. The Germans were finishing them off, it was a terrible transport. It could have been July 6th or 7th in 1943. The heat, the huge block, the first one, people were also fainting from lack of air there, then the roof was ripped off, the stench. And then the everyday life of the camp. Head counts, taking everything away, assigning numbers (APMM, Zbiór nagrań wideo).

In the above description, the author devotes a lot of attention to “bundles”, which were the things that the displaced people took in a hurry, thinking they might come in handy for them. Janina notes that such packages were not only carried by herself and her father, but other people as well. As a result of a difficult and strenuous walk, people often lost their strength and dropped the hastily collected remains of their belongings, unable to carry anything anymore. Many of them could no longer walk, so they sat on the road and died or were murdered by the Germans guarding them. The author even remembers the dates and states that these events took place on July 6th or 7th 1943. Again, using sentence fragments, rather than extensive descriptions, Janina points to the immense heat and terrible stuffiness, after settling in the block. Finally, she tersely states that camp life became everyday life, which she understands as taking away people’s personal belongings, assigning numbers, and participating in the daily head counts. This excerpt seems to be quite chaotic, which probably indicates the huge emotional burden that the woman carried. After her imprisonment at Majdanek, the author of the memories and her family were taken to Germany as forced labor. The trip, which was to be a kind of liberation in her and her relatives’ minds, turned out to be almost as difficult as the previous stages. Finally, I was forced into the possession of one German by the name of Franc Ronefalk. He was from Hakenberg (…) some 60 kilometers outside Berlin (…). And he was a bad, bony man, a truly German type. He wore a Nazi armband (…). So, this was another concentration camp. Only one that was unfenced. We were slaves in the literal sense (…). I lived with my

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brother in this hut, which I mentioned, locked up for 12 hours, 14, even 16 in summer when my parents were in the fields. I couldn’t leave the house. I could only look out the window and so I did. I sat with my brother, I looked at the road (…). Sometimes I dared to go outside the house if my parents were at home. Then, the German children spat on me, on my brother, and I would constantly hear “Polish pig, Polish bandit”. The Germans pronounced these words in Polish. They were taught (…). This contempt was cruel to us (APMM, Zbiór nagrań wideo).

The new place, which offered some hope for an easing of the camp regime, became the next stage of torture. The woman’s family went to a farm run by a German who was immediately recognizable as an ardent supporter of Hitler. This fact had a real impact on the lives of the protagonists of the story. The author, probably because of her age, did not go to work with her parents, but stayed with her younger brother. Although it was difficult for her, one of the worst things she mentioned was the contempt the German children displayed for her. Janina’s difficult vicissitudes of life illustrate a fairly common pattern which the lives of many displaced persons, including children, followed: pacification of a village, being held in a transit camp, being held at Majdanek, and then as forced labor in Germany. We can admit that the woman and her loved ones were extremely lucky. Despite many hardships, they managed to survive and return to Poland. It should be remembered, however, that although the heroes of this story survived, the situations they experienced determined their entire future lives, leaving an indelible mark.

2. Jan Świstek The author of the report which will be cited below experienced forced displacement from the village of Aleksandrów as a five-year-old child. Jan and his family were transported to the Majdanek camp. The very moment of the village’s pacification is described as follows: Soon all the people were herded in the field again, and the elderly and the infirm were immediately shot (…). Then we were brought to the church in Aleksandrów. There they locked us up and kept us in all night. On the second day in the morning, they loaded us, children, on carts and brought us to the Krasnobród railway station; the older people followed us on foot. There at the station, everyone was driven into freight wagons. We were

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locked up, there was no air, the children were suffocating. I remember that my mother fanned us with a scarf so we would not suffocate. They took us by train to the Zamość Rotunda, where they took everyone they suspected of contacting partisans, they beat people terribly (…). After a week of this interrogation, they took us to Majdanek. It was on July 2nd 1943 (…). First, we were in Field III, then in Field V. My two cousins, Józef and Jan, and my grandmother, Anastazja, died in the gas chamber. Every morning we were counted, no-one could stay in the barracks. Even sick people. It was awfully dirty and the lice and fleas were dreadful, but there was nothing to wash yourself with. I remember that every day someone died as a result of illness, beating or starvation (APMM, Jan Świstek).

The above description is part of a longer account. Initially, the man related the pacification operation. He described the inhabitants of the village of Aleksandrów being driven into the field, and then being transported to the railway station in Krasnobród. It turns out that this group was not sent to Majdanek immediately. Imprisonment in the camp was preceded by an investigation into suspicions of aid to partisans. After these unpleasant experiences, the displaced persons were taken to the camp. The author describes the conditions prevailing in it. The above account is factual. The man does not refer to his feelings: he only presents hard facts, which – interestingly – he remembered quite well for a five-year-old child.

3. Helena Myssakowska and Irena Wysłobodzka Helena Myssakowska and Irena Wysłobodzka were employees of the St John of God hospital in Lublin. Both women met displaced persons requiring hospitalization who had been released from the Majdanek camp. Helena Myssakowska wrote about the brutal reality in such terms: Children from the Zamość region who, along with their mothers, were transported from the Majdanek camp to the St John of God hospital in Lublin were extremely exhausted. Young children died quickly, often a few hours after their arrival. Often, hospital staff did not even manage to make a diagnosis or perform necessary tests (…). Upon hearing of the release of a large number of children from the camp, Lublin pharmacists organized help for them, donating mainly nutritional supplements. Children and their mothers who left the hospital very often soon returned to it, suffering from typhus (APMM, Helena Myssakowska).

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The author describes the health of the displaced persons, above all the children and mothers taken to the hospital from Majdanek, in a factual and concise manner. According to this testimony, the children were extremely exhausted and there was a high mortality rate among them. The situation was very difficult for the staff to control. The woman also refers to the generosity of the Lublin pharmacists who gave the necessary nutrients to the children in need. There are also dramatic reports that mothers with children frequently returned to the hospital, despite leaving it earlier, because they found out that they were suffering from typhus.2 The above-quoted account, although very valuable, is not very specific. The testimony of Irena Wysłobodzka looks a bit different. When reconstructing her memories, she tries to supplement the report with many details, including numbers: After the release of part of the population of the Zamość region from the Majdanek concentration camp, over 400 children were taken to the hospital of St John of God in Lublin. The hospital was not prepared for such a large number of patients, so six children were often lying in one bed. The children were completely exhausted and had diarrhea. Their condition is best demonstrated by the fact that out of 120 children who were in the care of Irena, two died within an hour. On average, about 12 children died in the course of one day (…). The entire Lublin community tried to help the children from the Zamość region. Every day, underwear, clothes and food were brought to the hospital (…). The children released from the Majdanek camp were also treated in the children’s hospital at Staszica Street. Part of the released population from the Zamość region was looked after by the RGO. The surrounding municipalities volunteered carts, pledging to take care of those who were released. Farmers willingly took them to their homes. The result was terrible. Soon, typhus epidemics broke out in villages near Lublin. A lot of villagers died (APMM, Irena Wysłobodzka).

Irena briefly addresses many issues regarding the fate of the displaced persons. She highlights the problem of overcrowding in the hospital in which she worked, and the catastrophic state of the health of the children transported from Majdanek. Using approximate statistics, she shows the 2

As a result of extreme exhaustion, epidemics of infectious diseases spread in concentration camps. One of the most common diseases at Majdanek was typhus (Gajowniczek, 1991, pp. 197–198).

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mortality rate of the children. Then, she moves on to a description of the aid that the inhabitants of the Lublin region gave to the victims. It proved to be extensive. The necessary things were delivered and the doors of their homes were opened to welcome those who had lost everything. According to the account, this attitude of many people also brought surprising and sad consequences in the form of a typhus epidemic.

Conclusion The authors of the above personal accounts were direct or indirect participants in the events occurring in Lublin in 1943. The narrators had to face enormous suffering, be it their own or of others. The choice of these accounts was not accidental for the perspective of the considerations made in this article. The goal was to show the events from the standpoint of the people experiencing them, which were included only in the form of statistics in the previous section. This way of illustrating history is probably the only possible method in the face of the lack of documentation regarding the children displaced from the Zamość region and transported to the Majdanek camp. The issue of the fate of those displaced from the Zamość region is extremely difficult and complicated from a researcher’s point of view. The main problem is the lack of documentation, or incomplete or illegible records. Therefore, some facts cannot be determined. However, thanks to the existence of a document such as the “List of displaced persons from the Zamość region released from Majdanek on 7–13/08/1943” and to the memories of the witnesses, it is possible – although only to a limited extent – to reveal the pages of history. Such an attempt has been made in this chapter.

Bibliography Documents APMM, Helena Myssakowska, sygn. VII/M-208. APMM, Jan Świstek, Tragiczne wspomnienia dzieciństwa II wojny światowej, sygn. VII/M-385. APMM, Irena Wysłobodzka, sygn. VII/M-209. APMM, Fot. 139, Wykaz wysiedleńców z Zamojszczyzny zwalnianych z Majdanka w dniach 7–13.08. 1943 r., oprac. Krzysztof Tarkowski, Lublin–Majdanek 2006. APMM, Zbiór nagrań wideo, Janina Buczek-Różańska, sygn. XXII-7.

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References Gajowniczek J. (1991), Choroby i epidemie. Rewir, in: Majdanek 1941–1943, ed. T. Mencel, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie. Jaczyńska A. (2012), Sonderlaboratorium SS: Zamojszczyzna. „Pierwszy obszar osiedleńczy w generalnym gubernatorstwie”, Lublin: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Kiełboń J. (2006), Wysiedleńcy z Zamojszczyzny w obozie koncentracyjnym na Majdanku 1943, Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku. Kozaczyńska B. (2011), Ocalone z transportów Dzieci Zamojszczyzny, Siedlce: Stowarzyszenie Tutajteraz. Łobocki M. (2009), Metody i techniki badań pedagogicznych, Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza Impuls. Madajczyk C. (1961), Generalna Gubernia w planach hitlerowskich. Studia. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Markiewicz J. (1967), Nie dali ziemi skąd ich ród, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie. Tokarz Z. (1969), O losie dzieci Zamojskich, “Zeszyty Majdanka”, nr 3. Wnuk J. (1969), Tragedia dzieci polskich na Zamojszczyźnie, “Zeszyty Majdanka”, nr 3, pp. 209–212. Woźniak M. (2018), Dzieci w Anus Mundi. Największa hańba ludzkości – nazistowskie obozy zagłady, Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek. Zamojszczyzna w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej (1968), ed. A. Glińska, Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy PAX.

KRZYSZTOF LEDNIOWSKI JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

BEATA GOLA JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

THE GERMAN CAMP FOR JUVENILE POLES IN ŁÓDŹ AT PRZEMYSŁOWA STREET

Ab s t r a c t : This chapter presents the history of a German camp for Polish children and teenagers in Łódź. The camp detained children from the ages of two to 16 years. Despite German claims, it was neither a preventive nor resocialization camp. It was a political institution and played a number of roles: that of a labor camp, penal camp, internment camp, and racial research center. Children staying at the camp were starved and forced to do murderous labor as well as being subjected to a ruthless punishment system. Additionally, a building for bed-wetting children was established within the premises. The Łódź camp, nicknamed “little Auschwitz”, was a place of extermination through labor, hunger, beating even up to death, diseases, and extreme longing for parents. Ke y w o rd s : labor camp, children, Łódź, Przemysłowa Street, World War II

Introduction This chapter presents the history of the Security Police Preventive Camp for Polish Youth in Łódź (Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei In Litzmannstadt) located at 72 Przemysłowa street during the years 1942 –1945. The tragedy of Polish children during World War II is a subject that requires further analysis and research, mainly due to the fact that most of the wartime documentation has been destroyed. One of the first people to describe the experiences of children was Maria Niemyska-Hessenowa, an educator who, after the liberation of Łódź, came across former camp prisoners staying in the City Emergency Care. Her research resulted in an article, M. Niemyska-Hessenowa, Dzieci z „Lagru”

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w Łodzi (Children of the Łódź Lager), “Służba Społeczna” 1946, no. 1 (Wasiak, 1998, p. 153). Data on the German camp for Polish youth in Łódź included in academic publications dating back to early 1960s. With time, the original extremely incomplete documentation expanded, providing a more comprehensive image of the tragic events. Substantive information was provided by the trial of one of the camp officers, Eugenia Pohl, which took place in the 1970s in the Provincial Court in Łódź. Information collected at that time was used to determine the camp’s characteristics. During the process, substantive evidence was collected, including original German documentation, which enabled researchers to answer a number of questions (Hrabar, 1979, p. 113). A portion of archive materials was found after World War II in Łódź and Katowice. Until 1949, the history of the camp was researched by the District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Łódź. In 1965, the District Commission for Investigation of German-Nazi Crimes in Łódź was launched. First-hand witnesses, former camp prisoners, began to testify as late as in the years 1965–1975. According to Artur Ossowski, at that time, films were made to report on the tragedy in Łódź: Obóz na Przemysłowej (The Camp at Przemysłowa Street) and Twarz anioła (The Face of an Angel) (2015, p. 46). In 1975, a monograph titled Hitlerowski obóz koncentracyjny dla małoletnich w Łodzi (The Nazi Concentration Camp for Minors in Łódź) by Józef Witkowski was published. At present, there are many sources on the German camp for children established in Łódź, yet the subject is still hardly known to the general public. A catalogue of sources on the camp for Polish children and teenagers (within the Łódź ghetto) released in the years 1945–2017 was compiled by Izabela Olejnik (2018, pp. 95–101).

Łódź – the center of displacement A part of the Polish territory occupied by Germans upon their victory of 1939 was incorporated into the Reich and created new administrative units: among others, Reichsgau Wartheland, which, for Germans, became the most important settlement destination. These events resulted in an enforced relocation of Polish nationals. Łódź and Poznań were the largest cities of the newly formed Reichsgau Wartheland (Rutowska, 2010, pp. 14, 18–19). Kinder-KZ Litzmannstadt at Przemysłowa street wasn’t the only German camp in Łódź – due to its location, the city played an important role in the execution of the German displacement policy. Two crucial institutions were situated at Piotrkowska street – Displacement Centre and a Branch

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of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office. POWs and internment camps were established within the city. The development of the displacement program contributed to formation of internment camps at Łąkowa 4, Kopernika 53/55, Żeligowskiego 41/43, and 28 Pułku Strzelców Kaniowskich 41/43 (Abramowicz, 1998, pp. 108, 114–117). A racial camp was located at 73 Sporna street in Łódź. It played an important role within the Germanization program executed by the occupation authorities and focused mostly on children and teenagers. Polish nationals with distinctive Nordic features were directed to the camp – entire families, teenagers of both sexes, women with children. Upon arrival, people were evaluated for Germanization potential. In order to enable an assessment, they were thoroughly examined. Tests and measurements covered the length of limbs, hair and eye color, head circumference, proportion of the face, eyesight and teeth. Blood tests and X-rays were taken. People who met the requirements were given a chance to adopt German citizenship. They were sent to work in the Reich, where they were closely monitored by the authorities. Selected young children were separated from their mothers and sent to nearby Germanization centers (in Bruczków or to the Gaukinderheim in Kalisz) or to Lebensborn centers in the Reich. Most of these children never came back to Poland (Gałkiewicz, Baranowski, 1998, pp. 136–138; Wasiak, 1979, p. 155). Additionally, children from the nearby camp at Przemysłowa street, where initial evaluative selection was performed in accordance with existing guidelines, were transported to Sporna street. Children who didn’t meet the racial criteria were condemned to emaciation through labor and camp conditions (Hrabar, 1979, p. 132). The ruthless policy of the Germans imposed in the conquered territories affected the fate of Polish children directly. The increase in acts of terror in 1941 led to mass executions, arrests, and displacement; a number of Polish people became forced laborers. Thousands of children lost their homes and their parents. The youngest ones, often unsupervised, became a burden for the occupation authorities. The creation of camps for juvenile prisoners was meant to resolve that problem (Witkowski, 1975, p. 21).

Establishment of the camp The officially stated reason, or rather the pretext, for creating the camp in Łódź was the need to protect German youth from dangers arising from young Poles – their improper behavior was blamed for causing crime. The

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initiative was approved by the Oberbürgermeister of Lódź, Werner Wentzki, in June of 1941 (Witkowski, 1975, p. 22). A camp of 5 hectares was established in a sectioned-off part of the Łodź ghetto. It was modelled after a camp for boys in Moringen (Lower Saxony). The decision to launch the camp was made by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, in late 1941 (Ossowski, 2015, p. 45). The Łódź camp was subordinated to the security police, Sicherheitpolizei, which was comprised of the secret state police (Gestapo) and the criminal police (Kriminalpolizei, Kripo). According to existing law, employees of the security police were SS members. This was meant to emphasize the criminal traits of camp prisoners (Witkowski, 1975, p. 34). The first accounts of the development of the camp date back to September of 1942. A part of the Marysino district including Bracka, Emilii Plater, and Górnicza streets and a part of the Jewish cemetery was sectioned off. The construction works were done, among others, by members of the ghetto construction division. A tall fence was erected along these streets and the cemetery fence was extended up. The camp was fenced off and closed. The only entrance and exit was the main gate located at Przemysłowa street. The first juvenile prisoners arrived there on December 11th 1942 (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 36–37). Initially, the camp was intended to hold young Polish criminals aged 12 to 16 years old. Soon, the bottom age limit was lowered to eight years. The next change consisted in confining girls aged eight to 16 years. In fact, children from the age of two years and up were placed in the camp, and when they turned 16, they were relocated to concentration camps (Czajkowska, 2016, p. 9). The Łódź camp was the destination where children from Inowrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Katowice districts were sent – with the majority originating from the Silesia and Greater Poland regions. A relatively small number of these children were original Łódź residents (Ossowski, 2015, p. 45). Also, children from the General Government and young Poles from Germany, France, and the Russian Federation were relocated to the camp (Witkowski, 1975, p. 68). The newly established camp was planned to aid the occupation authorities; it was supposed to be a place where children could be confined without any court proceedings. No one verified whether the decisions ordering placement in the camp were justifiable. The formal issues were the most important aspect along with a clear message justifying such decisions; danger imposed on German youth by young Poles. The Germans cared greatly for keeping up appearances.

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The Łódź camp was divided into boys’ and girls’ sections. Within the boys’ section, which covered circa 75 percent of the camp’s area, there were 35 buildings and barracks, 10 of which served as dormitories. Within the girls’ section, taking up the rest of the area, small children as well were housed in a one-story brick building (Ossowski, 2015, p. 45). The camp’s crucial part was its branch in Dzierżązna situated roughly 15 km from Łódź. This place served as a training center for young girls who were supposed to work for Bauern, German farmers. The branch’s purpose was to ensure food supplies for the Łódź camp. Also, Polish farmers worked there as forced laborers (Witkowski, 1975, p. 224). The camp at Przemysłowa cannot be judged based on its official name. The facts we know now prove that this place’s character was not preventive but political. Polish children were sent and confined there based on unsupervised decisions resulting from single-sided information gathered by the police (Hrabar, 1979, p. 125). The Łódź camp wasn’t homogenous. It played a number of roles, that of labor camp, penal camp, internment camp, and a racial research center. An analysis of its origins, the conditions within the camp, and the criteria which governed the relocation of children to the camp indicate that it was in no way a preventive, educational, or care institution (Czajkowska, 2016, p. 5).

Prisoners and their duties Two thirds of the camp inmates were children of people who had been murdered, arrested, were connected to the resistance, or had refused to sign the Volksliste. Others arrived from orphanages and detention centers. Additionally, there were children caught during roundups and homeless children unable to provide for themselves. The reasons for relocation into the camp included street trading, selling food, and food ration coupons. German doctors would often confirm that sick, deaf and mute, or feebleminded children were fit to stay in the camp. Based on German documentation, several criteria for detention in the camp were identified. Some of the groups listed below exhibit mixed characteristics: 1) offences, common misconduct; 2) economic misdemeanor; 3) neglected children; 4) children “wandering” in public places or homeless;

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5) 6) 7) 8)

children described as an antisocial element; children who avoided forced labor; children suspected of resistance activity; children from families who refused to sign German People’s List (Deutsche Volksliste); 9) children of people who were detained in camps, prisons, or who had died there; 10) religious or racial causes; 11) physically or mentally impaired children; 12) Polish children detained without any specific reason (Hrabar, 1979, p. 114). Below are selected justifications from requests for detention in the camp: • “the boy wanders and begs, he must bring the things he’s given home, his mother is dead”; • “the boy wanders and doesn’t attend school, he earns money by carrying suitcases at Katowice railway station”; • “the boy’s father is dead, the mother is in Auschwitz”; • “child found aged 3, resided at an orphanage in Katowice, is disabled. Difficult to educate, shakes its head, wets the bed, tends to steal” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 73–75). Upon arrival in camp, the children’s personal details were recorded, fingerprints and photographs were taken and they were assigned chores. From the very beginning, the children were treated ruthlessly. This is how Gertruda Nowak-Skrzypczak remembers her early days in the camp: We were lined up and one of the SS officers told us we would be very well off here. At the same moment, one of the boys in the line moved and this SS officer slapped him in the face and when they boy fell to the ground; the man kept kicking him and shouting at him (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 116–117).

Józef Witkowski adds to this account: The welcome ceremony was always accompanied by constant shouting, beating, and kicking. (…) Children were checklisted, questioned why they had been sent to camp. Depending on the answer, young people were beaten from the very beginning and, at the same time, they were told they were in a camp where they would be treated well and provided everything they needed and that they would undergo professional training. (…) This was the

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last time they heard their family names. Then, each prisoner was assigned a camp number and became that number. The welcome ceremony often lasted for several hours (1975, p. 117).

Before the children were given camp uniforms, they all got a haircut, girls included. All their possessions were taken away and they were given camp equipment. Everyone was placed in quarantine for a few days and this was the time to learn camp regulations. They were drilled and taught German words as well as how to salute, behave during assembly, and report. A typical day in camp started at approximately 5.30 a.m. Breakfast was served at 7 a.m. Daily chores included cleaning the room, assembly in front of the barracks, exercises, and washing up by the well. Working hours were from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. (Czajkowska, 2016, p. 10). One of the first jobs assigned to juvenile prisoners upon their arrival in camp was building new or repairing the existing roads within the camp area. Slower children were beaten and kicked. The most demanding physical work included such tasks as pulling a cart loaded with gravel, sand, and bricks or rolling a heavy cylinder (Raźniewski, 1971, p. 80). Skinny children were harnessed as if they were horses, sometimes SS officers would sit on the carts and lash them shouting “giddy-up!”. As Witkowski reports, 20–30 children were hitched up with strings and wire to a roller weighing 3–4 tons (1975, p. 125). Children were also employed at construction works aimed at expanding the camp. They were supervised by Jews from the ghetto and paid craftsmen. Buildings were renovated, old doors, windows, and floors were repaired, in some parts pavements were laid, or grounds were prepared for new barracks. Also, a greenhouse, guard towers, and latrines were erected. Unwanted trees were removed and fields for cultivation were sectioned off. Most of that work was done by children. The expansion of the camp continued nearly until the end of 1943 (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 37, 39). Everyone over the age of eight was obliged to work. Little prisoners cleaned the pit latrines, made flower pots and fake flowers. With time, workshops were set up for wickerwork, tailoring, saddlery, shoemaking, roofing, cleaning, and a station for straightening knitting needles (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 79–80). Tasks commissioned by the army were also performed – wicker munition baskets were woven, straw protective boots were made, haversacks were manufactured, and needles for knitting machines were straightened. Girls would take care of younger children, as well as sew and mend their clothing. They also worked in the kitchen and laundry room (Wasiak, 1998, p. 161).

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Such labor was far too hard for the children and put them at risk, as exhibited by 14 reports on the sanitary situation in camp (from September 1943 until November 1944) sent every month to the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin that have been preserved to date. For example, in October 1943, out of 999 prisoners, 551 required medical assistance, 64 were injured during work, and 60 had abrasions (Hrabar, 1979, p. 129). The children dreamed of being sent to work in Dzierżązna near Zgierz, because the conditions there were better and food rations were larger – but according to accounts provided by female prisoners, they were better only in the beginning, when the number of girls was small (Obyśmy nie zapomnieli, 2017, p. 42). The privilege was granted to the oldest and strongest girls only. Despite this, Dzierżązna, as female prisoners recall, was as also a place of animalizing starvation which made them unable to live and sleep normally. Extermination through labor was practiced there as well. Physical (there were cases of death caused by extreme exhaustion and resulting heart failure) and mental emaciation caused by excessive work reduced immunity levels, and failure to meet workload targets was treated as an excuse for severe punishment. This created a wide scope of opportunities for abuse by SS officers and “teachers”. Punishment was administered for, for example, “not waking up for milking cows at 4 a.m.” (10 lashes), “falling asleep at 10.45 p.m. during a night watch” (15 lashes) (Witkowski, 1975, p. 168). “In Dzierżązna, the lagerleiter, H.H. Fuge, punished us”, as Teresa Iwicka-Piaskowska recalled, “for things that never happened, because there was no place for unpunished children in the camp” (Obyśmy nie zapomnieli, 2017, p. 53). We must remember that extermination through labor was one of the core premises of the Third Reich’s policy regarding the conquered nations and, at the same time, such labor served the wartime economy of the occupier: munition baskets, boots for guards and haversacks for the army were manufactured (Hrabar et al., 1979, p. 76). Pursuant to further guidelines issued by Himmler, a racial and political examination was to be conducted in camps for ‘children of bandits’. These camps constituted, alongside court and police trials, a method for the direct elimination of young Poles. The purpose of detention in the camp aimed at was the proper education of racially worthless youth, teaching them the necessary skills, and transferring them to concentration camps (Waszczyński, 1979, pp. 31–32; Witkowski, 1975, p. 24).

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Hunger and its consequences Sanitary conditions within the camp were poor. Water was scarce and hunger was a daily phenomenon. The youngest children were deprived of milk. Hunger swelling, caused by an insufficient supply of protein, was a common condition. The lack of vitamins and minerals contributed to numerous illnesses. Beggarly food rations, smaller than in other camps, did not supply the needs of growing children. Meals were served three times a day. Breakfast consisted of a piece of bread and a cup of black coffee. Soup, the main meal of the day, contained a small addition of margarine. Depending on the season, swedes, cabbage, beets, spinach, or kale was cooked. Sometimes, a small amount of rotten horse meat was added to the soup. Vegetables were rare ingredients. Supper looked just like breakfast (Helman, 2013, pp. 11–12). Exhausted, hungry children would steal food, eat raw cabbage stumps, flowers, grass, rotten leftovers from the garbage pit, they would catch birds or even eat mice. “One day”, Marian Miśkiewicz, who worked as camp shoemaker, recalled, “we cooked a big pot of glue for gluing leather. Suddenly, that glue disappeared. Later on, it turned out that hungry children had eaten it” (Witkowski, 1975, p. 121). The lack of food was a permanent problem. As a result, children fainted or even died. For many of them, getting some extra food became their most important mission. Starvation, the exhausting workload, dreadful living and sanitary conditions, and lack of medical care – these were the main causes of typhoid fever, typhus, scabies, scarlet fever, meningitis, and trachoma epidemics. Adoption of the cheapest and most efficient means of extermination, that is hunger, in conjunction with scandalous living conditions, had to bring certain consequences for the health of the young prisoners and this what the Germans had in mind. Although there was a small hospital within the camp grounds, it wasn’t sufficiently equipped. In cases of more severe illnesses, children were directed to the ghetto hospital. Based on accounts from Gertruda Nowak-Skrzypczak, we know that during the typhus epidemic (at the turn of 1942 and 1943), ill children were taken to the hospital at Dworska 74 or left without any assistance in the so called “infirmary”. Some of the dying children were taken out naked while they were still alive and put into boxes or paper bags along with dead corpses – this is where their lives ended (Witkowski, 1975, p. 149). Only as late as in the summer of 1943 did the first doctor, Leon Urbański, arrive in camp. He was able to examine only those children who were allowed to visit him and his office was opened twice

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a week and only for an hour (Czajkowska, 2016, pp. 11–12; Witkowski, 1975, p. 137). Even if the doctor wanted to administer medicine to an ill child, the head of the girls’ camp, Sydomia Bayer, who supervised the “infirmaries”, decided who was allowed to take the medicine and who was not. She wasn’t even a qualified nurse and before she examined a child at the camp clinic, she would beat them first to see if they weren’t malingering. In fact, Bayer’s job in camp was reduced to registering children and treating cut wounds, lesions, and abrasions with Lysol. She also ordered, if she felt like it, the sick children to be taken out on the snow and doused with water, which caused them to die (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 48–49, 138–139). The dramatic everyday life in camp would change on the days Red Cross representatives visited the place. For a brief moment, camp officers would turn into understanding “teachers” who didn’t react with aggression to “improper” behavior. The masquerade was described in the memoirs of one of the camp prisoners: When we get to the barracks, we cannot believe our own eyes. On the table, next to the entrance, there’s a basket full of bread guarded by the head boy. Next to it, there’s a bucket of marmalade. On the other table, there’s clean underwear, camp uniforms, sheets, and even a bar of soap per five of us. (…) Water pours down dirty bodies, unwashed for months, foaming soap gets into eyes, mouth, and nose. The well is mobbed (…). Fresh shirts, clean clothing, and squeaky clean faces make us unrecognizable. There we are, a neat and tidy gang and that’s probably what the Germans want. We are all wondering what the point is in all this circus (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 72–73).

After the inspection ended, everything went back to the previous state.

Punishment The camp was governed by a commandant. This role was assigned to the head of the criminal police in Łódź, SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Ehrlich (Witkowski, 1975, p. 39). For organizational purposes, the camp was divided into six departments, which covered, among others, managing the camp, racial research, administration, nutrition, keeping records, sanitary issues, work assignments, and supervision over prisoners. The organizational structure was slightly changed over time. The camp staff comprised SS officers and security police officers. The staff was selected from among people who would

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execute orders without hesitation, sadists who would commit any crime to avoid being sent to the Eastern Front (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 41–44). Ruthlessness and bullying were everyday phenomena. Mercy, compassion, and understanding exposed the camp staff as weak. Contempt and hatred were perceived almost as virtues and ensured promotion (Hrabar, 1979, p. 129). The slightest offence ended up in severe punishment and that was a common practice. The only exception was during the first few days of the typhoid fever epidemic. The staff wouldn’t go near the prisoners for fear of catching the disease. However, after the sick were transported to the hospital, they would torment the prisoners in the evenings: This happened in particular during the Christmas season of 1943 and around New Year’s Day. The quarantine prevented the staff from spending the holidays at home so they took revenge on prisoners. They would rush in in the middle of the night with bats and lashes and beat without mercy. If they broke their bats, they would dismantle planks from beds and beat the prisoners with them (Witkowski, 1975, p. 166).

The children were punished for picking leftovers from the garbage pits and stealing food, for falling behind the workload targets, avoiding work, falling asleep during their shift or night watch. There were also punishments for saluting the staff too late or in an improper manner, for dirt, lice, a missing button, or breaching one of countless prohibitions of which the children learned while they were being punished during assembly (Witkowski, 1975, p. 166). Everyday assemblies accompanied by lashing in particular evoked fear among juvenile prisoners. Other forms of punishment included kneeling on small-sized gravel. The punished child had to keep their arms up holding a brick in each hand. They had to wear a sign saying: “I’m a bastard”, “I didn’t bow to my officer”, “I stole”, “I didn’t make 1500 needles” and so on (Raźniewski, 1971, p. 81). Another cruel punishment was called “dancing round the pear tree”. A single tree in the assembly courtyard was used to torture the prisoners. The punished person had to run around the tree until they fell down to the ground with exhaustion. When the punished child was passing the officer, they would get a punch. The punishment was given for the slightest offences (Raźniewski, 1971, p. 78). Torturing children would also take more sadistic forms (as a result of training and methods applied in the SS, Gestapo, and Sipo), for example, their arms were twisted to the back and tied, they were hanged by their

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arms or legs in the garage, their heads were dipped in oil, they were flushed with cold water outside in freezing temperature and so “turned into an icicle”, forced to wash with ice-cold water by the outdoor pump (regardless of the time of the year) and a scrubbing brush or metal brush until their skin started to bleed. A commonly used punishment was locking the children in a sweatbox without windows. Red stripes or crosses were painted on the backs, chests, sleeves, or legs of those who were punished with sweatbox time. Prisoners from the penal block were assigned the hardest chores. Additionally, they were deprived of the right to see and write to their families (Helman, 2013, pp. 15–16). In 1944, training marches and alarms started to become more and more frequent. Collective liability for individual deeds was introduced. Punishment for escape and stealing was doubled. Moreover, food rations were reduced to a minimum. Only exceeding the work targets assured that the children were given the basic food portions. To enable implementation of this policy, special lists on the daily execution of workload were compiled for the staff. Hunger forced children to steal food from storage. The changes introduced resulted in a further increase in the ruthlessness of the tortures (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 124–125). The brutality experienced by the prisoners every day stirred their desire to run away. Yet, very few such attempts were successful. Usually, external help was involved. The escapees were shot at and chased. Severe punishment was administered to those who were caught as a warning to others (Helman, 2013, p. 17).

Assessment of the camp’s population Determining the number of children who were detained in the camp at Przemysłowa street presents huge difficulties, because, just like in other penal camps, the Germans destroyed camp documentation. Testimonies of former prisoners aren’t consistent enough to enable assessment based on these accounts. The tragedy of juvenile prisoners was also used for political purposes as an element of anti-German propaganda under Władysław Gomułka’s government. As a result, historians find discrepancies in the number of victims of the German camp in various sources. Pursuant to the then-current policy, in the mid 1960s information on the quota began to be overstated. According to official data, 15,000 children were to have entered the camp and circa 30% were to have lost their lives (Ossowski, 2015, p. 43).

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However, several reports including statistical data on the camp’s sanitary situation for a given month have been preserved. In such reports, the number of child prisoners held in the camp at Przemysłowa street varies from 926 to 1,089. This number should be added to the approximately 150 girls who worked at the Dzierżązna branch of the Łódź camp and approximately 200 children staying in hospitals within the Ghetto (and in the city during the typhus epidemic) (Hrabar et al., 1979, pp. 77–78). We don’t know how the dynamics of camp population changed; it is thus difficult to determine how many prisoners stayed in the camp throughout its operation, how many children died of starvation, diseases, exhaustion, and how many were murdered. Testimonies of former prisoners include information that not all children would return from work. The number of children fluctuated noticeably throughout the day. This might have been due to unrecorded deaths. Probably, over the period of the camp’s operation (25 months), roughly 10–15,000 children aged 2–16 years passed through the camp. During his work on an in-depth monograph on the camp at Przemysłowa street in Łódź, J. Witkowski found 300 former camp prisoners as well as families of children who were detained and murdered there, people who had to deal with the camp in some way, as well as former camp employees. Witkowski presumes that the Łódź camp might have taken in 12–13,000 prisoners (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 16, 113–114); similar data – roughly 12,000 children – is suggested by other authors (Boczek, Boczek, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 34–35). Such a huge rotation of children in the camp was affected by the situation of the youngest prisoners; many died, and a large group might not have been recorded. We must remember also that very small children were detained in the Łódź camp. Although German regulations assumed that the camp would detain juvenile boys at the ages of eight to 16 years, in fact children below the bottom age limit were held there as well. There was no official ordinance allowing such a practice, therefore imprisonment of such young children was kept confidential, as was, to some degree, the camp at Przemysłowa street. Until September 1943, young children were imprisoned in block 35. Usually, two- and three-year-old children were brought into the camp, where they stayed for a very short period of time and were then taken away at night-time to an unknown place in covered trucks. On the other hand, in September 1943, Block 36 for small children was officially launched. On September 14th 1943, children of “terrorists” and people related to Witaszko’s group were brought to the Łódź camp after events in Mosina and Poznań. Residents of Mosina carried out sabotage by poisoning their own cattle and destroying crops and thus were dangerous “terrorists”.

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There were over 100 such children, 22 of which were aged 2–8 years. The youngest of the group, a boy named Marek Zakrzewski, was two years and three months old at the time of imprisonment. A former camp prisoner, Stefan Chachlowski, recalls: “I remember that, in the winter of 1943, about 250 children aged 2–7 years were brought in and placed in Mädchennlager. These were both girls and boys. They died one after another” (Witkowski, 1975, pp. 193–194). Jadwiga Pawlikowska-Marciniak remembers the dead bodies of 12 children aged 2–3 years. Furthermore, Jan Hołoga saw dead bodies of young children in a car. The camp driver, Jan Sierpień, recalled that children from various parts of Poland were held in the camp, including from the Zamość region. There were children around the age of three years among them (Witkowski, 1975, p. 194).

Longing and fear Very small children “missed their mothers’ affection and were sick all the time”, stated camp dressmaker, Stefania Otto-Szafrańska (Witkowski, 1975, p. 194). However, we must remember that in other German camps, little children stayed with their mothers. If they were separated and placed in different locations, the mothers tried to reach their children and give them their bread portions. The mere fact that the mothers visited them in secret helped the children endure. In other camps, adults supported children both physically and emotionally, which, as recalled by former child prisoners, allowed them to survive that hell. In the Łódź camp, children, even the smallest ones, were separated from their mothers. Older girls took care of them to some limited extent. Eugenia Wódzka-Kubiak recalls: I also worked with these young children. It was horrible how they cried, they woke up in the middle of the night calling their mama and papa and we cried too, we were afraid that night guards would hear them. Everyone would give them candy if they got any in the mail (Witkowski, 1975, p. 195). Crying could be heard from the building in which the children stayed. They crowded into bunk beds, they were dirty, wet, sick and had lice. Children who couldn’t climb bunk beds were beaten. Gertruda Nowak-Skrzypczak, when she managed to get through and find her six-year-old brother, found out that he had an ear infection; his ears were bleeding and secreting pus. It is significant that ill children were left unattended despite their extreme

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suffering. Edziu didn’t want to let go of his sister, he cried desperately when she was leaving. When she visited him risking severe punishment, she would always bring him some food and he ate greedily. Other children asked her for food too or tried to take the bread from her by force (Witkowski, 1975, s. 195).

Longing, diseases, hunger, beating, and constant fear earned the Łódź camp at Przemysłowa street the nickname of “Little Auschwitz” (Witkowski, 1975, p. 35). Children lived in fear of the so-called “teachers”, experienced trauma, were hungry, cold, without their parents, they often wetted their beds at night. When beating brought no change in these children’s behavior (that is bed wetting), a special ward was created for them. The building for bed-wetting children stirred terror among the youngest prisoners. The already extremely small food rations were cut by half there. The children slept in their clothing and since they wet their beds, their clothes and the planks on which they slept were rotting and gave off an unpleasant smell. Children staying in this building would become catatonic, fall ill and die. The lack of intimacy and affection and the unfulfilled need for a sense of security reduced the children’s immunity level considerably, which, in conjunction with the biological exhaustion of their systems, led to death. The lack of love destroyed these children’s immune systems and protective factors.

Letters, parcels, and visits In such a situation, letters parcels, and visits, which the children looked forward to, brought hope. Due to the fact that the circumstances outside the camp were also difficult, the children couldn’t always get what they asked for in their letters. They waited for Saturday and Sunday, that is visiting days, with pounding hearts. Relatives of prisoners were rarely permitted to visit them. If a child received a parcel, not all of its contents were delivered to the addressee. One fourth, as it was explained, was given to children who couldn’t count on such aid, but in fact these items were confiscated by the camp staff (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 122–123). Unfortunately, only 15–20% of prisoners received parcels and they often shared with other children (Witkowski, 1975, s. 121). Images of solidarity and friendship of young people despite the inhumane conditions feature in the recollections of numerous prisoners, although we also know of cases of secret accusations which were rewarded by camp staff with extra food portions.

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Requests for parcels and visits were also the most frequent theme recurring in the letters sent by the children. In the early months of the camp’s operation, the children were allowed to send two letters to their families per month, yet, as early as the spring of 1943, this privilege was reduced to one letter per month. “Dear Parents”, wrote Eugeniusz Niedzielski (13 years old), “I am at a camp in Łódź. I was in Germany and I escaped and they caught me and locked me up in the camp. Dear Mama, please, write me as soon as you can, please Mama, send me a parcel as soon as you can, as soon as you can with bread, first of all, send me a parcel as soon as you can” (Witkowski, 1975, p. 123). He never received an answer to his letter. Many of them never reached their addressees. Younger prisoners learned from the older children that the letters which were actually delivered – those which made it past the censors – were the ones which contained the sacred phrase “I am well and I am happy here”. They could transmit other information, for example that they were well but they had been ill with typhus earlier on. This is how one of the camp martyrs, Urszula Kaczmarek, communicated with her family: “Dear Parents, send me a parcel if you can and some food. Dear Parents, send me any parcel at all by mail, we are very happy in these camps” (Witkowski, 1975, s. 123). Jurek Tomczak wrote in a similar manner: Dear Mama, First of all, I want to tell you that I am in good health and I wish you health too and ask you why haven’t you come to visit me for so long because I’m worried and I would like to ask you to visit on Saturday and please, bring me stamps, soap, powder and my photographs and needles and thread and a pencil and please, bring fruit and as much bread as possible and marmalade and saccharin or sugar and some syrup and some cherries and please, don’t forget to visit this Saturday with uncle. I shall finish this letter, see you soon and write me back soon (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 123–124).

Certainly, the children who knew how to write and knew their own address were in a far better position. Unfortunately, no less than half of them were illiterate. Roughly 2/3 of the children couldn’t correspond with their families, because their parents had already died or were detained in concentration camps or in hiding. In June 1943, a new set of regulations was implemented and the prisoners weren’t informed of the changes, but everyone received a summary

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of camp rules and regulations (in German) and had to sign it, after which the document was sent to the child’s family. The statement said, among others, that: Applications for the release of a juvenile prisoner are pointless. The date of release depends on behavior in camp and is defined solely by the camp management board (Führung). Failure to follow orders would prove that they have no idea what bringing children up entails and that they have no right to handle their children. Thus, the date of release would be postponed (Witkowski, 1975, p. 183).

Pursuant to the new camp rules and regulations, visits were possible once every six months, while letters and parcels could be sent once a month. If, during the visit, a child kissed their mother (it was possible only in the initial period, later on they were separated), got emotional, or cried on seeing their mother, the child was slapped in the face in their mother’s presence (Witkowski, 1975, p. 192). In 1944, another set of even stricter camp rules was put into force. The changes regarded, among others, parcels and letters, which from then on could be delivered once in six months only. As Artur Ossowski, an employee at the Institute of National Remembrance in Łódź, writes: In recollections, the camp at Przemysłowa street in Łódź was depicted as a place of permanent hunger and severe corporal punishment. The children’s longing for their parents was evident in every word of their letters sent only once in six months. In this correspondence, written mostly in Polish (although camp authorities ordered it to be written in German), they asked their parents for food and demanded their visits. The most desperate ones even urged them to adopt German citizenship (Ossowski, 2015, p. 45).

Although it was, theoretically speaking, possible for young prisoners to receive letters, parcels, and visits, they realized how difficult their position was. Fear was their everyday companion. It was commonly believed that death or transportation to an extermination camp was unavoidable. Older inmates tried to educate the younger ones. They realized that the actions of the Germans aimed at disorienting, stirring hatred, and setting young Poles against each other. Brutal treatment, lack of security and the affection of their loved ones made a number of them break down (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 74–76, 89).

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Remembrance The year 1945 brought about a long-awaited change. Tension was noticeable in the camp, the German’s defeat was unavoidable. On January 17th 1945, during the assembly, the camp commandant informed the prisoners of the fire in Radogoszcz prison. The burning Radogoszcz prisoners was to serve as a warning for young Poles. In the case of any resistance activity, the camp was to share that fate (Raźniewski, 1971, pp. 128–129). A period of nervous anticipation commenced. January 18th 1945 turned out to be different from all the other days before. The guards didn’t force the children out of their barracks, there was no morning assembly. The Germans left the camp in a hurry for fear of the Soviet army. Escaping the camp, they left the main gate open enabling young Poles to escape (Ossowski, 2015, p. 44). For residents of the depopulated Łódź who were unaware of the existence of the children’s camp, the sight of a crowd of prisoners marching down the streets was a huge surprise. The number of children in January 1945 probably didn’t exceed 900. After the Red Army entered Łódź, roughly 230 prisoners were placed at City Emergency Care (at 36 Kopernika street), while others were placed in hospitals. Many were adopted by strangers. Others decided to return to their hometowns (Ossowski, 2015, p. 45). After the war ended, the camp area was developed quickly. Memories of the events happening there blurred. Former prisoners were reluctant about discussing the tragic past, which also didn’t help to keep their memory alive (Helman, 2013, p. 21). Knowledge of the camp in Łódź at Przemysłowa street was poor. Despite the fact that the camp operated for over two years, very few people realized it even existed. Crucially, the camp wasn’t mentioned in Home Army reports (Ossowski, 2015, p. 44). Post-war political changes in the recovering Poland pushed a number of problems onto the margins. It took several decades for people to learn about the traumatic experiences of children at the camp at Przemysłowa street. 26 years after the end of World War II, on May 9th 1971, in the presence of many thousands of people and representatives of state authorities, the Monument to Child Martyrdom, later nicknamed by the city’s residents the Broken Heart, was revealed in the Bałuty district of Łódź (Ossowski, 2015, p. 44). A commemorative plaque located near the statue bears the inscription: YOUR LIVES WERE TAKEN AWAY, TODAY WE OFFER YOU ONLY REMEMBRANCE.

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From that time on, the statue has reminded us of the history of the Polish children who experienced immense suffering and died in the German camp. Due to a lack of similar places, the statue may become a symbol commemorating all children who, during the war, lost their childhood, homes, families, and often even their lives.

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Zbrodni Hitlerowskich i Wojewódzki Obywatelski Komitet Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa w Łodzi. Wasiak J. (1998), Obozy dla dzieci i młodzieży polskiej przy ulicy Przemysłowej, in: Obozy hitlerowskie w Łodzi, eds. A. Głowacki, S. Abramowicz, Łódź: Okręgowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Waszczyński J. (1979), Hitlerowskie prawo karne wobec dzieci i młodzieży polskiej (na terenach włączonych do Rzeszy), in: Zbrodnie hitlerowskie wobec dzieci i młodzieży Łodzi oraz okręgu łódzkiego. Materiały z sesji naukowej zorganizowanej 12 VI 1979 w Łodzi, eds. A. Galiński, J. Zamojska, Łódź: Okręgowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich i Wojewódzki Obywatelski Komitet Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa w Łodzi. Witkowski J. (1975), Hitlerowski obóz koncentracyjny dla małoletnich w Łodzi, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. Online references Czajkowska A. (2016), Zbrodnie hitlerowskie na dzieciach. Rys historyczny obozu dla dzieci i młodzieży polskiej w Łodzi (1942–1945), http://dspace.uni.lodz.pl:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11089/23965/Agata_Czajkowska_Zbrodnie%20hitlerowskie%20na%20 dzieciach.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Olejnik I. (2018), Bibliografia getta łódzkiego 1945–2017, Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy „Nomos”, https://docplayer.pl//113528234-2-bibliografia-getta-lodzkiego.html. Ossowski A. (2015), Pamięć i niepamięć, Biuletyn IPN pamięć.pl, nr 5(38), https://docplayer. pl/69931887-Pamiec-i-niepamiec-artur-ossowski.html.

DAWID WIECZOREK THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN CRACOW

THE ROLE OF GAUKINDERHEIM KALISCH IN GERMANIZATION DURING WORLD WAR II

Ab strac t : This paper is a case study of the transit camp for children in Kalisz (Kalisch), Poland, during World War II. It includes an analysis of archives retrieved from the Polish National Archive in Kalisz and is based on the legacy of work done by Tadeusz Martyn. The aim is to reveal the policy of Germanization and cultural indoctrination, as well as conditions of everyday life in the facility. By placing the case within its ideological context, this study broadens the overall picture of Germanization during WWII in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper is supported by photographs of source materials, some of which have never been published before. Ke y w o rd s : Gaukinderheim Kalisch, Germanization, camp for children in Kalisz

Background When the Germans were moving eastwards with the Blitzkrieg expansion, they did not only conquer new lands but also sustained heavy casualties on the increasing broad fronts of the World War II. The warzone left behind irreparable losses to European countries and their cultures, but the most severe losses were in human life on all sides of the conflict, including civilians – women, children, and prisoners of war (Sorge, 1986). Invaders paid special attention to children, knowing very well that children would be key to carrying on the next generation of Nazis and their ideology. New lifestyles were created and the education system was transformed, affecting children from the youngest ages. As an effect of these transformations, one could say that certain social groups were entirely re-socialized. The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) and the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel – BDM) were organizations where children were specially groomed to become Nazi elites. At the same time, many teenagers were forcefully made to follow the ideas of the Third Reich in numerous orphanages and

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reformatories. Regardless of the setting, the lives of the youngest citizens were completely subjugated to the power of the state, and population growth was considered a major factor in the future growth of Nazi power. The expansive military policy was fueled by the core ideas of National Socialism which had awoken in Germany in the early 1930’s, such as the superhuman (Übermensch), the master race (über Rasse), as well as a very selective understanding of notions such as the nation, social class, or totality. From the earliest stages, Nazi ideologues such as Alfred Rosenberg and Ernst Krieck (the German pedagogue) glorified the meaning and role of the theoretical systems they developed, as well as the German nation itself. Belief in these ideas determined the measures, such as war, oppression, slavery, but also including institutionalized education and child-rearing, necessary to secure the existence of the Thousand-Year Reich. It may seem inconceivable to plan a well-organized, wide-scale action of controlling the population. In fact, the subject of control was not only the actual number of people, but also the race, faith, sex, and individual qualities of human beings. Therefore, Nazi ideas had to dominate and control the education system. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to bring up faithful and fully devoted citizens ready to pay the highest price for the Führer. Nor would it have been possible to muster enough personnel able to keep up with the plan of global military expansion. As German human resources became more and more limited, the Nazis turned to the conquered lands to find (or rather kidnap) young people and raise them using force to follow indoctrinate them in their ideology. The period of World War II in world history is an example illustrating how tremendously certain educational and cultural policies can affect children. The Nazi ideology gave birth to such organizations as Lebensborn, whose main aim was to cultivate German blood. This institution was a significant part of German social policy at that time, one which echoed the ideals of the popular phrase Blut und Boden (blood and soil) defining the identity of Germans and generally contributing to the formation of the idea of a superhuman race (Oelhafen, Tate, 2016). The ideas of Kulturkampf and ethnonationalism finally led Nazi Germany to the already mentioned kidnapping of children, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe (Tokarz, Wilczur, 1981). One of the main reasons for choosing such children was their physical appearance; being similar to the blonde, blue-eyed ideal of the Nordic superman, they were a good raw material to work with. Another reason may for the policy may have been that it was easier than recruiting ever fewer and ever younger Germans, many of whom were

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already involved in the Hitlerjugend and other organizations. Many children were simply orphans wandering on the streets, so the kidnapping was made easier. Coercion towards German citizens had its limits even during the heyday of the Reich, thus the language of rape and violence resounded to a much greater degree among the conquered nations, from which the Germans intended to rebuild their own nation.

Sources A Polish security officer working for the government just after World War II, Tadeusz Martyn, collected the main source materials on the activity of Gaukinderheim in Kalisz. Born in 1923, during WWII he joined the Polish Workers’ Party, with whom he collaborated against Germans from 1942. He served until 1964, working as a teacher of the German language after retiring. Throughout his turbulent career path, Martyn investigated war crimes committed by the Germans. He also wrote several press publications on this matter in “Ziemia Kaliska”, the local newsmagazine. Apart from the written work he left behind, Martyn also acted as a consultant on a film about Nazi German crimes in Kalisz entitled Akt oskarżenia (The Indictment), directed by Krzysztof Gradowski and released in 1968. The director The Polish National Archive in Kalisz gathered all the relevant documents and made them available for research. Some of these documents were made available to the public in an exhibition held on site. The local news also publicized selected details of the topic, including some interesting historical facts in broadcasts. Nevertheless, these represent only a general picture of what transpired, and some files still have not been made available to the public. The materials include sets of photographs, notebooks, notes, replicas of photographs, judicial acts, handouts and leaflets, articles from the press, transcripts of legal files, and various other items such as personal documents and diaries. These can be found under the serial number “Arbeitsbuch Nr 454/44497 – Tadeusz Martyn”. All in all, there are 1638 items both in the German and Polish languages. The individual serial numbers for these files are 195, 198, 204, 1340, 1362, 150, 148, 146, 1471, 1469, and 1377. Based on the information retrieved from these sources, as well as thanks to primary research done by the Archive, it is possible to sketch a picture of how Germanization was implemented in this region, as well as what everyday life looked like in the Gaukinderheim.

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Gaukinderheim Before being sent to Lebensborn facilities or foster families in Germany, children were first gathered in transit camps. It was here that first assessments on meeting the criteria for being a true and valuable member of the Reich were made. Tests included both an assessment of physical appearance (most of the children were blonde), psychological tests (Becker, 2014, p. 132) (children that were not mentally resistant enough were sent back to their parents), and also genealogical research and blood testing (Martyn, serial number 157, pp. 8–11) in order to make sure that no Jewish ancestors were in the bloodline. Different reeducation facilities for children were located around Europe (Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Luxembourg). Some of these were also located in occupied Poland. The one analyzed in this paper was situated in Kalisz (Germ. Kalisch), a city in the central part of the country. A crucial first technical issue which needs to be resolved is the name to be given to this particular type of camp. These facilities were not strictly speaking Lebensborn facilities, although they played an important role in this part of German social policy. These were places when children kidnapped by Nazis were not only gathered and sent to foster families, but also according to the archives tortured and abused if they refused to be Germanized. The German name that was used for this specific type of camp is Gaukinderheim. The name referred to a particular district or regional unit of the occupied countries. The word Gau in German means a region or district, while Kinderheim means simply a children’s home or orphanage. The use of the German name in this paper is intended to avoid the risk of misplacement of responsibility for the crimes that took place there. Gaukinderheim Kalisch (hereinafter also referred to as Heim) was located in a building that had previously belonged to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, who were transported away from there. After the war, Stanisław Dry-Wysocki wrote an article in a local newspaper (“Słowo Powszechne”, no. 203) that could be read in a way suggesting that some of the nuns were a part of the Heim’s staff and shared responsible for crimes. In fact, all Sisters were forced to leave. 27 younger nuns able to work were transported to the labor camp (Arbeitslager) in Bojanów. The ill and older ones were first interned for a short period of time, and later lived separately, relocated among family and friends. There were three nuns in the Heim (two Ursulines and one of St Elizabeth) – forced laborers (two in kitchen

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and one as a helper). They were banned from contacting or communicating with the children brought to and held at the Heim, but nevertheless they sometimes managed to help them to secretly keep in touch with their families. At the beginning of operations, they were treated badly and humiliated, being forbidden to wear their habits, but with time their treatment improved slightly (Martyn, L.dz. 62/64). As stated in the personnel list based on the German-language Gauselbstverwaltung on August 14, the staff consisted of about ten Germans and eight Poles in total. The Ursuline Sisters remained until the end of war and liberation, i.e. from 1942, when the Heim was founded, until March of 1945.1 The size of the Gaukinderheim accommodated about 60 children, aged between two and 14 years old. Children between two and six years old were generally adopted by German families. Those aged between seven and 12 were sometimes redirected to German schools. The older and stronger children, especially those who did not resemble the ideal Nordic image, were sent to farms where they were often forced to do hard labor. Some of the children, before being assigned to foster families, were sent to Lebensborn facilities first. In most cases, they spent about six weeks at the Heim, and after this period they were usually transported to Munich (older children). The younger ones were sent in other less well-known directions. According to a brief note scribbled by J. Gumkowski, in June of 1944, there were 129 Polish children going through the Gaukinderheim. In the fall of that year, another 12 arrived. Over a 120 were moved by Lebensborn to foster facilities in Germany. At the beginning of 1945, another 12 children were moved to Taunus-Kinderheim in Wehrheim, an orphanage in Wiesbaden (Central Germany), and from there onwards to the so-called ‘Heim Alpenland’ Oberweis, a castle in Laakirchen in northern Austria which housed a Lebensborn facility (Id., excerpt from 1010z/0Ł file, folder 3., p. 3). The last transport was organized on January 18th 1945. According to a variety of lists of names from the archives, there are about 143 documented cases of children spending time in the Heim. For example, the local newspaper, “Rocznik Kaliski”, mentions only 137 documented names (“Rocznik Kaliski”, 1970, p. 230). But apart from this, there is also a list of missing children that were searched for at the Heim, which consists of an additional twenty-four names. Unfortunately, it is hard to 1

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to s. Ruth Kawa. Thanks to the consultations, it was possible to clarify data discrepancies in the sources.

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estimate the exact number of children in question. It is also difficult to determine how many of them returned to their homeland after World War II. In general terms, several hundred children were involved (perhaps closer to 300), with between 60 and 80 children staying in the Heim at any given time (Pilichowski, 1977, p. 53). Predominantly, the children were from the Poznań area, but at the end of the war Russian children were also brought to the Heim. The Germans kidnapped orphans, but also took children directly from their parents violently. Only a portion of the children were from educational care facilities (Pilichowski, 1977,). Every six weeks, when a transport was organized, a special external commission consisting of eight Germans came to the facility to assess those who were selected.

Aims and methods The operations of the Gaukinderheim were predominantly aimed at Germanization. This process itself consisted of three main elements: language, people, and culture. To put Nazi ideology into practice in the most effective way, the Germans organized an entire infrastructure around it. Convinced of their superiority over other nations, they did not refrain from using the cruelest methods, often entailing tragedies, crimes, and in the case of the youngest, painful separation from parents. These actions were aimed at the eradication of native cultures, including language, nationality, religion, and traditions. This process included issuing new identity documents and destroying the old ones, as well as giving new German-sounding names to the children. Children staying in the Heim were to be born anew – as the upcoming generation of Übermenschen of the Third Reich. This happened, however, only when the children were obedient to their oppressor, and met most of the criteria for becoming German. Otherwise, they were apt to be terrorized, and even killed. The conditions that the children were kept under resembled some kind of prison. Austerity was an integral part of the methods applied, and the daily routine was filled mostly with language lessons. The children were divided by age into three groups. A separate registration office was created to obscure the exact numbers of children processed (Martyn, serial number 155). Discipline was very harsh, and surviving in such a psychologically difficult environment was challenging. Regarding the set of punishments applied in the Heim, there are several examples which illustrate the cruelty of the staff. In the yard, there was a fu-

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neral chapel. Although the Germans mainly used beatings as a punishment for children, they sometimes locked children in the chapel overnight for bad behavior (Spodzieja, 2014). It is obvious how traumatic these experiences must have been. As can be read in the chronicles written by the nuns working in the facility, as well as in the account of Robert Kordes, a stay in the Gaukinderheim started with a cold shower (Kordes, 2019). Although the diet was not very varied, the children did not suffer from hunger. Their daily scheduled activities included physical exercise and handwriting lessons, as well as numerous chores. As a part of their cultural indoctrination, they had to learn German literature, songs, and art on a daily basis. When children were caught talking in Polish, the most common punishment was caning (Kordes, 2019) or starvation. There is also strong evidence that in some cases pseudo-medical experiments were conducted, according to the testimony of Artur Grieser (Martyn, serial number 157, p. 8). To outline the general climate of fear and terror, we look to Maria Pińczewska’s testimony, in which a 14-year-old scout named Zygmunt Światłowski was killed just for greeting other children in Polish (Martyn, serial number 155, p. 6sq). Most likely, Johanna Zandler, the director of the Gaukinderheim, killed him by pushing him onto unprotected electric wires. Światłowski died immediately. The children were taught Nazi ideology, hatred towards the Polish nation, including the characteristic salute. Pictures of the important figures of Nazi public life were hung on the walls of the facility. Each child had also an individual file in which were recorded all punishments and awards, the child’s attitude towards Germany, their behavior in general, and their progress in learning the German language (Pilichowski, 1982, p. 283). As a form of leisure activity, some trips to the local park were organized. Physical education played an important part in reeducation, so outdoor sport-related activities were also very popular. According to Martyn’s archives, there are many testimonies of witnesses dating from after the liberation of the camp. From these it can be seen that separation from parents was a highly traumatic experience. The Germans often told the children that their parents were dead, or threatened that they would kill them. The occupiers normally came to people’s houses or to schools and took the children from their parents by force or be using deception. This may be the reason why women were involved in this process, though usually in the company of one or two police officers. It was a common practice to call children to local healthcare facilities or police offices

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without giving a reason. The parents were told to pick the children up at a later time, but on attempting to do so found that they had already been transported elsewhere, in other words kidnapped (Martyn, serial number 150). The children were usually taken to the railway station in secret but it happened that families found out and tried to enter to the station, but were barred by the Germans. The children did not know where they were going, often bursting into tears and begging to be allowed to go home. The German officers, in an attempt to calm the children down, asked them to write letters to their families, promising to deliver the letters right after arrival. This also never happened. Most often, before being transported to Kalisz, the children were photographed in a manner similar to prison photographs. Upon arrival, their names were changed immediately. The children were sometimes also medically examined before being taken to the facility to qualify them for Germanization. A great deal of evidence confirms these practices, including the statements of parents who testified after the liberation of the Gaukinderheim. From the statement of Bogumiła Roztocka we know that before being taken to Germany (or Austria and Luxembourg), the children had to work on farms. Furthermore, they were occasionally even recruited to the Hitlerjugend, starting from the age of nine years old. In many cases, the children never made it back home, and it is still hard to estimate how many of the exiled returned after 1945. Moreover, those who managed to come back very often had forgotten or found it difficult to speak the Polish language. Additional traumas were caused when they discovered the fate of their parents, who had often been killed, sent to concentration camps, or had died during the war. Most frighteningly, some children never discovered their real origin, having been raised as Germans in new families.

Summary In general, witnesses’ statements include several very similar elements that build up a picture of life in the Gaukinderheim. Primarily, this involved severe separation trauma (Ullman, Hilweg, 1999). The Gaukinderheim also played an important role in the process of Germanization – education was used as a tool for nationalistic policies (Volkstumspolitik) (Hansen, 1994). The methods used to attain goals were focused on executing harsh discipline, including physical punishments and even tortures, not excluding

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pseudo-medical experiments undertaken on children. Profound cultural indoctrination was a part of daily education. A focus was also placed on physical exercise as well, corresponding to the Nazi ideals of the superhuman, one who would be physically and psychologically strong, obedient and prepared to make the highest sacrifice. Even though the Polish resistance movement constantly monitored the facility, no actions were taken to liberate it. There were some inner resistance initiatives coordinated by the underground Home Army. One person from the neighborhood of the Gaukinderheim, Maria Pińczewska, delivered the correspondence from children’s families to sister Damiana. She also made secret notes about the new identities of children who were sent away. After the war, she was interviewed intensively, and her reports are available in the archives. Thanks to the risks she took, it was possible to partially reconstruct the further fates of the children who had been sent away. There was also another person near the Gaukinderheim whose conduct was very noble – Stanisław Kulczyński, who operated secretly as the Home Army contact person. He worked as a janitor and managed to help organize individual escapes from the Gaukinderheim (Hansen, 1994), using for this purpose trash bins which were carried outside the premises of the facility. Besides this, a crucial source of information is provided by the documents left by the nuns, which confirm the testimonies of the inmates and the crimes committed. The example of the Gaukinderheim illustrates how important children were for the Nazis. Perceived as the future and force of spreading the ideology, they were one of the most important and valuable targets towards which the Nazi government addressed their policy. One of the reasons why I have taken up the topic of the fates of children during World War II and make this information available to the general public is my personal experience. At a young age, my grand uncle was sent to Munich to be Germanized. He was forced to do hard work, learn German culture and language. Fortunately, he survived the war, came back home, and rejoined the family. He remembered that time very clearly until his last days. His example along with the memories of hundreds of other exiled children should be revived, and further research in this field should be done, as many facts still remain to be uncovered.

1. Memo by Tadeusz Martyna on the establishment of Gaukinderheim All documentation regarding Gaukinderheim comes from the State Archives in Kalisz and the author’s private collection

3. Fragment of the list of unidentified children from Gaukinderheim All documentation regarding Gaukinderheim comes from the State Archives in Kalisz and the author’s private collection

2. Document confirming the presence of one of the children cirkulating between Gaukinderheim and the German center of Lebensborn (in Laakirchen)

All documentation regarding Gaukinderheim comes from the State Archives in Kalisz and the author’s private collection

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Bibliography Becker M. (2014), Mitstreiter im Volksstumskampf. Deutsche Juztiz in den eingegliedrten Ostgebieten 1939–1945, Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. Dry-Wysocki S. (05.09.1991), Ośrodek germanizacji polskich dzieci, “Słowo Powszechne”, issue 203(13209). Hansen G. (1994), Schulpolitik als Volkstumspolitik, Berlin: Waxmann. Hopfer I. (2010), Geraubte Identität: die gewaltsame “Eindeutschung” von polnischen Kindern in der NS-Zeit, Böhlau. Kordes R. (29.01.2019), Kaliskie dzieci wojny, “Życie Kalisza”. Lamberti M. (September 2011), Education in Nazi Germany (book review), “German History”, vol. 29, issue 3. Martyn T., The collection of archives collected in the National Archive in Kalisz, Poland: signatures: 195, 198, 204, 1340, 1362, 150, 148, 146, 1471, 1469, and 1377. v. Oelhafen I., Tate T. (2016), Hitler’s Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman’s Search for Her Real Identity, Dutton Caliber. Pilichowski Cz. (1977), Fałszerstwo czy prowokacja? Odwetowcy w roli oskarżycieli, Książka i Wiedza. Pilichowski Cz. (1982), Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Pine L. (2010), Education in Nazi Germany, Berg. Rusiński A. (1970), “Rocznik Kaliski”, issue 3, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie. Sorge M.K. (1986), The Other Price of Hitler’s War: German Military and Civilian Losses Resulting From World War II (Contributions to the Study of World History), Praeger. Spodzieja R. (2012), Moim domem był Gaukinderheim. Historia ofiar Lebensborn, Back Unicorn. Spodzieja R. (10.10.2014), Kaliskie dzieci po germanizacji – co się z nimi stało?, “Fakty Kaliskie”. Tokarz Z., Wilczur J. (1981), The Fate of Polish Children During the Last War, transl. B. Buczkowski, L. Petrowicz, Interpress. Ullman E., Hilweg W. (1999), Childhood and Trauma: Separation, Abuse, War, Aldershot: Ashgate.

DANUTA DRYWA MUZEUM KL STUTTHOF

THE GERMANIZATION OF POLISH CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN GDAŃSK POMERANIA AND THE ROLE OF THE STUTTHOF CONCENTRATION CAMP

Ab s t r a c t : Between 1939 and 1945, Polish children were victims of the relentless extermination policies of the Third Reich. From the beginning of WWII, they became the direct objects of Nazi Säuberaktion or “field cleansing” policy in Gdańsk Pomerania. Polish children were among the victims of mass killings in the Piaśnicki and Szpęgawski forests and, as patients of psychiatric hospitals, they were also euthanized. Together with their parents they were kept in re-location camps, one of them in Riesenburg (Prabuty) in East Prussia, from where they were transferred to labor camps in the Third Reich. Some of the children were sent to KL Stutthof, where the number of prisoners between the ages of 12 and 18 was estimated to have been above 2000. From the age of 12, Polish children were part of a slave labor force whose role was to work for the interests of the Third Reich; they were sent to KL Stutthof to receive “for upbringing” (Erziehung). They were imprisoned in KL Stutthof for their participation in the Polish resistance, or for not signing the Deutsche Volksliste (the German People’s List). In concentration camps, Polish children were treated the same way as adults and just as adults they had to obey the same rules and regulations of the camp. Ke y w o rd s : euthanasia, Reichsgau Danzig Westpreussen, Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Nation, Übergangslager Riesenburg Westpreussen, re-location Camp in Prabuty, Concentration Camp Stutthof

In years between 1939–1945, children became the victims of the criminal policy of the Third Reich. They were shot like the worst criminals, treated as objects that could be taken away with impunity. As creatures “unworthy of life”, patients of psychiatric hospitals were killed in gas chambers or with phenol injections. They were also harnessed into the system of slave labor for Germany. It should be noted that the repression of Poles living in Pomerania did not start only on the day of the outbreak of war on September 1st 1939. In

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parts of Pomerania which remained in the hands of Germany after the Versailles Treaty, the Germanization policy had not changed since the times of the Prussian partition. Most of all, Polish children and youth were barred from accessing Polish schools and entire families were subjected to various means of harassment. In Germany, at the end of 1938, repressions against the activists of the Union of Poles (Związek Polaków) in Germany, intensified and at the beginning of 1939, by virtue of the Reich Security Act, the Polish population from border regions was displaced. The displacement affected mainly Polish families who lived in the borderland and Warmia areas and who sent their children to Polish schools (Ziemia złotowska, 1969, pp. 173–174). The arrests of activists of the Union of Poles in Germany started as early as the middle of August 1939, and from August 25th 1939, on the eve of the initially planned attack on Poland, activists of the Union of Poles and the Union of Polish School Societies, teachers and cooperatives were arrested in Złotów county and in Powiśle. 153 pupils, 12 teachers and auxiliary staff of the Polish Junior High School in Kwidzyn were arrested as well. At the same time, the remaining Polish schools and kindergartens in Powiśle were liquidated. On the same day in the evening, the arrested prisoners were transported to a prison which was formerly a hospital for mentally ill, in Tapiau near Königsberg (Gębik, 1965, pp. 17–18). On August 29th 1939, more arrested Polish teachers from Powiśle were brought to Tapiau. According to Władysław Gębik (1972, pp. 34–40) after the beginning of the war and the arrival of the first wounded on September 5th, as early as on September 6th a group of younger students was transferred to a labor camp in Strohbienen on September 6th, and on September 9th to the Hohenbruch camp. Finally, in December 1939, the children were released and the teachers, including Władysław Gębik, as well as social and patriotic activists from the Powiśle area were sent to the Stutthof camp. The beginning of the war also marked the beginning of mass murders of the Polish population of Gdańsk Pomerania. The victims of “field cleansing” (Säuberungsaktion) conducted by the Germans were also Polish children. The fate of Polish children and Polish youth of the Free City of Gdańsk and Pomerania was not different from their fathers’ or mothers’ fate and repressions. Even pregnant Polish women were not spared execution. Among the first victims, a group of Polish railway men and customs officers murdered on September 1st 1939 at the border station in Szymankowo, was Elżbieta Lessnau, a pregnant wife of the railway assistant. The execution was in retaliation for a warning given by railway men to Polish sappers sta-

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tioned in Tczew about the approaching German armored train to Gdańsk, a warning that resulted in the destruction of a bridge over the Vistula river (Wardzyńska, 2009, p. 84). At the time, in addition to Elżbieta Lessnau, 13 Polish railway men, five customs officers and the sister of one of them were shot (Leidinger, Cechnicki, 2012, p. 143). Among the first victims were also patients of psychiatric hospitals, including children. Deportation of the patients of the psychiatric hospital in Świecie nad Wisłą started on September 10th 1939. As Leidinger and Cechnicki reported (2012, p. 143), shootings of patients, including children, in the nearby forest lasted for 5–6 days. Each time, three patients were taken from the vehicle and shot in the back of the head. Then the liquidation of the children’s pavilion began. The children were happy that they were going to take a trip by car and in the end they were killed by bullets. They were murdered in the following way: they were all released into a meadow and later they were shot as if they were mere targets at a shooting range.

On September 22nd 1939, in the Szpęgawskie Forest, the killing began of patients of the psychiatric hospital in Kocborowo (Konradstein) near Starogard Gdański. As was stated by the higher commander of the SS and Police in Gdańsk, Richardt Hildebrandt, to the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler in January 1940 Wachsturmbann Eimann’s activity report from September to December 1939, two companies of the SS-Wachsturmbann Eimann unit were used in murdering patients of psychiatric hospitals in Gdańsk Pomerania.1 Within a few months, 1,400 mentally ill patients of Pomeranian psychiatric hospitals and about 2,000 mentally ill patients from the Kocborowo psychiatric facility were shot, among them 130 children from the Gniew facility. Among others, on January 11th 1940, young patients from Gniew were shot – Anna Grochel born in 1927, Jadwiga Karpicz born in 1926, Joanna Lenz born in 1924, and Mieczysław Liwoch born in 1927 (Ejankowski, Samulewska, 2011, p. 90). In the place of the local patients that had been killed, patients, including children, from the Riesenburg (currently Prabuty) psychiatric hospital and from other hospitals located in East Prussia were brought to the Kocborowo hospital. Younger 1

The SS Wachsturmbahn Einmann was established by the Senate of the Free City Danzig already in July 1939 in order to implement “Aktion Tannenberg” (Jastrzębski, Sziling, 1979, pp. 84–87).

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children were killed with phenol injections, the older ones were shot together with adults. We do not know what percentage of the murdered were children of Polish nationality. In the psychiatric facilities located in Gdańsk Pomerania and in East Prussia, patients of both Polish and German nationality as well as Jews were present. One witness, among others, to the crime of murder by lethal injection committed against children aged eight to 12 at the Konradstein facility was Edmund Szarmat, a resident of Starogard, forced by the Germans to work in the psychiatric facility, and one of the perpetrators was Fritz Siewert, a senior nurse at the facility: During the day, patients were selected at the different departments. The SS men were under the influence of alcohol from early in the morning because they had orgies during the night, and during the day committed crimes in the Szpęgawski Forest; they walked around the wards and gathered the sick. They chose this one, that one, and that one and loaded them on cars. Threatened with a rifle, I had to accompany these sick people. We were all in fear, because they also had us on the list. They told us that the sick were being transported to another hospital, but it was difficult to believe because they came back so early. It was said that they were transporting them to the Szpęgawski Forest and finishing them off there. They dealt with them very brutally. For example, there was a guy called Piekut with a broken limb in a splint. We carried him out on a stretcher, and they took him and threw him in the car like herring into a barrel. And he never came back. I also saw them beat up one patient with rifle butts for saying, “Why did you come here, what do you want here Nazis?”. (...) I saw the killing by injection in Ward XI, where Siewert was. There were about 20 children there, even German children, probably from Riesenburg (Prabuty). They were aged between six and 10 years, and even as young as four years old. They begged him not to kill them. I saw him approach them and make injections. At first, I did not know it was poison, they said it was a sleeping drug. But later it turned out that it was phenol. The children realized this because they noticed that the group was getting smaller and smaller. They begged Siewert “Do not kill me, daddy”. Siewert behaved quite calmly, he did it in cold blood. In the morning I was not there anymore, but my friends from the second shift told me that they took them to the mortuary and then they buried them in the hospital cemetery.2 2

As related by E. Szarmat, Relacje i wspomnienia, AMS 6, 286.

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In Gdańsk Pomerania from September 1939, plans were launched to eliminate from society “all layers not fit for complete Germanization”. The elimination took place by displacing part of the people to the so-called “Polish preserve” or the General Governorship, and regarding “obviously Polish national layers, Polish chauvinists, members of Polish political parties and cultural groups (such as, first of all, the Western Union (Związek Zachodni), the Association of Seafarers (Związek Marynarzy), etc.”3, decisions were made to remove them, meaning in practice immediate physical liquidation or condemnation to internment and death in a concentration camp as part of the so-called “Operation Tannenberg” or “Intelligenzaktion”. The task the SS operational groups were carrying out in the autumn of 1939 in occupied Poland aimed at a “political cleansing of the field” (politische Flurbereinigung) of the undesirable “Polish element”, which was primarily the Polish intelligentsia. During the implementation of these aims throughout Gdańsk Pomerania in the first months of the war, the Einsatzkommando 16, members of the Volksdeutcher Selbstschutz, and SS-Wachsturmbann Eimann performed mass executions. Their victims were also children and youth involved in the activities of Polish youth organizations before the war, such as the Polish scouts, the Sokół Gymnastic Association, etc. The words of gauleiter Albert Forster, “that even Polish children in the cradle must be destroyed”, spoken after the occupation of Gdynia in mid-September 1939, are a testimonial to the attitudes towards Poles and Polish children. This concerned both the inhabitants of this part of Pomerania, which before the war belonged to Poland, as well as the Free City of Gdańsk, Poles living in East Prussia or in the vicinity of Lębork and Bytów. These children often died together with their parents, who before the war had been involved in patriotic and especially plebiscite activities. Such an act took place in October and November 1939 in the village of Janowo, which after the plebiscite of 1920 was granted to Poland and in the years 1920–1939 played an important role in the transfer of Poles threatened by arrest from Powiśle to Gniew, lying on the other side of the Vistula River. In Tryszczyn, prisoners were brought for execution – middle and high school teachers, activists of the Polish Western Union and priests from Bydgoszcz. Among the victims were boy scouts and girl scouts, junior high school students, even 12-year-old children and old people. Similar 3

A fragment from the memoirs Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevoelkerungder ehemahligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichtpunkt published in Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, 1948, Warsaw IV, 155.

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executions took place in the Valley of Death in Fordon near Bydgoszcz, where among the victims, including officials, merchants, Polish patriotic and other activists, were scouts and high school students suspected of participating in the suppression of the German subversion in Bydgoszcz. In Klamry from October 12th to November 11th 1939, about 2,000 Poles were shot, including women and children from the Chełmno district, on October 15 two children and women from Gruczno were shot in Grupa, and similarly women and children were shot on October 9th in Dobrcz. In total, approximately 4,400 people were murdered in Tryszczyn and in the Valley of Death. A precise number of all victims, including children and minors, is difficult to establish because at the end of the war the Germans carried out an action to destroy the evidence, exhuming bodies from graves and burning the remains. The extermination of entire Polish families in Bydgoszcz is confirmed by the mayor of the city, Werner Kampe, who in a letter addressed to the head of the security police Einsatzkommando 16 in Bydgoszcz, Jakob Lölgen, on November 9th 1939, advocated the liquidation of the entire families of two engineers from central Poland, including their sons aged 14 and 16, who, according to data obtained from informers, belonged to the Polish military preparation union. The engineers were employees of the municipal power plant and posed a threat to the safety of the plant as well as to Germans. In the Szpęgawski woods, about 5,000–6,000 inhabitants of Kociewie were murdered, including scouts from Tczew and Starogard. About 12,000 persons from Kaszubia were murdered in the Piaśnicki forests. Secondary school students from Gdynia, Wejherowo, Puck, and other towns died here. Among those shot were the Napierała family from the village of Kąpino; Franciszek Napierała together with his wife Maria and 11-year-old son Jan, along with his son Marian, a high school student. In the case of these executions as well as many others in Pomerania, it is difficult to give the exact number of victims, including children, because at the end of the war efforts were made to destroy the evidence, burning buried remains. The greatest intensity of executions carried out in the Piaśnicki Forests took place on November 11th 1939, on the anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. Also on that day, ten teenage boys were executed in Gdynia-Obłuż. This image was remembered by Barbara Kicińska thus: More and more young Polish boys were driven onto the square. They had to stand in rows. I cannot say how many of them were there. Some of them held hands, because they hoped they would be taken away to work together. They

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were ordered to count up to ten. Each tenth person was ordered to leave the rows. The SS men chose 10 people. (...) It was announced in Polish that the ten would be shot in a moment. (...) From the mouths of the condemned, terrified cries of “Jesus, Maria! Save me!”, “Mother, Father! Save me!” were heard (...) Everyone on the square had to watch the execution. (...) the bodies of the young Polish boys were left lying there a long time in the square next to the church, as if they were waiting for the opening of the gates of heaven. German patrols watched over them. At night, a horse cart pulled up. The bodies were loaded and taken to the forest. They were buried in the bottom of a pit, where a spring flowed.4

The main method of destroying Polish families in Gdańsk Pomerania was, however, Germanization. In a report published on November 25th 1939 prepared by officials of the Office for Race Policy of the NSDAP, Dr. Erhard Wetzel and Günther Hecht, entitled Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevölkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassepolitischen Gesichtspunkten (The matter of treating inhabitants of the former Polish areas from a racial and political point of view), there is a point on “Special treatment of children of high racial value”: A significant part of the layers of the Polish nation which are racially valuable, but for national reasons unfit to be Germanized, will have to be displaced to the remaining Polish territory. Here, however, one must try to exclude racially valuable children from resettlement and bring them up in the old Reich in appropriate educational institutions such as the former Potsdam Orphanage for orphans from the military or in German family care. This concerns children of not more than 8–10 years, because as a rule only until that age is it possible to realize a real change of nationality, that is final Germanization. A vital condition is to completely cut off any relations with their Polish relatives. The children will receive German surnames, which must also be explicitly Germanic in their origin. Their pedigree will be managed by a special agency. All racially valuable children whose parents have died during the war or later will be immediately taken over by German orphan homes. For this reason, it is necessary to issue a ban on the adoption of such children by Poles. 4

A fragment from the memoirs Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevoelkerungder ehemahligen polnishen Gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichtpunkt published in „Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce”, 1948, Warsaw IV, 155.

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Placing healthy Polish children in institutions run by the clergy must be banned. As far as children up to about 10 years are concerned, they will be transferred to German educational institutions. The resettlement of neutrally minded Poles to the remaining Polish territory can be if they allow their children to be placed in German educational institutions.5

Such guidelines regarding Polish children were applied in Gdańsk Pomerania, which from October 26 was incorporated into the Third Reich as Reichsgau Danzig Westpreussen (Reich District of Gdansk – West Prussia). The planned Germanization of Pomerania and selection of those who were deemed useless in terms of race was based on a memorandum on the racial composition of the Pomeranian population, developed by an anthropologist from Jena, Professor H.F. Günther, who was at the end of 1940 invited to Pomerania by the gauleiter of the Gdańsk-West Prussia district, Albert Forster (Madajczyk, 1970, p. 401) The next stage was the introduction of the Deutsche Volksliste (German People’s List – DVL), inclusion on which was compulsory based on a regulation issued on February 10th 1942, by Reichsführer SS and Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationhood, Heinrich Himmler, that recognized the populations that inhabited territories incorporated by Germany as German populations. At the same time, Albert Forster, eager to finish classification of the population of the Gdańsk-West Prussia District, which on the basis of origin or personal attitude towards Germany could be considered a German population, initiated a forced and accelerated action to sign up the local population onto the German People’s List. The deadline for submitting applications for signing up a resident and his entire family onto the list was March 31st 1942 (Jastrzębski, Sziling, 1979, p. 183). Gauleiter Forster had earlier promised Adolf Hitler to speed up Germanization of the population living in his lands, which was to be completed within five years. The first stage of the segregation of the Polish population of Pomerania was the settlement of entire families in temporary camps (Durchgangslager), subordinate to Richard Hildebrandt, plenipotentiary of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationhood in the district of Gdańsk-West Prussia. These camps had begun to be created in the autumn of 1939 (Jastrzębski, Sziling, 1979, p. 153). The order to remove all immigrant Poles and Jews from Pomerania by the end of February 1940 5

“Biuletyn GKBZHwP”, 152–153.

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was issued on October 30th 1939, by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, Stabshauptamt Reichkomissar für die Festigung deutsches Volkstums (the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationhood). On November 8th of the same year at the Gauleiters conference in Kraków the guidelines of the German central authorities were further formulated regarding this matter (Jastrzębski, Sziling, 1979, pp. 145–146). On November 26th 1939, Richard Hildebrandt announced in Bydgoszcz that in order to accommodate 10,000 Germans who were expected to arrive from Volhynia, 10,000 Poles and Jews from Pomerania had to be removed. Therefore, in December 1939, in the Gdańsk-West Prussia district the first selections were held in order to isolate the part of the Polish population that was suitable for Germanization. A Commission for Races was established (the so-called Rassenkomission), which operated under the auspices of the main Office of Race and Settlement of the SS and was led by the commander of the XXVI SS section in Gdańsk, SS-Oberführer Ebrecht, in cooperation with the Gestapo offices in Gdańsk, Grudziądz and Bydgoszcz (Jastrzębski, Sziling, 1979, pp. 145–146). It was these officials who adjudicated on the fate of Poles from Pomerania and their families, while also examining their political past. In Gdańsk, the committees functioned until spring 1940. Poles reporting to the committees were asked whether they were Poles or Germans. Polish families were accused of bringing up their children in the spirit of Polish culture and religion. After the hearings by the committees, decisions were made as to the further fate of individual families. Some were resettled to the General Government region, mainly to Lublin. Some women from families whose male members had already been murdered or were in the Stutthof camp were detained, and then in April 1940 were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp (Kiedrzyńska, 1965, pp. 370–372). This stemmed from Forster’s order of December 5th 1939 issued to all district managers, in which, among other things, he instructed that in first order the families of Poles who had been liquidated in the last two–three months should be evacuated (Schenk, 2002, p. 253) Some of the selected families were sent to the transit camp in Prabuty (Übergangslager Riesenburg Westpreussen) for so-called training before they were deported to labor camps in the Third Reich (Męclewski, 1974). Gradually, Poles from Gdańsk began being sent to the Riesenburg camp. Among them was five-year-old Rajmund Głembin, who together with his sister and mother arrived at the Riesenburg camp in December 1939. Here was also, among others, 18-year-old Paweł Wohlert, who had initially been

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imprisoned in the Stutthof camp but after verification had been released from Stutthof and sent to the camp in Prabuty (Zwarra, 1984, p. 540). In addition to the inhabitants of Gdańsk, Poles from Tczew, Gniew, Starogard as well as the inhabitants of Pelplin were deported to Prabuty. The inhabitants of Tczew who were assigned for deportation to the Riesenburg camp, mainly employees of the Polish State Railways, were initially placed in the Gniew camp, which was organized in a former Teutonic Knights castle. The deportation of the inhabitants of Tczew began on November 1st 1939. Some of them were forced to leave to the General Government after they were released from the Gniew prison, while others, like the Kolasiński family, Benedykt and Anna with their two daughters, the family of Walenty and Bronisława Kurek with six children, Antoni Brzóska, Paweł Szuta’s family together with his grandmother Wiktoria Szczuraszek and her son Marian Szczuraszek, Janina Rachuba with four children, the family of Władysław and Zofia Sabowski with three children, Augustyn and Franciszka Bigus with their two children, Franciszek and Maria Mokwa with five children, were deported to the Riesenburg camp.6 Witold Banacki, then a ten-year-old child, reminiscing, writes that after arriving in the camp they were “separated into groups, men, and mothers with children. Our hair was cut off, we were ordered to dress in pajamas that had belonged to the mentally ill – white with navy blue stripes”.7 The living conditions in the camp were very harsh. “Prisoners starved [as recalls R. Głembin – DD]. Adults received a quarter loaf a day of Komissbrot, a dark, hard and sour mold bread, and children got one eighth”.8 In the camp, everyone was assigned a job. Men worked at the camp farm, German farms and in the city. Older people most often did their best to find work at a local farm or looked for another occupation in the camp itself. The younger ones were sent to a nearby forest where they collected firewood for fuel. People who knew German were employed in the camp office, which allowed them to move freely around the camp. Women who had small children worked on the premises – in the camp kitchen, at the laundries, or sewing sacks. Children up to the age of seven were left with their mothers. Older children had to attend German school for about three months where they were taught German for a few hours a day. In the camp in Gniew, and 6 7 8

As related by families forced out from Tczew and transported to Ravensbrück camp, AMS, serial no. Z-VII-17. Interview with W. Banacki (Witek, 2001, p. 11). Interview with R. Głembin (Adamowicz, 2008).

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in Prabuty where Poles from Tczew were directed first, racial research was carried out. At the end of January 1940, deportations from the Riesenburg camp to forced labor in Germany began. Some families, however, were released from the camp; this was referred to as “vacationing”. Among others, Gertrude Głembin and her children in May 1940 were “sent on vacation” from the camp and had to report to the police station. By 1941, however, Rajmund’s sister, Marysia Głembin, had been deported to forced labor in Germany, and in 1943 their mother, Gertrude, was taken to the camp in Potulice together with her son after refusing to distribute the German party press.9 After being sent to forced labor or on “vacation”, families received bills for their stay in the camp. The daily cost for each person, including small children, was calculated at 75 Pf (Pfennig), and the cost of transport to forced labor was 5 RM (Reichsmark) per person. The fee could be paid in installments. Only transport of families from Gdańsk or another town to Prabuty was free.10 The Übergangslager Riesenburg Westpreussen camp functioned until mid-1940. Its head was the plenipotentiary of the Reich’s Commissar for the Strengthening of German Nationhood, the high commander of the SS and police, Richard Hildebrandt.11 About 600 people participated in the so-called “schooling” in the first months of 1940, and in total about 1,400 people went through the camp, most of whom were children, as each of the camps’ interned families had several children. After the attack on Westerplatte on September 1st 1939, arrests which sometimes included entire Polish families started in Gdańsk. The arrested were placed in the Viktoria Schule. About 50 women and their children, however, were released the same afternoon and only those whose names were on the proscription lists were detained. Originally called the Zivilgefangenenlager Stutthof (Civil Prisoners’ Camp), it served as a transit camp for those who had avoided death in the direct executions in the first months of the war. On September 2nd 1939, on the Vistula Spit about 37 km from Gdańsk, the construction of the Stutthof camp began. On that day, about 150 selected people were brought from Viktoria Schule (Drywa, 2015, p. 34). 9 Document of camp release and as related by R. Głembin, AMS, serial no. Z-VII-17. 10 A bill given to the Kowalski family for their stay in Riesenburg camp, AMS serial no. Z-VII-17. 11 Camp release document for the Schut family from Tczew, signed by the plenipotentiary of the Reich’s Commissar for the Strengthening of German Nationhood, AMS, serial no. Z-VII-17.

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The Stutthof camp was initially a temporary place for prisoners sentenced to be imprisoned in a concentration camp, but it was also a place where, until mid-1942, prisoners from Gdańsk Pomerania who had been arrested in the autumn of 1939 were slowly exterminated. Initially, in order to build a camp, individuals able to perform strenuous physical labor were needed. In the partially preserved documentation from 1939–1940, however, there were also prisoners who were from 12 to 18 years old at the moment of their arrest.12 Some of these prisoners were released from the camp, others were transferred to the camp in Potulice. Some died in the camp. Most often, youth from Pomerania, both girls and boys who at the time of imprisonment in the camp were at least 12 years old, were listed in 1941 as prisoners of the Erziehung category (for upbringing). This was the result of a regulation instituting forced labor that applied to young people and children from 14 years of age. It also included children from the age of 12 who did not attend school (Madajczyk, 1970, p. 638). Evasion of the requirement to work for the Third Reich, inefficient work, and absenteeism from the workplace were treated as a serious sabotage which was punishable by imprisonment in a labor camp or a concentration camp. The offenders were initially directed to KL Stutthof for a period of two to several weeks, after that a punishment period of 56 days was introduced. After serving their sentence, the prisoners were released from the camp or, if they had committed an offense against the camp regulations, were required to stay in the camp for another 56 days. Release from the camp did not mean a return to their homes. In the release documents, an Arbeitseinsatz (office of employment) address was given where the prisoner had to register immediately. Young people aged 15–16 years old were treated the same way as adult prisoners and were subject to the same rigors. For offenses committed in the camp, they were punished with a flogging or deprivation of food. For example, a 15-year-old, Zygmunt Jagla, arrested on September 17th 1939 in Gdynia, was sentenced to 10 lashes with a cane for not mending his trousers.13 Henryk Wenskowski from Grudziądz, arrested at the age of 15 for offenses against the camp’s rules, was sentenced to penal physical exercises and a reduction of his dinner rations. After serving his sentence, he was released from the camp at the disposal of the Marienburg 12 List of KL Stutthof prisoners arrested in the autumn of 1939, AMS serial no. I-IIE-1, I-IIE-2. 13 Form of punishment written in prisoner’s records, AMS, serial no. I-III-6107.

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police.14 15-year-old Otto Baran from Łódź performance was punished for poor work by being assigned smaller dinner portions, punitive work, and 10 lashes with a cane.15 From February 1943, prisoners in KL Stutthof of the Erziehung category (including boys aged 14 to 18) comprised Poles arriving in transports directed by the Danzig Stapo, Schrottersbürg Sipo, and Bialystok Sipo. The latter came from the Bialystok and Łomża prisons. The category that was assigned to them was not representative of their later fate. Although in the files of the majority of prisoners the reason for their arrest was given as Arbeitsflucht (escape from the workplace), there was no specific date of their release from the camp. Some were sent to other concentration camps like Mauthausen or Buchenwald but most of them died in KL Stutthof shortly after arriving in the camp or within a few months.16 This group included prisoners who were families from one locality, arrested as a result of the pacification of the Bialystok area. Among them was the 18-year-old Wacław Boguszewski, imprisoned for aiding a Jewish family. He arrived at the camp on February 27th 1943 and died on April 1st 1943.17 Prisoners of the Erziehung category were imprisoned in KL Stutthof until the end of 1944. Young prisoners from 14 to 18 years of age are listed in the group of political prisoners, these were members of underground organizations such as the AK, the secret resistance organization “Gryf Pomorski”, and activists of the Gray Ranks, such as 17 year-old Wojciech Gwiazda, who was imprisoned in KL Stutthof together with his mother Helena Gwiazda on December 3rd 1942. On February 9th 1943, his older brother, Maciej Gwiazda, was imprisoned in the camp as well. Wojciech Gwiazda died on April 26th 1943.18 Another group of Polish youth in KL Stutthof were members of families imprisoned in KL Stutthof for not signing the German People’s List, or families that were detained as hostages for a family member who had escaped from the Wehrmacht or evaded service in the German army. An example is the family of Izydor Lewandowski, a Wehrmacht soldier who escaped to Sweden. His parents and 18-year-old brother, Stefan Lewandowski, were held in KL Stutthof as hostages. 16-year-old Joanna Lewandowska was imprisoned in KL Stutthof for aiding Polish partisans.

14 15 16 17 18

Form of punishment written in the Book of Punishments, AMS serial no. I-IIIC-1. Form of punishment written in prisoner’s records, AMS, serial no. I-III-40225. List of prisoners, AMS serial no. I-IIE-5 – I-IIE-7. An invoice from the clothing repository of W. Budziszewki, AMS, serial no. I-III-41413 Prisoners’ records AMS, serial no. I-IIE-7.

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Some young women prisoners were transferred to the Uckermark camp. Families were also transferred to the Lebrechtsdorf camp in Potulice. There were also minors among the prisoners who on May 24th 1944 came from the Warsaw Pawiak prison and among families evacuated from Warsaw in transports arriving to the camp on August 31st and September 29th 1944. Also in this case, some of them were sent to concentration camps in the Reich, such as Neuengamme and Natzweiler. The total number of Polish prisoners detained in KL Stutthof aged from 12 to 18 years can be estimated at over 2,000 prisoners, of which at least approximately 1,000 were from Reichsgau Danzig Westpreussen. In April 1945, the naval evacuation of KL Stutthof prisoners took place. On one of the barges were mothers and seven infants born in the camp and one child who was born on the barge. Three women came from the Warsaw transport, the rest were from Pomerania and were to be sent to the camp in Potulice. Halina Połom was one of the women to be sent to Potulice. However, due to her pregnancy, as Paul Werner Hoppe, the commandant of KL Stutthof, stressed in a telegram to the Inspectorate, she remained in the camp, and on July 27th 1944 she gave birth to a child there. Polish children were to a large extent indirect victims of the extermination policy conducted by the German occupiers in Pomerania. After their parents had been murdered, they remained orphans or half-orphans who often had no one who could take care of them.

Bibliography Primary sources KL Stutthof Archives. Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevölkerung der ehemaligen polnishen gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichpunkt” (1948), “Biuletyn GKBZHwP” (IV), s. 155. Kicińska B. (2007), Tragiczny dzień 11 listopada 1939 roku, http://www.sgw.com. pl/2015/09/02/tragiczny-dzien-11-listopada-1939-roku/ (access: 18.06.2019). Szarmat E., Relacje i wspomnienia, Archiwum Muzeum Stutthof, t. 6(286). Secondary sources Adamowicz D. (25.08.2008), Tajemnica obozu zagubionego w niepamięci, “Dziennik Bałtycki”, nr 12–13. Bojarska B. (1979), Piaśnica. Miejsce martyrologii i pamięci. Z badań nad zbrodniami hitlerowskimi na Pomorzu, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.

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Datner S., Leszczyński K., Gumkowski J. (1962), Eksterminacja ludności w Polsce w czasie okupacji niemieckiej 1939–1945, Poznań–Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Zachodnie. Drywa D. (2015), Säuberungsaktion na Pomorzu Gdańskim w świetle dokumentów KL Stutthof, Gdańsk: Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie. Ejankowski J., Samulewska A. (2011), Krwawa Kociewska jesień 1939 na ziemi gniewskiej, Gniew: Powiatowa i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Fabiana Wierzchowskiego. Gamm R. (1970), Swastyka nad Gdańskiem, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Iskry. Gębik W. (1965), Kwidzyniacy. Opowieść o młodzieży walczącej, Gdynia: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Gębik W. (1972), Z diabłami na ty. W obozach Tapiau, Hohenbruch, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, Gusen, Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Jastrzębski W., Sziling J. (1979), Okupacja hitlerowska na Pomorzu Gdańskim w latach 1939–1945. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Kiedrzyńska W. (1965), Ravensbrück. Kobiecy obóz koncentracyjny. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. Leidinger F., Cechnicki A., (2012), Losy polskiej psychiatrii pod okupacja niemiecką w czasie II wojny światowej, “Dialog”, nr 20. Madajczyk Cz. (1970), Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Męclewski A. (1974), Neugarten 27. Z dziejów gdańskiego Gestapo, Warszawa: Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej. Schenk D. (2002), Albert Forster gdański namiestnik Hitlera, Gdańsk: Polnord – Wydawnictwo Oskar. Wardzyńska M. (2009), Wrzesień 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion, Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Witek J. (9.12.2001), Historia mojego życia, “Gazeta Tczewska”, nr 49. Ziemia złotowska (1969), ed. W. Wrzesiński, Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Zwarra B., (1984), Gdańsk 1939. Wspomnienia Polaków-Gdańszczan, Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie.

ALDONA MOLESZTAK KAZIMIERZ WIELKI UNIWERSITY IN BYDGOSZCZ

CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES IN THE GERMAN DISPLACEMENT AND FORCED LABOR CAMP IN POTULICE AND SMUKAŁA – MEMORIES OF FEMALE PRISONERS

Memories of my childhood years Bring back to me fear, hunger and escape from death… (Wspomnienia więźniów obozowych, 1989, U. Gacka, p. 275)

Ab s t r a c t : World War II is a period which is often described but at the same time is so difficult to be described. “Unimaginable”, “impossible” or “indescribable” are the very words so often used to refer to the tragic events of that time. “The memory of concentration camp experiences is a symbolic space including not only the memory of crimes and sacrifices of millions, but also the memory of their strength, their resistance, their fight and hope for freedom” (Gilad, Theiss, 2018, p. 121). The present paper aims to describe shared and individual experiences of children kept in a concentration camp from an adult perspective. The analysis includes memories of 44 prisoners, a manuscript of one prisoner’s memoirs and an interview. It presents dramatic human fate through the experiences of prisoners of the concentration camps in Potulice and Smukała. Owing to the assumed research approach within the category of social or collective memory, specifically the history and memory of a family, the study provides knowledge about individual prisoners and their families (Gilad, Theiss, 2018, p. 123). The paper consists of three main sections analyzing the concentration camp in Potulice from a historical perspective, the shared experiences of prisoners, and a history of one family. Ke y word s : concentration camp experiences, the German concentration camp in Potulice and Smukała, World War II

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Introduction Although World War II has been a popular research area for years, some of its aspects still provide a wide field for detailed exploration, not only particular events but also the fate of the people involved. The traumatic experience of the war for the next generations has become “«only» a tragic but at the same time unimaginable moment in time” (Kaźmierska, 1999, p. 11). It makes the subject of the experiences of WWII witnesses still a fascinating and inspiring research area. War experiences always leave a lasting mark in the psyche. Though WWII survivors are today nearly 90-year-old seniors, they vividly remember the events of that time, particularly former concentration camp prisoners for whom the time spent in the annihilation camp “is a fragment of their biographical experience, the past they personally lived through” (Kaźmierska, 1999, p. 11). War trauma is a struggle with the past, with fear, pain but also with the joy of freedom and independence. “The memory of the past underlies our identity: the knowledge of what we were substantiates what we are. The continuity of our very existence is completely based on memory, as the memory of past experiences connects us to what we were, irrespective of the extent of changes that have occurred to us ever since” (Lowenthal, 1991, p. 10, in: Kaźmierska, 1999, p. 11). Whatever happens in an individual’s life is a unique reflection of their difficult past. Analyses of camp prisoners’ memories allow researchers to determine the kinds of their individual and group experiences, with the present study focusing on the individual and common experiences of children imprisoned in concentration camps from an adult perspective. The analysis was based on reports from 44 concentration camp prisoners included in a work by Ludwik Janiszewski (Obozy hitlerowskie…, 1989), a manuscript of memoirs by concentration camp prisoner Maria Brylowska, née Imiłkowska, and an interview with Halina, Maria’s sister. The documents contain reminiscences of childhood as told by prisoners of the concentration camp in Potulice. The article comprises three main parts: a description of the history of the Potulice concentration camp, the group experiences of its prisoners, and a history of one family, followed by a conclusion.

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The origin and characteristics of the concentration camp in Potulice After Poland regained independence, in 1945 researchers tended to concentrate on the biggest concentration camps while the smaller ones, e.g. the camp in Potulice, began to be described only in the 1970s. The camp in Potulice and its sub-camps in Smukała and Toruń (so called Smalcówka) were categorized as displaced persons camps (DP camps). However, Tadeusz Samselski (1997, p. 7) noted that the names used to refer to these camps: a displaced persons camp, an internment camp, a forced labor camp or a re-education facility, were used by the Nazis to hide their real purpose from international opinion and even from their own society. The very name of the camp however turned out to be of utmost importance for its prisoners after Poland regained its independence in 1945 and this fact will be explained in more detail further on in the article. As Tadeusz Jaszowski writes, the camp in Potulice arose following an order issued on 27th September 1941. According to Marek Orski, the camp was set up on 1st February 1941 and accepted the first transport of 524 prisoners from Bydgoszcz on 4th February (Maliszewski, 1989, p. 172). The second transport of 727 prisoners included people from the Bydgoszcz county area, another one, on 8th February, brought to Potulice 738 prisoners from Sępólno county (Obozy hitlerowskie…, 1979, p. 398). Later transports included children and adults from other regions of Poland and even from abroad.

1. The monument commemorating murdered camp prisoners in Potulice Source: A. Molesztak

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The subject literature describes three periods in the camp’s history distinguished with reference to its functions and the organization it was administered by: 1.11.1940–07.1941 – a displaced persons camp; 09.1941–01.1942 – a forced labor camp subordinate to the Stutthof camp; 01.1942–until 20.01.1945 – a prison camp (Samselski, 1997, p. 9). Over the first year of its existence, the role of the camp changed from the original displaced persons camp to its permanent one as the prisoners started doing forced labor. At the same time, it was reorganized when the headquarters of the Central Resettlement Office camps was liquidated (Jaszowski, 1989, pp. 134–135). Although the supervision of the camp was taken over by the commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, the camps in Potulice, Smukała, and Toruń kept their original names, they all remained autonomous, had their own commanders and records of prisoners (Orski, 1989, p. 160). The supervision of the experienced concentration camp commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Pauly, was limited mainly to the period of the construction of the camp in Potulice. 150 prisoner-craftsmen (according to other researchers 200) were brought to expand the facility using prisoners of the camp as the labor force. The staff structure was typical for concentration camps. The first camp commander was SS-Haupsturmführer Waldemar Tennstädt, followed by SS-Sturmbannführer Riller, then Herman Ling, and finally SS-Obersturmbannführer Schultz. The original guard company included 37 people (on 25th September 1942 enlarged with an additional 145 Germans from Bessarabia, and in 1944 with 514 Ukrainian guards), there was a camp doctor, Leon Konkolewski, three Polish nurses and two secretaries of Jewish-origin. Towards the end of 1942, the medical personnel comprised 54 people, including four doctors; in 1944 the hospital employed eight doctors, 10 nurses, and 40 carers (Perlińska, 1989, p. 190; Samselski, 1997, p. 10; Witkowska, 2011). Five employees of the Special Department of the Security Service (Sonderreferat SD) established in the camp prepared files of the people who were to be Germanized (then transported to the camp in Jabłonowo), and were responsible for intelligence, monitoring mail and executing punishments. The selections conducted in the camp were carried out based on the race, political background, and health of prisoners (Jaszowski, 1989, pp. 134–144). In the beginning, the camp was housed in the castle (palace) of the Potulicki family and three barracks. During the following years, 30 more barracks and a facility with a kitchen were built. What was unique in the camp was the characteristics of its prisoners, who included many families with children and elderly persons and families from rural areas. Children and the elderly were too weak to work and for rural families, conditions in the camp were almost unbearable and they

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2. Layout of the camp in Potulice Legend: 1–18 – barracks for prisoners, 19 – a barrack for prisoners with TB, 20–27 – barracks for child prisoners, 30 – a bakery, 32 – a kitchen, 34 – a warehouse, 35–37 – camp workshops, 38–45 – “Hansenwerke” aircraft works, 46 – a fire pool. Sources: W. Jastrzębski, Potulice. Hitlerowski obóz przesiedleńczy i pracy (luty 1941 r. – styczeń 1945), ed. T. Samselski, Bydgoszcz 1967, p. 48; Żywi i martwi o hitlerowskim obozie Potulice (1941–1945), Bydgoszcz 2000, p. 69 in: Witkowska, 2011.

could not cope with the work. Rural families had been displaced from their good farms that were then taken over by Germans or Volksdeutsche; other prisoners from the countryside included Poles who had not registered with the German People’s List (Deutsche Volksliste), families of Wehrmacht deserters, Wehrmacht objectors, people supporting partisans, as well as completely innocent people, as a precaution. Over the years, the number of prisoners changed as a result of the high mortality rate among children and the elderly, and the changes on the Eastern Front. Groups from other camps, children from eastern regions and Łódź were transported to Potulice; the camp also took transports of prisoners after the Warsaw Uprising. Towards the end of 1942 the number of prisoners reached 4,069, in 1943 it reached 6,878, in 1944 the number was 10,999, and in January 1945 the camp accommodated 11,214 prisoners (Jastrzębski, 1967, pp. 43–45). 5,482 stayed in the camp at a time while the others worked outside. Prisoners could be released from the camp if they signed the German People’s List,

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they could be transferred to the Germanisation camp in Jabłonowo, or – although it was extremely rare – a wife with children could be released if the husband had died in the camp (on condition that some family member would declare readiness to provide for their living (Jaszowski, 1989, p. 145). In general, the overall number of prisoners interned in the concentration camp in Potulice is estimated at 20,000, although some researchers assess their number at 25,000. The cemetery holds graves of 1,291 prisoners, including 767 children. The camp was liberated on 21st January 1945, but already from 15th August to 8th September 1944 children, the elderly and sick started being released (Jaszowski, 1989, p. 155; Perlińska, 1989, p. 193).

3. The camp prisoners’ cemetery in Potulice Source: A. Molesztak

The organizational structure, living conditions, and punishment in the camp in Potulice were not different from other concentration camps. Prisoners were beaten, children were immersed heads down in the fire pool. For different offences against the camp regulations, adults were sent to the penal work division (Strafkompanie) where they were forced to do even harder work, suffered brutal treatment and had to attend long roll-calls (Witkowska, 2011). Children, the elderly, and the sick were killed and died in different circumstances all over the camp area, outside its boundaries, were transported in an unknown direction or to other concentration camps where they died in gas chambers. Until 1993, the camp in Potulice was treated as a displaced persons and labor camp which made it impossible for its prisoners to receive pensions for those disabled in the war. A work published in 1989 by Ludwik Janisze-

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wski indicates that former camp prisoners had made efforts for the camp to be included among concentration camps. What actually made it different from other concentration camps was the absence of a crematorium. Aleksander Lasik however notes that the camp was unique among other camps controlled by the Main Security Service of the Reich, as from January 1942 until the end of June 1942 it was supervised by Waffen-SS members (officers of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate), who were replaced in July by SS from police units (Lasik, 2005, p. 30). Researchers have indicated that extermination, punishments, exhausting work, and malnutrition were the same as in other concentration camps (Paczoska, 2005, p. 23). Potulice “was a camp of intense terror where murders were committed and planned killings took place, especially of people who were ill and unable to work” (Witkowska, 2011). In 1991, the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression issued a document confirming that conditions in the camp in Potulice were not different from those in other concentration camps. As a result, on 18th March 1993, the Journal of Laws included the camps in Potulice, Smukała and Toruń among concentration camps (as in Witkowska, 2011). The facts concerning the establishment and organization of the camp in Potulice are the background for the following descriptions of prisoners’ experiences.

Experiences of camp prisoners War memories concentrate on a few significant childhood events: the experience of captivity, separation, the experience of everyday life, or the relation with the oppressors.

The experience of captivity – the way to Potulice The prisoners had not experienced restraints or fear before they came to the concentration camp. The outbreak of WWII brought about changes to their lives: they had to move, their most precious belongings were taken away, their freedom of movement was limited. The first direct contact with the oppressors marked the relation as extremely dangerous. The dissatisfaction, irritation, and aggressiveness of German policemen resulted in an all-pervading fear. The time at which the arrests were made was not insignificant as Germans entered the houses of Polish families in the evening or at night. The prisoners were taken by carts to the nearest railway station where they waited in dread and anxiety. The Polish families were then transported in train cattle cars to the station Nakło

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nad Notecią (Nakło on the Noteć). Then, the prisoners walked 8 km from Nakło to Potulice. The ill and the old were transported by horse-drawn carts. Not all families managed to take with them the necessary warm clothes, others took only a quilt and clothes for the children and were transported on carts escorted by policemen to the railway station where all were “squeezed into cattle cars”. Maria Brylowska, née Imiłkowska writes: “We were standing all the way long. The train car was bolted on the outside. Enslaved, terrified, we were carried away in an unknown direction. We reached the station in Nakło nad Notecią, then all of us walked 8 km to the camp in Potulice. (…) It was very cold, freezing, lots of snow”. Maria Chylarecka, née Wojczyńska (Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 248) remembers the arrest and the way to the camp: “Past 11 p.m. we were woken up from deep sleep by banging on the door and throaty shouts «aufmachen, schnell, sofort aufmachen». (…) In a freezing night (about –300C) we were taken by train to Nakło, and then went on foot 8 km to the camp Potulice”. The memories of Urszula Gacka are similar (Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 267) when she writes: “On the night from 5th to 6th March 1942 together with my mother and four sisters, I was taken by five Gestapo officers (…). We were ordered to vacate the flat within 15 minutes. We were not allowed to take a quilt or a blanket. Rushed, scared, crying, the family barely managed to get dressed. That was all we possessed”. Adam Groblewski (Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 293) described the moment of being arrested as follows: “The clock showed half past midnight. There was crying and lamentation all over the house, my mum fainted. Father opened the door to let in three SS men who commanded in German, «Half an hour and out!». It was all clear for us: that was the end of freedom. We faced the great unknown: what was going to become of us?”. All the reports emphasize the shock of the families because of the time of the arrest, the minimum time given for preparation, the lack of possibility to take the bare necessities, the weather conditions and the 8-km distance to the camp. The prisoners were not aware that what awaited them in the camp would prove even more traumatic. The moment they entered the camp they became aware of the horror of the place, of the poor living conditions surrounded with barbed wire fences, and yelling guardsmen.

Child prisoners’ experience of separation The transported families were soon separated. Parents and children over 12 worked outside the camp, in factories and on German farms. Maria Ziemba (Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 448) remembers that “after

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three months in the camp, my mother was deported to Germany to forced labor (…)”. Maria’s story shows four stages of family separation. In the beginning their father, Zygmunt, was deported to Gdańsk, and later to Leubingen. Irena, the mother, was sent to work in Nowy Staw on 18th March 1942. In April 1942 Zosia, Maria’s sister aged six, and her brother Zbigniew, aged three, were taken away from the camp. As a very enterprising person Wiktoria Kowalska (Maria’s grandmother), who had escaped deportation to the camp, tried not only to visit her family in Potulice but also to free them. Maria and Halina were the last remaining in the camp. On 5th April 1944, the sisters were separated: Halina stayed behind in the camp as a hostage, while Maria was sent to forced labor at an estate in Orłowo. In August 1944, Halina was taken from the camp by Wiktoria Kowalska, who later also managed to get Maria out on 19th March 1945. The family was joined by Zygmunt Imiłkowski in July.

The experience of everyday life Life in the concentration camp started with the family receiving a number. The Imiłkowski family transported to the camp in Potulice on 15th December 1941 received the following identification number: Lager nr 1097-a Siegmund Imilkowski 29.4.04 Kollo/Kollo GG. aus Julienhof/Schwetz.

4. The camp identification number issued for Zygmunt Imiłkowski Source: A. Molesztak

Every family received its number and the families were identified with it at the roll call, which could last even two days from dawn till dusk; the majority of prisoners remember long hours of them (Samselski, 1997, p. 47).

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Following the receipt of the number, families were allotted their space in the barracks. Maria writes about the barrack in which her family stayed: It was makeshift, no heating. Crowded, cold and dark. The six of us got a space of about 3 square meters. We were lying straight on the ground, in filthy bedding, there was no floor. There were holes and slits in the walls, no windows. The slanting roof almost reached the ground. You couldn’t stand up or sit, only lie. All families were lying squeezed in, one next to the other, men, women and children. There was no water or toilet in the barrack. (…) Children used to wet themselves, had the runs. Insects like lice, fleas soon were everywhere, we suffered from scabies.

Other accounts match this picture. The barracks were referred to as negro’s huts or “dog kennels” as it was hard to move upright in them (Samselski, 1997). After around three weeks the family was transferred to the former palace of countess Aniela Potulicka. The rooms in the palace were high and therefore a floor had been built along their walls to hold bunk beds. Every family was allocated space between two posts supporting the ceiling: one meter wide, 3–4 m long. It was stuff y, windows could not be opened, there was no table, chair, bench or even a simple cabinet. Another incoming transport of prisoners brought about a long roll call which lasted hours during which the families had to stand outside in the freezing cold. After the roll call, the family was moved to a small room with crumbled straw on the floor which accommodated six families. After their fathers and mothers had been deported, small children were placed in the camp nursery. It was housed in another building, on the ground floor, in a big room with crumbled straw on the floor. The majority of children were aged one to six. Maria writes about the period in the following way: Small children were crying, they were hungry and sick. They had earaches and then their ears and eyes started draining pus horribly. (…) We suffered from hunger. Small children were crying for bread, the bigger ones were begging, whining, asking for “a small slice of bread” but to no avail. We got a small loaf of dark claylike bread for several people, I remember, for eight people.

The incessant hunger is remembered by other prisoners. Beetroot marmalade, watery soup of swede, of cabbage or goosefoot, nettle tea. Researchers cite witnesses talking about food rations smaller than in concentration

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camps (Paczoska, 2005, p. 23). As the oldest girl in the nursery, Maria was tasked by Doctor Szafrański with bringing children to the surgery. She remembers him as a very caring person, fond of children. He gave every child a spoonful of cod-liver oil and sweets. The doctor gave Maria his own meals. Living conditions of both children and adults in the camp were exactly the same (Smoleń, 1982, p. 123). Hygienic conditions were very bad. However, children had their hair shaved, they could wash, there was a hospital and health care. Anna Perlińska writes about terrible living and sanitary conditions, grueling slave labor, malnutrition, absence of suitable clothing, unheated rooms. The rooms in the palace and the three makeshift barracks were the worst. The new barracks contained toilets, washrooms, central heating (Perlińska, 1989, pp. 183–184; Maliszewski, 1989, pp. 177–178). A comparison of the camps in Potulice and Smukała based on prisoners’ memories suggests that conditions were much worse in the camp in Smukała. In the sub-camp in Smukała there was no possibility of washing, hair was not shaved, there was no health care, resulting in the spread of diseases and infestation with lice. Prisoners suffered from rheumatism, inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, colds, children contracted tonsillitis, diphtheria, typhoid, scurvy, pneumonia (Perlińska, 1989, pp. 190 and 192). A few epidemic outbreaks of infectious diseases were reported: typhus in January 1942 and May 1943, dysentery in the second half of 1942 and the first part of 1943, tuberculosis in January and February 1944. The occurrence of those diseases was due to emaciation as a result of undernutrition and starvation (Samselski, 1997, p. 14).

The experience of relations with the oppressors The stories of prisoners depict, despite the cruelty, a clear relation between the victims and oppressors, one which determined the conditions of life and death. The young prisoners soon learned how to behave in order to survive. It was crucial to know who was a torturer and who might help. The memories recount Germans, medical personnel, and Poles holding the position of kapo (prisoner functionaries). Soldiers were perceived as cruel people who tortured prisoners for even the slightest fault (such as eating berries which they had collected). There is an image of German torturers and executioners, drowning children in barrels of water set up for fire prevention, alternating with conscientious soldiers who did not abuse the prisoners. A young prisoner, however, reported an individual case of a German woman sent to the camp for failing to accept Hitler’s rule. She commiserated with Poles and helped the prisoner in question. Relations

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with the medical personnel varied depending on the person. Nurses in the hospital helped prisoners. Similarly, prisoners report support and help provided by Leon Konkolewski. Doctor Konkolewski, surrounded by SS men, approached every prisoner and either took away sick notes from them thus confirming that the said prisoner was capable of working or let them keep the note. He took away the sick note from me. (…) The kapo responsible for our barrack came up to me and said that Doctor Konkolewski had told them to hide me and not to force me to go to work. The following night all the sick whose notes had not been taken away from them were deported to Auschwitz (Maria Jankowska, née Górska Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 323).

However, as Maria Brylowska, née Imiłkowska reports, the children in Smukała encountered Doctor Rochoń, who gave children injections after which they were very weak and unable to walk, and some even died. The experiences of human relations for prisoners were associated with either cruelty or with support and help. Prisoners identified the kind of relation by means of specific situations. Their accounts of relations with the kapos mention kapo Jasik and kapo Tomczak who offered help, and the remaining ones who were cruel (Samselski, 1997, p. 48). The prisoners’ experiences as far as their relations with Nazi oppressors are concerned relate to the feeling of captivity, to the civilizational superiority of the Germans, to the tragedy of their own suffering. They saw death and experienced a feeling of fellowship with other children whose parents had been taken away, they felt a lack of care, attention, love.

The story of one family The story of Wiktoria Kowalska, her daughter Irena, son-in-law Zygmunt and their four children, Maria, Halina, Zofia and Zbigniew is a story of suffering and struggle for survival. The memory of war sufferings stayed with the family their entire lives. The whole family of four children and their parents were deported to the camp in Potulice on 15th December 1941. In hindsight, it seems that there were a few reasons why the family was deported: the refusal to sign the German People’s List (Deutsche Volksliste) by Wiktoria Kowalska, née Hauke (her father came from a traditional German family of soldiers from Mainz), their well-managed farm bought

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in 1930 from a German farmer, the autumn execution of Leon Kowalski who had fought in Piłsudski’s Legions and who had been a member of the Polish Western Association, the arrest by the Gestapo and release of Zygmunt Imiłkowski, a non-commissioned officer in the army reserve serving in Grodno during the September 1939 campaign. Warned, he escaped together with his fellow soldiers after 17th September and came back to his family. The farm had already been seized by a German farmer and the seven-person family lived in one room with a kitchen on their own farm where they worked for the new owner. The story of the family was written down by Maria and told by Halina in an interview. Zofia, because of her young age and the short length of her stay in the camp (three months), does not remember that time. Although different stories interweave in the war memories of Maria, she has kept their chronological order. The stories of individual family members are closed books and she does not return to them. Her descriptions of experiences use adjectives to describe the world at war but also abound in factual information, making them very dynamic and faithful.

The experience of the process of separation The following details in the story refer to the experience of loneliness and separation. At first the family, despite captivity, homelessness, incessant cold, and hunger, stayed together. However, family members left the children one by one. The first to be taken away was their father Zygmunt, until then providing them with the feeling of safety and taking care of their livelihood. The person who was their support, giving them the feeling of peace and safety, their leader, disappeared from their lives leaving behind their mother, as caregiver. Soon, however, she was also forced to leave the children, and it was then that Maria, the oldest of the siblings, took over. As a 10-year-old girl she became responsible for taking care of her younger siblings and the already very ill Halina. For a month she looked after Zosia and Zbyszek. When the younger children had been taken away from the camp, only the two sisters remained prisoners in Potulice, Maria and the ailing Halina. After two years, on 15th April 1944 the by then 12-year-old Maria was sent to work on a farming estate in Orłowo where she lived in the worst conditions she had ever experienced. She worked from 7.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. Ten girls and their carer lived in a little box room without even a window. Crude bunk beds stood on the earthen floor, a table and benches in the middle of the room. Every time a member of this little group left, the living conditions worsened for Maria. This experience of

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a growing feeling of abandonment, loneliness, and fear is very difficult for a child. The feeling of abandonment and suffering intensified as her situation became worse.

The experience of life in the sub-camp in Smukała In June 1942, the children from the nursery were transported to the subcamp in Smukała where they were accommodated in a building of a former factory. Conditions in the camp were even worse than those in Potulice. Halina states that the children were taken there so that they all would die. There was no hospital and many children died. The girls remembered the doctor. Doctor Rochoń gave painful injections to children that brought about sore swellings at the site of the shot; the children were then weak and could not walk. In Smukała, the children lost many of their personal belongings. In February 1943, after eight months, the children who survived their stay in Smukała were brought back to Potulice. The sisters were given their lodgings in a new barrack, with a toilet, a washbasin, the barrack was warm and light. “the new conditions felt like a luxury” (Brylowska, Losy rodziny…). The barrack accommodated about 40 children and two carers. In these new conditions, all the children were forced to work. There were no visits. Children brought tree branches from the forest, picked nettles and goosefoot to make soup or tea. They picked berries for the guards, who checked children’s tongues to see whether that had eaten any. Children whose colored tongues indicated that they had eaten berries were beaten, as were those who were ill or hid to escape work. A guard would hold a child up and put him head down into a barrel filled with water.

The experience of Halina’s illness Children often fell in ill in the camp. It was reported that Doctors Konkolewski and Szafrański tried to help every prisoner. Because of hunger and the poor conditions, Halina fell ill and was taken to the camp hospital. It turned out that the disease was serious; she had a fever and pus accumulated in her lungs as a result of pneumonia. She recalls the time when two nurses held her tight and a doctor drained pus with a large syringe. Doctor Konkolewski decided to send Halina to hospital in Bydgoszcz (the present Antoni Jurasz University Hospital No. 1) where the pus was drained. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and was put into an isolation ward. “There were two bottles next to my bed connected with tubes to my lungs through my back”. In April 1942, she came back from the hospital in Bydgoszcz and after that, she regularly got cod-liver oil and iron,

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dinner from the hospital, and sometimes even milk. She owes her life to Doctor Konkolewski, who not only helped her to regain health, but also protected her from Germans who wanted to take her away by hiding her in a closet and informing them of her death. The incident demonstrates that even under these circumstances, the Polish doctors managed to help the prisoners.

The experience of the sacred as the value of the will to struggle – praying for survival Every person is aided by a feeling of meaningfulness in their life. Despite so many hardships, the family believed they were going to be reunited. This belief was strengthened by their belief in God. The family matriarch, Wiktoria Kowalska, her daughter, and grandchildren ascribe their salvation from the war trauma, from threats to their life and health to divine Providence. A prayer to the Virgin Mary helps in suffering, separation, protects from dangers. The first instance of this was when the whole family attended a holy mass as their father was leaving for the front. The second was when he was miraculously saved after being arrested by the Gestapo. Irena Imiłkowska offered up the children to the protection of Virgin Mary on the day of their deportation to work. She made them promise to pray to the Virgin Mary, who she believed would save the family. To this divine protection they also ascribe the fact that Zygmunt Imiłkowski was saved from death in air raids and when a wall of a factory collapsed. They had nothing, no furniture, no horse or money but did not feel hunger. The family found relief, joy, peace, and quiet in prayer (Brylowska, Losy rodziny…). Konstanty Łojewski also emphasized faith in his memories. Despite ridicule, he prayed the rosary (Wspomnienia więźniów…, 1989, p. 352) which helped him to bear the horrible conditions. Maria Wasik, née Gackowska, remembers: “My mother was utterly exhausted. My little brother Kazimierz looked almost like a corpse. We placed all our hope in prayers. All October long we prayed the rosary” (Samselski, 1997, p. 104). The families managed to function in camp conditions thanks to their religious experiences.

Conclusion Growing up in a concentration camp, without the feeling of safety, experiencing hunger, pain, torture of others, death, being deprived of care and love is an unimaginable trauma. The experiences can never be forgotten.

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The inscription on the monument in Potulice commemorating the children murdered in the camp is a fragment of a poem by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Elegia o chłopcu polskim 20.03.1944 They taught you, my son, your land and its ways by heart (…) They tuned you in darkness, fed you in loaves of terror. You tread, groping through to dark, the road of fear. (translated by Barry Keane)

The camp survivors meet every year on the last Saturday of April in Potulice to honor the dead who accompanied them in their suffering. Some of them have recorded their life experiences in stories to bear witness to their sufferings and fears, but also their mutual assistance and survival. Despite the years which have passed, reminiscences are still difficult for the camp prisoners. Halina, whose recollections I have referred to throughout the article, is 86 today and has never watched a film featuring German soldiers. The sight of war brings back the painful past. As a child, I could not understand why my mother always left when I was watching Stawka większa niż życie (Stakes Greater Than Life) or Czterech pancernych i pies (Four TankMen and a Dog). Even those films I enjoyed so much as a teenager brought back to the former prisoners of Potulice camp their dread, hunger, and suffering. After the war, nobody even thought about any kind of therapy for people returning from concentration camps and thus some of them have felt themselves to be victims of violence all their lives. Which leads to the question of whether they have ever experienced the feeling of being free.

Bibliography Brylowska M., Losy rodziny Imiłkowskich. Rękopis. Brylowska M. (2009), Rozdzielenie członków rodziny na skutek wydarzeń historycznych, in: Wojenne rozstania, Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski. Gilad B., Theiss W. (2018), Dokumenty opowiadają rodzinną historię – co przekazujemy trzeciej generacji, in: Prawa dziecka wczoraj, dziś i jutro – perspektywa korczakowska. Tom III, ed. M. Michalak, Warszawa: Biuro rzecznika Praw Dziecka. Jastrzębski W. (1967), Potulice: hitlerowski obóz przesiedleńczy i pracy 1941–1945, Bydgoszcz: PWN. Jastrzębski W. (2017), Okupacyjne losy ziem polskich wcielonych do III Rzeszy (1939–1945), Bydgoszcz: WSG.

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Jastrzębski W., Jaszowski T. (1968), Potulice oskarżają, Bydgoszcz. Jaszowski T. (1989), Działalność organizacyjna obozu w Potulicach w latach 1941–1945, in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Kaźmierska K. (1999), Doświadczenia wojenne Polaków a kształtowanie tożsamości etnicznej, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN. Lasik A. (2005), Status obozu w Potulicach w latach 1942–1945 na tle obozów podlegających Głównemu Urzędowi Bezpieczeństwa Rzeszy i Inspektoratowi Obozów Koncentracyjnych, in: A. Paczoska, Obóz w Potulicach – aspekt trudnego sąsiedztwa polsko-niemieckiego w okresie dwóch totalitaryzmów, Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Lowenthal D. (1991), Przeszłość to obcy kraj, „Res Publica”, nr 3. Maliszewski B. (1989), Baraki murzyńskie w obozie Potulice, in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945 (1979), Informator Encyklopedyczny, Warszawa: PWN. Orski M. (1989), Status prawny obozów pracy wychowawczej w Potulicach, Smukale i Toruniu (w porównaniu do obozu w Stutthofie w okresie od 1 października 1941 do 7 stycznia 1942 roku, in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Paczoska A. (2005), Obóz w Potulicach i jego rola w eksterminacji mieszkańców Pomorza w czasie II wojny światowej, in: A. Paczoska, Obóz w Potulicach – aspekt trudnego sąsiedztwa polsko-niemieckiego w okresie dwóch totalitaryzmów, Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Perlińska A. (1989), Zdrowotność w obozie w Potulicach, in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Podralski J. (1989), Źródła i stan badań nad obozem hitlerowskim w Potulicach, in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Samselski T. (1997), Żywi i martwi o hitlerowskim obozie Potulice 1941–1945, Bydgoszcz: Instytut Wydawniczy „Świadectwo”. Smoleń K. (1982), Dzieci w obozach koncentracyjnych, gettach, ośrodkach zagłady i innych obozach hitlerowskich, in: Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. Cz. Pilichowski, Warszawa: PWN. Theiss W. (1996), Zniewolone dzieciństwo, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Żak. Witkowska L. (2011), Potulicki obóz przesiedleńczy i pracy w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej 1941–1945, https://histmag.org/Potulicki-oboz-przesiedlenczy-i-pracy-w-okresie-okupacji-hitlerowskiej-1941-1945-5427 (access: 6.07.2019).

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Wspomnienia więźniów obozowych (1989), in: Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdańskim w latach drugiej wojny światowej, Maria Chylarecka z d. Wojczyńska, Urszula Gacka, Adam Groblewski, Konstanty Łojewski, Maria Ziemba, ed. L. Janiszewski, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego.

ELWIRA KRYŃSKA UNIVERSITY OF BIAŁYSTOK

THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF BIAŁYSTOK UNDER SOVIET AND GERMAN TOTALITARIANISM DURING WORLD WAR II

Ab strac t : The purpose of this chapter is to describe the fate of the children of the Bialystok region under Soviet and German totalitarianism during World War II. These two powers conducted a policy of expansive militarization, leading to terrifying crimes, exemplified by the extermination of the Jewish and Polish populations. The lethal machinery of Hitler and Stalin did not spare children. The ruling regimes were equally ruthless and criminal towards children, not only violating fundamental rules of war, but also failing to observe the most universal human rights. Both the Nazi and Soviet occupiers deprived Polish children of the right to education, the right to normal physical development, the right to organize any form of social life, the right to their own nationality, and the right to life. Out of the total number of children who died in the Bialystok region in 1939–1944 as a result of activities of the German and Soviet occupying powers, only about 10% died as a result of direct warfare. The overwhelming majority were victims of repressive operations. What is most shocking is the fact that small children aged from several days to 14 years old were treated with particular cruelty, about 72% of whom died, while the remaining 28% were young people aged 14 to 18. Ke y w o rd s : Białystok region, children, extermination, terror, World War II

Introduction In the years of World War II, the Białystok region experienced two totalitarian occupations, one Soviet and one German. These gave rise to expansive militarization, leading to terrifying crimes, exemplified by the extermination of the Jewish and Polish population during the German occupation or mass deportations and shooting of Poles during the Soviet occupation. The lethal machinery of Hitler and Stalin did not spare children. The ruling regimes were equally ruthless and criminal towards

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children, not only violating fundamental rules of war, but also failing to observe the most universal human rights. “The Nazi occupier [and Soviet – note EK] deprived (...) Polish children of the right to education, the right to normal physical development, the right to organize any form of social life, the right to develop, the right to their own nationality, the right to life” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 31). Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to describe the fate of the children of the Białystok region under Soviet and German totalitarianism during World War II. I took up this topic not only for moral reasons, wanting to pay homage to Polish children suffering “for crimes they did not commit” (Wasilewska, 1945), but also to renew the memory of something which “laid a tragic shadow on the fate of children”. This issue is still not sufficiently recognized. A serious obstacle in research work on German crimes committed against juvenile Polish citizens stems from the destruction of most documents or their removal from Poland by the Nazi apparatus in order to blur the traces of the crimes committed (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 107). This applies especially to the kidnapping and Germanization of Polish children. According to Jacek Wilczur1, the incomplete diagnosis of children who were the victims of kidnappings results from the interruption in 1950 of the repatriation of kidnapped children to the country. Jacek Wilczur believes that: “We stopped bringing back children for lousy reasons (...) because Polish authorities cared about – and still do to this day – maintaining the best possible relationship with Germany”. At the same time, he adds that “we should come back to matters which the state failed to finish shortly after the war. Good relations with Germany may be useful in starting a substantive discussion about the fate of kidnapped and Germanized children, especially since many of them still know nothing about their past to this day” (Karpińska-Morek, 2019). There is also a need to extend the research to the fate of children under Soviet jurisdiction and the psycho-physical effects of children’s involvement in war events. However, the reasons for widespread silence around the situation of children in the eastern areas of the Second Republic of Poland, occupied in the years 1939–1941 by the Soviet Union, are widely known.

1

Professor Jacek Wilczur comes from Lviv. There, the Nazis murdered his family. He was alone. On the wall he has a portrait of his parents. He tries not to be moved to tears when he talks about loved ones. He thinks it is not appropriate. After the death of his relatives, as a 15-year-old, he joined the Home Army. He became an executioner. As he says, he killed for his mother and brothers (Karpińska-Morek, 2019).

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It was only the beginning of the 1990s that brought significant changes in the study of personal losses under Soviet occupation. Collections of documents and materials, studies and monographic works, accounts, diaries and memories have been published. Noteworthy is the source work published under the editorship of Tadeusz Walichnowski (Deportacje i przemieszczenia…, 1989), Andrzej Szcześniak (Zmowa…, 1990), and Zbigniew Siemaszko (W sowieckim osaczeniu…, 1991). It is also worth recalling the monographs of Bolesław Grześ (Deportacje nauczycieli…, 1995) and Wiesław Theiss (Zniewolone dzieciństwo…, 1999, p. 8), who took into account the “socialization, educational or cultural effects of extreme war situations, (...) which, like armed conflicts destroy, degenerate or significantly limit the development of the young generation”. I limited myself to recalling the most important works in this field, because they were a kind of signpost in the preparation of the publication, which I also enriched with my own research in the Białystok archives and the Eastern Archives. In addition, I searched for the truth in the independent historical monthly Karta [Chart], entirely devoted to the “Eastern” issues. The most important obstacle in this research is the huge discrepancy between the figures given by various sources.

Research area On September 1st 1939, Poles struggled with the Nazi attack from the early hours of the morning, and on September 17th 1939, they were surprised by the determined Soviet aggression. The Red Army, pursuant to a secret protocol attached to the German-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23rd 1939, crossed the eastern border of the Republic of Poland, pushing its borders 200–300 km deeper into Poland2. The non-Polish people of the Borderlands welcomed the invading Red Army with enthusiasm, believing that it would bring them liberation. The division of the spoils was arranged by the German-Soviet agreement, signed on September 28th. A demarcation line was designated on the Bug and San Rivers, to which Wehrmacht troops withdrew. For practical rea2

Interia Fakty, https://fakty.interia.pl/raporty/raport-zrabowane-dzieci/artykuly/ news-prof-jacek-wilczur-akcje-sprowadzania-dzieci-przerwalismy -z-,nId,2469891 (access: 28.06.2019).

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sons, this line was treated as a permanent border. Each of the occupiers started to carry out radical political reforms in their occupation zone (Davies, 2007, p. 904).

As a result of the agreement of September 28th 1939, the Soviet Union seized about 52% of the territory of the Second Republic of Poland, located east of the Pisa, Narew, Vistula, and San rivers, i.e. about 200,000 km2 (including Vilnius and Lviv), and areas west of this line were handed over to the German sphere of influence. More than 50% of the pre-war Polish state (including the Białystok Voivodeship), inhabited by about 14.3 million people, came under the authority of the Soviet regime, of whom Poles constituted about 6.5 million (Kronika XX wieku, 1991, p. 545). It should be recalled that the Białystok Voivodeship was established on August 2nd 1919 (Dziennik Praw Nr 65, poz. 395, p. 698) and was bordered on the north-east by the Vilnius district, on the east by Nowogródek, on the south-east by Polesie, on the south by Lublin, on the west by Warsaw, and on the north-west by Germany (East Prussia) and on the north by Lithuania. Its area changed during the interwar period.3 The last change of the Białystok Voivodeship was made on April 1st 1939. At that time, the following poviats (county-sized administrative districts) were incorporated into the area of the Warsaw Voivodeships from the Białystok Voivodeship: Ostrołęcki, Ostrowski and Łomżyński (Dziennik Ustaw 1938, nr 27, poz. 204). At that time, the area of the Białystok Voivodeship covered 25,995 km2 and included 10 poviats: Augustów, Białystok (municipal area), Białystok, Bielsko, Grodno, Sokólski, Suwałki, Szczuczynski, Wołkowysk, and High Mazovian. According to the census of 1931, the Białystok Voivodeship had a population of 1,643,500 people. The population density was 51 people per 1 km2. The city of Białystok as the capital of the voivodeship had 91,000 inhabitants, and taking into account the number of inhabitants, was the 3

In the Act of August, 1919 the Sejm divided the former Congress Kingdom into five voivodeships: Warsaw, Łódź, Kielce, Lubelskie, and Białostockie (Journal of Laws No. 65, item 395, p. 698). The established Białystok Voivodeship had 1,362,884 inhabitants and included 12 poviats: Augustów, Białystok, Bielsk, Kolno Łomża, Ostrów, Ostrołęka, Sejny, Suwałki, Sokółka, Szczuczyn, and High Mazovian (Official Journal of the Białystok Voivodeship 1921, No. 1 (year 1), of January 1, 1921, p. 1; Journal of Laws No. 65, item 395, p. 700). Two years later, on February 19, 1921, the following poviats were incorporated into the Białystok Voivodeship: Grodno, Wołkowysk, and Białowieża (Journal of Laws No. 16, item 93, p. 216). The voivodship covered approximately the area of the present Podlasie Voivodeship and the western part of the Grodno region in Belarus.

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13-largest city in Poland and the ninth among capital cities of voivodeships (Rocznik Statystyczny, 1938).4 According to the census of 1931 in the Białystok Voivodeship, Polish nationality was declared by 67.9% of the inhabitants, Belarusian by 12.5%, Jewish by 11.9%, Russian by 2.1%, German by 0.4%, Ukrainian by 0.2%, and other by 0.7% (Small Statistical Yearbook, 1939, p. 21). Consequently, every third inhabitant in the Białystok Voivodeship described their native language as non-Polish. Over 38% of town inhabitants were Jews, and 21.1% of the village inhabitants were Belarusians (Rocznik Statystyczny, 1938)3. In comparison with Poland, the Białystok Voivodship showed higher rates of national minorities, with 4.5% more of the population declaring Jewish nationality, 5.1% more declaring Belarusian nationality, and 0.4% more Lithuanian. On the basis of the Soviet-German agreement of September 28th 1939, the Białystok Voivodeship was expanded to include the Łomżyński and Zambrowski poviats, and then handed over to Soviet Russia. In the whole area of the voivodeship, except for the Suwałki poviat included in East Prussia, Soviet authority was established, and the Białystok region was treated as part of Belarus, and incorporated into the USSR. This situation lasted almost two years, until June 22nd 1941, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and already in the first days of the war occupied the territory of the Białystok region and separated a third administrative unit, Bezirk Białystok (Białystok District), in accordance with the decree of the Führer of July 22nd 1941. For this reason, the fate of the Białystok Voivodeship during World War II was different than that of other Polish territories.

The fate of children from Białystok under Soviet occupation. Mass deportations and their numbers The Russians entered Poland with the intention of implementing the Sovietization of the eastern lands. The Soviet system, imposed by military force, and the events related to it only form the background to a proper understanding of the Stalinist

4

Small Statistical Yearbook, Warsaw 1939, p. 21. Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski report that in 1931, Poles constituted no more than 65%. The most numerous minority were Ukrainians (about 16%), then Jews (below 10%), Belarusians (over 6%), Germans (2%), other ethnic groups Lithuanians, Czechs, Russians, Slovaks, Gypsies, Karaims (about 1%) (Landau, Tomaszewski, 1984, p. 53–54); Leczyk, 1988, p. 70).

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regime – absolute revenge on Poland and Poles: “for Polish independence, for the Soviet defeat in the Polish-Bolshevik war of the 1920s, and in order to remove the final barrier to the spread of the Communist movement in Europe and the world...”. The Soviet model of social and individual life was introduced by exterminating the leading groups of Polish society including landowners and intelligentsia as well as by mass deportations deep into the USSR, involving hundreds of thousands of intellectual, military, police and wealthy farmers’ families. At the same time, in order to transform the individual and collective mentality of Poles, intensified political indoctrination was carried out, including the total dependence of culture and science on the ruling Bolshevik party. A kind of complement to this social depreciation in the Soviet occupation zone was the forced exchange of Polish money for rubles on December 20–21st 1939. At the same time, the exchange was limited to PLN 300 per person, which ruined Poles with more cash reserves (Dzieje Polski, 2000, p. 699). In addition, searches, confiscations and various types of compulsory contributions were carried out, which led to the impoverishment of most families (Kronika kobiet, 1993, p. 498). Further enhanced incorporation of the north-eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland into the BSRS and USSR was carried out, which in practice meant the mandatory granting of Soviet citizenship to the entire borderland community. This legislative granting of citizenship resulted in the issuance of Soviet identity cards-passports to the population living in the areas occupied by the Red Army in September 1939. The decision on this matter was issued by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on December 30th 1939. Guidelines on the passport issuance process were prepared on February 16th 1940 by the Central Committee of the KP(b)B, and on February 28th 1940 by the Regional Committee of KP(b)B. This was the most effective citizen registration process. Lack of ID meant immediate arrest. Militia troops in cooperation with the NKVD issued passports in the field (Śleszyński, 2000, pp. 131–132). In this way, social, cultural, economic, and national changes were initiated and often made during the 21 months of occupation. A huge proportion of the deported, estimated at about one-third, did not return to the country. The deportations of the “anti-Soviet element” were carried out on the basis of the Instruction on the procedure for deportation of the anti-Soviet element attached to the Order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 001223 signed on October 11th 1939, which showed that it was a task “of great state importance” and concerned in the first place representatives of the intelligentsia

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gathered around political organizations, trade unions, cultural-educational, and scientific associations. Their members received sentences convicting them to labor camp, hard labor or criminal exile, simply because the Polish nation “was considered the eternal enemy of its Russian rulers” (Davies, 2007, p. 911). The first major deportation took place on the night of February 9–10th, the next one on April 12–13th, the next from June 29–30th 1940, and the last from May 22nd to June 13th 1941, just before the outbreak of the German-Russian war. Hitler had just started the war against us. (...) It turned out that the staff had already escaped from the city, and our regiment was directed to the railway station. I realized that our authorities were gone. Everyone had run away. And when they did it, I have no idea! There was neither Headquarters nor NKVD. Only trucks are still driving and taking Poles to the station according to the lists. It is known that the orders of the authorities are being fulfilled, because they had probably not been cancelled. And the authorities disappeared long ago! There is no trace of them (Piasecki, 1990, p. 85).

The procedure for taking people from their homes followed a typical pattern: A knocking on doors and windows tore children out of their peaceful sleep. In front of the house, surrounded by soldiers and militia, sleighs stood, cars snarled, and armed NKVD soldiers and representatives of the local authorities rushed into the flats. They ordered weapons to be surrendered. They threatened the father with a revolver and shouted at the pale mother. (...) A search began during which no one was allowed to move. The terrified children watched, as wardrobes and trunks were thrown open, as clothes, underwear and other small things fell to the ground. After a while, the whole house looked like a mess: overturned furniture and scattered bedding, scattered flour on the floor, sugar, piles of books and papers, broken glass. After the search, there was a terse order: prepare for the road (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 7).

They comforted the crying children with the promise that they would live well, they would go to school, because “In the Soviet land no child was harmed” (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 7).

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30 or even as little as 15 minutes were allowed to pack. No attention was paid to seriously ill small children, whose mothers wanted to leave them to their relatives or friends, to women in the last stages of pregnancy, and the elderly. Not only the persons mentioned in the sentences were taken, but also relatives, servants, and acquaintances who were at the place of abduction (“W czterdziestym nas Matko na Sybir zesłali...”, 1990, p. 471). In less than a year and a half of Soviet jurisdiction, thousands of children experienced their first terror and had to leave their homes. Four-year-old Sabinka was left speechless and only after many days did she regain her voice. Jędrek fell into convulsions for a long time at the sight of uniforms, while 10-year-old Staś and his little sister cried, although “my mother comforted us that we would soon return to our homeland and that it was not proper for Poles to cry” (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 10). The road to exile took place under tragic sanitary conditions. A two- to three-week journey in unheated cattle wagons during the harsh winter in February 1940. Hunger, illness, dirt, and exhaustion decimated the deportees during the transport. Children, the elderly and the sick were the main victims (Królikowski, 1960, pp. 25–26). Unfortunately, it is still difficult – in the current state of research, to provide accurate numbers of children deported from the Białystok Voivodeship. However, it is known that about 10,000 people were transported from Białystok alone, while over 300,000 were deported from around Białystok, Lida, Grodno, and Vilnius (Nettem, 1978, after: Deportacje i przemieszczenia…, 1989, p. 158.). Białystok, next to Lida and Brest was the central point of deportation in the north-eastern region of Poland. Here several trains per day, consisting of 60 wagons, were directed. About 50 people were locked in each wagon. People were deported according to the list established (...) by local activists (Nettem, 1978, after: Deportacje i przemieszczenia…, 1989, p. 156).

The most important obstacle in studying the fate of Polish children deported to the east is the huge discrepancy between figures given by various sources. The published estimates of the Polish population deported deep into the USSR range from several hundred thousand to 1.7 million, which represents a rather uncommon scale of uncertainty. Discrepancies in the presented estimates may be caused by confusion of the terms “Poles”, “Polish citizens”, and “Polish population”, as well as

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difficulties resulting from the limited source base and blurring of facts and events due to the passage of years. Differences in estimates may also be due to the fact that during four mass deportations, people were simply taken from their homes or from the street, and not from isolated places, such as a detention centers or prisoner-of-war camps. During one night, entire villages and city streets were emptied. The first Polish calculations of deportees were undertaken immediately afterwards, in 1940. They were conducted by two emissaries of the Union of Armed Struggle, Aleksander Klotz (Dr. Henryk Urbańczyk) and Wanda Ptaszkówna (Kamila Argasińska). The report drawn up by A. Klotz in the autumn of 1941 regarding Poles displaced to the USSR for many decades was a reference point for subsequent researchers. A. Klotz distinguished three main groups of Polish deportees. The first group was prisoners of war, the second was those who had been arrested, and the third, most numerous group was those deported/exiled by administrative procedure. First, on February 10th 1940, military settlers, officials, merchants, landowners, and farmers were sent. Together, according to quite meticulous calculations, about 250,000 people, including about 100,000 children. Whole families were exiled. In the absence of parents at home, on the tragic day of the abductions, children were kidnapped. There were many accidents involving children, often under the age of 10, being sent to Siberia. In total, according to A. Klotz’s calculations, as a result of three deportations carried out, 650,000 men, 450,000 women and 300,000 children up to 15 years old were taken deep into the USSR. The tragic situation was exacerbated by the fact that mothers were loaded into other transports than their children. Mothers left thousands of children, saving them from being taken away, by placing them under the care of people they met incidentally (Obliczenia Klotza, 1994). However, in the official publication of the Polish embassy in Washington of 1943 entitled Polish-Soviet Relations 1918–1943 Official Documents, the number of deported was estimated at over 1 million people (Deportacje i przemieszczenia, 1989, p. 16). According to the calculations of the Polish authorities, among the victims of deportation there were about 140,000 children, of whom 40,000 died during transports and in exile (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 92). The highest mortality was among infants. During the transport, children “froze in the wagons, were thrown out straight into the snow or

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into an ice-covered river while the train was moving “ (“W czterdziestym nas Matko na Sybir zesłali...”, 1990, p. 67). In an interview with the American Red Cross, Stanisław Kot states that the total number of deported Poles was estimated at 1,500,000, excluding 400,000 Jewish refugees of Polish citizenship who, after escaping from central Poland from Nazi persecution, were deported deep into Russia (Kot, 1955, pp. 107, 136). Interesting figures were included in a work by Bogdan Podoski, head of the II Corps Documentation Office, entitled Eastern Poland 1939–1941, published in Rome in 1945. We find information here that, in total, the Soviet authorities forcibly removed 1,692,000 persons from Eastern Poland to Russia, including 1,114,000 permanent civilian residents of Eastern Poland, 336,000 persons from the German occupation zones who sought refuge in Eastern Poland from the Germans, and 246,000 soldiers mobilized by the Polish government to fight against the German invaders. Among the civilian population deported from Eastern Poland to Soviet Russia in the years 1929–1941 divided by sex, there were 822,500 men aged 15–49 and 109,000 above 49 years old, 306,000 women aged 15–49 and 75,000 above 49 years old and children of both sexes from 0–14 in the amount of 379,000 (Podoski, 1945, tables 9, 11). Władysław Wielhorski also favors the calculations of the II Corps Culture and Press Department. In the paper The Faith of Poles in Soviet Captivity, 1939–1956, published in London in 1956, W. Wielhorski (1956, p. 16) states that the authorities of the Soviet Union in the years 1939–1941 deported approximately 1,585,000 persons of Polish nationality from Eastern Poland. Julian Siedlecki (1987) and Witold Babiński (1967) also refer to the calculations of the Department of Culture and Science in a monographic work. At the same time, it is worth noting that W. Babiński (1967, pp. 107–108, 163–164), providing the number of 1,600,000 deported Polish citizens, emphasizes that in the first three deportations about 1,000,000 people were displaced, including 300,000 children up to 15 years of age. Internment camps to which Poles were sent often offended human dignity, not to mention the accompanying primitive conditions of living and the requirement to perform slave duties. In 1941, the Polish population was distributed mainly in the northern and central areas of the European part of the Russian Federation, in the central and southern parts of the Asian territory of the RSFSR, in Yakutia and Khabarovsk, the Far East, as well as in the northern and eastern areas of Kazakhstan.

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As a result of the amnesty of August 12th 1941, the distribution of the Polish population gradually changed (Bugaj, 1981, p. 17). Hence, in an extensive documented report drawn up by the Polish embassy in May 1942, the number of Polish children in the USSR was estimated at about 158,000. At the same time, it was pointed out that the largest concentrations of children and adolescents were then in the Asian part of the RSFSR, approximately 36,000 beyond the Urals, another 36,000 in Kazakhstan, and approximately 14,000 in the northern districts of European Russia. At the end of 1943, the percentage of children in relation to the adult civilian population was in the range of 26.5% to 28% (Bugaj, 1981, p. 22). The living conditions of the children were tragic. Not only because of hunger and cold, epidemics and lack of medical assistance, hard physical work, and cruel punishments (Theiss, 1999), but also because they were deprived of their family home and treated as dangerous criminals. Many children went to prisons, penal colonies, and those who were orphaned were often sent to Soviet dietdom (orphanages). Just as it is difficult to determine the total number of Polish citizens deported to Russia, it is also impossible to determine what percentage of children went to “educational” Soviet institutions. In the Soviet Union, according to General Z. Bohusz-Szyszko (1946, p. 206), “everything without exception is a state secret. The training of people in terms of keeping their mouth shut is extraordinary. There, only what the government announces is known and authoritative. There is no physical opportunity to learn more”. The fear of disclosing the conditions of prison life passed only upon release. Initially, children did not eagerly reminisce about their ordeals, but over time they came to terms with these experiences, thus breaking the thread connecting them with the past. It is impossible to describe the tragic fate of children in a few sentences. Moreover, the children themselves, when speaking about their experiences, often remembered them not like real moments, but bad, nightmare dreams and visions (Bohusz-Szyszko, 1946, p. 207). Ala was arrested with her parents in February 1940 and imprisoned in Kharkov. Ala’s father was an engineer in Borysław. After the September disaster, he learned about the Polish Army being formed in France, and decided to attempt to join it. However, the family did not want to part, so they decided to go together. On the Polish-Romanian border, they were arrested, interrogations began, after which they were convicted and transported to a prison in Kharkov. Ala spent several months in Kharkov, and “after a few months she was called to the prison office to say goodbye to

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her daddy, because they were to transfer her to the dietdom” (Wasilewska, 1945, pp. 25–26). This was the fate of many Polish families. Marysia’s story is a bit different. At the time of her arrest, she was 14 years old, so according to the Russian Penal Code, she was responsible for her actions and was sentenced to three years in a juvenile penal colony. But before she was sent there: the investigation began, for which an arrestee was always called at night. On April 16, I was transported”, Marysia recalls, “with my mother to the prison in Stanisławów. It was also a makeshift prison in a hastily finished warehouse. 18 women were sleeping in a tiny cell (...) The lamp was burning all night - the enemy of prisoners. For the long months spent in prison and in the penal colony, I dreamed of at least one night in which I could sleep in the dark. I used to wrap my tired eyes with a handkerchief, but through my eyelids I could still feel the glow of light. For dinner, half a liter of smelly soup made of tripe and the heads of cows, and I often found in my bowl an eye, teeth and clumps of hair. In the evening we would get the same soup (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 27).

Extremely difficult conditions also prevailed in the penal colony in Starodub (Orlowsk district), where Marysia stayed from October 6th 1940. Marysia’s memories indicate that the colony had 500 female prisoners aged 13 to 18, including 26 Polish women aged 14 to 18. They were all sentenced to stay in a penal colony for “political crimes”. Zosia, aged 16, was arrested while escaping to Poland from Northern Kazakhstan, where she had been deported with her family. She was arrested when she got stuck in the snow. The family managed to hide. Kasia, Wanda, and Ewa, all 16 years old, were arrested for belonging to the Polish Scouts’ Union. They were sentenced to eight years, after a very harsh investigation. All kinds of means were tried to get them to confess to uncommitted crimes (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 30). “They were locked in a solitary cell filled with water, undressed to their shirts. Wanda was beaten. Before Kasia, the śledowatiel (an interrogator) got undressed, threatening to rape her” (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 31). Work in the penal colony was difficult and arduous. The girls worked in two shifts, 10 hours a day. Particularly bad conditions were in the “yarn” (spinning) section. Cotton dust rose in clouds, burning into eyes and lungs. “Jadzia, 15 years old, fell ill after a short while. She spat up blood” (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 31).

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Little Basia, aged 14, worked on molten lead that she poured into machine needles. “She turned yellow like a lemon”, remembers Marysia, “on her slim face, large eyes glowed with a feverish glow. She had frequent bleeding. I took her place her once, when she no longer had the strength to get up to work and despite the threat of being locked in solitary cell had remained on her bunk” (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 31). Worse than working in a penal colony was the obszczestwiennaja rabota (socialization campaign), aimed at re-education of Polish girls and raising them as citizens of the Soviet Union. Pieriewospitanie began with lessons at the camp school, the history of the Soyuz and the “history of the Party” and the prohibition of using the Polish language. Further ideological indoctrination took place in the club, and in addition to daily ideological classes, agitprop lectures were organized (Wasilewska, 1945, p. 35). An even more dangerous denationalizing action struck at Polish children in the dietdom (orphanages). Children who were alone, without a mother, father or relatives, and those who were staying in summer camps were transferred to Russian orphanages. As W. Theiss (1999, p. 50) writes, the goal was the very obvious “nationalization and education in communist principles”. This is evidenced by the children’s letters, written in Polish-Russian jargon or even in the Russian-language, and by the concealing of the names of the children, preventing contact with them, as well as by difficulties encountered in getting them out of dietdom.

Degradation of Polish education In addition to large-scale arrests and deportations, an extremely restrictive role in persecuting Poles was played by schools. These were not only an important element in education in general, but also in education in the spirit of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Education was also used as one of the methods of fueling national conflicts and breaking the will of resistance, especially on the part of Poles, to the introduction of a new social order. For example, in the field of educational policy, the occupier flamed national conflicts by transforming Polish schools into Belarusian or Ukrainian-language ones. At the same time, the Belarusian and Ukrainian language press was promoted, and efforts were made to strengthen the position of the Belarusian and Ukrainian communities (despite the simultaneous anti-Belarusian and anti-Ukrainian repression), thus weakening the position of Poles.

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Two sub-periods can be distinguished in the functioning of education under Soviet jurisdiction. The first was a transitional one, in which the Polish structure of education was initially preserved, covering the last months of 1939, while the second falls in 1940 and the first half of 1941, when this began to be adapted to Soviet models. The official start of the school year was adopted as October 1st, 1939, because on that day the Soviet educational authorities were appointed, thus adapting norms to the standards in force in the USSR. In the oblast, the organization of education was addressed by the so-called OBŁONO (Obłastnoj Otdieł Narodnogo Obrazowania), equivalent to the School District Board, in regions, RAJONO (Rajonnyj Otdieł Narodnogo Obrazowania), equivalent to the education inspectorates in poviats. Social education inspectors were appointed in sielsowiety (communes). These had the right to visit schools, attend lessons and issue opinions about teachers (Januszek, 1975, p. 57). In methodological work, the Regional, District and Municipal Departments of People’s Education supported Pedagogical Offices, which actually dealt with the promotion of the progress of Soviet education (Dobromyslowa, 1940, pp. 111–116). In parallel with the change in the administrative division of educational authorities, actions were taken to adapt the appearance and character of schools to the current Soviet model. Just like city streets, the schools of Białystok were decorated with slogans, propaganda posters, and photographs of communist “heroes” such as Stalin, Lenin, and Molotov (Śleszyński, 2000, p. 138). The previous patrons representing Polish culture and tradition as well as the attributes of the Polish state were removed, such as the state emblem, national colors, and portraits of Polish statesmen such as Piłsudski, Mościcki, and Rydz-Śmigły. Lively agitprop activities were developed in schools.5 With the strengthening of political and administrative structures, the Soviet authorities, from January 1940, reorganized the education of the Białystok region according to the Soviet model, which remained in force until the Germans entered at the end of June 1941. The first institutions of collective education were nurseries and kindergartens, which were to serve the ideal that “a woman – mother, citizen of the USSR, took an active part on an equal footing with men in the work of socialist development” (Śleszyński, 2001, p. 456). 5

Information on this subject is contained in the materials collected by the Historical Committee of the Board of the PNA District in Białystok. Archives of the Provincial Council of Trade Unions (WRZZ) in Białystok, vol. I–XX.

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Children from seven to eight years old were sent to the preparatory class, and from ages eight to 12 to the obligatory primary school, classes I–IV. Primary schools were most often established in the countryside or in small towns, where the number of students did not allow the creation of a complete high school. At the same time, by order of the educational authorities, all students attending Polish schools before September 1st were put back one class down on January 1st, 1940. This was justified by the fact that school age began a year later and by the fact that an extended scope of teaching material covered by the curriculum in particular classes and subjects was in force. Particularly in class IV, this was reportedly significantly expanded compared to pre-war Polish education (Januszek, 1975, p. 69). In addition, due to the “lack of confidence of the local Soviet authorities in the majority of Polish teachers” (Januszek, 1975, p. 73), a radical exchange of teaching staff was made. Teachers found to be hostile were arrested. Teachers from other BSRR cities and population centers were brought in the place of removed teachers. The percentage of teachers transferred from the BSRR was quite large, e.g. in the Kolno region, out of 180 working teachers, as many as 98 came from the eastern regions (Gnatowski, 1997, p. 265). Local Jews often received work in schools, often having a communist background (Zimińska, 2005, p. 54). At the turn of 1940/41, there were 2,772 (47.3%) Poles out of 5861 teachers in the Białystok region, 1,544 (26.3%) Belarusians, 1,212 (20.7%) Jews, 244 (4.2%) Russians and 89 (1.5%) teachers of other nationalities (Śleszyński, 2001, pp. 498–499). As a result of the intensification of the removal of Polish teachers from schools, the number of Polish schools decreased. However, there were more Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish language schools (Gnatowski, 1997, p. 152). The newly recruited teachers were not so much educators as agitators who were indoctrinated in hatred for anything related to Poland and its culture and religion. This hostility and dislike of their homeland was to be implanted to the student youth. The main educational task of the school was to shape a citizen devoted to the communist idea and ready to serve the Soviet authorities. The pioneer and Komsomol member Pawlik Morozov sold out his own father as a “saboteur of Soviet power” to the GPU was lauded as an ideal, though for his actions he himself was killed, allegedly murdered by enemies of Soviet power (Drużnikow, 1990; Kryńska, Mauersberg, 2003). Youth and senior primary school students assessed the imposed curriculum and ideological patterns of foreign power critically. For example, students of the Łomża “10-year-school” from the first days of its operation undertook a spontaneous struggle against Russification and brainwashing of youth. The

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most commonly used forms of this struggle involved distribution of leaflets discrediting the occupation authorities, public poster campaigns, publication of anti-Soviet school newspapers, organization of school strikes, and hindering the organization of official ‘meetings’ and sporting events (Wincenciak, 2001, p. 110). Youth were persecuted for anti-Soviet activities, arrests and re-education took place in labor camps. As Urszula Zagrodna, a 10th-grade student of the then 10-year-school for Polish children in Łomża, recalls, she was arrested by the NKVD in Łomża for so-called counterrevolutionary activities in the city and school. In addition to Urszula, on February 4th 1940, Hanna Wójcicka (later Czarnecka) and Janina Gugnacka (Biszke) also were arrested, on April 4th 1940, it was the turn of Karol Pawłowski, and on August 6th 1940 that of Józefa Michalak (now Pietruszko) (Wincenciak, 2001, p. 110). In addition, apart from the death penalty, the Soviet authorities used labor camps and compulsory military service against young people with a negative attitude towards communist ideology. Although this service resulted from the obligation imposed by the granting of citizenship by the Soviet State, it was above all an excuse for the further deepening of indoctrination of Polish youth. During recruitment to the Red Army, political talks were held and attempts were made to prove that it was a great joy to be a boyetz (bold soldier). During breaks of recruitment committee, music was played, mainly two songs, Give Me a Concertina in my Hand and Kalinka (Dobrowolski, 1992, pp. 37–38). As a result of the ruthless policy of the Soviet authorities and their repression and persecution of Poles, at the time of the Nazi Germany invasion of Russia, the German army found the north-eastern territories very changed (...) the community (...) had been shortened by a head; the upper layer of society, the class of social and political activists, professionally educated people, the administrative class, wealthy industrialists and landowners was (...) devastated by deportations, arrests and executions (Deportacje i przemieszczenia…, 1989, p. 175).

The fate of children from Białystok under German occupation. Extermination of children and youth As a result of the depletion of the population of the Białystok region by deportations, arrests and executions, after the occupation of the territory of the Białystok region, the German occupation authorities immediately

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began activities to implement the plan drawn up by the NSDAP authorities and the government of the Third Reich, called the Generalplan Ost des Reischsführers SS6, in short form Generalplan Ost (General Eastern Plan). The main goal of the General Eastern Plan was set by Himmler in July 1942 with the words: “Our task is not to Germanize the East in the old sense of the word, i.e. by teaching peoples living there the German language and law, but to ensure that the only population living in the east is of purely German origin” (Rawski, Stąpor, Zamojski, 1966, p. 193).7 According to this order, in the area of “Bezirk Białystok”, whose Head of the Civil Board of the Białystok District was Erich Koch, also Gauleiter and the President of East Prussia, the main task was “to replace the Bolshevik chaos and Polish disorder” to introduce “German order, German purity, German diligence and German spirit” (Gnatowski, 1970, p. 22). For this reason, Erich Koch decided that “Bezirk Białystok should be cleansed (...) of nationally and racially foreign elements and prepared for German settlement” (Gnatowski, Monkiewicz, Kowalczyk, 1981, p. 25). Poles were to keep their lives only, according to E. Koch, when they were and would remain “at a low level and in a completely dependent position” (Gnatowski, 1970, p. 25). The organizational structures of the repression apparatus were established to introduce the directives adopted. To increase their effectiveness, the Białystok District (Bezirk Białystok), created from the Białystok Voivodeship (without the Suwałki District and two municipalities on the right bank of the Pisa River) and part of the Prużański and Brest poviats from the former Polesie Voivodeship, was administratively divided into eight units: seven Kreiskomisariats (poviats) including Białystok, Bielsk 6

7

The assumptions of the General Plan of the East were recreated on the basis of the memorial of April 27th, 1942: Stellungnahma und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost des Reischsfuhrers SS. The author was an employee of the Office for Racial Policy NSDAP dr Erich Wetzel. The first stage of the plan – Kleine Planung – was implemented as the areas east of Germany were conquered and occupied. Whereas the assumptions of the second part of Generalplan Ost – Grosse Planung – were to be applied in practice after the victorious end of the war, gradually implemented over 25–30 years. More information is contained in the paper: Cieńkowski, 1962. The implementation of the above Nazi concept was to be carried out by liquidating the nations of Eastern Europe and settling German colonists in their place. On the other hand, the population of the conquered areas of about 50 million was to be displaced to West Siberia, while some were to be biologically exterminated. According to these assumptions, 65% of Ukrainians, 75% of Belarusians, and most Poles were to be resettled, as much as 80–85% (about 20 million) (Cieńkowski, 1962, p. 40).

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Podlaski, Grajewo, Grodno, Łomża, Sokółka, and Wołkowysk as well as one standtkomisariat (municipal district). The lower administrative units were called amtskomisariats (collective communes). All managerial positions were held by the Germans (Karlikowski, 1965, p. 43). Bezirk Białystok covered an area of 31,426 km2, and had a population of 1,682,000 people (Markiewicz, 2003–2004, p. 66). Nearly one-third (10,000 km2, inhabited by 500,000 people) were areas that after 1944 found themselves inside the Belarusian SSR (Madajczyk, 1970, vol. I, pp. 211–212). Although the Białystok district came under German occupation two years later than other areas of Poland, it suffered as much personal and material losses as the rest of the country. According to incomplete calculations by the GKBZH (Chief Commission for the Prosecution of German Crimes in Poland), in the former Białystok Voivodeship during the Nazi occupation, nearly 200,000 people were murdered, including over 164,000 Jews. 22,300 were transported to concentration camps, and almost 27,000 to forced labor camps. The fate of Polish children was particularly cruel. Waldemar Monkiewicz’s research shows that among the total losses in the Białystok region, about 18.8% were children (applies to the age group up to 14 years) and youth (up to 18 years old) out of a total 31.1% in Poland (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 4). The children shared the fate of their loved ones; they were victims of mass executions, they were displaced, deported to forced labor, and sent to all types of camps. They were deprived of educational opportunities, forced to do exhausting work in agriculture and industry, were harassed and subjected to corporal punishment. The culmination of crimes committed by the Wehrmacht on the civilians of the Białystok region, including children, occurred in June–July 1941, during the occupation of the areas following the retreat of the Red Army. Heinrich Himmler, by order of July 28th 1941, recommended that all persons suspected of supporting partisans be shot, women and children be displaced, and villages be burned (Markiewicz, 2003–2004, p. 66). Moreover, on April 12th 1942, Erich Koch issued an ordinance introducing very strict regulations for the civilian population of the Białystok district. For the offenses of Poles and Jews and other members of non-German nationality committed to the detriment of the Germans and other crimes of these nationalities, restrictive penalties were imposed, including retaliation involving children and young people. The children were the victims of mass, group and individual executions. Mass executions were carried out during suppression actions, as a result

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of which several hundred people were murdered in the Białystok region, including children and youth. According to Marcin Markiewicz, the largest suppression action took place in the Białystok region in Krasowo-Częstki on July 17th 1943. During this operation, 257 people were murdered, including 83 children and adolescents under the age of seventeen (Markiewicz, 2003–2004, p. 67) and an infant who was born on the eve of the suppression (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 20). On the other hand, in the village of Grzędy, located in Czerwony Bagno, as a punishment for helping local branches of the Kedyw of the Home Army and UBK troops, the Białystok head of the Gestapo ordered and gendarmerie from Woźna village, Bełdy, Rajgrod, and Grajewo under the direction of the chief of police in Augustów to conduct a repression action against Grzędy on August 16th 1993. 36 people were murdered, including 14 minors and children. The rest of the inhabitants, more than 200 people, were driven to the camp in Grajewo, from where they were taken for labor to the Third Reich (Markiewicz, 2003–2004, pp. 67–68). After partisans killed one of the gendarmes, wounded another and disarmed a third in the vicinity of Jabłoni-Dobek, on March 8th 1944 the inhabitants of Jabłoni-Dobek were driven into a barn, after which it was doused with gasoline and grenades were thrown inside. 91 people were killed and burned alive, including 31 women and 31 children. The reason for the repression of Jasionów in the Lipsk commune was similar. 58 people were murdered there, including 19 children (Markiewicz, 2003–2004, p. 68). Among the victims of the repression action in Sikory Tomkowiętki, children and youth constituted 20 people out of a total 61 murdered. In Wnory Wanda, five children were murdered among the total 32 killed (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 20). According to calculations made by J. Kowalczyk in the summer of 1941, a total of 13,469 people, including children and youth, were murdered in the Białystok region. At that time, extermination actions took place in which almost the entire Jewish population was affected. For example, on August 5th 1941, the Nazis murdered over 2,000 Jews from Tykocin in the Stelmach forest; of these numbers, about one-third were children and youth (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 18). In addition, the Jewish population was imprisoned in the Białystok ghetto, where on August 15–20th 1943 an uprising broke out. It was the second largest uprising of the Jewish population against the Nazi torturers after the Warsaw ghetto uprising. After the uprising, the ghetto was liquidated and its inhabitants were transported to the camps in Treblinka, Majdanek,

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Auschwitz and Terezin. According to approximate calculations, a total of 179,020 Jews were killed in the Białystok region during the war and German occupation, of whom one-third were children and youth (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 20). Among the executions carried out on the spot, the particular indignation of the inhabitants of Łapy was caused by the murder of two craft students from railway workshops: 14-year-old Bogdan Suprukov and 15-year-old Tadeusz Cilak. They were shot by the German gendarmerie on November 7th 1942, for approaching one of the houses from which Jews had been displaced a few days earlier (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 20). German terror in the Białystok district intensified in connection with the approaching front. In Białystok, in addition to the deliberate destruction of the city, police officers shot people on the streets, murdering, among others, children going to the bakery for bread (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 22). Children and young people of the Białystok district under German occupation also died as a result of compromised living conditions, which were the result of a conscious and planned German policy aimed at destroying the Polish nation. Throughout the German occupation, the inhabitants of the region constantly experienced hunger and malnutrition. This was a permanent element of everyday life, particularly severely felt by children and young people. There were cases of starvation of children and the elderly. In addition to food, the lack of clothing and footwear, as well as medicines and hygiene products was painfully felt, leading to frequent epidemics, especially of typhus. Medical assistance could be used to a very limited extent. This followed Hitler’s recommendation that “attempting to provide health care to the non-German population of eastern areas according to the German pattern would be pure madness” (Hrabar et al., 1979, p. 31). Arthur Greiser laid out the tasks of German doctors on April 9, 1943 in the following way: “The physician must be entrusted with two tasks: engaging the health service in a national struggle to gradually remove the foreign nation and exploiting foreign labor forces to the last limits” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 31). Poor living and sanitary conditions were a special method of biological elimination of Poles, especially minors. Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, appointed in September 1939 as Supreme Commander of the East, boldly stated:

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We, the Germans, must conquer our neighbors twice. So we will be forced to destroy one-third of the population of the adjacent areas. We can do this through systematic malnutrition, which ultimately gives a better result than machine guns. This kind of destruction works most effectively, especially among young people (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 27).

Calculated cruelty through the extermination of children was used with extreme premeditation against the children of women sent to forced labor. For example, at the largest armaments manufacturing group of the Third Reich, the Krupp plant, which had 57 forced labor camps in mid1943, a center for children of foreign workers was established in Dinslaken near Essen. One of the witnesses, Ernest Wirtz, testified during the tenth Nuremberg trial that he had seen workers in the barracks where the children of the eastern areas lived and said: “The children were malnourished. There was no child whose arms or hands were thicker than my thumb”. (Teraz jesteście Niemcami…, 2017, p. 77). He also revealed that the children remained in infancy, unable to speak, up to two years old (Teraz jesteście Niemcami…, 2017, p. 77). Additionally, when asked about the conditions of the children in the Voerde camp, he replied: They were in prison-type beds, they had rubber sheets and they were quite naked. (...) 50 or 60 children died a day and the same number were born every day because there was a constant influx of workers from the east with children (...) [children who died – EK] the corpses of the children were burned in the camp (Teraz jesteście Niemcami…, 2017, pp. 77–78).

Lorenz Schneider, a doctor at the Voerde-West labor camp, mentioned the lack of milk, fats, and nutrients as the cause of high child mortality. The Krupp management knew how many children were dying, but no inquiries were ever carried out, which is why Schneider “suspected that the death of the children was planned” (Teraz jesteście Niemcami…, 2017, p. 78). The cruelty of the slow starvation of the children was recognized by Nazi officials who carried out inspections of plants for the “racially worthless”. Children, based on the decision of the provincial food office, received half a liter of full milk and one and a half cube of sugar per infant per day, which is why the children died after a few months. It was a “cold calculation that guided the extermination of infants” (Teraz jesteście Niemcami…, 2017, pp. 80–81). Due to the high mortality rate of starving children, it is difficult to provide even approximate data on children who died from malnutrition. Based on the

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number of births of children of forced laborers, it can be concluded that the child mortality rate was very high and amounted to about 50%, and in the last period of the war almost every child died (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 187). It is impossible to indicate what percentage of children from eastern workers were children of women from the Białystok region. It is known, however, that whole families with children of different ages were deported to East Prussia from the Białystok district. In addition, among those sentenced to forced labor, there were also minors aged 14. Unfortunately, the current state of research makes it impossible to develop this issue further, which is also indicated by Waldemar Monkiewicz (1986, pp. 23–24). The maximum constraint on the intellectual development of Polish youth was part of the biological extermination plan.

Children and youth of Białystok region deprived of the right to education The German occupier also deprived Polish children of the right to education. The German occupation authorities started to liquidate Polish education almost from the beginning. In Bezirk Białystok, even four-class primary schools were not allowed, despite the fact that in Himmler’s Guidelines of April 15th 1940, they their existence in the East was to be allowed (“A few remarks on the treatment of foreigners in the East”). It should be emphasized, however, that the situation of education under German occupation in Polesie varied, because the fate of the Borderlands during the German occupation was a result of many external factors. On the one hand, it was shaped by the German policy of transforming these lands under the General Eastern Plan into the food base of the Reich, on the other hand, the discrepancy was also caused by the differences between German administrative units; the situation was slightly different in the Galicia District incorporated into the General Government, different again in the East Reich Commissariats and Ukraine, and still more different in the areas administered by the Wehrmacht. To some extent, the shape of this policy also depended on the personal characteristics of the high representatives of the German administration who implemented it. For these reasons, the level of repressiveness of actions against national groups and the educational policy implemented varied. E. Koch believed that the occupied nations of the East should be treated only as a workforce and, in the areas he managed, he opposed the implemen-

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tation of the concept of education, even as defined in Himmler’s Guidelines of April 15th 1940. However, Belarusian schools were left untouched, most often operating under the auspices of the Belarusian Nationalist Committee, which kept close links with the occupier. The Germans knew that minority education had been the subject of conflicts between Ukrainians and Belarusians on the one hand and the Polish authorities on the other before the war. After the occupation of the eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland, they therefore favored Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian nationalists, thus fueling national antagonisms. Belarusian education covered 80% of schools operating in these areas during Soviet rule. The increase in the number of Belarusian schools from 1943 was accompanied by a decrease in the number of students and teachers in these schools. The Białystok residents realized the intentions of the German occupation authorities, aimed at creating antagonistic systems and kindling nationalisms, which were intended to weaken the activity of the Polish resistance movement (Gnatowski, 1970). In any event, it was realized that the temporary allies would meet the same fate, clearly defined in Generalplan Ost. As the Germans did not allow Polish education to be organized in Bezirk Białystok, by the autumn of 1941 an educational resistance movement was established (Kryńska, 2010). Secret teaching was organized almost throughout the Białystok region; this was ruthlessly fought by the German occupation authorities. In terms of personal losses of the Polish educational community, the Białystok Voivodeship came in fourth among post-war Poland voivodeships, after the Pomeranian, Warsaw, and Poznań voivodeships. However, a comparison with the state of employment in schools shows that the personal loss rate in this region was the highest in the country, as it amounted to almost 30% (Kryńska, 2010, p. 62). Despite repression from the occupying authorities, the entire local community fought for Polish schools and assisted the teachers in conducting secret teaching, inspired by the slogan in Juliusz Słowacki’s My Testament: “Let the living not lose hope and bring the torch of education to the people...” (“Niech żywi nie tracą nadziei i przed narodem niosą oświaty kaganiec…”, J. Słowacki, Testament mój, „Przegląd Pruszkowski” 2015, nr 1, pp. 87–88). The size of the Polish underground educational activity during World War II was unprecedented in the history of Polish and universal education also thanks to the attitude of young people who, as Ryszard Wroczyński, a member

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of the Provincial Organization for Secret Teaching in Białystok, recalls, were “deeply mature and ideological, resulting from an awareness of the internalized belief that it is an honor and national ambition to learn. Learning as well as possible, despite all the repression and inhuman actions of the enemy. This was a factor mobilizing their effort and courage” (Januszek, 1975, p. 286).

* To sum up, it should be said that the crimes and the extent of Soviet and German repression were comparable and similar, despite the fact that the Russians entered Poland with the intention of carrying out a revolution. Their main goal was Sovietization, but also subjected the population to both extermination and exploitation. Regardless of the purpose, the ruling regimes colloquially called “Hitlerism” and “Stalinism”, led to the subordination of life and the rights of citizens to the bureaucratic apparatus of oppression; they ruled by spreading fear and isolating political and ideological opponents and civilians, without sparing children. Hence, the sum total of measures taken by the NKVD and the Gestapo were similar. They aimed at the weakening of and even biological destruction of the Polish nation as a whole. The occupiers assumed in advance that the Polish community should be treated in such a way as to result in its disintegration and destruction. The basic element was to exploit the physical strength of Poles, thus they were sent to the hardest work details, extending the workday to 12 hours a day, extensively employing women and minor children. The weakening of the physical condition of Poles was also reflected in very low allocations of insufficient food rations, or no medical care, in many cases in a tragic financial and housing situation, and in generally difficult living conditions. This applies to Poles who remained at their places of residence, living and working under Soviet occupation, but even more so to all of them who found themselves in a place of forced detention, homeless, or in exile. Similar measures, only over a long period, were applied under German occupation. In German concentration camps, Poles were first murdered without much thought, then the physical force of the surviving prisoners was exploited; special camps, referred to as death factories, were a particularly drastic case (mass executions, gas killing, burning in crematoriums). Direct extermination under occupation was a conscious, most often planned, action on the part of the repressive authorities, mainly police,

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against Polish patriots, civilian management, and military staff, all intelligentsia and actual or alleged opponents of the totalitarian regime being installed in Poland. The effect of this action was the individual or collective death of civilians, including children and adolescents. At the same time, Poles were deprived of basic religious rights (both in the territories incorporated into the Reich and under Soviet occupation), the right to education in their native language (especially in the territories incorporated into the Reich), not to mention the right to form associations or to participate in cultural life. The draconian and criminal regulations of German ordinances as well as the ubiquity and omnipotence of the Soviet secret police, the darkness of isolation cells and labor camps were part of Polish consciousness and everyday life for six long years (Polska 1939–1945, 2009). The fall of the Polish state and its erasure from the map was to be “definitely settled” and constitute a “solid foundation for lasting peace in Europe” (Bregman, 1989, pp. 40–43). Of the total number of children who died as a result of the occupiers’ activities – German and Soviet in the Białystok region in 1939–1944 – only about 10% died as a result of direct warfare. The overwhelming majority were victims of repressive operations. What is shocking is the fact that small children aged from several days to 14 years old were treated with particular cruelty, about 72% of whom died, while the remaining 28% were young people aged 14 to 18 (Monkiewicz, 1986, p. 22). Despite the cited figures, the current state of research does not allow an exhaustive investigation of the fate of children and youth of Białystok region during World War II. Further accurate calculations of biological losses in the Białystok region in 1939–1944 are necessary.

Conclusion The purpose of the chapter is to describe the fate of the children of the Białystok region under Soviet and German totalitarianism during World War II. These occupations gave rise to expansive militarization, leading to terrifying crimes, exemplified by the extermination of the Jewish and Polish populations. The lethal machinery of Hitler and Stalin did not spare children. The ruling regimes were equally ruthless and criminal towards children, not only violating fundamental rules of war, but also failing to observe the most universal human rights. Both the Nazi and Soviet occupiers deprived Polish children of the right to education, the right to normal physical development, the right to organize any form of social life, the right to their own nationality, and the right to life.

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ADAM MASSALSKI JANUSZ KORCZAK PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY IN WARSAW

EXTERMINATION OF JUVENILE SCOUTS IN THE LANDS OF POLAND DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF 1939–1945

Ab st ra c t : The following chapter is a first attempt at developing an image of the human losses among young boy and girl scouts caused by the Nazi terror implemented during World War II. The absence of detailed research in this area makes it difficult to present a synthetic treatment of the topic. However, even based solely on selected examples it can be seen that between 1939 and 1945 many hundreds of scouts, both male and female, lost their lives. These were young persons aged 16 to 18. The vast majority of them were students of the secret teaching organization which operated in occupied Poland, in middle school or in their first years of higher education. The ethical and moral sense of obligation which these young people accepted upon joining the scouts would have made them the elite of the younger generation of Poles. The tragic martyr’s death which they suffered at the hands of the Germans, in addition to the personal trauma experienced by their loved ones, was a huge loss for Polish social and cultural life after 1945. Ke y word s : Polish scout victims of World War II, the struggle of Polish scouts against the German occupiers

1. Scouting in Polish lands up to 1939 Scouting is a socio-educational movement that comprises children, youth, and adults. Its foundation in Polish lands dates to the later era of the Partitions of Poland, to 1910, and was inspired by the English scout General Robert Baden-Powell. The roots of scouting can also be found in native youth organizations operating at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. One of those organizations was the Sokół Gymnastic Society, initially operating only in Galicia, and then also in the Prussian Partition. This organization combined the development of physical agility in connection with patriotism and popularization of national education in

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its program. Another association was Zarzewie, whose aim was to fight for the independence of Poland. Before the outbreak of World War I, Zarzewie groups functioned not only in Galicia, but also in the Congress Kingdom of Poland and Greater Poland. The shape of the educational program of the Polish Scouting movement was also affected by the small but important abstinence group Eleusis, operating in the sphere of influence of the philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski. The creators of the scout movement in Poland originated from these organizations and were headed by Andrzej and Olga Małkowski, Eugeniusz Piasecki, Mieczysław Norwid-Neugebauer, Henryk Bagiński, Tadeusz Strumiłło, Jerzy Grodyński, Maria Wocalewska, Zygmunt Wyrobek, Kazimierz Wyrzykowski and others (Błażejewski, 1985, pp. 19–26). The universalism of Robert Baden Powell’s educational system was grounded in self-education in small groups (patrols) with the individual as the basis. Self-education as self-improvement is understood to consist of the following elements: 1) Choosing and setting goals; 2) Getting to know oneself; 3) Making demands of oneself; and 4) Self-control and self-evaluation. Around this, a scouting system was created consisting of personal patterns, individual skills, team tasks, cub scout ranks and stars, and the Cub Scout and Scout Law. The intended aim of self-education is to change the personality of the scouts (Śliwerski, 2008, pp. 110–131). In order to awaken self-education of young people to scouting, a universal method of work was developed consisting of work in small groups (patrols), with individual attainment of ranks and skills which inspire learners to conscious action. As has been mentioned previously, personal patterns were an important element in the educational system. There were two types of patterns: the indirect interpersonal pattern, that is the “hero” or patron of the scout troop; and the direct pattern, in which the leading role was to be played by the Troop Scout Instructor of ZHP (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association). Research shows that the main patrons of scout troops in the interwar period were the protagonists of national uprisings and defenders of the homeland, the kings of Poland and prominent hetmans, representatives of science, writers, and poets (Miśkowiec, 2008, pp. 132–136). From this framework originate the appealing kinds of activities used in scouting, such as camps, trips, games such as hare and hounds or paperchase, canoe trips, as well as field and historical reconnaissance, bonfires with storytelling, and many more. Scouting activity, according to R. Baden-Powell was to lead to personal happiness through the development of higher ideals and through service to God, neighbor, and the homeland. The scouting ideals were included in the Scout Law, its own

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kind of Ten Commandments. This law contains patterns of moral behavior. Due to political circumstances, the values preached by R. Baden-Powell in the case of Polish Scouting were complemented with the spirit of the struggle for independence. The first scout troops were formed in Galicia, but soon also in the Congress Kingdom of Poland and Greater Poland. The attractiveness of scouting meant that people in Poland who belonged to different, even mutually hostile political orientations such as National Democracy and the Independence Camp, accepted it as a valuable educational system. This duality existed throughout the interwar period, sometimes leading to frictions within the movement’s leadership, but generally in the basic units of scouting, troops and patrols, it was hardly visible (Gaj, 1966, p. passim). Despite all of these differences, in the years 1914–1921 the scouts significantly participated in the struggles for regaining independence and establishing the borders of the Polish state. This also created an environment conducive to the unification of the scout movement in Poland, which took place on November 1st/2nd 1918 at the Jamboree in Lublin (Błażejewski, 1985, p. 126). Due to the customs and mores of that period, the scouting organizations were divided into male and female divisions. There were two General Headquarters, one for boys and one for girls. A similar division existed in the field units, consisting of regions, districts, and troops. The unquestionable appeal of the scouting system resulted in a significant increase in the number of members of this organization. This is indicated in Table 1. Table 1. The number of members of the Polish Scouting Association in the years 1920–1938 No

Members of ZHP (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association)

1920

1923

1926

1929

1932

1 2

1935

1938

Boy Scouts

21,000

31,326

30,383

41,480

55,881

103,471 130,589

Girl Scouts

8,516

16,900

15,729

20,671

37,052

62,429

Total

29,516

48,226

46,112

62,151

92,933

165,900 204,738

74,149

Source: Błażejewski, 1985, pp. 338–339

The number of scout instructors also increased significantly from 138 in 1920 to 905 in 1929 and finally in the year 1938 to 5,871 people who, after completing the relevant training and exams, gained the rank of Assistant Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster (Błażejewski, 1985, pp. 338–339). Thanks to this, the year before the outbreak of World War II in the female division,

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there was one Scout Instructor assigned to about 21 Girl Scouts, and in the male division one Scout Instructor for about 60 Boy Scouts. The significance of the development of the scout movement was perceived by the state authorities, hence on December 20th 1920, the Chief of State Józef Piłsudski, and then the later the presidents of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski and Ignacy Mościcki, took over the protectorate of the ZHP (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association) (Hausner, Wierzbicki, 2015, p. 66). In the face of the tensions on the international arena and the increasing threat from the Third Reich that intensified in the second half of the 1930s, scouts began to pay more attention to defensive techniques, useful in the event of an armed conflict. The Polish Army, as well as the Offices of Physical Education and Civil Defense Training established closer cooperation with respective scout units. During the summer operations in the years 1937–1939, the number of scout camps organized in the frontier areas increased significantly. The aim of this was to sustain the local community, and also to hinder the infiltration of German intelligence agents deeper into the country. In addition, by order of the President of the ZHP Michał Grażyński dated March 31st 1938, scouts were obliged to participate in the subscription to the Anti-aircraft Defense Loan. The following step was the establishment on September 24th 1938 of the Girl Scout’s War Emergency Services with Scoutmaster Józefina Łapińska1 at the head of this establishment. Girl Scouts, acting as part of the War Emergency Services, took part in the actions in Zaolzie. In December of that year, there was universal training in boy’s and girl’s troops relating to anti-aircraft defense. At the head of the Scouts War Emergency Services, 1

Józefina Łapińska (1900–1986), born in Łódź, from 1914 a member of a scouting troop. She graduated from the University of Warsaw and taught the Polish language in secondary schools in Wieluń, Bodzentyn, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, and Końskie, at the same time, defending her PhD thesis. From 1931, she managed the Instructor’s School of Girl Scouts in Bucz. In the ZHP, she also served as the commander of the female Warsaw Region and simultaneously the Kielecko-Radomska Region. She was an attendee at international scouting conferences. She published two books on scout methodology. As the commandant of the Girl Scout’s War Emergency Services, she organized 15 hospitals and three collection points for abandoned children in September 1939. During the occupation, she worked at the PCK (Polish Red Cross) and secretly led in the Girl Scouts movement in the country. She was associated with the AK (Home Army) and conducted secret educational classes. She took an active part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, she did not return to scouting activity, working as an adjunct at the Tuberculosis Institute. She died in Konstancin. See A. (Rembalski, 2006, pp. 120–1123).

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opened on May 10th 1939, stood Scoutmaster Józef Ratajczak2, and his deputy Scoutmaster Janusz Wierusz-Kowalski.3 At the same time, commanders of the Emergency Services were appointed in individual regions. After the outbreak of the war, the Girl Scouts War Emergency Services undertook previously planned activities, cooperating with civilian and military authorities. They served as corpsmen, runners, and arrangers of care for refugees from frontier areas (Zawadzka, 2004, pp. 296–297). After the war, the Girl Scouts War Emergency Services undertook clandestine activity, taking over the leadership of the female scouting movement in the Polish lands. They kept in touch with the ZHP Headquarters. Twice a year, briefings were held for the commanders of the War Emergency Services from individual regions. There was a system of messengers that enabled the headquarters to stay in touch with the local areas. In cooperation with the ZWZ – AK (Union of Armed Struggle and the Home Army) authorities, training was conducted until 1942 for older girl scouts for auxiliary military

2

3

Józef Ratajczak (1897–1942), born in Poznań, active in scouting from 1912. During the First World War, he was drafted into the German Army and fought on the Western Front. After returning to the country, he took part in the Greater Poland Uprising. During the Polish–Soviet War, as an officer, he commanded a company. He was wounded twice. In the interwar period in his military service, he was promoted to the rank of major. In the ZHP, he became a Scoutmaster in 1932, among other functions becoming the Commandant of the Polish Scout Region as well as the Metropolitan Region. Until August 1939, he was the commander of the Scouts War Emergency Services. He participated in the September Campaign, temporarily commanding a regiment. He was secretly a member of the ZWZ (Union of Armed Struggle), commander of the Pomeranian District. He was arrested by the Gestapo in November 1940. He was executed by firing squad in May 1942 near Magdalenka (Derda, 2006, pp. 170–172). Janusz Juliusz Wierusz-Kowalski (1905–1963), born in Cumeń, in the area of Lutsk (nowadays Ukraine). After passing his Matura exams, he began studies at the Warsaw School of Economics, but did not finish them for financial reasons. He worked as an official in managerial positions. He was a member of the PPS (Polish Socialist Party). From 1918 he was active in the ZHP, in 1932 obtaining the rank of Scoutmaster. Among other roles, he was the commandant of a troop, the head of the Department in the General Boys’ Headquarters, the assistant leader of Chief of Scouts, and the Chief Deputy of the Scouts War Emergency Services. During the occupation, he was active in the structures of the popular resistance movement, but did not play a role in scouting. After the war, he was a member of the National Council. He was a member of the highest scouting governing bodies, and from May 1945 to October 1948 he was the chairman of the Provisional Supreme Scout Council. He was removed from the ZHP in 1949. After 1956, he was adviser to the Supreme Scout Council. He died in Warsaw (Tazbir, 2012, pp. 229–230).

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service and as well as conducting educational work. Instructor training was conducted as well. After the establishment of the Women’s Military Service under the AK, the Girl Scouts War Emergency Services directed to these structures trained medic and messaging teams of older girl scouts, limiting the scope of operations involving younger girl scouts. Near the end of the war, teams of instructors were set up to develop a program of action for the female movement in independent Poland. At the end of the war in March 1945, the Girl Scouts War Emergency Services was dissolved and the instructors headed by scoutmaster J. Łapińska (Leksykon…, 1988, p. 349) were dismissed from their positions as well. The activity of the Boy Scouts War Emergency Services was more complicated and shorter. Firstly, many ZHP instructors, commanders of the War Emergency Services at the level of regions and troops, were mobilized as reserve officers and participated in the battles in September and October in the defensive war. Obviously, this caused several problems with the efficient management of the Emergency Services. Secondly, the calls of military and civil authorities, recommending that young men should move eastwards to avoid falling into captivity at the hands of the Germans, meant that many older boy scouts either left their place of residence on an individual basis or in an organized manner, which influenced the activities of individual troops in Western and Central Poland (Zürn-Zahorski, 1999, pp. 114–115).

2. The Polish scout movement in the face of war and occupation. The size of the group In September 1945, M. Grażyński, the president of the ZHP (as he was a government minister), and the Chief of Scouts, Scoutmaster Zbigniew Trylski (as he was a reserve officer) left the country together with the government, crossing the Polish-Hungarian border with the army. During the war, the Scoutmaster Marian Luzar, the Supreme Chaplain of ZHP, died. However, the first vice-chairman of the ZHP, Scoutmaster of the Republic of Poland, priest Jan Mauersberger, vice-chairwoman Wanda Opęchowska and the Chief of the Girl Scouts, Maria Krynicka, remained in the country. The members of the Supreme Council who had remained in the besieged Warsaw decided on September 27th 1939 to begin ZHP activity in secret. The priest J. Mauersberger was appointed the acting chairman of the authorities, W. Opęchowska continued to function as vice chairman, the Scoutmaster Antoni Olbromski was the general secretary, while Chief Scoutmaster of the Republic of Poland,

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Maria Wocalewska, played the role of the delegate for the female division, and the Scoutmaster Florian Marciniak from Poznań4 was appointed the Chief of Scouts. It was decided to take the codename “Szare Szeregi” (Gray Ranks) and name the individual authorities using beekeeping terminology: the central headquarters was called “the Apiary”, the regions were “Hives”, districts were known as “Swarms” and troops as “Bees”. Immediately, cooperation was established with the armed underground Service for Poland’s Victory, transformed later into the Union of Armed Struggle – AK and the Government Delegacy which remained in exile. The aim of this action was to combine the struggle for independence with educational tasks, whose main purpose was to protect youth against the depravity associated with war conditions. Initially, only boys aged between 17 and 18 were trained. However, as early as 1942, it turned out that among the younger age groups, there was a need take them into an instructor’s care. From that time on, there were three age levels in the “Szare Szeregi”: “Zawisza” (boys aged 12–15), “Bojowe Szkoły” (Battle Schools) – “BS” (boys aged 15–17) and older scouts “Grupy Szturmowe” (Assault Groups) – “GS” (boys over 17) (Broniewski, 1983, pp. 18–20; Czarkowski, 2011, pp. 22–25). Table 2. Strength of “Szare Szeregi” (Gray Ranks) as of Spring 1944 No

Units

“Zawisza”

“BS”

“GS”

All

–

–

800*

800

2,549

820

1,364

4,733

275

747

537

1,559

–

–

510

510

–

150

436

586

1,717

3,647

8,188

1

“the Apiary”

2

Central Poland

3

Southern Poland

4

Eastern Poland

5

Western Poland

2,824

Total Source: Broniewski, 1983, p. 95

4

Florian Marciniak (1915–1944), was born in a small town in Greater Poland. After graduation from the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Poznań, he was employed in a bank. From high school on, he had been part of the scouting movement. In 1935, he attained the rank of Assistant Scoutmaster, and three years later the rank of Scoutmaster. After the outbreak of war, he organized the work of the Scouts’ Emergency Services, and a few hours before the German army entered Poznań, he left the city together with his subordinates. In Warsaw, despite his young age, he was appointed, as an unrecognizable person in the capital, as the Chief of Scouts. He performed this function in a remarkably responsible manner until May 6th 1943, that is until he was arrested by the Gestapo. Despite being tortured, he did not betray anyone. He was murdered in the GrossRosen camp in the first quarter of 1944. Stanisław Broniewski became the Chief of Scouts after Florian Marciniak, and the last was Leon Marszałek (Pilarczyk, 2006, pp. 135–137).

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Apart from the “Szare Szeregi”, during the occupation there were instructors and scouts connected before 1939 with the St. George Circle. On the initiative of the Scoutmaster of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Sedlaczek, they established, among other things, a new organization called Polish Scouting (HP) (from 1943, the name “Polish Troops” was adopted). This brought together people connected with the nationalist camp. It was assumed that only the Poles of Roman Catholic faith could belong to HP. It operated in four oblasts and 14 districts; in 1942, it had 160 units with 1,600 members over 16 years old. Initially, the Chief Scout was S. Sedlaczek, and after his arrest in 1941, Scoutmaster Witold Sawicki became the Chief Scout. Despite the talks on merging with the “Szare Szeregi”, no agreement was reached. Two HP units took part in the Warsaw Uprising; the Scout Company and the Scouting Runners Platoon (Ciura, 1998, pp. 45–108). Starting from 1943, the scouts from “GS” established several Special Forces, including the most famous battalion codenamed “Zośka”, which during the Warsaw Uprising fought until decimated and then combined with another battalion, “Parasol” (Leksykon…, 1988, p. 32).5 The latter had a total of 756 people, the ages of 557 of whom it has been possible to determine, including 77 boys born in 1927 and later (up to 1932). The losses of the battalion amounted to 372 soldiers, including 18 in special combat operations, 30 in “daily” activities, 278 lost during the Warsaw Uprising, 39 lost without any information, and seven who died from wounds after the war. In other words, the total loss of the troops slightly exceeded 50% of the headcount (Stachiewicz, 1981, pp. 626 –628). In addition, the scout battalion “Wigry” also participated in the battles of the Warsaw Uprising, at that time numbering about 400 soldiers, initially composed of instructors and older scouts belonging to the Polish Troops. From March 1944, the battalion was affiliated with the “Szare Szeregi”. Just like the aforementioned battalions of “Zośka” and “Parasol”, the “Wigry” battalion also suffered huge losses, reaching 50% of the headcount (Leksykon…, 1988, p. 94).

3. Girl Scouts to the age of 18 who suffered death at the hands of German in the years 1939–1945 As a result of the hard work of a team of several scout instructors (including, among others, the independent researchers Zofia Florczak, Irena Lepalczyk, and Maria Straszewska), materials on the history of scouts in 5

Leksykon harcerstwa…, 1988, p. 32.

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the years 1939–1945 have been collected. The first edition of this was edited by prof. M. Straszewska and published in 1973, and the second, edited by Krystyna Wyczańska in 1983. This volume contains an extensive list of losses in the girl’s scouting movement during the occupation period. This list contains 532 names, including 252 girl scouts from Warsaw (Harcerki…, 1983, pp. 176–458). This suggests that the list in relation to field units is not complete. Among those listed, no less than 91 girls were found who did not reach adulthood. In addition, two girl scouts from the region of Kielce who were not listed were added, and suffered death at German hands (Scouts, pp. 405–406, 426). In total, this group amounts to 93 people. In terms of age, most of the girls were aged from 16 to 18 years old. Detailed information on this subject is presented in the Table 3. Table 3. The age of juvenile scouts who suffered death at German hands in 1939–1945 No

Age

Number

Remarks

1

12

1

Elżbieta Nette from Grajewo, executed by firing squad in 1943

2

13

1

Maria Bartnik, runner from the “Parasol” battalion, died in the Uprising

3

14

2

4

15

5

5

16

27

6

17

19

7

18

38

Total

93

Source: Harcerki…, 1983, pp. 176–458, Harcerski…, 2012, pp. 405–406, 426

Most of the girl scouts shown in the cited lists and dictionaries were participants of the Warsaw Uprising, amounting to 65 persons, while 28 were killed in other circumstances. Among those who died during the Uprising, it is known that 34 served as a medics and 28 were runners. The majority, that is 64 people, died in Warsaw, the remaining five in Grajewo (Białystok region), four in the region of Lublin (Lublin, Zamość, Kraśnik, Dęblin), two from Skarżysko Kamienna (region of Kielce), two from Włodzimierz Wołyński (region from Volhynia) and one person each died from Wielkopolska, Vilnius, Łódź, Częstochowa, Tychy, Pomorze, Włocławek, Rybnik, Katowice, Krasnobród, and Toruń. Knowing the course of events in the territories occupied by the Germans, it is not surprising that the largest number of deaths occurred in 1944. Detailed information on this subject is provided in Table 4.

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Table 4. The year of death of juvenile Girl Scouts who were victims of the war and German occupation No

Year of death

Number of casualties

1.

1939

4

2

1940

4

3

1941

-

4

1942

2

5

1943

4

6

1944

75

7

1945

4

Total:

93

Source: Harcerki…, 1983, pp. 176–458; Harcerski…, 2012, pp. 405–406, 426

For the majority of juvenile girl scouts, it has been possible to determine the manner of death. 35 girls were executed by firing squad, including 11 corpsmen – the entire patrol at the St Lazarus Hospital on August 5th 1944 (Harcerki…, 1983, pp. 389–390). Several girl scouts were decorated for their heroism during battles. This is presented in Table 5. Table 5. Juvenile Girl Scouts who died during the occupation that were decorated for heroism on the battlefield No

Name, last name, pseudonym

Type of decoration

Remarks

1

Jaczynowska Irena, pseudonym “Irka”

Cross of Valor

Fell in combat 28.08.1944

2

Janczewska Zofia, pseudonym “Jaga”

Cross of Valor

Fell in combat 31.08.1944

3

Łempicka Dorota, pseudonym ?

Cross of Valor

Died from wounds 02.08.1944

4

Martensówna Zofia, pseudonym “Jaga”

Cross of Valor

Died 24.08.1944

5

Nelken Anna, pseudonym “Ninka”

Cross of Valor

Fell in combat 23.09.1944

6

Schirładze Irena, pseudonym “Irka”

Cross of Valor

Fell in combat 14.09.1944

7

Zmysłowska Beata, pseudonym “Beata” Cross of Valor

Fell in combat 14.08.1944

8

Seroczyńska Maria, pseudonym?

Executed by firing squad in May 1944, 27th Volyn Division

9

Trojanowska Janina, pseudonym „Janka” Silver Cross of Merit with Swords

Bronze Cross of Merit with Swords

Killed by bomb 04.08.1944

Source: Harcerki…, 1983, pp. 398, 399, 415, 418, 422, 437, 448, 457

According to the data provided in Table 5, eight decorated girl scouts were killed during the Warsaw Uprising, and only one, M. Seroczyńska from Włodzimierz Wołyński, a nurse in the 27th Volyn Division, was executed by firing squad in May 1944. Death in the concentration camp

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in Oświęcim was suffered by no less than three girl scouts: Magdalena Lechówna, a girl scout from Włocławek, murdered on April 27th 1942 when less than 18 years old and Ewa Urbanowiczówna from Warsaw, a girl scout, participant of Action “N”, also 18 years who was arrested in 1942, suffering death on February 12th 1944, and Ewa Reklewska, a girl scout from Skarżysko Kamienna, aged 17, who after her arrest was sent to Auschwitz and died in 1944, while the similarly aged girl scout Romana Sekuła from Lublin was executed by firing squad on April 18th 1942 at the Ravensbrück camp. Additionally, a 16-year-old girl scout from Rybnik, Jadwiga Tkaczówna, arrested on July 13th 1943, suffered death in the Ravensbrück camp in the following year.

4. Boy Scouts to the age of 18 who suffered death at German hands in the years 1939–1945 Unfortunately, there are no documented monographic publications regarding the loss of juvenile boy scouts during World War II. Among many items published in regional centers concerning the history of the scouts (in this or a wider chronological period), those works mostly written by amateurs, not historians, are in the majority. Hence, these texts contain errors and imprecision, and therefore they cannot constitute a basis to be accepted as reliable sources. Undoubtedly, this state of research on the history of the scouts was influenced by the period of the enslavement our country, especially during the Stalinist period, when many scouting documents were destroyed and numerous activists of the organization were repressed. For the reasons mentioned above, in the description of personal losses from 1949 to regarding juvenile scouts who suffered death at German hands, the exemplification method will be used based on two selected examples, which are presumably correctly documented in source materials. The first group of victims refers to juvenile soldiers from the Parasol battalion who died in Warsaw. In a work about the operations of this combat unit, it is possible to find information that refers to 25 killed from this formation during the Warsaw Uprising. Although it was a unit derived from the Szare Szeregi, especially during the period of Operation Tempest (Akcja Burza), the battalion included in its structures not only scouts. Notwithstanding, out of the 25 fallen juveniles, the names of six of them were annotated by the author with the information that they belonged to the

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Szare Szeregi. However, among the people mentioned, in several cases the information available is very scant. For example, there is no specific date of birth and death (Stachiewicz, 1981, pp. 626–628). It can therefore be assumed that also in some cases, no information could be found about belonging to the Szare Szeregi. Nonetheless, with all the names of the fallen juvenile soldiers of the Parasol Battalion, the year of birth was recorded, allowing the issue to be illustrate in detail in Table 6. Table 6. The year of birth of the fallen juvenile soldiers of the “Parasol” battalion Year of birth

Number of casualties

1.

No

1927

12

2

1928

7

3

1929

4

4

1930

1

5

1931

–

6

1932

1

Total:

25

Source: Stachiewicz, 1981, pp. 626–628

The second elected example in the area of interest will illustrate the situation in the male regional unit of Kielce. Before the outbreak of World War II, this was a relatively small organizational unit of the ZHP, because in the Kielce Voivodeship there were three regions: the aforementioned Kielce, Radom, and Zagłębie. During the occupation, the unit bore the codename of “Ul Skała” (Hive Skała) and on the eve of the Warsaw Uprising it had only 226 members. As a result of research, it was determined that no less than 17 juvenile scouts suffered death at German hands, including five from Kielce, nine from Skarżysko Kamienna, three from Starachowice, and one each from Ostrowiec and Włoszczowa (Scouts, pp. 14, 104, 110, 182, 182, 262, 289, 302, 322–333, 426, 441–442, 443–444, 469–470, 498, 571–572; Skarżyski…, 2008, pp. 74–75, 127). What it is worth mentioning is the fact that one of the victims of German terror was a scout from Kielce named Wojciech Szczepaniak. He was born in Radymno on June 30th 1927 into a family of a professional soldiers. He attended elementary school in Jarosław. There, in 1939, he completed six classes of elementary school. In May 1940, the Szczepaniak family moved to Kielce which was the hometown of Wojciech’s mother. He attended a primary school in the Baranówek district of Kielce. Due to his father’s illness, he had to take up a job working in Kielce industrial factories and then as a shop

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assistant. After the death of his father, he was employed in the “Społem” food processing plant. At the same time, he continued his studies in secret, finishing the first and second grade of middle school. He belonged to the scouts in Jarosław and continued his service in Kielce as a member of “Zawisza”, which was a part of the “Szare Szeregi”. His leader was Zygmunt Kwas. Under his influence, in the autumn of 1943 Szczepaniak took the oath to join the AK. He was a Section Leader in the BS unit in the Baranówek district of Kielce, with the pseudonym “Lwowiak”. His two brothers were also members of the “Szare Szeregi” and AK soldiers. Within the BS, scouts of the “Szare Szeregi” provided communication between units of the AK. One such runner was W. Szczepaniak. At the order of his superiors, on August 6th 1944, he was charged with passing a report to Daleszyce, 12 km away. The report was stitched into his collar. He was stopped at a bicycle crossing by a gendarmerie patrol, which thoroughly searched the boy and found the hidden document. The arrested boy was handed over to the Gestapo and interrogated. Despite being tortured, he betrayed no one. The Germans also arrested his mother and aunt and kept them in a neighboring cell in the building at the corner of Solna street and today’s Paderewskiego street. They heard the sound of the heroic boy being mistreated. As it was impossible to obtain any information from “Lwowiak”, he was executed by firing squad by the Germans at the site of mass executions at the Kielce Stadium on September 21st 1944. After the war, his remains were exhumed and buried at the Partisan Cemetery in Kielce. He is the patron of the Primary School in nearby Posłowice, and a street in Kielce is named after him (Scouts, pp. 469–471).

5. An attempt at summing up This work is the first attempt to depict the human losses brought about by the German terror in the years of World War II with regard to Polish juvenile girl and boy scouts. The lack of relevant details in the research on this subject make it impossible to treat this phenomenon in a synthetic manner. It can nevertheless be concluded, even on the basis of selected examples, that in the years 1939–1945, many hundreds of girl scouts and boy scouts lost their lives. They were, generally speaking, young people between the ages of 16 and 18. The vast majority of them were students of underground schools at the high school level or the first years of higher education. When one considers the ethical and moral obligation which they accepted by joining

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the scouts, it can be said without exaggeration that they were the elite of the young generation of Poles. Apart from the tragedy their relatives experienced, the death of these girl and boy scouts also constituted a great loss for Polish social life after 1945.

Bibliography Błażejewski W. (1985), Z dziejów harcerstwa polskiego (1910–1939), Warszawa. Broniewski S. („Stefan Orsza”) (1983), Całym życiem. Szare Szeregi w relacji naczelnika, Warszawa: PWN. Ciura G. (1998), Pełnić służbę Bogu i Polsce. Harcerstwo Polskie (Hufce Polskie) 1939 –1945, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Alfa-Wero. Czarkowski J.J. (2011), O metodzie harcerskiej i jej rozwoju, in: Na tropach harcerskiej metodyki. 100 lat harcerstwa polskiego, eds. G. Miłkowska, K. Stech, Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego. Derda J. (2006), Ratajczak Józef ps. Karolczak, Krauze, Karol, (1897–1942), in: Harcerski słownik biograficzny, t. 1, eds. J. Wojtycza, Warszawa: Muzeum Harcerstwa Warszawa, Łódź: Marron Edition. Gaj J. (1966), Główne nurty ideowe w ZHP w latach 1918–1939, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Harcerskie. Harcerki 1939–1945 (1983), ed. 2, ed. K. Wyczańska, Warszawa: PWN. Harcerski słownik biograficzny Kielecczyzny (2012), ed. A. Rembalski, Kielce: Agencja „JP”. Hausner W., Wierzbicki M. (2015), Sto lat harcerstwa, Warszawa: IPN Krzanowski A. (2006), Postaci patronów drużyn skautowych i harcerskich w latach 1911 –1939, in: Z dziejów ruchu harcerskiego. Studia – szkice – materiały. 1911–2006, ed. E. Czop, Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego. Leksykon harcerstwa (1988), ed. U. Fietkiewicz, Warszawa: Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza. Miśkowiec E. (2008), Proces samowychowania w harcerstwie, in: Dorobek pedagogiki harcerskiej, materials from the scientific conference organized on the 50th anniversary of the “Nieprzetarty Szlak”, ed. J. Wojtycza, Kraków: Wyd. inGraphic Mateusz Indyka. Pilarczyk Z. (2006), Marciniak Florian ps. Jerzy Grzegorzewski, Mieczysław Kujawski, Jerzy Nowak, J. Krzemień, Szary, (1915 – 1944), in: Harcerski słownik biograficzny, ed. J. Wojtycza, t. 1, Warszawa: Agencja „JP”. Rembalski A. (2006), Łapińska Józefina, ps. Jadwiga Ławińska, Katarzyna (1900–1986), in: Harcerski słownik biograficzny, t. 1, ed. J. Wojtycza, Warszawa: Agencja „JP”. Skarżyski słownik biograficzny (2008), ed. K. Zemeła, Skarżysko-Kamienna: Muzeum im. Orła Białego.

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239

Stachiewicz P. (1981), „Parasol”. Dzieje oddziału do zadań specjalnych Kierownictwa Dywersji Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej, Warszawa: Instytut wydawniczy „Pax”. Śliwerski B. (2008), Harcerstwo jako awangardowy w dziejach pedagogiki system samowychowawczy, in: Dorobek pedagogiki harcerskiej, materials from the scientific conference organized on the 50th anniversary of the “Nieprzetarty Szlak”, ed. J. Wojtycza, Kraków: Wyd. inGraphic Mateusz Indyka. Tazbir J. (2012), Wierusz-Kowalski Janusz Julian ps. Roman (1905–1963), in: Harcerski słownik biograficzny, ed. J. Wojtycza, t. 3, Warszawa: Agencja „JP”. Zawadzka A. (2004), Dzieje harcerstwa żeńskiego w Polsce w latach 1911–1948/49, Warszawa: „Horyzonty”. Zürn-Zahorski Z. (1999), Pogotowie Harcerek i Pogotowie Harcerzy we wrześniu 1939 r., Kraków: Anna Szeliga Zahorska.

Appendix I Juvenile Girl Scouts that suffered death during the German occupation 1939–1945 Source: Harcerki 1939–1945 (1983), 2nd edition corrected, ed. K. Wyczańska, Warszawa: PWN, List start pp. 376–458.

p. 377

Bartnik Maria Teresa „Diana”, age – 13, Warsaw, runner in “Parasol” battalion, fallen in combat 13.08.1944

p. 378 p. 378

Bieńkowska Irena „Iris”, age – 18, Grajewo, executed by firing squad 23.10.1944 Bieńkowska Krystyna „Nasturcja”, age – 16, Grajewo, executed by firing squad 23.10.1944

p. 379

Bobik Danuta „Wisła”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 380

Bogusławska Teresa, age – 15, Warsaw, imprisoned at Pawiak, died in Zakopane 01.02.1945

p. 382

Chuchla Kazimiera “Kaja”, age – 16, Warsaw, runner, died 01.09.1944

p. 382

Chuchla Maria “Maja”, age – 17, Warsaw, runner, died 20.09.1944

p. 382

Ciszewska Maria “Irka”, age – ca 18, Warsaw, corpsman, missed after 22.08.1944

p. 383

Czerwińska Alicja “Małgorzata”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner in “Parasol” battalion, died 14.09.1944

p. 385

Dąbrowska Irena “Kanarek”, age – 16, Białystok Grajewo, executed by firing squad 20.01.1945

p. 386

Dybczyńska Alicja “Ala”, „Alina”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died 17.09.1944

240

Adam Massalski

p. 387

Dziarkowska Leokadia, age – 14, Kraśnik, died during the bombing, 08.09.1939

p. 389

Gadomska Krystyna “Granat [Granit?]”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 390

Gąsiorowska Halina [Borenstein Chaja] “Halina”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died 26.08.1944

p. 390

Gecow Irena, age – 18, Warsaw, imprisoned at Pawiak, executed by firing squad 09.04.1944

p. 391

Golenkow Danuta “Leśna”, age – 15, Warsaw, corpsman, fallen in combat 14.09.1944

p. 392

Grelewska Alina Zofia “Szarotka”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by

p. 393

Grudzińska Zofia, age – 18, Warsaw, executed by firing squad 19.05.1944

p. 395

Hein Peregrina, age – 16, villiage of Osie, Swiecie Pomorze, shot in 1939

p. 395

Herman Krystyna “Żubr”, age – 18, Warsaw, died during the action of Szare

firing squad 05.08.1944

Szeregi in 1943 p. 396

Horodyńska Barbara, age – 16, Warsaw, runner, died in August 1944

p. 398

Jaczynowska Irena “Irka”, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman, fallen in combat 28.08.1944, Cross of Valour

p. 399

Jamiołkowska Janina “Sława”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 399

Janczewska Zofia “Jaga”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner, fallen in combat 31.08.1944, Cross of Valour

p. 400

Jaxa-Bykowska Hanna, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died 16.09.1944

p. 402

Kardaszewicz Ewa, age – 16, Cracow – Nowy Sącz, executed by firing squad 27.04.1944

p. 403

Kawecka Jolanta “Halszka”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, died 22.08.1944

p. 403

Kempska Zdzisława “Strumyk”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad, 05.08.1944

p. 403

Kierszniewska Grażyna, age – 16, Zamość, arrested, executed by firing squad 08.07.1940

p. 404

Kołdoń Anna “Anusia”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner, died 02.09.1944

p. 404

Kołodzińska Alicja “Ala”, age – 16, Warsaw, runner, arrested 11.04.1944, murdered by Gestapo

p. 408

Krassowska Maria “Majka”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died from 1st to 2.08.1944

p. 412

Langner Stanisława, age – 18,Częstochowa, arrested 29.02.1940, executed by

p. 414

Lechówna Magdalena, age – 18, Włocławek, Camp KL Auschwitz, died

firing squad 04.07.1944 27.04.1942

Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation…

p. 414

241

Lewestam Maria Teresa “Marylka”, age – 17, Vilno/Łowicz, died after the Uprising 10.09.1944

p. 414

“Lilka”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, died 01.08.1944

p. 415

Łempicka Dorota, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman of “Zośka” battalion, badly wounded died 2.08.1944, Assistant Scoutmaster, Cross of Valour

p. 417

Majnuszówna Anna, age – 16, Tychy, runner in Szopienice district, died in September 1939

p. 418

Maleszewska Krystyna “Rafał”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner in “Parasol” battalion, died 09.1944

p. 418

Małolepsza Danuta “Roma”, age – 17, Warsaw, runner, “Parasol” battalion, fallen in combat 20.08.1944

p. 418

Martensówna Zofia “Jaga”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman (?), died 24.08.1944, Cross of Valour

p. 419

Masłowska Elżbieta “Sosna”, age – 15, Grajewo, executed by firing squad 20.01.1945

p. 419

Matysiak Irena “Ita”, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944.

p. 421

Morońska Jolanta “Ryś”, age – 17, Warsaw, AK, died from bomb 16.09.1944

p. 422

Naurzyńska Ludwika “Zenka”, age – ca 17, Warsaw, runner, 02.09.1944

p. 422

Nazdrowicz Barbara Maria “Wiewiórka”, age – 15, Łódź/Warsaw, runner, died 19.09.1944

p. 422

Nelken Anna “Inka”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner, fallen in combat 23.09. 1944, Cross of Valour

p. 423

Netter Elżbieta “Stokrotka”, age – 12, Grajewo, executed by firing squad 15.07.1943

p. 423

“Niusia”, age – ca 14, Warsaw, runner of Scout Posts, died from bomb 02.09.1944

p. 424

Niżyńska Krystyna “Krysia”, “Zula”, age – 16, Warsaw, runner and corpsman of “Zośka” battalion, murdered after 24.09.1944

p. 425

Orzechowska Barbara “Orzeszek”, age – 16, Warsaw, died 31.08.1944

p. 427

Pietuch-Pietrzak Zofia, age – 17, Dęblin, runner, arrested, executed by firing squad 29.06.1940

p. 428

Piwnicka Kazimiera “Ula”, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman, died with patrol 02.08.1944

p. 430

Policewiczówna Krystyna “Sewa”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner, wounded, died in hospital 5/6.08.1944

p. 431

Przemieniecka Janina “Jasia”, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died 26.08.1944

p. 434

Reszel Aldona “Aldona”, age – 17, Warsaw, runner of “Parasol” battalion, fallen in combat 16.08.1944, Cross of Valour

242 p. 434

Adam Massalski

Riedel Zofia “Ster”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 434

Rochmankowska Renata, age – 18, AK solider, died in the Uprising

p. 435

Roeslerówna Aleksandra, age – 17, Greater Poland, died during air raid 09.1939

p. 436

Sawicka Anna “Anula”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman of “Zośka” battalion, wounded, died 15.09.1944.

p. 437

Schayer Maria Alicja, age – 16, Warsaw, died in uprising 14.09.1944

p. 437

Schirładze Irena “Irka”, age – 16, Warsaw, runner, fallen in combat 14.09.1944, Cross of Valour

p. 437

Sekuła Romana, age – 18, Lublin, arrested 23.09.1941, Ravensbrück, executed by firing squad 18.04.1942.

p. 437

Seroczyńska Maria, age – 18, Włodzimierz Wołyński, corpsman of 27th AK division, executed by firing squad mid-May 1944, Bronze Cross of Merit with Swords

p. 439

Sierakowska Irena, age – 18, Włodzimierz Wołyński, AK runner, died in Warsaw Uprising

p. 439

Siewierska Barbara, age – 16, Warsaw, runner and corpsman, wounded in uprising, died after few months

p. 439

Sikorska Alicja “Wacka”, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman, died during air raid 30.08.1944

p. 439

Sikorska Bogusława, age – 16, Częstochowa, corpsman, died in the line of duty at the station 29.08.1944

p. 440

Sławińska Janina “Szczyt”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 441

Soroczyńska Halina “Sroczka”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman of “Gustaw” battalion, died 26.08.1944

p. 444

Szatko Zofia, age – 18, Katowice, arrested, executed by firing squad in Tarnów 18.08.1943

p. 444

Szczęsna Lucyna “Lusia”, age – 17, Warsaw, “Zośka” battalion, runner, wounded, died in late September 1944.

p. 445

Sztarejko Danuta, age – 17, Pińsk/Zamość, arrested, executed by firing squad 08.07.1940

p. 445

Szurowska Wanda, age – 18, Włodzimierz Wołyński, corpsman of 27th AK division, died 20.04.1944

p. 447

Swięcka Irena “Irka”, age – 18, Warsaw (?), “Parasol” battalion, runner, fallen in combat 21.08.1944

p. 447

Tkoczówna Jadwiga, age – 16, Rybnik, arrested 13.07.1943, Ravensbrück, died 1944

Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation…

p. 448

243

Trojanowska Janina “Janka”, age – 18, Warsaw, runner, died from bomb 04.08.1944, Silver Cross of Merit with Swords

p. 449

Umińska Barbara, age – 16, Krasnobród, corpsman, September 1939

p. 449

Urbanowiczówna Ewa, age – 18, Warsaw, Action “N”, arrested 1942, died in KL Auschwitz, 12.02.1944

p. 450

Wajszczuk Barbara “Basia”, age – 18, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded, died 26.08.1944

p. 450

Waligórska Irena, age – 18, Warsaw, Action “N”, arrested 1942, died in Oświęcim 01.09.1943

p. 451

Wasilewska Irena, age – 18, Warsaw, arrested 01.1940, executed by firing squad Palmiry 02.04.1940

p. 451

Wasilewska-Drzewica Zofia “Brygida” „Zoja”, age – 17, Toruń/Warsaw, corpsman, fallen in combat during the Uprising

p. 452

Wendtówna Elżbieta “Zuzia”, age – 18, runner, died in the Uprising

p. 453

Wodnicka Adrianna “Ada” “Grażyna”, age – 16, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 454

Wysocka Leokadia “Giewont”, age – 15, Warsaw, corpsman, executed by firing squad 05.08.1944

p. 455

Zakrzewska Hanna “Hanka Biała”, age – 18, Warsaw, “Parasol” battalion, runner, fallen in combat 11.08.1944, Cross of Valour

p. 455

Zaleska Alicja, age – 17, Warsaw, corpsman, wounded 05.08.1944, killed

p. 456

Zawadzka Jadwiga, age – 16, Warsaw, runner, died in sewers ca 30.08.1944

p. 457

“Ziuta”, age – ca 15, Warsaw, runner, died in the Uprising

p. 457

Zmysłowska Barbara “Beata”, age – 18, Warsaw corpsman, fallen in combat 14.08.1944, Cross of Valour

Appendix II Juvenile Scouts from Skarżysko-Kammienna that suffered death from the German hands in years 1939–1945 Source: Skarżyski słownik biograficzny (2008), ed. K. Zemeła, Skarżysko-Kamienna.

p. 74

Ergietowski Witold (1922–1940), leader of 1st SDH (Independent Scout Unit), defensive war, “Orzeł Biały”, executed by firing squad in Bór 12.02.1940

p. 127

Kuźniar Karol (1925–1940), Skarżysko-Kamienna, scout, “Orzeł Biały”, executed by firing squad in Bór, 13.02.1940

244

Adam Massalski

Appendix III Juvenile scouts from Kielce region that suffered death from German hands in years 1939–1945 Source: Harcerski słownik biograficzny Kielecczyzny (2012), ed. A. Rembalski, Kielce

p. 14

Badowski Władysław, 18 y.o., 4 KDH (Kielce Scout Unit), Kielce, murdered in Wąchock 08.09.1939

p. 104

Faliszewski Bogdan, 16 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, executed by firing squad in Bór, 12.02.1940

p. 119

Fruner Ryszard, 18 y.o., Starachowice, died from bomb during air raid, 11.09.1944

p. 182

Jankowski Mieczysław, 18 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, executed by firing squad in Bór, 12–16 02.1940

p. 182

Kuliński Jerzy, 16 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, executed by firing squad in Bór, 15 02.1940

p. 258

Kuźniar Karol, 15 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, executed by firing squad in Bór, 13.02.1940

p. 262

Kwietniewski Henryk, 18 y.o., Włoszczowa, AK, fallen in combat, Summer 1943

p. 289

Łazarczyk Zbigniew, 18 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna., AK, fallen in combat, 08.1944

p. 302

Manowski Kazimierz, 17 y.o., Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski., AK runner, fallen in combat, 03.10.1944

p. 332

Mianowski Janusz, 17 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna., executed by firing squad in Bór, 12.02.1940

p. 405

Reklewska Ewa, 17 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, arrested 13.10.43, died in KL Auschwitz, 25.01.1944

p. 426

Skonieczna Irena, 18 y.o., Skarżysko-Kamienna, arrested 27.03.1943, died in KL Auschwitz, 1944

p. 426

Skowron Zbigniew, 18 y.o., Starachowice, AK, executed by firing squad 01.08.1943

p. 441

Sokalski Jerzy, 17 y.o., Kielce, arrested 10.02.1941, KL Auschwitz, died 22.08.1941

p. 443

Sokalski Stefan, 17 y.o., Kielce, arrested 10.02.1941, KL Auschwitz, died 06.1941

p. 469

Szczepaniak Wojciech, 17 y.o., Kielce, arrested 06.08.1944, executed by firing squad Kielce Stadium, 21.09.1944

p. 498

Wacowski Aleksander, 14 y.o., Starachowice, died 06.09.1939

p. 571

Wolski Witold, 16 y.o., Kielce, arrested 12.1939, executed by firing squad 06.01.1940

Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation…

245

Appendix IV Juvenile Boy Scouts from “Parasol” battalion that suffered death from German hands in years 1939–1945 Source: P. Stachiewicz (1981), “Parasol”. Dzieje oddziału do zadań specjalnych Kierownictwa Dywersji Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej, Warszawa.

p. 668

Jędrzejewski Ireneusz pseudonym “Bohun”, b. 01. I 1927, 22 VIII 1944 in Old Town

p. 669

Tomaszewski Wiktor pseudonym “Bończa”, b. 21 VII 1927, 20 IX 1944 in Czerniaków

p. 669

Szczepaniak Zygmunt pseudonym “Borski”, b.. 31 V 1929. 31 VIII 1944 in Old Town, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks)

p. 676

Ruszkowski Dariusz pseudonym “Darek”, b. 10 V 1929, 15 IX 1944 r. in Czerniaków, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks)

p. 677

Felkel Tadeusz pseudonym “Dąb”, b. 1927, 5 VIII 1944, in Wola

p. 684

Wojtkowski Roman pseudonym “Gryf ”, b. 17 VI 1927? IX 1944 r. in Czerniaków, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks).

p. 694

Grządko Józef pseudonym “Józek”, b. 1927, 13 IX 1944 in Czerniaków

p. 695

Balcerowicz Kazimierz pseudonym “Jur”, b. 14 V 1928, 12 VIII 1944 in Old Town

p. 306

Kluszewicz Andrzej pseudonym “Klucha”, b. 1927, 1 IX 1944 in Old Town

p. 700

Usakiewicz Witold, pseudonym “Kol”, b. 1927, 8 VIII 1944 in Wola

p. 708

Obrębowski Robert pseudonym “Lew”, b. 1929, 27 VIII 1944 in Old Town

p. 709

Dworakowski Bolesław pseudonym “Lis”, b. 10 VII 28, wounded 11 VIII 1944 died in Old Town, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks)

p. 716

[?] Zbigniew, pseudonym “Młodzik”, b. 1928, 11/12 IX 1944 in Czerniaków

p. 726

Pyziak Wiesław pseudonym “Puk”, b. 21 I 1927, 28 VIII 1944 wounded in Old Town, died 02 V 1945

p. 730

Witkowski Jan, pseudonym “Ryś II”, b. 24 V 1929, 15 XII 1944 in Wola

p. 730

[?], pseudonym “Sambo”, b. ? 1930, August 1944 in Old Town

p. 731

Bienias Seweryn pseudonym “Selim”, b. 1928 (?), 2 VIII 1944 in Wola

p. 731

Konarski Andrzej pseudonym “Sęp”, b. 1928, died during the uprising

p. 740

Sałasiński Ryszard pseudonym “Tarzan”, b. 1927, ? IX 1944 in Czerniaków

p. 742

Starnowski Zbigniew pseudonym “Tomek”, b. 10 IX 1927, 1 IX 1944 in Old Town, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks)

p. 743

Staniszewski Kazimierz pseudonym “Turski”, b. 1927, 1 IX 1944 in Old Town, Sz. Sz (Gray Ranks)

246

Adam Massalski

p. 743

Golik Jerzy pseudonym “Tyran”, b. 9 IX 1927, 29 VIII 1944 in Old Town

p. 745

Modelski Witold pseudonym “Warszawiak”, b. 1932, 20 IX 1944 in Czerniaków

p. 746

Pielaszek Władysław pseudonym “Wicek”, b. 25 VI 1928, 25 VIII 1944 in Old Town

ANDRZEJ RYK PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF KRAKOW

THE FATE OF POLISH CHILDREN IN ALLIED-OCCUPIED GERMANY IN THE YEARS 1945–1950

Ab s t r a c t : The Second World War brought not only material destruction, but also and perhaps foremost a spiritual and moral ruin. This was felt very painfully by the Polish nation, towards which the Nazi Germany had prepared a policy of total annihilation. This program had severe repercussions for Polish children, who became hostages to a false idea of the greatness and exceptionalism of the German nation, of the superiority of the Master Race. This chapter gives an outline of the basic problems faced by both the Polish state and Polish families during their attempts to repatriate kidnapped and deported children who remained in the Allied occupation zones after 1945. Ke y word s : Polish child war victims, children in Allied occupation zones, the fate of Polish children in the Second World War

During World War II, as a result of the deliberate and planned extermination of the Polish nation, more than 2.5 million of Polish citizens were sent to the territories of the German Third Reich. Among them were about 200 thousand children aged 12 and less (Wnuk, 1982, p. 425). The Nazi authorities issued several resolutions and regulations (Helbing, 2017, pp. 19–22) which “organized” these criminal practices (Wnuk, 1982, p. 425). Among them “the decree of Heinrich Himmler as the SS Reichsführer and the Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood on Screening and Selecting the Population in the Annexed Territories (...) stated that against those who refuse re-Germanisation, Security Police measures are to be taken and that their children “who cannot be held responsible for their parents’ behavior” are to be taken to proper German institutions” (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, p. 111). The “Drive to the East” (Drang nach Osten) policy, the Lebensraum concept of creating a new living space for the German nation (Eberhardt, 2008,

248

Andrzej Ryk

pp. 175–198)1, the racist-fascist ideology set out in, for example, Hitler’s Mein Kampf 2 and the so called Nuremberg Laws of September 15th, 1935 on Reich citizenship, protection of German Blood and German Honor and the Healthy Heritage of the German Nation became the grounds for persecutions against the Polish people, which included the physical, psychological and spiritual extermination of children and youth (Madajczyk, 1969, pp. 15–26). The laws included executive clauses and established the state bodies responsible for the implementation of the racist policy of the German Third Reich. Among these bodies were the Reich Main Security Office, the Gestapo – the Secret State Police, the Main Office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, the Main Office for Race and Settlement, the Ethnic German Liaison Office, the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, the Operations Groups of the Security Police, the Lebensborn association, the so-called German Motherland schools (Deutsche Heimschulen), the National Socialist People’s Welfare, and the Reich Adoption Office (Hrabar, Tokarz, Wilczur, 1979, pp. 168–179). Hrabar (1975, p. 12) notes that: Hitler saw only one way to secure the stability, power and development of his nation – through strict adherence to racial laws. He was convinced that a nation which ignores these laws is doomed to inevitable extinction. He saw the proof of it in the fall of all cultures, as people do not die due to wars 1

2

See Eberhardt, 2008. “The Lebensraum doctrine treated geographical space as the fundamental factor in the lives of nations, the source of civilizational progress. The fight for domination actually boiled down to conquering space. Reference was made to Darwinism and the struggle for existence, where the less organized and incapable must be doomed to marginalization and even annihilation. This was understood to be the way of nature and resistance only proved a lack of understanding of natural laws. This pseudo-scientific theory which applied the rules of the animal world to the life of societies and nations had many proponents among the luminaries of science” (p. 176). In September 1933, under the article of the then Penal Code, for “disgrace against the Polish nation”, the County Court in Katowice forbade printing and distributing Hitler’s Mein Kampf, for – among others – the following statement: “Here (that is, in Germany) too it was believed that one could bring about a Germanization of the Polish element by a purely linguistic integration into the German nationality. Here too the result would have been an unfortunate one: people of an alien race, expressing their alien thoughts in the German language, compromising the greatness and the dignity of our own nationality by its own inferiority” (as cited in “Express Ilustrowany”, Friday September 22nd 1933, Rok XL, http://bc.wimbp.lodz.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=31831 [access: 27.05.2019]).

The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950

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lost but because they lose resilience which is specific to “pure blood” only. Losing this blood purity permanently destroys inner happiness, leading to a permanent downfall of men, and the results of this process cannot be removed either from the body or from the soul.

When the war was over and Germany was divided into four occupation zones, the return deported and lost children became a necessity.3 However, this was not an easy task. Polish children were scattered over the four occupation zones in Germany, the American, French4, British, and Soviet zones, in a variety of different settings; 1) in German families as foster or adopted children; 2) in various adoption centers intended for Germanisation; 3) in nurseries, orphanages or care facilities; 4) in German families, most often as domestic help; 5) working in various factories and living in factory camps; 6) liberated from concentration camps and other types of Nazi camps; 7) and also so-called wandering children who were searching for a way back home on their own (Tokarz, 1982, pp. 407–408). From the legal point of view, the decision to repatriate children belonged to the proper authorities in a given occupation zone. We need to point out that the administrative bodies of the zones approached this problem differently and not in a unified way (Tokarz, 1982, p. 423).5 This problem has also been addressed by Czesław Brzoza (2013, pp. 141–175), who analyzes the situation of Polish war prisoners in Allied-occupied Germany. In general, repatriation of each child required the following procedures to be implemented: 1) determination of parents’ address in the child’s country of origin; 2) provision of, among others, the child’s birth certificate or other documents confirming their place and date of birth; 3) receipt of a child repatriation request written by the parents or administrative authorities proper for the child’s place of residence; 4) if the 3

4 5

It seems that estimating the losses of Polish population in the so-called Eastern Borderlands, invaded by the Soviet Union on 17th September 1939, is a separate problem (Kersten, 1994, pp. 42–51). Paweł Sękowski (2014, pp. 71–83) describes the situation and the conditions of the repatriation of the Poles in the French occupation zone. It should be pointed out that in the Soviet occupation zone, the activity of different international organizations and institutions recognized by the other allies was very limited and most often did not cover this area. Zofia Tokarz writes that the report of the International Tracing Service from 30 June 1950 “does not cover the Soviet zone from where about 29 thousand children and youth up to 30 years of age were reclaimed and repatriated” (Tokarz, 1982, p. 423).

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child was 16 or more, he or she could decide whether or not to initiate the repatriation procedure (Tokarz, 1982, p. 408). Sometimes, the exchange of documents could be protracted (Tokarz, 1982, p. 420)6 and bureaucracy hindered the repatriation of the minors (Tokarz, 1982, p. 421).7 The main institution dealing with children’s repatriation was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in London.8 The special executive unit was the International Tracing Service, seated in Arolsen, and the Child Care Department. Each of the occupation zones had their own 6

7

8

An example of a document exchange and necessary formalities: “Dąbrowa Norbert, born on January 24th, 1936. February 6th, 1947, the child was registered by an UNRRA officer. In a letter to the German factory and to the boy, his mother demanded the repatriation of her son. May 10th, 1948, a letter is sent from the Child Tracing Section (Esslingen) to the mother asking her to send the relevant documents. August 5th, 1948, a letter is sent from the Polish Red Cross Agency in the American zone to the District Starost Office in Gliwice where the child had come from. October 1st, 1948, the Agency received the mother’s request to repatriate her son, the child’s birth certificate and a certificate of Polish nationality. October 11th, 1948, the documents received were transferred to the UNRRA Child Care Department. October 13th, 1948, a Polish repatriation officer approved the child for the repatriation. March 9th, 1949, the repatriation was granted. May 25th, 1949, the child was repatriated from the IRO Bad Aibling center. The length of the repatriation process: 27 and a half months”, as cited in: Tokarz, 1982, p. 420. Among others, a letter from the Polish Red Cross Agency in the British zone dated June 10th 1950, addressed to the Polish Military Mission by the Allied Control Council for Germany, the Consular Department, regarding Janina and Irena Hoffmann. The first letter regarding this case, sent on May 4th, 1949, was not proceeded with due to a lack of documentation. It stated that: “Regarding the letter from March 30th 1949 K.B. (58323) Op. Sp. I hereby send the birth certificates of Danuta Janina and Irena Hoffmann. After their father, Hieronim Hoffman, was arrested on April 10th, 1941 for participation in resistance activities in Poznań and sentenced under a court judgment, the children were placed in the Mauthausen camp. As their mother died on June 30th, 1941, the children were admitted to an orphanage in Poznań. The father of the children died in the camp on January 26th, 1944. On January 18th, 1945, during the evacuation of Poznań by the occupying forces, the children were transported to Germany where they have been living until now. The sisters of the above-mentioned children who were deported at the same time, Maria and Alicja Hoffmann, returned on July 6th, 1947 with the help of the Red Cross and remain in Poznań under the care of their grandmother, Franciszka Cieślak. I ask the Consular Department to take care of the children and accelerate their reunion with their family. Please find attached 3 birth certificates, a copy of the father’s death certificate and the statement of children’s grandmother, Fr. Cieślak,” as cited in: Tokarz, 1982, p. 421. According to Krystyna Kersten, the Soviet government did not want UNRRA representatives in their occupation zone, which indicates the lack of unified repatriation rules in the zones (Kersten, 1967, p. 12).

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UNRRA representative.9 As noted by Janusz Skodlarski (1987, p. 126), in 1946 help from UNRRA constituted 22% of the national income of Poland and 10.6% of all goods and services available in the country. On March 25th, 1946 the chief commander of the US Military Command in Europe issued a decree which obliged German authorities to perform a census of the foreign nationalities living in the allied occupation zones. In the American zone, the census was conducted starting mid-1946 to July 31st, 1947, whereas in the French zone it was completed in May 1949 and covered three groups of children: citizens of the anti-Nazi coalition, stateless children, and children of other nationalities. The children were categorized according to gender, age and place of stay. For a variety of reasons, such a census could not be carried out in the British and Soviet zones. For example, the number of children reported in the American zone in the years 1946–1947 was: 4,201 in Bavaria, 3,076 in Hesse, 948 in Northern Baden, and 410 in Württemberg (Pietruszka, 1947, as cited in Tokarz, 1982, p. 410). It should be pointed out that from the very beginning, the Polish Red Cross accredited by the UNRRA joined in on the tracing efforts. The Red Cross Agency was based first in Spenge, and from mid-1948 in Munich. The Polish Red Cross-Tracing Bureau – Agency for Germany was located in Spenge. The Agency had a number of field units, the so-called Areas: Area 1 with an office in Kassel, Area 2 with an office in Nellingen, Area 3 with an office in Ansbach, Area 4 with an office in Regensburg, Area 5 with an office in Augsburg, Area 6 with an office in Ganting, and Area 7 with an office in Siegsdorf (formerly Rosenheim). The Red Cross Agency in the French zone was first located in Überlingen, then in Schramberg and then in Baden-Baden. The French zone was divided into provinces and tracing areas: Baden-Fryburg, Offenburg, Stockach, Württemberg-Tübingen, Freundenstadt, Ravensburg, Rhineland-Koblenz, Neustadt. The Red Cross Agency in the British zone had its office in Spenge, while the Soviet one was located in Berlin (Tokarz, 1982, pp. 411–412). At the same time, the Red Cross in Warsaw opened a central register of missing persons (Tokarz, 1982, p. 421).10 For this purpose, field admin9

In the American zone, the UNRRA main quarters were in Heidelberg and then in Wiesbaden and Ludwigsburg. In the British zone the quarters were located in Lemgo, and in the French zone – in Baden-Baden. 10 According to Z. Tokarz, the Red Cross archives in Warsaw include the data of over 17,000 missing children. There were radio announcements and letters from children published in the press. See: Tokarz, 1982, p. 421.

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istrative units were employed – mainly schools where children and youth born in the years 1926–1945 were registered. However, it was impossible to conduct a complete census because, as we know, due to post-war treaties and agreements, the borders of Poland were significantly changed compared to September 1939 and before. In 1947, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, in agreement with the Polish Red Cross, established the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Repatriation of Children. Also established were the Polish Military Mission and Polish Repatriation Mission with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. The Polish Repatriation Mission functioned in the occupation zones as a body coordinated by the Polish Military Mission seated in Berlin. In the Soviet occupation zone the mission had its office in Berlin, in the British occupation zone in Bad Oeynhausen/Bad Salzuflen together with field offices and units, and in the American occupation zone in Frankfurt am Main with an agency in Munich, Stuttgart, and Nuremberg. In the French occupation zone, the central office was in Rastatt. The Polish Repatriation Mission in Germany functioned until mid-1947. They were then reorganized and their work was taken over by the Consular Department of the Polish Military Mission with headquarters in Berlin and its agencies in the Allied-occupied zones. In the occupation zones, there were also so-called liaison officers whose role was to determine the nationality of children and submit repatriation requests to Poland (Radomsk, n.d.).11 Each of the occupation zones had its own liaison officers acting on the territory of the zone, agency or area. In the occupation zones, international centers were established for children of different nationalities aged up to 16 who were waiting for repatriation. The most known were Aglasterhausen, Bad Aibling, Deggendorf, Prien, Kloster Indersdorf, and Kaufbeuren. There were also centers for Polish children only, for example in Wartenberg, Bensheim/Auerbach, and Falingsbostel (Tokarz, 1982, p. 414). Starting in 1947, a special tracing mission was founded in Warsaw. Its role was to trace Polish children in Germany who were deported there for Germanization purposes. Together with the Polish Red Cross, it also collected and secured the evidence of genocide against Polish children. The team was led by Roman Hrabar. The so-called “Hrabar mission”, acting as a plenipotentiary of the Polish government for the repatriation of the Polish children, faced many obstacles from both the German administration of 11 The full list of the Polish Repatriation Mission and its workers is presented by J.A. Radomski (b.d.).

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Table 1. Number of children in UNRRA centers – June 1947 Children under 6

Children aged 6–18

Total

British zone

13,261

6,741

20,002

American zone

8,271

4,674

12,945

French zone

2,139

897

3,036

23,671

12,312

35,983

Total

Source: AAN 522/447, as cited in I. Helbing (2017), Polens verlorene Kinder. Die Suche und Repartiirung verschleppter polnischer Kindernach 1945, p. 309

Table 2. Repatriation of Polish children from Allied occupation zones – as of June 30th 1950 – the Polish Red Cross Agency in Germany Children repatriated

Children waiting for repatriation

Children with documents pending

Total

British zone

1,040

14

193

1,247

American zone

1,195

12

931

2,138

196

6

299

501

2,431

32

1,423

French zone Total

Source: AGK, Zespół PCK, p. 30, t. 1a, as cited in: Tokarz, 1982, p. 424

the time and the authorities in the occupation zones. Another source of additional difficulties was also the appearance on November 18th, 1947 of a Resolution of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) regulating the definition of an unaccompanied child, was unfavorable for the Polish mission (Wnuk, 1982, p. 426). In May and June 1947, representatives of the Polish military mission met with the administration of the American zone. The meeting was attended by, among others, Józef Wnuk, the chief of the Polish Military Mission, Roman Hrabar, the Plenipotentiary for the Revindication of Polish Children, the American Governor in Bayern with some ministers, and a representative of the UNRRA Board in Heidelberg. During the meeting, the rules for the tracing and repatriation of Polish children were agreed. It is estimated that only about 15% of the children deported from Poland returned to their families (Wnuk, 1982, pp. 427–428). In August 1950, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) decided to close the repatriation process in the British zone and assume that children identified as Polish but not repatriated by then should stay in Germany with their German families or in German care institutions. At the same

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time, the gradual closure of the repatriation centers began (Wnuk, 1982, p. 422). All the documents were transported to Arolsen, to the archive which exists until today.12 World War II brought not only physical destruction but first of all left a legacy of spiritual and moral debris. The Polish nation was particularly hard hit due to the German Nazi policy aimed at total annihilation. This policy strongly affected Polish children, who became the hostages of false ideas about the greatness and uniqueness of the German nation, and the superiority of the master race.

Bibliography Brzoza Cz. (2013), Jeńcy polscy w zachodnich strefach okupacyjnych w Niemczech po II wojnie światowej (1945–1947), „Dzieje Najnowsze”, R. XLV, vol. 2, http://rcin.org.pl/Content/47284/WA303_64024_A507-DN-R-45-2_Brzoza.pdf (access: 27.05.2019). Eberhardt P. (2008), Geneza i rozwój niemieckiej doktryny Lebensraumu, „Przegląd Geograficzny”, vol. 80(2), http://rcin.org.pl/Content/89/2008_tom_80_zeszyt_2.pdf (access: 27.05.2019). “Express Ilustrowany”, 22.09.1933, http://bc.wimbp.lodz.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=31831 (access: 27.05.2019). Helbing I. (2017), Polens verlorene Kinder. Die Suche und Repartiirung verschleppter polnischer Kindernach 1945, https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-euv/files/290/Helbing+Iris.pdf, (access: 27.05.2019). Hrabar R. (1975), „Lebensborn”, czyli źródło życia, Katowice: Wydawnictwo „Śląsk”. Hrabar R., Tokarz Z., Wilczur J. (1979), Czas niewoli, czas śmierci. Martyrologia dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Interpress. Kersten K. (1967). Repatriacja Polaków z byłej Rzeszy Niemieckiej po drugiej wojnie światowej, „Polska Ludowa”, vol. VI, http://www.rcin.org.pl/Content/38134/WA303_54064_ A403-6-1967-PL_Kersten.pdf (access: 28.05.2019). Kersten K. (1994), Szacunek strat osobowych w Polsce Wschodniej, „Dzieje Najnowsze”, [XXVI], vol. 2, http://www.rcin.org.pl/Content/47567/WA303_63550_A507DN-R-26-2_Kersten.pdf (access: 28.05.2019). Madajczyk Cz. (1969), Wojna i okupacja w Polsce jako instrument zniszczenia narodu, „Dzieje Najnowsze”, vol. I. Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, (1982), ed. Cz. Pilichowski, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. 12 https://arolsen-archives.org/en/ (access: 27.05.2019).

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Radomski J.A. (b.d), Misje wojskowe na Zachodzie z ramienia komunistycznych władz z Polski i ich zadania 1945–1948, www.dlilibra.bg.ajd.czest.pl:content.pdf (access: 27.05.2019). Sękowski P. (2014), Francja wobec polskich uchodźców wojennych i dipisów w pierwszych latach po drugiej wojnie światowej, „Dzieje Najnowsze”, [XLVI], vol. 2, http://rcin.org. pl/Content/47194/WA303_63632_A507-DN-R-46-2_Sekowski.pdf (access: 29.05.2019). Skodlarski J. (1987), Stosunki handlowe Polski z krajami kapitalistycznymi (1945–1949), „Kwartalnik Historyczny” [94], vol. 3, http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15574/WA303_4915_ KH94-r1987-R94-nr3_Kwartalnik-Historyczny%2006%20Skodlarski.pdf (access: 27.05.2019). Tokarz Z. (1982), Dzieci polskie w strefach okupacyjnych Niemiec i ich rewindykacja do Polski w latach 1945–1950, in: Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. Cz. Pilichowski, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Wnuk J. (1982). Losy dzieci polskich wywiezionych do Niemiec, in: Dzieci i młodzież w latach drugiej wojny światowej, ed. Cz. Pilichowski, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

MAŁGORZATA MICHEL JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKÓW

THE RETURNS OF POLISH CHILDREN FROM GERMAN LANDS AND SCOUTING ACTIVITY AT THE TRANSITIONAL CENTER IN MUNICH. THE POLISH WEST STATE BANNER ESTABLISHED BY WŁADYSŁAW ŚMIAŁEK AND ITS ROLE IN SIMPLIFYING THE FATE OF POLISH WAR ORPHANS

When solar eclipses occur, astronomers make efforts to take the opportunity and conduct appropriate research. The eclipse of humanity, such as is war, cannot be predicted with the same accuracy. Nevertheless, it also requires attention from competent researchers (Theiss, 68, for: Baley, 1949)

Ab strac t : After the Second World War, roughly 3.1 million Poles found themselves within the borders of Germany. These were people who had been taken as forced laborers, prisoners of war, combatants in the Warsaw Uprising, and prisoners of concentration camps. Among these people were children and youngsters. This chapter is an attempt to reconstruct their situation, with particular attention to those who were deported to labor camps in Germany. This reconstruction is based on a war narrative which was heard and transcribed by the author. The historical material which was collected in the course of this research is based on an interview with an individual who was under the care of Scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek, Ms. Aleksandra Wróblewska. Scoutmaster Śmiałek established in Munich the Polish West State Banner, an organizational unit of the Polish Scouting Association, under the auspices of which he organized scouting and scout leader courses for children and young people. Scouting played an enormous role in the limitation of the damage wrought by the effects of war. One result of Śmiałek’s work was the return to Poland of organized groups of young people, who found aid in resuming their lives through the system of norms and values emphasizing service to others and honor for Poland which was promulgated by the Scouts. Ke y word s : Polish West State Banner of W. Śmiałek, transit camp in Munich, Polish youth in forced labor in Germany, return of Polish children from Germany

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The following article is an attempt to reconstruct the situation of Polish children who were transported to labor camps in Germany during World War II. This reconstruction is grounded in one war narrative which was heard and transcribed by the author. The historical material collected during research was supported by an interview conducted in May 2019 with Aleksandra Wróblewska, a former ward of scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek. She was the first post-war troop leader directing a girl scout troop at the State Educational and Scientific Unit in Krzeszowice.1 Her brotherin-law Janusz, as a 12-year-old boy, was taken from his family home along with his brother by German soldiers and deported to work in Germany. After the end of World War II during his wandering return to his native Warsaw, being at the time about 17 years old, he came to the transit camp in Munich, where under the wings of Władysław Śmiałek he participated in scouting courses. The Poles came from all camps and from forced labor in Germany to Munich in 1945. There were about 20,000 of them, and among them was my brother-in-law, he was 12 years old when they took him to work. Because the Germans had come for his brother, Henio, who was 18 years old and when they saw such a tall boy, they took a 12-year-old child. They took them from Warsaw. They were in this camp2

– recalls Aleksandra Wróblewska3. The fate of the three of them miraculously intertwined in the post-war years in Krzeszowice: My sister came with my brother-in-law to Krzeszowice to the Palace, we were in the park and Janusz saw director Śmiałek and said, “We know each other!”. And he [Janusz – author’s footnote] was in this camp in Munich among the Polish scouts and came back in 1945, Śmiałek came back in 1946.4

1

2 3 4

The State Educational and Scientific Institute in Krzeszowice near Kraków was founded in 1946 by Stanisław Jedlewski in the Potocki Palace. His goal was the multi-faceted care, upbringing and education of war orphans. These were mainly children of teachers who were killed by German soldiers during World War II in actions intended to destroy the Polish intelligentsia. Interview with Aleksandra Wróblewska, May 2018. Interview with Aleksandra Wróblewska, May 2018. Interview with Aleksandra Wróblewska, May 2018.

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Of course, the content of this story does not allow us to make scientific generalizations, but it does shed some light on how tangled and difficult was the fate of Polish children during World War II. War stories and their content require continuous, in-depth research. It seems that the issue of the fate of Polish child survivors after World War II has still not been exhaustively treated. Every war story about the fate of even a single Polish child deserves to be saved from oblivion. It also gives an idea of how much the desire for Polishness and the reconstruction of Polish culture and language through education and upbringing dominated in extreme post-war conditions. “If we wish to know about a man, we ask ‘what is his story – his real, inmost story?’ – for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative” (Ulatowska, 2011, p. 76 after: Sacks, 1994, p. 144). The exodus of Polish children to the recovered territories was not just a fight for survival, food, and warmth, it was also the implementation of important educational tasks, a process of adaptation to organizations and conditions that were intended to rectify of the fate of war orphans and provide them with a Polish identity. An identity that had been blurred or almost destroyed by socialization in German families aimed at Germanization. In 1946, a group of several thousands of deported Poles was gathered in Germany and placed in Munich (Freimann), creating a transit camp. It was a place of temporary stay for hundreds of Poles on their way to their liberated homeland. Among them were people from labor camps, former prisoners of concentration camps and those who were deported to German families to help on farms and subjected to systematic Germanization. Among the throngs of Poles returning to the country were children and teenagers, often without parents and other relatives, lost, confused, hungry, and sick. In April and May 1945, the Allied forces freed about one million Poles deported by the Germans to work, to concentration and military camps. Because these people were scattered in small groups throughout Germany, the Allied authorities began to set up camps for Poles, ranging from several hundred to over ten thousand people (Nadolny, 1992, p. 69).

After the end of the World War II, there were actually about 3.1 million Poles in Germany. Among them were forced laborers, prisoners of war, Warsaw insurgents and prisoners of concentration camps. Among these were children and teenagers. During the war, the 1st Armored Division began organizing care for Poles in the Third Reich (Łuczak, 1993, pp. 12–13). A large part of the children transported to Germany managed to return to Poland.

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Some were fortunate enough to have encountered adults in transition camps who, apart from providing them with medical and living care, were able to create conditions for their upbringing and education. Scouting is an example of the organization of such conditions. This activity was possible because in Germany a network of Polish scouting troops was organized at a rapid pace. Their goal was to organize Poles around centers of Polishness, determine their numbers, their mental and physical state, care for the fate and development of war orphans, and bring them back to Poland. In the transit camp in Munich, Scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek founded the Polish Western Banner, a regional organizational scouting unit, under which he organized scouting and troop courses for children and teenagers. This was an important educational activity that restored to the youngest Poles their identity, refreshed their knowledge of the Polish language, supplemented the shortcomings of their education, and taught them to be Polish. “It was very bold on the part of Śmiałek. The fact is that the camp had a special name but they, Poles I mean, called it Burzyn. I have it in my notes. That’s what the Poles called this huge camp. It was called something different in German but I can’t say it” – says Aleksandra Wróblewska5. It is worthwhile to present an outline of this wise and courageous adult who, through his devotion, contributed to improving the difficult and complex fates of Polish children. Władysław Śmiałek6 was born on January 7, 1914 in Jeziorna, in the district of Zborów (currently in the Ukraine). He passed away on February 18th, 2003 and was buried in Tarnów. He was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Order and the Medal of the National Education Commission. He was a scoutmaster, educator, youth educator, academic teacher, social activist and officer of the First Podhale Rifle Regiment in Nowy Sącz. He devoted more than 20 years of professional work to the care and education of several thousand children and teenagers, mainly war orphans. His life work actually began at the moment when he fell in love with scouting, although at the time he did not know yet how the fate of his homeland would develop and what role he would play in the drama of war. Shortly after the liberation of Poland, without waiting, he set up scouting troops, while still in exile, in the transit camp. His service

5 6

Interview with Aleksandra Wróblewska, May 2018. Fragments of the life story of Władysław Śmiałek come from the memories of his daughter Ewa Zientara née Śmiałek and can be found on the website of the Władysław Śmiałek Educational Foundation (http://fundacjasmialka.pl/wladyslaw-smialek/, access: 22.06.2019).

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to Poland via scouting was intertwined with battles at the frontlines and underground activities. Władysław Śmiałek joined the scouts in May 1928, taking his scout oath a year later in January. In the years 1932–1935, he was the troop leader of the Stanisław Witkiewicz First Scout Troop in Nowy Sącz. In April 1932, he attained the rank of “Boy Scout”, and in February 1933 that of sub-scoutmaster. In 1934, he led the elder scouting troop “Błękitna Jedynka” in Stary Sącz, and from 1935 he was an instructor of the command of Scout Group in Nowy Sącz. Before the Second World War, in 1938, he graduated from the Teachers’ Seminar and Reserve School in Nowy Sącz, and in 1938 he became the commandant of the Nowy Sącz Scout Group in Szymbark. During World War II, Władysław Śmiałek served in the army as an officer and commander of the 1st Regiment of Podhale Rifles. He consistently served Poland and other people in his war duties, and his identity as a scout brought about many actions that saved the identity of others, especially children. On November 7th, 1942, he was arrested and imprisoned first in prisons in Nowy Sącz and Tarnów, then deported to the KL Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. From Auschwitz, he went on to camps in Flossenbürg and Dachau. He worked in KL Auschwitz in the camp’s post office, thus he had access to a radio. Hiding his knowledge of the German language, at the risk of his life, he passed news on the radio from the war front to other Polish prisoners. He helped patients suffering from typhus, delivered medicines, and kept up their spirits. This survival strategy only strengthened the character of Władysław Śmiałek and gave him the strength to unceasingly work for the benefit of other people. As fate would have it, he fell ill and immediately after the liberation of the Dachau camp in April 1945 he was sent to the hospital and then to Munich to a transit camp. There he started work in the Polish Committee and organized Polish scouts in Germany. He became commander of the ZHP (Polish Scouting Association) “Wisła” Banner and in November 1945 he was awarded the rank of Scoutmaster. He returned to Poland in December 1945 and immediately started working as a teacher, continuing his scouting activities. In the summer of 1946, he organized the first scout camp in Siemiałowice after the war and a year later in Mszana Dolna. From June 1947, he was in charge of the Office of Scout Group Headquarters in Nowy Sącz, in September 1947 moving on to Krzeszowice. In this small town not far from Kraków, the State Educational and Scientific Department was founded by Stanisław Jedlewski. Władysław Śmiałek became the head of the Youth House (dormitory) and in 1951 he

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replaced Stanisław Jedlewski as the director, managing the institution until 1967. There, he sought to organize an educational and residential care system based on methods borrowed from the Scouts. In order to fully appreciate the efforts and labor of Polish educators, scouts, social workers and all those who during the Second World War and after started to work with children and young people, it is necessary to be aware of the fate of Polish children during the war. The topic discussed in this article focuses only on children who were in the hands of the German occupant and were subjected to the actions of Germanization. However, it should be remembered that a similar number of children found themselves in the hands of the Soviets and were deported deep into the Soviet Union, Africa, India or New Zealand. Actions taken against the youngest Poles always had one goal: to physically destroy them or to purge their Polish identity from them. Children, as victims of Nazi extermination, were often taken away from their parents and were sent to labor camps, extermination camps, and German families. Many of them, despite being only a few years old, were given the status of political prisoners. For purposes of Germanization, 200,000 children were deported to the Third Reich, of which about 15% returned. 710,000 minors were sent to forced labor (Theiss, 1990, p. 67). Among them was 12-year-old Janusz: “Janusz’s parents were alive, the children were simply taken by the Germans from their parents. They took their two sons. They worked for a bauer7, i.e. the farmer. What he told them to do, they did. He never talked about the details, they just worked. He did not complain but he did not speak about it” – recalls Ms. Aleksandra Wróblewska8. After the end of World War II, there were about 1.5 million orphans, half-orphans and abandoned children in Poland, which accounted for 22% of the young generation of Poles. 320,000 children required immediate, multi-faceted care in specialist health and education institutions (Theiss, 1990, p. 67 for: Wojtyniak, Radlińska, 1946). It should be clearly stated that a large part of these children were victims of medical experiments, were forced to work beyond their strength, suffered from diseases, lice, and were witnesses to death and cruel crimes. The state of being a military orphan is defined in the literature as a multi-faceted phenomenon that concerns the abandonment of children and youth caused by armed conflicts 7 8

A rich peasant, a farmer of German descent. Interview with Aleksandra Wróblewska, May 2018.

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and societal disasters. This state is accompanied by hunger, illness, and homelessness (Theiss, 1990). A special period of human life, childhood, is violated by war, disturbed, destroyed irretrievably: “Childhood is a very fragile world, it can fall apart, partly or completely for various reasons (...) one of the main reasons being (...) the life of children in war zones” (Theiss, 1996, p. 10). As Barbara Smolińska-Theiss writes, childhood is a period requiring special care. In this period, a small person who is safe, fed, and nurtured grows and develops his abilities. With time, he learns about his home, school, neighborhood, develops his intellectual capabilities and shapes relationships with other people and the world at large (Smolińska-Theiss, 1992, 1993, 1995). Orphans and children abandoned as a result of war are deprived of their parents’ care because of their death or abandonment, they have no home, thus they do not develop a sense of being settled, and the sense of security associated with having a home, a safe haven. They live in conditions in which development is unlikely to occur, which causes neglect in all spheres of life, ranging from physical development through psychological, social and spiritual growth. Such children are deprived of their right to education, and their socialization is often a “savage socialization”, reduced to a struggle for food, warmth, and life. The effects of such a situation are visible throughout their later life, in all its spheres. Being a participant and a witness to borderline and traumatic situations such as permanent contact with death, being a witness to the tragic death of parents and relatives, the struggle for existence, the experience of illness, and hunger all cause psychological shocks, disturbances in physical development and social demoralization. As a result of these factors, permanent changes in personality occur. Kamila Jedlewska9 wrote that one of the most destructive elements of war trauma for children and the effect of their harrowing experiences was “becoming accustomed to death” and the belief that “human life does not hold any value” (Jedlewska, 1947). Children who are victims of war have no joy of life and faith in its meaning, they change their attitudes towards themselves and others, their physical development stops. They often feel guilty towards those who have died, are prone to crying, are irritable, suffer from aphasia, have nightmares, pho9

Stanisław Jedlewski’s wife, actively involved in the creation of the State Educational and Educational Institution in Krzeszowice, a scout, pedagogue, and guardian devoted to children and youth. She personally knew Władysław Śmiałek.

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bias, are shy, suspicious, distrustful.10 Natalia Han-Ilgiewicz asks questions about the scope, type, and intensity of mental, moral and social changes caused by the war (Theiss, 1990, p. 70 for: Han-Ilgiewicz 1948). Attempts to respond to them were to form the basis for undertaking appropriate revalidation and prophylactic measures aimed at compensating for the children’s deficits as much as possible and halting the growth of the negative consequences of the war. Maria Kaczyńska, researching high school aged youth shortly after World War II, determined that the factor that most strongly affected the changes in the psychosocial sphere of the youngest victims of the war was the loss of a loved one and the observation of executions, especially of those closest to them (Kaczyńska, 1946). The results of Stefan Szuman’s research seem to confirm that the greatest trauma of war children was not hunger and extreme poverty, but the loss of relatives and witnessing executions (Theiss, 1990, p. 71 for: Sosnowski, 1962). In order to be able to fully reflect on the fate of the Polish child during World War II, these facts must be taken into account. Policies aimed at destroying the Polish nation were also directed, and sometimes primarily directed, towards children and youth. These policies included the pacification of entire villages intended for Germanization, resettlement, deportation. Labor policies were restructured to allow for the forced work of minors from the age of 12 on the territories incorporated into the Third Reich and in the General Governorship and factories in German territories from the age of 14 (Theiss, 1990). Many children were taken away from their parents before these ages, especially if they looked older. This was the case with Janusz, who, due to his height, as a 12-year-old was taken away from his parents and taken to a German host family to work on a farm. What seems particularly important in the context of various attempts at educational and educational activities during and shortly after the war is the fact that the war trauma also contributed to a growth in youth crime. Therefore, forms and methods of work were sought which were aimed at minimizing risk factors, and at the same time providing a backdrop in the form of norms and principles protecting children and youth against such behaviors as thefts, acts of aggression and constant desire for re-

10 One of the first researchers to start conducting surveys on the impact of the war on the child’s psyche was S. Boley, who led the research troop at the Educational Board of the Municipal Board of the Capital City of Warsaw. During the war, he began conducting socio-pedagogical observations, which were continued after the war by the State Institute of Mental Hygiene in Warsaw (for: Theiss, 1990).

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venge, alcohol abuse, or sexual promiscuousness. One researcher, Stanisław Batawia, wrote: “The moral healing of youth is closely related to the regeneration of the moral face of adult society and to the normalization of the whole of life conditions – and it is a slow and complicated process (...). One should abandon a repressive point of view in favor of educational and therapeutic work” (Theiss, 1990, p. 71 for: Batawia, 1948). The previously mentioned N. Han-Ilgiewicz concluded: “in order to win the fight for a threatened child, we must ensure the child’s sincere cooperation” (Theiss, 1990, p. 71 for: Han-Ilgiewicz, 1948). One of the organizations which attempted to implement these postulates was scouting. This patriotic social and educational movement is difficult to define because in addition to the characteristics of a typical, formalized youth movement, it also has the features of an organization, educational system and a lifestyle. In Poland, organized groups of scouts began to form groups of young people at the beginning of the 20th century. Youth from various organizations began to unite under the slogans of independence and around the idea of scouting education. From the latter were adopted the principles of serving God, serving others, continuous self-improvement and the basics of methodology, i.e. self-education in small groups through joint action, contact with nature, and the reciprocal influence of younger and older youth on one another. What distinguished Polish scouts from similar scouting groups around the world from the very beginning was involvement in the struggle for independence, a focus on regaining Poland’s independence and the moral renewal of society. These aspects made the scout movement at the same time ideological and patriotic, which unfortunately has at times been exploited by the authorities. Nevertheless, the goal of scouting troops has always been to bring girls and boys up to be upstanding and brave citizens who are aware of their responsibility for life choices and sensitive to the needs of other people. Being a scout means being involved and actively participating in social life, initiating situations that require unambiguous moral behaviors, consistent with the scout law and the oath which they have taken. This specific educational method made scouting a safe and interesting road to adulthood, and the scouting model of education was strongly embedded in its historical and socio-political context (Czarnota, 2014). After the outbreak of World War II, the scouting movement in Poland took immediate action. Scouts began to organize to help in the service of war on all the fronts in the country, later spreading its operations through-

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out the world. As a result of the German and Russian occupation, the scouts went on to take part in the resistance movement, adopting the codename “Szare Szeregi” (“The Gray Ranks”) (male troops 130,500 members) and “Bądź gotów” (“Be ready”) (female troops 71,600 members) in spring 1940. The core of the female scouting organization was Girl Scouts Rescue Service under the command of Józefina Łapińska. Girl scouts operated in many ways during the war, providing support, acting as medics, conducting communications, doing economic, educational and child-rearing work. Secret education was organized, and soldiers, children and prisoners were provided with assistance. Male and female scouts took part in sabotage and subversion actions, and actively participated in the Warsaw Uprising. In these extremely difficult conditions, regardless of where they found themselves, they devoted service to Poland, also by organizing new units. Many of them died in extermination camps and prisons. Despite this fact, the Polish scouting movement grew in strength. Scout troops were created wherever there were Polish children and youth and at least one person with appropriate qualifications to organize the youngest Poles into disciplined groups, ready to learn and serve. This was the case in Russia, Persia, Iraq, Palestine, Africa, India, and the German lands. Without a doubt, scouting was one of the leading Polish youth movements, whose caregiving and educational roles were unmatched. Based on moral principles and brotherhood, discipline, adventure, and acting through youth leaders, it became the one educational organization that most likely exerted the greatest influence on Polish children and youth. This movement developed its own methodology, although due to its popularity it was nearly constantly a subject of the authorities’ interest. This interest, unfortunately, did not always serve children and teenagers’ best interest, nor certainly the scouting movement itself. In the years before World War II, the scout movement in Poland (known currently as harcerstwo, but then called scouting) was characterized by great flexibility, many programs and innovative educational concepts were implemented, and the Cub Scouts movement was created for the youngest children (Fietkiewicz, 1988; Błażejewski, 1985). After the end of World War II, the scout movement grew even stronger and wherever possible older scouts organized scouting structures. In the territory of Germany occupied by the Western Allies, Polish scouting troops also began to appear. The creation of scouting authorities, whose aim was to unite more and more scout troops, became a priority. The authorities’ goal was also to fight for the interest of the scouting movement and to represent the scouts to the Allied administration. In the first days of September 1945,

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the deputy chairman of the Supreme Committee, Scoutmaster Kazimierz Sabbat, gathered the scout elders in Meppen, intending to bring about the selection of scout authorities in Germany. On September 3rd, he appointed the Provisional Council of the ZHP (The Polish Scouting Association) in Germany, composed of Stanisław Broniewski, Kazimierz Burmajster, Eugeniusz Konopacki, Irena Mydlarzowa, Bohdan Olizar, and Franciszek Żmuda. He also appointed the Provisional ZHP Command in Germany. At this meeting, the organizational rules of the new ZHP in Germany were established. At the same time, the difficulties in moving around the territory of Germany and the dispersion of organizational units in large areas were highlighted. The ZHP in Germany included the British occupation area, which formed the Northern District, divided into four banners, and the American and French occupation, as the Southern District consisting of three banners. The Northern District had its headquarters in Haren/ Maczków, while the Southern District had its in Freimann (Munich). At the end of 1945, the organization had about 25,000 male and female scouts concentrated in 100 groups and 800 troops, packs, and bands. In July 1946, the numbers decreased significantly, amounting to 13,700 young people, 61 groups and 481 troops. There were 10 groups of Friends of Scouts with 1,600 members. At the end of 1946, as a result of the repatriation action, the organization had 7,500 members, 47 groups and 344 troops.11 The total numbers at the end of 1949 were 1330 young people, 40 instructors, 73 persons involved in Friends of Scouts, 13 groups, and 42 troops (Sporny, 1992; Wojno, 1992). The dispersion of organizational units required the ZHP in Germany to conduct intensive publishing activity in 1945–1949. The printing of organizational brochures necessary for running and organizing scouting work was launched. In this way the first post-war scout textbooks, printed regulations, and instructions began to emerge. Another important issue was the development and description of the conditions in which Poles found themselves in the western zones of occupation after the end of World War II. This information was included in a paper by Kazimierz Burmajster entitled “The general and national Polish situation in Germany”, which was delivered during the conference of scout elders from the western occupied territories at the end of December 1946 in Maczków (Haren). 11 Report of ZHP in West Germany for period from 1.7.1945 to 31.12.1946, „W Kręgu Rady”, Solingen 1947, no 1/2, p. 5.

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Scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek, coordinating the activities of one of the three banners of the Southern District, was known and highly valued by other scouts. Antoni Berowski, a scoutmaster and prisoner of KL Auschwitz and Flosennbürg concentration camps, in his memoirs about the activities of General Sikorski in Lechów in the ZHP published in “Skaut” magazine (Berowski, 2012) remembers this meeting with Władysław Śmiałek: The commandant of the course for troop leaders was the Group Assistant Scoutmaster K. Wajs, and the authorized deputy for this function was me. Classes at the course were conducted by almost all the instructors of the group. Until the month of October 1945, the ZHP Group in Lechów worked independently without any contact with superior scout authorities. In October 1945, Scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek, commandant of ZHP “Wisła” banner in Munich, came to the local headquarters and subordinated our group to his command. Our unexpected meeting was moving, because W. Śmiałek was my fellow prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Flossenbürg, even at one point helping to save my life there. Since then, our Group Headquarters had constant help from the “Wisła” Banner Command in the form of instructions, and we started to receive small amounts of scout literature, which was very useful. It consisted of pre-war textbooks and scout books by well-known authors reprinted in exile in England, Canada and the United States (...). Two scouts left our Group Headquarters in Hohenfels for an assistant-scoutmaster class organized by the Wisła Banner Command in Munich in November and December 1945, that is Scout M. Pietrucha and me. As a result of me completing the assistant-scoutmaster course, I was soon appointed an assistant-scoutmaster by the ZHP headquarters based outside the country in London.

As is evident from the memoirs of Antoni Berowski, in late autumn 1946, the scoutmaster and commandant of the ZHP Wisła Banner in Munich, Władysław Śmiałek, resigned from his office and left for Poland. Sergeant Bogdan Karnabal, an instructor from the Poznan Banner Command of the ZHP, took up leadership of the banner after him. What was the role of scouts and scoutmaster Władysław Śmiałek in simplifying the fate of war orphans? The aim of scouting activities in the transit camp in Munich was first of all to gather Polish children and organize a life for them in the post-war chaos. Children and adolescents, thanks to scouting activities, were organized in troops with their own structure, led by leaders. It was easier to control such troops, and monitoring the

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number of Polish children outside the country was also important. Another issue was the attempt to identify these children and to search for parents and relatives, assisted by organizations such as the Polish Red Cross. In Munich, as in other camps, the scouts primarily pursued the goal of training groups of scouts. These cadres, after returning to Poland, were to perform an important function in its reconstruction. While in Germany, however, conditions were organized for children’s development in the form of medical care, and attention to the basic biological and material needs of the youngest victims of war. Care was taken to compensate for mental deficiencies caused by war trauma, social skills were taught, time was occupied creatively. Education and supplementation of the gaps in knowledge resulting from the war in reading, writing, math skills, and knowledge of the history of Poland became extremely important. Scouting also played a huge preventive role in socialization, minimizing the occurrence of risk behaviors such as theft, alcohol abuse, or acts of aggression. By learning moral principles and values, positive socialization, isolation from negative influences, young people were prevented from entering onto a criminal path. The result of these activities was the return to Poland of organized groups of children and youth who understood rules of behavior, were disciplined, willing to learn, had a developed system of norms and values that allowed them to set priorities in the form of service to others and respect for Poland.

Bibliography Baley S. (1949), O pewnej metodzie badań wpływów wojny na psychikę młodzieży, “Rocznik Psychiatryczny”, nr 1. Batawia S. (1948), Wpływ ostatniej wojny na przestępczość nieletnich, “Psychologia Wychowawcza”, nr 1–2. Berowski A. (2012), ZHP w Niemczech – hufiec harcerski im. Gen. W. Sikorskiego w Hohenfels (Lechów), “Skaut. Harcerskie Pismo Historyczne”, nr 3(29). Błażejewski W. (1985), Z dziejów harcerstwa polskiego (1910–1039), Warszawa: Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza. Czarnota, in: Observatory of full of life Coulture- Research Network, 2014: http://ozkultura. pl/wpisy/2069 (access: 20.06.2019). Fietkiewicz O. (1988), Leksykon harcerstwa, Warszawa: Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza. Han-Ilgiewicz N. (1948), Dzieci moralnie zaniedbane przed wojną a obecnie, “Psychologia Wychowawcza”, nr 1–2.

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Jedlewska K. (1947), Jak odbiły się przeżycia i wydarzenia wojenne na psychice dzieci i młodzieży, “Dzieci i Wychowawca”, nr 11–12. Kaczyńska M. (1946), Psychiczne skutki wojny wśród dzieci i młodzieży w Polsce, „Zdrowie Psychiczne”, nr 1. Nadolny A. (1992), Duszpasterstwo w ZHP w Niemczech po II wojnie światowej, in: L. Kliszewicz, Harcerstwo w Europie 1945–1985, London: Scouting Historical Commission London. Sacks O. (1994), Mężczyzna, który pomylił swoją żonę z kapeluszem, transl. B. Lindenberg, Poznań: Zyska i S-ka. Smolińska-Theiss B. (1992), Dziecięcy obraz szkoły, “Edukacja”, nr 3. Smolińska-Theiss B. (1993), Dzieciństwo w małym mieście, Warszawa: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Smolińska-Theiss B. (1995), Trzy nurty badań nad dzieciństwem, “Problemy Opiekuńczo-Wychowawcze”, nr 10. Sosnowski K. (1962), Dziecko w systemie hitlerowskim, Warszawa–Poznań: Wydawnictwo Zachodnie. Sporny J. (1992), Harcerstwo na terenie okupacji francuskiej w Niemczech, in: L. Kliszewicz, Harcerstwo w Europie 1945-1985, London: Scouting Historical Commission London. Theiss W. (1990), Sieroctwo wojenne- problemy i badania, “Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny”, nr 3(137). Theiss W. (1996), Zniewolone dzieciństwo, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Żak. Ulatowska H.K. (2011), Narracja w doświadczeniu ludzkim, “Teksty Drugie. Teoria Literatury, Krytyka, Interpretacja”, nr 1–2 (127–128). Wojtyniak J., Radlińska H. (1946), Sieroctwo. Zasięg i wyrównywanie, Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Służby Społecznej. Wojno A. (1992), Z dziejów harcerstwa w Niemczech w latach 1945–1946, in: Dzieje harcerstwa na obczyźnie w latach 1912–1992, ed. M. Szczerbiński, materials from conference, Gorzów Wielkopolski.

Editor Agnieszka Stęplewska Proofreader Helena Piecuch Typographic designer Tomasz Pasteczka

Jagiellonian University Press Editorial Offices: ul. Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Krakow Phone: +48 12 663 23 80, Fax: +48 12 663 23 83

The present book aims to provide a comprehensive outline of the issues of extermination, Germanization, and the suffering of Polish children under the German occupation. The authors realize that German crimes against Polish children were accompanied by crimes against Poles committed by Soviets and Ukrainians (the massacre of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia lasted from 1943 until 1947). With this monograph, we wish to pay tribute to Polish child victims of World War II. The whole world knows about the child victims of the Jewish Holocaust and justly commemorates them. Yet, the world has remained silent on the holocaust of Polish children, silent on the subject of their extermination and martyrdom. Will the world still refuse to know? from The Introduction

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

When a person having a certain degree of knowledge on historic events in Europe listens to the contemporary academic, publicist, or political discourse, they are faced with a great lie on the topic of World War II, which consists, among others, in narratives using the phrase “Polish death camps” and accuse Poles of participation in the Holocaust of Jews. This assumption, held by modern Western people, contradicts historic facts and yet appears to be so common that even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, spoke of “Polish death camps”. The Western world of the present day does not seem to notice that these camps were built by the Germans within Polish territory under occupation; that it was the Germans who exterminated, first and foremost, Polish citizens.

Crime without Punishment… The Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945

Edited by Janina Kostkiewicz

Jagiellonian University Press