The History of a Forgotten German Camp: Nazi Ideology and Genocide at Szmalcówka 9780755626359, 9781780768861

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Any violence which does not come from a strong spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain. It lacks the stability which can only rest in a fanatical outlook. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf And here we found ourselves in hell. Janina Filipek, whose daughters died in the camp – nine-month-old Władysława and three-year-old Wiesława – as well as her mother-in-law, seventy-one-year-old Anna Bloody hell! Why so few? Damn Polish pigs! More of them should drop dead . . . Dohbert, a guard at the Torun´ camp, on discovering that three prisoners had died during the night You’re a good mother. I must have told you this before but, if you weren’t a Pole, I would make you an example to German mothers. But you are a Pole, and therein lies your entire problem. Willy Ehlert, commander of Szmalco´wka to Wanda Klimek, prisoner

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables Table 3.1 The number of prisoners in the camp

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Table 3.2 Percentage of people unable to be sent to work

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Table 3.3 The number of people sent from the camp in Torun´ to the Germanization camp in Ło´dz´ in the years 1941– 2

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Table 4.1 Statistics of diseases suffered by prisoners

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Table 5.1 The list of names of Polish people who died in the camp

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Figures Figure 1.1 Components of the Nazi worldview

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Figure 1.2 The Greater Germanic Reich according to Karl Haushofer

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Figure 2.1 Joseph Goebbels visits Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), November 1939

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Figure 3.1 The location of Szmalco´wka

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Figure 3.2 Map of the camp

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

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Figure 3.3 The area from which the prisoners were sent to the camp

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Figure 4.1 Sketches of the camp’s quarters covered with straw

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Figure 4.2 Sketches of the camp’s washroom

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Figure 4.3 Willy Ehlert – third commandant of Szmalco´wka (February –October 1942)

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Figure 5.1 The number of people who died in the camp according to age

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Figure 5.2 The number of children and adolescents who died in the camp according to age

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Figure A2.1 Teddy bear on one of the children’s graves in the cemetery at Grudzia˛dzka Street in Torun´. (Tomasz Niklas)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Familiarizing the English-language reader with this slice of Polish World War II history has been made possible thanks to the generosity and support of some wonderful people. Professor Jerzy Borejsza from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences developed my historical imagination by setting me tasks that were always slightly above my ability, always believing in me. I am immensely grateful to him for the faith he showed in me. I have spent many hundreds of hours discussing life, science and history with Professor Paweł Hanczewski of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun´. I wish to thank him for these stimulating conversations and, rather greedily, ask for more. Professor Mirosław Golon from the Institute of National Remembrance in Gdan´sk inspired me to study this subject. This book would not have been written had it not been for the selfless help of Professor Harry Dickinson of the University of Edinburgh, whose way of writing and thinking about history is very close to mine. I am also deeply indebted to Joanna Godfrey, senior editor of I.B.Tauris, who showed such trust in me and shared my belief in the importance of bringing the story of the Polish children of Szmalco´wka to a wider readership. In addition, I must express my profound gratitude to Casimir Pulaski translator Justyna Pado for the sterling work she did and Dr Isabela Mazanowska for her invaluable support. It is my belief that history, apart from being about the pure acquisition of knowledge, can and should fulfil a social function:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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namely, the teaching of empathy. This history of the German resettlement camp in Torun´ was created during a particular period of my life. The Polish-language version of this book was written at the Institute of National Remembrance when my son, Mikołaj, was being born. The English-language version was created at the same time as the birth of Dominik. Paraphrasing the words of the prisoner from Szmalco´wka contained in the introduction to this book, I hope that they and their peers (on both sides of the Oder!) will quickly learn the beauty of the world around us and experience a great deal of goodness and kindness from the people around them. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Agnieszka, who is always with us to fill our lives with love and optimism. Everything else, from my perspective, is of secondary importance.

INTRODUCTION

We learnt early on the nightmare of the world around us and the tragedy of what a ‘man’, declaring himself a ‘superman’, was able to do to another man.1 Henryk Włodzimierz Klimek The medieval city of Torun´ in the north of Poland, the birthplace of famous astronomer Nicolas Copernicus, is visited every year by nearly 1.5 million tourists. The visitors admire impressive Gothic public and private buildings, including three churches and the elegant medieval town hall, that gave the city a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Not far from the busy city centre, at the intersection of Kozacka Street and Grudzia˛dzka Street, there is a small memorial of national remembrance, a three-metre section of red brick wall. The plaques placed on it commemorate those Polish civilians who died in the Nazi resettlement camp.2 Below, a smaller plaque has been hung with a text in English and German. At this very place in 1940 there was a guard house and the camp administration office. At the foot of this monument, buried in snow, are several burnt candles: poignant symbols of memory. The pain caused by these events has yet to be assuaged. Across the street there is a McDonald’s: the young customers frequenting the restaurant are children of the twenty-first century, the century of globalization, not the twentieth century, the century of death, the century of global

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wars in which entire nations were sentenced to annihilation in the name of ideology.3 Next to the restaurant there is Municipal Cemetery No. 2 of the Victims for World War II, where the prisoners were buried. This is how the past meets the present. The history of the Nazi resettlement camp in Torun´ and its ‘educational’ work is just a small part of the German occupation policy in the Second Polish Republic. The history of Szmalco´wka is of interest almost exclusively to regional historians and those who want to remember. Just as ‘Barbarka’4 in the history of Torun´ is a symbol of the direct extermination of Poles, Szmalco´wka is a symbol of their indirect extermination, especially children. There the role of bombs, bullets and bayonets was played by hunger, cold, infectious diseases and the sadism of German guards. Even for those who are professionals in the history of World War II, however, the word Szmalco´wka is associated more with blackmailers5 (who blackmailed Jews that were hiding, or Poles who protected Jews during the Nazi occupation – translator’s note) rather than with the German camp in Torun´. The name of the camp is frighteningly symbolic. Placing the Polish population in this former factory of lard and oils, which before the war was owned by a Polish Jew, symbolically reflects the attitude of the German ‘master race’ to the Slavs, including the ‘Polish subhumans’. British historian Martin Gilbert, in one of the most popular syntheses of World War II, mistakenly included Szmalco´wka (the Torun´ lard factory) within the group of direct extermination camps created in the autumn of 1939 in the Gdan´sk Pomerania region.6 A similar error was made by a German researcher Heinz Ho¨hne.7 He was not, however, mistaken when he called the fat factories in Torun´ one of the first symbols of German barbarism, a place designated for the execution of Poles. Szmalco´wka was a small cog in the mechanism of the Nazi enslavement and murder of conquered nations. It was one of about 5,000 different kinds of camps that Germany built in occupied Poland.8 The place might not have been the most significant but it is important and should therefore not be regarded as a footnote to history. The Nazi ideology was the fuel that drove this mechanism.

INTRODUCTION

3

The Fu¨hrer’s worldview became the worldview of the crowds of Nazis, and later of very many members of the German nation. The history of Nazism and World War II is the history of a global vision of world conquest and its local, progressive realization. Hitler thought globally, but his ideological soldiers killed, displaced, denationalized locally and regionally. Until now, there has been no published monograph describing the history of Szmalco´wka, which does not mean that this topic has not been of interest to researchers. Worth noting here are two MA theses written by Wiesław Go´rski9 and Justyna Musiał-Michalak.10 In 1976 Karola Ciesielska, a former head of the National Archives in Torun´, took the trouble of preparing a record of names of the camp’s victims.11 In turn, Leszek Zygner described the history of the subcamp of Szmalco´wka (Lager II), located at Baz˙yn´skich Street, and verified it as the place of death of 44 people.12 Basic information about Szmalco´wka can also be found in the work of Professor Jan Sziling, which outlines the history of Torun´ in the years of the German occupation,13 and in earlier encyclopedia studies of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites and the Central Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland.14 The latter are unfortunately very inaccurate. It is also worth paying attention to the work of Emil Ogłozy, which was created as early as 1945, only two years after the liquidation of the camp, in which he described the German occupation in Torun´.15 The most important source of research, on which this work is based, are the materials collected during the investigation conducted by the Polish Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Bydgoszcz, at its branch in Torun´. In 1968 it initiated an investigation into the ‘crimes committed against the Polish population in Szmalco´wka by the camp’s officers in the period from November 1940 to 18 July 1943 in Torun´’. The investigation was suspended in 1976. The Branch Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation in Gdan´sk, leading the proceedings in Bydgoszcz, returned to it again in 2005. This investigation was discontinued on 12 July 2010. The outcome of the prosecution are nine volumes of documents and two volumes of

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appendices.16 These are mainly records of the testimonies of former prisoners’ and their families. It is worth noting that the first accounts of witnesses of Szmalco´wka were taken as early as 1945 and 1947 in connection with the lawsuit of Albert Forster, Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.17 In the course of the investigation, 166 people were interviewed, but only about 40 records of witnesses’ testimonies, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, turned out to be useful in order to recreate the history of the camp. Many people were in Torun´ only for only a few days and could not remember any details. The prosecutors, resuming the investigation and interviewing witnesses more than 70 years on from the establishment of Szmalco´wka, often had to settle for the accounts given by the children and loved ones of those who were in the camp. When reading these accounts, it ought to be borne in mind that they are based primarily on human memory, which is invariably unreliable and selective. History should correct memory, and vice-versa, and so where possible I have compared the accounts of former prisoners against the records provided by surviving German documents. I have not been able to resolve all discrepancies however nor was I able to find the answers to all the questions I asked myself while working on the book. In the State Archive in Bydgoszcz there is a collection of documents from the Central Emigration Office in Gdan´sk (Umwandererzentralstelle Danzig), which, apart from supervising the camps in Smukała, Tczew and Potulice, also supervised the camp in Torun´ (Lager Thorn).18 Unfortunately, as the archivist Tadeusz Esman states in the introduction to the inventory, thousands of files of interned individuals and families, along with almost all personal files of displaced persons, have been lost. Out of all the documents relating to Szmalco´wka the most valuable would appear to be the doctor’s reports containing data over a two-week period concerning the prisoners’ state of health and the number of deaths in the camp (Halbmonatsbericht) and the camp commander’s reports on the number of prisoners in the camp. In addition, the Central Emigration Office in Gdan´sk prepared summary statistics (Statistik) for the three camps

INTRODUCTION

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(Torun´, Potulice, Smukała).19 Some residual information about Szmalco´wka can be found in the five folders included in the documentation of the Potulice camp20 and in the file of the Special Department of the Security Service in Gdynia responsible for the racial segregation of the population in resettlement camps.21 In the State Archives in Torun´ there are only two folders directly relating to the history of the camp. These are a list of people buried in the cemetery at 142 Grudzia˛dzka Street, where Szmalco´wka victims were interred, and a set of receipts issued to the camp’s administration office by the undertaker and the municipal authorities for the burial of prisoners.22 Some information about Richard Reddig, second commander of Szmalco´wka, and of the Second Company of the guards, who came to Torun´ from Stutthof, can be found in the archives of the Museum Stutthof in Sztutowo.23 Additional material that can be found in this collection also includes: the documents of the Central Welfare Council, which helped people who had been displaced from the territories incorporated into the Reich and sent to the General Government (GG);24 as well as reports from the areas annexed to the Reich in the years 1942– 4, prepared by the Western Section of the Government Delegation for Poland.25 Also of significance were the memories and accounts given by the prisoners of Szmalco´wka. Particularly noteworthy are the publications of Henryk Włodzimierz Klimek, a former prisoner who has done a great deal to ensure that the the history of those prisoners will not be forgotten.26 Biographies of people imprisoned in the Szmalco´wka and Potulice camps, located in a private collection of Dr Alicja Paczoska-Hauke27 also came in very useful. In 2006– 7, in the ‘forgotten Nazi camps’ project, which was carried out within the ‘Oral History’ programme of the Karta Centre in Warsaw, more than 80 accounts of survivors were collected from more than 40 different types of resettlement camps, labour camps, criminal-investigative camps, and branches of various concentration camps. Three of these accounts (those of Stanisław Krawan´ski, Tadeusz Pipowski and Henryk Wojtalewicz) refer to the camp in Torun´.28

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I am convinced that local history should be written within a broader context. When giving a detailed description of a building on a street, one should mention the city, the region and the country in which it is embedded within a concrete historical reality. Only then can one see the significance of the smaller cogs within much greater and more complex mechanisms and local episodes taking place within wider historical processes. Only with an awareness of the bigger picture can regional history begin to interest a wider readership. We start to realize that matters of great historical import are going on just around the corner. Knowledge about a mechanism may help in understanding the functioning of the cog, and vice-versa: detailed information about one item enriches our understanding of the whole machine. According to the German ‘staunch pacifist’, Erich Maria Remarque, People need to see and hear the details of what is going on because their imagination is incapable of grasping general facts correctly. When a disaster consumes five million victims, this does not mean anything: the number is empty. However, if I show you a single, individual man in his perfection, his faith, his hopes and his difficulties, if I show you how he dies, then you will remember this story forever.29 In this book I have tried to describe the history of the camp from the perspective of the individual; connect the broader history with the memories of the individuals involved within a coherent narrative. In my work, wherever possible, I have provided precise quotations from the reports of witnesses’ accounts and recollections. I have also tried, as far as my sources have allowed me, to replace abstract numbers with descriptions of the fates of individual people. On the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Paweł Machcewicz from the World War II Museum in Gdan´sk, analysing the results of studies on the image of war in the memory of Polish society, noted that next to large-scale historical narrative, focusing on the heroic armed struggle, there is also a trend towards describing the

INTRODUCTION

7

history of everyday life in the occupied country. In the memory of Poles, especially those living in the western and northern parts of Poland, the war is not remembered as great battles and armed struggle, but as hunger, displacement, expulsion from home, executions, and forced labour for the Germans.30 Even when we describe only regional episodes of World War II, it seems reasonable to treat ideas seriously, not as being of secondary importance in the historical process.31 Today we can only wonder what would have happened had the bible of Nazism, and the ideas contained within, been treated seriously in the 1930s. ‘If anyone has read Mein Kampf closely, they would find there everything, literally everything that this man brought to the world’,32 wrote Hans Bernd Gisevius, one of the first biographers of Hitler. (N.B. Extensive excerpts from the Fu¨hrer’s book were read out by prosecutors during the trials of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg). Attempting to describe and understand how the ideas shared by a group of people spread and had a decisive impact on the lives of real people is one of the most fascinating challenges a historian can face. In the long historical perspective it was Nazi ideology that was a beacon for the foreign policy of the Third Reich and a determinant of Nazi occupation policy. This does not mean that there was no pragmatic compromise, ideological withdrawals and modifications to the basic assumptions of the doctrine. Max Domarus, an eye-witness, participant, and later historian of the birth, expansion and fall of Nazi Germany, noted that it was ideology that determined the Fu¨hrer’s foreign policy objectives. While Hitler made no secret of his views, he did not pursue them immediately, however.33 If we do not refer to the fixed components of Nazi ideology we will only be able to describe (as far as surviving sources allow us to) but not to understand, why what happened in the camp in Torun´, and thousands of other sites, could possibly happen. I have therefore devoted the first chapter of this work to the ‘ideological crusade’ of the Third Reich. In the second chapter, I briefly describe the Nazi occupation policy in the district of Danzig-West Prussia, whose aim was entpolonisierung, or ‘depolonizing’ Polish Pomerania and turning it into German Prussia. I have focused primarily on one of the tools

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of this policy: the expulsion of the Polish population. In the next two chapters, I describe the creation, functioning and everyday life in Szmalco´wka, as well as trying to establish a full list of victims. An integral part of this list is a register of the names of those who died in the camp. Timothy Snyder has rightly pointed out that ‘the Nazi and Soviet regimes turned people into numbers, some of which we can only estimate, some of which we can reconstruct with fair precision. It is for us as scholars to seek these numbers and put them into perspective. It is for us as humanists to turn these numbers back into people.’34 In the last section I have enclosed nine source documents that at least in part allow us to become acquainted with the history of the camp and the tragedy of the people held there. They depict both the history of Szmalco´wka and the broader history of World War II through the prism of the lives of specific people. I hope that these documents, along with the rest of this work, will provoke reflection among readers and allow them to feel a direct connection with this story. According to the Polish philosopher, Tadeusz Gadacz, human life is determined by three intertwined threads that cannot be separated. The first thread is our individual abilities and aptitudes; these cannot be acquired or developed. Either you are born with them or you are not. The second thread is fate, that is the historical epoch in which you live: ‘We do not choose the time, place, or circumstances of life. Neither can we choose what we are like. This does not depend on us.’35 The third and final thread is freedom, the ability to shape ourselves and our own lives, the choices we make as individuals, how we each choose to live our lives. As is the case with millions of my peers, I am glad to have had the privilege of being born late. Those who were in Szmalco´wka, including thousands of children, were not so lucky. Berel Lang has rightly pointed out that in a certain obvious sense history ‘happens’ to us, and circumstances and events remain beyond our control. The way we treat the past, however, depends largely on ourselves.36 Władysław Bartoszewski, a former prisoner of the

INTRODUCTION

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Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, has written that the difference between his generation and today’s is that for the latter it makes sense to plan one’s life and career.37 Today, Polish– German relations seem to contradict the old saying that ‘for as long as the world exists Poles and Germans will never be brothers’. Adam Rotfeld, one of the post-1990 Polish foreign ministers, once made the valuable point: ‘If only our country after World Wars I and II had had to deal with such problems as Poland has today.’38 It is also worth remembering that a nation is a community of those who have passed away, those who live, and those who have not yet been born. The past should not obscure the present and the future, just as the present should not distort the past. If history (like all the arts) has any practical value, then it is primarily to teach us to see phenomena from a wider time perspective; to see more, and to see more clearly, what is happening in both the wider world and what is going on nearby, right under our noses, on the local street corner. Jacques Le Goff reminds us that the ancient Greek word historie comes from the Indo-European wid – weid, meaning ‘to see’. The verb ‘to see’ (in Polish: widziec´ ), from which is derived the verb ‘to know’ (wiedziec´): this is the heart of the matter.39 Henryk Klimek, who was brought to the camp when he was nine years old, together with five siblings, has for many years been going to schools, libraries, community centres in Poland and Germany, telling young people about what happened in Poland during the war. In May and June 2004 he was invited by the Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk association to come to nine schools in Cologne. At one meeting a junior high school student asked him if he was Jewish. Surprised by the question, he replied that he was a Pole and asked why she wanted to know. The German student explained that she was taught at school that during World War II the Germans ‘liquidated’ only Jews.40 A few years ago Henryk Wojtalewicz’s grandson, Pawełek, upon learning that his grandfather had been in the camp in Torun´, asked him to talk about his experiences of World War II in a history lesson at his school. During the class the former Szmalco´wka prisoner realized with sadness that no-one, including the history teacher (who

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came from Torun´), had ever heard about the camp. Wojtalewicz explained that his visit was not about spreading hatred between nations or an incessant display of Polish martyrdom: it was about remembrance.41 The Nobel Prize-winning writer Czesław Miłosz in his essay ‘On the Side of Memory’ wrote: ‘Where there is no remembrance, not only is time desolate, but also space; trees and rocks speak to us but we do not understand them. Only through remembrance can we learn to understand their speech.’42 Why would a reader from the English-speaking world be interested in the history of Polish families from a German camp in Torun´? German occupation in eastern Europe was completely different from that in western Europe. History, like no other social science, can reveal not only the greatness and heroism, but also the meanness of a human being. The twentieth-century history is a huge challenge not only for the twentieth-century philosophy43 but for all human science. All the noble national and universal values can be taught and propagated, not only by means of showing examples of great behaviour but also by describing anti-examples and antimodels. There were many more of the latter during the war. So far, numerous historians have tried hard to convince themselves and others that history is magistrae vitae [but this is not true]. History does not repeat itself: it is mostly a catalogue of premieres. Phobias, prejudices, stereotypes and ways of thinking do, however, get repeated. All these determine people’s attitudes, which are invariable, suprahistorical and supranational. Despite the experience of the twentieth century, a century of annihilation, I am not convinced that we are immune to the charm of totalitarian ideologies. Simple diagnoses and radical solutions of perennial problems can still be attractive to many. The history of ‘Szmalco´wka’ has clearly shown that ideals can bring about horrifying consequences.

CHAPTER 1 AN IDEOLOGICAL CRUSADE

Man never sacrifices himself for economics, or, in other words: a man does not die for business, but only for ideals.1 Adolf Hitler The Polish philosopher Barbara Skarga has observed that ‘it is not thoughtlessness that is the root of all evil, but rather the corrupt mind, the calculating mind. It is not primitive, naive Abel who fathers Evil, but conceited, self-assured Cain.’2 Following the deaths of three of the prisoners in Szmalco´wka, one of the guards, named Dohbert, asked why so few ‘Polish pigs’ had died that night. Willy Ehlert, the third commandant of the camp in Torun´, watching how Wanda Klimek took care of her six children, said that, were she not Polish, he would make her a role model for German mothers; however, she was, and therein lay the problem. Judge Adam Hoszowski was murdered because, as a ‘defective man’, he had not shown due respect to the Germans. It seems reasonable, therefore, to begin to describe the history of Szmalco´wka with some general reflections on the Nazi worldview, which determined the behaviour of the Germans towards the Poles imprisoned in the camp in Torun´. Genocide and mass atrocities have their origin in people’s heads. As the American Jewish historian, Manus I. Midlarsky, has aptly noted, using a ‘top-down’ strategy (i.e. identifying the most

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general precursors of genocide and then narrowing the choices to specific influences), ‘the funnel of causality is widest at the top and very narrow at the bottom’.3 On 1 July 1947, Robert Kempner, the German-born American lawyer (who came from a family of Kowno Jews) and prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, was interrogating Hitler’s chief secretary, Johanna Wolf: Q A Q A Q A

– – – – – –

Why was war declared? I do not know. After all, it did not happen without reason, did it? The Fu¨hrer wanted to realise his ideas. What were these ideas? Everything he wrote in the program.’4

The success of the Third Reich in September 1939, and in the following months of the war, was primarily decided by the power and military might of the Wehrmacht. Even before the German soldiers had been given their rifles however, and before they had been equipped with the latest Messerschmitts, tanks, and U-boats, someone had had to equip them and the German people with other types of weapons. The main objective of these Wunderwaffen was to do whatever was necessary to mobilize the hatred of the whole nation. In 1932, Hitler stated that ‘the weapons we have cannot be seen’.5 Ian Kershaw, author of the most comprehensive biography of the Fu¨hrer, singled out the two main objectives of his policy: to conquer Europe and to annihilate the Jews. ‘The two combined goals – originating from a worldview where the struggle of the races and survival of the fittest are the main determinants in human history – were crucial in Hitler’s mindset from the twenties. Although the way these objectives were to be achieved was left unspecified, these ideas, once formulated, were never abandoned by him.’6 In addition, Peter Radfield, Himmler’s biographer, has correctly pointed out: ‘Everything that happened, and everything that was going to happen, originated in this worldview. The Reich

AN IDEOLOGICAL CRUSADE

13

was no longer tied to a particular area or limited by time and space. [. . .] In the beginning was the idea.’7 This idea-weapon was a Nazi worldview that was inculcated throughout, and accepted by, the majority of the German population. According to Oswald Spengler, ‘all higher politics is the replacement of the sword with the ideological weapon’.8 For the author of Mein Kampf, World War II in the east was primarily a war of worldviews (Weltanschauungskrieg). On 10 February 1939, at a meeting with senior Wehrmacht commanders, Hitler said: ‘The next war will be purely ideological; that is, it will be a national and racial war.’9 Hitler attributed to worldviews the power to change the world. He wanted to set in motion forces that would lead people to die of their own volition. He saw the history of the world as a conflict of ideas. The main aim of the Nazis, therefore, was the victory of their own ideas, to impose them on others, and to destroy all other beliefs. The military and economic power of the Third Reich were merely the tools that would ensure the triumph of Nazi ideology: ‘When two worldviews are struggling against each other, the winner will be the force that is more stubborn and ruthless and employs arms to support its intellectual concept.’10 According to the Fu¨hrer, worldviews do not accept compromises. Raising their own altars, they destroy others; they are infallible. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, therefore, was primarily a party with a single, total worldview, which required from its members limitless devotion and trust in the ideological faith. In the bible of Nazism we read: ‘a worldview is intolerant and cannot be satisfied with the fact that it is one of many parties; it insists on the exclusive and permanent recognition of itself, and on an absolutely new concept of public life in its entirety, conforming with its beliefs’.11 There is no better definition and announcement of the totalitarian system, which tries to take possession of, and control, every aspect of social life. Totalitarianism, as opposed to democracy, disdains compromise. What were the fixed and immutable components of the Nazi worldview, to which the leader of the Third Reich were so fanatically attached?

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An ideological swastika In early September each year the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, more commonly known as the Nazi Party) celebrated its existence during the week-long convention in Nuremberg. On the sixth day of celebration the consecration of new flags followed. Hitler, holding the most sacred relic, the bloody standard (the Blutfahne) from the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in Munich of 1923, touched it with the new standards of the SA and the SS. As noted by Michael Burleigh, ‘this moment marked everything one needs to know about Nazism’.12 The brilliant British historian is right, but only when the key symbols of national socialism are broken down into ideological atoms. Three years before coming to power in the Weimar Republic, Hitler had declared: ‘The Nordic race has the right to rule the world and we need to make this right of race the guiding star of our foreign policy.’13 It would be more accurate to refer to the Nazi swastika (a special symbol of the ‘organisation fighting for a new worldview’) to describe Nazism.14 ‘As National Socialists we express our program in the drawing of our flag: red for the social philosophy of our movement, white for the nationalism, and the swastika for the mission to fight for the victory of the Aryan race.’15 (See Fig. 1.1.) The key word in Hitler’s worldview, contrary to what the name of the Nazi ideology would suggest (national socialism), is the concept of race, and not the nation. It is the ‘racial laws’ that are at the centre; they connect the Nazi swastika, while the other arms constantly refer to them. The author of Mein Kampf used the racial criterion to define the nation. National awareness was determined by racial awareness. Just as Marxism claims that the force that determines the fate of people is the conflict of socio-economic classes, so Nazism affirms that the fight is fought by ethnobiological races. The first struggle was based on historical and dialectical materialism (histomat and diamat), the second referred to the ‘harsh and relentless laws of nature’ according to which the stronger species, in order to survive and thrive, must kill the weaker one. Hitler claimed that the ‘right to exist requires constant killing

AN IDEOLOGICAL CRUSADE

15

Imperialism and Social Darwinism

Anti-Semitism

Racism

Anti-Slavism and Anti-Polishness

Nationalism and Chauvinism

Fig. 1.1 Components of the Nazi worldview. Source: author’s own work.

in order to be able to live better.’16 The creators of both doctrines, as far as their programme were concerned, hated each other and sought confrontation. Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia turned against democracy, Christianity and liberalism. Despite this it did not prevent them from signing a temporary alliance, where Poland, located in ‘Europe’s cursed place’ lost out the most.17 A further question would be whether the two ‘totalitarian twins’ (Gemeli totalitari) were ‘identical twins’, or instead had different ideological fathers.18 The upper arm of the Nazi swastika represents German imperialism drawing upon Social Darwinism. It was Germany that was the true chosen nation and it was the German people who could be treated as fully-fledged humans worthy of respect and dignity (sic!). Following the occupation of the Polish coastline, Albert Forster, Gauleiter of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, where Szmalco´wka was located, instructed his subordinates: ‘You are a

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nation of men. With indulgence and weakness no-one has ever built anything. You may be disciplined, but you have to be tough as Krupp’s steel. You must be implacable and destroy everything that is non-German. This is what we expect from you – Adolf Hitler and I.’19 In contrast to the territorial revisionism of the Weimar Republic (Gustav Stresemann argued that the eastern border of the Republic still ‘bleeds’, and the Treaty of Versailles was ‘the greatest scam in history’20), the leader of the Third Reich went much further. His goal was to acquire Lebensraum for the German people and, in the opinion of Hitler, this was to be done by conquering the nations to Germany’s east. For this purpose, a policy had to be adopted against the hordes of Slavs. It was defined by three terms: Vernichtung (destruction), Aussiedlung (displacement) and Verdra¨ngung (removal).21 The aim of the war was the physical and biological destruction of the enemy. Hitler’s (along with his ‘ideological soldiers’) reasons for looking east were due in large part to the work of Karl Haushofer, the founder of the basis of German geopolitics. From September 1939 onwards, only with some reluctance did Hitler talk about the Third Reich; he much preferred to use the term Grossdeutsches Reich.22 (See Fig. 1.2.) It was Haushofer, referring to the studies conducted by Friedrich Ratzel, who popularized the concept of Lebensraum as a determinant of German foreign policy. In order for the nation to develop, it must not only maintain the living space it inherited, but also expand it when it becomes ‘too tight’. The state should be synonymous with the nation, synonymous with the race. Its national and cultural boundaries (Volks- und Kulturboden) should coincide with state and political borders. Defining the borders of Germany in this way, the allegedly Volk ohne Raum went far beyond the boundaries of the Weimar Republic, and even far beyond the area of the Second German Reich, especially in the east.23 The nationally unified Greater German Reich was to bring about this change. Haushofer argued that ‘the nation developing by means of war gets the space needed for survival’.24 The fight for Lebensraum was to be accompanied by brutal colonization and the creation of a large economic space (Grossraumwirtschaft).

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Fig. 1.2 The Greater Germanic Reich according to Karl Haushofer. Source: K. Haushofer, Weltpolitik von heute, Berlin 1934, p. 57.

According to a geopolitical concept popular at that time, Poland belonged to the heartland, and a decisive battle would be fought over the Central and Eastern Europe region between Germanic superhumans and Slavic sub-humans. In this conception, those who controlled the heartland would control Europe, and would have the foundations to conquer the whole world. The SS elite, like Hitler, thought in terms of a zero-sum game – Alles oder Nichts, Weltmacht oder Untergang25 – something not particularly prevalent in the 1930s. Torun´, where Szmalco´wka was created, belonged, according to Haushofer’s conception, to the ‘compact’ (closed) lands of the German people (geschlossener deutsche Volksboden). German imperialism also had its cultural dimension. Culturally, Hitler divided nations into three categories: the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, and the destroyers of culture. As one might guess, only one nation belonged to the first category (Kulturtra¨ger): these were the Germanic peoples, who synthesized ‘the Greek spirit and German technology’.

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Hans Frank, the most well-read and ‘cultured’ among the Nazis (he often quoted Kant, Goethe, Leibniz, and regularly went to the theatre, philharmonic hall and opera house), was convinced that ‘Germany is the heart and the mind of the world’. In his opinion, Shakespeare, due to the high level of his artistic work, had to be German.26 The last category, according to the Nazis, was reserved for the Jews: ‘the deadly cancer in the healthy body of humanity.’27 ‘As for the spirit, a Pole can be described as totally unproductive, both in terms of cultural and national-political aspects [. . .] thus, there remains a lack of order and lack of understanding for the products of high culture, its maintenance and cultivation.’28 Some Poles, from whom you could recover a few drops of healthy (i.e. German) blood, had the possibility of advancing to the second category and serve as disseminators of German culture. The rest, in Hitler’s conception, were utterly bereft of any culture. The reasoning was as follows: if it is only the human species that is capable of creating culture, and the only people capable of creating culture are the Germans, then it is only the Germans who are human. Nazism not only supported everything that was German, but also destroyed everything that was non-German. They decided arbitrarily what was German, what carried German elements, and what could become German. According to the philosophy of history outlined in Mein Kampf, the progress of humanity consisted in the Aryan race’s harnessing of the human labour of the inferior races. Treating them like animals, like ‘livestock’, mere tools for the construction of a great German civilization.29 Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik recalled that in Szmalco´wka the Poles had to work as slaves, building the power of ‘Great Germany’, and were treated as useful ‘livestock’. The weakest units should be eliminated from it. ‘We stayed in worse conditions than animals. In this way we were being humiliated and our human dignity was trampled upon.’30 Anti-Semitism is represented by the left arm of the Nazi swastika. While the Nazi worldview treated the Slavs as sub-humans, the Jews were ‘non-humans’. They were irrevocably excluded from the world of men. It was the Nazis who awarded themselves a monopoly of the definition of humanity. ‘The Jews are not human beings and need to

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be exterminated like vermin’,31 argued Forster, Hitler’s deputy in Pomerania. The Jews created the Christian religion with its ‘soft’ mercy, the concept of equality between men and nations, and the ‘bestial’ (sic) idea of the continuation of life in the hereafter. As noted by Alain Finkielkraut, ‘Nazism [. . .] was nothing more than an attempt to obliterate the idea of the neighbour and replace it with an impassive natural hierarchy.’32 Nazism, in accordance with the laws of nature and Social Darwinism, ranked people and nations into categories of worthlessness in terms of race, blood and national origin: some groups were less worthless than others; some groups were deemed utterly worthless. Hierarchy, anti-egalitarianism, the war between nations: these were all highly desired and ‘natural’. If, for Clausewitz, war was the ultimate form of diplomacy, then for the Fu¨hrer, armed conflict (as soon as the economy and the army of the Third Reich were ready) was the primary tool of his foreign policy, his ideological crusade. But first he would have to prepare for it. Nazism perceived war as the highest form of human activity, the carrier of progress, development, and even the survival of the community. ‘In the fight I see the fate of all beings. No one can avoid fighting if they do not want to die.’33 Joseph Goebbels’ diaries from the period 9 October 1939 to 15 May 1940, begin with the words: ‘Der Krieg ist der Vater aller Dinge.’34 The Nazis arrogated for themselves the right to decide on who was to live and who did not deserve to live. The National Socialist worldview was to replace the Christian conscience of the Germans. For the followers of Hitler, the Nazi swastika was to perform a function such as the Christian cross does for the followers of Christ, and the Great German Reich, like the Catholic Church, was to last for a thousand years. ‘For our nation, what is of most pressing importance is whether it adopts the Jewish Christian faith, with its soft morality of mercy, or instead a strong, heroic faith in God in nature, God in his own nation, God in his own fate, in his own blood.’35 Goebbels persuaded his compatriots that Adolf Hitler was their conscience. In turn, the leader of the Third Reich regarded conscience as an unnecessary Jewish invention, which just like ‘circumcision, mutilated a human being’.36

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Adolf Eichmann during his trial in Jerusalem explained that by doing his ‘job’, he was guided by a sense of duty that came from his own specific understanding of Kant’s moral imperative: ‘Act as if the principle of your action was the same as the principle of the legislature or the law of that country.’37 Similarly absurd was Hans Frank’s understanding of the ethics of the philosopher from Ko¨nigsberg. ‘Every decision that you make, ask yourself: How would the Fu¨hrer decide in my place? Every decision that is yours to make, ask yourself: Is this decision consistent with the national-socialist conscience of the German people?’38 Nazism reduced individual responsibility to the collective responsibility of the state and, in turn, this responsibility was reduced to the nationalsocialist conscience of the Fu¨hrer. Nazi political religion preached that Christ was an Aryan, and that the Aryan race (not the German people) was the chosen people, which gave greater freedom to decide who could be included. Believing he was chosen by Providence, Hitler could imagine ‘Christ as nothing other than blond and with blue eyes, the devil however only with a Jewish grimace.’39 In his speeches he often appealed to the Bible, but only to the Old Testament, where he could find numerous examples of inter-tribal fighting and mass murder. According to the Fu¨hrer, democracy was built on the false idea of freedom and equality, but its time was over. Now was the time for a revival of the ‘real’, and compatible with nature, idea of modern slavery and the hierarchy of nations. ‘Our goal is to subjugate other nations. The German nation’s vocation is to give the world a new rank of men.’40 Hitler’s aim was to raise awareness of the inequalities between men and nations, and deepen these inequalities by making them legally mandatory. His problem with democracy was that it protected the most vulnerable and prevented the species from improving. Nazism equated the adjectives ‘democratic’ and ‘Jewish’, treating them as enemies on a global scale ( judische-demokratische Weltfeind).41 A key factor in the intellectual history of Europe in the 1930 was the ubiquity of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West. The book’s central metaphor was on the tongue of practically everybody at the

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time, from intellectuals to the more sharp-witted housewives of the Weimar Republic. Spengler’s cultural pessimism, and his depiction of a profound crisis of liberalism, the capitalist system, and democracy, constituted an integral part of a zeitgeist that was making a universal shift towards authoritarianism. Spengler was convinced that to meet the challenge of the world people would need the means to understand it. From a historical perspective, his words, written almost a decade before Hitler seized power, do indeed sound prophetic: ‘Democracy destroys itself through money, after money has already destroyed intellect. Caesarism grows in the soil of democracy, but its roots lie deep in the subsoil of blood and tradition.’42 In one of his speeches, the leader of the Third Reich remarked, One author summed up the impressions of this age in a book that he entitled The Decline of the West. Is this then really the end of our history and hence of our peoples? No! We cannot believe or accept it! It must be called not the ‘Decline of the West’, but the ‘Resurrection of the Peoples of the Western World’! Only what has become old, rotten, and bad dies. And it should die! But new life will generate. The will shall find the faith. This will lies in leadership, and faith lies in the people!43 For Hitler the ‘Decline of the West’ was something desirable, inevitable, the soil in which Nazism could take root and thrive. According to Albert Camus an era responsible for the uprooting, enslavement and deaths of 70 million people should be brought to justice, but it was also imperative that its guilt be understood. To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred. [. . .] The Germany of 1933 thus agreed to adopt the degraded values of a handful of men and tried to impose them on an entire civilisation. Deprived of the morality of Goethe, Germany chose, and submitted to, the ethics of the

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gang. Gangster morality is an inexhaustible round of triumph and revenge, defeat and resentment.44 Nazism was created during the crisis of liberalism, when, using the terminology of German sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies,45 the traditional homogeneous community (Gemeinschaft) was in the process of being replaced by a more impersonal, more loosely interrelated modern social arrangement (Gesellschaft). Hitler used the universal fear of a collapse of the strong community and promised Germans to create a homogeneous national community (Volksgemeinschaft), which was, in a very literal sense, purified from of ‘germs’.46 Since the nineteenth century the term used in the German Reich to describe the nation was not the ethnographic Nation, but instead Volk. The Nazis understood this term as meaning not so much ‘the people’ but rather as a ‘unique community of values, language, culture, and even blood’. In the nation the Nazis saw the racial organism, whose elements were selected on the basis of similarity of species (Artgleichheit). Of course Volk, Goebbels claimed, could only be German.47 The Nazi worldview was built on the principle of an antithesis to democracy and parliamentarianism, which, according to the doctrine, promoted mediocrity, affirming such false ideas as equality and freedom. ‘The misery of parliamentarism’ should be replaced by the rule of chieftainship: Is not every concept of responsibility related to the individual? [. . .] Do we think that the development of the world comes from combining the intelligence of a larger group, not from the mind of individuals [. . .] The majority can never replace the individual. The majority is not only the protector of stupidity, but also of cowardly policy, and as much as a hundred fools cannot become one wise man, one heroic decision cannot be made by a hundred cowards.’48

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Against liberal parliamentary democracy, which had so discredited itself in the Weimar Republic, Hitler presented ‘Germanic democracy’. Its essence lay in the fact that a single man, ‘a chosen man’, bestowed his strong leadership upon the entire nation. German society became convinced that the idea of chieftainship (Fu¨hrung) and the team (Gefolgschaft) that follows the chief, better represents the interests of the nation than bourgeois democracy. In a parliamentary democracy there is party pluralism; in a Germanic democracy there is a monolithic national socialist movement (Bewegung).49 The Fu¨hrer, who single-handedly decided on the most important issues, regarded himself as the executor of historical destiny. He promised the Germans national revival after the defeat of World War I. Pride and prestige would be restored, and Germany would rise from its knees. ‘Every great action in this world, is usually the fulfilment of a desire which has been present for a long time in millions of hearts, subject to universal longing.’50 As Jerzy Wojciech Borejsza, a Polish researcher of totalitarian systems, pointed out many years ago, the lower arm of the Nazi swastika stands for anti-Slavism (imposed mainly against the Russians),51 of which anti-Polonism was an integral part. It was revealed in full only during World War II. Nazi propaganda identified the word Slave (a Slav) with the term Sklave (slave).52 The creators of national socialism, aiming to achieve the objectives of their own ideological war, had to convince the German soldiers that by fighting Slavs, Jews, and Poles, by brutally displacing women, children, and the elderly, or murdering them in cold blood, or sending them to extermination camps, they were not fighting against human beings. Occupation policy would not have been possible had it not been for a breakthrough in the psyche of the ¨ bermenschen. As Tomasz Szarota noted, the word ‘fight’ requires U some kind of partnership and a minimum of respect for your opponent, whereas ‘vermin’ should be removed without any questions or concerns. You fight your enemy but you cull vermin.53 In the name of purity, racial hygiene, the work ethic, order and a sense of duty to the country, the crimes of genocide were committed out of a sense of moral obligation. The Nazis, putting

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ideological language to work, did not murder their racial enemies, the only things that took place were ‘weeding’, ‘delousing’, ‘genocide’ and ‘liquidation’. This state of murderers was called ‘a state of gardeners’ or ‘a state of surgeons’. The brutal and merciless displacement of Poles from their homes and farms in, for example, Gdan´sk Pomerania, and placing them in resettlement camps was called Polenevakuierung im Reichsgau Danzig/ Westpreussen.54 As has rightly been pointed out by Professor Szarota, in the case of the ‘evacuation’ of Polish citizens from the so-called eastern territories annexed to the Reich (eingegliederten Ostgebieten), the relevant term is the German word Vertreibung, or expulsion.55 Albert Forster, along with others, was indirectly responsible for the living conditions created for the Polish population trapped in Szmalco´wka. Even to the very end of his trial in 1948 he was not aware that his actions in Pomerania might ever be considered a crime.56 After the occupation of Poland, German journalists were given the following instructions. ‘It must become clear to everybody in Germany, even to the last milkmaid, that Polishness is equal to subhumanity. [. . .] This must be done until every citizen of Germany has it encoded in his subconsciousness that every Pole, whether a worker or intellectual, should be treated like vermin.’57 On 14 September 1939, the American correspondent for NBC in Germany (‘Nazilandzie’) William L. Shirer, reported the following conversation with his German servant: – Why do the French make war on us? She asked. – Why do you make war on the Poles? I said. – Hum, she said, a blank over her face. But the French, they’re human beings, she said finally. – But the Poles, maybe they’re human beings, I said. – Hum, she said, blank again.58 In Nazi morality the bank robber will be imprisoned and stigmatized, but the political leader who sends an army to capture a weaker neighbour may be a national hero.59

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Tadeusz Pipowski, a former prisoner of Szmalco´wka, sadly recollecting his stay in the camp, commented that ‘a man did not mean anything’ there.60 Nazi ideology excluded the Poles from the human species and did not treat them as ‘valuable human beings’. Hitler refused Slavic peoples the right to have their own state. In his opinion, they were unable to produce such a complex form of organization of society. ‘The Nordic-Germanic race gave birth to the idea of the state and embodied it by forcing the individual to fit into the whole [. . .] Slavic nations, however, are not designed to live independently. They know it and let’s not try to convince them that they can do it too.’61 Perhaps that is why he ultimately disagreed on the creation of even a ‘residual’ Polish state ( polnischer Reststaat) in 1939, knowing full well that the Poles, ‘a nation of eternal rebels’, would never be satisfied with a greater or lesser degree of autonomy, and would fight for complete independence and freedom (Stalin’s stance is not without significance here).62 Some years back Professor Borejsza found in an archive, in Koblenz, Himmler’s decree ordering his subordinates to study the history of the January uprising and use this knowledge for current goals: fighting Polish partisans.63 The Fu¨hrer was convinced that ‘self-governance is the first step to independence. What is gained by violence, cannot be maintained democratically.’64 Instead, he decided on the creation of Polnisches Restgebiet, meaning the General Government, which he wished to transform into a great Arbeitslager. Moreover, he claimed that the Poles needed, and indeed actually demanded for themselves, a ‘German Master’: ‘The Slavs are a born mass of slaves who walk behind their master, only asking who their master is.’65 ‘For Poles, there should be only one master, and he should be German.’66 This must sound ironic when considering that it was the Germans who, for centuries, had been unable to create a uniform state organism, but only a conglomeration of more than 300 small states, even when taking into account the fact that in modern times the model of a complex state (composite state) was not something particularly extraordinary. The life of Jo´zef Warota (born 1883) is a good example of the antiPolishness and hatred of the Nazi occupying regime to all that was

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Polish. He was arrested on 8 March 1940 in Torun´ on the street, for having uttered a phrase in both Polish and German: ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zgine˛ła. Polen ist noch nicht verloren.’ Poland has not yet perished. For this he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His family received letters from him until the end of 1944. He never returned home.67 The final right arm of the Nazi swastika stands for nationalism and extreme chauvinism. The former, unlike patriotism, refers only to the emotions, not to reason. The aim of Nazism was to appeal mainly to German hearts, not reason. Paradoxically, the primitiveness of this doctrine was its strength. Nationalism wishes to build the happiness of its own nation by fighting with other nations, rather than cooperating with them. It advocates a hierarchy of nations, not their equality. While patriotism is easily fused with democratic systems and regionalism, nationalism is developed in authoritarian and totalitarian systems and cultivates xenophobia and chauvinism.68 Nationalism is incapable of any criticism from within its own community. While patriotism is usually defensive, nationalism is always expansive. A nationalist sees no objective facts: ‘The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.’69 For a nationalist, humanity as a whole does not exist. National socialism divided mankind into races, and those different from the Aryan race were treated as separate biological species.

‘Strange’ Germans The crowning ‘achievement’ of the Nazi propaganda mobilization of hatred, spiritually preparing the German society for the conquest of Poland, was a ‘prayer to the German God’. Let the crowds of Polish people be turned into ashes. Let its women and child be destroyed, sold into slavery [. . .] Grant us the pleasure of murdering adults and also children. Let us plunge our swords into their bodies and make the Polish

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country a sea of blood and a pile of rubble. Let the German heart not be softened. Instead of peace let there be a war between the two nations.70 Bogdan Witold Bukowski, from Golub-Dobrzyn´, was a former prisoner of Szmalco´wka. After the war, he went on to become a maths teacher and a captain in the Polish army. Eight years old in 1939, he recalled, ‘These Germans were becoming strange. From the very beginning of the occupation they believed that they and their Reich would rule the world. In front of the small altars set in honour of Hitler, for example, at the Fetr, or the Schmitt, every day, instead of praying to God, they worshiped Hitler, standing at attention, and saying loudly to their Fu¨hrer “Heil Hitler!”.’71 Nazi linguists argued that the word ‘Adolf’ consisted of two parts: ‘ath’ (the act of divine or spiritual) and ‘uolfa’ (the creator).72 The ‘God’ of Hitler and Nazi Germany did not say anything to his followers about mercy and loving others. On the contrary, he ordered their ‘elimination’ in the name of racial and national purity. What happened these past few weeks is a triumph of ideas, the triumph of the strong will, perseverance and tenacity, and above all this is the result of the miracle of faith, because only faith can move mountains. [. . .] At the beginning there were thousands, then hundreds of thousands and finally millions [of Germans] who expressed faith in me, and followed me.73 Henryk Grynberg has correctly pointed out that ‘great evil cannot be carried out without ordinary people. They give it fervor, momentum, enthusiasm. No great leader can do without them. They provide him with authority. Without them great leaders end up in psychiatric institutions. [. . .] It was not Hitler who was insane but the crowd.’74 The Polish press in Pomerania was right to warn (from the second half of the 1920s onwards) against the furor teutonicus, or omniGerman obsession that consisted primarily in the rejection of universal, transnational values and the preaching of the ‘gospel of

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murder’.75 In one of the anti-Nazi Polish leaflets distributed during the war, we read: The staging without spectators. The crowd marches. It does not ask where. To be able to ask, you need to think. [. . .] Behind the Nuremberg parade [. . .] is the stage manager, ober-clown. He does the thinking, the planning, with a conductor’s baton it is he who accelerates or slows down the rhythm. He possesses his nation. He thinks for the millions.76 Hitler, instilling in the German people his outlook, which was based on a myriad of national stereotypes and myths, was convinced that he gave meaning to the lives of millions of his compatriots. By sending them to die in the service of an idea, he believed he was doing them a huge favour. According to the Nazis, without Hitler and his ideology, the present existence of the Germans was worthless and pointless. Only the Nazi worldview gave them a sense of meaning and fulfilment in life. Nazism appealed to the people’s sense of Pflichterfu¨llung. Rooted deeply in the German tradition, this concept denoted readiness for total dedication when required to fulfil one’s duty. For Hitler freedom was not a concern for the individual but for the nationally and racially uniform state (although this freedom did not apply, of course, to every state). The life of the individual mattered only in the service of a great idea ‘for the victory of national revolution, no sacrifice is too high.’77 This is in marked contrast to personalistic Christianity where, besides God, there is also room for man, who is regarded as having superior value and as being unique, transcendent and autotelic (a value in itself). For Nazism the life of the individual was important only when it served the national community. As Hannah Arendt wrote more than half a century ago, totalitarian governments and people, thinking and acting in a totalitarian way, preach faith in ‘the omnipotence of man, and at the same time the redundancy of the people’.78 In reality, however, the leader of the Third Reich despised his own society. After 1933 he conducted the mass murder of Germans who

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thought differently, and permanently indoctrinated the rest of the nation. ‘I can lead the masses only when I pull them out of apathy. Only the extremist, bigoted masses will allow themselves to be lead. [. . .] The masses are like an animal, listening to instinct. They do not enter into any rational discussions.’79 He hated the crowd, still he could control it. He regarded the masses as a tool to implement his own ideas. In his view, the masses were not able to learn complicated political ideas. At most, they could memorize simple slogans. The thoughts and actions of the masses were based not on rational considerations, but on feelings and sentimentality.80 Hitler in his ideology therefore used simplified versions of numerous panGermanic myths and national and racial stereotypes concerning other nations, in particular positive (Germans) and negative ones (Jews, Slavs, Poles).81 George Orwell, in his review of Mein Kampf on 21 March 1940, warned against underestimating the emotional power of Nazism. In his view, Hitler realized that people not only wanted prosperity and the satisfaction of material needs, ‘they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life.’82 There is already a vast historical knowledge of Hitler’s state, his organization and functioning. A great deal of information on Nazism has reached the collective social awareness: facts, dates, names and numbers, descriptions of the suffering of the victims. This knowledge should be learned; it is absolutely necessary. It does not, however, answer the question of why the Germans followed Hitler. As Stephan Marx has aptly remarked, if we do not attempt to answer this question, we can only learn about history, but not from history.83 Hitler and his ideologues did not form the constituent elements of the Nazi worldview, as was proven long ago by Werner Jochmann. Hitler ‘not only deceived the nation and fraudulently misled it, but to a high degree, much higher than many would want to accept, represented it’.84 The Psychopath-in-Chief used, radicalized and

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united (in the ideological swastika) the crude stereotypes and resentments that existed in the German nation. Furthermore, he began to gradually realize his utopian vision. The specific historical situation was a factor here: the political, economic, and social crisis of the Weimar Republic, The Decline of the West, the disintegration of Gemeinschaft, the use of current scientific trends for ideological purposes, the trauma of losing World War I, and finally the fear of communism. Germans followed Hitler because they saw in his ideology the cure for all these ills. In times of overwhelming inflation, Nazism offered an all-encompassing vision of rehabilitation, and this vision certainly did not only mean economic rehabilitation. Robert Kempner, eye-witness to the birth of the Third Reich, and interrogator of dozens of defendants in the Nuremberg Trials, tried to imagine how he would behave if he became Hitler’s lawyer: Mr Hitler, I shall defend you [. . .] I shall show how we all cheered you on such a way, so that you won’t believe it. I’ll show this and say that if all these people cheered you on so much it means that millions approved, and that you yourself might be of the opinion that you are doing something good.85 Ernst Buzek, one of the thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers recalled: ‘Our branch sang Deutschlandlied and the Horst Wessel Song.86 We were full of enthusiasm [. . .] and waited for a moment when for the first time we would be able to prove to the Fu¨hrer and our fatherland [Vaterland] that we were actually willing to fight for the Fu¨hrer’s ideas.’87 Frank, while being held in custody before the Nuremberg trial, in an interview with the court’s American psychologist, Gustave M. Gilbert, said, You know, the nation is essentially feminine in nature. As a whole, it is feminine. When referring to it, you should not say “he”, but rather “she”. It’s so emotional, so dependent on mood and environment, so susceptible to influence, that it raises its strength to the rank of deities, and that’s exactly the point! [. . .]

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And that is the mystery of Hitler’s power. He would stand in front of people, clench his fist and shout: I’m the man! And he would yell about his strength and determination. The people just surrendered themselves to him with hysterical enthusiasm. You cannot say that Hitler raped Germany – he seduced them! They followed him with such wild joy, the like of which you have never seen! I wish you had been with us during those crazy, hectic days, doctor. You’d have a much better idea about what happened to us.88 Władysław Bartoszewski drew the following lesson from the history of the twentieth century: Don’t give in to the wolves in sheep’s clothing, the mentally ill hysterics, the so-called chiefs. Defend the rights of social understanding, be wary as a principle of any current antiintellectual trends, don’t get carried away by murky metaphysical theories ‘made (mostly) in Germany’, baked in the German philosophical kitchen.89 It seems almost unecessary to attempt a substantive assessment (still less an ethical one) of the ‘value’ of the theories propounded by the Nazis, led by their guiding star, the racial law. As does depicting their absurdity, their intellectual shallowness, and their primitivism. Alan Bullock long ago described Hitler’s political career and Nazism as ‘spiritual and intellectual cretinism’, ‘reductio ad absurdum’.90 In occupied Poland, there was this popular rhyme: ‘Take Hitler’s dark hair, / And Go¨ring’s fat belly / Add Goebbels’ short looks, / Mix it all up / And what comes out of the brown mass? / The Germanic noble type of race.’91 In September 1939, as was the case every year, the Nazi party congress was to be held in Nuremberg, this time under the motto ‘Peace’ (sic). However, due to the invasion of Poland, the congress had been cancelled. The slogan from the previous year ‘Great Germany’ was still valid.

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‘Poland, in fact, became the working model of the Nazi New Order based upon the elimination of the Jews and the complete subjugation of inferior races, such as the Slavs, to the Aryan masterrace represented by the SS.’92 As has been noted by Alexander Rossino, the invasion by the Third Reich of Poland, determined by racial-biological objectives linked to the political and military objectives, Drang nach Osten, was not just a normal war, but was instead a Volkstumskampf, an ethnic war. The war of attrition (Vernichtungskrieg) did not start (as it is still generally considered to have done by the West) on 22 June 1941, but on 1 September 1939.93 The politics of the Third Reich in relation to Poland is a ‘catalogue of discontinuity’. ‘It is not Grenzpolitik but Raumpolitik. Not Gesellschaftspolitik but Volkstumspolitik. Reaping reasonable gains from the occupied areas was replaced by ruthless exploitation, the law was replaced by violence.’94 The creation of Szmalco´wka was one of the many consequences of the start of the ideological crusade and the idea of building a Greater German Reich in eastern Europe. As noted by Richard Overy, the complex system of various Nazi camps (like the Gulag) resulted directly from the core ideology of the two dictatorships.95 For the Third Reich, the camps could be and were useful and necessary from an economic point of view, but from the perspective of the ideological crusade they were indispensable. Tadeusz Zakrzewski, appealing in 1982 in the pages of Torun´ newspaper Nowos´ci for the erection of a statue commemorating the families who lost their lives in Szmalco´wka, pointed out that they were not anonymous victims. Children died with their parents and often grandparents. Their deaths were ‘absurd’ from the point of view of the logic of war. The victims of Szmalco´wka were not soldiers, they did not fight with anyone.96 Henryk Wojtalewicz, a former prisoner of the Torun´ camp, mentioned that in Szmalco´wka there were whole families (pregnant women, infants, grandparents and grandchildren), rather than specific individuals who were targeted by the Gestapo and the Security Service.97 According to death records, the oldest person who died in the camp was 93-year-old Maria Jasiecka. Among the youngest of the

AN IDEOLOGICAL CRUSADE

33

victims was Anna Rudek, who was stillborn. In the Torun´ camp at least 80 people died who were over 60 years of age, and a staggering 317 children and youths, below the age of 18, died. The Nazi ideological crusade was not rational but was guided by its own ‘national socialist’ logic, by its guiding star: the law of race. Nazi crimes were born out of the logic of hatred that created its biological foreign policy. It ordered the direct and indirect extermination of Poles purely because they were Polish and lived in areas that supposedly were a ‘wall of blood’, the ‘steel core’ of the Great Empire of the German Nation. ‘The apparent ravings of a lunatic and his team became a reality.’98 The world war unleashed by Nazi Germany cost, according to the latest estimates, the lives of 21,244,100 soldiers and 38,755,900 civilians.99 Statistically, for every soldier killed, another two were killed without a gun in their hands. The latter figure should also include at least 515 Polish ‘non-soldiers’ who died in Szmalco´wka.

CHAPTER 2

ENTPOLONISIERUNG: THE DEPOLONIZATION OF GERMAN PRUSSIA

The purpose of civil government is the pacification and depolonisation of these areas.1 Ludolf von Alvensleben

Forster’s wish, Goebbel’s journey, and Himmler’s plan ‘If only we were already at war! I wouldn’t have to wrangle with those damned Poles anymore. After all, I don’t want to be only the Gauleiter of Danzig. No! I’ll become the Gauleiter of the whole of West Prussia, just as soon as we get the Poles out of there.’2 Forster’s wish, expressed on 18 April 1939, was soon to become a reality. Even those few Germans who did not identify themselves immediately with Nazism had a negative attitude toward the Polish state. NBC correspondent William L. Shirer wrote in his Berlin Diary on 20 September 1939: I have still to find a German, even among those who don’t like the regime, who sees anything wrong in the German destruction of Poland. All the moral attitudes of the outside

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35

world regarding the aggression against Poland find little echo among the people here. People of all classes, women as well as men, have gathered in front of the windows in Berlin for a fortnight and approvingly gazed at the maps in which little red pins showed the victorious advance of the German troops in Poland.3 On 8 October 1939, following the end of the Polish defence campaign,4 Hitler issued a decree that incorporated the western and northern territories of the Second Polish Republic into the Greater German Reich. Over 10 million Polish citizens from the ‘incorporated eastern territories’, including nearly nine million Poles, became a part of the ‘racially pure’ German Third Reich.5 The West Prussia district of the Reich, covering 25,000 sq km, was created, and was inhabited by more than 2,150,000 people. The decree came into force on 26 October, and a week later the name was changed to Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, to emphasize the German affiliation of the city of Danzig. A civilian administration quickly took over from the military in areas that were henceforth to become German. If the Wehrmacht was not quite ‘spiritually prepared’ for the criminal, long-term, systematic depolonization of the areas annexed to the Altreich6 after the termination of activities on the front, the members of Einsatzkommando 16, SS formations (the so-called Black Order, with which Himmler intended to breed a new race of German aristocracy), along with the local Selbstschutz, had no doubts or scruples. Of course, this does not diminish the scale of the crimes committed by the German army carried out on Polish territories against civilians during the military government.7 In Pomerania, as in other areas incorporated into the Reich, there was brought about a union of state and party. Under the principle of Einheit der Verwaltung, the state was equated with the party, and the party with the state. Forster became Governor (Reichsstatthalter) of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and a Gauleiter (regional head of the Nazi Party), which demonstrates well the ideological nature of not only World War II, but also of the German occupation policy.8 As

36

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

early as 27 September, during a speech in Bydgoszcz, the future ‘lord and master’ of Pomerania left no illusions as to what the purpose of his occupation policy would be: We are sent to this country by the Fu¨hrer as trustees of the German cause with a clear objective: to make Germany German again. It will therefore be our glorious task to, as soon as possible, do everything necessary to make all Polish symptoms, no matter what kind, completely disappear. This applies especially to the ethnic cleansing of this country. Those who belong to the Polish nation must leave this country.9 To this order he added: ‘Do not obey the requests and proposals made by Poles or Polish delegations. Do not show kindness.’10 Polish Pomerania, along with the Warta region (the Warthegau), was to become a model of the Reich, an area racially and nationally homogenous. The report prepared by the Office of Racial Policy from on 25 November 1939 stated: ‘the purpose of the German policy on the new areas of the Reich is the creation of a German population which is racially, mentally-spiritually and nationally-politically homogenous. That is why all the elements incapable of being Germanised must be removed.’11 Gdan´sk Pomerania was one of the first testing grounds. The Nazis treated it as a special, national-ethnic tabula rasa, which was first to be erased, and then inscribed upon with the new data. Gdan´sk Pomerania would prove the degree to which abstract ideas and the Nazi utopia could be transcribed into everyday reality.12 This is how Rauschning depicts the Fu¨hrer’s plans: A steel core made of an indissolubly unified greater Germany. Austria, the Czech Republic and Moravia, the west of Poland; A bloc amounting to hundreds of millions, indestructible, without a single blemish and free from foreign nations. This is to be the permanent basis of our rule. After that, union with the east. Poland, the Baltic states, Hungary, Ukraine, the Volga Region, the Volga Federal District, and Georgia. Yes, this will

THE DEPOLONIZATION OF GERMAN PRUSSIA

37

be a union. Obviously not a union of equal rights, more a union of assistance, without its own army, its own politics or economy. And I am not even going to think about making any concessions dictated by sentiment.13 At the end of November and the beginning of December 1939, Goebbels took a car journey from Gdynia along the Vistula to Poznan´. He noted: ‘One needs to be tough, and there is no room for sentimentality; Gotenhafen, Gdan´sk, Grudzia˛dz, Torun´, Bydgoszcz, and Poznan´ – really beautiful, quite German-looking cities. This country is wholly German and must be inhabited again by Germans.’14 From the Nazi perspective the only problem lay in the fact that this country was inhabited by Poles. Since September however, the Germans had now taken care of this. The Nazis were especially interested in Pomerania, and the Polish people living there were an unnecessary burden to be got rid of as soon as possible. (See Fig. 2.1.)

Fig. 2.1 Joseph Goebbels visits Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), November 1939. Source: APB, 6478/165, card no. 2503.

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THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Tadeusz Pipowski, who lived in the town of Małociechowo in the ´Swiecki district, found himself in Szmalco´wka together with his parents and three brothers. He recalled how peaceful relations between Poles and Germans in Pomerania had been before the outbreak of the war. The latter could choose whether they wanted to attend Polish-speaking or German-speaking schools. The German colleagues of Pipowski chose the former. This Pole remembered them as being ‘his best friends’; ‘They didn’t have any problems with Poland, they were all right.’15 Jan Sziling, researcher of the history of Pomerania during the German occupation, highlighted the five tools of the German ethnic policy. In the first period, lasting until the end of 1939, direct extermination prevailed – that is, the murder and mass executions of the Polish leadership and intelligentsia who might become the germ of future opposition. In Hitler’s words, ‘this was a political cleansing of the foreground’ ( politische Flurbereinigung).16 The number of people killed in Gdan´sk Pomerania in 1939 and the spring of 1940 is estimated at around 40,000.17 Taking into consideration the quantitative and qualitative aspects of these first months of the German occupation in Pomerania, Grzegorz Berendt is justified in his use of the term ‘the bloody Pomeranian autumn of 1939’.18 Rossino was of the same opinion, describing the first months of the occupation in Poland as ‘quasi-genocidal’.19 It is also worth noting that the American historian, Timothy Snyder, included Pomerania, along with the city of Torun´, as part of the ‘Bloodlands’, an area stretching from central Poland through Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states to western Russia. During the period of the consolidation of Stalinism and Nazism (1933–8), and the German – Soviet occupation of Poland (1939– 41), and the German– Soviet war (1941–5), 14 million people were killed here.20 The majority were children, women, and the elderly. The killings were the result of the competition between Hitler and Stalin for control over Mitteleuropa.21 In Pomerania, along with the mass killings, there were expropriations and deportations of the Polish population, who were sent to specially created transit camps. Szmalco´wka was one such

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39

camp. To replace the expelled Polish people, German settlers were brought in, mainly the so-called Baltic Germans who occupied the property and houses left behind by the Polish people. The fourth tool used to depolonize German Pomerania was the Deutsche Volksliste (or German People’s List, also known as the DVL), introduced in 1941. The last tool was the systematic destruction of Polish culture and education. Hans-Christian Harten, a German researcher of National Socialist policy in Poland, emphasized that it was determined mainly by ideological and racial aspects; the economic reasons only came later. It can be described using three terms: de-personalisierung, de-humanisierung and de-kulturation. All this served to ‘free’ German Pomerania from Poles ( polenfrei), and create a Germanischen Reich Deutscher Nation.22 According to Forster, ‘what we found in the liberated areas and what we took over from the Poles was, to use a Bavarian expression, the biggest pigsty one can possibly imagine’.23 On 11 September he gave an order ‘to clean the country from all possible scum, gangs, Poles [Polla¨cken], and Jews. Poles need to see who has entered this country as their master.’24 A system of connected vessels constituted the tools of the German ethnic policy. Poles were evicted by Germans, and their properties seized, in order for the ‘racially pure’ occupying forces to settle there. The Volksliste served the purpose of Germanization: refusal to sign it would result in deportation to the transit camp and expulsion to the General Government or referral to work in the Altreich. Paradoxically, over time, the irrational Nazi worldview created a ‘rational’, effective, although still hugely complicated, organized system of destroying everything that was non-German. This is how the Polish question was to be solved. For ideological reasons Hitler was not particularly inclined to Germanize Poles. He did not believe in the success of such a project. He did not want to duplicate Bismarck’s errors. He was afraid that ‘defective people’ (sic!) would start speaking German and benefit from the German cultural heritage. The transition needed to be ‘sincere’ – that is, one not limited to language, political views, and lifestyle. The complete destruction of ‘the Slavic soul’ was necessary.

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THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Otherwise, according to the Nazis, the German nation could face the threat of adulteration and the reinfestation of ‘weeds’.25 Given the order by Hitler to Germanize Pomerania in its entirety, over a 10-year period, on 18 September 1939 in Gdan´sk,26 Forster had a more pragmatic attitude and a tendency towards ‘ideological compromise’. This pragmatism was visible in the mass registration of Poles in the third group of the Volksliste, thanks to which the Wehrmacht acquired new soldiers, while German farmers got some extra labour.27 The Gauleiter of Pomerania was primarily taking into consideration the short-term economic needs and interests of the region that he administered. Moreover, he believed in the Germanization not only of the land but also, on a large scale, of the people. Unlike Arthur Greiser, the Gauleiter of the Wartheland, Forster believed that the Poles of Pomerania, who had lived for many years under Prussian rule, had more German blood than the Baltic Germans had. This was the reason for his conflict with Himmler who, on 7 October 1939, assumed the function of Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood (Reichskommissar fu¨r die Festigung deutschen Volkstums). On 26 November 1941 he wrote a letter to Forster calling for him not to rush the Germanization of Pomerania, and to take more care over the purity of the German race: ‘I want to have people who are racially impeccable. [. . .] You are an old national socialist, and you know well that if one drop of blood enters someone’s veins, it will never be removed.’28 Forster, in a private conversation is said to have remarked that if he looked like Himmler, he would not say a word about race.29 Forster’s ethnic policy prompted protests among some of the local Germans, who watched with disgust the mass registration of Poles from the Volksliste, as ‘sub-humans’ and the alleged murderers of Volksdeutsch were placed ‘almost’ on the same level as them. They called him contemptuously ‘Ko¨nig Albert von Polen’.30 Hitler, in his decree of 7 October 1939 on the Consolidation of German Nationhood, gave Himmler three tasks: to bring to the Reich all Germans living abroad, to ‘eliminate the harmful impact of foreign groups who pose a danger to the Reich and German society’,

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41

and to acquire new areas for occupation.31 The displacement policy resulted directly from Nazi ideology. Otto Reche, racial expert and director of the Institute of Racial and Ethnic Sciences in Lipsk, maintained in 1939 that: the Polish people are a very unfortunate mixture of elements of the proto-Slavic race (related to the Scandinavian Sami people), the East Baltic and Ostian races, along with the local, quite visible, addition of the Mongolian race. Anyway, any mixture of this race [. . .] with the German race should be strictly avoided, and this can be done only by eliminating the Poles.32 The Nazis were especially interested in the land in Pomerania, whereas they judged the people there, from whom they could not ‘regain German blood’, worthless. They viewed the multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity of the region as a virus that should be ruthlessly eliminated. Needless to say, the past provides ample evidence that ‘mixing races’ is not the root of all evil, as German propaganda tried to argue, but can be the source of a country’s economic, political and cultural strength. Based on the acceptance of certain fundamental values, multi-culturalism does not lead to a country’s impoverishment, rather its enrichment. One only has to look to the United States of America for proof of this. In Nazi ideology one can begin to find some grounds for the Germanization of ‘defective’ Poles. Alfred Rosenberg, chief ideologue of the Third Reich, followed Houston Stewart Chamberlain (who inspired Hitler with his ideas) in arguing that the Slavs belonged originally to a purely Germanic race (Slavogermanen), but that over time ‘mongrelisation’ (sic!) – that is, miscegenation with immigrant elements – had caused them to became a sub-race. Despite this, the Slavic race still had some precious – that is Germanic – elements, which were worth regaining.33 This idea was shared to various degrees by Hitler, Himmler and Forster. Forster himself, aligning pragmatism with ideology, preferred to speak about the repeated or renewed Germanization (ru¨ckeindeutschung oder wiedereindeutschung)

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THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

not of Polish people, but of those Germans who had been Polonized.34 According to the Nazi version of history, Poland was created thanks to the self-awareness of Polish nobles, that is the descendants of East Germanic and Norman tribes. They created a master race (Herrenvolk). The centuries that followed witnessed ‘a mixing of the blood’, which resulted in the Polonization of formerly German people and a constant flow of German blood to the Polish nation (especially subject to this were German Catholics). In Pomerania and in Wielkopolska, however, the East Germanic race had been preserved, and was different from the East Baltic race that dominated indigenous Poland. Moreover, they shared the genetic wealth of their blood with the poorer areas of the Republic of Poland.35 Goebbels on 10 October 1939 wrote: The Fu¨hrer has already sentenced Poland – destroy [vernichtend ]. More like animals than people, completely primitive, stupid and amorphous. And a ruling class that is the unsatisfactory result of the mingling of the lower social orders and an Aryan master race. The Poles’ dirtiness is unimaginable. Their achievements of civilisation are close to zero. [. . .] Hitler does not wish any assimilation with Poles.36 German occupation policy in Pomerania was determined by two ideas – the removal (deportation) of Poles and the settlement of people of a superior race, the Germans – along with the Germanization of ‘valuable’ Poles. On 25 September 1939, in the municipal theatre in Torun´, Walter Kiessling, commissioner of the city, unambiguously declared: ‘Thorn war deutsch, Thorn ist deutsch und Thorn bleibt deutsch.’37 He was referring to Hitler’s words, who six days earlier in Artus Court in Gdan´sk, had said: ‘Danzig war deutsch, Danzig ist deutsch geblieben Danzig und Danzig wird von jetz ab deutsch sein.’38 In May 1940, Himmler wrote a paper entitled: ‘Some thoughts on the treatment of foreign tribes in the East.’ Hitler responded to the vision contained in this paper with enthusiasm, calling it ‘the work of Satan’.39 The creator of the SS declared that the ultimate aim of

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43

German policy in the East should be the division of the former Republic of Poland into as many fragments as possible. Within the next four to five years, I expect the concept of, for example, Kashubians will have become unfamiliar because the Kashubian people themselves will have ceased to exist (this also applies particularly to West Prussia). I believe that thanks to the great migration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony, I will see the concept of the total extinction of the Jews. It must also be possible that, over a slightly longer period of time, national concepts of Ukrainians, Go´rals and Lemkos in our areas will also be caused to disappear. Everything that has been said about these national communities refers, in proportionally larger numbers, to the Poles.40 This former student of agriculture, who had bred chickens and sold artificial fertilisers, treated people in exactly the same way as he had done livestock. In the longer time frame, the Polish nation, which belonged to the category of Untermenschenvolk des Ostens, also faced the threat of complete biological destruction. It should be borne in mind that the next step after Judeocide would be Slavocide, including Polonocide. The future goal of Nazi policy towards Poland was the ‘nationalbiological decomposition of Polishness’ (vo¨lkisch-biologische Dekomposition des Polentums). If this was not fully realized, it was only because of the requirements and restrictions that the situation at the front imposed on this ideology.41 The majority of Polish society seemed to perceive the conflict with the Third Reich in a similar way. In underground Polish propaganda publications, we read: WAR IS A STRUGGLE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE POLISH NATION. This is not a fight for a corridor, for Gdan´sk, Pomerania or Silesia. This is a deadly fight for the survival and existence of the Polish nation. Germans want to destroy, and exterminate the Polish nation. Official statements

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made by Gauleiter Forster (Gdan´sk) and Gauleiter Greiser (Poznan´) confirm that there has been an order to deport Poles from Pomerania and Wielkopolska to the so-called General Government over the next ten years, and this atrocious crime of mass expulsions, the like of which the world has not previously seen, has already been going on now for two years.42

‘Polenevakuierung’ Upon assuming power in Gdan´sk Pomerania, local NSDAP authorities and civil administration supervisors nominated by Forster began deportations almost immediately. These activities were not administered centrally, however, and, as a result, at least 2,000 Germans in possession of Polish citizenship were deported. In order to prevent this situation from happening again, the Central Emigration Office was established, the task of which was to coordinate these activities and transform haphazard deportations into planned ones. The East, including the Republic of Poland, was to belong to the SS. If these liberated lands were to be given to Germans, then racially alien elements had to be ‘sterilized’ and ‘racially screened’ (Siebung) so as not to contaminate pure German blood. For the Nazis, gaining ownership of this land was a key issue (Kernproblem) when planning the new order in the East. On 12 September 1940, Himmler issued an order for the examination and segregation of people on the land incorporated into the Reich. The Commissioner of the Reich wanted to recover the ‘valuable, German blood’ flowing in some Kashubians, Mazurians, Silesians, Upper-Silesians, and Poles. These people would either be displaced or would register in the Volksliste and be placed in Germanization camps. Polish citizens would also be forced to have their health, politics and biology (i.e. their race) tested. The aim of the Nazis in Pomerania was to divide the Polish population into those who could return to Germanness and those who in the long run would have to be exterminated.

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On 19 November 1940 Richard Hildebrandt came to Himmler with the proposal to extend the circle of people to be displaced: The guidelines issued with the purpose of releasing the properties of the expelled, and concerning the carrying out of the necessary evictions, have, after careful study, proven to be insufficient. [. . .] To remedy this situation and to enable the resettling of the anticipated number of displaced people from Lithuania and Bessarabia, I intend to evict all rural property owners who are not Reichsdeutsch or Volksdeutsch from their farms, which are necessary in order to house the displaced. All those evicted will be placed in the UWZ camp [Umwandererzentralstelle] of the Inspector of the Security Police and SD in Gdan´sk, where, taking into account political behaviour from the past, racial selection will be conducted by the authorities: Rasse und Siedlungshauptamtu. Then all those unfit for Germanisation will be transported to the General Government or temporarily ejected to the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia where they will join the agricultural or industrial workforce.43 Forster expressed similar intentions to Himmler and Hildebrandt. In the autumn of that year he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to ‘refresh German blood’. To do so, 12,000 farms had to be released to make space for the Germans from Lithuania and Bessarabia. The evicted would have to go to transit camps and undergo verification. Those who could be ‘gained for Germanness’ were to receive compensation and be sent to the Reich. The remaining Poles were to be transported to the General Government.44 For this purpose the Central Emigration Office was set up in Gdan´sk with its headquarters in Gdynia. This location was not accidental: Gdynia, a city built from scratch during the Second Republic of Poland and symbolic of the Polish state’s regained independence, was renamed Gotenhafen (Port of Goths). The Germans had already expelled 40,000 Poles from the city at the beginning of the war. The chief of the Gestapo in Gdan´sk, SS-Sturmbannfu¨hrer (major) Wolff, became the head of the Emigration Office, while SS-Standartenfu¨hrer

46

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and Inspector of Police and Security Forces Helmut Willich was his immediate superior. He conducted supervision of the Emigration Office under the guidance of Hildebrandt, SA-Obergruppenfu¨hrer and Plenipotentiary Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.45 Meanwhile, all organizational matters belonged to the SS-Hauptsturmfu¨hrer Franz Abromeit, Inspector of the Department of Special Affairs for Evacuation of Poles and Jews working at the Office of the Inspector of the Security Police and Security Service. The Emigration Office directed the organization and functioning of resettlement camps and labour camps in West Prussia, among them the camps in Torun´ (Thorn Umwandererzentrallager).46 All these bodies were closely associated with the police and the SS. It was their responsibility to organize displacement. It was mainly they who were indoctrinated to act without mercy towards Poles, and be ‘as tough as Krupp steel’. Lists of people to be deported were prepared by the NSDAP administrative apparatus supervised by Forster. Individual district settlement centres (Kreisansiedlungsstab) were created, among whose officials were a Landrat (or governor), a Kreisleiter, and a district leader of the peasants. Most centres, however, only approved a list of Polish families for deportation that had been prepared for them by the local head of the NSDAP.47 The entire deportation process in areas annexed to the Reich was coordinated by the Reich Main Security Office, headed by Reinhard Heydrich. Within this framework, Special Branch Office no. IV D4 (later IV B4) was established, and ‘a person of special trust’, Adolf Eichmann, was appointed to lead it. Previously, he had overseen similar mass deportations of the Jews in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.48 Hitler, like any dictator who wished to protect his rule, deliberately avoided the concentration of all power in the hands of one man, even if it was in the hands of his ‘old comrade’ and someone totally devoted to him. Forster could only get such a position in Pomerania thanks to the direct protection of the Fu¨hrer. His biographer, Dieter Schenk, somewhat exaggeratedly and ironically wrote that ‘the Gauleiter had such administrative omnipotence that

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above him was not God, but only Adolf Hitler’.49 In turn Hildebrandt and Willich implemented the guidelines of the SS creator. In this way, the leader of the Third Reich prevented Himmler from strengthening his position. The rivalry between the head of the SS and the other Gauleiters, and the labyrinth of competing centres of power, was beneficial for Hitler. It should be noted, however, that the differences between Himmler and Forster were only in respect of the methods used, not in the main goal: the depolonization and Germanization of the occupied areas. Hildebrandt, the faithful disciple and executor of Himmler’s ideas in Pomerania, in many letters to Forster (using the words Lieber Parteigenosse – Dear Party Comrade – when addressing each other in correspondence) underlined the claim that the East would become a garden where the flowers of purest German blood would grow.50 Forster’s district was supposed to be a representative patch in the German garden, where the Polish and Jewish weeds would need to be plucked out. The main task of the Gdynia Emigration Office was to ‘carry out the evacuation of alien tribes from the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia’ – that is, the deportation from Pomerania of people of nonGerman nationality – thus creating space for the representatives of the superior race. Also designated for deportation were anti-social elements, criminals, Jews and prostitutes, along with people living in areas earmarked for military training. Racial selection was to be carried out at permanent transit camps, among them Szmalco´wka. Resettlement camps were to facilitate deportations and serve as collecting points where displaced people gathered for a short period of time, before being sent out again, mostly to the General Government, the ‘Polish residual area’ which was a form of reserve for Polish ‘sub-humans’.51 The institution to conduct racial selection in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia was the Special Security Service Branch (Sonderreferat SD) in Gdynia. Its main tasks were: control and acceptance of lists of evacuees and displaced families; dealing with requests for evacuation or resettlement; national – racial preselection, development of applications for admission to the German nationality

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list; issuing letters of admission and temporary release of persons confined in camps, and control of incoming and outgoing correspondence in the camps. Prisoners in Szmalco´wka could send letters to their families, but they had to be written in German, so that they could be checked in terms of ‘political’ content. The Special Branch had its local offices, including the one in Torun´.52 The Emigration Office closely cooperated with the Ło´dz´-based SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA), which conducted the detailed racial selection, as well as with officials from the National Labour Office in Gdan´sk, which was interested in obtaining labour for German businesses and households in Pomerania.53 The racial selection, however, took precedence over economic considerations. At the head of individual camps there was a commander (Lagerkommandant), who was usually an SS officer and a deputy with the rank of an SS non-commissioned officer. They directed the work of support staff, which consisted of guard units (Wachmannschaft) and convoy units (Begleitmannschaft). In addition, there were one or two stenographers in the camp and a driver. The remaining functions were performed by prisoners. As has been established by Jastrze˛bski, such a small organizational structure proves that the main purpose of the Nazis was to organize quick deportation involving the least number of people and resources.54 This had a huge impact on the conditions in which deported Poles had to live, many of whom, instead of spending two or three days in the camp, as originally planned, stayed there almost three years. Laurence Rees has correctly pointed out that the main element of Poland’s racial and ethnic transformation was movement. The Nazis treated the Polish population as a huge number of packages that could be freely shifted from place to place, until the moment when the organizers were fully satisfied with the arranged pattern.55 They did not worry so much, however, if any of these ‘packages’ did not reach their destination. The Germans, above all, saw to it that they were sent. The real tragedy of the people who went to the camps began when ‘the sending’ was impossible. The Nazis dreamed of organizing another ‘great migration’, this time of nations, not people, which would be a turning point in the history of the world.

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49

According to Sziling, throughout the entire period of occupation in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, the number of people displaced totalled about 170,000. Originally the plans had assumed the deportation of more than 400,000 Polish citizens.56 Poles, who were to be ‘evacuated’ (sic) to the General Government were forced to sign the following statement (Erkla¨rung): I [name and surname, date of birth, place of residence] voluntarily agree to go to the General Government, together with the transport of persons belonging to the Polish nation. I am aware that this means the abandonment of property left in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. At the present moment I do not work for the Wehrmacht, nor in any enterprise producing for the needs of the German army.57

CHAPTER 3 BEHIND THE GATES OF SZMALCÓWKA

The prisoners were innocent; they were not convicted by the court. We were unlawfully imprisoned in the camp. [. . .] Here the order of things was reversed.1 Henryk Włodzimierz Klimek

Creation and location of the camp On 10 November 1940, SS-Obersturmfu¨hrer (Lieutenant) Heinz Radtke arrived at the former lard factory on Graudenstrasse Street where the Emigration Office had set him the task of establishing a resettlement camp. A deputy chief of the Gestapo in Torun´, he worked in the political section where, along with handling the ‘extermination of enemy propaganda’, his job entailed uncovering and destroying illegal political organizations, sabotage groups, and the Polish insurgent movement.2 The camp was located on the outskirts of the city at 124/126 Grudzia˛dzka Street, on the premises of the ‘Standard’ lard factory and oil refinery. Established in 1930, the factory was owned by a Polish Jew, Scharf Zelma (Szarf Selma), who in 1939 fled the Germans from Torun´ to Włocławek.3 The First National Lard Processing and Packing factory was one of the largest of its kind in the Second Republic and helped to regulate

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lard trade in the country and reduce imports of refined lard from abroad. In April 1937, the factory employed 60 people and produced 546 tonnes of lard.4 Torun´ was an attractive site for a resettlement camp mainly due to its geographical location and relatively close proximity to the General Government, especially to Warsaw and Ło´dz´, the latter located in the Reichsgau Wartheland, where detailed racial studies were conducted. Torun´ also had a well-developed network of roads and railways linking it with the other major cities in Poland. Moreover, the lard factory was located on the outskirts of the city, guaranteeing it a lack of publicity among the local population. The nearest tram station was one kilometre away, while the centre was three times farther away. The factory was located in an industrial area with a railway siding built to connect it to the Torun´-Mokre train station, which was located 2.5 kilometres from the camp.5 This was particularly important in terms of logistics: for the transport of Poles deported to the camp and further deportations to the Rest-und Reservat-Zone. In addition, four large halls were built at the camp where, with a small amount of work and resources, one could gather a large number of people. (See Fig. 3.1.) The circumstances of the camp’s creation are known to us thanks to the testimony of Jan Kryger. A Pole who joined the Volksliste, he was employed by Radtke as the camp Hausmeister (caretaker) and worked in Szmalco´wka throughout the entire duration of its existence: He ordered me to burn things in the furnace, organise the area and disassemble all the machines. After disassembling the machines one Sunday, when people were returning from church, he opened the door and rounded up the men using a stick. He got them to move the machines from the production halls to the factory premises. The next day he went off somewhere and came back with two stacks of hay which he scattered around inside the four halls. Then he got hold of three field kitchens, which he put in the boiler room.6

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Fig. 3.1 The location of Szmalco´wka. Source: author’s own.

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Kryger’s testimony confirms and complements the preserved German document dated 8 November 1940, in which the commander of the camp in Torun´ informed Abromeit, who was in charge of the Office for the Evacuation of Poles and Jews, about the transfer of four field kitchens, coal, briquettes and firewood.7

Map of the camp I can still remember to this day how our prison looked. A large barred frame with barbed wire on top. On the right there was a building, which housed the entire command of the camp; then there was a large hall for prisoners, and behind that there were other very cold halls. Upon entering the prison, on the left there was a large barn, and to the right there was a sort of storehouse.8 The camp buildings have not survived. However, thanks to the testimony of witnesses, mostly that of Roman Baranowski and Feliks Gudanek– who in October 1945 in Szmalco´wka organized the Peasant Cooperative Industrial Production Mutual Aid, where the Torun´ Mill Machinery Works were created in the 1960s – we can roughly reproduce the plan of the camp. After its closure in 1943, the camp sites were still used by Germans, but the documents lack any detailed information about it. After the liberation of Torun´, Red Army soldiers were stationed there for several months; therefore, the agreement to the creation of that cooperative had to be given by Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky himself.9 (See Fig. 3.2.) The camp was located on the corner of the intersection of streets Pod De˛bowa˛ Go´ra˛ and Grudzia˛dzka. The camp was fenced off from Pod De˛bowa˛ Go´ra˛ Street by a wooden fence with barbed wire, while on Grudzia˛dzka Street an iron fence about two metres tall was built.10 The entrance gate to the camp was located between the rooms marked with the numbers 1 and 8. The first building, a one-storey brick building with two apartments on the top floor, served as the guard house. It was also the headquarters of the camp administration. Adjacent to it there was an extension bathroom for the

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Fig. 3.2 Map of the camp. Source: OKSZpNP, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, a document of the Torun´ Mill Machinery Works (4 November 1969) card No. 59.

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administration, with a washstand with numerous faucets (No. 2). Next, there was a factory hall of 16 by 30 metres made of brick with a cement floor (No. 3) and a leaky roof covered with tar paper. Approximately 8 – 10 metres high, this room served as a ‘den’ for prisoners. A special cell (No. 4) was separated from the hall and served as a so-called dry cell. Then there was a one-storey building made of brick, which served as apartments for the camp’s guards and had a two-and-half-metre basement (No. 5). A two-storey bricked building with basement marked No. 6 was another ‘den’ for prisoners. Both upstairs and downstairs, in the later period of the camp, there were nearly 400 people. It is difficult to determine, but certainly one of those two basements was used by guards for solitary confinement (in the second one there was a storehouse for vegetables). This room was known by prisoners as ‘the Bunker’. It was a ‘wet cell’, at the bottom of which there was water. Poles were detained there after having been beaten. The room marked No. 7 served as a morgue.11 On the right side of the entrance gate there was a kitchen for the prisoners. Buildings 9 and 10 formed a single unit divided only by a wooden wall; here a temporary health unit was established. Next to it was another hall with a concrete floor, where prisoners slept (or rather vegetated). A railway siding linked up with the areas marked 12 and 13; here the latest transport of Poles were brought to be examined and searched. On the ground floor in rooms 15 and 16 prisoners would sleep. Adjacent to these quarters, latrines were built in mid1941.12 An observation tower (No. 18) was placed a little farther away from the rest of the buildings. In the middle of the camp was a boiler room. On the central square, each morning and evening, rollcall took place. The description of the interior of Szmalco´wka presented above is still an approximation. We must remember that because of the increasing number of prisoners the camp was gradually expanding. In hall No. 11, bunks for prisoners were even built. Poles who happened to be in the camp in November 1940, and in subsequent months, certainly did not see any toilets, latrines or medical units. Bronisław Chrzanowski, who was in the camp shortly after its creation, testified:

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‘In the camp there were no toilets at all, and each prisoner, regardless of age and sex, relieved themselves in the yard by the fence.’13 Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik remembered huge vats of lard, behind which prisoners took care of their physical needs. In November 1940, Antoni Nitecki, as ‘a fanatical Pole’, was arrested and imprisoned in Fort VII in Torun´: I had told them there that I was a painter. So, when workers were being selected to carry out certain tasks, I was taken to Grudzia˛dzka Street, to the so-called Szmalco´wka in Torun´, to work for the camp guards as a painter, preparing the rooms. No preparations had been made for people who were brought there, apart from some straw scattered on the bare cement.14

The status and staff of Szmalco´wka Szmalco´wka was established in Torun´ as a collective camp, the purpose of which was to gather and make a selection of the dispossessed and displaced Polish population. Most Poles had to leave the area of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia as soon as possible and were to be exported to the General Government. In the German documents from December 1940, Szmalco´wka is defined as Sammellager Thorn, and a year later as Umwandererlager Thorn.15 From March 1941, after the closure of the borders of the GG, the prisoners stayed in the camp, not temporarily as before but permanently. It was under the jurisdiction of the Emigration Office in Gdan´sk and its commander was the aforementioned Radtke. Based on Himmler’s regulation of 28 May 1941, in the Pomeranian district the following camps of educational work (Arbeitserziehungslager) were set up in Stutthof, Potulice, Smukała, as well as in Torun´.16 From September 1941 to January 1942, Szmalco´wka was subordinate to the Stutthof camp. However, as Marek Orski has emphasized, the camp in Torun´ (as was also the case with the other camps of the Emigration Office), was treated not as a branch of the Stutthof camp, but as an independent entity. No documents have

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survived that would indicate direct administration and economic relations between the UWZ camps and the Stutthof special camp.17 Undoubtedly, staff relations existed. At that time Radtke was posted to the Germanization camp in Jabłonowo. SS–Sturmbannfu¨hrer (major) Max Pauly became the commandant of the camp in Torun´, while at the same time serving as the commandant of the camp in Stutthof. Szmalco´wka was staffed by the second guard company. They did not leave Torun´ until mid-1942. Earlier the guards were recruited from among local Germans including Hilfspolizei volunteers and special convoy units. There was one guard for every 14 prisoners. With the arrival of skilled guards, the ‘unskilled’ were sent to Stutthof for training.18 In February 1941, after an increase in the number of prisoners, and owing to financial problems, responsibility for guard duty was taken away from the auxiliary police and entrusted to 40 members of the protection police.19 Pauly nominated as the new head of the camp in Torun´ SS-Obersturmfu¨hrer (lieutenant) Richard Reddig. During World War I Reddig fought on the front for 18 months. He then lived in the Free City of Danzig working as a cashier in an energy company. He joined the NSDAP on 1 November 1931. In his file, under the heading ‘religion’, one can read next to his name: gottgla¨ubig. Reddig was not a follower of any of the traditional religions, but believed in the ‘God of Hitler’: the god of terror and violence. Since September 1939, he served in Stutthof and soon became the commandant of the sub-camp in Graniczna Wies´. In Stutthof his primary responsibility was for the supervision and training of guard companies (from 1942 to 1945 he was in charge of the first guard company; from March to June 1944 he managed the second company; from January to May 1943 the third, and from May to July 1944, he was also in charge of the fourth training guard company), which was of great importance for prisoners held in Szmalco´wka.20 Reddig, because of the way he beat prisoners, earned the nickname The Boxer. During his commandantship in Szmalco´wka, the largest amount of sadistic behaviour carried out by guards against the prisoners took place, and the greatest number of deaths were reported. The crew in Stutthof, along with their commandant, had no doubt as to the

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usefulness and validity of treating Poles as sub-humans. Their work in Torun´ was rated positively: 23 people from the second guard company serving in Torun´ were promoted on 30 January 1942 to the rank of Rottenfu¨hrer (corporal). Reddig’s activity in Torun´ was a seemingly important step in his SS career. In 1944 he was promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmfu¨hrer (captain). In the Stutthof archive an interesting document has survived, which proves that Reddig also had an impact on guards at the camp, even when he no longer held the position of commandant. On 20 February 1943, the commandant of Stutthof camp ordered Obersturmfu¨hrer Reddig to go on a business trip (Dienstreisen) to Potulice, Torun´ and Smukały in order to conduct checks of the guards there. The trip was to last from 22 to 26 February 1943.21 On 20 January 1942, the Inspector of Police and Security Forces Willich recalled Pauly and Reddig. The new commandant of the camp in Torun´ was SS-Obersturmfu¨hrer (lieutenant) Willy Ehlert, who had previously been working in Bydgoszcz as a senior criminal assistant for the Gestapo. Reddig returned to the Stutthof concentration camp, where he served until the camp’s liquidation, an adjustment connected with the change of the Stutthof camp’s status, which after 7 January acquired the status of a concentration camp.22 According to Kryger, Ehlert was not interested in the affairs taking place in the camp and left all of them to the discretion of his deputy SS-Oberscharfu¨hrer (sergeant) Franz Wink, who was the head of the camp’s administration, while he himself spent his time riding horses and sailing on the Vistula river. The last commandant of Szmalco´wka, heading the camp from October 1942 until its liquidation, was the Austrian Harald Lebius. According to Marian Kopytko, Lebius was initially friendly to Poles, even offering them cigarettes and letting them collect cigarette butts, but later he too began to treat prisoners as sub-human.23 Until mid1942 Szmalco´wka had played a leading role in clearing Gdan´sk Pomerania of Polish citizens, but a month before the arrival of Lebius, the camp in Torun´ had been made subordinate to the camp in Potulice. Over the following months, the camp in Potulice gradually began taking over this role from Szmalco´wka. The Potulice camp was

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expanded and could accommodate a larger number of prisoners. This was where prisoners from Torun´ were sent in June and July 1943, when Szmalco´wka was liquidated. ‘The Poles with functions’ in the camp were the oberkapo (a dentist, Dionizy Ulaszewski), a paramedic, a cook, a cobbler, a hairdresser, and also a postman. The camp had a post office, and in certain months families could send prisoners life-saving food parcels. However, they were often robbed by both guards and other prisoners looking for something to eat. The camp also employed inspectors, Irena Jacobs and Emma Stroike, who assisted in searching the prisoners. Gertrude Nast24 was a stenographer. The camp’s driver was SS-Sturmscharfu¨hrer Adam Hertel, who, according to prisoners’ accounts, often beat and abused detainees.

Transport and the number of prisoners Lately Poles are being displaced from Torun´ and the surrounding area. This always happens at night. People are given only half an hour to pack. They stand there in terror not knowing what to do and what to take to take with them. General, you would have to see for yourself. People are locked in a lard factory on Grudzia˛dzka Street. A human being wants to despair when looking at all this. You can see there the elderly, children and infants [. . .] General, today a woman was led away with six small children! What’s more, she was pregnant! Another case: a woman with three children was kicked out, whose husband had been imprisoned.25 This is an extract from a letter of 30 November 1940 found by Professor Sziling, which was written by one of the displaced Poles to the head of the German garrison in Torun´, General Klutmann. Between 20 and 30 November of that year, the first two transports of the displaced arrived at Szmalco´wka. There were a total of 1,706 people in them. Residents of the following districts were displaced: 41 families from Tczewo (147 people), 59 families from Nowe Miasto

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Lubawskie (289 people), 25 families from Bydgoszcz (95 people), 106 families from Torun´ (429 people), 42 families from Rypin (183 people), 23 families from S´wiecie (120 people), 38 families of Chełmno (145 people), 28 families from Grudzia˛dz (135 people), seven families from Tuchola (45 people), four families from Lipno (19 people) and three families from Starogard Gdan´ski (14 people).26 A statistical displaced Polish family consisted of five people. Abromeit obliged the camp commandant to ensure that the people in these shipments were dispatched to the next destination within three days. From the surviving documents we know that 703 people were transported from Torun´-Mokre to Lublin on 30 November at 11:00.27 According to German documents, the displaced were to be provided with food for the journey (Lebensmittel) in the form of potatoes, bread, biscuits, water and blankets. Every Pole could keep 20 złoty (‘Field erhielt vor jeder der Abreise 20 zł’).28 It is difficult to determine whether the displaced people actually received these things. Valuables, currencies, gold or silver could not be brought into the area of the GG. When searches of prisoners were conducted in Szmalco´wka, people were beaten even when holding matches, not to mention money. Hans Frank insisted on prisoners being supplied with food for the journey and their first days in the GG (initially for eight days, and later for 14), threatening to send back any transport of the displaced not equipped thus, since it would be impossible to provide them there with even the minimum means of survival. Such an approach did not result from any humanity on Frank’s part: it was simply the case that, for the manager of eine grosse polnische Arbeitslager, the piles of bodies that reached ‘the Polish reserve’, arriving in railway wagons from such places as Pomerania, were economically worthless.29 For example, on 28 February 1941 a transport of 1,001 people arrived in Torun´. Two days later they were sent to Warka. The transported Poles were provided with 4 tonnes of bread, 2 tonnes of barley, 400 kg of marmalade and 150 litres of milk.30 One of the orders of the Emigration Office that year, demanding that Poles be given winter clothes and blankets, reads: ‘This

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measure has nothing to do with humanitarianism or an expression of positive feelings towards the Poles, but merely results from the demand for labour in the GG, where they must work for the Old Reich.’31 As a biographer of the Governor-General has noted, simultaneous extermination and exploitation were impossible: it is hard to kill a cow you want to milk.32 Frank combined the ‘unpleasant’ (tolerating the influx of Polish and Jewish elements) with the ‘useful’ (exploiting them as a labour force). At one of the meetings of the NSDAP in 1942 he said: The evacuation of Poles, and their destruction or treatment exclusively as manpower is the task of our Polish policy. [. . .] However, we have a dilemma: you cannot simultaneously destroy Polishness, while at the same time relying on the supply of Polish labour. You cannot simultaneously claim that all Poles, no matter what kind, should be exterminated, and yet expect that, if they are able to work, they will be involved in the work process. There’s a fundamental contradiction here. What should be said is this: all those Poles we’re using for work, we keep; while the rest, we eradicate. The great difficulty, however, lies in the fact that the extermination of millions of human beings is a project which we are not yet able to deal with.33 (Italics author’s own.) In total, out of the 1,706 people who were sent to Szmalco´wka in November 1940, 1,358 were sent to the GG, 185 were hired by the employment office, 119 were sent to Ło´dz´ as suitable for Germanisation, 32 were released (including 12 Soviet citizens and two women with children), while 12 Poles were left in the camp.34 Another document stated that this particular transport included six children infected with typhus and one woman who had a miscarriage; all were taken to the city hospital in Torun´. In addition, 20 people displaced from the districts of Tuchola and Lipno were shot in unspecified locations and circumstances.35

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Władysław, Stanisław and Bronisław Chrzanowscy were among those who were in the first transport brought to the camp. The three brothers were the owners of the gardening centre located on the same street as Szmalco´wka. Their shop ended up in the hands of ‘a German who was brought from Warsaw’. After a week, the brothers were deported to Lublin. From there, one of them was taken to Kazimierz, to work as a river engineer on the Vistula. All three brothers survived the war.36 Franciszek Mankiewicz was a locksmith. On 30 November 1940 he was transported, together with his wife and two daughters, Janina and Natalia, from the camp in Torun´ to Lublin. Their 11-year-old son Wacław remained in Torun´. The court sentenced him to stay in a detention centre in Wejherowo. On 14 February 1941 he was sent to Szmalco´wka and from there he was transported to his family in Lublin.37 Unfortunately, we do not have any detailed information on other transports that arrived and departed from the camp. Jastrze˛bski said that a rule of localization had to be obeyed when decisions on the deportations of Poles were made. Poles expelled from the northwestern part of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia were sent to camps in Potulice, Tczew and Smukała, whereas people from the southeastern part of the Gau were brought to Szmalco´wka.38 Still, displaced families from all three regions of the Reichsgau DanzigWest Prussia were brought to Torun´, Gdan´sk, Bydgoszcz and Kwidzyn´. (See Fig. 3.3.) Between 15 and 20 February 1941, the following numbers of people were brought to Szmalco´wka: 521 from Wa˛brzez´no; 680 from Brodnica; 278 from Nowe Miasto and 763 from Bydgoszcz. A total of 2,242 people came to the camp within five days.39 In January and February 1941, transports arrived from Wa˛brzez´no with 1,050 people. In February 600 people were brought from Lipno. At that time (11 – 21 February 1941) four transports with a total of 3,907 people from Pomerania arrived in Warsaw, Piaseczno, Pruszko´w, Oz˙aro´w and Włochy.40 In April, 150 families from the Rypin and Wa˛brzez´no districts were brought to the camp in Torun´. In July, 40 people were brought from Lipno and Rypin. In June,

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Fig. 3.3 The area from which the prisoners were sent to the camp. Source: Author’s own source.

families expelled from their homes in Tczew came to the camp, and a month later from Starogard Gdan´ski. That same month, 84 people displaced from the district of Torun´ arrived at the camp. In August, a transport of 133 families arrived at Szmalco´wka from Bydgoszcz, Tczew, and Starogard Gdan´ski. In September, 418 people came from the Se˛polen´ski district. A month

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later, 300 people arrived from the Wa˛brzez´no, Grudzia˛dz, and Chełmno districts. In November, the residents of Nowe Miasto Lubawskie and Chełmno were displaced.41 Individual families from Gdan´sk also arrived at the camp in Torun´.42 The expulsions were held within the first stage (1 Teilprogramm) of the 3rd short-term plan (Nahplan) carried out throughout Poland in the period lasting from 21 January 1941 to 20 January 1942. At that time 131,000 Polish citizens were evicted and expelled from their homes and farms.43 In Gdan´sk there were plans to ‘evacuate’ 67,000, but this plan was not fully realized.44 Kryger testified that between seven and nine transports, ranging in size from 800 to 1,000 people, arrived at Szmalco´wka. Go´rski, referring mainly to this data, estimated that in the first period of the camp’s activity (to August 1941) 6,500 people circulated through Szmalco´wka, and that figure had risen to somewhere between 10 and 12,000 by the time the camp was finally liquidated.45 It was mainly farmers in possession of between a few and several hectares of land, along with their families, who were sent to the camp. The eviction was equivalent to expropriation. The mass plunder of Poles began in the early days of the war and, as has been noted by Czesław Łuczak, it also served the purpose of Germanizing the land. The idea of expropriating the property of Polish people on such a large scale came about as a result of analysis of the negative experiences of the Germanisation activities pursued during the partitions by the then Prussian authorities. In the course of these considerations, some representatives of the Nazi authorities became convinced that only through depriving Poles of their immovable property and a part of their movable property could there be any guarantee of the swift and rapid Germanisation of Polish land.46 After Forster decided to include as many Poles as possible on Category III of the Volksliste, those who did not agree to displacement were also expelled. Detention in a camp of ‘educational

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work’, such as Szmalco´wka was at that time, served to change the minds of at least some of these people. Antoni Czaniecki, owner of a 10-hectare farm, testified: ‘In mid-1941, Germans called up the inhabitants of Pigza to one property in Powrozie near Łysomice and a special committee (Pru¨fungsamt) was in operation. There Poles were persuaded to add their names to the German list. They said that if we didn’t sign up, we’d regret it. [. . .] From German acquaintances, some discovered that we’d have to prepare ourselves for deportation. On the night of 24 January 1942, Germans surrounded the entire village of Pigza and expelled all but two of the farmers.’47 Pipowski mentioned that a Polonized German happened to stay at the camp in Torun´. He had served in the Prussian army during World War I. For his merits he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the Iron Cross. He was sent to Szmalco´wka because he refused Germanization.48 In 1941 – I can’t remember exactly whether it was in spring or autumn – in Kon´czewice, the Germans gathered all the farmers in a school building and handed them a questionnaire that included as one of the questions: ‘To which nationality do I wish to belong?’ After a quiet period of consultation, all but one person left this box blank. This was the reason for the displacement of all the farmers of Kon´czewice.49 The German SS and police units who carried out the expulsions entered Polish homes in the middle of the night. The most frequent time for this activity was between 11 pm and 2 am. The evictions were deliberately carried out at that time because the Germans wanted to be sure that they would find the entire household in one place. In February 1941, the family of Tekla Chmielewska was displaced from Lipno. She herself managed to avoid this fate simply because she was not in the house. She was already hiding in Torun´. ‘On the second day after the arrest and deportation of my parents and siblings, two uniformed Germans arrived at the place where I was hiding in Torun´ and led me at gunpoint to Szmalco´wka.’50

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The families forced by Germans to leave their homes often had many children, and sometimes many generations, all living under the same roof. In the case of resistance, the element of surprise might have been significant here, although there is no documentary evidence of such cases. After the horrific German occupation, it was difficult to expect there to be much possibility of massive resistance on the part of the civilian population. Escape was the only solution. There had been instances where news of the deportations was spread around the area and some people managed to escape. Sometimes families expected to be deported and had already prepared a backpack with food. It’s 1941, a beautiful summer, and Poles were meeting everywhere and discussing the future. More and more often one could hear about the displacements of Poles to the GG. Our family was even a little pleased, since our mother’s brother lived in We˛grzewo. Others claimed that all Poles would be sent to prison. We were prepared for the worst. We packed our bundles with the most necessary things and waited.51 On the night of 1 July Germans entered the house of the Groblewski family in the village of Popioły, and shouted, ‘You’ve got half an hour to get out!’ Poles, depending on the ‘understanding’ of the SS, were given between 10 minutes and three hours to pack their things. Their luggage could not exceed 20 – 30 kg, which was as much as an adult human could carry. People were most often transported to the station in the nearest large city, and from there they were sent by train to the camp. Other means of transport were cars or horse-drawn carts. A description of how deportations were carried out can be found in the statements of Hipolit Wiktor Kaczyn´ski: I own a farm in Sampława. At 11 pm on 11 November 1941 two SS men came and said that we were being displaced to a resettlement camp. They said we had to be ready to leave by 1 am. One of them was guarding us and the other went to the

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farmhouse, where he carefully surveyed the inventory, machinery, tools, and poultry. Then he went to my neighbour and told my neighbour’s son to harness my horses to the wagon. This was how my whole family and I were taken to the station in Lubawa. With me was my wife Natalia Kaczyn´ska and four children: three-month-old son Waldemar, six-year-old daughter Alicja, ten-year-old son Wiesław, and fourteen-yearold daughter Lidia. There were also other displaced families transported to the Lubawa train station. My brother Donat Kaczyn´ski brought the farmer Mazurek and his family from Fijewo. My brother saw me and wanted to come closer and say goodbye to me but one of the SS men noticed and didn’t allow us to say goodbye. He slapped my brother in the face and kicked him. He punched me in the face three times. All the displaced were loaded into wagons and transported to the former lard factory in Torun´ where the resettlement camp known as Szmalco´wka was situated.52 The Wojtalewicz family owned 12 hectares of farmland in the village of Grubno near Chełmno. There the four of them grew oilseed rape and the farm was prosperous. After the outbreak of war, the father of 12-year-old Henryk was repeatedly called to sign up to the DVL. He kept refusing, claiming that he was born a Pole, was raised as a Pole, and would die as a Pole. They tried to convince him that he was German, since he was born under Prussian rule. They also pestered his wife, suggesting she divorce her husband, reminding her that her mother’s maiden name was German: Worschlaeger. They managed to avoid the purges carried out by the local Selbstschutz in the first weeks of the war. One of the ethnic Germans from the neighbouring village of Nowe Dobra, working on Wojtalewicz’s farm at the threshing machine, reported him, while another German warned him about the annihilation taking place. Henryk’s father disappeared from home for a few months. On 7 November 1941, the Wojtalewicz family were evicted. The SS burst into their flat at around midnight and told them they had 15 minutes to pack their things. They were then transported by wagon to the train station in Chełmno, and from

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there they were taken to Torun´. Before leaving home Henryk’s mother was told to prepare food for the German settlers who would be arriving (on the same wagon and on the same train as the one taking them to Szmalco´wka) to take their farm.53 Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik (born in 1930) recalled: On the night of 30 June 1941,54 we were roughly awoken by the SS men who broke into the house and ordered us to leave it within ten to fifteen minutes. There were five of us in the family: our parents and three children aged between two and ten; my mother was pregnant. We were shocked into a stupor by the shouting and harsh commands of the SS, the children began to cry, my mother was so shocked by this point that she could not understand what was going on and was not able to dress her children, let alone pack essential items for the family. Despite my age, I started to dress my brothers in as many clothes as I could pull on them. Dad was busy trying to pack as much as possible during those ten minutes. One of the ‘compassionate’ SS men helped to pack the bags, duvets and pots. Packing things lasted no longer than ten minutes, amid all the cries of schnelle, schnelle, rauss, rauss. [. . .] Everyone received a camp number which had to be carried in a small pouch around the neck – from that moment on every prisoner became a number. It should be noted that each family received one number – for example, our family received the number 682 [members of the family were sequentially numbered 682a, 682b, 682c, etc. – T.C].55 Note that the Luberda family had come to Pomerania in 1937 from Podhale, from the village of Łopuszna. As a child Janina would play with the famous philosopher Jo´zef Tischner.56 Those living in cities were also brought to the Torun´ camp. On 9 January 1942, Bronisława Norkowska arrived with her husband, two children, and a sister. Before the war, they had been owners of a bakery in Torun´, which was taken away from them.57 Edward Zawacki was the owner of a garden centre in Torun´:

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On 26 November 1940, the Germans dispossessed me of my garden centre. Five soldiers in black SS uniforms arrived at five in the morning, and, together with my brother and mother, who are no longer alive, we were taken to the Szmalco´wka camp on Grudzia˛dzka Streets, No. 124. We were told to take ‘as much as we could carry’, with an indication that we should bring all the money and valuables.58 Also at the camp were people who had been displaced at the beginning of the occupation, and who had illegally returned to Pomerania. In autumn 1939, 12 German farmers were deported from the village of We˛giersk, including Jan Lulkowski and his family. They were transported by horse-drawn carts to Skierniewice and placed in formerly Jewish homes. Half a year later, the Lulkowscy family decided to return to Kujawy, to their friends who lived near their home village. Before long, the entire family ended up in Szmalco´wka. Due to the fact that she was breast-feeding a one-and-ahalf-year-old child, the mother worked in the camp peeling potatoes, and was eventually sent to the Potulice camp. The father and the 14year-old son, after refusing to join the Volksliste, were sent to work in Germany. Only the son returned to Poland.59 Janina Stan´czyk, then 15 years old, from the village of Skorzewo remembered the day of deportation as follows: It was October 1941. Despite the enormous difficulties posed by Germans, work on the fields was almost complete. However, news about the resettlements was arriving. We lived from day to day in a state of constant uncertainty, until 28 October 1941. I remember the exact day, it was freezing. In the evening, after the routine tasks had been completed on the farm, we sat down to dinner, not suspecting that it was the last meal we would have in our house. At about midnight we were awoken by a loud banging on the door and the sound of German words: Auf machen, aber schnell! In the rush we began to get dressed, and mum went to open the door. Three SS men in black uniforms, armed with guns burst into the kitchen. They gave us brief

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instructions. Take documents, dishes, some clothes, and food up to 20 kg, no bed sheets. They did not present us with any charges, nor did they say why we were being deprived of our home. ‘Germans from the East will come here and they have to live somewhere.’ This was the whole justification for our expulsion. The black SS uniforms said the rest. It took three hours to load the wagons. Standing or sitting on our luggage, trembling with fear and uncertainty, at about three in the morning the transport started to move. Early in the morning we arrived at the Torun´-East station. Wagons with prisoners were detached and directed towards the lard factory. The small square suddenly filled with people. Here and there we could hear the cries of hungry children, the moaning of the sick, the frozen, and the sleepy.60 Ludwik Bandura, leading a team of three teachers in the years 1947 – 50, examined the psychological impact of the war on children in primary and secondary schools from Torun´, Grudzia˛dz, Lipno, Bydgoszcz, and the neighbouring villages. ‘Children were very sensitive to the deep humiliation of their nation. War is not something that happens outside of them, but penetrates them to their core; the children are its co-authors.’61 The evictions, usually very brutal, were dramatically engraved on their memories. So strong was the shock that most children were able to give the exact date of when the eviction took place. Displacements particularly affected children living in villages; in contrast to the urban population, they hardly ever changed houses. The house and the farm were perceived as an oasis of peace and security. Whereas the children from cities were more affected by housing and living conditions only after they left home. The only positive aspect of the expulsion from West Prussia, the children remembered, was the fact that in the General Government they again found themselves surrounded by Poles, and did not have to fear persecution for speaking the Polish language.62 The Central Welfare Council (CWC) helped the displaced people who were sent to the GG from the territories annexed to the Reich. Poles were placed in the formerly Jewish ‘empty pens’, night shelters,

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or found a roof over their heads thanks to the help of family and the local population. Workers of the CWC organized basic health care, food banks, and orphanages for children. They helped with the search for jobs, and hired people from the handicraft workshops they had created. On 13 February 1941, 993 people were brought from the district of Lipno and Rypin to Skierniewice, directed from the camps in Torun´ and Potulice. ‘The displaced had almost no bedding. They had only one change of personal items like clothes and underwear – that is, the one they were wearing. In some cases, the family would have a small amount of spare underwear for the children.’ The Germans, it is worth acknowledging, did provide those transported with food.63 The Local Welfare Council from Grojec reported that the health of the displaced people in Pomerania after their arrival to the GG was ‘very bad, but soon a hospital was opened in Warka designed for the displaced. A food bank was also established, so the state of people’s health significantly improved.’ A large percentage of the displaced were women and children unable to work.64 In another report, prepared by the CWC staff, we read: the conditions found by the displaced at their new place of residence were very bad, both in terms of material and health. Many were in one set of clothes, with no pillows, blankets or money, after a long stay in distribution camps. The need for help was heightened by the fact that transports consisted mostly of children, the old, and the sick (35 per cent), i.e. the so-called useless elements, unable to work and struggle for existence.65 They were decimated by infectious diseases, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. There were also fatal accidents that happened during the journey. Most were sent to the countryside, where there was no primary care. Particularly severe was the fate of single mothers with children whose husbands were taken off to work. The council asked the German government for the return of personal belongings left behind by displaced people at the camp or at the place of residence,

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but to no avail. The report also highlighted ‘the utter exhaustion and lack of strength to fight against the hopeless situation’.66 It says a lot that some of the surviving prisoners of Szmalco´wka are still unable to talk about their experiences there, despite the almost 70 years that have passed since those events. The tears and emotions are insurmountable. Szmalco´wka was formally established as a resettlement camp. On 20 February 1941, a transport with 1,017 people was sent from Torun´ to the GG. Four days later, 1,006 people came to the ‘residual area’.67 From the spring of 1941, the Third Reich began to prepare for the execution of Operation Barbarossa in Poland. As a result, on 15 March, the borders of the GG were closed. Soon the sending of transports from Torun´ became impossible. Initially, the prisoners were in Szmalco´wka for around two to three days, sometimes five or six, before being transported to their destination. Only after some time did the number of permanent Table 3.1 January February March April May June July August September October November December

The number of prisoners in the camp 1940

1941

1942

1943

2,818 3,168 3,167 2,986 2,926 3,431 3,308 2,921 2,748 2,707 2,566 2,551

2,547 2,526 2,525 – 2,319 – –

– –

– – – – – – 894 1,256 1,376 2,053 2,649 2,850

Source: APB, UWZ –D, catalogue no. 87, camp commandant’s halfmonthly reports (Halbmonatsbericht) from 3 January 1942 to 1 March 1943; catalogue no. 184, ibid., UWZ –D, catalogue no. 39, statistics for the evacuation; ibid., SRSDG, catalogue no. 1, Reports, personal and general issues, decrees Feb. –Oct. 1942, Bericht 16– 31 May 1943, card No. 185.

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prisoners in the camp increase. The size of the camp for each month is presented in the table on the previous page.68 (See Table 3.1.) Statistics for 22 of the camp’s 33 months of existence have survived. From the spring of 1941, transports to the camp were still arriving, but were not leaving. The number of prisoners grew gradually. From September to October, the numbers increased from 1,376 to 2,053 people. This period, it seems, is also characterized by the greatest numbers of people being released from the camp. At the beginning of the following year, the number of prisoners in Szmalco´wka had already reached 2,850 people, and a month later exceeded 3,000. The greatest number of Poles were imprisoned in the Torun´ camp on 1 June 1942: 3,442 people. Then the number began to steadily decrease. More and more Poles were sent to German farms to work. The most recent data is from 31 May 1943 – that is, approximately one and a half months before its closure – showing that there were about 2,319 people in the camp.69 (See Table 3.2.) In the reports sent every two weeks to the Gdynia headquarters, the camp’s commandant also gave the number of prisoners who were unable to be sent to work. It is worth comparing this more detailed data to the total number of prisoners at different time intervals. The highest proportion of people unable to work was in February 1942, amounting to nearly 70 per cent. This was probably due to the typhus epidemic that broke out in the camp at that time. The time of the year, with its numerous outbreaks of the common cold and pneumonia, certainly played a part here. The smallest number of people unable to work was recorded three months later, amounting to nearly 40 per cent. However, this number never dropped below 38 per cent when looking at the period for the 15 months of which we actually have data. For what reason then were the unfit prisoners still being held in the camp? A large part of the Polish prisoners were, from an economic standpoint, entirely useless for the Germans. According to Go´rski, only 72 to 114 people were ever actually employed to work in the camp.70 The fact that such a high number of people were unable to work can be explained to a large extent by the fact that there were a lot of small children in Szmalco´wka. German owners preferred to employ

74 Table 3.2

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP Percentage of people unable to be sent to work.

Date 3 Jan. 1942 16 Jan. 1942 2 Feb. 1942 16 Feb. 1942 2 Mar. 1942 16 Mar. 1942 1 Apr. 1942 16 Apr. 1942 1 May 1942 16 May 1942 1 June 1942 16 June 1942 1 July 1942 1 Aug. 1942 16 Aug. 1942 1 Sept. 1942 16 Sept. 1942 1 Oct. 1942 15 Oct. 1942 1 Nov. 1942 15 Nov. 1942 1 Dec. 1942 15 Dec. 1942 31 Dec. 1942 16 Jan. 1943 31 Jan. 1943 16 Feb. 1943 1 Mar. 1943

Total number of prisoners

Number of people incapable of working

Percentage of people incapable of working in relation to the total number of prisoners

2,850 2,818 3,069 3,168 3,338 3,167 2,971 2,986 2,971 2,926 3,442 3,431 3,308 2,986 2,921 2,871 2,748 2,714 2,707 2,571 2,566 2,562 2,561 2,551 2,550 2,547 2,529 2,525

1,851 1,873 2,116 2,059 1,733 1,525 1,282 1,323 1,145 1,119 1,376 1,541 1,825 1,473 1,446 1,398 1,288 1,159 1,217 1,190 1,232 1,272 1,369 1,320 1,258 1,266 1,267 1,268

64.9% 66.4% 68.9% 65.0% 51.9% 48.1% 43.1% 44.3% 38.5% 38.2% 40.0% 44.9% 55.1% 49.3% 49.5% 48.6% 46.8% 42.7% 44.5% 46.2% 48.0% 49.6% 53.5% 51.7% 49.3% 49.7% 50.0% 50.2%

Source: APB, UWZ – D, catalogue no. 87, camp commandant’s halfmonthly reports (Halbmonatsbericht) from 3 January 1942 to 1 March 1943.

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healthy adult men. Soon, however, units were formed for children who also were to be sent work. According to German law, the obligation to work in the territories annexed by the Reich applied to those over the age of 14. However, this age limit was not strictly observed. In Szmalco´wka younger children were also forced to work. We do not know the details as to what criteria were used in order for a prisoner to be qualified as unfit to be sent to work. It is hard not to get the impression that the camp’s authorities did not quite know what to do with those prisoners. Releasing all the sick was not an option. The Nazis had not depolonized Polish Pomerania only to allow them to freely return. In addition, the new owners of Polish properties wanted to ensure that Poles did not return. Nor can it be excluded that there were fears a conspiracy would develop. In 1947 Dionizy Ulaszewski testified: ‘This camp was actually created to place people somewhere after they had been thrown out of their homes and workplaces, which were then allocated to Germans who arrived in Pomerania. At the same time, the Germans wanted to lead to their physical extermination and make the camp a tool of terror, intimidating all those still at large.’71 Forster, after completing the expulsion of the Polish population in Pomerania, ordered the families of these Poles to go within two or three months.72 Local Volksdeutsch feared revenge from the families who had been displaced, whose husbands and brothers and uncles had been killed. The connection between the direct extermination of the Polish population in the first months of occupation and the later deportations is well illustrated in the fortunes of the Klimek family. Władysław Klimek (1899– 1939) came from Pływaczewo and was a member of parliament in the Second Republic of Poland. The owner of a 50-hectare farm, he had been awarded a military award for the part he had played in the Polish– Soviet War (Za Wojne˛ 1918 – 21). He had also co-organized a fundraiser to purchase horses for the Polish army, which went to the 63rd Infantry Regiment in Torun´. His definition of patriotism is well-expressed in a diary extract written during this period:

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I am still the kind of Pole I have always been, and, despite everything, I will remain an ardent Pole because this was, is and will be my honour. My feelings for my country, my patriotism, will never be torn out by the devil, whatever tricks he tries. It hurts me though to see that despite so many years of slavery, and with such a rich history, Poles have not learnt which path we should take, how to govern, how to work so that our new homeland is set on a strong rocky foundation that never falters, facing bravely all the storms that will, sooner or later, strike.73 In the reborn Poland he became involved in social activities in his village. He, along with others, was the initiator and the first chief of the Volunteer Fire Department in Pływaczewo. In the years 1932 – 9 he was a member of the supervisory board of the Bank Ludowy, and in the period 1935 – 9 he was the mayor of Kowalewo Pomorskie. The year before he became a member of parliament for a fifth term, in the 1930s, he published about 25 scientific papers on efficient management. Just before the outbreak of war, for his contribution in the field of social work, he was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit by Prime Minister Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski.74 In 1929, Władysław Klimek married Wanda Wis´niewska. Soon their six children were born: Lech (b. 1930), Bogdan (b. 1931), Janusz (b. 1932), Henryk (b. 1933), Rita (b. 1934), and Roman (b. 1936). After the outbreak of war, Klimek left for Warsaw for a specially convened extraordinary session of parliament. His wife, fearing for the lives of their children, left their home village, along with hundreds of Pomeranians, and escaped on a cart towards central Poland. In a letter to her husband she wrote: Dear Władeczku. The trains are no longer running. We can now hear the sounds of the approaching front. People are running away towards Warsaw. We are leaving tonight (2 September) with our workers on two carts to Ostrowite and then on

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through Golub to Dulsko, to the relatives of our neighbours. We wish to stay there. The children and I love you very much! We believe strongly that you are all right and that we will soon meet again. Kisses. Yours, Wanda and the children.75 In the village of Łukaszewo (in the district of Rypin) the German army caught up with them. They had to turn back to Pływaczewo and returned to the family home. Meanwhile, the train on which Władysław Klimek was travelling to the capital was bombed. After more than a month in exile and many adventures he returned home exhausted on 7 October.76 As his son Henryk recalled: ‘When he came back, so did our family happiness. There were no limits to the children’s delight. We were jumping for joy, but our mum attempted to contain our bursts of joy and keep us quiet as our dad could barely stand.’77 Władysław Klimek, despite the insistence of his friends, who advised him to leave Pomerania as soon as possible, decided to stay. ‘I have never done anyone, either a Pole or a German, any harm. I have no such enemies who would seek vengeance on me. I see no reason I should leave my devoted wife, my beloved children, and this plot of land that belongs to us. Escape? Where to? What for?’78 On 16 October, nine local Germans arrived at the Klimek’s farm on bicycles with the Selbstschutz sign on their shoulders. They were armed with rifles. Klimek was arrested together with Tadeusz Przybyszewski, a merchant from Kowalewo, who at that time was visiting his relatives. The detained men were to return home that same day in the evening after a routine check. The decision about their arrest was made by Heinz Borrmann, who had formally accused Klimek of the illegal requisition of horses that had been taken away from German farmers for the Polish army.79 The prisoners were taken to the detention centre in Wa˛brzez´no. There the Polish member of parliament was tortured for two days. The executioners threw him into a cesspit filled with 15 cm of faeces. On the night of 18 October, together with other internees, he was shot in the Łopatki sand mine. In 1944 the bodies were taken out and burned to this day it has been impossible to determine the number

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and names of all the victims. Klimek’s family was sent to Szmalco´wka above all thanks to the ‘determination’ of Karl Struwe, a local member of the Selbstschutz who wanted to seize their property. Henryk’s father, Władysław, a former member of parliament of the Second Polish Republic, was executed by the Nazis along with thousands of other Poles on 18 October 1939 in the Łopatki sand mine near Wa˛brzez´no. A member of the Emigration Office in Gdynia, after a visit to the Klimek’s farm, said that Wanda Klimek and her children were fit for Germanization and should be sent to the Old Reich. Struwe’s reaction, Klimek remembered, was characteristic. ‘She and her children need to be transported to the General Government. That is their place. They should die there! [. . .] Or just send them to a camp, but not to the Reich! Those are little Polish devils.’ Struwe screamed, with us in mind – ‘if we let them grow up, they will take revenge for the death of their father’.80

Releases, escapes and returns Despite this attitude, prisoners were still released from the camp. However, since only a fraction of the data has been preserved in the German documents in the Bydgoszcz archives, it is difficult to determine exactly how many were allowed to leave. What we do know is that between 15 June and 1 July 1941, 449 people were freed.81 In October, 155. In November, 161. While in December, 79. In the first three months of the following year, 243 Poles left the camp. In June, July and August 1942, as many as 701 were released. According to the documents, a total of about 1,800 prisoners were released.82 It is difficult to identify the criteria by which the Germans decided who was to be released. In the surviving records, the box marked ‘reason for release’ often remained blank. Undoubtedly, it was possible to leave the camp after persuading the German authorities that somewhere within their Polish blood, a few drops of valuable Germanic blood could be recovered. Perhaps they spoke German fluently. Or a close family member served in the Wehrmacht, or was Reichsdeutsche, or worked in the Reich. Maybe their brother was

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Volksdeustche, or they had Protestant relatives (since it was believed that Catholicism was synonymous with Polishness; Protestantism with Germanness). The ‘Asocial polnische Elementen’ had no such possibilities. For these Poles, their best chance of getting out of the camp was to have a German farmer or one of the skilled labour force (a Facharbeiter), speaking up for them. On 26 October 1942, Jo´zef Janowski wrote a letter to the SD Inspectorate in Gdynia asking for the release of his aunt Rozalia Miłoszewska (born on 16 October 1869; maiden name Dziengelewska) from the resettlement camp in Torun´. She had been sent to the camp nine months earlier, along with her husband Jo´zef Miłoszewski. Jankowski argued that his entire family had joined the Volksliste. Furthermore, since he was an employee of the railway company, he would be able to maintain his aunt, meaning that she would not not have to turn to social services for help after leaving the camp. Miłoszoewski did not receive any reply from the German authorities. On 22 March 1942, he died.83 The camp’s records include ‘declarations’, which were signed whenever someone was released. ‘I pledge to provide my sister-in-law and her children with food and accommodation, so that she does not claim any right to state aid.’84 On 31 March 1942, following examination by the SD Special Branch, Helena Ormin´ska was released from the camp in Torun´. This was made possible thanks to a written request submitted to the Labour Office in Torun´ by shop owner Johann Klimek. He argued that he was in urgent need of qualified domestic help, which was particularly difficult to find on the labour market. He praised Orminska’s cooking skills and her wide experience of working in a kitchen. He concluded by declaring that the released woman would be under his control at all times and ‘brought up in the spirit of National Socialism’.85 Stanisław Kre˛glewski and his mother Leokadia were released from Szmalco´wka in October 1941. Hermann Dammann, owner of a drugstore in Gdynia, spoke up for them, arguing that professional manpower was necessary for his shop. He assured the camp’s authorities that he would guarantee living conditions and promised

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that they would report to the local police station. Stanisław’s brother, Tadeusz Kre˛glewski, the owner of a garage in Kielce, also spoke up for him.86 A person released from the camp had to report to the local unit of the police under the threat of rearrest. Any change of residence also had to be reported to the administration of the camp. On 30 January 1942, the Emigration Office sent a letter to its subordinate camps, which stated that prisoners could be released only in the case of serious health problems (dringenden gesundheitlichen Fallen), and also under the condition that these persons would undergo ethnic selection conducted by the SD Special Branch. Release for any other reason could take place only after a decision had been made regarding acceptance to the Volksliste.87 The Emigration Office, in a letter written on 17 June 1941 to the commandant of Szmalco´wka and the camp in Potulice, granted itself the exclusive right to decide who left the camp.88 In 1940, Pelagia Kurzyn´ska was sent to Szmalco´wka, together with her husband, three children aged between four and 10, and her 70-year-old grandmother. Having lost their 12-hectare farm, the family members were soon separated. Pelagia’s husband was sent from the camp into forced labour in Gdynia-Orłowo, while she went to work on a German farm in the district of Brodnica. Their children remained in the camp, where one of them lost an eye. With the help of the German farmer she worked for, Pelagia managed to bring the children to stay and work with her on the farm.89 For the camp’s administration authorities, minor children were a burden. Therefore, it is probable that at least some of them were released. Some of the released Poles were brought to the station, where the Germans gave them the so-called Fahrkarte (passport) to ensure that they left Pomerania for the General Government. Prisoners were also released due to old age (anybody over the age of 60).90 The spouse of such a person had to sign a declaration that they would provide for them and arrange their transportation. The German state did not intend to spend any money on a ‘Polish sub-human’ who could no longer be used. In the camp people were also released ‘through the back door’. Wealthy family members, trying to save their loved ones, paid bribes to the camp’s administration.91

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The fate of the farmer Marian Gortatowski was especially tragic. On 19 December 1941, a letter was written on the basis of which Kluge, the head of the Security Police and Emigration Office in Gdan´sk, released him from the camp due to old age. The German administration in Gdynia was unaware of the fact that 11 days earlier, on 8 December, the 77-year-old man had died.92 ‘Yes, panta rhei, everything flows, everything changes, it is impossible to step twice into the same transport.’93 However, you could be sent to the same camp twice. Bogdan Witold Bukowski was displaced from Golub (or Dobrzyn´) in February 1941.94 Together with his parents and two siblings, Eugeniusz and Ireneusz, they ended up in the camp in Torun´. In May, he and his family were deported to the General Government, to Ursus near Warsaw. The father Leon learned that their property had been looted, but that their apartment was empty. Except for the brother Eugeniusz, who became ill and stayed under his grandfather’s care, the family decided to return to their small homeland. They illegally crossed the border between the General Government and Pomerania, near Modlin (the so-called green border). With the help of a Volksdeutsche named Romanowski, they received permission to return home. The father was employed digging peat. The family, however, loudly manifested their Polishness, refusing to sign the German nationality list, with the result that, within a year, they were sent back to the camp. Mother was pregnant. After a year of misery and roaming, I was also very weak. No wonder that in the camp I caught various diseases all the time. I suffered from measles, pneumonia (twice) and typhoid fever. My brother Ireneusz and my sister Mirosława, born in the camp, both died. To this day I remember my mother’s despair and father’s constant meditation.95 The death register states that Bukowska died on 8 September 1942 aged eight months old, and Ireneusz Bukowski died on 14 February 1942, aged less than three years old.

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This was not the end of the Bukowski family history at the camp. The father was aware that his family had paid a price for their attachment to Polishness. On 24 August 1942, the Bukowski family was examined by the SD Special Branch and qualified for the Category IV on the German nationality list.96 However, after surely much deliberation, the father decided to leave his family behind in the camp. Having managed to escape, he crossed the green border once more and entered the GG. There he joined the Home Army, becoming a liaison between Warsaw and Miecho´w, near Krako´w, and taking part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the fall of the Uprising and the occupation of the capital by the Red Army, he was deported to Siberia by the NKVD for being an AK soldier. In inhumane conditions he worked hard in a Soviet labour camp as a coal miner and a lumberjack. ‘He was covered with lice, swollen and dressed in torn work clothes. He was released. From the Red Cross branch in Białystok he collected only food for the journey, refusing to accept any clothes because he wanted to show what the prisoners returning from the land of “prosperity” – the USSR – looked like.’97 Leon Bukowski’s son says that before 1989 he could not even write in his vita this particular piece of information about his father.98 Further confirmation of the fate of Leon Bukowski to that presented in the vita written by his son Bogdan, can also be found in the surviving German files. In Emigration Office documents, there is a list, prepared on 24 March 1942, of the names of 88 people who were sent to Szmalco´wka, transported to the General Government, and who illegally returned to the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, only to be imprisoned once more in the camp. The list includes the name Leon Bukowski, who is registered as having first come to the camp on 15 February 1941 and again on 27 July. There is a note next to his name: geflu¨chtet (escaped). The same phrase appears next to the names of seven other prisoners.99 According to Czesław Łuczak, people who illegally returned from the GG to the territories incorporated into the Reich in December 1939 could face a severe punishment: execution. Later more lenient sanctions were implemented, involving temporary deportation to a concentration camp and, after release, further displacement.100 The reports from the

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interrogations of former prisoners show that the Germans used collective punishment for those escaping from Szmalco´wka. They beat the family members who remained in the camp. They beat all the other members of the fugitive’s command. They even beat all the prisoners from the same barrack. In extreme cases, distant relatives of the person were also punished by being sent to the concentration camp in Stutthof or Szmalco´wka.101 Stanisław Dzie˛gielewski’s family of six was displaced from Golub to Włochy, near Warsaw. In the General Government they struggled to find work so they decided to come back. In practice, this meant a six-week march. From Golub they ended up back in Szmalco´wka. The documents do not show what happened to them next.102 Escapes from the camp were also possible with the help of the camp’s Polish administration: At that time, while I was working in Piwnice, there was a transport being prepared in the camp of men and women to be sent to a tannery in Gdan´sk. My brother Czesław Stan´czyk and Jakub Dobek were both on the list. People were gathering in the main square of the camp and, thanks to a brief moment of confusion, two of them managed to flee over the fence. Ulaszewski, a foreman at the camp, checking the list again, realised that the two men were missing. Whether he inserted some random names to replace the two men or sent the transport two people short, remains a mystery. As a result of this, my mother endured enormous stress. What will the Germans do when they find out about his escape? Although she could not sleep for almost two nights, she somehow managed to cope. When, several days after the incident, Ulaszewski asked her where her son Czesław was, she replied without hesitation, ‘he went away to work in Gdan´sk’. No more questions were asked; it seemed that he had obliterated the traces of this escape.103 Janina Stan´czyk’s brother fled to Krako´w, where, after many vicissitudes, he was sent into forced labour in Baden-Baden in Germany, from where he sent food parcels to his family.

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Prisoners could be sent not only from the Torun´ camp to the camp in Stutthof, but also in the opposite direction. In the two ‘Books of the Transferred Prisoners’ (Einlieferungsbuch) one can see the names of 13 prisoners, and next to them a note that they were released on 10 July 1942, and handed over to the camp in Torun´ (‘Entlassung am 07.10.1942 UWZ Thorn’).104 Orski discovered that they belonged to a group of about 200 people, most likely craftsmen who were transported from Stutthof to Potulice and Szmalco´wka for the purpose of expanding those two camps. Thirteen prisoners who were sent to Torun´ stayed there for only 17 days, and on 27 July they were taken to Potulice.105 Most likely they had carried out minor construction work in Szmalco´wka before being transported to the other camp, which required significantly greater development as it began to play the leading role in deportations. The surviving German documents also show that there were cases where displaced Poles escaped from the German farms that they had been transported to after leaving Szmalco´wka. Franciszek Studzin´ski from Golub arrived with his family at Szmalco´wka in May 1941. Soon after that, together with his daughter Sabina, he was sent to work on a farm belonging to a German, Gerhard Sommerfeld, in the district of Torun´. In mid-September he got one day of holiday from which he never returned. In a letter to the Gestapo, the Arbeitsamt demanded that Studzin´ski be caught and placed in a labour camp in Stutthof for sabotage.106 German documents reported a total of 165 cases of prisoners escaping from the camp in Torun´.107 Czesław Skomorowski from Montowo, in the district of Grodziczno, came to Szmalco´wka on 12 September 1941, as an 11-year-old child with his parents and five brothers. Three days later, the entire family was transported to Ło´dz´. His father, Jan Skomorowski, who had been disabled since World War I, was told to adopt ‘German nationality’.108 He said he would not do it, as he did not want his children to become cripples like him. The Germans started to insult him: ‘You Polish swine.’ ‘On this occasion, my father received several kicks right there in front of us.’109 The family again found itself in the camp in Torun´ and were soon separated. Czesław’s brother Leon was sent to the camp in Starogard Gdan´ski, Kazimierz

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went to Gdynia, the mother Waleria and Czesław’s brother Witold were taken to Potulice. The father Jan Skomorwski died in Szmalco´wka on 16 January 1942 ‘of hunger in inhuman conditions’.110 Czesław, with his brother Alfons, stayed in the Torun´ camp until its liquidation in July 1943.111 On 26 February 1941, Pelagia Grajkowska arrived at the camp in Torun´ from the district of Brodnica, together with her two children, seven-year-old Wacław and three-year-old Heronim (in the German documents he is listed as Hilary). Two days later they were transferred to Warka in the General Government. Soon, the family returned illegally to Kujawy but they were imprisoned by the Staatspolizei in Grudzia˛dz. On 19 November they found themselves again in Szmalco´wka. A month later Wacław died. His mother shared the fate of her older child on 18 March 1942. Three-and-a-half-yearold Heronim was left by himself in the camp. The boy became ill and was taken to the city hospital. He never returned to the camp, thanks to the determination of his grandmother, who, with the consent of the boy’s father Stanisław, wrote to the commandant of the camp asking for the orphan to be released. She also guaranteed that she would provide him with food and care. Despite an initial refusal, the boy was released.112

Racial and ethnic segregation In the Torun´ camp, as in other resettlement camps, racial and ethnic selections were also carried out. In February 1941, a proposal was discussed to set up thorough selection in the camp in Torun´, but the project was not completed.113 At the same time (3 February 1941) the head of the Emigration Office signed a contract with the head of the Department of the Central Office of Race and Settlement in Ło´dz´ whereby the camps came under the supervision of the Emigration Office and were visited by a racial expert from the Central Office who conducted initial biological selection.114 However, as the data of the first two transports shows, prisoners from Szmalco´wka were being sent to Litzmannstadt even earlier than this.

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Bronisław Olszewski testified: ‘In the summer of 1942 a group of two or three Germans arrived. The group consisted of senior officers, all more or less at the rank of colonel. On the basis of external examination of prisoners gathered in the courtyard, they selected those who they believed belonged to the German race or possessed characteristics of this race.’115 The selection of prisoners was made on the basis of their appearance, at the beginning with their clothes on and then naked. Not having any influence over their fate, Poles from the selected group were sent to the Germanization camp in Ło´dz´. Between 1941 and 1942, 607 people were transferred from the camp in Torun´ to the Germanization camp in Ło´dz´. The surviving documents show that it was whole families who were sent rather than individuals (wiedereinzudeutschender Polen-Familien). (See Table 3.3.) The selection of nationalities was primarily conducted by regional branches of the NSDAP answering to Forster and the Torun´ unit of the SD Special Branch in Gdynia. The Torun´ unit started its work in 1941 and was located in the vicinity of the camp; initially at 69 Grudzia˛dzka Street, and then later at 5 Lipowa Street. Prisoners were taken there from Szmalco´wka, to the so-called Pru¨fung. This division is a reflection of the dispute over Germanization policy doctrine between Himmler and the Gauleiter of West Prussia. The latter considered primarily political criteria and the economic needs of German Pomerania. The SD Special Branch, aiming to realize Himmler’s vision of Germanization, paid more attention to biological-racial aspects.116 In the Bydgoszcz archives there have been preserved surveys drafted by the regional administration of the Nazi party examining the political outlook of Poles, the owners of apartments and farms to be handed over to the Germans (Fragebogen zur politischen Beurteilung). Point no. 23 of the survey reads: ‘Characteristics and political views.’ Next to this, in many of the surveys, the following comment appears: ‘Once he has left the local environment and been relocated, he will be able to become a useful [sic ] man.’117 In the records of the Sonderreferat SD Gotenhafen an interesting statement has survived. Made by Weronika Balawska on 17 February 1942, it says a lot about the Germanization action conducted among

56

2 Sept. 1941 45

22 Sept. 1941 48

18 Oct. 1941 97

31 Oct. 1941 51

2 Nov. 1941 176

15 Nov. 1941

17

4 Dec. 1941

6

5 May 1942

54

17 June 1942

Source: APB, UWZ –D, catalogue no. 70, List of transports of people sent from the camp in Torun´ to the camp in Ło´dz´ for the purpose of Germanization 1941 – 2.

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31 July 1941

The number of people sent from the camp in Torun´ to the Germanization camp in Ło´dz´ in the years 1941 – 2.

Number of people

Date of transport

Table 3.3

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Poles. ‘I declare that the following is true of me (the undersigned) and my spouse: (1) I am a Polish national, (2) I do not have first-degree relatives (parents, children) of German nationality, (3) None of my first and second-degree relatives (parents, children, siblings) serve in the German army, (4) I gave this signature without coercion from third parties.118 Ulaszewski testified that sooner or later every person staying in the camp had to be examined by ethnic experts from the Torun´ division of the SD Special Branch. Their goal was to acquire deutschblutiges menschenmaterial.119 Prisoners were promised that, if they signed the German nationality list, they would be freed, and they would even have the chance to regain their property. This, however, never happened. In Szmalco´wka prisoners were escorted to the building on the corner of Grudzia˛dzka Street and Wybickiego Street, the socalled Pru¨fung. Some, especially those from Pomerania, signed the list. None of those from Congress Poland were included in the list. Those who signed were deported to the camp in Jabłonowo, while the young were taken to the army. No one got their property back.120 It is difficult to accurately estimate how many Poles from Szmalco´wka were included in the Volksliste. Ulaszewski reported that the number ranged from 600 to 700 people in the period May 1941 to June 1943.121 Moreover, the ex-foreman in Szmalco´wka wrote in his diary that on 18 July 1941 Forster himself was at the camp for three hours, and personally interviewed people with German-sounding names.122 The folder concerning the camp in Jabłonowo gives only 100 names of people who came there from the camp in Torun´. Another document contains the information that on 10 July 1942, 21 prisoners from Szmalco´wka arrived at Eindeutschungslager

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Gosslershausen.123 This data is certainly incomplete. It seems that the number given by Ulaszewski seriously underestimates the actual figures. In the files of the SD Special Branch there is a folder on racial examinations conducted in the years 1942– 3 in the camp in Torun´. There are about 3,350 names of Poles. Next to the names, the Volksliste Category has been entered, mostly III (noch tragbarer bevo¨lkerungszuwachs) or IV (unerwu¨nschter bevo¨lkerungszuwachs). Only a few names are Category II: ‘Desired Population’ (erwu¨nschter bevolkerungszuwachs). Interestingly enough, Germans also used an intermediate category between Category III and IV. The names of some Poles who were surveyed have been annotated IIIþ or III2. The ones categorised as IIIþ, according to the Nazis, could hope to find a place in Category II, while the ones with III2 could face demotion to the category of ‘Undesirable German Population’.124 It is also characteristic that members of the same family were frequently classified into different categories ranging from II to IV. According to Madajczyk, only in the last year of the war were there attempts to standardize classification to a particular category for members of the same family.125 Forster did not want to lose even ‘a drop of German blood’. However, before we judge too quickly those Poles who agreed to this, it is worth learning about the conditions of life in Szmalco´wka. Having one’s name on the Volksliste was one of the few opportunities to leave the camp or at least to be sent to the Germanization camp in Jabłonowo, where living conditions were better. Failure to find oneself on the DVL could result in detention in Szmalco´wka. A report drawn up by the Western Section of the Government Delegation for Poland, covering the period to 31 December 1942 states: The numerically high result of the DVL action in Torun´ is associated with the method used there. The Germanisation action was initiated immediately after the biggest wave of displacements passing through the villages of the Torun´ area. The displaced were placed in a ‘lard factory’ in Torun´, in terrible conditions of food supply and sanitation, which

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resulted in the outbreak of a typhus epidemic, causing a high mortality rate among women and children. In this way, displacement has become a tool of terror in the Germanisation action. This terror was further exacerbated by German ‘whispering propaganda’, announcing the separation of resistant families, the forced separation of children and parents, and the placing of children in Germanisation camps, etc. Even those Germans considered sympathetic towards the Poles were encouraging them to enter their names and distributing DVL surveys.126 Antoni Nitecki, who worked as a painter in Szmalco´wka for a year and was later sent to a camp in Jabłonowo Pomorskie, testified that the behaviour of Poles varied in front of the German committee which determined entry onto the DVL. Many of them decided to take this step and were taken to the Old Reich. There were also cases, although probably only sporadic ones, where the person being examined, when asked if he wanted to be German soldier, would reply, ‘Since I’m already a “Polish pig”, I’d prefer to stay one.’127 There were cases, especially among men of military age, where they withdrew their applications for admission to the DVL once they realized that they could not accept German citizenship and at the same time continue to be Polish.128 Germans, in order to make the Polish population join the DVL, also applied so-called ‘situational coercion’ – that is, a combination of factors aimed at convincing Poles to change nationality. These factors included: memories of the direct extermination of autumn 1939; the desire to keep their jobs, housing, farms; receiving a greater allocation of consumption vouchers; fear of deportation and being sent to a resettlement camp; and finally, ‘the will to survive’.129 For those inside Szmalco´wka, it is not surprising that they did everything they could to get out of it, and for those Poles who could potentially find themselves there, it is not surprising that they tried to avoid it, at all costs.

CHAPTER 4 `

LESSONS IN WORK, CLEANLINESS AND DISCIPLINE . . .'

On that day when we were brought to Szmalco´wka, a new life began, which can be called hell on earth.1 Adam Groblewski We had to face the reality of the camp.2 Janina Nadolna From 27 September 1941 the camp in Torun´ reported directly to the commandant of the camp in Stutthof. Szmalco´wka began to play the role of an ‘educational labour camp’.3 At Grudzia˛dzka Street, as was the case at the other Nazi camps, the newly-arrived prisoners were welcomed with the following words: ‘We Germans will teach you order, discipline, work.’4 It is worth quoting here Himmler’s words, which, although referring to concentration camps, are imbued with the same hypocrisy when used in relation to resettlement camps and ‘educational labour camps’: Like every deprivation of liberty, the concentration camp is certainly a harsh and tough measure. Hard productive labour, a regular way of life, exceptional cleanliness in living conditions and personal hygiene, a faultless diet, firm but fair treatment,

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instruction in learning how to work again, and opportunities to acquire a trade, are the training methods. The motto which stands above these camps reads: There is only one road to freedom. Its milestones are called: Obedience, Diligence, Honesty, Orderliness, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Truthfulness, SelfSacrifice, and Love of the Fatherland.5 (Italics author’s own.) Meanwhile, the leader of the Third Reich declared in Mein Kampf: ‘There is no big difference between love and hate, truth and lies, but both should never exist at the same time.’6 How did German ‘educational methods’ look in practice beyond the walls of the camp in Torun´?

Life in a pallet Poles taken to the camp were grouped in four large production halls. Earlier machines had been removed from there. They slept on a cement floor padded with straw: this was the so-called pallet. The straw was replaced only during the term of the first commandant of the camp. Soon it became home to all kinds of bacteria, fleas, and lice. The halls were almost unimaginably crowded and stuffy. A foreman used a wooden board to measure the space allocated to each prisoner in such a way that a child had about 35 centimetres, an adult about 45. When sleeping prisoners wished to turn over to the other side, they all had to do it at the same time. At the beginning there were no bathrooms at the camp. Thirtylitre buckets were used instead. They were left inside the hall for the night so that prisoners could relieve themselves, and in the morning selected prisoners would carry them out to be emptied. However, towards midnight the buckets were already full and the content had to be poured onto the floor. ‘The hygienic and sanitary conditions in the camp were very primitive. To be honest, there weren’t any. [. . .] Some people relieved themselves outside the loos, onto the straw. In addition, I found that others before us had done the same, since under the pallet we found frozen faeces.’7 The prisoners had to sleep in overwhelmingly smelly, stuffy air. The pallets were soon infested

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Fig. 4.1 Sketches of the camp’s quarters covered with straw. Source: H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 112.

with fleas that bit the small children especially. Some prisoners were so exhausted by work and illness that they no longer had the strength to kill these fleas. Although the halls where Poles lived were not heated in winter, the surviving camp records show that there was coal in the camp. However, this ‘luxury’ was reserved for the exclusive use of the SS and the camp commandant. ‘The barrack was only heated with the exhalations of the masses of people kept inside and the effluvium coming from the faeces-filled open buckets. In addition, a large amount of faeces was among the pallets, because families stayed there together with their small children.’8 In winter, the walls of the factory halls were covered with frost, and icicles hung over prisoners’ heads. Through the leaking roof, rain and snow fell directly onto the people sleeping below, who warmed themselves up by hugging each other. During the summer, the boiling heat was too much to bear, the temperature reaching as high as 30 degrees. (See Fig. 4.1.) The only sanitary equipment in the camp were the washrooms: long, oblong bowls filled with cold water. These were only installed in the middle of 1941, eight months after the camp had begun to operate. In 1947 Dyonizy Ulaszewski testified:

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THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

For 2,500 people there was no running water – the only thing they had was a trough, about ten metres long and made of wooden boards nailed together. Every morning and evening, this container was filled with water. People used this water to wash both their legs and faces, and, since this was the only source of water, mothers would wash their babies’ nappies in it as well.9 Only after some time did they install running water and additional troughs. It is difficult to imagine how infants and young children could be looked after in such conditions. In the absence of nappies, their faeces could also be found in the pallet. Washing clothes was equally out of the question, especially in winter when it was impossible to dry them. Besides, many people did not have any spare clothes, which posed a huge problem. Only a few people had a spare set of clothes and underwear. Many prisoners were not able to change clothes which at night served as their bed sheets. In Szmalco´wka Poles did not receive any clothes upon arrival. People who were sent to the camp in summer suffered even more, as they had not brought with them any winter clothing. ‘People had to use their own ingenuity to get hold of clothing, often stealing from those who died in the camp.’10 At the start, people who did not know each other, showed distrust, and did not offer each other help. Everyone cared only for

Fig. 4.2 Sketches of the camp’s washroom. Source: H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 117.

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their own family. As time passed, however, there were cases of adults giving their coats away to protect the small children of others. Natalia Kaczyn´ska, mother of nine-month-old Waldemar, recalled that in order to maintain basic hygiene, she would dry her son’s underwear on her own back. Despite this, the boy died on 8 May 1942. According to the testimony given by Czesław Pastuszak, his mother happened to be located under a big hole in the roof of the barrack, through which fell rain and snow. She could not dry her clothes or change the place. She soon became ill with pneumonia and died.11 According to the death register, Stefania Pastuszak died on 26 April 1942. Sixteen days later her 15-month-old son Kazimierz, Czesław’s brother, died. (See Fig. 4.2.)

Prisoners’ work The administration authorities of the Emigration Office in Gdan´sk ‘lent’ prisoners out to the local Labour Office to work for German farms and factories. German employers preferred young people with good stamina. They did not want to employ whole families. From their point of view, young children who were not valuable employees were a burden. The greatest number of Szmalco´wka prisoners were hired by the Labour Office in Malbork. In March 1942, 570 prisoners were transferred there from Torun´. Poles from the camp were also employed by the Arbeitsamter in Elbla˛g, Sztum and Puck.12 Camp prisoners also worked on the nearby German farms, on road works and construction sites in Torun´, at the construction of the canal in Czerniewice, and at the Torun´-Kluczyki station. Younger children polished the shoes of the guards or collected small birches that they used as brooms to clean the camp. According to Jastrze˛bski, until May 1942 the prisoners of the camps subordinate to the Emigration Office received 25 per cent of their pay; the remaining 75 per cent was given to the camps’ administration. Prisoners were to possess their own accounts and they could spend their money in the camp’s canteen. Children (over the age of 14) were to receive 0.5 marks daily for 10 –12 hours of work; women, 0.9 marks; while men received 1.2 marks.13 However,

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THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Luberda-Zapas´nik, along with other Szmalco´wka prisoners, states that they never received any money. The camp’s authorities were also very determined to send sick people to work, something not liked by their German employers. For them a prisoner staggering on his feet would not be an effective employee. They appealed to the camp’s administration to refrain from this procedure.14 In a document from 30 September 1941, the President of the National Labour Office in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia complained that the information he was receiving concerning the size of the workforce in the camps subject to the UWZ was incorrect. Of the declared 1,000 workers, only one in four was able to work.15 The Emigration Office granted itself, and not the commandants of camps it supervised, the right to decide on the sending of prisoners to work. In November 1940, Radtke sent five prisoners to be employed by a private entrepreneur in Torun´. He did not inform either the Emigration Office or the National Labour Office in Gdan´sk about this. During inspections at the camp, such behaviour was not ‘met with approval’ and similar practices were categorically forbidden in the future.16 At dawn groups of workers set off to work in a number of German institutions and companies located in Torun´ or in its vicinity, including sawmills and carpentry shops, agricultural cooperatives, horticultural centres (e.g. the large Hentschel garden in Go´rsko) and forestry. Prisoners also carried out street works, while underage prisoners worked in the Bieganowski pastures. Transports of cheap labour were also sent to companies in Gdan´sk, Gdynia, Pruszcz Gdan´ski, Malbork, and Elbla˛g. Only a small number of prisoners worked at the camp.17 On 13 June 1942, 150 prisoners were brought from Szmalco´wka to the camp in Potulice to assist in its expansion. Between then and October of that year, another 300 prisoners were sent to Potulice.18 The preserved documents do not say much about the conditions of work outside the camp. It would seem that conditions depended on the particular place and the attitude of its owner toward Poles. Still, the main goal of all employers was to maximize exploitation of prisoners. On the other hand, employers cared about effective employees so some of them actually provided food. Leaving the camp

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to go to work was also an opportunity to find food, something of paramount importance in Szmalco´wka: As early as the third day of my stay in Szmalco´wka, during the morning roll call, I – as a fifteen-year-old, along with 50 other women of all ages – was selected to work in the field in Piwnice near Torun´. We had to dig out sugar beet from the muddy and frozen soil with a digger. We slept on bunk-beds under blankets. Meals for prisoners were worse than for seasonal workers. Dinner consisted of a slice of bread and milk soup. The work lasted from dawn to dusk under the supervision of two armed camp guards. The recommended daily production rate for two women was the digging up of half an acre of beet. The local population sneaked in to give us their used old gloves, sweaters and other used clothing to mend torn gloves and socks. Digging beet in such conditions was a real challenge. The snow made my gloves so wet my hands froze. A few women were so frozen they were sent back to the camp to be replaced by healthier ones. During one such exchange my mother managed to pass on to me some galoshes and gloves. She had received them for looking after a sick person. During work conversations were forbidden and there was no time allotted to rest. Our gloves were quickly torn due to the rain and snow, and our hands froze from the cold. Most of us had frostbitten hands. In the evening, as the light grew dim, we mended our gloves and dried them so that they could last longer.19 The Filipek family, along with 36 other prisoners, worked in the rabbit farms in Torun´. ‘Their work consisted in feeding the rabbits, cleaning the cages, combing the wool out and packaging it. Every animal was ear-tagged and had to be accounted for. So if they wanted to kill one and take it away to roast and eat somewhere in hiding, they resorted to a ruse. After killing the rabbit, they stuffed the skin and buried it in such a way that the ear and its tag jutted out of the ground. The guard would then note down the number of a creature that had apparently expired from exhaustion.’20

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In the archives there are also files of German employers’ complaints about Polish workers. Johann Surowy, the owner of a farm in Menthen (Minie˛ta) in the district of Sztum, hired from the camp in Torun´ the Senkowski family: Tadeusz (32), his wife Zofia (29), along with their four-year old daughter, Teodora. They were soon accused of sabotage (Arbeitssabotage) and it was demanded that they return to the camp. During this period Germans treated Szmalco´wka as an Arbietserziehungslager. On 30 May 30 1942 the Senkowski family returned to the camp in Torun´.21

Hunger and the Fu¨hrer’s birthday As well as disease, terrible sanitary conditions, and overwork, further causes of death were starvation and long-term malnutrition. According to the guidelines of the Emigration Office, each prisoner in the camps in Potulice, Tczew and Torun´ ought to receive daily: three-quarters of a litre of Eintopf (a type of German soup, usually made with buckwheat), 500 grams of bread, and 100 grams of marmalade. Children under the age of two were entitled to receive warm milk.22 Another German document (from 13 June 1941) determined weekly nutritional standards (Polnische Versorgungsberechtigte erhalten zur Zeit wo¨chentliche). Poles were divided into two categories: adults (over the age of 14) and children (under 14). Each week each individual should receive respectively: meat (250 and 100 g), butter and margarine (100 and 75 g), cheese (25 g), cottage cheese (12.5 g), rye bread (2.25 kg and 1.7 kg), sugar (225 g), marmalade (150 g), and coffee (100 g).23 Hipolit Kaczyn´ski recalled that prisoners’ staple diet consisted of a type of hard bread called komys´niak and ‘soup made from the heads of cattle’.24 There was also a fat-free soup known as zalewajka, which consisted of water, vegetables and horse bones. Turnip soup and nettle soup made from turnips and nettles collected by children were also offered. Rarely could one find a potato in them. ‘It was basically warm water with weeds swimming in it; now and then you might get a piece of beetroot or turnip.’25 The small amount of soup was supplemented with water taken from the pump.

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Although prisoners received three meals a day, this did not meet their basic nutritional needs. After the morning roll call at 7 am, a 1 kg loaf of bitter bread was divided between four and six people. For breakfast Poles also received a cup of unsweetened coffee (lura). Occasionally, usually every Saturday, people would get an additional ‘dollop’, such as some jam and margarine. For lunch, at around 2 pm, prisoners were served soup. For dinner, at around 6 pm, there was some bread with coffee made from acorns. However, sometimes the bread received at dinner had to be enough also for breakfast the next day. Luberda Zapas´nik remembered that every evening she tried to put aside two thin slices of bread for the next day. However, she never managed as her hunger was too strong. In the camp there were no utensils that people could use to eat so they used various kinds of cans and fragments of broken bowls. Mieczysław Zboralski, who lost his mother in the camp, concluded: ‘It is hard to imagine today that people were fed with something edible.’26 Agnieszka Wesołowska added that even animals would not touch this food. Small children suffered especially from hunger. Even the smallest ones and infants received the same type of food as the rest of prisoners.27 ‘As a result of these conditions, especially because of malnutrition, one of my children, a three-year-old boy, died after 20 days,’ Alojzy Murawski testified.28 While Franciszek Iwanek added that the situation was so dramatic that they decided to feed small children with coffee dregs.29 These coffee dregs played the role of ‘camp vitamins’, which, while not contributing much to the proper development of a child, were the only available food and means of survival. Coffee dregs filled the stomach, so prisoners used them to deceive the body’s basic needs. Many times in Szmalco´wka, Poles were faced with a dramatic choice. Eating the camp’s food could cause serious food poisoning (Erna¨hrungsto¨rungen) and even death. Food poisoning and bloody diarrhea were repeatedly given as a reason for death by the camp’s doctor in the six-monthly reports: We grimaced with disgust at the food that was cooked in the camp, our stomachs hurt. [. . .] All the time, the same food, and

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no hope for anything better. Only once a year, on the Fu¨hrer’s birthday [20 April, i.e. Hitler Day, celebrated in the Third Reich as an official national holiday] the groats were so thick that you get a real spoonful. And then again soups which simply stank. [. . .] People’s vision became distorted and they staggered from weakness, not only because they were hungry but also after eating lunch, which caused stomach-ache and even vomiting and severe diarrhoea.30 The bread given to prisoners fell apart like a cake, and often had sawdust in the middle. On the other hand, hunger was so great that the risk of eating camp food did not really matter for people who were permanently malnourished or even dying of hunger. Prisoners in Szmalco´wka (formally a resettlement camp and a labour camp) received about 800 calories.31 In comparison, in the concentration camp in Stutthof, a formal ration was about 2,000 calories a day, and in reality, as a result of theft, about 1,300 calories.32 Christmas Eve was another ‘special’ occasion, in addition to the birth of the ‘Chief of the Thousand-Year Reich’, when exceptions were made to nutritional standards. Boz˙ena Sosin´ska testified on the basis of the account of her mother Jadwiga, that on Christmas Eve in 1941 prisoners were given a large pot of soup, with 2.5 kilograms of potatoes in it, to share between four people.33 This was how the Germanic master race organized Christmas dinner for Poles. Leonard Zielin´ski testified that Dr Jo´zef De˛bski, ‘a good and humane man’, noticed his extreme physical exhaustion, and gave him his lunch.34 Prisoners who went to work outside the camp to the city or outside Torun´, had more opportunities to get food. Pipowski described it as follows: when a dog is tied to a doghouse, it can only eat what you give it; while a man is at work, with a bit of flair and ingenuity, will always manage.35 ‘Work did not bring freedom’, but it did increase the chances of survival. Poles from the camp were fed by the local population, who observed with horror the columns of starving prisoners who did not have the strength to work:

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In the early hours of the morning, the shadows of gaunt, haggard people staggered past every day to work hard. They walked with their heads down, depressed by this terrible misery and the lack of hope for the future, knowing that no one would speak up for them, because no one could. They were walking hungry, bending even for a blade of grass to relieve the pain which tore their guts apart.36 Klimek recalled: ‘The guard watching us sometimes turned away, stepping a little to one side, and then people who were passing us in the street threw fresh bread to us. [. . .] Paradise in our mouths just for a moment.’37 Another possibility to get food was when people went to the city hospital to collect the bodies of former prisoners. Nurses working there fed prisoners with hot soup and bread. To smuggle the bread they received to the camp, they placed it in coffins with corpses, which were then brought to the cemetery from the camp.38 Paweł Neumann, who during the war was the owner of a transportation and funeral services company in Torun´, testified that five prisoners from the camp worked for him. They were so exhausted that he had to feed them so that they could work. When Radtke, the commandant of the camp, found out about this, he threatened that he would shoot him. Radtke never sent any prisoners to work for him anymore.39 According to Groblewski, Szmalco´wka was ‘a camp which starved Poles to death’.40 Natalia Szczypin´ska, a 10-year-old girl, brought food to the camp for her aunt Marta Foksin´ska and her five children. It was possible, however, only when the prisoners were in camp No. 2 on Baz˙yn´skich Street, which was surrounded by a wooden fence with a number of holes in it. In the case of the camp in Grudzie˛dzka this was more difficult because too many Germans were loitering there.41 One of the prisoners, Julian S´wie˛cicki, transported bread from the camps in Grudzia˛dzka to its branch on Baz˙yn´skich Street. He established contact with families of prisoners, so that he was able to smuggle food parcels and letters into the camp. The guards never managed to catch him.42 The ‘smuggler’ lost his

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mother in the camp. Katarzyna S´wie˛cicka died on 15 May 1942 at the age of 59. However, the prevailing famine in the camp did not mean that there was no food in there. Leon Karankowski, employed in Erik Szulc’s company, which supplied food to the camp, testified that every week a cart full of food arrived at the camp: 30 kg of sugar, 10 bags of cereal, flour, course flour, oatmeal, 50– 60 buckets of ‘marmalade – the worst kind’. ‘We brought a lot of food, the prisoners received little.’43 A report in the surviving German documents which shows that for the thousand people transported to the camp in November 1940, Germans bought a tonne of: rye flour, legumes (Huelsenfru¨chte), potatoes, a thousand 3 kg loaves of bread, 150 kg of sugar, 20 kg of biscuits and 50 litres of boiled milk.44 Another document from 1 November 1941 said that every sick Polish child should receive two bread rolls and 70 g of butter every day.45 In most cases none of these products ever reached Polish prisoners. Former prisoners who survived Szmalco´wka claimed that they had never seen Polish children getting boiled milk.46 They were fed with the same food as adults and this was one of the reasons for their mass deaths. There was, however, a fundamental difference between the food allocated for ‘Aryan-Nordic super humans’ (i.e. the fully-fledged human beings) and food for the Polish Slavic ‘sub-humans’. There is a bill preserved in the archive issued on 16 October 1942 by Stanisław Jaugsch, owner of Fleisch– Wurst Konservenfabrik, which comes from the camp’s canteen where the SS guards got their food. Their menu consisted of: smoked ham, paˆte´, black sausage, venison, boneless ham, pork chops, minced meat, butter, cheese, skimmed milk.47 Klimek recalled that there were domestic pigs kept for the use of the camp’s guards. Stanisław Jaugsch, whose ancestors fought in the January Uprising, put his name down on the DVL in order to save his property and keep his business. His company employed in Torun´ at different times between 170 and 220 people and exported its products to the United States and Great Britain. During the occupation, he sold more meat to Poles than the rationing system

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allowed. He also sent food parcels to oflags and stalags. Soon he was prosecuted. He was first sentenced to death; later that sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison. His wife Felicja and daughter Dobromiła were also sent to prison for three and a half years. Jaugsch died in Poland in 1947.48 One of the few opportunities to get food in the camp was to work in the SS kitchen. Wanda Klimek managed to keep her six children alive, who all survived imprisonment in Szmalco´wka, mainly due to the fact that the commandant appointed her to prepare meals for the guards. At his command, she was not checked at the exit to the camp’s kitchen and so was able to smuggle food scraps from the SS table.49 Tekla Chmielewska, who also worked in the kitchen for Nazi officers, did not have the courage to try to steal food. She was systematically beaten by ‘drunk and amused SS men’, mostly on her way from the kitchen to the barracks.50 Even attempting to eat leftovers from the bins would result in a beating. Antoni Czaniecki, who was sent to Szmalco´wka as a child, testified that ‘when we unloaded frozen turnips from the cart to the basement, I secretly took a turnip to share it with my family. A German who saw it grabbed my legs, turned me around in the air, and threw me against the wall by the toilet.’51 Stanisław Lesiczka, who was sent to the camp together with his mother and three siblings almost two years after their father was killed in Barbarka,52 recalled that the food they most frequently managed to get hold of illegally was potatoes: We had to pick them up from piles in such a way that no-one could discover that anything had gone missing. We mostly reached with our hands through a tunnel hollowed out by rats. We ate these potatoes raw, unpeeled. [. . .] I remember once a German caught two boys stealing potatoes. Immediately thereafter a roll-call was announced, all the children were pulled out from the barracks and placed in front of a frozen pool.53 After breaking the ice the guards threw all the children into the icy water. When someone tried to get out, they were pushed back in again.

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Wojtalewicz recalled that he worked in the boiler room, so he could cook potatoes he stole, and even make something similar to potato pancakes. ‘People were fighting over the water the potatoes were cooked in.’54 Hunger was so great that it forced prisoners to make dramatic decisions. Wojtalewicz and Czesław Pastuszak, in the account they gave to Justyna Musiał-Michalak, said that young women who took care of small children, offered themselves to workers and the comparatively well-fed Poles for a piece of bread.55 There was a barrack destined for children who were under 12 years of age, whose parents had to work or who were orphans. ‘I still remember crying and screaming. I still remember a small boy, about two years old left without his mother. During the day we looked after him. His name was Jo´zef Studzin´ski.’56 Ulaszewski recalled that, in the case of orphans, if a child did not remember his name, he was given a German-sounding one.57 In the camp there were cases of some prisoners having ‘servants’ – that is another prisoner who took care of his young children or did his work for a slice of bread. Those who perhaps had to look after their younger siblings, and in order to get a priceless piece of bread, decided to ‘serve’ other prisoners who for various reasons enjoyed better lives at the camp.58 During the Christmas period, the camp administration agreed to the camp’s receiving parcels. Maria Szczepniak recalled that the Germans often blamed innocent Poles for stealing food from packages. In such cases, prisoners were punished by being sent to carry out the most exhausting physical work. They also hung a sign around a prisoner’s neck with the inscription: ‘It is we who ate from your parcels.’59 However, there were cases of prisoners in search of food stealing from the parcels of others as soon as those packages arrived at the camp.60 Wojtalewicz recalled one occasion, in December 1942, when a postman came to the camp with packages. Due to the epidemic he did not enter through the gate of the camp but stopped in front of it. The packages were unloaded and put into storage by prisoners who, lining up one behind the other, passed the parcels backwards, one

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after another. One of the people in the line was his younger brother, who was deliberately dressed in a coat too big for him with braces sewn underneath so that he could hide a stolen package under the coat. The trick was a success. Unfortunately the package did not contain food but soldering tin.61 In the camp people often stole from each other. Sometimes the thieves were hungry children. In such cases, a system of ‘internal justice’ was implemented. A thief, although known to be hungry, was heavily beaten to teach him not to deprive his companions of the precious bread. There were also cases where prisoners reported to the guards the theft of potatoes or slices of bread. In some cases, the people who did it had been caught stealing themselves, and demanded that others suffered similar punishment. Most often the punishment entailed being beaten with a whip.62 The superiors of the first commandant were aware of the terrible living and sanitary conditions in the camp. In December 1940, Szmalco´wka was visited by Abromeit, and on 18 July 1941 by Albert Forster, the district governor himself, together with Torun´ Bu¨rgermeister Franz Jacob. As Zygner has concluded, the visit must have ended positively, as Radtke was promoted at the end of his service at the camp from the rank of SS-Obersturmfu¨hrer (lieutenant) to SS-Hauptsturmfu¨hrer (captain).63 At the beginning of his reign in Pomerania, Forster prepared a number of guidelines for himself in order to ensure the success of Nazi policy. One was: ‘travel a lot.’64 ‘King Albert’ wanted to personally ensure that all the tools for the depolonization of Polish Pomerania functioned correctly, Szmalco´wka included.

‘Let God take me away’ Tragic sanitary living conditions and inadequate nutrition were the primary causes of diseases and deaths of Poles in the camp. ‘The stench was unimaginable, the air thickly permeated with noxious vapours from faeces, urine, bodies rotting of filth, disease. Prisoners were decimated by diseases caused by hunger, cold, insects, and rodents. We were gravely ill, our whole bodies were infected.’65 It

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was only a matter of time before the camp was hit with an epidemic. First to strike was an outbreak of measles in the summer of 1941. The second was an epidemic of both typhus and typhoid fever, which lasted from February to June of the following year. Third was another outbreak of typhoid and typhus fever, which spread through the camp from November 1942 to February 1943.66 Jan Daniluk, from the Gdan´sk branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, when conducting a query in the Militaerarchiv in Freiburg, in the reports of the chief doctor from the 20th Medical Military District of Gdan´sk, found a brief mention of a series of epidemics that broke out one after another in the camps in Torun´ and Potulice. In the Kriegstagebuch, he noted that in March 1942 in the Torun´ camp, 123 people fell ill and 18 died of typhus. In the period between 26 April and 23 May, 57 fell ill and 13 dead, while between 24 May and 20 June there 25 people became infected and 9 died.67 Agnieszka Wesołowska testified: The Germans created such terrible conditions in the camp that people died there en masse. There was a particularly high mortality rate among children. I remember that a prisoner named Raszkowska (I don’t remember her first name) lost her husband and three young children all within a month, between the end of December 1941 and the beginning of January 1942.68 According to the register, the following people all died in the camp during that period: one-and-a-half-year-old Jan Raszkowski, threeyear-old Jadwiga Halina Raszkowska and three-month-old Jo´zef Edward Raszkowski. Most likely they were the children of Cecilia Raszkowska (born in 1913), who died five months later. In Szmalco´wka people ‘lost their minds’ especially women who had lost all their children.69 Germans used to shut people in the morgue as a punishment. The surviving reports of the camp’s doctor show that 64 people died between 16 and 31 December 1941, a greater number of deaths

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than during any other period in the camp’s operation. Statistically this meant that four people died each day, including three children.70 A full list of the diseases prisoners suffered and died from is presented in Table 4.1. These were predominantly digestive diseases, colds and the result of surgical procedures. Diseases accumulated, one resulting from another, which soon led to exhaustion and death, especially among the elderly and infants born in the camp. Jan Skrzeszewski was 61 when he was sent to the city hospital from the camp. On 2 February 1942, he died there of flu, tonsillitis and pneumonia. Jadwiga Miraszewska was born on 12 April 1942 and died after only 23 days. The cause of death was cited as stomach and intestinal disorders, along with impaired blood circulation. In the Institute of National Remembrance archive there are excerpts from the death certificates of the Registry Office in Torun´ regarding the people who died in Szmalco´wka. In addition to information on names, dates of birth and death, the reason for death is also given. Poles died in the camp mainly due to the aforementioned epidemics: measles; typhus; typhoid fever and diphtheria. They also died from inflammation and pulmonary tuberculosis, stomach disorders, chronic digestive disorders, stomach cancer, tonsillitis, dermatitis, chronic intestinal disorders, weak blood circulation, infection due to a cold, bronchitis and ear infection. The names of these diseases also appear in the six-monthly reports of the camp’s doctor. Franciszek Eugeniusz Lisewski, less than three years old, died of bloody diarrhoea. Lucja Antonik, born in the camp on 23 November 1941, died of pneumonia on 21 January 1942. The child was born prematurely and her lungs could not fully develop. The conditions in the camp being what they were, no one was able to help her. Franciszek Michałowski was born on 27 February 1942 and died on the same day. His birth took place too early because his mother had contracted typhus in the camp.71 August Borowicki lived less than 48 hours. Krystyna Jania lived only 12 days; from 23 October to 4 November 1941. The camp’s doctor noted in one of his reports that, in the period between 1 and 15 October 1942, one child born in the camp lived for only one hour. In the first half of May that year, one child lived for only 12 minutes.72

57 213 35 59 225 146 5 371 102 15 49 39 60 33 28 – 11 –

Infections Measles Heart attack Pneumonia Food poisoning Cold Painful injuries Surgeries Old age diseases Rheumatism Neurosis Feminine Eye diseases Ear diseases Tooth diseases Skin diseases Kidney failure Bones diseases

X

I

II

III

IV

97 73 72 14 226 168 54 400 91 225 281 280 340 252 25 37 14 64 83 139 110 64 40 45 45 110 52 40 254 140 132 329 504 1173 553 227 456 242 739 817 1271 509 1 17 8 58 6 1 12 434 546 289 732 555 279 466 44 6 18 30 31 29 14 20 37 29 26 21 45 22 27 52 22 118 94 82 77 28 47 17 4 15 34 19 81 48 14 67 9 157 210 49 89 81 238 347 310 254 22 12 16 44 49 28 12 – – – – – – – 27 19 22 29 81 43 11 6 9 – – – – –

VII VIII IX

1941

Statistics of diseases suffered by prisoners

Diseases

Table 4.1

33 6 12 31 108 223 4 337 9 12 22 21 118 95 9 – 7 –

V 7 197 110 129 171 515 8 839 21 44 41 45 411 271 372 – 34 –

12 321 91 22 153 422 2 862 10 21 28 7 295 356 23 – 14 –

9 257 91 221 237 268 4 788 21 21 13 17 259 341 32 – 26 –

15 330 64 8 275 232 2 593 – 30 2 2 210 116 17 – 15 –

VI VII VIII IX

1942

68 155 28 17 74 111 7 472 6 22 8 2 98 101 13 – 12 –

X 132 20 – 25 81 166 – 275 3 9 4 4 24 39 13 7 13 –

204 8 – 25 144 266 1 160 1 2 5 – 44 34 20 19 – 37

XI XII 174 6 78 78 82 112 12 207 1 1 6 12 58 52 18 26 – –

I

68 8 – 46 98 56 3 104 6 – 4 6 45 31 20 11 – –

II

1943

– 2 – 27 38 55 – 104 4 2 7 1 38 33 18 3 – –

III

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Wojtalewicz claimed that ‘a crematorium was not necessary’ in the Torun´ camp. He remembered particularly well the words of an SS man named Wink, who was one of the commandants of the guard. During one of the roll-calls, rearranging his long black gloves, he apparently said: ‘Jetzt ko¨nnen hier krepieren ihr alle’ (‘Now you can all die here’).73 Ulaszewski, four years after the liquidation of the camp, testified that the only medicine Dr De˛bski had in the camp were ‘minute quantities’ of aspirin and magnesium sulphate. Despite repeated medical interventions by the camp authorities, this situation did not change. When a Reich inspection team arrived at the camp, one of its members apparently asked Ulaszewski how long people had been living in such conditions. On hearing that it was for two to three years, he supposedly answered ‘Herr Gott! Das ist nicht mo¨glich.’74 Urszula Kisiel’s testimony is particularly horrifying: ‘No one was interested in the patients. The Germans only took away the corpses. We tried to cure ourselves with our own urine externally and internally. When my head was covered with lice and pus, others pissed on my head to heal me.’75 According to Hubert Grabowski, ‘In the camp, the Germans were mainly concerned with trying to kill our sense of dignity’.76 To paraphrase the words of Zofia Nałkowska,77 the Germanic super-humans inflicted this fate on ‘Slavic sub-humans’. After the next outbreak of epidemics, it was necessary to create a camp hospital where infected prisoners could stay in isolation. In October 1941, the so-called Lager II was created, located on Goethestrasse 38/44 (now Baz˙yn´skich).78 The Germans wanted to separate Poles as well– valuable employees from those who, for health reasons, were without any value for them. The hospital was located on the premises of the former printing house owned by Edmund Stefanowicz before 1939. That is why this part of Szmalco´wka was sometimes referred to as ‘the Paper House’ or ‘the Printing House’. During the war German carpenter Willy Heise was the owner of this property, and the Emigration Office formally rented the place from him. On the other side of the road, on Batory

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Street, there was a hospital where Germans referred, among others, pregnant prisoners.79 The camp in Baz˙yn´skich consisted of a large machine hall and a one-storey block of flats where on the ground floor there was some office space. In the hall, as was the case with the camp at Grudzia˛dzka, beds for prisoners were arranged after all the machines had been removed and straw had been scattered on the floor. The windows overlooking the street were painted over with blue oil paint. Prisoners filled the attic with rags and papers, most likely to protect themselves from the cold. In an apartment building in the former office space, something approximating a hospital was arranged. There was also a room for Dr De˛bski and rooms for the guards. In the shed next to the building there was a latrine, storage, kitchen, a storehouse for fuel, and a mortuary.80 In these circumstances it is difficult to talk about any realistic chance of recovery for the sick prisoners. It was mostly children and the elderly who, unable to work, were sent to Baz˙yn´skich Street. According to Zygner, based on the testimony given by Marian Kopytko, Germans called it ‘the camp of slow agony’.81 Among the prisoners there was a widespread fear of finding themselves in the ‘the Paper House’, to the extent that Stanisław Lesiczka was convinced that ‘whoever went there never came back’.82 Pipowski recalled that departing for ‘the Paper House’, as well as to the city hospital, was regarded by Poles as a ‘trip to heaven’.83 When in the spring of 1942 Bogdan Klimek fell ill and was told that he would be taken to Goethestrasse, despite his illness and weakness, he began to run away. He was brought to the camp’s hospital by force. After a few days he recovered and returned to Grudzia˛dzka Street. He later recalled: I was in the children’s ward and I witnessed the sad fate of a four-year-old boy, exhausted by hunger and disease, to the extent that his bones were sticking out through the skin. The boy had a fever and wanted to drink. Through barely parted lips he cried to the nurse, ‘Sister, a drink . . . a drink . . .’ But the nurse walked by, as if she had not heard. On the same evening

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the child sighed, ‘God, please take me away! I want to go there, to my mum . . .’ Then he fell asleep and never woke up. In the morning, curled up in death, the small, almost bare skeleton of a child was taken to the morgue.84 In the spring of 1942 (Klimek’s family came to the camp on 2 April 1942) three four-year-old boys died in the camp on Baz˙yn´skich Street: Jo´zef Bonio (aka Bunia) on 8 May 1942, Jo´zef Kobylarz on 11 April 1942, and Stanisław Scho¨nwald on 19 April 1942. Having contracted typhoid fever, 15-year-old Stanisława Winiarska came to ‘the Paper House’ on Baz˙yn´skich Street. She remembered the way nurse Jadwiga Maciejewska behaved towards the sick she looked after. ‘I struggled with death for three and a half months. [. . .] When the temperature dropped slightly, pretending to be fixing my duvet, she gave me a lemon that my mother passed to me. I ate it all at once. A passer-by had thrown this lemon over the barbed wire fence.’85 Residents of Torun´, the authorities of the Polish Underground State, and the government-in-exile were all informed about the sanitary and living conditions in the camp. Emil Ogłoza writing about the German occupation in Torun´ in 1945, already two years after the liquidation of the camp, described the situation as follows: The word Szmalco´wka had gained special significance and was known widely. Poles repeated it with trembling lips, and whoever walked by the red walls could only sighed deeply, powerless against the violence. They were careful not to look too long, so as to avoid being caught and thrown inside, then beaten and thrown out with a shaved head and threats ringing in their ears.86 In the files of the Polish Government Delegation, Bogdan Chrzanowski found the following description of the camp. ‘Let’s look inside the lard factory, and here we will see emaciated people dressed in rags, closer to ghosts than living human beings, indifferent to everything.

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They are tightly crammed into one room all together, with just buckets for their physical needs. In the morning they are all herded to their workplace under armed police escort and accompanied by trained dogs, while the children are left alone at the camp.’87 In the report from the territories annexed by the Third Reich, prepared by the Western Section of the Government Delegation for Poland, covering the period up to 30 September 1942, the following statement can be found: The camps with a strong similarity to concentration camps are located in a lard factory in Torun´. Holding about 800 people, this camp has the worst reputation. The main room is located in a large basement with bricked-up windows. The floor is barely covered with straw that has not been changed for months. Prisoners do not get any blankets, and food is served in wooden troughs. The second camp is situated in Potulice near Nakło, with around 5,000 people. The third is in Smukała with 2,000 children, cripples, and the elderly. The camps have been created mostly for those who refused to join the DVL.88 The sanitary and living conditions of the camp in Torun´, as was the case in other resettlement camps, were reported extensively by underground publishing organizations. General information about Szmalco´wka, also known as Szmalcownia, Smalcownia or Smalco´wka, and its branch in Baz˙yn´skich Street, appeared in May 1942 in the Robotnik newspaper, which emphasized the ‘terrible ill-treatment of the disobedient’ and high death rate among prisoners. Biuletyn Zachodni and Ziemie Zachodniej Rzeczpospolitej reported on the horrifying food and sanitary conditions, and underlined that expulsions had become ‘a tool of terror in the Germanisation process’.89 German propaganda did not consider it appropriate to inform the wider public about the formation, functioning and liquidation of the camp. Even for Germans it was not a reason to be proud. The prisoners who were released from the camp were required to make the following statement. ‘I was requested not to talk to anyone about what I saw and heard in the camp.’90

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In the Torun´ archives, a German chronicle of the city (Stadtchronik) has survived dating back to 1941, along with a collection of materials accompanying the chronicle from the period 1939– 44.91 They mostly contain news about the development of German cultural and scientific life in Torun´, with information about meetings, conferences and exhibitions. The propaganda resulted from a conception that regarded the German nation as Kulturtra¨ger and the ideological denial of Slavic nations’ cultural capabilities. There is also information about the ban imposed on Poles regarding free movement in the streets and town squares between the hours of 21:00 and 05:00. The records also contain a message about the shooting of 20 Polish ‘nationalists’ and the defacement of the inscription ‘Every doorsill shall be a fortress’.92 There is no mention of Szmalco´wka. The only mention in German newspapers of the camp is in the context of a fire in the camp on Baz˙yn´skich Street, which took place on 23 October 1942 and resulted in the roof and attic burning down. A day later, the Thorner Freiheit posted photos and an article about the burning of the former printing house (Grossfeuer them Umsiedlerlager Goethestrasse) and the commandant of Szmalco´wka wrote a report on the fire to Berlin.93

Official ritual The surviving documents and witness accounts indicate that there were no direct executions at the camp. For the depopulation of the Polish nation, Germans employed indirect extermination methods: hunger, disease, mental and physical abuse. All actions were motivated, above all, by ideology. Ill-treatment and beatings of prisoners were the norm, an ‘official ritual’ even. Henryk Rzeszotarski testified that ‘kicks, punches to the face, being hit with the butt of a rifle were normal in the life of the camp’,94 and permanently engraved on the memory of all those Poles who survived their stay in Szmalco´wka. In the village of Gawroniec on 31 August 1939 the Krawan´ski family had finished all their work connected with the harvest. The summer of that year was very warm. ‘The next day everything

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exploded.’ On 2 September German tanks entered their land. However, 11-year-old Stanisław Krawan´ski suffered the first shock only on 7 November 1941 when he crossed the gates of Szmalco´wka. ‘The brutality, the barking dogs, the whips cracking, the swearing; that was something I’d never heard before.’95 Physical violence was used indiscriminately against both adult men and women, as well as children. ‘In the camp I saw hunger, poverty, misery and tears. I recall that for the slightest “offense” – for example, not taking your hat off, or not getting out of the way, or a grimace, or because the Germans were in a bad mood – prisoners, regardless of gender and age, were heavily beaten and abused, even to death.’96 Klimek wrote in his memoirs describing the so-called ‘hat exercise’, which was one of the punishments. Groups of prisoners, returning in the evening after a day of work, had to stand in a row in front of the SS men. Everyone was told to remove their hats at the same time. When they failed to do that, they had to go through the same activity over and over again, accompanied by the guards’ shouting, ‘Auf! Ab! Auf! Ab!’97 During personal searches, prisoners had to undress. Germans took everything apart from clothes. If someone did not hand over money, jewellery or even matches, they were severely beaten. In this way, other prisoners, witnessing what was happening, and fearing that they might share the same fate, handed over all their valuables. Edward Zawacki, after his brother had been beaten for neglecting to give away the money he had sewn in his jacket, voluntarily confessed during the search that he had hidden money, but could not remember where he had put it. ‘Then they found the money hidden in my shoes and long johns, it was more than five thousand marks.’98 He could not figure out what happened to the money. It is worth noting that Germans also took away prayer books. In the Third Reich, the function of prayer books was performed instead by Mein Kampf, copies of which had been officially given to newlyweds at the Registry Office since April 1936.99 In some places in Germany, Protestant ministers used Mein Kampf instead of the Bible to prepare their sermons. In the Third Reich, Hitler’s book was officially called ‘the bible of National Socialism’ or ‘the bible of the German people’.

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Bronisław Olszewski was severely beaten when Germans found a cigarette on him. Klara Zboralska’s father was battered just after he had crossed the gates of Szmalco´wka because he did not give away matches during the inspection. An SS man heavily beat Wojtalewicz as he dared to smile back at the German. He made it clear that a ‘Polish sub-human’ did not have the right to smile at a ‘German super-human’.100 Leonard Zielin´ski, an assistant of Dr De˛bski, witnessed Willy, in a conversation with the guards, demanding that every prisoner caught smoking be ‘shot like a dog’. It is worth noting that smoking was incompatible with the idea of racial purity and hygiene (Hitler did not let anyone smoke in his presence).101 Implementation of this principle of the Nazi ideology was also sought in Szmalco´wka. During this time, I went to fetch the first-aid kit, and when I came back I saw a man lying dead by the cesspit in the yard between the two red buildings. [. . .] The next day I saw this murdered man of about fifty years of age at the bottom of the cesspit. [. . .] In the camp lots of people died but this particular one had to have been shot as I saw blood seeping from his temple. [. . .] I can guarantee that that man did not die a natural death. [. . .] I personally saw Germans torturing prisoners, kicking those who went to see the doctor.102 When Franciszek Iwanek asked the cook for another portion of soup, ‘The Boxer’ (Reddig) knocked his teeth out. The cook tried to pour the content of a bowl into the old man’s mouth but his hand was too shaky and he was not able to hold the bowl straight. When the Gestapo officer saw it, he kicked the prisoner. ‘They used whips and batons. They kicked people in the camp. They maltreated women and young children, and forced them to do intensive exercise. If someone was not able to do the exercise, the punishment entailed having to stand at attention for half a day by the chimneys, no matter what the weather conditions were.’103 Physical violence against prisoners was used even as a punishment for eating leftovers from the camp’s rubbish bins. Officers often beat prisoners when they were drunk,

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especially on Saturdays and Sundays. ‘Drunken SS men often fell into the crowd of prisoners gathered in the courtyard and tortured them as much as they could by beating and kicking them.’104 SS men used cane sticks,105 billiard cues or nagaika whips. Dyonizy Ulaszewski, a dentist who also worked as an interpreter at the camp, testified that, for the purpose of beating prisoners, special ‘machine whips made of a handle and a steel spring wrapped with leather’ were used: I know of a case where ten boys, allegedly guilty of misconduct at work, were, after returning to the camp, led to a shed where they had to lie down on the straw while the commandant of the camp, along with two guards, beat them with wooden sticks as thick as a man’s arm. They were hitting them with the sticks in a kind of blind frenzy, not caring where the blows landed.106 Prisoners were also beaten after Germans received news from the eastern front of a German military defeat, or the retreat of the invincible Wehrmacht, or even when one of the prisoners came too close to the camp’s perimeter fence. The SS men who mistreated prisoners seemingly had no remorse. By accepting the pseudoideology of Nazism, they did not treat Poles as victims, but as ‘subhuman Slavs’, who, like Jews, should be destroyed in the same way one would kill a mosquito, without any doubts or scruples. The Nazi ideology, in a spiritual sense, prepared them perfectly for this task. Collective punishment was often implemented. ‘When one prisoner escaped, the foreman beat everyone who happened to be in the courtyard’, Franciszek Go´recki testified. The story of Julia Rozumek stayed in the memory of many prisoners. Her daughter Maria managed to escape from the camp. In retaliation, the SS locked her 78-year-old mother in a bunker. Julia Rozumek, born in the year of the January Uprising, died of exhaustion in September 1941. Franciszek Nowakowski testified that he managed to save his 15-month-old child by giving it to his sister, who took advantage of the guards looking the other way and came up to the camp’s perimeter fence. As a punishment, he and his wife had to stand still for 12 hours in the freezing cold. This hugely affected their health. Genowefa

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Nowakowska died on 21 August 1942; cause of death: typhus. Their second daughter, six-month-old Helena, also died in the camp. Lidia Kaczyn´ska testified that when her family of six were being moved to the camp in Torun´, her baby brother Waldemar was crying terribly and their mother could not calm him down. One of the SS men gave them the following advice: ‘You don’t know what to do with him? Just grab him by his legs and hit his head against the wheel of the train.’107 Alive for less than nine months, Waldemar Kaczyn´ski died in the camp on 8 May 1942. Nazism legitimized violence against demonized internal and external enemies, appealing to the worst instincts in man’s nature, even when the enemy was a child, a pregnant woman or an elderly person. Madajczyk noted that in ‘the Nazis’ crime apparatus there were people such as Hitler who liked flowers, dogs, children. Yes, but only German children, the others were sent to the gas chamber without hesitation. Dogs proved to be more worthy of friendship than those people regarded as Untermenschen.108 Everyday roll-calls were a daily routine, lasting for a few hours at temperatures that reached minus 20 degrees. Bronisława Norkowska, who came to the camp in January 1942, testified: ‘All the roll-calls and inspections of current prisoners – children included – took place in the courtyard of the camp in very cold weather where temperature reached minus 20 degrees. At every turn we were beaten and kicked, everyone, men, women and children.’109 Another type of punishment was looking at the tip of a tall chimney for several hours. Testimonies given by prisoners also showed that in the camp there were cases of rape: In the evening, the Gestapo came to the barracks, mostly drunk and, beckoning with their finger, told young girls to go with them. It was clear for what purpose the girls were wanted. The girls resisted but the officers’ use of threats and force meant they had no choice. While I was working in the Gestapo kitchen, in the evening just after dinner I often heard girls screaming and defending themselves in a room next door to the kitchen I was working in.110

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Another method used in Szmalco´wka, the labour education camp for Polish people, was carrying out work that did not make any sense. Former prisoners recalled their work of digging trenches and then refilling them, segregating stones, or moving a pile of bricks five centimetres away.111 Small children cleaned guards’ shoes. Germans sought to ensure that everyone had something to do, demeaning Poles at every turn. There were two main rooms in the camp where prisoners were tortured. The first was a bunker in the basement, at the bottom of which there was about 20 cm of water. If prisoners did not want to sit in the mud, they had to stand and lean against the wall. In front of the dark cell, there was a ‘dry cell’ where prisoners were beaten and abused. People were kept in the bunker usually for two weeks; since no one could survive there any longer, this was another means of sentencing prisoners to a slow death. People were sent to the bunker for any attempt to pass information about the camp to the world outside, for smuggling food, for having an inappropriate attitude towards Germans, and finally for attempting to escape or attempting to help family members escape. People held in the bunker received each day a piece of dry bread and a cup of water. The bunker was small and completely devoid of light. It could accommodate up to a dozen people, and there were times that many more were locked in there for the night. People then suffocated and died, as though trapped alive in a tomb. Sometimes people outside could hear noises coming from the bunker, the horrifying groans and death rattles of people trapped in darkness and despair.112 Franciszek Jarco testified: I saw a baker from Torun´, whose name I do not know. He knocked on the door in the morning because the ‘toilets’ were overflowing. At one point, the Germans opened the door and two SS men began to beat and kick him. When he fell and lost

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consciousness, the SS men dragged him to the basement, known as the dark cell, where there was water, and never again did I see this man in the camp.113 Czesław Antczak, who came to Szmalco´wka from Wa˛brzez´no together with the other 10 people in his family, remembered the first roll-call after arriving at the camp. ‘Germans conducted searches, everyone was checked. I remember that they found a small amount of tobacco on one old man. The commandant, known as “The Boxer”, hit this old man only once, but the blow proved fatal. He did it in front of everyone. [. . .] “The Boxer” was the second commandant.’114 The constant fear, uncertainty and terror, not only physical, but also mental, experienced constantly by prisoners in the camp are well depicted in the following passage by Stanisław Lesiczka: ‘Early in the morning on 19 July 1943, all the prisoners of Szmalco´wka were loaded onto trucks. We thought it was the end. They brought us to Potulice.’115 (Italics author’s own.)

Request for a cord or a razor . . . Tadeusz Grabowski testified that a judge from Lwo´w (i.e. another Slavic sub-human), during one of the ‘routine beatings’, asked Radtke (the German superman) in Polish and German, ‘Why are you whacking at me like a drum? I suppose this must be your German culture!’116 By shouting this way at his German tormentors, he was stating that he was being beaten not by humans but animals, and if anyone at all was a ‘sub-human’, then it was the representatives of the alleged ‘master race’. He was thrown into the dark cell where he was regularly beaten and abused. Bogdan Witold Bukowski recalled: In the resettlement camp in Torun´, in the summer of 1941, I observed, along with the other prisoners, the gradual, planned murder of the judge. [. . .] He was kept in the dark cell. Each morning and evening he was beaten until he lost his consciousness. They would pour cold water over him, and then throw him back into the cell. His legs were immersed in

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the water. I was ten at the time and this murder made a lasting impression on me. It will always stay in my memory.117 Adam Groblewski added: I was an eyewitness when the judge from Torun´ was being tortured. It must have been around seven in the evening. Everyone was back in their rooms. The judge was brought to the square and beaten unconscious. He lay there half-naked on a makeshift table, the four perpetrators of the attack standing next to him. Then he was locked in the basement. I was passing by once and could hear him groaning and calling out to me. I came closer to the cell door, unaware of the danger. Through a little hole I could see the judge, wearing only his trousers. There were a number of wounds on his body. He asked me to bring him a piece of string or a razor. I ran to my mother, but she would not let me do this for him.118 (Italics author’s own.) Another prisoner, Weronika Antczak, prayed that the judge could die and not have to suffer anymore.119 It is not clear how Judge Adam Hoszowski died. There are many various descriptions of his death in former prisoners’ testimonies. According to one account, he was released from the dark cell and shot soon after for an alleged attempt to escape. He died on 28 August 1941 at the age of 59. Kryger testified: ‘When we laid Judge Adam Hoszowski in his coffin, he was merely “a pile of mud”.’120 Luberda-Zapas´nik recalled: After many days of this ordeal he started suffering from psychosis. The SS men seemed not to have had enough, so they provoked him into fleeing. Someone delivered a hammer to him, and the poor man wanted to make a hole in the fence to escape. It was an ambush, and so of course they got him, and he was horribly beaten. Later that night they led him to the halls where we were sleeping. Obviously everyone was so scared, so we were all awake. The SS led him in and blinded the other

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prisoners with a flashlight, ordering him to point out who had given him the hammer and who had facilitated the escape. We all trembled with fear because we knew he was sick and he could point at anyone. But he seemed to realise this and was aware of the situation. Despite the beating, he did not point at anyone. So the worst happened: that night, all the sounds of beating and screaming and SS men shouting suddenly stopped and silence fell. In the morning I saw his body in a shed, covered with a white cloth, with only his big feet visible. This sight is still in the front of my mind.121 After the war was over, Feliks Gudanek organized a cooperative in the area where Szmalco´wka had once stood called the Peasant Cooperative Industrial Production Mutual Aid. In his testimony he said: In 1945, in the basement of the factory hall, I saw various inscriptions made with chalk on the walls and pillars. These were words of farewell or calls for help written by former prisoners. I do not recall the exact content of those sentences. At various places in the basement I saw blood stains on walls and pillars. There were a lot of them. I do not think that these traces of blood came as a result of shootings, but most probably they were the result of beatings.122 The scale of German barbarism is clearly depicted elsewhere in Grabowski’s testimony: ‘I remember one more situation when a woman was pregnant, and one of the Germans, Wink, kicked her in the stomach. She then fell to the ground and fainted. Germans then took her away somewhere, and I do not know what happened to her.’123 Richard J. Evans titled the first part of his history of the Third Reich, addressing the period between September 1939 and 1941, a period of conquest and extermination of the conquered territories, ‘Beasts in Human Form’. This is not merely an impressive literary metaphor, but is just the right term to describe the German occupation of Poland.124

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Leszek Kołakowski, the most outstanding Polish philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century and also a child of World War II, came to the conclusion that evil is not an abstract concept, but had a real existence (Eric Voegelin was of similar opinion). He was able to understand people who do not believe in God, but he could not understand people who do not believe in the Devil.125 Nonetheless, Nazism and its crimes, as noted by Rafael Argullol, ‘is the fruit of the earth, not hell; it is human, not devilish; rational, but in the end it gave vent to a sick irrationalism. This is what is the most difficult to accept, and yet impossible to ignore.’126 Grynberg added that ‘great evil is not transcendent or immanent, inherent or supernatural. It is not born but it is produced. Not individually, but socially. Participation in the social production of evil – despite all the pressure – is not compulsory, even in the cruellest dictatorship.’127 Research conducted by Bandura has shown that the war broke the belief in human goodness, historical and anthropological optimism, the sense of life, and faith in man. An anonymous 19-year-old student from Kujawy, in one of her school papers, three years after the war, wrote: ‘People are really evil, dishonest, they want to see their loved ones hurt. Life is not beautiful. It is a constant struggle for existence. True happiness can only be experienced after death.’128 Orphans of the war, not surprisingly, felt special hatred towards Germans. They asked questions such as: ‘Why does one man hurt another? What is war? Why or what does a person live for?’129 Are these, as might seem to be the case, really infantile questions? I asked Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik what kept prisoners alive in the camp, what made them think they had any chance of survival, and what gave them hope for a better tomorrow, when every day was so infused with death? I received the following reply: ‘Believers prayed to God every day saying the rosary. They were convinced that Hitler would lose the war, because he had to lose it. The most important thing was not to provoke the Germans, and not to get beaten, since then your chances of survival decreased to a minimum. The survival instinct dominated. That’s all.’130

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‘Other’ Germans In addition to the cases described, there were also times in Szmalco´wka where the behaviour of the German administration of the camp was radically different towards Polish prisoners. To be remembered positively in prisoners’ memories, Germans did not need to help prisoners, although of course such rare but glorious situations did occur, they merely had to refrain from beating, humiliating, and degrading them. Henry Klimek, in his memoirs, stressed on numerous occasions that he and his family managed to survive Szmalco´wka thanks to the kindness of commandant Ehlert. Klimek’s mother Wanda was referred by Ehlert to work in the SS kitchen, which allowed the whole family not to starve to death. Later he hired her as a domestic help at his home. Although Karl Struve, the man who had taken Klimek’s property, wished to see these ‘Polish bandits’ sent to a concentration camp, Ehlert did not yield to these ‘requests’. Thanks to him, the Klimek family received a blessing in disguise. It was only after the war, when I had become more mature, that he, Willy Ehlert, began to appear in my mind as a man worthy of gratitude (which I admit, I write only in my own name, on my own behalf). He will remain in my memory as someone whose motives will remain known only to him. Only he knows what took place in the interior of his soul, the motives that guided his conduct when, as a commandant of the camp, still dressed in the SS uniform, he made the decisions that affected us.131 Wanda Klimek characterized Ehlert’s attitude in a different way during her testimony. ‘While working at Ehlert’s place, I noticed that a number of relatives of people imprisoned in forts came to him. These people were asking him for his intercession. Ehlert mocked those people, made fun of them.’132 Another prisoner of Szmalco´wka also remembered Ehlert negatively. Franciszek Nowakowski from Papowo Torun´skie testified:

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I was imprisoned there together with my wife and children. The youngest was only three months old and the oldest one a year and three months. In 1942 I managed to pass my oldest child over to my sister. Ehlert was the commandant of the camp at that time. My wife and I were kept in the freezing cold from six in the morning to six in the evening. As a result my wife got sick and died. Ehlert said that all the children of prisoners must die.133 However, as has already been mentioned, Genowefa Nowakowska died of typhus, so frost could not have been the direct cause of her death. Franciszek Grzelak, a tailor, claimed that it took two hours to resuscitate him after Ehlert had beaten him around the head with a stick until he was unconscious.134 His crime was to have illegally written a letter. Emil Ogłoza, writing about Szmalco´wka in 1945, called Ehlert a ‘professional executioner and briber’.135 This situation shows how the historian should be cautious when trying to provide comprehensive assessments. Ehlert was the sort of Nazi who, in certain individual cases, behaved humanely towards ‘Polish sub-humans’. On the other hand, he was an example of a German who, when the facts clashed with his ideology, could not extricate himself from the shackles of his ideological perception of reality, and rejected the former in favour of the latter. Nazism, depersonalising the individual, defined this individual only in terms of his or her nationality and race. It refused the individual any individuality. It did not ask the individual for his or her opinion. It perceived the individual merely as a typical representative of the species.136 Meanwhile Ehlert happened to meet a specific Pole, a hardworking, intelligent mother of six children, including five boys, who even in the reality of the camp was able to take care of her children. They were always dressed neatly and clean (it is difficult to answer the question of how it was possible given the conditions in the camp). This image was contrary to the image of the dirty, lice-infested Pole created by Nazi propaganda. ‘You’re a good mother. I must have told you this

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Fig. 4.3 Willy Ehlert – third commandant of Szmalco´wka (February – October 1942). Source: AIPN By 31/21, photos of Nazi criminals collected in the Polish Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Bydgoszcz, card No. 12.

before but, if you weren’t a Pole, I would make you an example to German mothers. But you are a Pole, and therein lies your entire problem.’137 Ehlert was able to consider the facts, but only up to a certain point. He was unable to get beyond using racial and

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national criteria in his perception of Poles. It also seems that he retained some features of humanity, which he could reveal only in a private personal context, in the absence of witnesses, especially in relations with his subordinates. As a commandant, he had to be a ‘model’ Nazi leading the ideological crusade. I did not manage to find any photographic documentation of the camp in Torun´, but in the post-committee materials acquired by the Institute of National Remembrance there is a photo of the third commandant of Szmalco´wka (and father of three children), most probably from the period of his service in the SS in Bydgoszcz. (See Fig. 4.3.) Marian Kopytko, in the account he gave to Zygner, recalled that the last commandant of the camp – Lebius, known as the ‘lame commandant’ – initially had a positive attitude towards Poles, allowing them to collect his cigarette butts and even sometimes treating them to the occasional actual cigarette.138 The guard named Strehlau from Lipno threw ‘real bread’ and sausage from the tower to Bogdan Klimek, ensuring that his superiors could not see him doing it.139 After examining witnesses’ testimonies, prosecutors divided the staff in the camp into two groups. The first included Reddig, the commandants of the guard Haze, Weber, and Utke, the guards Molke and Tober, and the camp’s driver Adam Hertel: these all abused prisoners. The second group consisted of ‘tolerant Germans’: commandant Ehlert, his deputy Wink, the guards Mielke (Milke) and Rundt.140 Czesław Pastuszak noted that Poles were not abused by all the Germans. As a small child sent to the camp, he was employed in various German farms for all types of field work. He mentioned that ‘everything depended on who you happened to end up with. If you were lucky, after work a German might give you some food, and even pat you on the head, which in the case of a young boy, an orphan, was extremely moving.’141

CHAPTER 5 A CLOSED STORY?

In the camp people were being born and people were dying. They were dying every day – I find it difficult to determine how many – but most were dying of exhaustion.1 Leonard Zielin´ski

History and sources for establishing the number of victims Alojzy Szyplin´ski, assistant to the carpenter Jo´zef Szremowski, who delivered coffins to the camp, recalled: ‘During the week, the shop produced on average about fifteen to twenty coffins for Szmalco´wka. On one day I counted seven coffins, but there were also days when no coffins were delivered to the camp.’2 As Wojtalewicz recalled, due to the huge number of deaths, it was not long before collective coffins were used to take the corpses from the camp. These coffins had a movable bottom and could be reused many times. The bottom of the coffin was opened above the grave, the corpse was thrown directly into the grave, and off the deliverers went to fetch the next batch of corpses.3 Families of the deceased did not attend the funeral. The undertaker Feliks Rydzen´ski recalled that victims of Szmalco´wka were buried at night, despite the German ban, in the cemetery on

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Grudzia˛dzka Street. Presiding over the ceremony was Father Paweł Goga, a priest from the parish of Christ the King in the Torun´-Mokre district and former prisoner of Fort VII.4 Prisoners were buried in paper shirts, without clothes. ‘Due to the large number of corpses and the lack of available plots for graves, the Nazi authorities ordered a group of 20 people, over a period of three months, to clear away the plots of existing Polish graves. The gravestones they smashed up with hammers.’5 In 1976 Karola Ciesielska attempted to establish a complete list of names of the victims of Szmalco´wka. In the Rocznik Torun´ski (the Torun´ Annual – transl. note), she presented a record that contained 515 names of the dead, prepared on the basis of three sources: the receipts of the undertaker Feliks Rydzen´ski, who, along with others, buried the victims of Szmalco´wka; burial records from the cemetery on Grudzia˛dzka Street for the 1937– 46 period, which can currently be found in the Regional Museum in Torun´;6 and analysis of the Registry Office records in Torun´ covering the entire duration of the camp’s existence. The undertaker’s receipts are single sheets of paper with the names of the victims and burial costs written on them, which the municipal officer would use to type up a list. However, they contain data only from November 1941 onwards, by which time the camp had already been in operation for 12 months. On 22 October 1969, Rydzen´ski testified before the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Bydgoszcz that, between the end of August 1941 and the end of September 1942, he buried the dead from Szmalco´wka in four plots of land: – – – – –

Plot 1: 711 adults Plot 2: 334 children Plot 3: 91 adults Plot 4: 63 children Total: 1,199

‘I remember that the first corpses brought to me from Szmalco´wka, about six to eight people, arrived at the platform without coffins or

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documents.’ Radtke, the first commandant of the camp, bullied Rydzen´ski with the threat that if he did not bury them, he would join them. The undertaker must have gone to the municipal authorities and convinced them to bury the bodies with the documents inside the coffins.7 He revised his testimony on 5 February 1970 when, in a letter to the Commission, he wrote: However, it wasn’t only people from Szmalco´wka who were buried in these plots, but also other people who died during the war in 1939, who died in German prisons, who died at the hands of the Gestapo, and who died in hospitals [. . .] the cemetery at Grudzia˛dzka was a municipal cemetery during the occupation (and still is today). During the occupation, private individuals were also buried there. There are also people there who died in a nursing home for the elderly.8 In an encyclopedia on Nazi camps in Poland published in 1979, almost certainly written with the knowledge of Ciesielska’s findings, the number of the dead is estimated at more than 3,000.9 Those witnesses still alive are convinced of a similar number of victims. In 2010, Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik, the chairman of the Union for Former Political Prisoners of Nazi Prisons and Concentration Camps in the Warmin´sko-Mazurskie district, who lost two brothers in Szmalco´wka,10 handed over to the Bydgoszcz office of the Institute of National Remembrance a record from the cemetery entitled ‘Szmalco´wka’. This record contains 39 names which are not included in Ciesielska’s findings. However, after verification of these names, it turned out that they could not be the basis for completing a list of those who died in the camp. The 18 ‘new’ names were already in the earlier records, while in the cemetery records a mistake must have been made in the spelling.11 In the remaining 21 cases, the people were indeed buried in the municipal cemetery on Grudzia˛dzka Street, but those bodies had not arrived from the camp. In contrast to the provided list, an excerpt from the Torun´ cemetery records (a photocopy of which can be found in Appendix 1)

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includes (in the last volume of the investigation file on Szmalco´wka) next to the names of the dead the following annotations: Gericht,12 Polizei,13 Gefa¨ngnis,14 Fu¨rsorge,15 or Thorn.16 The bodies of these people found their way to the cemetery from the court, police, prisons, social care, or they were individuals who had died in Torun´, or their bodies had been brought from other places and buried at the Grudzia˛dzka cemetery.17 The same annotations next to the names of these people appear also in materials from the District Museum in Torun´ that I managed to find thanks to Katarzyna Pietrucka, an employee of the museum. Next to the names of those whose bodies were brought to the graveyard from the camp, there is the annotation: lager. An enquiry at the District Court in Torun´ for postwar death certificates did not reveal the names of any new victims. Thus, the record prepared by Ciesielska remains valid. In a few cases, it was also possible to establish the right spelling of names and verify dates of birth. I have presented any discrepancies in Table 5.1 below. I did not find any other sources that would indicate that the number of people who died in the camp was greater. I did not find any documents or logical grounds that would allow us to speak of a thousand, or thousands, of victims of Szmalco´wka. Jacek Leociak aptly noted that: when victims are counted, we are inclined to overestimate their number, following the tendency ‘the more, the better’. The greater the number of victims, the greater the suffering seems, the more it is worth for us, the descendants whose task it is to pass their memory on to future generations. Therefore, any review of the number of victims, any reduction (i.e. bringing the figures closer to the truth), is met with reserve, reluctance, disbelief, even hostility, as something that directly harms the memory and honour of the victims, reduces their suffering. [. . .] The tendency to overestimate the number of victims comes into collision with the mechanisms of learning, understanding and the ability to empathise. A great number weakens the impression, separates us emotionally from an

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event, anaesthetises us, and escapes into the areas of abstraction. A great number obscures the real suffering of the individual.18 History is complex, ambiguous, full of question marks. As a rule, people do not expect a calculation of the various versions of events, of the various possible scenarios. Instead they want only concrete information, one coherent narrative, one number. This is what ‘memory’ offers them. For the historian, this is often an unattainable goal, something he constantly comes close to but never fully achieves. However, he cannot abandon the quest, especially when it comes to human life. The historian must repeatedly say, ‘I do not know’. ‘Memory’ is certain of its beliefs. Tony Judt, when asked by Timothy Snyder whether history and memory are allies or enemies, said: They are step-siblings – and thus they hate one another while sharing just enough in common to be inseparable. Moreover, they are constrained to squabble over a heritage they can neither abandon nor divide. Memory is younger and more attractive, much more disposed to seduce and be seduced – and therefore she makes many more friends. History is the older sibling: somewhat gaunt, plain and serious, disposed to retreat rather than engage in idle chit-chat.19 This does not mean however that one can say with certainty that the list of victims of Szmalco´wka is definitively closed. In Appendix 1, I have included the testimony of a witness, Marta Foksin´ska, from 1969. She testified before the prosecutor that her husband Franciszek and her three children died in the camp: five-year-old Jadwiga, threeyear-old Stanisława, and two-year-old Zygmunt. The surviving documents only contain information about the death of her husband and their two children: nine-year-old Jadwiga and four-year-old Zygmunt. On the one hand, the historian believes in documents rather than human memory. Yet on the other, it is difficult to imagine that a mother could be wrong on such a fundamental issue as the death of her child, even testifying nearly 30 years after the events.

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16%

0-18 years 19-30 years

17%

31-59 years 61%

>60 years

6%

Fig. 5.1 The number of people who died in the camp according to age. Source: Author’s own source.

The other children of the Foksin´ski family went to the camp in Potulice. Perhaps Stanisława Foksin´ska died in Potulice, not Szmalco´wka, which might explain the absence of her name in the registry. However, in the alphabetical lists of people who died in the resettlement and forced labour camp in Potulice,20 there is no information about her (but the data here is incomplete). There is no doubt, however, that Stanisława Foksin´ska was a victim of the German occupation and died either in Torun´ or in Potulice. (See Fig. 5.1.) According to the register of victims, 515 Poles were killed in the camp in Torun´. Children under 18 years of age amounted to almost 61 per cent of all victims (317). In Szmalco´wka 80 people died who were aged 60 or older (16 per cent). Together with the children, this accounted for 77 per cent of all victims. Those social groups were particularly at risk. Statistically, those between 19 and 30 years had the best chance of survival, due to having better health and stamina. ‘Only’ 29 people (6 per cent) from this group died in the camp. 89 (17 per cent) Poles between 31 and 59 years of age died in the camp. (See Fig. 5.2.) Among the children and adolescents who died in the camp, as many as 59 per cent (189) were three years old or younger. Disease, famine, and epidemics decimated newborns and infants especially.

A CLOSED STORY ?

133

4% 13%

0-3 years 4-7 years 24%

8-14 years 59%

15-18 years

Fig. 5.2 The number of children and adolescents who died in the camp according to age. Source: Author’s own source.

Including children under the age of eight (76), they accounted for 83 per cent of all the young people who died in Szmalco´wka. There is a statue at the Victims of World War II Municipal Cemetery No. 2 on Grudzia˛dzka Street: ‘For the Polish children: victims of fascism.’ An alley leads to the monument, along which 51 children’s graves are placed. The original wooden and stone crosses have been preserved for some of them. Relatives and people close to the victims to this day bring, in addition to flowers and candles, little teddy bears. Eight granite plaques have been placed by the monument with the names and ages of the 316 children who died in the camp. Missing from this list is the name of Stanisław Luberda, who also died in Szmalco´wka (item No. 273). The record presented in Table 5.1 is ‘dry’ statistics. It is worth remembering that for each new name in the table, there is the tragedy of an individual and their family. In addition to each person’s name, date of birth, and date of death, I have also decided to give their age and the cause of death stated in the reports of the camp’s doctor. My university tutor, Prof. Borejsza, kept telling his students that without empathy there can be no history. While Walter Scott, in his

7 I 1862 12 VI 1902 10 I 1928 9 IX 1941 21 XI 1875 (22 XI 1875) 09 IX 1941 2 VI 1938 22 IX 1939 28 XII 1884

Antonik, Tomasz

Babin´ski, Alfred Bajer, Ludwika Banas´, Henryk Jerzy Banas´, Katarzyna

Banas´, Zdzisław Bartkowiak, Aleksandra Maria Bartkowiak, Bogusław Bartoszek, Piotr

8. 9. 10. 11.

12. 13. 14. 15.

I 1941 V 1939 VIII 1936 XI 1941

7.

16 13 21 23

3. 4. 5. 6.

29 VIII 1883 18 II 1869

Alagierski, Michał Aleksiewicz / Aleksandrowicz, Piotr Alfuth, Adam Alfuth, Bernadetta Alfuth, Eufemia Antonik, Łucja

1. 2.

Date of birth

B

A

27 11 17 30

XI 1941 II 1942 XI 1941 XII 1942

5 VII 1942 19 VI 1942 27 XI 1941 31 III 1942

10 II 1942

18 X 1941 5 V 1942 29 IV 1942 21 I 1942

23 II 1942 4 XII 1941

Date of death

The list of names of Polish people who died in the camp

Full name

Table 5.1

2 months / cancer of intestine 4 / ear infection in both ears, flu 2 / ear infection in both ears 58 / asthma

40 / typhoid 15 / tuberculosis 2 months / cancer of intestine 67 / old age

9 months / stomach disease 3 / typhoid 6 / typhoid 2 months / pneumonia, premature childbirth 80 / pneumonia

59 / pneumonia 72 / old age

Age / Cause of death

134 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Bartyka, Jan Bazan, Witold Szymon Bednarek, Edmund Bednarek, Franciszek Bedra, Franciszek Bedra, Jadwiga

Bejger, Jerzy, Edwin Bellwon, Łucja Bociek, (Baziek), Katarzyna Bogusz, Emilia Bogusz, Jo´zef Bona, Marian Stefan Bona, Urszula Bonczek, Marianna Bonik, August Jakub Bonik, Franciszek Bonik, Helena Bonik, Jo´zef Bonio, (Bunia), Jo´zef Bonk, Jo´zef Boralewska, Rozalia Boralewski, Marcin

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

27 V 1886 19 VII 1926 15 VIII 1939 31 X 1940 23 IX / 17 X 1888 23 VIII 1934 / 26 IX 1934 20 IV 1934 / 23 IV 1935 6 V 1904 1 I 1899 7 V 1940 20 VI 1941 2 XI 1938 11 IV 1941 3 VII 1895 1 VIII 1884 29 XII 1939/40 29 V 1909 12/14 VIII 1913 20 X 1938 18 IV 1941 23 VIII 1865 8 XI 1858 23 VII 1942 23 III 1942 7 VIII 1942 6 XII 1941 8 XII 1941 5 II 1942 2 X 1941 24 III 1942 31 I 1942 21 II 1942 22 II 1942 6 III 1942 8 V 1942 6 X 1941 25 XI 1941 24 II 1942

12 II 1942 2 IV 1942 20 IX 1941 16 IX 1941 28 XI 1941 3 II 1943 7/8 / measles 38 / typhoid 43 / heart attack 18 months / pneumonia 5 months / pneumonia 3 / pneumonia 5 months / cancer of intestine 47 / headcold 56 / asthma 2/3 / typhoid 33/ typhoid 29 3 / tuberculosis 6 months / appendicitis 76 / old age 84 / typhoid

56 16 / tuberculosis 2 / cancer of intestine 10 months / diarrhoea 53 / pneumonia and flu 8 / tuberculosis

A CLOSED STORY ? 135

Borowicki, August Borowicz, Marcin Bryjak, Aniela Bryjak, Zofia Brze˛cikowski, (Brzos´cikowski), Henryk Budyn, Katarzyna Budyn, Maria Budzin´ski, Jadwiga Budzowska, Karolina Bukowska, Maria Irena Bukowski, Ireneusz Bunio, Stanisław Bunio (Bonio), Wanda Burzyn´ska, Ewa Maria Buson/ Ruson, Wiktoria Bytkowska, Barbara

4 VIII 1941 11 XI 1876 29 III 1941 1 IV 1937 21 III 1919

Date of birth

2 II 1900 1 I 1941 3 III 1934 14 VI 1856 / 3 VII 1857 6 I 1942 14 VIII 1939 16 IX 1939 1 IX 1936 11 XII 1940 23 XII 1889 12 XI 1939 C 54. Chroboczek, Albertyna 4 VI 1914 55. Chromicka/ Chromnicka, Maria 2/8 II 1930

43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

38. 39. 40. 41. 42.

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

42 / tuberculosis 1 / pneumonia 8 / measles 84/85 / old age 8 months / diarrhoea 2 3 6 1 / pneumonia 53 2 28 / nephritis 12

24 III 1942 19 III 1942

1 –2 days 66 9 months / cancer of larynx 5 / typhoid 23 / tuberculosis

Age / Cause of death

28 VII 1942 8 I 1942 17 XII 1941 13 XII 1941 8 IX 1942 14 II 1942 4 IV 1943 29 VIII 1942 16 XII 1941 8 IV 1942 26 XII 1941

5/6 VIII 1941 19 XII 1942 9/12 I 1942 3 V 1942 3 VI 1942

Date of death

136 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Chrzanowska, Anna Chrzanowski, Stanisław Chudyk, Roman Czesław Chylin´ski, Leon Chylin´ski, Zbysław Chyrkowski, Mateusz Ciara, Jerzy, (Rozalia) Ciepiela, Ryszard Jo´zef Cierkowska, Zofia Cierkowska, Jo´zefa Czajka, Helena (Halina) Czajka, Bronisław Czapla, Jo´zef Czapla, Krystyna Czapla, Marianna Czarnecka, Helena Czerwin´ska, Agnieszka Czerwin´ski, Edmund Paweł Czerwin´ski, Zbigniew

75. Dankowska, Franciszka 76. Deka, Adolf Maksymilian 77. Dembin´ska, Anastazja

56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 16 VII 1866 13 V 1940 26 I 1884

16 VIII 1902 16 II 1866 20 VII 1939 14 X 1940 17 VIII 1938 16 X/14 XII 1871 8 V 1940 2 VIII 1941 15 XII 1922 13 IX 1921 12 I 1940 23 XII 1903 11 III 1934 8 I 1939 12 VIII 1896 20 V 1874 3 IV 1926 2/3 IV 1930 9 XI 1941 D

9 XII 1941 12 XII 1941 5 XII 1941

28 II 1942 30 XI 1942 12 IX 1941 22 V 1942 14 V 1942 10 XII 1941 23 XI 1941 26 VII 1942 5 VI 1942 5 IV 1942 26 II 1942 18 III 1942 18 VI 1942 2 I 1943 13 IX 1942 28 III 1942 18 VII 1942 2 IV 1942 16 XI 1942 75 / old age 18 months/ pneumonia 57 / asthma

40 / typhoid 76 2 / measles 2 / diphtheria 3 / pneumonia 70 / old age 18 months / measles 11 months / stomach disease 20 / typhoid 21 / typhoid 2 / pneumonia 39/ typhoid 8 / typhoid 4 / tuberculosis 46 / tuberculosis 68 / cancer of stomach 16 / tuberculosis 12 / typhoid 1 / stomach disease

A CLOSED STORY ? 137

15 III 1877 17 III 1889

9 VI 1938 11 V 1940 25 IV 1935 2 I 1870 29 IV 1939 25 XII 1941 15 I 1941 4 III 1938 9 III 1934 21 VII 1940 28 V 1936 23 I 1910 23 VII 1938 2 III 1942 23 X 1940 5 VI 1932 7 V 1927

Dembin´ska, Felicja Jadwiga Dembin´ska, Jadwiga Dembin´ska, Małgorzata Helena Dembska, Maria Dembski, Zygmunt (Stanisław) Dobek, Jo´zef Dobiesz, Agnieszka Dobiesz, Kazimierz Domagalska, Urszula Dombrowski, Jan Edward Draheim, Regina Draheim, Franciszka Draheim, Klemens Franciszek Dreschler, Irena Dudzin´ski, Jan Dworacka, Gertruda Dygalon, Edmund

95. Ewertowska, Maria 96. Ewertowski, Jan

78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94.

Date of birth

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

E

18 VI 1942 6 V 1943

19 XII 1941 15 XII 1941 14 XII 1941 3 XII 1941 8 X 1942 8 II 1942 25 XII 1941 27 I 1942 17 XI 1942 21 XII 1941 16 IV 1942 16 IX 1942 16 IX 1942 30 VI 1942 28 XII 1941 14 II 1942 30 VIII 1941

Date of death

65 / stomach disease 54 / nephritis

3 / measles 18 months / pneumonia 6 / measles 71 / old age 3 / tuberculosis 18 months / stomach disease 11 months / measles 4 / measles 8 / nephritis 1 / measles 6 / measles 32 / tuberculosis 4 / tuberculosis 3 months / pnemonia 14 months / pneumonia 10 / pneumonia 14

Age / Cause of death

138 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

21 VI 1892/1893 11 X 1875 27VII 1926/1927 24 X 1929 3 III 1939 6 IV 1896 18 IV 1942 11 V 1940 18 XII 1872 3 II 1942 20 III 1871 9 XII 1933 6 VII 1870 1 IV 1939 20 X 1941 1 VI 1941 21 V 1933 28 IX 1877 12 XI/11 XII 1937 27 I 1938 16 VI 1862

97. Falkowska, Katarzyna 98. Falkowska, Marianna Waleria 99. Falkowska, Melania Jo´zefina 100. Falkowska, Monika 101. Falkowska, Salomea 102. Falkowski, Bolesław 103. Falkowski, Herbert Hubert 104. Falkowski, Hubert 105. Fedorek, Stanisław 106. Fidorek, Eryka 107. Fiedorek, Marianna 108. Figurski, Alfons 109. Filipek, Anna Maria 110. Filipek, Wiesława Jadwiga 111. Filipek, Władysława Helena

112. Flizikowski, Henryk Jan 113. Foksin´ska, Jadwiga 114. Foksin´ski, Franciszek 115. Foksin´ski, Zygmunt 116. Frydryszek, Bernadetta 117. Faryn/ Firyn, Piotr

F

2 IX 1941 4 VIII 1942 8 XI 1941 22 XII 1941 18 IX 1942 22 VII.1942

31 V 1942 22 I 1943 1 VI 1942 27 III 1942 17 IV 1942 10 IV 1942 7 VII 1942 3 XII 1941 11 XI 1941 4 VI 1942 8 IV 1942 24 II 1943 27 VII 1941 1 I 1942 9 VII 1942

49/50 / typhoid 68 15/16 / tuberculosis 13 / cancer of stomach 3 / pneumonia 46 / heart attack 2 / diarrhoea 19 months / pneumonia 69 / cancer of stomach 4 months / pneumonia 71 10 / pneumonia 71 / old age 3 / pneumonia 9 months / pneumonia, cancer of intestine 3 / appendicitis 9 / tuberculosis 64 / asthma 4 / measles 4 / pneumonia 80 / pneumonia

A CLOSED STORY ? 139

118. Gacioch, Henryk, Antoni 119. Gackowska, Anna 120. Gackowska, Helena 121. Gagatek, Anna 122. Gagatek, Michał 123. Gajewska, Agata 124. Gajewski, Edward 125. Gajewski, Ryszard 126. Gala, Paweł 127. Gałka, Genowefa 128. Garczyn´ski, Henryk 129. Garczyn´ski, Janusz 130. Gdaniec, Joanna 131. Gdaniec, Jo´zef 132. Gepus, Bolesława 133. Gepus/ Geppus, Kazimiera 134. Giza, Franciszka 135. Gliniecka, Maria Krystyna 136. Głowacki, Jo´zef

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

7 VI 1937 5 I 1941 14 II 1906 31 VIII 1942 29 VII 1941 5 II 1938 15 XI 1936 5 VI/6 VII 1940 31 V 1906 21 I 1925 20 IV 1940 18 V 1940 12 X 1859 29 XII 1863 5 II 1930 11 IV 1926 1 VI 1937 5 I 1938 9 VII 1941

Date of birth G 29 IV 1942 30 IX 1941 9 IX 1942 23 XI 1942 14 II 1942 22 XII 1941 22 IV 1942 18 XII 1941 3 VI 1942 16 IV 1943 19 XII 1941 12 IX 1942 5 III 1942 11 V 1942 7 III 1942 4 II 1942 13 VI 1942 19 X 1941 10 III 1942

Date of death

5 / tuberculosis 9 months / diarrhoea 36 / pneumonia and nephritis 2 months / diarrhoea 6 months / stomach disease 3 / stomach disease 6 / tuberculosis 17/18 months / ear infection 36 / food poisoning 18 / stomach disease 19 months / measles 2 / stomach disease, measles 83 / old age 79 / typhoid 12 / typhoid 16 / typhoid 5 / nephritis 3 8 months / ear infection in both ears

Age / Cause of death

140 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

155. Guzik, Julianna 156. Guzowska, Joanna 157. Gzela, Franciszka

137. Gołe˛biewska, Teresa 138. Gordon, Maria 139. Gortatowski, Jo´zef 140. Gortatowski, Marian 141. Gorzkiewicz, Jo´zef 142. Go´rna, Janina 143. Goszka, Amelia 144. Grabiec, Jan 145. Grabowska, Antonia 146. Grabowski, Henryk Leon 147. Grajkowska, Pelagia 148. Grajkowski, Wacław 149. Gralewska, Rozalia 150. Grenc, Czesław 151. Gromadzki, Adam 152. Grzegrzołka/ Gzegzolka, Zofia 153. Grzondzin´ska, Zofia 154. Guzik, Jo´zef

23 V 1932 8 IX 1900 11 XI 1941 2 II /13 II 1864 11 I 1900 28 I 1928 26 XI 1914 8 III/8 IX 1880 10 XII 1866 4 IX 1931 9 II 1909 13 X 1934 4 VII 1890 22 VIII 1921 26 XI 1880 19 II/ 13 VIII 1870 8 IV/4 VIII 1911 3 VII/ 1860/ 15 VII 1872 11 III 1857/ 9 III 1860 26 III 1935 13 IV 1884 20 III 1942 27 XII 1941 18 IV 1943

16 IV 1942 17 IV 1942 19 I 1942 9 XII 1941 22 II 1942 15 IV 1942 21 III 1942 14 I 1942 5 IV 1942 4 III 1942 18 III 1942 24 XII 1941 25 XII 1941 8 IV 1943 28 I 1943 12 I 1942 20 IV 1942 6 III 1942 82/85 / old age 6 / diphtheria 59 / stomach disease

10 / tuberculosis 42 / typhoid 2 months 77 / old age 42 / pneumonia and nephritis 14 / typhoid 28 / typhoid 62 / asthma 76 / old age 10 / typhoid 33 / typhoid 7 / measles 51 / heart attack 22 / pneumonia 63 / old age 72 / old age 31 / typhoid 70/82 / old age

A CLOSED STORY ? 141

10 IV 1878 10 VII1 1933/1934 10 VI 1936 2 XI 1941 5 III 1937 8 XI 1882 9 II/5 IV 1940 16 VIII 1930 15 III /18 III 1937 19 V 1939 16 VIII 1866 7 II 1940 15 VI 1871 27 II 1939 15 VIII 1882 20 IX /22 IX 1939 17 IV 1878

164. Ignatowska, Barbara 165. Ignis/ Ignys´, Henryk 166. Ilska, Janina 167. Ilski, Dominik Piotr 168. Iwanek, Jo´zef

169. Jabłon´ska, Teresa Maria 170. Jabłon´ski, Władysław 171. Jagielka, Walentyna 172. Jakubowska, Julianna 173. Jakubowska, Zofia 174. Jakubowski, Bernard

Date of birth

158. Hac/ Haak, Franciszka 159. Halat, Adela 160. Halat, Jan 161. Halat, Stanisław 162. Hanelt, Helena 163. Hoszowski, Adam

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

J

I

H

14 IV 1942 11 II 1942 8 I 1942 3 II1942 24 XII 1942 17 II 1942

13 VIII 1942 17 V 1942 26 V 1942 9 III 1942 23 V 1942

8 XII 1941 7 VII 1942 6 VI 1942 16 IX 1942 9 XII 1941 28 VIII 1941

Date of death

2 / diphtheria 71 3 / stomach disease 60 / heart attack 3 / diarrhoea 64 / pneumonia and flu

2 / diphtheria 12 / typhoid 5 / pneumonia 2 76 / old age

63 / cancer of intestine 8/9 / measles 6 / measles 10 months / diarrhoea 4 / pneumonia 59

Age / Cause of death

142 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

6 IX 1926 9 I 1935 26 VII 1941 22 V 1935 22 X 1904 23 X 1941 1 I 1932 24 II 1941 15 IX/28 IX 1882 5 II/8 II 1934 15 XI 1849 13 VIII 1939 27 XI 1882 12/13 VII 1934 26 III 1899 31 VIII/1 IX 1899 22 IV 1942 1 IV/9 IV 1936 15 VI 1940 8 VI 1938 18 VIII 1941 6 XII 1937

175. Jakubowski, Stanisław 176. Jakubowski, Wacław 177. Janeczko, Bogdan Marian 178. Jania, Emil 179. Jania, Franciszka 180. Jania, Krystyna 181. Jania, Narcyz 182. Jankowska, Regina 183. Jankowski, Franciszek 184. Jankowski, Stefan Franciszek 185. Jasiecka, Maria 186. Jastrze˛bski, Jan 187. Jaworska, Jo´zefa 188. Jaworski, Zygmunt 189. Jetka, Maria 190. Jonas, Regina

191. Kaczmarczyk, Anna 192. Kaczmarczyk, Elz˙bieta 193. Kaczmarczyk, Zofia 194. Kaczmarek, Mieczysław Piotr 195. Kaczyn´ski, Waldemar Jerzy 196. Kalkowska, Bronisława

K

22 V 1942 14 V 1942 19 XII 1941 15 XII 1941 8 V 1942 29 VII 1942

16 IX 1942 25 V 1942 20 XII 1941 10 V 1942 24 V/3VI 1942 4 XI 1941 6 IV 1942 9 IX 1941 6 III 1942 26 VII 1942 14 IX 1942 5 X 1941 5 XII 1941 10 III 1942 26 I 1942 16 II 1943 1 month / diarrhoea 6 / tuberculosis 18 months / ulceration 3 / stomach disease 9 months / stomach disease 5 / measles

16 / tuberculosis 7 / stomach disease 5 months / stomach disease 7 / pneumonia 38 / typhoid 12 days / typhoid 10 6 months / food poisoning 60 8 / typhoid 93 / old age 2 / cancer of intestine 59 / stomach disease 7 / inflammation of meninges 43 / cancer of stomach 44 / pneumonia

A CLOSED STORY ? 143

197. Kalkowski, Klemens 198. Kamin´ska, Marianna 199. Kamin´ski, Stanisław 200. Kanikowska, Ludwina 201. Kanikowski, Czesław Bolesław 202. Kaszewski, Jan 203. Kensik/Kenszik, Jadwiga 204. Kierzanowski, Maksymilian 205. Kleinschmidt, Marta 206. Klimaszewski, Stanisław 207. Klinikowski, Bronisław (Bolesław) 208. Klozak/Klosak, Małgorzata 209. Klozak/Klosak, Marta 210. Kłos, Weronika 211. Knapik, Maria 212. Knoblauch, Agnieszka 213. Knoblauch, Elz˙bieta 214. Kobiela, Antoni 215. Kobylarz, Janina Teresa

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

16 V 1942 10 IX 1941 8 II 1943 30 III 1942 19 XII 1941 28 V 1942 5 VIII 1942 22 XII 1941 11 V 1942 15 XII 1941 1 X 1941 17 IX 1942 27 VIII 1942 26 VIII 1941 25 I/II 1942 4 II 1943 2 V 1942 19 X 1942 23 IV 1942

13VI/ 12 VII 1912 16/24 IV 1876 11/15 X 1888 16 IX 1939 21 I 1927 13 V 1939 13 VI 1878 22/23 I 1937

Date of death

24 XI 1937/24 XI 1938 9 IV 1941 1 XI 1877 15 IV 1928 21 VII 1937 6 X 1939 12 IV 1942 4 XI 1872 12 III 1891 26 XI 1939 10 VII 1940

Date of birth

30 / typhoid 66 / old age 53 / common asthenia 2 / flu, stomach disease 15 / pneumonia, sore throat 3 / typhoid 64 / old age 5

4/5 / nephritis 5 months / stomach disease 66 / old age 14 / typhoid 4 / stomach disease 3 / pneumonia 3 / pneumonia 69 / old age 51 / typhoid 2 / stomach disease 14 months

Age / Cause of death

144 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

216. Kobylarz, Jo´zef 217. Kobylarz, Krystyna 218. Kołodziejska, Beata Anna 219. Kołodziejski, Jerzy Jan 220. Kondziela, Anna 221. Koniszewski, Jan 222. Konkol, Zygmunt 223. Koporowski, Jan 224. Kopytko, Roman 225. Kopytko, Stefan 226. Koralewska, Stanisława 227. Kos´cielny, Jan 228. Kozak, Zofia 229. Kozyra, Jo´zefa 230. Kozyra, Kazimierz 231. Krajewska, Jo´zefa 232. Krajewski, Zygmunt 233. Krajnik, Jadwiga 234. Krajzewicz, Czesław 235. Krawan´ska, Gertruda 236. Krawan´ski, Edmund 237. Krawan´ski, Kazimierz 238. Kro´l, Ryszard 16 XII 1938 16 VIII 1940 29 XII 1940 20 X 1934 2 IV 1922 21 I 1932 19 XII 1940 7 I 1940 22 X 1936 21/31 III 1938 19 V 1940 6 XII 1878/1879 7 I 1878 28 VII 1924 21 I 1940 24 III 1904 30 VI 1939 27/28 X 1912 23 VII 1938 17 III 1926 28 VIII 1941 12 III 1940 2 VI/29 VI 1935

11 IV 1942 22 IX 1941 26 XII 1941 21 XI 1942 4 V 1942 8 IV 1942 17 V 1942 29 X 1942 7 II 1942 16 VII 1942 28 IX 1941 12 XI. 1941 3 VII 1942 18 VIII 1942 5 XII 1941 28 III 1942 18 II 1942 27 XII 1942 31 XII 1941 5 IV 1942 7 II 1942 17 XII 1941 17 III 1942

4 / pneumonia 15 months 11 months / pneumonia 8 / tuberculosis 20 / typhoid 10 / typhoid 17 months / measles 3 / stomach disease 5 / pneumonia 4 / tuberculosis 16 months / measles 62/63 / heart attack 64 / heart attack 18 / tuberculosis 1 / pneumonia 38 / tuberculosis 3 / inflammation of bronchus 30 / tuberculosis 3 / measles 16 5 months / stomach disease 21 months / stomach disease 7 / pneumonia

A CLOSED STORY ? 145

9 XII 1937 9 XII 1937 10 IX 1941 18 VI 1941 22 VII 1902 01 X 1916 15 I 1864/16 I 1865 21 I 1941 21 XI 1940 11 XI 1909 22 I 1943 26 X 1935 23/25 X 1938 19 V 1939 23 VII 1934 19 III 1936 1 IX 1940 2 XII 1884 2 VIII 1874

254. Lach, Jo´zef 255. Landoch, Stefania 256. Lapczejska/ Lapczyn´ska, Maria 257. Laskowska, Jo´zefa

Date of birth

239. Kruszewska, Jadwiga 240. Kruszewski, Ludwik Zygmunt 241. Kruszewski, Stefan 242. Krzemkowski, Paweł 243. Krzemkowski, Stanisław 244. Kubisch, Anna 245. Kuchta, Piotr Paweł 246. Kulawiak/ Kulawik, Władysława 247. Kunowska, Anna 248. Kunowska, Leokadia 249. Kunowska, Teresa 250. Kurlandt, Kazimierz 251. Kuz´min´ska, Władysława 252. Kuz´min´ski, Stefan 253. Kuz´min´ski, Teodor

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

L

21 22 14 19

VI 1942 III 1942 II 1942 XII 1941

22 XII 1941 22 XII 1941 23 XI 1941 31 XII 1942 16 VIII 1942 10 IV 1942 25 IX 1942 19 X 1941 11 IX 1942 15 III 1943 12 VI 1943 28 XII 1941 28 XII 1941 27 XII 1941 7 V 1943

Date of death

6 / pneumonia 18 months 58 / pneumonia 67

4 4 / stomach disease 2 months / whooping cough 18 months 40 / nephritis 26 / typhoid 77/78 / old age 8 months 21 months / stomach disease 34 / tuberculosis 4 months 6 / measles 3 2 9 / tuberculosis

Age / Cause of death

146 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

27 XII 1938 3 X 1938

276. Machalska, Maria 277. Macikowska, Danuta Maria

M

3 VII 1892 10 I 1941

274. Łakomy, Marianna 275. Łukaszczyk, Stanisław Michał

1 IV 1942 24 IX 1941

17 VII 1942 3 IX 1942

3 II 1942 28 III 1942

12 XI 1941 8 X 1937 Ł

18 XII 1941 29 XII 1942 8 I 1942 29 XII 1941 19 XII 1941 20 III 1942 27 XII 1941 26 IV 1943 19 IX 1942 14 V 1942 22 III 1942 2 VI 1942 6 VII 1942 31 XII 1941

4 VII/VIII 1940 14 I 1890 14 III 1937 15 VII 1939 22 IV 1939 25 II 1942 18 XI 1940 9 IX 1936 15 VII 1941 30 X 1937 22 V 1941 29 XII 1939 19 VII 1902 2 X 1938

Latoszek, Jo´zefa Leman´ska, Helena Lenckowska, Helena Marianna Lenckowska, Jadwiga Weronika Lendzin´ska, Eryka Licznerska (Licznierska), Irena Licznerska, Jadwiga Gertruda Lipiecki, Edwin Franciszek Lisak, Jan Lisewska, Cecylia Maria Lisewska, Sabina Helena Lisewski, Eugeniusz Franciszek Lodzikowski, Jan Lodzikowski, Kazimierz Stanisław 272. Luberda, Kazimierz 273. Luberda, Stanisław

258. 259. 260. 261. 262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267. 268. 269. 270. 271.

3 / pneumonia 3 / pneumonia

50 / pneumonia 19 months / stomach disease

2 months / pneumonia 5 / typhoid

17 months / measles 52 / tuberculosis 4 / pneumonia 2 / food poisoning 2 / pneumonia 23 days / pneumonia 13 months / measles 7 / tuberculosis 14 months / diarrhoea 4 / pneumonia 10 months / stomach disease 2 / diarrhoea 40 / pneumonia 3 / stomach disease

A CLOSED STORY ? 147

15 IV 1941 6 XI 1938 9 VIII 1883 18 XI 1934 8 VI 1930 3 II 1927 15 I 1943 9 XII 1914 25 V 1911 8 II 1929 12 III 1941 22 II 1874 12/15 X 1878 5 V 1941 16 IV 1942 8 IV 1864 03 VI 1890 27 II 1906

288. Marciszewski, Edward/ Edmund 289. Marciszewski, Jo´zef 290. Matera, Antonina 291. Matłosz, Zofia 292. Matuszewska, Krystyna 293. Mazur, Wincenty 294. Mazurek, Antoni 295. Mazurek, Cecylia

Date of birth

278. Mackiewicz, Jan 279. Mackiewicz, Leokadia Maria 280. Magierski, Michał 281. Magon, Henryk 282. Magon, Tadeusz 283. Maj, Janina 284. Malinowska, Stefania Jo´zefa 285. Małek/Mellek, Leokadia 286. Marchlewski, Wacław 287. Marciszewska, Urszula Gertruda

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

18 VI 1942 8 V 1943 11 IV 1942 13 III 1942 7 IX 1942 15 IV 1942 23 II 1942 16 IX 1942

2 XII 1941 12 I 1942 23 II 1942 24 III 1942 28 III 1942 17 II 1942 5 III 1943 15 VII 1942 2 V 1942 14 VI 1942

Date of death

7 months 3 / stomach disease 59 7 / typhoid 12 / typhoid 15 / typhoid 2 months 28 / pneumonia 31 / pneumonia 13 / tuberculosis, inflammation of skin 15 months / stomach disease 69 / old age 64 / old age 10 months 4 months / diarrhoea 78 / old age 52 / ear infection in both ears 36 / heart attack

Age / Cause of death

148 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

1 I 1942 24 IV 1942 2 V 1942 13 I 1942 20 XII 1941 27 II 1942

15 IV 1938 15 III 1939 16 IX 1900 28 X 1939 3 X 1940 27 II 1942 8 X 1927 15 V 1931/1932 9 II 1932 26 VIII 1938 30 V 1894 21 II 1877 12 VI 1942 26 IV 1939 27/23VII 1881 26 XI 1877 29 X 1922 23 X 1908 19 II 1939 6 IV 1941

303. Michałowski, Jo´zef 304. Michałowski, Kazimierz 305. Michałowski, Stanisław 306. Mikowski, Hieronim Bernard 307. Milusin´ska/ Mitusin´ska, Paulina 308. Miłoszowski, Jo´zef 309. Miraszewska, Jadwiga 310. Miraszewski, Jerzy 311. Modrzejewska, Anna 312. Mrotek/ Mrutek, Antoni 313. Mundlaff, Jadwiga 314. Murawska, Małgorzata 315. Murawski, Edward Marian 316. Musiał, Krystyna 10 IV 1942 21 XII 1942 15 II 1942 23 IX 1941 24 IV 1943 23 III 1942 4 VII 1942 24 XI 1941 5 VII 1942 22 V 1943 18 VI 1941 5 IV 1942 26 XII 1941 21 XII 1941

20 XII 1941

9 VIII 1932

296. Me˛draszewski, Hieronim Benedykt 297. Mie˛skowska, Teresa Pelagia 298. Michałek, Jo´zef Kazimierz 299. Michałowska, Katarzyna 300. Michałowska, Marianna 301. Michałowski, Edward 302. Michałowski, Franciszek 4 / pneumonia 3 / pneumonia 42 / typhoid 2 / measles 14 months / pneumonia premature childbirth, the mother was infected by typhoid 14 10/11 / cancer of skin 10 / typhoid 3 / measles 49 / nephritis 65 / old age 23 days / diarrhoea, stomach disease, 2 61 / pneumonia 66 / old age 19 34 / typhoid 2 / measles 8 months / pneumonia

9 / measles

A CLOSED STORY ? 149

16 V 1940 16 VIII 1900 7 III 1942 1 I 1933 20/27 I 1877 23 VIII 1881 6/10 II 1939 06 V 1940 20 XI 1919 21 IX 1941 17 I 1941 14 VIII 1871 4 II 1941 20 IV 1932 1 VII 1939 26 VII 1942 11 VIII 1938

319. Napierała, Bernard Jo´zef 320. Narcyz, Janina 321. Niemien´ski/ Niemyjski, Konstantyn 322. Nierzwicki, Jan 323. Nikleniewicz, Leokadia 324. Nitza, Edward, Jan 325. Nowakowska, Genowefa 326. Nowakowska, Helena Teresa 327. Nowakowska, Jadwiga 328. Nowakowska, Katarzyna 329. Nowin´ska, Genowefa 330. Nowin´ska, Urszula 331. Nowin´ski, Jerzy Jo´zef

332. Okon´ski, Roman 333. Okon´ski, Władysław

Date of birth

317. Muszynkiewicz, Barbara 318. Muszynkiewicz, Irena

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

O

N

17 II 1943 21 XII 1941

29 XII 1941 31 X 1942 14 IX 1941 21 VIII 1942 24 III 1942 23 XI 1941 24 I 1942 16 XII 1941 2 IV 1942 12 XII 1941

7 VII 1942 6 IV 1942 10 III 1942

22 II 1942 22 II 1942

Date of death

6 months 2 / stomach disease

60 / nephritis 3 / stomach disease 16 months 23 / typhoid 6 months / pneumonia 10 months 71 / old age 10 months / pneumonia 10 / typhoid 2 / measles

4 months / pneumonia 9 65 / pneumonia

21 months / typhoid 42

Age / Cause of death

150 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

336. Paje˛k, Ryszard 337. Palczewska, Genowefa 338. Pappke, Zbigniew Andrzej 339. Partyka, Jan 340. Pasin´ski, Antoni 341. Pastuszak, Kazimierz 342. Pastuszak, Stefania 343. Pawłowska, Elz˙bieta 344. Penksa/ Pe˛ksa, Anastazja 345. Perc/ Pyrc, Bolesław Stanisław 346. Perc, Olimpia 347. Percz/ Pyrc, Zofia 348. Perlikowska, Franciszka 349. Pesta, Kazimierz 350. Pestkowski, Czesław 351. Piechowska, Krystyna 352. Piechocka/ Piechowska, Zofia 353. Pietrychowski/ Pietrzykowski/ Pietrykowski, Franciszek 354. Pilaus/ Pieleuz, Jan 3 IX 1891

14 I 1939 15 XI 1940 27 VIII 1939 27 V 1886 14 VII 1942 5 II 1941 15 IV 1908 30 IX 1941 28 II 1900 22 IV 1937 29 VI 1899 11 II 1933 12 VII 1860 10 IV 1868 18/20 VI 1914 10 IX 1940 9 IX 1939 12 IX/XII 1885

334. Okon´ski, Władysław Eugeniusz 4 VII 1942 335. Otka/ Ottke, Władysław 2 X 1939 P

3 XI 1941

5 V 1942 24 VIII 1942 18 V 1942 12 II 1942 16 XI 1942 11 V 1942 26 IV 1942 11 XII 1941 30 III 1942 30 XII 1942 11 II 1943 31 VIII 1942 21 XII 1941 28 I 1942 24 IV 1942 11 XII 1941 25 XII 1941 31 XII 1941

8 V 1943 3 III 1942

50 / pneumonia

3 / measles 21 months / diarrhoea 2 / tuberculosis 56 / pneumonia 4 months / pneumonia 15 months / pneumonia 34 / typhoid 2 months / stomach disease 42 / typhoid 5 / pneumonia 44 / heart attack 9 / pneumonia 8 / old age 74 / old age 28 / tuberculosis 15 months / measles 2 / pneumonia 56 / pneumonia

10 months 2 / pneumonia

A CLOSED STORY ? 151

28 II 1938 26 VI 1940

371. Raszkowska, Jadwiga Halina 372. Raszkowski, Jan

368. Rajca, Krystyna 369. Raszkowska, Cecylia 370. Raszkowska, Eryka

2 V 1938 24 V 1938 1 I 1941 24 VIII 1940 1 XI 1929 2 X 1879 28 V 1940 15 XI 1880/25 XI 1886 16 IV 1878 11 VIII 1939 14 XII 1884 6 III 1936 12 XII 1939 R 16 IV 1940 14 II 1913 30 VIII 1942

Date of birth

355. Piotrowska, Benedykta 356. Piotrowski, Hubert Feliks 357. Pio´rkowska, Władysława 358. Pio´rkowski, Jo´zef 359. Piwowarski, Bernard 360. Plotka, Wiktoria 361. Polek, Janina 362. Preis, Stanisław 363. Prusakowska, Teofilia 364. Przeklasa, Edward Marian 365. Pulczyn´ska, Łucja/ Zofia 366. Pyka, Benedykt 367. Pyrczak, Maria

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

25 XII 1941 15 XII 1941

31 VIII 1942 21 V 1942 12 XII 1942

24 XI 1941 25 XII 1941 17 III 1942 17 XII 1941 12 II 1942 6 VIII 1942 24 IX 1941 19 II 1943 26 II 1942 21 XII 1941 24 III 1942 28 V 1943 26 VIII 1942

Date of death

2 / stomach disease 29 / typhoid 3 months / diarrhoea and pneumonia 3 / pneumonia 18 months / pneumonia

3 / whooping cough 3 / pneumonia 14 months / diarrhoea 15 months 12 / pneumonia 63 / heart attack, old age 15 months / cancer of intestine 57 / 63 64 / old age 2 / stomach disease 58 / heart attack 7 / tuberculosis 3 / pneumonia, heart attack

Age / Cause of death

152 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

13 X 1941 30 VIII 1882 15 II 1924 3 III 1939 11 V 1863 25 III 1942 3 III 1941 15 IX 1923 21 III 1927 19 I 1929 23 IX 1863 19 III 1867 26 VIII 1874 6 II 1869 19 IX 1938 2 III 1941 20 I 1872 13 XII 1910 12 XI 1939 12 VIII 1934 25 II 1854

373. Raszkowski, Jo´zef Edward 374. Reich, Waleria 375. Reich, Zofia 376. Rozkwitalski, Kazimierz 377. Rozumek, Julia 378. Rudek, Anna

379. Rudek, Krystyna 380. Rujner, Czesława 381. Rujner, Stanisław 382. Rujner, Teresa 383. Rutkowska, Magdalena 384. Rybka, Marianna 385. Rychlewski, Michał 386. Rychlicki, Antoni

387. Rykaszewska, Teresa Urszula 388. Rykaszewski, Kazimierz 389. Rynkowska, Anastazja 390. Rynkowski, Feliks 391. Rytlewska, Barbara 392. Ryzewicz, Edward 393. Rzepa, Helena Marianna

8 X 1941 8 V 1942 5 IV 1942 26 III 1942 8 XII 1941 4 XI 1942 29 VII 1942 11 I 1942/ 31 XII 1942 17 XII 1941 24 XII 1941 1 IV 1942 23 II 1942 26 XII 1941 29 I 1942 21 XII 1941

4 I 1942 18 II 1943 10 I 1943 22 IX 1941 2/12 IX 1941 25 III 1942

3 9 months / stomach disease 70 / old age 32 / pneumonia and flu 2 / pneumonia 7 / pneumonia 87

2 months / pneumonia 6 / heart attack 19 / tuberculosis 2 78 she was dead immediately after birth or she was stillborn 7 months 19 / typhoid 15 / typhoid 13 / typhoid 78 / old age 75 / old age 68 / old age 73 / old age

A CLOSED STORY ? 153

394. Samek, Wanda 395. Samulski, Kazimierz/ Jo´zef 396. Scho¨nwald, Jan 397. Scho¨nwald, Stanisław 398. Schramke, Jan 399. Schwarz, Wanda 400. Schweda/ Szweda, Ambroz˙y 401. Schwidda, Helena 402. Sendobry, Maria/ Marianna 403. Senkowski/ Se˛kowski Zenon, Kazimierz 404. Sielicka, Krystyna Maria 405. Sierocki, Franciszek 406. Siewert, Jadwiga 407. Siewert, Stefania 408. Sikora, Maria 409. Siudowska/ Siudowa, Maria 410. Skomorowski, Jan 411. Skrzeszewska, Joanna

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

S

16 V 1940 31 V 1869/1 VI 1873 23 X.1930 27 VIII 1928 5 III 1887 31 XII 1920 27 VIII 1888 16 IV 1893

5 III 1939 10 II 1916 16 I 1904 30 IV 1938 26 VI 1939 11 IX 1940 5 XII 1887 27 XI 1941 29 VII 1908 3/23 III 1940

Date of birth

4 X 1942 22 IX 1942 2 VII 1942 12 IV 1943 3 VI 1943 4 V 1942 16 I 1942 15 VII 1942

14 XI 1941 18 XI 1941 17 III 1942 19 IV 1942 31 I 1942 21 IX 1941 11 I 1942 10 II 1942 6 III 1942 13 X 1942

Date of death

2 / inflammation of skin 69/73 / old age 12 / tuberculosis 14 56 / heart attack 22 / typhoid 54 / paralaysis/starvation 49 / heart attack

2 / cancer of intestine 25 / pneumonia 38 / typhoid 4 / diphtheria 3 / stomach disease 1 55 / heart attack 2 months / stomach disease 34 / typhoid 2 / pneumonia

Age / Cause of death

154 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

6 IV 1942 5 II 1942 25 I 1942 5 II 1942 12 IV 1942 5 III 1942 13 VI 1942 16 XII 1941 25 VII 1941 20 V 1942 7 VI .1942

13 VI 1888 19 II 1923 19 II 1934 7 VII 1927 6 VIII 1917 9 II 1888 16 III 1941 30 IV 1940 15 XI 1863 5 VI 1939 23 V 1937

421. Strojek, Antonina 422. Strusin´ska, Kazimiera 423. Strusin´ski, Roman 424. Struzin´ski, Tadeusz 425. Swinarska/ S´winarska, Elz˙bieta Paulina 426. Swinarska/ S´winarska, Marta Apolina 427. Szaferski, Zygmunt 428. Szajnocha, Stanisława Maria 429. Szarmach, Katarzyna 430. Szcze˛sny, Jo´zef 431. Szcze˛sny, Władysław Antoni

2 II 1942 20 VIII 1942 23 II 1942 29 VIII 1941 26 II 1942 28 IV 1942 22 IV 1942 14 XI 1942 13 VIII 1942

10 VI 1881 29 VIII 1870 30 XII 1900 13 V 1941 17 II 1865 30 X 1935 4 IV 1873 8 IX 1938 6 V 1942

412. Skrzeszewski, Jan 413. Sobieszczyk, Bolesław 414. Stawarz, Maria 415. Steinborn, Antoni 416. Stroin´ska, Anna 417. Stroin´ska, Marta 418. Stroin´ski, Franciszek 419. Stroin´ski, Henryk 420. Stroin´ski, Witold

14 months / pneumonia 19 months / measles 78 3 / starvation 5 / measles

54 / nephritis

61 / flu, sore throat, pneumoania 72 / old age 42 / pneumonia 3 months 77 / old age 7 69 / old age 4 / tuberculosis 3 months / stomach disease, food poisoning 54 / typhoid 19 / typhoid 8 / tuberculosis 14 / typhoid 25 / typhoid

A CLOSED STORY ? 155

28 IX 1941 13 VI 1888

447. S´ledz´, Roman 448. S´liwin´ska, Rozalia Anna

4 IX 1942 18 XII 1941

3 IX 1942 19 II 1942 25 III 1942 1 III 1942 19 II 1942

10 X 1868 1/16 I 1903 17 IV 1934 19 IX 1912 1 VIII 1941 S´

30 VIII 1941 5 X 1941 16 III 1942 1 I 1942 21 III 1942 11 II 1943 26 I 1942 7 III 1941 7 IV 1942 1 VIII 1942

Date of death

7 V 1927 20 X 1940 1/4 IV 1909 8 V 1938 3 III 1934 17 XI 1937 3/6 X 1905 4 I 1935 22 VIII 1873 10 II 1903/ 10 III 1908

Date of birth

432. Szczudło, Edmund Zygmunt 433. Szeliga, Leszek 434. Szeliga, Michalina 435. Szeliga, Mieczysław Franciszek 436. Szeliga, Władysława Maria 437. Scheffs/ Szewc, Urszula 438. Szman´da, Agnieszka 439. Szman´da, Stefan 440. Szramke, Antoni 441. Szramowicz/ Szemrowicz, Agnieszka 442. Szramowicz, Aleksander 443. Szumal, Antonina 444. Szumal, Zofia 445. Szyman´ska, Władysława 446. Szyman´ski, Ryszard Benedykt

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

11 months / pneumonia 53

74 / old age 39 8 30 / typhoid 6 months / ulceration

14 / pneumonia 11 months / measles 33 / typhoid 4 8 / pneumonia 5 37 / pneumonia 6 69 / typhoid 34/39 / heart attack

Age / Cause of death

156 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

T

13 VII 1887 14 I 1883

465. Urban, Jan

466. Walter, Julianna

W

U

14 II 1942

30 XII 1941

6 IX 1942 14 II 1942 11 IX 1942 21 XII 1941 21 XII 1941 21 X 1941 1 XII 1941 2 I 1942 16 III 1942 29 XII 1942 15 I 1943 21 XII 1942

27 XII 1941 15 V 1942 13 VI 1942

18 I 1939 25 IX 1883 31 V 1868 13 IV 1940 18 VI 1889 22 IV 1939 5 VII 1939 10 IV 1938 12 XII 1940 5 III 1939 10 X 1936 25 V 1940/1941 12 V/VI 1937 17 VI 1935 27 II 1869

20 XII 1941

28 IV 1941

453. Tadych, Władysława 454. Tankiewicz, Jan 455. Teska, Jerzy 456. Te˛gowska, Marianna 457. Te˛gowski, Jo´zef Andrzej 458. Tomkiewicz, Stefania 459. Truszczyn´ska, Felicyta 460. Truszczyn´ski, Michał 461. Tucholska, Teresa 462. Tułodziecki, Henryk 463. Tułodzin´ski, Mieczysław 464. Turosławski, Jo´zef

449. S´miechowski/ Schmiechowski, Zygfryd Eugeniusz 450. S´migielska, Halina 451. S´wie˛cicka, Katarzyna 452. S´wieczkowska, Petronela Katarzyna

59 / typhoid

54 / pneumonia

2 / stomach disease 53 / pneumonia 3 / stomach disease 2 / measles 3 / measles 10 months 2 5 / pneumonia 1/2 / pneumonia 5 / tuberculosis 7 73

3 / measles 59 / typhoid 74 / old age

7 months / stomach disease

A CLOSED STORY ? 157

467. Warnke, Teresa 468. Was´niewska, Janina 469. Was´niowska, Marianna 470. Welicki, Adam 471. Werwicka/ Wyrwicka, Franciszka 472. Wesołowska, Bernadetta 473. Wesołowska, Teresa 474. Wesołowski, Sylwester 475. Wesołowski, Zygmunt 476. Westphal, Jan 477. We˛grzynowska, Stanisława 478. Wienierzycki/ Wiecierzyn´ski, Konstantyn 479. Wiese, Anna 480. Wiese, Franciszek 481. Wilczyn´ski, Marcel 482. Winiarska, Stanisława 483. Wis´niewska, Henryka Helena 484. Wis´niewska, Henryka Zofia

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

24 X 1941 2 XII 1941 26 XII 1941 2 II 1941 27 II 1942 23 XII 1941 5 VII 1942 25 III 1942 11 X 1942 24 VI 1942 7 IV 1942 4 III 1942 18 III 1942 27 XII 1941 8 VII 1942 18 VII 1942 23 XII 1941 17 IX 1942

2 VII 1913 12 VI 1867 15 I 1886/11 I 1887 27 X 1908 16 VIII 1939 21 I 1942

Date of death

19 XII 1938 8 VII 1940 15 IV 1869 4 X 1939 12 IX 1867 20 XI 1932 14 X 1939/1940 10 XII 1895 9 II 1937 7 VI 1942 4/24 IX 1906 28 X 1880

Date of birth

29 74 / old age 55/56 / tuberculosis 34 / food poisoning 2 / pneumonia 7 months / diarrhoea, food poisoning

3 / pneumonia 16 months / pneumonia 72 / old age 15 months / measles 75 / old age 9 / pneumonia 2/3 / diarrhoea 47 / typhoid 5 / stomach disease 17 days / headcold 36 / typhoid 62 / typhoid

Age / Cause of death

158 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

18 XI 1936 13 VIII 1940 15 XI 1940 13 VIII 1941 29 II 1932 7/8 X 1907 10 VIII 1887 26 V 1938 31 IX 1936 20 II 1919 25 II 1937 9 III 1936 20 V 1942 1 XII 1888 25 X 1901 23 IX 1920 12 II 1888 19 I 1904 28/ 29 VII 1884 30 X 1935 29 VIII 1940 6 VI 1877

485. Wis´niewska, Kazimiera 486. Wis´niewski, Andrzej 487. Wis´niewski, Edmund 488. Wis´niewski, Jerzy 489. Wis´niewski, Tadeusz Roman 490. Wojnowska, Helena 491. Wojnowska, Maria 492. Woz´niczka, Marianna 493. Wronkowska, Rozalia 494. Wro´bel, Maria 495. Wyrosławski, Jan

496. Zaborowska, Maria 497. Zalewski, Zenon Ryszard 498. Zaradny, Andrzej 499. Zaremba, Katarzyna 500. Zaremba, Zofia 501. Zasada, Władysław 502. Zawada, Marta 503. Zboralska, Maria Aniela 504. Zdrojewska, Marta 505. Zwajka, Regina 506. Zych, Ignacy

Z 18 I 1942 8 VII 1942 15 XI 1941 24 III 1942 21 V 1942 24 II 1941 28 I 1942 22 III 1942 28 IV 1942 26 IX 1941 9 XII 1942

12/13 XII 1941 09 XII 1941 23 VIII 1941 3 XII 1941 12 XII 1941 5 II 1942 9 IV 1942 9 VIII 1942 26 IV 1943 23 XII 1942 5 III 1942 6 / pneumonia 2 months / stomach disease 53 / heart attack 41 / typhoid 22 / nephritis 53 38 / pneumonia and flu 58 / pneumonia 6 / tuberculosis 13 months / food poisoning 65 / old age

5 / measles 15 months 9 months / cancer of stomach 3 months / cancer of intestine 9 / pneumonia 35 / pneumonia, sore throat 55 / typhoid 4 / tuberculosis 6 23 / tuberculosis 5

A CLOSED STORY ? 159

IX 1941 IX 1941 I 1942 XII 1941 II 1942 XII 1941

2 X 1940 20 VIII 1937 17 IV 1937 4 V 1940 26 VI/VIII 1876 3 VI 1920

510. Z˙mudzin´ska, Izabela 511. Z˙mudzin´ski, Zdzisław 512. Z˙uchowska, Krystyna 513. Z˙uchowski, Jo´zef Ignacy 514. Z˙uran´ski, Ludwik 515. Z˙urawski/ Zaran´ski Konrad 11 19 15 23 20 16

20 III 1943

Z˙

23 XI 1928

509. Zys, Klemens

Date of death 11 III 1942 27 VI 1942

Date of birth

507. Zych, Marianna/ Zys, Marcjanna 13 XI 1903 508. Zynda, Zofia 7/9 V 1942

Full name

Table 5.1 (continued)

11 months / food poisoning 4 / ulceration 4 / stomach disease 19 months / measles 66 / old age 21 / tuberculosis

39 / typhoid 18 months / diarrhoea food poisoning 14 / tuberculosis

Age / Cause of death

160 THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

A CLOSED STORY ?

161

book Rob Roy, wrote that history is not about records, documents, or controversial, abstract matters. Nor is it about theories or diagrams. History has to be filled with a living man, a small glimmer of great importance. The light of the lives of the people mentioned below was extinguished in Szmalco´wka.

EPILOGUE

That which has happened is a warning. To forget it is guilt. It must be continually remembered. It was possible for this to happen, and it remains possible for it to happen again at any minute. Only in knowledge can it be prevented.1 Karl Jaspers The population of Pomerania has special reasons to cultivate a wise memory. This region of Poland occupied a special place in the Germanisation plans of the Third Reich.2 Anna Wolff-Powe˛ska ‘If only some other devil would come along, so that this Lucifer Hitler would go to hell – and then we’d get our freedom back.’3 Remembered by her son Henryk, Wanda Klimek’s words clearly show what the German occupation meant for the Polish people. They are also worth bearing in mind in the context of postwar Polish history. Unfortunately, these words proved to be prophetic, but this does not mean, however, that we should make an equivalence between ‘the devils’.4 On 29 April 1948, the Supreme National Tribunal in Gdan´sk, on behalf of the Republic of Poland, sentenced Albert Forster, governor of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, to the death penalty, concluding:

EPILOGUE

163

‘He acted to the detriment of the Polish state and its civilian population. He took part in: the unlawful detention of these people in detention centres, prisons and various camps; harassment; the mass expulsion of these people to the so-called General Government, resettlement and labour camps [italics author’s own]; and sending them to carry out forced labour in the Reich.’5 He was executed in Warsaw on 28 February 1952. Richard Hildebrandt and Max Pauly, the commandant of Stutthof, who from September 1941 supervised Szmalco´wka, were also sentenced to death in a separate trial. The commandant of the Torun´ camp and the camp’s administration staff were not held criminally liable. Paul Ehle died on 14 August 1965 in Neumunster. Richard Reddig, after his short episode in Szmalco´wka, returned to his duties in the Stutthof camp, where he worked until its closure. He died on 13 August 1970 in Hanover at the age of 74. Harald Lebius died in Hamburg on 1 January 1971. Willy Ehlert died in Oldenburg on 14 April 1995. The prosecutor’s office leading the investigation into the matter, despite calls for the assistance of the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Germany, failed to establish any information about the other members of the Szmalco´wka crew who were mentioned in the witness testimonies. It is worth quoting here from Vasily Grossman’s novel Everything Flows. His words are appropriate with regard not only to the fate of the Jews, but also the Polish children and the acts of their German captors. I will never forget these words. These words make everything clearer; they are clear words. I asked how the Germans could send Jewish children to die in the gas chambers. How, I asked, could they live with themselves after that? Was there really no judgement passed on them by man or God? And you said: Only one judgement is passed on the executioner. He ceases to be a human being. Though looking on his victims as less than humans, he becomes his own executioner. He executes the human being inside himself. But the victim no matter what the executioner does to kill him remains a human being forever.6

164

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Attorney Małgorzata Wo´jcik, in the decision to discontinue the investigation into Szmalco´wka, made on 12 July 2010, had no doubt that ‘the behaviour of the authorities of the camp – deliberately and consciously making life as difficult as possible for the people in the camp, in numerous different ways, leading to the biological destruction of this life – bears all the attributes of a crime: the crime of genocide.’7 One of the last witnesses interviewed on the subject of Szmalco´wka, 80-year-old Lidia Kaczyn´ska, said: ‘I regret that this matter is being talked about so late. We have not received any compensation for our destroyed households and lost property.’8 If the German occupation policy in Pomerania, regarding the Polish people, amounted to three objectives – Exterminate, Expel, Denationalize – then the resettlement camp in Torun´ proved itself to be not merely an effective tool to achieve the second of these objectives, but in fact served all three. This is clearly demonstrated by the register in Table 5.1 of the people who died in Szmalco´wka (extermination) and the described racial and ethnic selections of prisoners (denationalization). Expulsion was accompanied by extermination and denationalization. Therefore the perception of the camp in Torun´ as a symbol of indirect extermination is correct. It is worth remembering that the Latin word extermino means ‘to expel beyond the borders’, while terminus means ‘sentenced to exile’. In the case of the camp in Torun´, it was about expelling Poles from Gdan´sk Pomerania. These concepts (as opposed to annihilation and total annihilation) also suggest that a ‘harmful insect’ may someday return (in this case, illegal returns from the GG). Only later was the English word exterminate – to drive out beyond the border of life, to deport from life – created from these two Latin terms.9 In the first chapter I cited passages of the ‘Prayer to the German God’ in which Germans prayed for the spread of war and hatred between nations. Klimek, a former prisoner of Szmalco´wka, wrote an antithetical prayer, a poem with the resonant title ‘A Call for Peace’. It is worth quoting in part here: ‘Today I do not wish to complain. I do not wish ill to anyone. Painfully experienced, I cannot remain silent. I call for peace and calm for all people.’10

EPILOGUE

165

Gustaw Herling-Grudzin´ski, in Journal Written at Night, posed a fundamental question and tried to answer it: Should it be allowed that this ‘otherness’ be consigned to the irretrievable past? It is going on around us, weakened or dormant but still alive, still ready to awaken and reverse the Ten Commandments once again. It is better to remember each day the threat from the Other World, and to walk the earth (in accordance with Conrad’s advice) as if on a thin crust of freshly hardened lava, rather than pull the wool over eyes turned towards a future vision of an intelligent, humane Master of the Universe.11 Karl Jaspers, four years after the hecatomb of World War II, wrote: The future is unresolved, it is a boundless realm of possibility. [. . .] It is an opportunity for us to become aware of these atrocities. Only the illuminated consciousness can help us. Perhaps it will be able to prevent the fear of such a future. A terrible forgetfulness cannot take place. [. . .] We must hold onto fear, which transforms itself into an active concern. [. . .] This fear must be affirmed. It is the basis of hope.12 A large part of this work was created on the train from Torun´ Gło´wny railway station to Bydgoszcz Gło´wna, which I took each day at 6:22 to go to work, and 16:30 to come back. Most of the passengers (especially the elderly) glared in amazement and incomprehension, at times even aversion and scorn, at the young, ‘normally-dressed’ and ‘normallooking’ man who, systematically, week after week, would be reading Mein Kampf, Hitler’s speeches, and other documents and books, the covers of which usually featured words such as Nazism, Hitler, and the Third Reich. In the Kujawy and Pomerania regions, as well as throughout the rest of the country, most people remember and know what can happen when absurd ideas spread and are implemented. Yet Grynberg has noted that ‘the memory of the crimes of the past is not a safeguard for the future; nor does knowledge of them prevent

166

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

their repetition – on the contrary, these crimes can become a role model. In order to prevent a great evil, one has to learn its mechanisms of action. It is not “monsters” we should be looking for, but the mechanisms that allowed such monstrous deeds to occur.’13 So has the warning of Herling-Grudzin´ski and Jasper become obsolete? Has the past gone forever and is it not worth wasting time studying it? History, as Juliusz Mieroszewski wrote, is more ‘a catalogue of premieres, a notebook full of entries from the house of the dead, and not a living past that finds confirmation in the present.’ Immediately afterwards, however, he added, ‘history does not repeat itself, but some historical patterns repeat with frightening accuracy’.14 ‘A wise memory’ of the German occupation in the Gdan´sk Pomerania region, and of Nazism in general, should be ‘a preventive memory’, affirming universal, trans-national moral values and individual ethical responsibility.

APPENDIX 1 TEN SOURCE DOCUMENTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE CAMP

When selecting sources for the publication I was guided by two criteria. The first is the type of source document and its origin. In the published materials one can find all kinds of documents which I accessed during my research: burial fees, reports of the commandant of the camp, six-monthly reports of the camp’s doctor, minutes from the testimonies given by former prisoners of Szmalco´wka, letters addressed to the Chief Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, surveys regarding Nazi crimes, and poems written by a former prisoner of the camp after the war. Three sources originate from Germany, the others are Polish. From among the identified types of sources, I have chosen for publication those that possess the most merit.

No. 1 15 October 1941, Torun´, a letter to the Chief of Security Police SD of the Emigration Office in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, camp in Torun´, on the subject of settling the burial costs of eight children in the cemetery at 142 Grudzia˛dzka Street.

168

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

IV/500

Statement

Torun´, 15 October 1941

(1) City requests the Chief of the Security Police SD of the Emigration Office in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, camp in Torun´ – 124 Grudzia˛dzka Street to confirm issuance of the eight children’s corpses, listed on the back of this letter. (2) The burial fee was entered as 717/2-1-250 and valued at 56 German marks, completed: 15 October 1941. (3) Annotated in the documentation on the subject of the receipt of 56 German marks. (4) Receipt was verified. (5) Included in the file. der Oberbu¨rgermeister Jacob1

[Verte] 1. Stanisława Koralewska 2. Anna Gackowska 3. Bronislaus Klinkowski2 4. Urszula Bona 5. Johann Jastrzemski 6. Leszek Szeliga 7. Christian Rudeck3

born 19 May 1940 born 5 January 1941 born 10 July 1940 born 11 April 1941 born 13 August 1939 born 20 October 1940 born 3 March 1941

died 28 September 1941 died 30 September 1941 died 1 October 1941 died 2 October 1941 died 5 October 1941 died 5 October 1941 died 8 October 1941 Total:

Source: APT, AMTE, catalogue no. 1089, card No. 83, original, mps.

7 RM 7 RM 7 RM 7 RM 7 RM 7 RM 7 RM RM 56

TEN SOURCE DOCUMENTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE CAMP 169

No. 2 1 January 1942 report written by the Torun´ camp’s doctor for the Emigration Office in Gdan´sk Torun´, 1 January 1942 Chief of the Security Police SD. Emigration Office in Gdan´sk Camp in Torun´ [stamp] Report In the period from 16 December 1941 to 31 December 1941, there were eight people in town from the camp in Torun´. They were referred by the hospital to undergo treatment due to: Suspected infection with diphtheria Suspicion of scarlet fever infection Suspected typhus Childbirth Inguinal hernia

3 children 1– 2 adults 1– 1–

Following examination it was found that the cases of suspected typhus were negative. In three cases of suspected diphtheria infection, after observation at the hospital, two people were diagnosed with diphtheria, and one with scarlet fever infection. In the period from 16 December 1941 to 31 December 1941, 36 people were sent for treatment to the camp infirmary: nine adults and 27 children with suspected:

Measles Internal diseases Surgeries

14 children 12 – 1 –

1 adult 5– 3–

In the camp’s infirmary for medical care, there were also 50 people, including nine children, five women, and nine men.

170

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

The hospital unit at the camp in Torun´, in the period from 31 December 1941 to 16 December 1941, registered and provided medical assistance to a total of 2,068 individuals. On 31 December 1941 there were 37 people who were in hospital and were not able to work. Deaths: between 31 December 1941 and 16 December 1941, there were 64 fatalities reported; of these 32 were in the camp, 28 in the camp’s infirmary, and four in the city hospital.

At the camp:

At the camp’s infirmary:

In the city hospital:

Der S.D.G [signature] SS-Oberscharfu¨hrer

9 children 11 – 1 adult 7– 3– 1–

pneumonia intestinal catarrh pulmonary tuberculosis senile decay myocardial strain influenza

16 children 7– 4– 1–

pneumonia contracted after measles – intestinal catarrh rheumatism arthritis after measles

1 child 2– 1 adult

inflammation of the middle ear diphtheria pneumonia [signature] Lagerarzt

Source: APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 87, card No. 55 – 7, original, mps.

TEN SOURCE DOCUMENTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE CAMP 171

No. 3 1 June 1942, Torun´, half-monthly report of the camp’s commandant Torun´, 1 June 1942 Half-monthly report Number of people in the camp: 3,442 people In hospital: (city hospital) 194 people (camp’s infirmary) 50 – Hospital treatment, prohibition of work: 53 – Unable to work : 1,376 – Camp’s workers employed 114 – to keep appropriate order in Camp I and Camp II Workforce in companies: (airport) 38 – Area of military administration I Torun´ _____________________ (Pionierkas) 28 – _____________________ (restoration of 31 – the bridge) _________ II _________ 60 – Wood control 24 – Czubek Wood Company, Torun´ 5– Agricultural and Food 5– Cooperative, Torun´ Muller Gardening Centre, 4– Torun´ — Volkman 4– — Lange 3– Klechowicz Company 7– — Gattke 3– Bieganowski Pastures, 30 – Torun´ (minor) Torun´ Mill Plant 30 – Foy Company, Torun´ 3– Workforce outside the city Company – Thorer 33 – Administration in Gdan´sk

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– Schultz – – Rauchwaren-Veredlung – Road works, Pruszcz Gdan´ski Construction company, Gdynia Carl Stepppuhn, Elbla˛g Forestry, Torun´ – South Dr Ing. V. Zirkwitz, Gdan´sk Labour Office in Malbork Labour Office in Torun´ Great Gardening Hentschel, Go´rsk near Torun´ Goods storage, Mala Nieszawka near Torun´ Workforce ready to take up work: Camp on Grudzia˛dzka Street – Baz˙yn´skich (quarantine)

18 – 58 – 123 – 68 – 47 – 45 – 19 – 545 – 18 – 31 – 25 –

150 – 200 – __________ 3,442 people __________ Number of skilled workers in the camp according to profession: Bricklayer 2 Locksmith, 5 blacksmith Carpenter 4 Hairdresser 1 Butcher 4 Wheeler 3 Glazier 1 Painter 1 Confectioner 1 Potter 1 Manufacturer of slippers 3 Saddler 1 Cobbler 3 Cook 1 Tailor 3 Tractor driver 1 Female tailor 3 Pharmacy 1 workers Der Lagerfu¨hrer SS – Obersturmfu¨hrer Source: APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 87, card Nos 149– 51, original, mps.

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No. 4 Jadwiga Iwan´ska

Gdan´sk, 17 April 1947

To Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes Gdan´sk-Oliwa 2 Piastowska Street

[. . .] On 10 May 1940, at 2 o’clock in the morning, four armed soldiers came after me, supposedly to conduct a search. They were looking for weapons, but they did not find any. Still, I was taken with my children to the expulsion house. [. . .] There were 35 families from the Gdynia intelligentsia there. On the train I learned that they were taking us to the camp in Torun´, to the so-called Szmalco´wka. The carriages drove up behind the fort in the Mokre estate. From the windows of the train one could see pale faces behind bars, and when the gate of the camp closed behind us I realised that we were in the hands of torturers. From one of the barracks some people were carrying a dead child. I looked at my sons, and my heart ached with pain. Stefan Witold was 17 years old, and Ireneusz was 9. After registration, they set about looting our possessions. First of all everything was taken away from us: watches, razors, knives, candles, matches. [. . .] As the evening approached, dinner was served – a slice of black bread and a pint of liquid they called coffee. We had to have our own dishes. I had a soap box with me, so we used it to drink our first coffee from. Then we were herded to the stables where the horses used to be. The floor was cement, covered with bits of straw as small as chaff. No one dared to lie down, especially since fleas the size of ladybirds began to bite us. Nine-year-old Irek, not yet familiar with these types of insects, tearfully exclaimed, ‘Mummy, the bees are biting me terribly!’ The next day we were moved to a neighbouring barrack. But the fleas had already followed us. Men were taken to work at the airport, my son Stefan also among them. They left for work at 7 a.m. after coffee, but for an hour they were made to stand in the yard, lined up in fours, regardless of the weather. This was done deliberately to tire people out. This is why, within a short period of

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time, people started to contract diseases on a massive scale. People got high temperatures, and due to poor nutrition they began to suffer from dysentery. Stefek and Irek both got it. Life was so vile and evil, and the conditions so unbearable that children matured earlier, as they became aware of these atrocities. Irek for the first two weeks could not swallow the soup they called dinner, as he suffered from nausea. Until suddenly he began to eat. On that day I got a letter from my husband, smuggled in with a piece of bread. Irek had written: ‘I eat all this stuff, if only to survive this ordeal.’ This letter from my husband I have kept to this day. [. . .] At five our barrack was closed with a large padlock, and a big bucket was placed inside as a toilet. There were about 150 of us in the barrack. Obviously, the bucket was already full at midnight, so people started to relieve themselves on the floor, carrying the waste back to their beds with their feet. Typhoid spread quickly and reaped a rich harvest of death. Twice a week a platform arrived and took the corpses lying in the cell. Both my sons were sick with typhus, and I was not able to go to them, so I sent notes via a messenger. Irek felt so bad that he became unconscious. No one gave him any chance of survival so occasionally I would open the coffins on the platform and look for his body. Stefan wrote at that time: ‘I will live. Don’t worry. When will the liberation come?’ Finally our cousin managed to bribe an official from Arbeitsamt into writing about the alleged need for us to work in Warsaw. We were escorted to the station. Finally, we were in Warsaw and we were free. Once again we fell into German hands, during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. I was shot several times with a machine gun and was severely wounded. Stefan was shot at the Grand Theatre, while 12-year-old Ireneusz was taken to Lerte near Hanover. What I went through was pretty harsh, and this is not only my suffering, but also the torment of millions of Poles. Lying those long months in the hospital, those German degenerates inflicted such enormous pain and suffering on me. That is why I think that the death penalty for people such as Albert Forster would be an act of mercy. [Signature] Jadwiga Iwan´ska Source: AIPN GK 196/232 t. II, k. 196– 198, original, mps.

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No. 5 30 September 1968, Torun´, testimony of Jan Kryger given before the Torun´ branch of OKBZH in Bydgoszcz [. . .] Witness Interview Report On 10 December 1968, Jan Wyczyn´ski, judge of the Regional Court in Torun´, delegated to the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Bydgoszcz, District Branch in Torun´ (which operates on the basis of Article 4 of the Decree dated 10 November 1945 Journal of Laws No. 57, item. 293, Art. 219 Code of Criminal Procedure; court clerk – Renata Brozdowska) interviewed the person below without the witness swearing the oath – The witness was warned that false testimony would result in criminal liability [italics author’s own]. Witness testified as follows: Name Date and place of birth Parents’ names Address Occupation Criminal record Relationship to parties

Kryger Jan 22 June 1910 in the Chełmz˙a district of Torun´ Apolinary and Antonina (ne´e Sitkowska) Torun´, 85A Grudzia˛dzka Street machines assembly worker not convicted none

The resettlement camp (Szmalco´wka) in Torun´ was located at 124/126 Grudzia˛dzka Street in the former ‘Standard S.A.’ lard and oil factory. I worked in the factory from its establishment, i.e. from 1930. After the outbreak of war in 1939 I left the factory, and in the autumn of 1940 Hauptscharfu¨hrer Heinz Radtke brought me there from the ‘Lengner und Ilgner’ oil factory located in Torun´ on Dworcowa Street. He came to me in an SS uniform with three SS officers. He brought me to the so-called Szmalco´wka, where I lived at that time, and said that from now on I would work with him. It was some time in October or November 1940. From that moment on, I worked there as a Hausmeister (house keeper) until the camp’s closure.

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He told me to burn things in the furnace, organise the area, and disassemble all the machines. After disassembling the machines one Sunday, when people were returning from church, he opened the door and rounded up the men using a stick. He got them to move the machines from the production halls to the factory premises. The next day he went off somewhere and came back with two stacks of hay which he scattered around inside the four halls. Then he got hold of three field kitchens, which he put in the boiler room. After these preparations the first transport of people from the area of Chojnice (Kashubian) arrived. These were about a thousand people brought on a train along the railway siding leading to the factory. When the transport was already in the Szmalco´wka area, cars arrived carrying several Gestapo officers who carried out the selection of the new people. During the selection money, valuables and food were taken away from the newly arrived. After a few days these people were sent mostly to the General Government and some also to work in Germany. Radke was the first commandant of the camp. There were about 7 – 9 such transports. Always around 700– 900 people in each transport. Afterwards those people were always sent after a few days to various camps in Ło´dz´ and Jabłonowo, some went to work in Germany, mainly to Tiringen,4 and some to the GG. In 1940, there were about two to three transports, and by mid1941 there were five to six transports. From the middle of 1941 onwards, only some of the people were sent forward, while others remained and were employed here in various institutions in Torun´ and nearby. Heinz Radtke served as the commandant of the camp until the middle of 1941 when he was transferred to a transit camp in Jabłonowo Pomorskie. He was a German from the Reich and was regarded as a man of tolerance when it came to the Poles who stayed in the camp. Then Radtke was replaced by Reddig, who came from Gdan´sk. He was the SS Obersturmfu¨hrer. Until 1939, he had worked as a cashier in Gdan´sk at the Power Distribution Company. He was cruel and ruthless towards Polish people in the camp. He personally abused the people placed in the camp. He beat them and shut them down in the dark cell. For example, he kept a young couple, whose names I do not remember, for 14 days in the dark cell, and then he

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sent them to Stutthof concentration camp, where the man died, and his wife apparently survived. During his tenure, Judge Adam Hoszowski, probably from Vilnius, died in the dark cell. He was beaten until he lost consciousness, then revived by having water splashed over him, only to be beaten again.5 There was also old Maria Rozumek6 from outside of Torun´, whose daughter ran away from the camp. After her daughter’s escape, Maria Rozumek was shut in the dark cell and died of exhaustion. Reddig did not personally murder people. During his tenure Weber was the commandant of the guard, ruthless against Poles, and Utke was the executioner. When we placed Judge Adam Hoszowski in the coffin, we noticed he was simply a ‘pile of dirt’, while Maria Rozumek had a broken head. At the time of their death Utke was on duty. It was thanks to Redding’s initiative that a subdivision of the camp on Baz˙yn´skich Street, also in Torun´, was created. This camp was located in the area of what was once a print shop owned by Stefanowicz. There were around 400 people. As a result of poor sanitation, a typhus epidemic and other diseases broke out. During Reddig’s time in charge, the highest number of deaths was recorded in the camp and in the second camp on Baz˙yn´skich Street. He was a commandant from September 1941 to mid-1942, his successor was Obersturmfu¨hrer Willy Ehlert, an employee of the Torun´ Gestapo. He came from the Reich; apparently he was a baker. He did not perform any active operations in the camp. He was engaged in sport: horse riding and sailing. Wink was Ehlert’s deputy, whom I know saved the lives of two Jewish women. However, the then commandant of the guard, Pinert, was cruel to Poles. He ordered his subordinate guards to tease and mistreat prisoners. Ehlert was the commandant of the camp until the end of 1942. At the beginning of 1943, SS Obersturmbahnfu¨hrer Lebius became the camp’s new commandant. His name was probably Harry or Harald.7 He was the commandant of the camp to its end, that is, until July 1943. He was Austrian. I did not see him personally abuse prisoners. I remember Lebius ordered a fourteen-year-old boy to be locked in the dark cell, and a few days later sent him to the Stutthof concentration camp. We found out later that the boy was of Jewish origin. When I was passing by, I heard Lebius talking to the doctor

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about this and he was saying, ‘It is better to send him there, let others do what they want.’ As far as I am concerned, the prisoners were tortured by: Utke, Haze, Weber Pinert, Molken, Tober, and Hertel. The tolerant ones were: Rundt, Milke, and Wink. Haze was the first commandant of the guard. Weber was the second. Pinert was the third; he stayed at the camp until its closure. Adam Hertel was a driver and occasional deputy commandant to Radtke. He had a criminal case in East Berlin and in 1965 he was sentenced to twelve years in prison. I was a witness in his case. I was interviewed in the MO [Milicja Obywatelska – the Civic Militia – transl. note] on Bydgoska Street by an officer from the District Office of the Civic Militia and at court by a representative of the General Prosecutors Office of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). I do not know the exact date and number of his case. In mid1943, the camp was moved to Potulice. The name of this camp was UmwandererZentrall Thorn Danzig Lager. It was a temporary camp subject to the Emigration Office in Gdan´sk. I cannot tell whether any of the members of the camp’s staff personally murdered prisoners. Except Utke, whom I have already mentioned. In Szmalco´wka there were about 1,200 to 1,500 people. In the camp, more than 1,000 people died, I cannot give the exact number. Most died of typhus. There were no prisoners of war in the camp. During Radtke’s tenure, Forster came to the camp. As did General Major Willich, chief commandant from Gdan´sk, who also visited the camp twice during Radtke’s term and also during Lebius’. Further evidence of the actions of the camp’s staff are included in the investigative files of Adam Hertel.

Testified: [signature] Kryger Jan

With this the testimony was completed After reading it was signed by: Interviewed: [signature] Jan Wyczyn´ski

minutes taken by: [signature] R. Brozdowska

Source: OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, card No. 11 –12, original, mps.

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No. 6 15 October 1969, Torun´ – testimony given by witness Marta Foksin´ska before the OKBZH [Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes] in Bydgoszcz in its Torun´ office [. . .] Witness Interview Report On 10 October 1969, Jan Wyczyn´ski, judge of the Regional Court in Torun´, delegated to the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Bydgoszcz, Torun´ (which operates on the basis of Article 4 of the Decree dated 10 November 1945 Journal of Laws No. 57, item. 293, Art. 219 Code of Criminal Procedure, court clerk – Barbara Dere˛gowska) interviewed the person mentioned below as a witness without making affirmation – the witness was warned that false testimony would result in criminal liability. The witness testified as follows: Name Date and place of birth Parents’ names Address Occupation Criminal Record Relation to parties

Marta Foksin´ska 5 October 1900 in Lisewo, district of Wa˛brzez´no Antoni and Zofia 9/37 Bydgoszcz Zw. Walki Młodych Street no not convicted none

I stayed in Szmalco´wka from November 1941 to the liquidation of the camp in July 1943. I was taken with my whole family, my husband and our five children, from Trzemlewo near Chełmno, where we rented a five hectare farm. The farm was then taken over by Germans. I do not remember the official name for the camp, but it was commonly known as Szmalco´wka. My husband died within one month of our arrival.8 He was pushed over and fell down the stairs. I do not know what the reason was for his death. My five-year-old daughter Jadwiga Foksin´ska died in the hospital at 38 Baz˙yn´skich Street in 1942 of typhus.9 That same year in the hospital on

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Baz˙yn´skich Street my other children, two-year-old Zygmunt Foksin´ski10 and three-year-old Stanisława Foksin´ska,11 died of typhus. The other two children were taken in July 1943 to the camp in Potulice. In the summer of 1943 I was assigned to work on the property in Turzno, where I stayed until Poland’s liberation. Conditions in the camp were very tough. We did not have beds or bunks, we slept on the cement floor on which some straw was scattered [a pallet]. The straw was not replaced, therefore all kinds of insects were there: fleas, lice, bedbugs, mice, rats. The prisoners lived on the ground floor and the first floor. In the camp there were about 3,000– 4,000 prisoners, maybe more. There were whole families, all of them Polish, from the districts of Brodnica, Nowe Miasto Lubawskie, Tczew, Wyrzysk, Chełmno, S´wiecie, Wa˛brzez´no, Starogard Gdan´ski. People were taken to the city to work and brought back to the camp in the evening. I do not know where they worked. I did not see any executions in the camp. I often saw, however, Germans beating prisoners with batons. But I cannot specify or determine the names of those Germans. I do not know any of the names of the camp’s staff. Those prisoners who were brought to the camp were searched, and everything they owned was taken away from them. Toilets were built at the yard. These were bricked rooms with toilet seats, makeshift, without plumbing. In the camp people died every day. Sometimes 30 people were taken away on one day, and especially children. Most died of typhus. Other details of the camp I do not remember. There is no more that I can say on this subject.

Testified: [signature] Marta Foksin´ska

Interviewed: [signature] Jan Wyczyn´ski

minutes taken by: [signature] B. Dere˛gowska

Source: OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, card No. 45 –46, original, mps.

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No. 7 24 February 1970, Torun´ – Testimony by Feliks Gudanek given before OKBZH in Bydgoszcz in its branch office in Torun´ [. . .] Witness Interview Report 24 February 1970 Present: Judge: J. Krzeszewski Clerk of the court: W. Bachanek Regional Court in Pruszkow Court sitting attended by: Case concerning judicial assistance at the request of the Regional Court in Torun´ Feliks Gudanek

The witness was warned that false testimony would result in criminal liability, and informed of the contents of Article 94 of Code of Criminal Procedure. Following this, the witness gave the following information: Name Parents’ names Age Address Occupation Criminal record Relation to parties

Feliks Jan Gudanek Jan and Maria born on 13 January 1897 Magdalenka 9/11 Ogrodowa Street, district of Piaseczno retired not convicted none

Next the judge reminded the witness about the right to refuse to answer individual questions (art. 96 Code of Criminal Procedure) and the significance of the oath. The witness swore the oath according to art. 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

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The witness testified as follows: During the occupation I was not in Szmalco´wka. In 1945, on the site of the former camp I established the Peasant Cooperative Industrial Production Mutual Aid for carpentry and mill products, and it is for this reason I know the area where the camp was located on Grudzia˛dzka Street. In 1945, in the basement of the factory hall, I saw all sorts of inscriptions in chalk on the walls and pillars. These were the words of farewell or calls for help written by former prisoners. I do not recall the literal content of those sentences. At various points in the basement I saw traces of blood on the walls and pillars. There were a lot of these marks. I do not think that these traces of blood came as a result of shootings, but probably due to the beatings. At home I have got a plan of the camp with all its eleven buildings, which I can provide upon request. This plan refers to the state of the building from 1945. I do not know any more information about the former camp. Confirmed [signature] The Court sent the minutes of the witness’s testimony to the District Court in Torun´. [Court’s stamp] Judge: [signature] Minutes taken by: [signature] Source: OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, card No. 11– 12, original, mps.

No. 8 Description of the survey regarding the displacement of the Augustyniak family from Chełmz˙a When evacuating Poles in 1940, the family of Jo´zef Augustyniak was taken to the resettlement camp in Torun´. There is no information regarding date of birth, occupation, street. Hermina, wife — Irena, eight-week-old daughter On 30 November 1940, the wife and the child were sent to the GG (no town given), and the husband was kept in the camp and employed as a cleaner.

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The sister of the displaced, Gorbing Auguste, the wife of a party member and Lagerfu¨her, who currently lives in France in Bochum at 8 Kampann Street, addressed a complaint regarding the displacement of the Augustyniak family to the Gestapo in Torun´. She writes in her letter of complaint12 that the SS officers and Polizeibeamt did not act as German soldier ought to, because how could they have taken away a fur coat from her sick sister, and baby underwear from an eightweek-old child. Why was she separated from her husband’s (and her brother-in-law) family, especially considering the fact that in World War I he belonged to the German army? Gording would send another letter regarding this matter. The commandant of the camp in Torun´, SS-Oberscharfu¨hrer Radtke, writing on the subject to the UWZ – Gotenhafen, denied that the fur coat was taken away from Augustyniak. However, in the following letter it was stated that the fur coat was there and available to be collected. The child’s underwear was not taken away.13 There is a note stating that Augustyniak’s Germanness is not as good as has been written, because he wrote in Polish to his family in the GG, and he also spoke Polish instead of German. Finally the head of the Security Police SD in Gdan´sk wrote back to Gorbing in Bochum:14 the claims made by her do not correspond to the facts, and Augustyniak in the near future will return to his family. The reason for expulsion: Polenrasenierung. Source: AIPN By, 26/52, card No. 47, original, mps.

No. 9 7 February 1976, Bydgoszcz – a letter written by Włodzimierz Przybylin´ski to OKBZH Włodzimierz Przybylin´ski 8/10 Kasprzaka Street 85-317 Bydgoszcz

Bydgoszcz, 7 February 1976 Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes 2 Wały Jagiellon´skie Street 85-131 Bydgoszcz

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In connection with the investigation into crimes committed by Nazis in the camp in Torun´ on Grudzia˛dzka Street, in the so-called Szmalco´wka, I can say that I was one of the many Poles who survived the ordeal in the camp in the period of 1941– 2. I come from a family of peasants residing in Zielenczynie, in the Sicienko district. In the spring of 1941, the Germans displaced Poles from their farms during the night, which were then assigned to Germans. They displaced us, i.e. our father Lucjan (no longer living), our mother Franciszka, my sister Kazimiera Prywer, and me. We were transported by rail into the unknown, to what turned out to be Szmalco´wka in Torun´. After we arrived we were locked up in the so-called interim basement where, amid the litter and the manure, the entire transport was rounded up. The conditions in the basement were unsanitary. It was dark and there was hardly any air. People did not even have their hand luggage as they had left everything in the square. After several hours, the gates opened and it was announced that there had been an air raid, which had scattered all our belongings in the square. Obviously it was the Nazis plundering our valuable belongings. My mother took some linen rags, which then served as bedding. After selection of the people had been completed, we were transported to the factory building where we lay on the pallet and on the floor. The factory building leaked, and when it rained water poured over people. As a little boy (I was around 5 – 6 years old), I quickly became sick, going down with various diseases, especially the epidemic that resulted from these conditions – such as bloody diarrhea, tonsillitis and an ear infection. My body was weakened to the point that I stopped walking, not to mention playing with other children. Very many children died at that time and I would inevitably have shared their fate but for the help of good people, which manifested itself as follows: – my father was transported every day to work outside the camp, where he made contact with the Polish family living in Torun´, from which later I, the weakest, received food. – my sister worked in the kitchen, so from time to time, she brought me a warm potato.

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– my aunt, Stanisława Fatz, who was not in the camp, when coming to Torun´ used to bring food to the mentioned Polish family, which then, through my mother, came to me. My aunt was a married woman without children and she loved me greatly. I owe her my life because when my health was in a terrible state, after a secret agreement with my father and the Polish family in Torun´, in the spring of 1942, at a set time she came over to the fence from the side of the meadows. Meanwhile, my father managed to rip off one of the wooden rails of the fence, and, even though the guards were watching the fence, my aunt managed to get me out of the camp. She was a very brave person and made huge sacrifices to save others. Of course the Nazis, in the face of the mass deaths of children, considered me dead as well. My aunt brought me to her brother to the village, where under her care I slowly returned to the land of the living, eating porridge and noodles, and learning to walk. My aunt paid a huge price; her generosity cost her life. She caught pneumonia and died in the autumn of 1942. My parents and sister were taken into forced labour at the end of 1942; my mother and father to East Prussia, and my sister to Elanow near Torun´. They all worked on German farms. In such circumstances, we saved our lives. When the long awaited freedom arrived in 1945, we returned to our farm. The people with whom we lived in the camp, who are still alive, were Bogusław, Czesław and Jan Stachowiczowie, currently living in Zielonczyn in the Sicienko district, in the Bydgoskie Voivodeship; and Stanisław Szul, residing in Bydgoszcz on the Błonie estate. Detention in the camp has left permanent negative effects on my body, which I will suffer from until the end of my life. They are irreversible internal diseases, and diseases affecting the entire cephalic apparatus, especially the mouth and hearing organs. Włodzimierz Przybylin´ski Source: OKS´ZpNPG, S128/04/zn, vol. II, card No. 204– 205, original, rkps.

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No. 10 Poems by Henryk Włodzimierz Klimek, former prisoner of Szmalco´wka, written after the war. . . . I shall not forget I shall not forget the horrors Of the moments as long as nights . . . I shall not forget the war, The barbed electrical wire The bones of skeletons Alive behind those wires Insane with fear And the despair . . . These were People I looked at them with terror They looked at me with sadness . . . SS men With the heads of skulls on their hats They put them against the wall Threw them into a dungeon and laughed . . . Still the newcomers would arrive Fewer and fewer in number I was a child back then From a children’s commando There were many like me Sad as they could not play Not understanding – why. . . Today the camp’s blood Still flows in the veins And it hurts deep in the heart Hurts greatly –

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Those horrors Barbed electrical wires People famished like skeletons I shall not forget Even though I wish I could I never will . . . Who are you, man . . . For whom the bell tolls Funeral bell For old people – correct But why does a man, or evil fate, Shorten the lives Of the young of various age Who are you, man You, who gives birth and kills Creates and turns to naught all That you created Diogenes of Sinope Had doubts already in Antiquity The one who lived in a barrel On a bright day he walked with a lamp Among people shouting – I AM LOOKING FOR A MAN Homo sapiens – this sounds proud But with a war hatchet He turns into a monster Cannot live without wars This does not sound proud Ubermensch – superhuman A painter psychopath Who fooled the German nation And with derisive Gott mit uns Arbeit macht frei . . . Trampling on corpses to conquer the world

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Nazis, fascists, terrorists Stalinists, NKVDists All of one evil kind . . . *** Homo – comes from ape Or ape from man Is life after life Really waiting for us People say A man shoots – God carries bullets Who then Holds responsibility For shooting another man? . . . Inquisitorial dangerousness Questions, statements, antinomies Labyrinth of doubts Not solved for years It is hard to understand a human being Who loves, creates beauty And marks his traces with evil Source: H. W. Klimek, Egzysterki czyli pisane wierszem egzystencjalne rozwaz˙ania, rados´ci, smutki, rozterki (Torun´, 2009), pp. 98 – 9, 104.

APPENDIX 2 MEMORY

Fig. A2.1 Teddy bear on one of the children’s graves in the cemetery at Grudzia˛dzka Street in Torun´. (Tomasz Niklas)

NOTES

Introduction 1. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego dziecin´stwa (1939 – 1945) (Bydgoszcz, 2003), p. 126 (2nd edn 2005). 2. When I use the term ‘Nazi’, I am in no way trying to take responsibility away from the German people for these crimes; nor do I wish to create a non-existent nation of Nazis. My intention is only to pinpoint this state and these people not in a general sense but within a precise historical reality, i.e. between 1933 and 1945. Unfortunately, the fact that the Nazis were German is today not obvious to everybody. See P. Zychowicz, Niemieckie polowanie na zebry, Rzeczpospolita, 29 – 30: I (2010), Supplement PlusMinus, pp. 20 –1. 3. See. J. W. Borejsza, Stulecie zagłady (Gdan´sk/Warszawa, 2011), pp. 7 – 10. 4. See S. Grochowina, J. Sziling, Barbarka. Miejsce niemieckich egzekucji Polako´w z Torunia i okolic (paz´dziernik – grudzien´ 1939) (Torun´, 2009). The authors reviewed and prepared a new list of victims including 298 names. 5. In the Gdan´sk Pomerania region this term was not used. The small Jewish population during the first months of the war was displaced from the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. 6. M. Gilbert, Second World War (London, 1989), p. 14. 7. H. Ho¨hne, Zakon Trupiej Czaszki, translated by S. Ke˛dzierski (Warsaw, 2006), p. 270. 8. See. M. Wardzyn´ska, Kategorie obozo´w pod okupacja˛ niemiecka˛ w latach II wojny swiatowej in W. Materskiego, T. Szaroty (eds), Polska 1939– 1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami (Warsaw, 2009), p. 101. 9. W. Go´rski, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy i pracy w Toruniu (XI 1940–VII 1943), (Torun´, 1972). This master’s thesis was written under the guidance of Prof. Dr habil. Witold Lukaszewicz in the Department of General History and

NOTES TO PAGES 3 –5

10.

11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16.

17.

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

191

Poland of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun´. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu (1940– 1943) ( Bydgoszcz, 1999). This master’s thesis was written at the Institute of History of the Faculty of Humanities, College of Education in Bydgoszcz under the guidance of Prof. Dr habil. Włodzimierz Jastrze˛bski. K. Ciesielska, Rejestr oso´b zmarłych w obozie przesiedlen´czym Szmalco´wka w Toruniu 1941– 1943, ‘Rocznik Torun´ski’ (1976), vol. 11, pp. 67 – 91. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu przy ul. Baz˙yn´skich (1941 – 1943) (Torun´, 1996). J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torunia [w:] Historia Torunia,t. III, cz. II: M. Biskupa (ed.), W czasach Polski Odrodzonej i okupacji niemieckiej (1920 – 1945) (Torun´, 2006), pp. 580–2. Obozy przejs´ciowe dla ludnos´ci cywilnej na ziemiach polskich w latach 1939– 1945, intro by H. Migała, preparation of documents T. Kardacz (Warsaw, 1967), pp. 13 – 15; Cz. Pilichowskiego et al. (eds), Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939– 1945. Informator encyklopedyczny (Warsaw, 1979), p. 522. E. Ogłoza, Pomorze pod okupacja˛ niemiecka˛ 1939– 1945. Fragment Torun´ski (Torun´, 1945). In charge of the files concerning the investigation into the Szmalco´wka is the Regional Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Gdan´sk. These files can be found in the Bydgoszcz Representation of the Institute of National Remembrance (for more, see: OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn). Archival records of the Institute of National Remembrance in Bydgoszcz, Archiwum Instytutu Pamieci Narodowej w Bydgoszczy, Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Torun´, files concerning the so-called Szmalco´wka (hereafter cited as AIPN By, 33/32); the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw, Concentration Camps and Prisons, the District Court in Torun´: interrogations of former prisoners from Grudzia˛dz, Potulice, Se˛polno and Torun´, among others 1947 (hereafter cited as AAN, 212/II-3). State Archives in Bydgoszcz (hereafter cited as APB), Akta Centrali Przesiedlenczej w Gdan´sku Umwandererzentralstelle Danzig (hereafter cited as UWZ – D), sygn, pp. 85 – 90. APB, UWZ– D, sygn. 38, Statistics of evacuations. APB, UWZ – Lager Lebrechtsdorf, Potulice Concentration Camp from 1940 to 1945, camp in Torun´ (hereafter cited as UWZ – L), sygn, pp. 136– 41. APB, Sonderreferat S. D. Gotenhafen, Special Branch of the Security Service in Gdynia and later in Potulice (hereafter cited as SRSDG), sygn, pp. 351– 8. State Archives in Torun´ (hereafter cited as APT), city files of Torun´ 1939– 45 (hereafter cited as AMT ‘E’), sygn. 1089, 1090. Archives of the Stutthof Museum (dalej AMS), sygn. I-ID-11, Cases 1, 2, 3 of the Company. Correspondence 1941–3. AAN, Central Welfare Council, office in Krako´w (hereafter cited as RGO BC w Krako´wie), sygn. 1026a, 1032– 6.

192

NOTES TO PAGES 5 –10

25. Z. Mazur, A. Pietrowicz, M. Rutowska (eds), Raporty z ziem wcielonych do III Rzeszy (1942 – 1944) (Poznan´, 2004). 26. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego. . . .; idem, Bylis´my dziec´mi ze Szmalco´wki, Nowos´ci, 8: III (2008), 10; idem, Egzysterki czyli pisane wierszem egzystencjalne rozwaz˙ania , rados´ci , smutki , rozterki (Torun´, 2009). 27. The collection of documents by Alicja Paczoskiej-Hauke (hereafter quoted as ZAPH) are kept in the headquarters of OBEP IPN, Branch Office in Bydgoszcz. 28. The fragments of notes recorded in written and audiovisual forms may be found on the project’s website http://www.audiohistoria.pl/. A full transcript of more than two-hour long conversations is available in the Oral History Archive (hereafter cited as AHM) of the History Meeting House in Warsaw. 29. E. M. Remarque, Ein Militanter Pazifist. Texte und Interviews 1926– 1966. Herausgegeben und mit einem Vorwort von Thomas Schneider (Ko¨ln, 1994), p. 29. 30. P. Machcewicz, Wste˛p [w:] Mie˛dzy codziennos´cia˛ a wielka˛ historia˛. Druga wojna s´wiatowa w pamie˛ci zbiorowej społeczen´stwa polskiego, P. T. Kwiatkowski et al., commentary of historian historyka M. Kula (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2010), p. 11. 31. M. Burleigh, A Third Reich. A New History (London/Basingstoke/Oxford, 2000), pp. 1 – 23. 32. H. B. Gisevius, Adolf Hitler. Versuch einer Deutung (Mu¨nchen, 1963). Cited in: E. Ja¨ckel, Hitler‘s World View. A blueprint for power (Cambridge/London, 1982), p. 20. 33. M. Domarus, The Essential Hitler. Speeches and Commentary, ed. P. Romane (Wauconda, 2007), p. 3. 34. T. Snyder, Skrwawione ziemie. Europa mie˛dzy Hitlerem a Stalinem, transl. B. Pietrzyk (Warsaw, 2011), p. 440. 35. See T. Gadacz, Is´´c po ziemi i po niebie, in conversation with J. Zakowski, Polityka 17 (2011), pp. 16– 20. 36. B. Lang, Nazistowskie ludobo´jstwo. Akt i idea, transl. A. Zie˛bin´ska-Witek (Lublin, 2006), p. 14. 37. W. Bartoszewski, Mimo wszystko.Wywiadu rzeki ksie˛ga druga (Warsaw, 2008), pp. 10 – 11. 38. A. D. Rotfeld, Polska w niepewnym s´wiecie (Warsaw, 2006), p. 292. 39. J. Le Goff, Historia i pamie˛´c, transl. A. Gronowska, J. Stryjczyk (Warsaw, 2007), p. 158. 40. H. W. Klimek, Najez´dz´cy 1939 roku. Wiersze, refleksje, scenariusze, utwory sceniczne (Torun´, 2013), p. 10. 41. AHM, 0543, Relacja Henryka Wojtalewicza, recorded in Torun´ on: 27 Oct. 2007 by Dominik Czapigo. 42. Cz. Miłosz, Przedmowa [in:] S. Vincenz, Po stronie pamie˛ci (Paris, 1965), p. 10. 43. J. Glover, Humanity. A Moral History of the Twentieth Century (New Haven/New York, 2001).

NOTES TO PAGES 11 –15

Chapter 1

193

An Ideological Crusade

1. A. Hitler, Mein Kampf. Zwei Ba¨nde in einem Band (Mu¨nchen, 1939), p. 167. First published in two parts in 1925 and 1927. In 1942 a full English version was published. 2. B. Skarga, Kwintet metafizyczny (Warsaw, 2005), p. 106. 3. M. I. Midlarsky, Ludobo´jstwo w XX wieku, transl. B. Wojciechowski (Warsaw, 2010), p. 21. 4. R. M. W. Kempner, Trzecia Rzesza w krzyz˙owym ogniu pytan´. Z nie opublikowanych protokolo´w przesłuchan´, transl. K. Bunsch (Krako´w, 1971), p. 39. 5. H. Rauschning, Rozmowy z Hitlerem, transl. J. Hensel, R. Turczyn (Warsaw, 1994), p. 73. Gespra¨che mit Hitler published in 1940 caused uproar among the creators of Nazi propaganda. 6. I. Kershaw, Hitler 1936– 1941. Nemezis, part 1, transl. Przemysław Bandel (Poznan´, 2002), p. 30. 7. P. Radfield, Himmler Reichsfu¨hrer SS, transl. Stefan Baranowski (Warsaw, 2005), pp. 294, 367. 8. O. Spengler, Zmierzch Zachodu. Zarys morfologii historii uniwersalnej, transl. Jo´zef Marzecki (Warsaw, 2001), p. 419. The first volume was published in Vienna in 1918, the second in Munich four years later. 9. Quoted in J. Bo¨hler, Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce. Wrzesien´ 1939. Wojna totalna, transl. P. Pien´kowska-Wiederkehr (Krako´w, 2009), p. 34. 10. See A. Hitler, op. cit., pp. 414 –8. 11. Ibid., p. 177. 12. M. Burleigh, S´wie˛ta racja. ‘S´wieckie religie’ XX wieku, transl. M. Jatczak (Warsaw, 2011), p. 122. 13. Quoted in J. W. Borejsza, S´mieszne sto miliono´w Słowian. . . . Woko´ł s´wiatopogla˛du Adolfa Hitlera (Warsaw, 2006), p. 71. 14. A. Hitler, op. cit., p. 557. 15. R. S. Rose, Krytyczny słownik mito´w i symboli nazizmu, transl. Z. Jakubowska, A. Rurarz (Warsaw, 2006), pp. 232– 3. 16. A. Hitler, Rozmowy przy stole 1941– 1944. Rozmowy w Kwaterze Gło´wnej zapisane na polecenie Martina Bormanna przez jego adiutanta Heinricha Heima, transl. editorial team S. Dejkało (Warsaw, 1996), p. 74. 17. See J. Kloczowski (ed.), Przekle˛te miejsce Europy? Dylematy polskiej geopolityki (Krako´w, 2009); J. Eisler, K. Rokicki (eds), Rzeczpospolita utracona. Naste˛pstwa nazizmu i komunizmu na ziemiach polskich (Warsaw, 2010). 18. Cf. G. Herling-Grudzin´ski, Dziennik pisany noca˛ 1997– 1999 (Warsaw, 2000), pp. 315– 6; K. Kersten, Wste˛p in S. Courtoisa (ed.), Czarna ksie˛ga komunizmu. Zbrodnie, terror, przes´ladowania (Warsaw, 1999), pp. 16 – 22; A. Besancon, Przeklen´stwo wieku. O komunizmie, narodowym socjalizmie i jedynos´ci Zagłady, transl. J. Guze (Warsaw, 2000); F. Furet, Przeszłos´c´ pewnego złudzenia. Esej o idei

194

19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

38. 39.

NOTES TO PAGES 15 –20 komunistycznej w XX wieku, transl. J. Go´rnicka-Kalinowska, M. Ochab (Warsaw, 1996). Quoted in K. Dunin-Wa˛sowicz, Obo´z koncentracyjny Stutthof (Gdan´sk, 1970), p. 37. See H. Kissinger, Dyplomacja, transl. S. Gła˛bin´ski, G. Woz´niak, I. Zych (Warsaw, 2003), pp. 285– 310. J. W. Borejsza, S´mieszne sto miliono´w. . ., p. 22. R. J. Evans. The Third Reich at War. How the Nazis led Germany from conquest to disaster (London, 2008), p. XIII. See T. Chincinski, Forpoczta Hitlera. Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 roku (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2010), pp. 28 – 35. Quoted in L. Moczulski, Geopolityka. Pote˛ga w czasie i przestrzeni (Warsaw, 2000), p. 21. Die SS Elite unter dem Totenkopf. 30 Lebenslau¨fe, hrsg. R. Smelser, E. Syring (Mu¨nchen, 2000), p. 15. D. Schenk, Hans Frank. Biografia generalnego gubernatora, transl. K. Jachimczak (Krako´w, 2009), pp. 25 – 7. E. Ja¨ckel, Hitler’s World View, p. 90. E. Wetzel, G. Hecht, Sprawa traktowania ludnos´ci byłych polskich obszaro´w z rasowo-politycznego punktu widzenia (Der Frage der Behandlung der Bevo¨lkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichtspunkte, 25 XI 1939, reprinted in: Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, 1948, vol. IV. See E. Grodzinski, Filozofia Adolfa Hitlera w Mein Kampf (Warsaw – Olsztyn, 1992), pp. 25– 8. J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Relacja, 12 IV 2011 (author’s private collection), date of recording: 30 March 2011, recorded by Tomasz Ceran. AIPN Gd, 38/1, charge sheet of Albert Forster before the Supreme National Tribunal, 7 February 1948, k. 18. See A. Finkielkraut, Zagubione człowieczen´stwo, transl. M. Fabjanowski (Warsaw, 1999), p. 42. Quoted in I. Kershaw, Hitler., p. 244. J. Goebbels, Die Tagebu¨cher, Teil I Aufzeichnungen 1923– 1941, Band 7 Juli 1939– Ma¨rz 1940, hrsg. E. Fro¨hlich (Mu¨nchen, 1998), p. 144. H. Rauschning, Rozmowy, pp. 58 – 9. Ibid., p. 236. See H. Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York, 1963), pp. 136– 7. Kant’s categorical imperative is based on the individual human conscience (and not the will of the Fu¨hrer) and says that we should act in such a way that our behaviour could become a universal law. It originates from a practical imperative proclaiming that the other person has to be the goal of our actions, never merely a means. D. Schenk, Albert Forster., p. 126. Quoted in M. Burleigh, S´wie˛ta racja, p. 116.

NOTES TO PAGES 20 –25

195

40. H. Rauschning, Rozmowy, p. 52. 41. See A. Hitler, Der grossdeutsche Freiheitskampf. Reden Adolf Hitlers vom 1. September 1939 bis 10, Marz 1940 (Mu¨nchen, 1940), pp. 35 – 6. Similarly, the Nazis equated the adjectives Jewish and Bolshevik. 42. O. Spengler, Zmierzch Zachodu, p. 426. 43. M. Domarus, The Essential Hitler, p. 137. 44. A. Camus, The Rebel, transl. J. Guze (Krako´w, 1991), pp. 169– 70. 45. ‘[. . .] after the era of community the era of association follows. The first era is characterised by the social will as an agreement, custom, religion, the other – the social will as a convention, politics, public opinion.’ See F. To¨nnies, Wspo´lnota i stowarzyszenie. Rozprawa o komunizmie i socjalizmie jako empirycznych formach kultury, transl. M. Lukaszewicz (Warsaw, 1988), p. 326. The first edition Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft was published in Lipsko/Lipsk in1887. 46. R. O. Paxton, Anatomia faszyzmu, transl. P. Bandel (Poznan´, 2005), pp. 43 – 5. 47. R. Overy, Dyktatorzy. Hitler i Stalin, transl. Ł. Witczak (Wrocław, 2009), pp. 534– 55. 48. A. Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 86 – 7. 49. R. Overy, Dyktatorzy, pp. 85 – 6, 147. 50. A. Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 569– 70. 51. See J. W. Borejsza, Antyslawizm Adolfa Hitlera (Warsaw, 1988). 52. Idem, S´mieszne sto miliono´w. . ., p. 158. 53. T. Szarota, Niemcy i Polacy. Wzajemne postrzeganie i stereotypy (Warsaw, 1996), pp. 192– 3. 54. APB, UWZ – D, camp in Torun´ 1940– 1941, No. 85, a letter of the Torun´ camp’s commandant to the Resettlement Headquarters in Gdynia, 3 December 1940, k. 32. 55. T. Szarota, Karuzela na placu Krasin´skich. Studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji (Warsaw, 2007), p. 74. 56. M. Podgo´reczny, Albert Forster. Gauleiter i oskarz˙ony (Gdan´sk, 1977), p. 423. 57. Quoted in A. Wolff-Powe˛ska, Dialektyka pamie˛ci i niepamie˛ci. Wojna przeciw Polsce w pamie˛ci zbiorowej Niemco´w in Niepie˛kny wiek XX, ed. J. Eisler et al. (Warsaw, 2010), p. 289. 58. W. L. Shirer, Berlin Diary. The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934– 1941 (New York, 1941), p. 169. 59. J. Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Centrury (New Haven/ London), p. 21. 60. AHM, 0435, Tadeusza Pipowski’s account, place of recording: Parlin near S´wiecie, recorded on 16 July 2007, by Piotr Filipkowski. 61. A. Hitler, Rozmowy przy stole. . ., pp. 60 – 1. 62. See T. Szarota, Karuzela, p. 73. 63. J. W. Borejsza, Pie˛kny wiek XIX (Warsaw, 2010), p. 384. 64. A. Hitler, Rozmowy przy stole, p. 320. 65. Quoted in J. W. Borejsza, S´mieszne sto miliono´w. . ., p. 44. 66. Ibid., p. 148.

196

NOTES TO PAGES 26 –31

67. AIPN By, 58/116, District Court in Torun´, Presumption of Death of Jo´zef Warota. 68. See R. Tokarczyk, Wspo´łczesne systemy, pp. 302– 4. 69. G. Orwell, ‘Notes on Nationalism’, Jak mi sie podoba. Eseje, felietony, listy, selected and introduced by P. S´piewak, transl. A. Husarksa, M. Szuster, B. Zborski (Warsaw, 2002), p. 231. 70. Quoted in T. Samselski (ed.), ‘Z˙ywi i martwi’. O hitlerowskim obozie Potulice 1941– 1945, (Bydgoszcz, 1997), p. 12. 71. ZAPH, file ‘Potulice’ (next SP), a letter by Bogdan Witold Bukowski born on 15 July 1931 [the document was probably drafted in 1990], p. 1. 72. R. Overy, Dyktatorzy, p. 142. 73. Quoted in M. Domarus, The Essential Hitler., p. 23. 74. H. Grynberg, Prawda nieartystyczna (Wołowiec, 2002), p. 241. 75. See R. Michalski, Obraz Rzeszy Niemieckiej na łamach polskiej prasy pomorskiej w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej (1920 – 1939). Studium z dziejo´w kształtowania sie˛ stereotypu wiedzy o rozwoju niemieckiego nacjonalizmu (Torun´, 1995), p. 61. 76. AAN, a collection of underground anti-Nazi prints and flyers, No. 90, The End of the Third and Final Reich (Germans on Themselves), publishing house: Wydawnictwo Frontu Odrodzenia Polski, p. 5. 77. E. Ja¨ckel, Hitler’s World View, p. 80. 78. See H. Arendt, O naturze totalitaryzmu. Esej z rozumienia in eadem, Salon berlin´ski i inne eseje, transl. M. Godyn´, S. Szyman´ski (Warsaw, 2008), p. 236. 79. H. Rauschning, Rozmowy, p. 227. 80. E. Ja¨ckel, Hitler’s World View, p. 86. 81. The stereotypes of Poland as polonia confusione regitur and German civilization as Kulturtra¨ger were born as early as the eighteenth century and were inscribed in the dichotomous division between ‘civilized West’ and ‘barbaric (Asian) East’. In the nineteenth century it was supplemented with the Darwinian theory of race. See M. Burleigh, Germany turns Eastwards. A study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 3 –11. 82. G. Orwell, ‘Review of Mein Kampf’, New English Weekly, 21 March 1940, reprinted in: idem, Jak mi sie˛ podoba, p. 69. 83. See S. Marks, Dlaczego poszli za Hitlerem? Psychologia narodowego socjalizmu w Niemczech, transl. A. Gadzała (Warsaw, 2009), pp. 11 – 20. 84. W. Jochmann, Kryzys społeczny. Antysemityzm. Narodowy socjalizm, transl. B. Mrozewicz (Poznan´, 2007), p. 5. 85. Quoted in J. W. Borejsza, Stulecie zaglady. . . ., p. 152. 86. From 1933, the official anthem of the Nazi movement. The passage reads: ‘Es schaut Hakenkreuz voll auf das schon Millionen Hoffnung. Der Tag fu¨r Freiheit und Brot fur bricht an!’ (The sight of the swastika fills the millions once more with hope. The day of freedom and prosperity is coming!) 87. See A. B. Rossino, Hitler strikes Poland. Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity (Kansas, 2003), p. 201. 88. Quoted D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 23.

NOTES TO PAGES 31 –35 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99.

197

W. Bartoszewski, Mimo wszystko., pp. 8 – 9. A. Bullock, Hitler. A Study in Tyranny (New York, 1964), p. 806. T. Szarota, Niemcy i Polacy. . ., p. 155. A. Bullock, Hitler, p. 572. A. B. Rossino, Hitler strikes Poland, pp. XIV – XV. Quoted in Ch. Jansen and A. Weckbecker, Der ‘Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz’ in Polen 1939/1940 (Mu¨nchen, 1992), p. 31. R. Overy, Dyktatorzy., p. 610. T. Zakrzewski, ‘Szmalco´wka’, Nowos´ci, 31 March 1982, No. 39, p. 4; idem, ‘Zagłada rodzin’, Nowos´ci, 1 April 1982, No. 40, p. 4; idem, ‘Postawmy tu pomnik meczenstwa rodzin’, Nowos´ci, 2 April 1982, p. 4. AHM, 0543, Henryk Wojtalewicz‘ account. J.W. Borejsza, S´mieszne sto miliono´w, p. 10. P. Romane, Editor’s preface in M. Domarus, The Essential Hitler, p. XVII. Naturally, this calculation is not precisely accurate.

Chapter 2 Entpolonisierung: The Depolonization of German Prussia 1. ‘Aufgabe der zivilen Beho¨rde ist die Befriedung des Landes sowie seine Entpolonisierung.’ An extract from an order given in autumn 1939 by the Commander of the Selbstschutz in Pomerania to his regional commanders. A former aide of Himmler’s, Alvensleben, wrote in a letter to his mentor that his ‘work’, i.e. the killing of Polish people in Pomerania, made him happy. At least 4,247 victims were claimed by the Selbstchutz. Alvensleben died in 1970 in Argentina. Quoted in M. Wardzyn´ska, Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczen´stwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (Warsaw, 2009), p. 144; D. Schenk, Albert Forster. Gdan´ski namiestnik Hitlera. Zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Gdan´sku i Prusach Zachodnich, translation and footnotes provided by W. Tycner and J. Tycner (Gdan´sk, 2002), p. 227. 2. Quoted in H. Eberlego and M. Uhla (eds), Teczka Hitlera, transl. B. Ostrowska (Warsaw, 2005), p. 71. 3. W. L. Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. 176. 4. The Torun´ school of history, led by Prof. Waldemar Rezmer, opposes the use of the term ‘September Campaign’, which diminishes the efforts of Polish soldiers. The Polish army, as is commonly known, was also defending its nation in October. For example, the Hel peninsula was surrendered on 2 October, and the final battle of the campaign, at Kock, lasted from 2 to 5 October 1939. Hitler argued that he conquered Poland within 18 days (after the Battle of Bzura).

198

NOTES TO PAGES 35 –38

5. Apart from that, 600,000 Jews and the same number of Germans were brought within the borders of the Third Reich. See Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce, vol. I (Warsaw, 1970), p. 235. 6. Wehrmacht General Johannes Blaskowitz expressed serious doubts about the killing of tens of thousands of Poles and Jews, viewing the unimaginable brutality of the Nazis in Poland as a political and military error. Hitler dismissed his concerns as ‘childish’ and removed the general from the highest position in the army. Similar concerns in Pomerania were voiced by Gen. Max Bock, commander of the 20th Military District in Gdan´sk. Of course, in both cases, these were not moral or humanitarian concerns. On 14 October Goebbels wrote: ‘In Poland the military administration must be replaced by a civil administration as soon as possible. The military administration is too soft (weich) and compliant (nachgiebig). When dealing with the Poles only violence is effective.’ See J. Goebbels, Die Tagebu¨cher, p. 153. 7. According to Jochen Bo¨hler, the crimes of the Wehrmacht, the SS, and police differed only in terms of motivation. In the case of the latter, appropriate training and top-down orders were contributory factors. Whereas in the case of the German army, the negative image of the Pole and the Jew and ‘partisan delusions’ had a deciding influence. See. J. Bo¨hler, Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu. . ., p. 34. Cf. ‘Z najwie˛ksza˛ brutalnos´cia˛. . .’ zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce, wrzesien´paz´dziernik 1939 r’ (Warsaw, 2004). 8. J. Sziling, Polityka narodowos´ciowa niemieckich władz okupacyjnych na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1945 in Problemy narodowos´ciowe i wyznaniowe na Pomorzu Nadwis´lanskim i Kujawach w XX wieku, ed. R. Sudzin´ski (Torun´, 1997), pp. 35 – 50. 9. Quoted in idem, Pomorze Gdan´skie jesienia˛ 1939 r. in Jesien´ 1939. Dokumentacja pierwszych miesiee˛cy okupacji niemieckiej na Pomorzu Gdan´skim, ed. Jan Sziling (Torun´, 1989), p. 10. These words were the motto of the exhibition organized by the employees of OBEP IPN, regional office in Bydgoszcz. See K. Churska, M. Szymaniak (eds), Okupacja i zbrodnie niemieckie na Kujawach i Pomorzu Południowym [exhibition catalogue], (Bydgoszcz, 2009). 10. J. Sziling, Pomorze Gdan´skie, p. 43. 11. E. Wetzel, G. Hecht, Sprawa traktowania, p. 149. 12. H. Ch. Harten, De-Kulturation und Germanisierung. Die nationalsozialistische Rassen- und Erziehungspolitik in Polen 1939– 1945 (Frankfurt/New York, 1996), p. 8. 13. H. Rauschning, Rozmowy, p. 137. 14. For the Third Reich propaganda chief, Warsaw and Ło´dz´ were already ‘Asia’. J. Goebbels, Die Tagebu¨cher., pp. 216– 7. 15. AHM, 0435, Tadeusz Pipowski’s account. 16. J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torunia, p. 544. 17. M. Wardzyn´ska, Był rok 1939, p. 182.

NOTES TO PAGES 38 – 44

199

18. G. Berendt, Wste˛p [w:] Wyniszczyc´ – Wypedzic´ – Wynarodowic´. Szkice do dziejo´w okupacji niemieckiej na Kaszubach i Kociewu (1939– 1945), ed. G. Berendta (Gdan´sk, 2010), p. 7. 19. A. B. Rossino, Hitler strikes Poland, p. 191. 20. See T. Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (New York, 2010), p. 8. 21. It is worth noting that the area Snyder calls ‘Bloodlands’ is consistent with Haushoffer’s geopolitical theory regarding the areas of Central and Eastern Europe where German culture had left its traces. 22. H. Ch. Harten, De-Kulturation und Germanisierung, pp. 8 – 11 and further on. 23. AIPN Gd, 38/1, Charge sheet of Albert Forster, p. 53. 24. Ibid., p. 58. 25. E. Wetzel, G. Hecht, Sprawa traktowania, p. 150. 26. W. Jastrze˛bski, Przymus germanizacyjny w okregu Rzeszy Gdan´sk-Prusy Zachodnie w latach 1939– 1945 in Przymus germanizacyjny na ziemiach polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy Niemieckiej w latach 1939– 1945, ed. W. Jastrze˛bski (Bydgoszcz, 1993), p. 7. 27. On that day Forster issued a famous proclamation in which he wrote that those Poles who reject the proposition of inclusion into the German state will be treated as ‘the worst enemies of the German nation’. Ibid., pp. 7 – 8. 28. Quoted in L. Rees, Nazis´ci. Ostrzez˙enie historii, transl. S. Ke˛dzierski (Warsaw, 1998), p. 131. 29. Die SS Elite. . ., p. 229. 30. Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka, p. 412. 31. Decree reprinted in Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce XII (1960), pp. 34 – 5. 32. E. C. Kro´l, Polska i Polacy w propagandzie narodowego socjalizmu w Niemczech 1919– 1945 (Warsaw, 2006), p. 345. 33. Ibid., pp. 85 – 6. 34. W. Jastrze˛bski, J. Sziling, Okupacja hitlerowska na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1945 (Gdan´sk, 1979), p. 40. 35. E. Wetzel, G. Hecht, Sprawa traktowania, pp. 137– 8. 36. J. Goebbels, Die Tagebu¨cher, p. 147. 37. Quoted in J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torunia. . ., p. 544. 38. A. Hitler, Der Grossdeutsche, p. 61. 39. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 251. 40. H. Himmler, Einige Gedanke u¨ber Behandlung der Fremdenvo¨lker im Osten, reprinted in Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce IV (1948), p. 123; M. Podgo´reczny, Albert Forster, pp. 384– 5. 41. M. Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939– 1945 (Frankfurt am Main, 1965), pp. 27– 8. 42. AAN, a collection of underground and anti-Nazi prints and flyers, No. 42, ‘O czym w dniu 1 wrzes´nia kazdy Polak winien pomys´lec´’ [1941].

200

NOTES TO PAGES 45 – 49

43. AIPN By, 687/4 vol. I, Files in criminal case against Hildebrandt, Richard, Charge Sheet 4 January 1949. 44. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 257. 45. Hildebrandt as the High Commander of the SS and Police was also supervised by Forster. See K. M. Pospieszalski, Polska pod niemieckim prawem 1939– 1945 (Ziemie Zachodnie) (Poznan´, 1946), pp. 12 – 17. 46. W. Jastrze˛bski, Potulice. Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy i pracy (luty 1941 r –styczen´ 1945 r.) (Bydgoszcz, 1967), p. 13. 47. J. Sziling, Lata okupacji niemieckiej (1939 – 1945) in Dzieje S´wiecia nad Wisła˛ i jego regionu, ed. K. Jasin´ski, vol. II (Warsaw, 1980), p. 65. 48. W. Jastrze˛bski, Hitlerowskie wysiedlenia z ziem polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy 1939– 1945 (Poznan´, 1968), p. 33; Sz. Datner, J. Gumkowski, K. Leszczyn´ski, Wysiedlenie ludnos´ci z ziem polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy, Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce XII (1960), p. 27 and H. Arendt, Eichmann, pp. 52 – 3. 49. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 265. 50. AIPN Gd, 43/12, Albert Forster’s correspondence with Richard Hildebrandt 1936– 1945, card No. 444. 51. W. Jastrze˛bski, J. Sziling, Pomorze Gdan´skie, p. 32. 52. APB, T. Esman, Wste˛p, Inventory to the files of Sonderreferat SD Gotenhafen, Special Branch of Security Service in Gdynia, and later in Potulice, pp. 3 – 5. 53. The National Labour Office in Gdan´sk supervised eight Labour Offices in Pomerania Gdan´sk, which had their branches (Nebenstellen) and support offices (Hilfstellen). See Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka., p. 635. 54. W. Jastrze˛bski, Potulice, p. 13. 55. L. Rees, Nazis´ci, p. 120. 56. J. Sziling, Akcja wysiedlen´cza ludnos´ci polskiej na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1940 ze szczego´lnym uwzglednieniem Ziemi Chełmin´skiej i południowych regiono´w wojewo´dztwa pomorskiego in Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu w latach 1939– 1948. Materiały pokonferencyjne, ed. J. Borzyszkowski (Gdan´sk/Wejherowo, 2004), p. 17. 57. ‘Ich bin [. . .] geb. am [. . .] in [. . .] wohnhaft in [. . .] schliebe mich dem heutigen ins Generalgouvernemt gehenden Transport polnischer Volkszugeho¨riger freiwillig an. Ich bin mir bewubt, dass hierin ein Verzicht auf mein im Reichsgau Danzig – Westpreuben befindliches Vermo¨gen erblickt werden kann. Ich bin zurzeit bei einer Wehrmachts dienststelle noch in einem fu¨r die Wehrmacht arbeitender Betrieb ta¨tig. ‘ APB, SRSDG, No. 7, District of Brodnica. Sonderevakuierung May 16–17 February 1941, Erkla¨rung, card No. 11–31.

NOTES TO PAGES 50 –58

201

Chapter 3 Behind the Gates of Szmalco´wka 1. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego p. 125. 2. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. III, a photocopied copy of cards from the files of Heinz Radtke, card No. 496. 3. The name – ‘Standard’ First National Lard Processing and Packing Factory – also appears in documents. It was a public limited company in which Zelma had the majority stake. Ibid., vol. I, Letters written by Feliks Gudanek to the chairman of the Delegation of the OKBZH District in Bydgoszcz at the local court in Torun´ (9 April 1970) card No. 164. 4. See K. Przybyszewski, Torun´ w Drugiej Rzeczpospolitej 1920– 1939. Społeczen´stwo i gospodarka (Torun´, 1994), p. 89. 5. Ibid. 6. See Annex. Documents of the camp’s history (document No. 5). 7. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 85, Telegram from Radtke to Abromeit (8 November 1940) card No. 1. 8. A. Groblewski, Wspomnienia in Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdan´skim w latach Drugiej wojny s´wiatowej. Materiały z konferencji naukowej ed. L. Janiszewski (Szczecin, 1989), p. 294 9. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, Letter from Roman Baranowski to the deputy manager of the Cooperative (23 January 1970) card No. 107. 10. Ibid., witness interview report – Stefan Sobolewski (19 November 1969) card No. 101. 11. Ibid., card Nos 57 – 73, 67 – 70, 80 – 82. 12. The building marked No. 14 was built after the war. 13. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Bronisław Chrzanowski (20 October 1969) card No. 53. 14. AAN, catalogue no. 212/II-2, witness interview report – Antoni Nitecki, (6 March 1947) card No. 24. 15. APB, UWZ– D. Catalogue No. 85, a letter of the camp’s commandant from December 1940 and 1941, card No. 10, 14. 16. M. Orski, Filie obozu koncentracyjnego Stutthof w latach 1939–1945 (Gdan´sk, 2004), p. 191. 17. Ibid., p. 192. 18. AAN, catalogue No. 212/II-3, witness interview report – Dyonizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947) card No. 36. 19. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu, p. 14. 20. In the archive of the Stutthof Museum there is a table prepared by Dr hab. Aleksander Lasik, which contains basic information about the staff of the camp. See M. Glin´ski, Załoga obozu koncentracyjnego Stutthof (1 IX 1939-9 V 1945), Cze˛sc´ III, Stutthof Zeszyty Muzeum 1987, No. 7, p. 204. 21. AMS, catalogue No. I-IB-2, Kommandanturbefehl Sonderbefehl 1943, Kommandanturbefehl No. 15, 20 February 1943, card No. 29d.

202

NOTES TO PAGES 58 – 64

22. J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torunia, p. 581. 23. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy p. 22. 24. APB, UWZ – L, catalogue No. 140, Documents referring to charging inspector Irena Jacobs with theft. 25. J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torunia, pp. 581–2. 26. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 85, Letter from the commandant of the Torun´ camp to the Emigration Office in Gdynia (2 December 1940) card No. 16. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid., An den Beauftragten des Distriktsgouverneurs, card No. 23. 29. J. Sziling, Wysiedlenia ludnos´ci polskiej z Pomorza w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej, Zeszyty Naukowe UMK, journal No. 15, Historia 1. Nauki humanistycznospołeczne, pp. 17 –19. See M. Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, p. 94. 30. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 13, card No. 77. 31. ‘Diese Massnahme hat nichts mit Humanita¨t oder Gefu¨hlsduselei den Polen gegenu¨ber zu tun, wenn man dabei beru¨cksichtigt dass das Generalgouvernement das Kra¨ftereservoir an landwirtschaftlichen und sonstigen Arbeitern fu¨r das Altreich darstellt.’ Ibid., catalogue No. 1, Anordung I/41, card No. 16. 32. D. Schenk, Hans Frank, p. 196. 33. Ibid., pp. 206– 7. 34. APB, UWZ –D, catalogue No. 85, Letter from the commandant of the camp in Torun´ to the Emigration Office in Gdynia (2 December 1940) card No. 17. 35. Ibid., catalogue No. 14, U¨bersicht (7 December 1940), card No. 17. The information in the document says that the total number of people who were sent to the camp in Torun´ was 1,662, while 1,356 people were transported to the General Government. 36. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview reports – Bronisław, Stanisław and Władysław Chrzanowski (17 and 20 October 1969), card Nos 51 – 54. 37. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 169, W sprawie dzieci odła˛czonych od ewakuowanych oso´b 1941– 1942, card No. 3. 38. W. Jastrze˛bski, Znaczenie hitlerowskich obozo´w, p. 105. 39. AIPN By, 26/55, Surveys concerning crimes committed by the Nazis in the period from 1939 to 1945. District of Torun´ [1970 – 1971], card No. 1050. 40. AAN, RGO BC in Krako´w, catalogue No. 1032, General data and statistics, correspondence and notes concerning the displaced from areas incorporated into the Reich, and areas of the GG and refugees 1941– 1943; card No. 25. 41. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 13, Aufstellung, 30 January 1941, card Nos 29 and 35; Ibid., catalogue No. 60, List of the displaced from the district of Torun´, 1941; J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu, p. 18.

NOTES TO PAGES 64 –70

203

42. For example, from Gdan´sk to the Torun´ camp came the family of Alojzy Murowski: his wife, two children aged three and five years, and sister-in-law. In Szmalco´wka his son Edward Marian Murawski died on 26 December 1941 and his wife Małgorzata Murawska on 5 April 1942. 43. Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka III Rzeszy, pp. 336– 7. 44. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 257. 45. W. Go´rski, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 55. 46. Cz. Łuczak, Polityka ludnos´ciowa i ekonomiczna hitlerowskich Niemiec w okupowanej Polsce (Poznan´, 1979), p. 226. 47. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Antoni Czaniecki (25 March 1970) card No. 148. 48. AHM, 0435, account given by Tadeusz Pipowski. 49. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Mieczysław Zboralski (10 November 1969) card No. 90. 50. Ibid., witness interview report – Tekla Chmielewska (5 November 1969) card No. 76. 51. A. Groblewski, Wspomnienia, p. 292. 52. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Hipolit Wiktor Kaczyn´ski (24 January 1969) card No. 23. 53. AHM, 0543, account given by Henryk Wojtalewicz (27 October 2007). 54. According to German documents the Luberda family were expelled on 10 July 1941. 55. ZAPH, SP, J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Wspomnienie dziecka bylej wie˛z´niarki obozu koncentracyjnego Torun´ – Potulice (1941 – 5), p. 1 [n.d.]. Obviously Szmalco´wka and Potulice were not concentration camps, but the survivors are convinced that use of the German terms (resettlement camp or labour camp) is misleading and does not adequately reflect the living conditions that prevailed in them. 56. Jo´zef Tischner (1931– 2000), famous Polish philosopher, intellectual, and exponent of the philosophy of dialogue. In 1981 he delivered sermons addressed to the leaders of the labour movement ‘Solidarity’ (including Lech Wałe˛sa), which were later published as a book Etyka Solidarnosci. 57. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Bronisława Norkowska (10 November 1969) card Nos 88 – 9. 58. Ibid., witness interview report – Edward Zawacki (22 October 1969) card No. 56. 59. Ibid., witness interview report – Maria Lulkowska (20 January 1970) card No.112. 60. J. Nadolna, Moje przez˙ycia w hitlerowskim obozie w Toruniu i w Potulicach (Chełmno, 2009), pp. 7 – 8. 61. L. Bandura, Wpływ wojny na psychike˛ dzieci i młodziez˙y (fragment rozprawy doktorskiej z 1950 roku), introduction and edited by Z. Kwiecinski (Torun´, 2004), p. 89. 62. Ibid., p. 59.

204

NOTES TO PAGES 71 –79

63. AAN, RGO BC in Krako´w, catalogue No. 1036, report on the arrival of new transports of people to the Kierniwice area (15 March 1941) card No. 5. 64. Ibid., report of the Regional Welfare Council in Grojec (4 July 1941) card No. 8. 65. Ibid., catalogue No. 1026a, report on activities of CWC [n.d.], card No. 25. 66. Ibid., card Nos 28 – 32. 67. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 23. 68. Data showing camp numbers is taken from the end of the month. 69. Among them there were 613 children under the age of 14 (323 boys and 290 girls), 1,635 people aged 14 – 60 (805 men and 830 women), and 71 subjects over the age of 60 (27 men and 44 women). See J. Sziling, Germanizacja, p. 581. 70. W. Go´rski, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 41. 71. AAN, catalogue no. 212/II-3, witness interview report – Dyonizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947) card No. 39. 72. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 253. 73. H. W. Klimek, Władysław Klimek. Posel z Pływaczewa. Pamie˛ci zasluz˙onemu Polakowi bestialsko zamordowanemu w 1939 r. Chwała Pamie˛taja˛cym (Torun´, 2011), pp. 59 –60. 74. A. Witkowska, Z˙ycie, działalnos´c´ spoleczna i polityczna posła Władysława Klimka (1899 –1939) (Bydgoszcz, 2006), pp. 21 – 44. The MA thesis was written under the supervision of Professor Dr hab. Adam Gwiazda at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz. 75. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 33. 76. See A. Witkowska, Z˙ycie, pp. 57 – 9. 77. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 44. 78. Ibid., p. 48. 79. AIPN By, 692/170, witness interview report – Wanda Klimek (9 March 1949) card No. 331. 80. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 98. 81. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue no. 88, Die Liste 15.6– 1.7.1941 aus dem Lager Thorn entlassenen Personen, card Nos 11 – 53. 82. Ibid., catalogue no. 104, Torun´ 1941– 1942. 83. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 136, Applications for release from the camp, 1942, card Nos 5– 6. 84. ‘Ich verpflichte mich fu¨r den Unterhalt und die Unterkunft meiner Schwa¨gerin [. . .] und daren Kinder so zu sorgen, dass Sie keine staatlich oder sonstige Hilfe in Anspruch zu nehmen braucht.’ APB, UWZ– D, catalogue no. 26, Returns and attempts of return of the people expelled to the General Government in the period 1940 to 1943, card Nos 75 – 77. 85. ‘[. . .] unter dauernder Kontrolle zu halten und im national-sozialistichen Sinne zu erziehen’. Ibid., catalogue no. 86, ‘The camp in Torun´’, a letter written by Johann Klimek to the Labour Office in Torun´ (13 March 1942) card Nos 51 – 53.

NOTES TO PAGES 80 –84

205

86. Ibid., catalogue no. 104, Letters regarding the release of Stanisław Kre˛glowski, card Nos 35 – 37. 87. Ibid., catalogue no. 136, letter from the Emigration Office to resettlement camps, 30 January 1942, card No. 282. 88. Ibid., catalogue no. 85, letter from the Emigration Office to commandants of the camp in Torun´ and Potulice (17 June 1941) card No. 55. 89. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Leon Karankowski (10 September 1969) card No. 87. 90. ATB, UWZ – L, catalogue No. 137, Entlassung Personen. 91. A. Groblewski, Wspomnienia, p. 296. 92. ATB, UWZ– L, catalogue No. 137, Entlassung, card No. 207. In the register of victims of Szmalco´wka, the date of 9 December 1941 is given as the date of Marian Gortatowski‘s death. 93. See V. Grossman, Wszystko płynie, translated by W. Bien´kowska (Warsaw, 1990), p. 83. 94. In the vita Golub-Dobrzyn´ is mentioned. It was created due to the merger of Golub and Dobrzyn´ in 1951. Also, the wrong date of Bukowski’s arrival at the camp is given: 15 February 1940. At that time Szmalco´wka did not yet exist. 95. ZAPH, SP, vita of the reserve captain Bogdan Witold Bukowski (Olsztyn, August 1990), p. 2. 96. ATB, SRSDG, catalogue No. 358, examinations of race in the camp in Torun´ 1942– 43, card Nos 229– 31. 97. ZAPH, SP, Z˙yciorys, p. 3. 98. Ibid., p. 6. 99. Marian Dulski, Czesław Gornacki, Zygmunt Kolakowski, Honorata Lewandowska, Jadwiga Skonecka, Bronisław Wo´jcik, Bolesław Wojciechowski. APB, UWZ-D, catalogue No. 27, Aufstellung der illegal aus dem G.G. zuruckgekehrten Personen U.W.Z. Lager Thorn. 100. Cz. Łuczak, Wste˛p in Wysiedlenie i poniewierka. Wspomnienia Polako´w wysiedlonych przez okupanta hitlerowskiego z ziem polskich “wcielonych” do Rzeszy 1939– 1945, selected and edited by R. Dylinski, M. Flejsierowicz, S. Kubiak (Poznan´, 1985), p. 25. 101. J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Relacja (12 April 2011). 102. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 26, Returns and attempts of return of the people sent to GG 1940– 1943, card No. 69. 103. J. Nadolna, Moje przez˙ycia, p. 13. 104. AMS, catalogue no. I-IIE-1-2, Prisoners’ record books Nos 3544-3743, 4622-5920, 1939. These people were: Eugeniusz Bawowski, Jochan Tischler, Piotr Sisowki, Cyprian Wosztal, the last name is illegible. All came from Gdynia. 105. M. Orski, Filie obozu, p. 194. 106. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 171, letter of the Employment Office in Torun´ to the camp in Torun´ from 24 September 1942, card No. 5. 107. Ibid., Escapes from internment camps directed to work 1941– 3.

206

NOTES TO PAGES 84 –89

108. In the Third Reich there was a difference between ‘citizenship’ and ‘nationality’. Only a citizen of the Reich (Reichsbu¨rger), i.e. a person with German blood (artverwandten Blutes), had full political rights. Volksdeutsche and the people included in Categories I and II of the DVL could receive the status of a citizen. Poles with ‘German blood’ included in the Category III received the status of ‘national belonging’ whereas those in the IV could adopt it with the possibility of having it revoked (Staatsangeho¨rigkeit auf Widerruf). Polish citizens who were not included in the DVL, or those who had lost their German nationality, were deprived of the rights enjoyed by other Reich subjects (Schutzangeho¨rige des Deutschen Reiches). Jews and gypsies, having ‘foreign blood’ (artfremden Blutes), could not even join this category and were treated as stateless. See K. M. Pospieszalski, Polska pod niemieckim, pp. 36 – 62. 109. ZAPH, SP, Account given by Czesław Skomorowski (Rakowice, 23 October 2002), p. 1. 110. Registry Office documents show partial paralysis as the reason of death. See register of victims, point 411. 111. Ibid., p. 2. 112. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 170, Epidemics, diseases, and fatal accidents of the people interned and evacuated 1941 –1942, card Nos 11 – 17. 113. J. Sziling, Germanizacja Torun´ia, p. 582. 114. W. Jastrze˛bski, Potulice, p. 74. 115. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Bronisław Olszewski (17 November 1969) card No. 95. 116. See W. Jastrze˛bski, Potulice, pp. 63 – 73. 117. ‘Wenn er aus dem hiesigen Verha¨ltnissen herauskommt und umgesiedelt wird kann aus ihn nach brauchbarer Mensch werden.’ APB, SRSDG, catalogue no. 150, Fragebogen zur politischen Beurteilung. 118. ‘Ich erkla¨re mit meiner Unterschrift, dass ich und meine Gattin: 1) polnischer Volkszugeho¨rigkeit bin, 2) keine Verwandten ersten Grades (Eltern, Kinder) deutscher Reichsangeho¨rigkeit habe. 3) keine Verwandten ersten und zweiten Grades (Eltern, Kinder, Geschwister) augenblicklich bei der Deutschen Wehrmacht habe, 4) die Unterschrift ohne Zwang von drittter Spite geleistet habe.’ Ibid., catalogue No. 1, statement by Weronika Balawska (17 February 1941) card No. 17. 119. M. Broszat, Nationalsozialistische, p. 88. 120. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Franciszek Iwanek (25 March 1970) card No. 151. 121. According to Jastrze˛bski the number was 1,100 in the camp in Potulice. 122. AIPN By, 32/31, witness interview report – Dyonizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947). 123. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 88, Transport vom Lager Thorn 10 VII 1942 nach dem Eindeutschungslager Gosslershausen, card No. 7. 124. APB, SRRDG, catalogue No. 358, Examinations on racial adherence in the Torun´ camp 1942– 3.

NOTES TO PAGES 89 –96

207

125. Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka III Rzeszy, p. 418. 126. Raporty z ziem wcielonych, p. 74. 127. AAN, catalogue No. 212/II –2, witness interview report – Antoni Nitecki (6 March 1947) card No. 30. 128. They gave the following statement: ‘Meinen Antrag auf Aufnahme in die Deutsche Volksliste ziehe ich freiwillig zuru¨ck, da ich Pole bin und auch bleiben will’. See J. Sziling, W Rzeszy – czym byla niemiecka okupacja na Pomorzu in Polskie pan´stwo podziemne na Pomorzu 1939– 1945, edited. G. Go´rski (Torun´, 1999), p. 32. 129. Ibid., pp. 32 – 3; J. Borzyszkowski, Konsekwencje wpisu na Deutsche Volksliste in Polityka germanizacyjna, pp. 83 – 93.

Chapter 4 ‘Lessons in Work, Cleanliness and Discipline . . .’ 1. A. Groblewski, Z˙ywi i martwi, p. 295. 2. J. Nadolna, Moje przez˙ycia, p. 8. 3. M. Orski, Status prawny obozo´w pracy wychowawczej w Potulicach, Smukale i Toruniu w poro´wnaniu do obozu w Stutthofie w okresie od 1 X 1941 do 7 I 1942 in Obozy hitlerowskie, p. 159. 4. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 109. 5. Quoted in M. Burleigh The Third Reich, p. 201. 6. A. Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 201. 7. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Jan Iwanek (23 January 1970) card No. 109. 8. Ibid., witness interview report, Tekla Chmielewska (5 November 1969) card No. 76. 9. AIPN BY, 32/31, witness interview report – Dyonizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947). 10. Ibid. 11. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 29. 12. Idem, catalogue No. 188, transportation letters sent to the Emigration Office and at the disposal of the Labour Office in Malbork. 13. W. Jastrze˛bski, Znaczenie hitlerowskich obozo´w centrali przesiedlen´czej w Gdan´sku w systemie wyniszczenia i dyskryminacji ludnos´ci polskiej Pomorza Gdan´skiego w latach 1939– 1945 in Obozy hitlerowskie, p. 113. 14. APB, UWZ –D, catalogue No. 184, Correspondence exchanged with the National Labour Office and other offices regarding settlements and expulsions, and regarding employment of Poles 1940– 2, card No. 37. 15. Ibid., card No. 59. 16. APB, UWZ– D, catalogue No. 72, Dienstreise nach Potulitz, Thorn und Marienwerden am 31 Ma¨rz und 1 April 1941, card No. 17. 17. See Appendix1. Document No. 4.

208

NOTES TO PAGES 96 –102

18. APB, SRSD, catalogue No. 33, lists of people sent from the camp in Torun´ to Potulice in 1942. 19. J. Nadolna, Moje przez˙ycia, p. 12. 20. Ibid., p. 15. 21. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 190, complaints of employers about Polish employees and vice versa (1942), card No. 6 – 9. 22. Ibid., catalogue No. 97, Food in UWZ camps 1940– 1941, card No. 9. 23. Ibid., card No. 15. 24. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, catalogue No. I, witness interview report – Hipolit Kaczyn´ski (24 January 1969) card No. 24. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid., witness interview report – Mieczysław Zboralski (10 November 1969) card Nos 90 – 91. 27. Ibid., witness interview report – Klara Zboralska (8 November 1969) card No. 85. 28. Edward Marian Murawski died on 26 December 1941. He lived for two years, ten months and seven days. In the files of the Registry Office the reason for death was given as measles. 29. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Franciszek Iwanek (25 March 1970) card No. 151. 30. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 116. 31. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 31. 32. K. Dunin-We˛sowicz, Obo´z koncentracyjny, p. 63. 33. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, witness interview report – Boz˙ena Sosinska (1 March 2010), card No. 165. 34. Ibid., vol. I, witness interview report – Leonard Zielin´ski, 14 January 1969, card No. 41. 35. AHM, 0435, Account given by Tadeusza Pipowskiego. 36. E. Ogłoza, Pomorze pod okupacja˛, p. 24. 37. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 121. 38. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 33. 39. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report Paweł Neumann (3 October 1969), card No. 33. 40. A. Groblewski, Wspomnienia, p. 293. 41. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Natalia Szypinska (4 October 1969) card No. 35. 42. Ibid., vol. III, witness interview report Julian S´wie˛cicki (10 February 1976) card No. 112. 43. Ibid., vol. I, witness interview report – Leon Karanowski (10 November 1970) card No. 87. 44. APB, UWZ – D, catalogue No. 85, a letter of the commandant of the camp in Torun´ to the Emigration Office (30 November 1940) card No. 14. 45. Ibid., card No. 17.

NOTES TO PAGES 102 –109

209

46. Account given by Janina Luberda-Zapas´nik during a phone conversation with the author (29 November 2010). 47. APB, UWZ –L, catalogue No. 141, the canteen and the kitchen at the camp in Torun´, Rechnung fu¨r SS Kuche des UWZ Lagers Thorn, card No. 5, 7. 48. This piece of information I received from Prof. Sziling, who corrected erroneous information concerning the Polish Underground. See Raporty z ziem wcielonych, p. 113. 49. H.W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, pp. 132– 3. 50. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Tekla Chmielewska (5 November 1969) card No. 76. 51. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, witness interview report – Antoni Czaniecki (25 March 1970). 52. In the death register in Barbarka, under the No. 125, there is the name Jozef Lesiczka born in 1895, a farmer from the village of Brzeczka. See S. Grochowina, J. Sziling, Barbarka. Miejsce niemieckich, p. 24. 53. S. Lesiczka, Przez˙yłem Szmalco´wke i Potulice, ‘Nowosci’ (5 October 1979) No. 224, p. 4. 54. AHM, 0543, Account given by Henryk Wojtalewicz. 55. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 32. 56. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. VIII, witness interview report – Gabriel Brzozowski (18 December 2008). 57. IPN By 33/32, witness interview report Dionizy Ulaszewski. 58. J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Relacja (17 April 2011), author’s private collection. 59. M. Szczepniak, Wspomnienia in Z˙ywi i martwi, p. 156. 60. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 32. 61. AHM, 0543, Account given by Henryk Wojtalewicz. 62. Ibid. 63. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 21. 64. D. Schenk, Albert Forster, p. 216. 65. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, Biography of Melania Kulczynska (24 February 2010) Bydgoszcz, card No. 1613. 66. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu, p. 33. 67. Jan Daniluk found this information in: Beitrag zum Kriegstagebuch in the archives in Freiburg, catalogue No. BArch, RH 53 –20/27. 68. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. II, witness interview report – Agnieszka Wesołowska (9 February 1976) card No. 212. 69. See H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, pp. 123– 4. 70. See Appendix, document No. 2. 71. AIPN By, 36/37, excerpts from death certificates of the Registry Office in Torun´ regarding Szmalco´wka. 72. APB, UWZ–D, catalogue No. 87, reports 1941–3, Halbmonatsmeldung (16 May 1942) card No. 135. 73. AHM, 0543, account given by Henryk Wojtalewicz.

210

NOTES TO PAGES 109 –113

74. AIPN By, 32/31, witness interview report – Dionizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947). 75. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, witness interview report – Urszula Kisiel (16 November 2009) card No. 1527. 76. Ibid., vol. I, witness interview report – Hubert Grabowski (4 November 1969) card No. 73. 77. Zofia Nałkowska (1884– 1954), Polish writer, whose famous novel Medaliony has as its subject the genocide of World War II. This book begins with the motto: ‘People inflicted this fate on other people.’ She worked for the Chief Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland. 78. According to Jastrze˛bski, the camp in Baz˙yn´skich played a role in the Germanization process, and its establishment did not have any connection with the ongoing epidemics. See W. Jastrze˛bski, Hitlerowski obo´z zniemczania w Jabłonowie-Zamku w latach 1941–1943 (Eindeutschungslager Schloss Gosslerhausen in: System obozo´w niemieckich na Pomorzu i terenach sa˛siednich (1939–1945), eds S. Grochowina, D. Kromp, J. Sziling (Torun´ 2010), p. 109. 79. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, pp. 14 – 15. 80. Ibid., p. 16. 81. Ibid., p. 24. 82. S. Lesiczka, Przez˙yłem Szmalco´wke i Potulice, p. 4. 83. AHM, 0435, account given by Tadeusz Pipowski. 84. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 128. 85. Zywi i martwi, p. 152. 86. E. Ogłoza, Pomorze pod okupacja˛, p. 23. 87. B. Chrzanowski, Wysiedlenie ludnos´ci polskiej z Pomorza Nadwislanskigo w latach 1939– 1944 in K. Minczykowska and J. Sziling (eds), Polityka germanizacyjna Trzeciej Rzeszy na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1945 (Torun´, 2007), p. 53. 88. Raporty z ziem wcielonych, p. 12. 89. A. Gasiorowski, Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w s´wietle wydawnictw konspiracyjnych z lat 1939– 1945 in Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu, pp. 25 – 26. See idem, Obozy i wiezienia na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach okupacji niemieckiej w swietle wydawnictw podziemnych i prasy konspiracyjnej (1939 – 1945) in System obozo´w, pp. 22 – 3. 90. ‘Ich bin darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, dass ich u¨ber alles das, was ich im Lager gesehen und geho¨rt habe zu niemand sprechen darf’. APB, UWZ – L, catalogue no. 141. Statement made by Stefan Wa˛troba (28 November 1940) card No. 3. 91. APT, AMTE, catalogue No. 798– 802. 92. A fragment of the Polish patriotic song entitled Rota, an informal Polish national anthem written by Maria Konopnicka in 1908 inspired by the Germanization action in the Prussian partition. 93. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, pp. 19 – 20. The author included in his work a picture and article from the German magazine that he had found in

NOTES TO PAGES 113 –120

94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119.

211

the Bydgoszcz archives. All issues of Thorner Freiheit can be found in the Kujawsko-Pomorskiej district digital library: http://kpbc.umk.pl/dlibra. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Henryk Rzeszotarski (8 November 1969), card No. 83. AHM, 0367, account given by Stanisław Krawan´ski, place of recording: Terespol Pomorski; date of recording: 16 July 2007; recorded by: Dominik Czapigo. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness activity report – Irena Kumiszcze (30 January 1970) card No. 113. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 126. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Edward Zawacki (22 October 1969) card No. 56. R. Overy, Dyktatorzy. Hitler i Stalin, p. 138. AHM, 0543, account given by Henryk Wojtalewicz. R. S. Rose, Krytyczny słownik, pp. 179– 83. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Leonard Zielin´ski (14 October 1969) card No. 41. Ibid., vol. VI, witness interview report – Stanisław Pozniak (28 October 2006). Ibid., vol. I, witness interview report – Bronisława Norkowska (10 November 1969) card No. 88. Marian Tarkowski, among others, was beaten with a cane whip. AIPN BY, 32/31, witness interview report – Dionizy Ulaszewski (11 March 1947). OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, witness interview report – Lidia Kaczynska (7 May 2010) card No. 1680. Cz. Madajczyk, Polityka III Rzeszy, p. 504. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Bronisława Norkowska (10 November 1969) card No. 88 – 89. Ibid., witness interview report – Tekla Chmielewska (5 November 1969) card No. 76. Ibid., vol. II, witness interview report – Franciszek Grzelak (17 February 1976) card No. 225. H. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 126. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Franciszek Jarco (25 March 1970) card No. 152. Ibid., vol VIII, witness interview report – Czesław Antczak (10 November 2009) card No. 1550. S. Lesiczka, Przez˙yłem Szmalco´wke i Potulice, p. 4. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn,vol. VI, witness interview report – Tadeusz Grabowski (20 September 2009) card No. 1190. ZAPH, SP, Zyciorys, p. 3. Z˙ywi i martwi, p. 149. See. A. Groblewski, Wspomnienia, p. 296. OKSZPNP, S 128/04/Zn, vol. VIII, witness interview report – Wacława Antczak (10 November 2009) card No. 1550.

212

NOTES TO PAGES 120 –128

120. Ibid., vol. I, witness interview report – Jan Kryger (10 December 1968) card No. 11 – 12. 121. ZAPH, SP, J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Wspomnienie dziecka, p. 2. 122. See: Aneks, Document No. 7. 123. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. VI, witness interview report – Tadeusz Grabowski (20 September 2009) card No. 1190. 124. See R. J. Evans, The Third Reich at War, pp. 3 – 105. 125. L. Kołakowski, Czy Pan Bo´g jest szcze˛s´liwy i inne pytania (Krako´w, 2009), p. 19. 126. See R. Argullol, ‘Wprowadzenie. Czarna krew’ in R. S. Rose, Krytyczny słownik, p. 11. 127. See H. Grynberg, Prawda nieartystyczna, p. 242. 128. L. Bandura, Wpływ wojny na psychike˛ dzieci, p. 17. 129. Ibid., p. 27. 130. J. Luberda-Zapas´nik, Relacja (17 April 2011). 131. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 151. 132. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Wanda Klimek (4 September 1969). 133. Ibid., witness interview report – Franciszek Nowakowski (4 September 1973) card No. 178. 134. Ibid., vol. II witness interview report Franciszek Grzelak (17 February 1976) card No. 225. 135. E. Ogłoza, Pomorze pod okupacja˛, p. 23. 136. B. Lang, Nazistowskie ludobo´jstwo, pp. 44 – 5. 137. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 155. 138. L. Zygner, Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy, p. 23. 139. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 134. 140. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. III, Analysis of witness interview reports the suspended investigation resumed (12– 14 September 2005) card No. 422. 141. J. Musiał-Michalak, Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu, p. 23.

Chapter 5 A Closed Story? 1. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. I, witness interview report – Leonard Zielin´ski (14 October 1969) card No. 42. 2. Ibid., witness interview report – Alojzy Szyplinski (5 October 1969), card No. 36. 3. AHM, 0543, Account of Henryk Wojtalewicz (27 October 2007). 4. K. Przybyszewski, Ks. Paweł Goga (1900 – 1971), “Nowos´ci” (29 February 1996) no 51, p. 7; idem, Ludzie Torunia odrodzonej Rzeczpospolitej (1920 – 1939) (Torun´, 2001), pp. 151– 3. 5. AIPN By, 33/32, witness interview report – Feliks Rydzen´ski (10 July 1945). 6. Catalogue no. MT/HN/D/23.

NOTES TO PAGES 129 –132

213

7. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. 1, witness interview report – Feliks Rydzen´ski (22 October 1969) card No. 54 –55. 8. Ibid., copy of the statement given by Feliks Rydzen´ski (5 February 1970) card No. 118. 9. Obozy przejs´ciowe, p. 14. 10. Kazimierz Luberda, born on 12 November 1941, died of pneumonia on 3 February 1942 in the field hospital on Baz˙yn´skich Street; Stanisław Luberda, born on 8 October 1937, died on 28 March 1942 of typhus. 11. Genowefa Całka in the cemetery records is recorded as Gałka Genowefa in the death register; Krystyna Czudek as Krystyna Rudek, Jan Kaszkowski as Jan Kaszewski; Czesław Kujner as Czesława Rujner; Stanisław Kujner as Stanisław Rujner; Teresa Kujner as Teresa Rujner; Maria Łapczyn´ska as Maria Lapczejska/Łapczyn´ska; Danuta Man´kowska as Danuta Maria Manikowska; Jerzy Feska as Jerzy Teska; Czesław Grenz as Czesław Grenc; Cecylia Kaszkowska as Cecylia Raszkowska; Jadwiga Kaszkowska as Jadwiga Halina Raszkowska; Genowefa Polczewska as Genowefa Palczewska; Kazimierz Sedziowski as Kazimierz Stanisław Lodzikowski; Feliks Szymkowski as Feliks Rynkowski; Anastazja Szymkowska as Anastazja Rynkowska; Stefan Tomkiewicz as Stefania Tomkiewicz; Maria Zakonny as Marianna Lakomy. 12. Andrzej Chrzan-Chriczan (12 September 1895– 21 October 1941); Adam Drozdowski (5 August 1918 – 31 October 1942); Pelagia Olszewska (22 December 1906 – 4 February 1943); Ignacy/Zygmunt Pliszczynski (1 November 1919– 21 December 1942); Antoni Pasinski (14 July 1942– 18 November 1942); Walenty Scheffer/Scheffler (13 July 1889– 11 December 1942); Anna Slubczewska (12 January 1897– 18 November 1942). 13. Stanisław Arcikowski (Arcipowski) 18 June 1888– 4 October 1942; Bronisław Janiszewski (16 June 1921– 31 October 1942); Szymon Jurkiewicz (26 October 1882– 4 October 1942); Edmund Karaszewski (29 July 1919– 28 August 1942); Stefan Ordakowski (18 April 1915– 8 September 1942). 14. Antoni Bezmerowicz (20 May 1887– 24 June 1942); Bronisław Dziekciowski (14 August 1894 –9 August 1941); Zofia Kitowska (23 September 1905– 23 September 1941); Jan Mankowski/Manikowski (died on 21 May 1941); Feliks Jaworski (19 January 1918– 8 July 1942). 15. Pelagia Dermjanko (9 May 1925– 24 June 1942); Maks Hett (13 July 1927– 11 June 1942). 16. Teodor Kaniewski (29 May 1919– 15 April 1942). 17. The corpse of Jan Guczalski (died on 13 November 1941) was transported from Lipno to the cemetery in Torun´. 18. See J. Leociak, Liczba ofiar jako metafora w dyskursie publicznym o Zagładzie in Polska 1939– 1945, pp. 59 – 60. 19. T. Judt, T. Snyder, Thinking the Twentieth Century (London, 2012), p. 276. 20. These letters come from the collection of documents regarding the camp in Potulice at the National Archive in Bydgoszcz. They were prepared at the request of GKBZH. A certified copy is available in the Bydgoszcz office of the

214

NOTES TO PAGES 132 –177 Institute of National Remembrance, in the collection dedicated to Alicja Paczoska-Hauke.

Epilogue 1. K. Jaspers, O z´ro´dle i celu historii, transl. J. Marzecki (Kety, 2006), p. 148. Vom Ursprung und der Ziel der Gesichte appeared for the first time in Munich in 1949. 2. A. Wolff-Powe˛ska, Polacy –Niemcy. Pamie˛´c historyczna, pamie˛c´ europejska in Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu, p. 10. 3. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 152. 4. See J. Holzer, Polska 1945. Wojna wygrana czy przegrana? in Od wojny do wolnos´ci. Wybuch i konsekwencje II wojny s´wiatowej 1939– 1945, ed. M. Andrzejewski et al. (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2010), pp. 162– 9. 5. OKSZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, the final judgment of the Supreme National Tribunal in Gdan´sk in the case against Albert Forster (29 April 1948) card No. 1076– 1077. 6. W. Grossman, Wszystko płynie, p. 103. 7. OKS´ZpNPG, S 128/04/Zn, vol. IX, decision to discontinue the investigation (12 July 2010) card No. 1725. 8. Ibid., witness interview report – Lidia Kaczyn´ska (7 May 2010) card No. 1680. 9. See M. I. Midlarsky, Ludobo´jstwo w XX wieku, pp. XII – XIII, 28. 10. H. W. Klimek, Czas utraconego, p. 199. 11. G. Herling-Grudzin´ski, Dziennik pisany noca˛ 1984– 1988, vol. II (Paris, 1989), p. 29. 12. K. Jaspers, O z´ro´dle i celu historii, pp. 11, 148– 9. 13. H. Grynberg, Prawda nieartystyczna, p. 240. 14. See T. Ceran, Historia i polityka – s´wiaty przeciwstawne? Na marginesie mys´li Juliusza Mieroszewskiego, Historia i Polityka (2010) No. 11, pp. 120– 35.

Appendix 1 Ten Source Documents on the History of the Camp 1. Franz Jacob was, from 1 November 1939 (official nomination on 20 June 1940) until the end of the occupation, the Lord Mayor (Oberbu¨rgermeister) of Torun´, one of the closest collaborators of Albert Forster. 2. This is most probably about Bronisław (Bolesław) Klinikowski. 3. This refers to Krystyna Rudek. 4. This refers to Thuringia. 5. Adam Hoszowski was born in Lwo´w.

NOTES TO PAGES 177 –183

215

6. In the death register (point 378) the name Julia Rozumek appears. This name also appears in the documents of APB. 7. The last commandant of Szmalco´wka, Harald Lebius, died on 1 January 1971 in Hamburg. 8. Franciszek Foksin´ski born 28 September 1877, died on 8 November 1941. 9. Jadwiga Foksin´ska born on 21 May 1933, died on 4 August 1942. 10. Zygmunt Foksin´ski born on 12 November/11 December 1937, died on 22 December 1941. 11. No information available 12. The letter was written on 14 December 1940. 13. Letters written by the commandant of the camp from 19 December 1940 and from 21 January 1941 are located in the Bydgoszcz Archives. See APB, UWZD, catalogue No. 42. Abuses when conducting evacuations and expulsions 1940– 2. 14. 7 February 1942.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I Archives and private collections Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw Concentration camps and prisons. The Central Welfare Council. Branch Office in Krako´w. A collection of underground and anti-Nazi prints and leaflets.

Archives of Oral History in Warsaw – The History Meeting House Accounts given by Stanisław Krawan´ski, Tadeusz Pipowski, and Henryk Wojtalewicz.

Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Bydgoszcz Files from the criminal case against Richard Hildebrandt and Max Henze. Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Torun´, files concerning the so-called Szmalco´wka. District Court in Torun´, death certificates. Surveys concerning crimes committed by the Nazis in the period from 1939 to 1945. The city and district of Torun´ [1968– 70]. Surveys concerning crimes committed by the Nazis in the period from 1939 to 1945. District of Torun´ [1970– 1]. Excerpts from the death certificates of the Registry Office in Torun´ concerning Szmalco´wka.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

217

Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Gdan´sk Charge sheet of Albert Forster before the Supreme National Tribunal, 7 February 1948. Correspondence exchanged between Albert Forster and Richard Hildebrandt, 1936– 45.

Archives of the Branch Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation in Gdan´sk, Branch Office in Bydgoszcz Probe files regarding the murder of people of Polish nationality in the period from November 1940 to July 1943 in Torun´ in Szmalco´wka by German officers who were the camp’s staff, and the creation of living conditions threatening the biological destruction of the people imprisoned there.

National Archives of the Museum Stutthof Cases concerning the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Companies. Correspondence 1941– 3. Kommandanturbefehl Sonderbefehl 1943.

State Archives in Bydgoszcz Collection of documents from the Central Emigration Office in Gdan´sk (Umwandererzentralstelle Danzig). Collection of documents from the camp of the Emmigration Office in Potulice from 1940 to 1945 (Lager Lebrechtdorf), Torun´ camp (Lager Thorn). Collection of documents from the Special Department of the Security Service in Gdynia (Sonderreferat S.D. Gotenhafen), and later in Potulice.

State Archives in Torun´ Documents of the City of Torun´, 1939– 45.

Collections of Alicja Paczoska-Hauke concerning the camp in Potulice, located in OBEP IPN, Branch Office in Bydgoszcz II Literature regarding Szmalco´wka a) Unpublished works

Go´rski, W., Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy i pracy w Toruniu (XI 1940 – VII 1943) (Torun´, 1972). Master’s thesis written under the guidance of Prof. Dr habil.

218

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Witold Łukaszewicz in the Institute of History at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun´. Currently in the university archives. Musiał-Michalak, J., Obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu (1940 – 1943) (Bydgoszcz, 1999). Master’s thesis written under the guidance of Prof. Dr habil. Włodzimierz Jastrze˛bski at the Institute of History of the Faculty of Humanities, College of Education in Bydgoszcz. At present it is located in the OBEP Library in Bydgoszcz.

b) Monographs and articles

Ciesielska, K., Rejestr oso´b zmarłych w obozie przesiedlen´czym Szmalco´wka w Toruniu 1941– 1943, Rocznik Torun´ski (1976) vol. 11. Jastrze˛bski, W., ‘The significance of the Nazi camps of the Emigration Office in Gdan´sk in the system of destruction and discrimination against the Polish nation in Gdan´sk Pomerania in 1939– 1945’ in L. Janiszewski (ed.), The Nazi camps in Western Pomerania and Gdan´sk Pomerania in the years of the Second World War. Materials from the conference (Szczecin, 1989). Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939– 1945. Informator encyklopedyczny, ed. Cz. Pilichowski et al. (Warsaw, 1979). Obozy przejs´ciowe dla ludnos´ci cywilnej na ziemiach polskich w latach 1939– 1945, introduction by H. Migala, edited by T. Kardacz (Warsaw, 1967). Orski, M., ‘Status prawny obo´zow pracy wychowawczej w Potulicach, Smukale i Toruniu w porownaniu do obo´zu w Stutthofie w okresie od 1 X 1941 do 7 I 1942’ in L. Janiszewski (ed.), Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdan´skim w latach drugiej wojny s´wiatowej. Materialy z konferencji naukowej (Szczecin, 1989). Przybyszewski, K., Ks. Pawel Goga (1900 – 1971), Nowos´ci, No. 51 (29 February 1996). Zakrzewski, T., Postawmy tu pomnik me˛czen´stwa rodzin, Nowos´ci, No. 41 (2 April 1982). ——— Szmalco´wka, Nowos´ci No. 39 (31 March 1982). ——— Zagłada rodzin, Nowos´ci No. 40 (1 April 1982). Zygner, L., Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy w Toruniu przy ul. Baz˙yn´skich (1941 – 1943) (Torun´, 1996).

c) Memoirs

Bukowski, B., Gromadzki, H., Groblewski, A., Kesik, J., Klimek, H., Stan´czyk, K., Guzik, G., Samek, J., Szczepniak, M., Zdzuj, M., Stanisławska, B., Wasilewska, L., Wojnowska, M., ‘Wspomnienia’ in T. Samselski (ed.), Z˙ywi i martwi. O hitlerowskim obozie Potulice 1941– 1945 (Bydgoszcz, 1997). Groblewski, A., ‘Wspomnienia’ in Obozy hitlerowskie na Pomorzu Zachodnim i Gdan´skim w latach Drugiej wojny s´wiatowej. Materialy z konferencji naukowej, ed. L. Janiszewski (Szczecin, 1989). Klimek, H.W., Czas utraconego dziecin´stwa (1939 –1945) (Bydgoszcz, 2003). ——— Bylis´my dziec´mi ze Szmalco´wki, Nowos´ci No. 32 (8 March 2008). ——— Egzysterki czyli pisane wierszem egzystencjalne rozwaz˙ania , rados´ci , smutki , rozterki (Torun´, 2009). Lesiczka, S., ‘Przez˙yłem Szmalco´wke i Potulice’, Nowos´ci No. 224 (5 October 1979). Luberda-Zapas´nik, J., Relacja, date of recording: 30 March 2011, place of recording: Olsztyn, recorded by Tomasz Ceran (the account is in the author’s collection).

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Nadolna, J., Moje przez˙ycia w hitlerowskim obozie w Toruniu i w Potulicach (Chełmno, 2009).

III Selected literature concerning Gdan´sk Pomerania and Kujawy during the period of World War II Bandura, L., ‘Wpływ wojny na psychike˛ dzieci i młodziez˙y’ (fragment of a PhD thesis) introduction and edited by Z. Kwiecin´ski (Torun´, 2004). Berendt, G., ‘Wste˛p’ in G. Berendta (ed.), Wyniszczyc´ – Wypedzic´ – Wynarodowic´. Szkice do dziejo´w okupacji niemieckiej na Kaszubach i Kociewu (1939 – 1945) (Gdan´sk, 2010). Borzyszkowski, J., ‘Konsekwencje wpisu na Deutsche Volksliste’ in K. Minczykowska and J. Sziling (eds), Polityka germanizacyjna Trzeciej Rzeszy na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1945 (Torun´, 2007). Chrzanowski, B., Wysiedlenie ludnos´ci polskiej z Pomorza Nadwis´lanskigo w latach 1939– 1944 in ibid. Datner, Sz., Gumkowski, J., Leszczyn´ski, K., Wysiedlenie ludnos´ci z ziem polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy, Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce (1960) vol. XII. Dunin-We˛sowicz, K., Obo´z koncentracyjny Stutthof (Gdan´sk, 1970). Gasiorowski, A., ‘Obozy i wiezienia na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach okupacji niemieckiej w swietle wydawnictw podziemnych i prasy konspiracyjnej (1939 – 1945)’ in S. Grochowina, D. Kromp, J. Sziling (eds), System obozo´w niemieckich na Pomorzu i terenach sa˛siednich (1939– 1945) (Torun´, 2010). Gasiorowski, A., ‘Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w s´wietle wydawnictw konspiracyjnych z lat 1939– 1945’ in J. Borzyszkowskiego (ed.), Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu w latach 1939– 1948. Materiały pokonferencyjne (Gdan´sk/ Wejherowo, 2004). Glin´ski, M., ‘Załoga obo´zu koncentracyjnego Stutthof (1 IX 1939-9 V 1945) Cze˛s´c´ III’, Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum No. 7 (1987). Grochowina, S., Sziling J., Barbarka. Miejsce niemieckich egzekucji Polako´w z Torunia i okolic (paz´dziernik- grudzien´ 1939) (Torun´, 2009). Jastrze˛bski, W., ‘Hitlerowski obo´z zniemczania w Jabłonowie-Zamku w latach 1941– 1943’ (Eindeutschungslager Schloss Gosslerhausen) in System obozo´w. ——— Hitlerowskie wysiedlenia z ziem polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy 1939– 1945 (Poznan´, 1968). ——— Potulice. Hitlerowski obo´z przesiedlen´czy i pracy (luty 1941 r. – styczen´ 1945 r.) (Bydgoszcz, 1967). ——— ‘Przymus germanizacyjny w okregu Rzeszy Gdan´sk-Prusy Zachodnie w latach 1939 – 1945’ in W. Jastrze˛bski (ed.), Przymus germanizacyjny na ziemiach polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy Niemieckiej w latach 1939 – 1945 (Bydgoszcz, 1993). ——— Sziling, J., Okupacja hitlerowska na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1945 (Gdan´sk, 1979). Łuczak, Cz., Polityka ludnos´ciowa i ekonomiczna hitlerowskich Niemiec w okupowanej Polsce (Poznan´, 1979).

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Łuczak, Cz., ‘Wste˛p’ in R. Dylinski, M. Flejsierowicz, S. Kubiak (eds), Wysiedlenie i poniewierka. Wspomnienia Polako´w wysiedlonych przez okupanta hitlerowskiego z ziem polskich ”wcielonych” do Rzeszy 1939– 1945 (Poznan´, 1985). Madajczyk, Cz., Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce, vol. I (Warsaw, 1970). Michalski, R., Obraz Rzeszy Niemieckiej na łamach polskiej prasy pomorskiej w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej (1920 – 1939). Studium z dziejo´w kształtowania sie stereotypu wiedzy o rozwoju niemieckiego nacjonalizmu (Torun´, 1995). Oboz w Potulicach – aspekty trudnego sa˛siedztwa polsko-niemieckiego w okresie dwo´ch totalitaryzmo´w, ed. A. Paczoska (Bydgoszcz, 2005). Ogłoza, E., Pomorze pod okupacja˛ niemiecka˛ 1939– 1945. Fragment Torun´ski (Torun´, 1945). Okupacja i zbrodnie niemieckie na Kujawach i Pomorzu Południowym (exhibition catalogue), eds K. Churska, M. Szymaniak (Bydgoszcz, 2009). Orski, M., Filie obo´zu koncentracyjnego Stutthof w latach 1939– 1945 (Gdan´sk, 2004). Podgoreczny, M., Albert Forster. Gauleiter i oskarz˙ony (Gdan´sk, 1977). Pospieszalski, K.M., Polska pod niemieckim prawem 1939– 1945 (Ziemie Zachodnie) (Poznan´, 1946). Raporty z ziem wcielonych do III Rzeszy (1942 – 1944), eds Z. Mazur, A. Pietrowicz, M. Rutowska (Poznan´, 2004). Schenk, D., Albert Forster. Gdan´ski namiestnik Hitlera. Zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Gdan´sku i Prusach Zachodnich, translation and footnotes provided by W. Tycner, J. Tycner (Gdan´sk, 2002). Sziling, J., ‘Akcja wysiedlen´cza ludnos´ci polskiej na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939– 1940 ze szczego´lnym uwzglednieniem Ziemi Chełmin´skiej i poludniowych regiono´w wojewo´dztwa pomorskiego’ in Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu. ——— ‘Germanizacja Torunia’, in M. Biskup (ed.), Historia Torunia, vol. III, part II: W czasach Polski Odrodzonej i okupacji niemieckiej (1920 – 1945) (Torun´, 2006). ——— Lata okupacji niemieckiej (1939 – 1945), in K. Jasinski (ed.), Dzieje S´wiecia nad Wisła˛ i jego regionu, vol. II (Warsaw, 1980). ——— ‘Polityka narodowos´ciowa niemieckich władz okupacyjnych na Pomorzu Gdan´skim w latach 1939 –1945’ in R. Sudzinski (ed.), Problemy narodowos´ciowe i wyznaniowe na Pomorzu Nadwis´lanskim i Kujawach w XX wieku (Torun´, 1997). ——— ‘Pomorze Gdan´skie jesienia˛ 1939 r.’ in Jan Sziling (ed.), Jesien´ 1939. Dokumentacja pierwszych miesie˛cy okupacji niemieckiej na Pomorzu Gdan´skim (Torun´, 1989). ——— ‘W Rzeszy – czym była niemiecka okupacja na Pomorzu’ in G. Go´rski (ed.), Polskie pan´stwo podziemne na Pomorzu 1939– 1945 (Torun´, 1999). ——— ‘Wysiedlenia ludnos´ci polskiej z Pomorza w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej’, Zeszyty Naukowe UMK No. 5 (1965) Historia 1. Nauki humanistyczno-spoleczne. Wetzel, E., Hecht, G., ‘Sprawa traktowania ludnos´ci byłych polskich obszarow z rasowo-politycznego punktu widzenia’ (Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevo¨lkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichtspunkte) (25 November 1939) reprint in Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce (1948) vol. IV. Wolff-Powe˛ska, A., Polacy – Niemcy. Pamie˛c´ historyczna, pamie˛c´ europejska in Wysiedlenia na Pomorzu.

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IV Further reading Arendt, H., Eichmann w Jerozolimie. Rzecz o banalnos´ci zła, transl. A. Szostkiewicz (Krako´w, 2010). ——— O naturze totalitaryzmu. Esej z rozumienia in eadem, Salon berlin´ski i inne eseje, transl. M. Godyn, S. Szymanski (Warsaw, 2008). Argullol, R., ‘Wprowadzenie. Czarna krew’ in Rose Rosa Sala, Krytyczny słownik mito´w i symboli nazizmu, transl. Z. Jakubowska, A. Rurarz (Warsaw, 2006). Bartoszewski, W., Mimo wszystko. Wywiadu rzeki ksie˛ga druga (Warsaw, 2008). Besancon, A., Przeklen´stwo wieku. O komunizmie, narodowym socjalizmie i jedynos´ci Zagłady, transl. J. Guze (Warsaw, 2000). Bo¨hler, J., Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce. Wrzesien´ 1939. Wojna totalna, transl. P. Pien´kowska-Wiederkehr (Krako´w, 2009). Borejsza, J.W., Antyslawizm Adolfa Hitlera (Warsaw, 1988). ——— Pie˛kny wiek XIX (Warsaw, 2010). ——— Stulecie zagłady (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2011). ——— S´mieszne sto milionow Słowian. . . . Woko´ł swiatopogla˛du Adolfa Hitlera (Warsaw, 2006). Broszat, M., Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939– 1945 (Frankfurt am Main, 1965). Bullock, A., Hitler. Studium tyranii, transl. T. Evert (Warsaw, 1969). Burleigh, M., Germany turns Eastwards. A study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1988). ——— Trzecia Rzesza. Nowa historia, transl. G. Siwek (Warsaw, 2002). ——— S´wie˛ta racja. ”S´wieckie religie” XX wieku, transl. M. Jatczak (Warsaw, 2011). Camus, A., Człowiek zbuntowany, transl. J. Guze (Krako´w, 1991). Ceran, T, ‘Historia i polityka – s´wiaty przeciwstawne? Na marginesie mys´li Juliusza Mieroszewskiego’, Historia i Polityka No. 11 (2010). Chincin´ski, T., Forpoczta Hitlera. Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 roku (Gdan´sk/ Warsaw, 2010). Die SS Elite unter dem Totenkopf. 30 Lebenslau¨fe, hrsg. R. Smelser, E. Syring (Mu¨nchen, 2000). Domarus, M., The Essential Hitler. Speeches and Commentary, ed. P. Romane (Wauconda, 2007). Evans, R.J. The Third Reich at War. How the Nazis led Germany from conquest to disaster (London, 2008). Finkielkraut, A., Zagubione człowieczen´stwo, transl. M. Fabjanowski (Warsaw, 1999). Furet, F., Przeszłos´c´ pewnego złudzenia. Esej o idei komunistycznej w XX wieku, transl. J. Go´rnicka-Kalinowska, M. Ochab (Warsaw, 1996). Gadacz, T., ‘Is´c´ po ziemi i po niebie’, interview by Jacek Z˙akowski, Polityka No. 17 (2011). Gilbert, M., Second World War (London, 1989). Glover, J., Humanity. A Moral History of the Twentieth Century (New Haven/New York, 2001). Goebbels, J., Die Tagebu¨cher, Teil I Aufzeichnungen 1923– 1941, Band 7 Juli 1939 – Ma¨rz 1940, hrsg. E. Fro¨hlich (Mu¨nchen, 1998). Grodzin´ski, E., Filozofia Adolfa Hitleraw Mein Kampf (Warsaw/Olsztyn, 1992).

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Grossman, W., Wszystko płynie, transl. W. Bien´kowska (Warsaw, 1990). Grynberg, H., Prawda nieartystyczna (Wołowiec, 2002). Harten, H. Ch., De-Kulturation und Germanisierung. Die nationalsozialistische Rassenund Erziehungspolitik in Polen 1939– 1945 (Frankfurt/New York, 1996). Haushofer, K., Weltpolitik von heute (Berlin, 1934). Herling-Grudzin´ski, G., Dziennik pisany noca˛ 1984– 1988 (Paris, 1989). ——— Dziennik pisany noca˛ 1997 –1999 (Warsaw, 2000). Himmler, H., ‘Kilka mys´li o traktowaniu obcoplemiennych na Wschodzie’ (Einige Gedanken u¨ber Behandlung der Fremdenvo¨lker im Osten), reprint in Biuletyn Gło´wnej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce (1948) vol. IV. Hitler, A., Der grossdeutsche Freiheitskampf. Reden Adolf Hitlers vom 1. September 1939 bis 10, Marz 1940 (Mu¨nchen, 1940). ——— Mein Kampf. Zwei Ba¨nde in einem Band (Mu¨nchen, 1939). ——— Rozmowy przy stole 1941– 1944. Rozmowy w Kwaterze Gło´wnej zapisane na polecenie Martina Bormanna przez jego adiutanta Heinricha Heima (Warsaw, 1996). Ho¨hne, H., Zakon Trupiej Czaszki, transl. S. Ke˛dzierski (Warsaw, 2006). Holzer, J., ‘Polska 1945. Wojna wygrana czy przegrana?’ in M. Andrzejewski et al. (eds), Od wojny do wolnos´ci. Wybuch i konsekwencje II wojny s´wiatowej 1939– 1945 (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2010). Ja¨ckel, E., Hitler’s World View. A blueprint for power (Cambridge– London, 1982). Jansen, Ch., Weckbecker, A., Der “Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz” in Polen 1939/1940 (Mu¨nchen, 1992). Jaspers, K., O z´ro´dle i celu historii, transl. Jo´zef Marzecki (Kety, 2006). Jochmann W., Kryzys społeczny. Antysemityzm. Narodowy socjalizm, transl. B. Mrozewicz (Poznan´, 2007). Judt, T., Snyder, T., Thinking the Twentieth Century (Penguin, 2012). Kempner, R.M.W., Trzecia Rzesza w krzyz˙owym ogniu pytan. Z nie opublikowanych protokoło´w przesłuchan´, transl. K. Bunsch (Krako´w, 1971). Kershaw, I., Hitler 1936– 1941. Nemezis, part 1, transl. P. Bandel (Poznan´, 2002). Kersten, K., ‘Wste˛p’ in S. Courtoisa (ed.), Czarna ksiega komunizmu. Zbrodnie, terror, przes´ladowania (Warsaw, 1999). Kissinger, H., Dyplomacja, transl. S. Glabinski, G. Wozniak, I. Zych (Warsaw, 2003). Kołakowski, L., Czy Pan Bo´g jest szcze˛´sliwy i inne pytania (Krako´w, 2009). Kro´l, E.C., Polska i Polacy w propagandzie narodowego socjalizmu w Niemczech 1919– 1945 (Warsaw, 2006). Lang, B., Nazistowskie ludobo´jstwo. Akt i idea, transl. A. Ziebinska-Witek (Lublin, 2006). Le Goff, J., Historia i pamie˛c´, transl. A. Gronowska, J. Stryjczyk (Warsaw, 2007). Leociak, J., Liczba ofiar jako metafora w dyskursie publicznym o Zagładzie in Polska 1939 – 1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami, ed. W. Materski, T. Szarota (Warsaw, 2009). Machcewicz, P., ‘Wste˛p’ in P.T. Kwiatkowski et al., Mie˛dzy codziennos´cia˛ a wielka˛ historia˛. Druga wojna s´wiatowa w pamie˛ci zbiorowej społeczen´stwa polskiego, commentary by M. Kula (Gdan´sk/Warsaw, 2010).

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Marks, S., Dlaczego poszli za Hitlerem? Psychologia narodowego socjalizmu w Niemczech, transl. A. Gadzala (Warsaw, 2009). Midlarsky, M.I., Ludobo´jstwo w XX wieku, transl. B. Wojciechowski (Warsaw, 2010). Miłosz, Cz., ‘Przedmowa’, in S. Vincenz, Po stronie pamie˛ci (Paris, 1965). Moczulski, L., Geopolityka. Pote˛ga w czasie i przestrzeni (Warsaw, 2000). Orwell, G., ‘Review of Mein Kampf’ ‘New English Weekly, 21 March 1940 in idem, Jak mi sie podoba. Eseje, felietony, listy, selected and introduction written by P. Spiewak, transl. A. Husarksa, M. Szuster and B. Zborski (Warsaw, 2002). Overy, R., Dyktatorzy. Hitler i Stalin, transl. L. Witczak (Wrocław, 2009). Paxton, R.O., Anatomia faszyzmu, transl. P. Bandel (Poznan´, 2005). Przekle˛te miejsce Europy? Dylematy polskiej geopolityki, ed. J. Kloczowskiego (Krako´w, 2009). Przybyszewski, K., Ludzie Torunia odrodzonej Rzeczpospolitej (1920– 1939) (Torun´, 2001). Przybyszewski, K., Torun´ w Drugiej Rzeczpospolitej 1920– 1939. Społeczen´stwo i gospodarka (Torun´, 1994). Radfield, P., Himmler. Reichfu¨hrer SS, transl. Stefan Baranowski (Warsaw, 2005). Rauschning, H., Rozmowy z Hitlerem, transl. J. Hensel and R. Turczyn (Waraw, 1994). Rees, L., Nazis´ci. Ostrzez˙enie historii, transl. S. Kedzierski (Warsaw, 1998). Romane, P., ‘Editor’s preface’ in M. Domarus, The Essential Hitler. Speeches and Commentary, ed. P. Romane (Wauconda, 2007). Rose, R.S., Krytyczny słownik mito´w i symboli nazizmu, transl. Z. Jakubowska, A. Rurarz (Warsaw, 2006). Rossino, A.B., Hitler strikes Poland. Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity (Kansas, 2003). Rotfeld, A.D., Polska w niepewnym s´wiecie (Warsaw, 2006). Rzeczpospolita utracona. Naste˛pstwa nazizmu i komunizmu na ziemiach polskich, ed. J. Eisler and K. Rokicki (Warsaw, 2010). Schenk, D., Hans Frank. Biografia generalnego gubernatora, transl. K. Jachimczak (Krako´w, 2009). Shirer, W.L., Dziennik berlin´ski. Zapiski korespondenta zagranicznego 1934– 1941, transl. J. Szkudlinski (Warsaw, 2007). Snyder, T., Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (New York, 2010) Spengler, O., Zmierzch Zachodu. Zarys morfologii historii uniwersalnej, transl. J. Marzecki (Warsaw, 2001). Szarota, T., Karuzela na placu Krasin´skich. Studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji (Warsaw, 2007). ——— Niemcy i Polacy. Wzajemne postrzeganie i stereotypy (Warsaw, 1996). Teczka Hitlera, ed. H. Eberleg and M. Uhle, transl. B. Ostrowska (Warsaw, 2005). Tokarczyk, R., Wspo´łczesne doktryny polityczne (Warsaw, 2010). To¨nnies, F., Wspo´lnota i stowarzyszenie. Rozprawa o komunizmie i socjalizmie jako empirycznych formach kultury, transl. M. Łukaszewicz (Warsaw, 1988). Wardzyn´ska, M., Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczen´stwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (Warsaw, 2009). ——— ‘Kategorie obozo´w pod okupacja˛ niemiecka˛ w latach II wojny s´wiatowej’ in W. Materski and T. Szarota (eds), Polska 1939 –1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami (Warsaw, 2009).

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INDEX

Abromeit, Franz, 46, 53, 60, 117 Alvensleben, Ludolph von, 34, 197 Antczak, Czesław, 119 Antczak, Weronika, 120 Anti-Polishness, 17 – 18, 26 – 27, 42 – 43, 124– 125 Anti-Semitism, 18 – 19 Anti-Slavism, 23 –25 Antonik, Łucja, 107 Arendt, Hannah, 28 Argullol, Rafael, 122 Balawska, Weronika, 86 Bandura, Ludwik, 70, 122 Baranowski, Roman, 53 Bartoszewski, Władysław, 8, 31 Beer Hall Putsch, 14 Berendt, Grzegorz, 38 Bismarck, Otto, 39 Bonio, Jo´zef, 111 Borejsza, Jerzy Wojciech, 23, 25, 133 Bormann Heinz, 77 Borowicki, August, 107, Bukowska, Maria Irena, 81 Bukowski, Bogdan Witold, 27, 81, 119 Bukowski, Ireneusz, 81 Bukowski, Leon, 81 Bullock, Alan, 31

Burleigh, Michael, 14 Buzek, Ernst, 30 Camus, Albert, 21 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 19 Chauvinism, 15 – 18 Chmielewska, Tekla, 65, 103 Chrzanowski, Bogdan, 111 Chrzanowski, Bronisław, 55, 62 Chrzanowski, Stanisław, 62 Chrzanowski, Władysław, 62 Ciesielska, Karola, 3, 128 Clausewitz, Karl von, 19 Czaniecki, Antoni, 65, 103 Daniluk, Jan, 106 De˛bski, Jo´zef, 100, 109– 110, 115 Domarus, Max, 7 Dzie˛gielewski, Stanisław, 83 Ehle, Paul, 163 Ehlert, Willy, 11, 58, 123– 125, 163 Eichmann, Adolf, 20, 46 Esman, Tadeusz, 4 Evans, Richard J., 121 Finkielkraut, Alain, 19 Foksin´ska, Jagwiga, 131 Foksin´ska, Marta, 101, 131

226

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Foksin´ska, Stanisława, 131– 132 Foksin´ski, Zygmunt, 131 Forster, Albert, 4, 15, 19, 39, 41, 44, 46, 64, 105, 162 Frank, Hans, 18, 20, 34, 61 Gadacz, Tadeusz, 8 General Government, 25, 45, 51, 56, 60 – 61, 81 Gilbert, Gustave M., 30 Gilbert, Martin, 2 Gisevius, Hans Bernd, 7 Goebbels, Joseph, 19, 22, 31, 37, 42, 198 Goga, Paweł, 128 Go´recki, Franciszek, 116 Go¨ring, Herman, 31 Go´rski, Wiesław, 3, 73 Gortatowski, Marian, 81 Grabowski, Hubert, 109 Grabowski, Tadeusz, 119 Grajkowska, Pelagia, 85 Greiser, Arthur, 40, 44 Groblewski, Adam, 91, 101, 120 Grossman, Vasily, 163 Grynberg, Henryk, 27, 122 Gudanek, Feliks, 53, 121 Harten, Hans-Christian, 39 Haushofer, Karl, 16 – 17 Herling-Grudzin´ski, Gustaw, 165– 166 Hertel, Adam, 59, 126 Heydrich, Reinhard, 46 Hildebrandt, Richard, 45 – 46 Himmler, Heinrich, 12, 25, 39 – 41, 44 – 45, 168 History versus memory, 131 Hitler, Adolf, 11 – 14, 16 – 17, 19, 27 – 29, 30, 35, 38, 41, 46, 114 Ho¨hne, Heinz, 2 Hoszowski, Adam, 11, 120– 121, 177 Imperialism, 15 – 17 Iwanek, Franciszek, 99, 115

Jacob, Franz, 105 Jania, Krystyna, 107 Janowski, Jo´zef, 79 Jarco, Franciszek, 118 Jasiecka, Maria, 32 Jaspers, Karl, 162, 165– 166 Jastrze˛bski, Włodzimierz, 62, 95 Jaugsch, Dobromiła, 103 Jaugsch, Felicja, 103 Jaugsch, Stanisław, 102 Jochmann, Werner, 29 Judt, Tony, 131 Kaczyn´ska, Lidia, 67, 117, 164 Kaczyn´ska, Natalia, 67, 95 Kaczyn´ski, Donat, 67 Kaczyn´ski, Hipolit Wiktor, 66, 98 Kaczyn´ski, Waldemar, 95, 117 Kant’s moral imperative, 20, 194 Karankowski, Leon, 102 Kempner, Robert, 12, 30 Kershaw, Ian, 12 Kiessling, Walter, 42 Kisiel, Urszula, 109 Klimek, Bogdan, 76, 110, 126 Klimek, Henryk Włodzimierz 1, 5, 9, 50, 53 –54, 101–102, 114, 123, 162, 164 Klimek, Wanda, 11, 76 – 78, 103, 123, 162 Klimek, Władysław 75 – 76 Kobylarz, Jo´zef, 111 Kołakowski, Leszek, 122 Kopytko, Marian, 58, 110, 126 Krawan´ski, Stanisław, 5, 113– 114 Kre˛glewski, Stanisław, 79, 113 Kre˛glewski, Tadeusz, 80 Kryger, Jan, 51, 58, 64, 120, 175 Kurzyn´ska, Pelagia, 80 Lang, Berel, 8 Lebensraum, 16 – 17 Lebius, Harald, 58, 126, 163 Le Goff, Jacques, 9

INDEX Leociak, Jacek, 130 Lesiczka, Stanisława, 103, 1110, 119 Lisewski, Franciszek Eugeniusz, 107 Luberda-Zapas´nik Janina, 18, 68, 96, 99, 120, 122, 129 Lulkowski, Jan, 64 Łuczak, Czesław, 69 Machcewicz, Paweł, 6 Maciejewska, Jadwiga, 111 Madajczyk, Czesław, 89 Mankiewicz, Franciszek, 63 Marks, Stephan, 29 Marxism, 14 – 15 Memory, 8 – 10, 165– 166, 189 Michałowski, Franciszek, 107 Midlarsky, Manus I., 11 Mieroszewski, Juliusz, 166 Miłosz, Czesław, 10 Miłoszewska, Rozalia, 79 Miłoszewski, Jo´zef, 79 Miraszewska, Jadwiga, 107 Murawski, Alojzy, 99 Musiał-Michalak, Justyna, 3, 104

227

Orwell, George, 29 Overy, Richard, 32 Paczoska-Hauke, Alicja, 5 Pastuszak, Czesław, 95, 99, 104, 126 Pastuszak, Kazimierz, 95 Pastuszak, Stefania, 95 Patriotism, 26 Pauly, Max, 57 – 58, 163 Pietrucka, Katarzyna, 130 Pipowski, Tadeusz, 5, 25, 38, 65, 100

Nadolna, Janina, 91 Nałkowska, Zofia, 109 Nast, Gertruda, 59 Nationalism, 22, 26 Nazism (ideology), 7, 11 –34, 116– 117, 122 Nazism and democracy, 20 – 23 Nazi political religion, 19 – 20, 26 –27 Neumann, Paweł, 101 Nitecki, Antoni, 56, 90 Norkowska, Bronisława, 68, 117 Nowakowska, Helena, 117 Nowakowska, Genowefa, 117, 124 Nowakowski, Franciszek, 116, 123

Racism, 14 – 15 Radfield, Peter, 12 Radtke, Heinz, 50 – 51, 56, 101, 105, 119, 129 Raszkowska, Cecylia, 106 Raszkowska, Jadwiga Helena, 106 Raszkowski, Jan, 106 Raszkowski, Jo´zef Edward, 106 Rauschning, Hermann, 36 Ratzel, Friedrich, 16 Reche, Otto, 41 Reddig, Richard, 5, 57 –58, 119, 163 Rees, Laurence, 48 Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, 4, 7, 24, 35, 47, 49, 56, 62 Reichsgau Wartheland, 36, 40, 51 Remarque, Erich Maria, 6 Rokossowski, Konstantin von, 53 Rosenberg, Alfred, 42 Rossino, Alexander, 32 Rota (polish patriotic song), 113, 210 Rotfeld, Adam, 9 Rozumek, Julia, 116 Rozumek, Maria, 116 Rudek, Anna, 22 Rydzen´ski, Feliks, 127– 129 Rzeszotarski, Henryk, 113

Ogłoza, Emil, 3, 111, 124 Olszewski, Bronisław, 86, 115 Ormin´ska, Helena, 79 Orski, Marek, 56, 84

Schenk, Dieter, 46 Scho¨nwald, Stanisław, 111 Scott, Walter, 133 Senkowska, Teodora, 98

228

THE HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN GERMAN CAMP

Senkowska, Zofia, 98 Senkowski, Tadeusz, 98 Shirer, William L., 24, 32 Skarga Barbara, 11 Skomorowski, Czesław, 84 Skomorowski, Jan, 84 Skrzeszewski, Jan, 107 Sławoj Składkowski, Felicjan, 76 Snyder, Timothy, 8, 38, 131 Social Darwinism, 15 – 16 Sosin´ska, Boz˙ena, 100 Spengler, Oswald, 13 Stalin, Jo´zef, 38 Stan´czyk, Czesław, 83 Stan´czyk, Janina, 69, 83 Stefanowicz, Edmund, 109 Stresemann, Gustav, 16 Stroike, Emma, 59 Struwe, Karl, 78, 123 Studzin´ski, Jo´zef, 104 Surowy, Johann, 98 Szarota, Tomasz, 23 – 24 Szczepniak, Maria, 104 Szczypin´ska, Natalia, 101 Sziling, Jan, 3, 38, 49, 59 Szremowski, Jo´zef, 127 Szyplin´ski, Alojzy, 127 S´wie˛cicka, Katarzyna, 102 S´wie˛cicki, Julian, 101

Tischner, Jo´zef, 68 To¨nnies, Ferdinand, 22 Totalitarism, 10, 13, 15, 26, 28 Ulaszewski, Dionizy, 75, 93, 109, 116 Voegelin, Eric, 122 Volksgemeinschaft, 22 Volksliste (DVL), 39, 44, 89 Warota, Jo´zef, 25 Wesołowska, Agnieszka, 99, 106 Willich, Helmut, 46 – 47, 58 Winiarska Stanisława, 111 Wink, Franz, 58 Wo´jcik, Małgorzata, 164 Wojtalewicz, Henryk, 5, 9, 67, 104, 109, 127 Wolf, Johanna, 12 Wolff-Powe˛ska, Anna, 16 Zakrzewski, Tadeusz, 32 Zawacki, Edward, 68, 114 Zboralska, Klara, 115 Zboralski, Mieczysław, 99 Zelma, Scharf (Selma Szarf), 50 Zielin´ski, Leonard, 100, 115, 127 Zygner, Leszek, 3, 105, 110, 126