Szmenderowiecki (talk | contribs) Tags: Visual edit nowiki added |
Szmenderowiecki (talk | contribs) (Expanded extermination camp section, omitting the disputed footnote + 2 sources from Zezza, one from some Hungarian historians, a book on the Warsaw uprising (Frantic 7), a book on the post-truth history (History in a Post-Truth world) mentioning the bogus plaques on KL Warschau) Tags: Visual edit nowiki added |
||
Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
The ''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|Encyclopedia on Camps and Ghettos]]'' says that in total, some 8,000 to 9,000 inmates were held there. [[Bogusław Kopka]] estimates that at least 7,250 of the camp's prisoners were [[Jews]] from various countries in [[Europe]], who were used as [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] to clean the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto and to find and sort whichever precious items were still left on its terrirory, with the ultimate goal of creating a park in the former ghetto's area. The camp and adjacent ruins were also used by the [[Nazi Germany|German administration]] as a place of [[Executions in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto (1943–1944)|execution]], where [[Political prisoners in Poland|Polish political prisoners]], Jews who were caught on the "[[Nazi racial theories|Aryan]] side" as well as whoever was [[Łapanka|rounded up]] on Warsaw streets were executed ''en masse''. |
The ''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|Encyclopedia on Camps and Ghettos]]'' says that in total, some 8,000 to 9,000 inmates were held there. [[Bogusław Kopka]] estimates that at least 7,250 of the camp's prisoners were [[Jews]] from various countries in [[Europe]], who were used as [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] to clean the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto and to find and sort whichever precious items were still left on its terrirory, with the ultimate goal of creating a park in the former ghetto's area. The camp and adjacent ruins were also used by the [[Nazi Germany|German administration]] as a place of [[Executions in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto (1943–1944)|execution]], where [[Political prisoners in Poland|Polish political prisoners]], Jews who were caught on the "[[Nazi racial theories|Aryan]] side" as well as whoever was [[Łapanka|rounded up]] on Warsaw streets were executed ''en masse''. |
||
{{Abbr|KL|Konzentrationlager}} Warschau first functioned as a camp in its own right. However, in May 1944, KL Warschau became a branch of the [[Majdanek concentration camp]]. In late July 1944, due to [[Operation Bagration|the Red Army approaching]], the Germans started to evacuate the camp. Around 4,000 inmates were forced to march on foot to [[Kutno]], {{Convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away; those who survived were then transported to the [[Dachau concentration camp]]. On 5 August 1944, the camp was captured by the [[Battalion Zośka]] during the [[Warsaw Uprising]], liberating 348 Jews who were still left on its premises. |
{{Abbr|KL|Konzentrationlager}} Warschau first functioned as a camp in its own right. However, in May 1944, KL Warschau became a branch of the [[Majdanek concentration camp]]. In late July 1944, due to [[Operation Bagration|the Red Army approaching]], the Germans started to evacuate the camp. Around 4,000 inmates were forced to march on foot to [[Kutno]], {{Convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away; those who survived were then transported to the [[Dachau concentration camp]]. On 5 August 1944, the camp was captured by the [[Battalion Zośka]] during the [[Warsaw Uprising]], liberating 348 Jews who were still left on its premises. It was the only German camp to have been liberated by anti-Nazi resistance forces, rather than the Allied troops. |
||
About 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners have died during the camp's existence,<ref name="USHMM">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2009|title=Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|location=[[Bloomington, Ind.]]|url=https://www.ushmm.org/online/camps-ghettos-download/EncyclopediaVol-I_PartB.pdf|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|author-link=Gabriel N. Finder|editor1=Geoffrey P. Megargee|editor-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee|series=[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945]]|volume=I|pages=1512–1515|entry=Warschau main camp|editor2=Martin Dean|editor3=Mel Hecker}}</ref> while the total number of deaths attributable to the camp's activity is estimated at 20,000.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16, 120}}{{Efn|"It is estimated that the death toll of KL Warschau amounted to a total of about 20,000 people (these were the victims of the camp itself plus those who were executed in the camp vicinity, and near the camp, in the restricted zone, mostly anonymous)."}} |
About 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners have died during the camp's existence,<ref name="USHMM">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2009|title=Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|location=[[Bloomington, Ind.]]|url=https://www.ushmm.org/online/camps-ghettos-download/EncyclopediaVol-I_PartB.pdf|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|author-link=Gabriel N. Finder|editor1=Geoffrey P. Megargee|editor-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee|series=[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945]]|volume=I|pages=1512–1515|entry=Warschau main camp|editor2=Martin Dean|editor3=Mel Hecker}}</ref> while the total number of deaths attributable to the camp's activity is estimated at 20,000.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16, 120}}{{Efn|"It is estimated that the death toll of KL Warschau amounted to a total of about 20,000 people (these were the victims of the camp itself plus those who were executed in the camp vicinity, and near the camp, in the restricted zone, mostly anonymous)."}} |
||
The camp, which seldom appears in mainstream historiography,<ref name="USHMM" /> has been at the centre of a [[conspiracy theory]], first promoted by [[Maria Trzcińska]], a Polish judge who served for 22 years as a member of the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation]]. The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an [[extermination camp]] which operated a giant [[gas chamber]] inside a tunnel near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station]] and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.<ref name="lrb2019">{{cite journal|last=Davies|first=Christian|date=9 May 2019|title=Under the Railway Line|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/christian-davies/under-the-railway-line|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|volume=41|issue=9|issn=0260-9592|quote=Around twenty thousand people – Polish Jews, non-Jewish Poles and non-Polish Jews – are estimated to have died at Gęsiówka.}}</ref> |
The camp, which seldom appears in mainstream historiography,<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name=":2" /> has been at the centre of a [[conspiracy theory]], first promoted by [[Maria Trzcińska]], a Polish judge who served for 22 years as a member of the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation]]. The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an [[extermination camp]] which operated a giant [[gas chamber]] inside a tunnel near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station]] and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.<ref name="lrb2019">{{cite journal|last=Davies|first=Christian|date=9 May 2019|title=Under the Railway Line|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/christian-davies/under-the-railway-line|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|volume=41|issue=9|issn=0260-9592|quote=Around twenty thousand people – Polish Jews, non-Jewish Poles and non-Polish Jews – are estimated to have died at Gęsiówka.}}</ref> |
||
After the Nazis were expelled from Warsaw by the [[Red Army]], the new Communist administration continued to run the buildings as a forced labour camp, and then as a prison, until it was closed in 1956. All of the camp's premises were demolished in 1965. |
After the Nazis were expelled from Warsaw by the [[Red Army]], the new Communist administration continued to run the buildings as a forced labour camp, and then as a prison, until it was closed in 1956. All of the camp's premises were demolished in 1965. |
||
Line 62: | Line 62: | ||
As Bogusław Kopka shows, in comparison with other concentration camps, KL Warschau had a less sophisticated internal structure.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} For example, the camp lacked the political department (''[[Politische Abteilung]]''),{{Efn|According to the Institute of National Remembrance's report on the Warsaw concentration camp, ''Politische Abteilung'' did exist, but it was directly subordinate to the commandant of ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' and ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' in Warsaw, instead of being the main department of the camp's administration.<ref name=":12" />}} and some other positions remained unoccupied. Among the 208 identified members of the camp's administration,<ref name=":16">{{Cite web|last=Kozubal|first=Marek|date=2017-06-04|title=Śledztwo w sprawie obozu zagłady w Warszawie umorzone|url=https://www.rp.pl/historia/art10419881-sledztwo-w-sprawie-obozu-zaglady-w-warszawie-umorzone|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl}}</ref> SS-{{Abbr|Uscharf|Unterscharführer}} Karl Leuckel was the director of the administrative department, SS-[[Oberscharführer]] {{Interlanguage link|Franz Mielenz|lt=|pl}} was the ''[[Rapportführer]]'' and the person responsible for prisoner work management, while SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Willy Jobst|lt=|pl}} and SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Heinrich Schmitz|lt=|pl}} were camp doctors.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} |
As Bogusław Kopka shows, in comparison with other concentration camps, KL Warschau had a less sophisticated internal structure.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} For example, the camp lacked the political department (''[[Politische Abteilung]]''),{{Efn|According to the Institute of National Remembrance's report on the Warsaw concentration camp, ''Politische Abteilung'' did exist, but it was directly subordinate to the commandant of ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' and ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' in Warsaw, instead of being the main department of the camp's administration.<ref name=":12" />}} and some other positions remained unoccupied. Among the 208 identified members of the camp's administration,<ref name=":16">{{Cite web|last=Kozubal|first=Marek|date=2017-06-04|title=Śledztwo w sprawie obozu zagłady w Warszawie umorzone|url=https://www.rp.pl/historia/art10419881-sledztwo-w-sprawie-obozu-zaglady-w-warszawie-umorzone|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl}}</ref> SS-{{Abbr|Uscharf|Unterscharführer}} Karl Leuckel was the director of the administrative department, SS-[[Oberscharführer]] {{Interlanguage link|Franz Mielenz|lt=|pl}} was the ''[[Rapportführer]]'' and the person responsible for prisoner work management, while SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Willy Jobst|lt=|pl}} and SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Heinrich Schmitz|lt=|pl}} were camp doctors.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} |
||
The Warsaw concentration camp usually featured SS officers who were deemed to be low-value workers.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} The first two commandants exhibited incompetence and little interest in the functioning of the camp.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=85-86}} Many of the ''Volksdeutsche'' were hardly able to speak German, while some were [[illiterate]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} [[Corruption]] was rampant and extended up to the apex of the camp's hierarchy, which Andreas Mix attributes to the fact that like the senior SS officers, the ''kapos'' were Germans, therefore, the SS officers frequently made illicit agreements with them and delegated much more power to the ''kapos'' than was usual for the concentration camps.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Mix|first=Andreas|date=2005|title=Arbeitslager Warschau jako filia obozu koncentracyjnego na Majdanku|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=23|pages=55-70}}</ref> The irregularities were so numerous that SS authorities eventually intervened,{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} presumably due to an escape of a ''Reichsdeutsche'' prisoner.<ref name=":13" /> |
The Warsaw concentration camp usually featured SS officers who were deemed to be low-value workers.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} The first two commandants exhibited incompetence and little interest in the functioning of the camp.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=85-86}} Many of the ''Volksdeutsche'' were hardly able to speak German, while some were [[illiterate]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} [[Corruption]] was rampant and extended up to the apex of the camp's hierarchy,<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|last=Vági|first=Zoltán|last2=Kádár|first2=Gábor|date=2019-11-14|title=From the Ghetto Revolt to the Warsaw Uprising – Hungarian Jews in KL Warschau|url=https://blog.ehri-project.eu/2019/11/14/hungarian-jews-in-warsaw/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-14|website=[[European Holocaust Research Infrastructure]] Project - Document Blog|language=en-GB}}</ref> which Andreas Mix attributes to the fact that like the senior SS officers, the ''kapos'' were Germans, therefore, the SS officers frequently made illicit agreements with them and delegated much more power to the ''kapos'' than was usual for the concentration camps.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Mix|first=Andreas|date=2005|title=Arbeitslager Warschau jako filia obozu koncentracyjnego na Majdanku|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=23|pages=55-70}}</ref> The irregularities were so numerous that SS authorities eventually intervened,{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} presumably due to an escape of a ''Reichsdeutsche'' prisoner.<ref name=":13" /> |
||
In late April 1944, Nikolaus Herbet, the commandant, ''[[Schutzhaftlagerführer]]'' (camp director) Wilhelm Härtel as well as {{Interlanguage link|Walter Wawrzyniak|lt=|pl}}, the camp supervisor ({{Lang-de|[[Lagerälteste]]}}), were all arrested. The whole command of the camp was dissolved and almost all of its members were relieved from duty.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} By early May, the guards who were until then performing their duties in Warsaw were transported to [[Sachsenhausen]] and were replaced by personnel delegated from Majdanek.<ref name=":12" /> This scandal coincided with the degradation of the status of KL Warschau to a [[Subcamp (SS)|subcamp]] of [[Majdanek]] on 1 May 1944, and was thus renamed "[[Lublin]] concentration camp – Warsaw labour camp".<ref name="USHMM" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=42}} According to some sources, it came due to deportations of prisoners to other camps as well as the [[Operation Bagration|approach of the Soviet army to Warsaw]].<ref name="Pohl3">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Poprzeczny|first1=Joseph|title=Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1625-7|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NAIyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 222–223]|language=en}}</ref> [[Bogusław Kopka]] and Andreas Mix write, however, that it was the corruption scandal that was the causative agent for the change in status, and that the camp's reorganisation failed to get rid of the corruption issues.<ref name=":13" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=87–88}} |
In late April 1944, Nikolaus Herbet, the commandant, ''[[Schutzhaftlagerführer]]'' (camp director) Wilhelm Härtel as well as {{Interlanguage link|Walter Wawrzyniak|lt=|pl}}, the camp supervisor ({{Lang-de|[[Lagerälteste]]}}), were all arrested. The whole command of the camp was dissolved and almost all of its members were relieved from duty.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} By early May, the guards who were until then performing their duties in Warsaw were transported to [[Sachsenhausen]] and were replaced by personnel delegated from Majdanek.<ref name=":12" /> This scandal coincided with the degradation of the status of KL Warschau to a [[Subcamp (SS)|subcamp]] of [[Majdanek]] on 1 May 1944, and was thus renamed "[[Lublin]] concentration camp – Warsaw labour camp".<ref name="USHMM" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=42}} According to some sources, it came due to deportations of prisoners to other camps as well as the [[Operation Bagration|approach of the Soviet army to Warsaw]].<ref name="Pohl3">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Poprzeczny|first1=Joseph|title=Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1625-7|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NAIyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 222–223]|language=en}}</ref> [[Bogusław Kopka]] and Andreas Mix write, however, that it was the corruption scandal that was the causative agent for the change in status, and that the camp's reorganisation failed to get rid of the corruption issues.<ref name=":13" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=87–88}} |
||
Line 77: | Line 77: | ||
==== General information ==== |
==== General information ==== |
||
The trait that distinguished the Warsaw concentration camp from the other ones was that, apart from the initial transport of 300 Germans, the inmates were uniformly [[Jewish]].<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|last=Rajca|first=Czesław|date=1976|title=Podobozy Majdanka|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=IX|issn=0514-7409|lang=pl}}</ref> Additionally, KL Warschau only accepted prisoners who were previously in concentration camps under the jurisdiction of [[SS-WVHA]]; in contrast, it did not accept those prisoners who were to serve in concentration camps due to a decision of the [[Reich Security Main Office]] (RSHA), local [[Sicherheitspolizei|Security Police]] outposts, or new prisoners.<ref name=":13" /> These were predominantly young males (under 40 years old), whom the Germans deemed to be suitable for demanding physical work.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=53}} Only in the last days of the camp's existence was a group of Jewish women from the nearby [[Pawiak prison]] delivered to KL Warschau.<ref name="USHMM" /> The Nazis were trying to transport Jews from various European countries, hoping that the lack of knowledge of Polish would prevent them from communicating with the residents of Warsaw.<ref name=":10"/><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Rutkowski|first=Adam|date=1993|title=Le camp de concentration pour Juifs à Varsovie (19 juillet 1943-5 août 1944)|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-monde-juif-1993-2-page-189.htm#re1no15|journal=Le Monde Juif|language=fr|issue=147-148|pages=189-216|via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref> Therefore, few Polish Jews were detained at the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=":8" /> |
The trait that distinguished the Warsaw concentration camp from the other ones was that, apart from the initial transport of 300 Germans, the inmates were uniformly [[Jewish]].<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|last=Rajca|first=Czesław|date=1976|title=Podobozy Majdanka|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=IX|issn=0514-7409|lang=pl}}</ref> Additionally, KL Warschau only accepted prisoners who were previously in concentration camps under the jurisdiction of [[SS-WVHA]]; in contrast, it did not accept those prisoners who were to serve in concentration camps due to a decision of the [[Reich Security Main Office]] (RSHA), local [[Sicherheitspolizei|Security Police]] outposts, or new prisoners.<ref name=":13" /> These were predominantly young males (under 40 years old), whom the Germans deemed to be suitable for demanding physical work.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=53}} Only in the last days of the camp's existence was a group of Jewish women from the nearby [[Pawiak prison]] delivered to KL Warschau.<ref name="USHMM" /> The Nazis were trying to transport Jews from various European countries and specifically sought to exclude Polish-speaking Jews, hoping that the lack of knowledge of Polish would prevent them from communicating with the residents of Warsaw.<ref name=":10"/><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Rutkowski|first=Adam|date=1993|title=Le camp de concentration pour Juifs à Varsovie (19 juillet 1943-5 août 1944)|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-monde-juif-1993-2-page-189.htm#re1no15|journal=Le Monde Juif|language=fr|issue=147-148|pages=189-216|via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2021-06-30|title=Without a compass: Salonikan Jews in Nazi Concentration Camps and later|url=https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/esrap/article/view/9126|journal=European Spatial Research and Policy|language=en|volume=28|issue=1|pages=45–71|doi=10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.03|issn=1896-1525}}</ref> Therefore, few Polish Jews were detained at the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=":8" /> |
||
The first inmates, who previously were German prisoners in the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], arrived on 19 July 1943.<ref name="Pohl4">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref name="Sofsky3">{{cite book|last1=Sofsky|first1=Wolfgang|title=The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2218-8|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ClmQ8PPjF44C&pg=PA337 337]|language=en}}</ref> Among these 300 people, 224 were professional criminals ({{Lang-de|Berufsverbrecher}}, or {{Interlanguage link|Befristete Vorbeugungshaft|lt=BV|de}} for short), 41 were deemed [[political prisoner]]s, and 35 were considered "[[Black triangle (badge)|asocial]]".<ref name=":13" /> They became [[prisoner functionaries]], such as ''[[kapo]]s'' and ''Blockältester'' (block supervisors).<ref name=":13" /> Walter Wawrzyniak got hold of the chief position of camp supervisor (''Lagerälteste''). The German ''kapo'' prisoners, in particular those imprisoned as criminals, intimidated fellow Jewish inmates and acted towards them with cruelty, seeing them as expendable;<ref name="USHMM" /> though, as Gabriel Finder argues, this was not in most cases due to inherent anti-Semitism but rather due to the fact such violence granted them survival.<ref name=":10" /> Unlike in most other Nazi camps, there is little evidence an internal hierarchy among Jewish prisoners has ever developed and Jewish ''kapos'' were absent from the camp.<ref name=":10" /> |
The first inmates, who previously were German prisoners in the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], arrived on 19 July 1943.<ref name="Pohl4">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref name="Sofsky3">{{cite book|last1=Sofsky|first1=Wolfgang|title=The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2218-8|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ClmQ8PPjF44C&pg=PA337 337]|language=en}}</ref> Among these 300 people, 224 were professional criminals ({{Lang-de|Berufsverbrecher}}, or {{Interlanguage link|Befristete Vorbeugungshaft|lt=BV|de}} for short), 41 were deemed [[political prisoner]]s, and 35 were considered "[[Black triangle (badge)|asocial]]".<ref name=":13" /> They became [[prisoner functionaries]], such as ''[[kapo]]s'' and ''Blockältester'' (block supervisors).<ref name=":13" /> Walter Wawrzyniak got hold of the chief position of camp supervisor (''Lagerälteste''). The German ''kapo'' prisoners, in particular those imprisoned as criminals, intimidated fellow Jewish inmates and acted towards them with cruelty, seeing them as expendable;<ref name="USHMM" /> though, as Gabriel Finder argues, this was not in most cases due to inherent anti-Semitism but rather due to the fact such violence granted them survival.<ref name=":10" /> Unlike in most other Nazi camps, there is little evidence an internal hierarchy among Jewish prisoners has ever developed and Jewish ''kapos'' were absent from the camp.<ref name=":10" /> |
||
The first transport of Jewish prisoners arrived from [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]] on 31 August 1943, and three subsequent ones were made up to 27 November the same year, bringing 3,683 Jews in total, according to official data.<ref name=":7" /> The labourers represented Jews from various countries – the most numerous were [[Greeks|Greek]] [[History of the Jews in Thessaloniki|Salonican Jews]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2016|title=In Their Own Voices|url=https://www.eupsycho.com/index.php/TM/article/viewFile/135/119|journal=Trauma and Memory|volume=4|issue=3|pages=90–118}}</ref> but some [[Austrian Jews|Austrian]], [[Belgian Jews|Belgian]], [[French Jews|French]], [[Dutch jews|Dutch]], [[German Jews|German]] and even 50 [[Polish jews|Polish]] representatives of that religion (who only came because Germans had to meet 1,000 people transport quota) arrived to Warsaw as well.<ref name="Kossoy" /><ref name=":8" /> The ethnic composition changed substantially in spring 1944, when several trains from Auschwitz delivered a total of ca. 3,000 [[Hungarian Jews]], who became the majority in the Warsaw concentration camp in the last months of its existence.<ref name=":10" /> |
The first transport of Jewish prisoners arrived from [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]] on 31 August 1943, and three subsequent ones were made up to 27 November the same year, bringing 3,683 Jews in total, according to official data.<ref name=":7" /> The labourers represented Jews from various countries – the most numerous were [[Greeks|Greek]] [[History of the Jews in Thessaloniki|Salonican Jews]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2016|title=In Their Own Voices|url=https://www.eupsycho.com/index.php/TM/article/viewFile/135/119|journal=Trauma and Memory|volume=4|issue=3|pages=90–118}}</ref> but some [[Austrian Jews|Austrian]], [[Belgian Jews|Belgian]], [[French Jews|French]], [[Dutch jews|Dutch]], [[German Jews|German]] and even 50 [[Polish jews|Polish]] representatives of that religion (who only came because Germans had to meet 1,000 people transport quota) arrived to Warsaw as well.<ref name="Kossoy" /><ref name=":8" /> The ethnic composition changed substantially in spring 1944, when several trains from Auschwitz delivered a total of ca. 3,000 [[Hungarian Jews]] (most of whom originally were deported from ghettoes in [[Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II|Hungarian-occupied]] [[Carpathian Ruthenia]], established in the cities of [[Mukachevo]], [[Uzhhorod]], [[Khust]] and [[Tiachiv]])<ref name=":9" /> who became the majority in the Warsaw concentration camp in the last months of its existence.<ref name=":10" /> |
||
[[File:KL_Warschau_-_multilingual_warning_sign.jpg|thumb|A multilingual sign saying that those who trespass the so-called "neutral zone" may be shot at without prior warning|alt=A multilingual sign (in German, Polish, Hungarian and French) warning people against trespassing for fear of being shot. Broken fence with some barbed wire appears behind the sign]] |
[[File:KL_Warschau_-_multilingual_warning_sign.jpg|thumb|A multilingual sign saying that those who trespass the so-called "neutral zone" may be shot at without prior warning|alt=A multilingual sign (in German, Polish, Hungarian and French) warning people against trespassing for fear of being shot. Broken fence with some barbed wire appears behind the sign]] |
||
The exact number of prisoners who went through KL Warschau remains difficult to ascertain, as witness and expert estimates vary wildly, from 1,500 to 40,000 inmates.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} Gabriel N. Finder in his entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' suggested some 8,000-9,000 people were incarcerated there.<ref name="USHMM" /> Bogusław Kopka, in his monography, says that at least 7,250 inmates went through the Warsaw concentration camp, including 300 German [[prisoner functionaries]], about 3,700 Jews who arrived in 1943 and 3,000 Jews who came in 1944 from Auschwitz, in addition to 50 highly skilled Jews sent to the camp by the ''[[Ostbahn (General Government)|Ostbahn]]'' in 1943 and 200 Jews moved from the [[Pawiak prison]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} Successful escapes were rare, and Jews who were caught in the attempt were hanged in front of the assembled prisoner population.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
The exact number of prisoners who went through KL Warschau remains difficult to ascertain, as witness and expert estimates vary wildly, from 1,500 to 40,000 inmates.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} Gabriel N. Finder in his entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' suggested some 8,000-9,000 people were incarcerated there.<ref name="USHMM" /> Bogusław Kopka, in his monography, says that at least 7,250 inmates went through the Warsaw concentration camp, including 300 German [[prisoner functionaries]], about 3,700 Jews who arrived in 1943 and 3,000 Jews who came in 1944 from Auschwitz, in addition to 50 highly skilled Jews sent to the camp by the ''[[Ostbahn (General Government)|Ostbahn]]'' in 1943 and 200 Jews moved from the [[Pawiak prison]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} Successful escapes were rare, and Jews who were caught in the attempt were hanged in front of the assembled prisoner population.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
||
==== Tasks ==== |
==== Tasks ==== |
||
Prisoners were tasked with constructing the concentration camp they were residing in, demolishing the remaining ruins of the ghetto, clearing {{Convert|2640000|m3|ft3|abbr=on}} of rubble and with flattening the terrain at {{Convert|1.20|m|ft|abbr=on}} above the previous ground level, so as to convert the former ghetto into a park as Himmler envisaged in his order from 11 June 1943.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /> While doing that, the workers were also ordered to salvage building materials (mainly scrap metal and bricks) for the German war effort |
Prisoners were tasked with constructing the concentration camp they were residing in, demolishing the remaining ruins of the ghetto, clearing {{Convert|2640000|m3|ft3|abbr=on}} of rubble and with flattening the terrain at {{Convert|1.20|m|ft|abbr=on}} above the previous ground level, so as to convert the former ghetto into a park as Himmler envisaged in his order from 11 June 1943.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /> While doing that, the workers were also ordered to salvage building materials (mainly scrap metal and bricks) for the German war effort. {{Convert|10000000|m2|ft2|abbr=on}} of buildings were demolished, with some 8,105 tonnes of metal (of which about 7,300 tonnes of ferrous scrap metals and 805 tonnes of non-ferrous metals) and 34 million bricks salvaged.<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name=":17" /> Tatiana Berenstein and Adam Rutkowski estimate the value of the materials at 220 million pre-war [[złotys]] (i.e. slightly above [[US$]]800 million in 2021 dollars),<ref name=":7" /> however, Andreas Mix counters that while the camp's construction cost Germans 150 million [[Reichsmark]], the materials were only worth 5 million Reichsmark.<ref name=":9" /> In addition to that, a separate search team was formed to find whatever precious items (such as money or jewellery) were left in the ruins; yet another team was working on the ''[[Umschlagplatz]]'' near {{Interlanguage link|ulica Stawki w Warszawie|lt=Stawki|pl}} street, where salvaged items were sorted and stored in warehouses.<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":8" /> |
||
A couple thousand of Polish civilians, who were paid, worked in the area, as did dozens of German technicians.<ref name=":8" /> At one period, these people, who usually handled more sophisticated tasks, such as the maintenance of demolition machines and handling explosives, outnumbered the inmates. German constructions firms, including Berlinisches Baugeschäft ([[Berlin]]), Willy Keymer (Warsaw), Merckle ([[Ostrów Wielkopolski]]), and Ostdeutscher Tiefbau ([[Naumburg]]), operated there on contract and benefitted from [[slave labour]] provided by the prisoners.<ref name=":7" /> The [[Ostbahn (General Government)|Ostbahn railway company]] assisted them.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
A couple thousand of Polish civilians, who were paid, worked in the area, as did dozens of German technicians.<ref name=":8" /> At one period, these people, who usually handled more sophisticated tasks, such as the maintenance of demolition machines and handling explosives, outnumbered the inmates. German constructions firms, including Berlinisches Baugeschäft ([[Berlin]]), Willy Keymer (Warsaw), Merckle ([[Ostrów Wielkopolski]]), and Ostdeutscher Tiefbau ([[Naumburg]]), operated there on contract and benefitted from [[slave labour]] provided by the prisoners.<ref name=":7" /> The [[Ostbahn (General Government)|Ostbahn railway company]] assisted them.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
||
Line 103: | Line 103: | ||
The ruins of the ghetto supplanted previous execution sites, which were operating in the countryside around Warsaw, such as in [[Kampinos Forest]] (the site of the [[Palmiry massacre]]). The proximity of the [[Pawiak prison]] and the isolation of the former ghetto from the rest of the city, made them – from the German perspective – a far more suitable place for mass killings.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=256}} Members of KL Warschau personnel, along with the members of other SS and ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' formations in Warsaw, were among the executioners. Furthermore, a special "[[Sonderkommando|death detachment]]" composed of the Jewish prisoners of the KL Warschau was used to dispose the bodies of the victims.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=26–27, 60–63, 120}} The members of the ''Sonderkommando'' were often murdered after completing the task, too.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} |
The ruins of the ghetto supplanted previous execution sites, which were operating in the countryside around Warsaw, such as in [[Kampinos Forest]] (the site of the [[Palmiry massacre]]). The proximity of the [[Pawiak prison]] and the isolation of the former ghetto from the rest of the city, made them – from the German perspective – a far more suitable place for mass killings.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=256}} Members of KL Warschau personnel, along with the members of other SS and ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' formations in Warsaw, were among the executioners. Furthermore, a special "[[Sonderkommando|death detachment]]" composed of the Jewish prisoners of the KL Warschau was used to dispose the bodies of the victims.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=26–27, 60–63, 120}} The members of the ''Sonderkommando'' were often murdered after completing the task, too.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} |
||
It is impossible to determine the exact number of victims of executions in the ruins, since most of them were not identified. Historians [[Bogusław Kopka]] and [[Jan Żaryn]], who wrote the foreword to Kopka's work, estimate that some 20,000 people died as a result of the camp's activity, of which 10,000 were Poles. The number includes prisoner deaths as well as victioms of executions in and around the camp, among whom were Polish [[political prisoner]]s and Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the restricted zone of the former Warsaw Ghetto.{{Sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2013}}{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16, 120}}<ref name=" |
It is impossible to determine the exact number of victims of executions in the ruins, since most of them were not identified. Historians [[Bogusław Kopka]] and [[Jan Żaryn]], who wrote the foreword to Kopka's work, estimate that some 20,000 people died as a result of the camp's activity, of which 10,000 were Poles. The number includes prisoner deaths as well as victioms of executions in and around the camp, among whom were Polish [[political prisoner]]s and Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the restricted zone of the former Warsaw Ghetto.{{Sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2013}}{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16, 120}}<ref name="Lehnstaedt" /> The ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' gives a smaller estimate of 4,000-5,000 people, counting only prisoners of KL Warschau,<ref name="USHMM" /> while Vági and Kádár suggest a broader range, from 3,400 to 5,000 prisoners.<ref name=":9" /> |
||
== Evacuation and liberation == |
== Evacuation and liberation == |
||
Line 115: | Line 115: | ||
| alt1 = An assembled group of prisoners together with Battalion Zośka posing for a photo |
| alt1 = An assembled group of prisoners together with Battalion Zośka posing for a photo |
||
| alt2 = Another photo of camp inmates with the liberators, notably showing female prisoners, who were moved to the camp in the final days of its existence |
| alt2 = Another photo of camp inmates with the liberators, notably showing female prisoners, who were moved to the camp in the final days of its existence |
||
}} |
|||
In summer 1944, as the [[Red Army]] [[Operation Bagration|was approaching]], Germans decided to evacuate the prisons and camps in Warsaw. By the end of July ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' Heinz Villain demanded that all prisoners who would not be able to endure a march to assemble, promising the sick and exhausted that they would be transported in horse carriages. However, on 27 July, all those who appeared on the camp director's call were shot. The same day, all patients in the camp's infirmary were also killed. In total, around 400 prisoners, including at least 180 Hungarians, died due to these actions.<ref name=":9" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=55-56}} |
|||
The evacuation of the Warsaw concentration camp started on 28 July. About 4,500 inmates were then forced to march to [[Kutno]], {{Convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away, in sweltering heat. During the march, which lasted for three days, the prisoners were not given water nor food; the guards additionally murdered everyone who were unable to proceed or who were too slow to execute orders.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=55-56}} Those who survived were loaded in freight carriages on 2 August, where poor conditions and the guards' cruelty added to the tally of dead prisoners. 3,954 prisoners eventually arrived to the [[Dachau concentration camp]] on 6 August |
The evacuation of the Warsaw concentration camp started on 28 July. About 4,500 inmates were then forced to march to [[Kutno]], {{Convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away, in sweltering heat. During the march, which lasted for three days, the prisoners were not given water nor food; the guards additionally murdered everyone who were unable to proceed or who were too slow to execute orders.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=55-56}} Those who survived were loaded in freight carriages on 2 August, where poor conditions and the guards' cruelty added to the tally of dead prisoners. 3,954 prisoners eventually arrived to the [[Dachau concentration camp]] on 6 August,<ref name=":10" /> of which there were only 280 Jews who came from Greece.<ref name=":1" /> The ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' says that at last 500 inmates died during the operation,<ref name="USHMM" /> while Kopka gives a higher estimate of approximately 2,000 prisoners.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=55-56}} Most of the prisoners were subsequently transported to Dachau's subcamps in [[Mühldorf concentration camp complex|Mühldorf]], [[Kaufering concentration camp complex|Kaufering]] and [[Allach concentration camp|Allach-Karlsfeld]], while a few were sent to [[Flossenbürg concentration camp|Flossenbürg]]'s subcamp in [[Leitmeritz concentration camp|Leitmeritz]] (today's [[Litoměřice]] in the [[Czech Republic]]).<ref name=":1" /> |
||
The Warsaw concentration camp was still operating, however. 90 SS personnel stayed there, so did about 400 prisoners who volunteered to stay in the camp to demolish it.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} Among those were about 300 original prisoners<ref name=":10" /> as well as dozens of Jewish prisoners of Pawiak (38-100 people, including 24 women), who were moved to KL Warschau on 28 July.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=49}} |
The Warsaw concentration camp was still operating, however. 90 SS personnel stayed there, so did about 400 prisoners who volunteered to stay in the camp to demolish it.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} Among those were about 300 original prisoners<ref name=":10" /> as well as dozens of Jewish prisoners of Pawiak (38-100 people, including 24 women), who were moved to KL Warschau on 28 July.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=49}} |
||
Line 125: | Line 126: | ||
In the following few days, the patrol of the insurgent forces made several incursions into the camp, with little success.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=567-568}} Meanwhile, [[Captain (armed forces)|Cpt.]] {{Interlanguage link|Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|lt=Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|pl}} "Jan", head of the {{Interlanguage link|Brygada Dywersji Broda 53|lt=Diversionary Brigade ''Broda 53''|pl}} asked his superior, [[Lt. Col.]] [[Jan Mazurkiewicz]] "Radosław", to storm the buildings of Gęsiówka. Control over the concentration camp's area was important from a tactical standpoint, as the Home Army could gain control over the road leading to the [[Warsaw Old Town|Old Town]] via the ghetto's ruins, while also serving a humanitarian purpose of liberating the prisoners, who could be murdered.<ref name=":8" />{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=571-572}} Mazurkiewicz eventually agreed, and according to the plan, scout [[Battalion Zośka]] was handed the task of capturing the concentration camp's premises.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=571-572}} |
In the following few days, the patrol of the insurgent forces made several incursions into the camp, with little success.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=567-568}} Meanwhile, [[Captain (armed forces)|Cpt.]] {{Interlanguage link|Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|lt=Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|pl}} "Jan", head of the {{Interlanguage link|Brygada Dywersji Broda 53|lt=Diversionary Brigade ''Broda 53''|pl}} asked his superior, [[Lt. Col.]] [[Jan Mazurkiewicz]] "Radosław", to storm the buildings of Gęsiówka. Control over the concentration camp's area was important from a tactical standpoint, as the Home Army could gain control over the road leading to the [[Warsaw Old Town|Old Town]] via the ghetto's ruins, while also serving a humanitarian purpose of liberating the prisoners, who could be murdered.<ref name=":8" />{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=571-572}} Mazurkiewicz eventually agreed, and according to the plan, scout [[Battalion Zośka]] was handed the task of capturing the concentration camp's premises.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=571-572}} |
||
[[File:Warsaw_by_Deczkowki_-_Gęsiówka_Bunker_-_15803_(1945).jpg|thumb|244x244px|A bunker of the concentration camp near Okopowa street, destroyed by Battalion Zośka. Photo taken in 1945|alt=Ruins of the concentration camp, with remnants of what was a bunker seen in the foreground]] |
[[File:Warsaw_by_Deczkowki_-_Gęsiówka_Bunker_-_15803_(1945).jpg|thumb|244x244px|A bunker of the concentration camp near Okopowa street, destroyed by Battalion Zośka. Photo taken in 1945|alt=Ruins of the concentration camp, with remnants of what was a bunker seen in the foreground]] |
||
KL Warschau was attacked on 5 August at 10:00, when [[Ryszard Białous]] "Jerzy", Zośka's commander, started the offensive. The military advantage was on the Polish side due to their prior capture and usage of the [[Panther tank]], which destroyed the camp's watchtowers and bunkers. The German defence eventually collapsed and SS personnel hid in the Pawiak prison walls. Battalion Zośka's losses were rather small - one person was [[killed in action]], another died of wounds and one person was [[wounded in action]] but survived; Germans' losses are unknown but were presumably larger.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=573-575}} The Home Army thus liberated 348 Jews, among which 24 were women.<ref name="Pohl5">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref name="YVClearing2">[https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto_testimonies/gesia_camp.asp Clearing the Ruins of the Ghetto], Yad Vashem</ref> Those released were mostly |
KL Warschau was attacked on 5 August at 10:00, when [[Ryszard Białous]] "Jerzy", Zośka's commander, and [[Wacław Micuta]], who commanded one of its platoons, started the offensive. The military advantage was on the Polish side due to their prior capture and usage of the [[Panther tank]], which destroyed the camp's watchtowers and bunkers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Radzilowski|first=John|url=https://books.google.pl/books?hl=pl&lr=&id=PglnDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=KL+Warschau&ots=xk9iyOyAw5&sig=X_9e9nYxFxsLBkNmd2zJmaMq9aE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=KL%20Warschau&f=false|title=Frantic 7: The American Effort to Aid the Warsaw Uprising and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944|last2=Szczeniak|first2=Jerzy|date=2017-09-19|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=978-1-61200-561-4|pages=6-7|language=en}}</ref> The German defence eventually collapsed and SS personnel hid in the Pawiak prison walls. Battalion Zośka's losses were rather small - one person was [[killed in action]], another died of wounds and one person was [[wounded in action]] but survived; Germans' losses are unknown but were presumably larger.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=573-575}} The Home Army thus liberated 348 Jews, among which 24 were women.<ref name="Pohl5">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|authorlink=Dieter Pohl}}</ref><ref name="YVClearing2">[https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto_testimonies/gesia_camp.asp Clearing the Ruins of the Ghetto], Yad Vashem</ref> Those released were mostly Hungarian (200-250 people)<ref name=":9" /> and Greek Jews, with some Czechoslovakians and Dutch Jews, who knew very little Polish.<ref name="Kossoy" /> It is known that only 89 people among the liberated had been Polish citizens,{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=101}} and historians have only been able to identify 73 prisoners.<ref name=":12" /> The Warsaw concentration camp was the only German concentration camp that was not liberated by main Allied troops, but by resistance fighters.<ref name=":9" />{{Sfn|Zezza|2020}} |
||
The vast majority of released Jewish prisoners swiftly took part in the uprising, which Gabriel Finder attributes to an informal political group, which he says prevented the camp's inhabitants from moral deterioration.<ref name=":10" /> Some of these were fighting along other soldiers, while others were helping with transport and provisioning issues, rescuing those under ruins as well as extinguishing fires.<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name="YVClearing2" /> Morale among Jewish fighters was hurt by displays of antisemitism, with several former Jewish prisoners in combat units killed by antisemitic Poles,{{r|USHMM|p=1514|q=The vast majority of liberated prisoners volunteered to fight in the uprising and served the revolt in various capacities. A special Jewish fighting platoon and a Jewish brigade to construct barricades were formed from liberated prisoners. These units sustained heavy losses. The morale of the former prisoners was corroded, however, when antisemitism reared its ugly head in the fighting units; antisemitic Poles even killed several liberated prisoners who volunteered for combat units."}} in particular those associated with the [[National Armed Forces]].<ref name="Kossoy" /> After the defeat of the uprising, the survivors fled or hid in bunkers. There were as little as 200 Jewish survivors (former prisoners as well as Jews who were hiding on the "Aryan" side) when the Soviets entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
The vast majority of released Jewish prisoners swiftly took part in the uprising, which Gabriel Finder attributes to an informal political group, which he says prevented the camp's inhabitants from moral deterioration.<ref name=":10" /> Some of these were fighting along other soldiers, while others were helping with transport and provisioning issues, rescuing those under ruins as well as extinguishing fires.<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name="YVClearing2" /> Morale among Jewish fighters was hurt by displays of antisemitism, with several former Jewish prisoners in combat units killed by antisemitic Poles,{{r|USHMM|p=1514|q=The vast majority of liberated prisoners volunteered to fight in the uprising and served the revolt in various capacities. A special Jewish fighting platoon and a Jewish brigade to construct barricades were formed from liberated prisoners. These units sustained heavy losses. The morale of the former prisoners was corroded, however, when antisemitism reared its ugly head in the fighting units; antisemitic Poles even killed several liberated prisoners who volunteered for combat units."}} in particular those associated with the [[National Armed Forces]].<ref name="Kossoy" /> After the defeat of the uprising, the survivors fled or hid in bunkers. There were as little as 200 Jewish survivors (former prisoners as well as Jews who were hiding on the "Aryan" side) when the Soviets entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945.<ref name="USHMM" /> |
||
Line 158: | Line 159: | ||
== Discredited extermination camp story == |
== Discredited extermination camp story == |
||
{{See also|Maria Trzcińska}} |
|||
⚫ | [[File:Tunnels near the Warsaw West railway station.jpg|thumb|Tunnels near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warsaw West rail and bus stagion]]. |
||
=== Hypothesis === |
|||
Despite the availability of reliable information about the Warsaw concentration camp,<ref name="Lehnstaedt">{{cite journal|last=Lehnstaedt|first=Stephan|author-link=Stephan Lehnstaedt|date=2010|title=Review: New Polish Research on German Violent Crimes in the Second World War|url=http://www.sehepunkte.de/2010/06/druckfassung/17990.html|journal={{ill|sehepunkte|de}}|issue=6}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite journal|url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-4675 |title=M. Trzcinska: Konzentrationslager Warschau|journal=[[H-Soz-Kult]]|first= Andreas ([[Center for Research on Antisemitism]])|last= Mix|date=2003}}</ref> in the 1970s a since-discredited legend<ref name="Lehnstaedt"/> or [[conspiracy theory]]<ref name="lrb2019"/> developed in Poland concerning the camp.<ref name="lrb2019"/><ref name="Lehnstaedt"/> It is estimated that approximately twenty thousand people perished at Gęsiówka Camp, both Jews and Poles. But some Polish nationalists have argued that the camp was the centre of a string of facilities established by the Germans to kill Warsaw's non-Jewish population.<ref name="lrb2019" /> The story was first advanced by judge and author [[Maria Trzcińska]] with a claim that the tunnel under the railroad near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warsaw West]] rail station was transformed into a large [[gas chamber]].<ref name="lrb2019" /> The story also alleged that the camp itself was much larger and functioned as an [[extermination camp]], killing 200,000 mainly ethnic Poles.<ref name="lrb2019" /> |
|||
⚫ | [[File:Tunnels near the Warsaw West railway station.jpg|thumb|Tunnels near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warsaw West rail and bus stagion]]. The second tunnel from the left supposedly housed a German gas chamber used to exterminate ethnic Poles.|alt=A black-and-white photo of the tunnels near the Warsaw West railroad station, central to the conspiracy theory related to the operation of a gas chamber supposedly used to exterminate some 200,000 non-Jewish Poles]] |
||
[[File:KL_Warschau_gas_chambers_scheme.jpg|thumb|A purported scheme, in Polish, of the gas chamber in the tunnels near Warszawa Zachodnia station.{{Efn|According to the scheme, a ventilation shaft, which was located closer to the railway station and is seen on the left of the scheme, pumped in air from the outside. In the meantime, [[hydrogen cyanide]] gas appearing from [[Zyklon B]] was transported by a pipe to two ventilators, where the gas was mixed with air, and then blown into the tunnel via vents in the tunnel's walls that could be closed. These were the two gas chambers that Trzcińska alleged to have existed. The gas was then pumped out of the gas chamber by the ventilators and released in the atmosphere. The scheme says that the Institute of National Remembrance and [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]] are to blame for an alleged destruction of their remnants in 1996.}}|alt=A proposed scheme of the Warsaw concentration camp. According to the scheme, a ventilation shaft pumped in air from the outside. In the meantime, hydrogen cyanide gas appearing from Zyklon B was transported by a pipe to two ventilators, where the gas was mixed with air, and then blown into the tunnel via vents in the tunnel's walls that could be closed. These were the two gas chambers that Trzcińska alleged to have existed. The gas was then pumped out of the gas chamber by the ventilators and released in the atmosphere. The scheme says that the Institute of National Remembrance and Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites are to blame for an alleged destruction of their remnants in 1996.]] |
|||
Despite the availability of reliable information about the Warsaw concentration camp,<ref name=":2">{{cite journal|url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-4675 |title=M. Trzcinska: Konzentrationslager Warschau|journal=[[H-Soz-Kult]]|first= Andreas ([[Center for Research on Antisemitism]])|last= Mix|date=2003}}</ref><ref name="Lehnstaedt" /> in the 1970s and 1980s a since-discredited legend<ref name="Lehnstaedt" /> or [[conspiracy theory]]<ref name="lrb2019" /> developed in Poland concerning the camp.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chomątowska|first=Beata|date=2017-04-18|title=KL Warschau jak katastrofa smoleńska, czyli manipulacja pamięcią|trans-title=KL Warschau is like the [[Smolensk air disaster]]|work=[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]|url=https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,21647847,kl-warschau-jak-katastrofa-smolenska-czyli-manipulacja-pamiecia.html|access-date=2019-10-18|lang=pl}}</ref> [[Maria Trzcińska]], a Polish judge who served in 1974-1996 as a member of the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation|Chief Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland]] (named Chief Commission for Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation after 1991), was assigned to investigate the German documents that her counterparts in Ludwigsburg have found.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|title=Dzieje KL Warschau były zakłamywane|url=https://www.rp.pl/wydarzenia/art12222041-dzieje-kl-warschau-byly-zaklamywane|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl}}</ref> In mid-1988, testimony began to surface suggesting that the concentration camp was also located near [[Warszawa Zachodnia railway station]], more than {{Convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on}} away, and included [[gas chamber]]<nowiki/>s; the witnesses also said that other camps also existed in the vicinity of the camp's generally recognised area.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":32">{{Cite web|last=Kochanowski|first=Jerzy|date=2007-11-17|title=Śmierć w Warschau|url=https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/historia/235510,1,smierc-wwarschau.read|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-11|website=[[Polityka]]|language=pl}}</ref> |
|||
Since then, Trzcińska engaged in activism for commemoration of the victims of the concentration camp. In 2002, on the wave of public interest that appeared since the Sejm's resolution, Trzcińska published a book titled ''Obóz zagłady w centrum Warszawy. Konzentrationslager Warschau'' (''The [[Extermination camp|Extermination Camp]] in the Centre of Warsaw. Konzentrazionslager Warschau'').{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002}} According to [[Jan Żaryn]], when the idea of erecting a monument in honour of the victims of the Warsaw concentration camp came closer, the interested parties were not able to agree on descriptions for the monument, so Trzcińska requested that the [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (IPN) verify which version was the correct one.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-06-11|title=Prof. Żaryn dla wPolityce.pl: Gdy ujawniłem, że Muzeum Polin jest zbudowane na szczątkach ludzkich starano się zwolnić mnie z pracy|url=https://wpolityce.pl/historia/398961-prof-zaryn-dla-wpolitycepl-gdy-ujawnilem-ze-muzeum-polin-jest-zbudowane-na-szczatkach-ludzkich-starano-sie-zwolnic-mnie-z-pracy|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-11|website=wpolityce.pl}}</ref> The conclusions, which were published in a book by Bogusław Kopka, however, were so divergent from hers that she decided to retract her part of the publication and proceeded with her own book,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Trzcińska|first=Maria|title=KL Warschau w świetle dokumentów: raport dla Prezesa Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, na potrzeby szkół i budowy Pomnika Ofiar Obozu KL Warschau|publisher=Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne|year=2007|isbn=9788389862945|location=Radom}}</ref> which reiterated her points.<ref name=":32" /> These can be summarised in the following way: |
|||
The discredited story that the Germans built a gas chamber to kill non-Jews, together with the fact of some 200,000 Polish fatalities in the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising]] (for a total of 400,000 non-Jewish deaths in Warsaw), has been used by the story's advocates to seek a parity between Jewish and non-Jewish victimhood that would make the Holocaust seem less unique.<ref name="lrb2019"/>{{Attribution needed|date=November 2021}} ''[[Nasz Dziennik]]'' (Our Daily) has promoted the extermination-camp story as an emblem of Polish martyrdom and has advocated introducing the story into school curricula, as well as the construction of a museum devoted to its propagation.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349899/1/498316.pdf |last=Kwiatkowska|first= Hanna Maria|title= Conflict of images. Conflict of memories. Jewish themes in the Polish right-wing nationalistic press in the light of articles from ''Nasz Dziennik'' 1998–2007|degree=PhD|institution= University of London|date=2008|pages= 67, 82–88}}</ref> |
|||
* KL Warschau started its operation in October 1942, just after [[Himmler]]'s first order (see [[Warsaw concentration camp#Creation|Creation]] section);{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=17}} |
|||
In 2008 [[Bogusław Kopka]] wrote that there was no evidence for the extermination-camp story. In 2010 the [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (''IPN'') commissioned a report from historian and [[aerial photography]] expert {{ill|Zygmunt Walkowski|pl}}. Walkowski says his report thoroughly refuted the story. The report was submitted in December 2016; {{as of |2020|lc=yes}}, the IPN had not published it. Subsequent to his filing of the report, Walkowski received anonymous death threats.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-how-poland-s-ruling-party-cynically-fuels-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-denial-1.8168175 |title=How Poland's Ruling Party Cynically Fuels anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial |last=Davies |first=Christian |date=2019-11-24 |work=Haaretz |access-date=2020-01-26 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20200108-focus-poland-warsaw-kl-warschau-myth-nationalists-want-to-rewrite-history-world-war-ii |title=In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II |date=2020-01-08 |last=Lovett |first=Patrick |publisher=France 24}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Sprawa KL Warschau: nie było komory gazowej przy dworcu Zachodnim |url=https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/sprawa-kl-warschau-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej-przy-dworcu-zachodnim-186454 |access-date=21 December 2020 |work=TVN Warszawa |date=17 April 2017 |language=pl}}</ref> |
|||
* The Warsaw concentration camp was, according to Trzcińska, an extensive complex consisting of five subcamps: the main camp, which purportedly had previously served as a [[POW]] camp for the [[Polish Army]] soldiers detained after [[Invasion of Poland|September 1939]], was located in a small {{Interlanguage link|Lasek na Kole|lt=forest|pl}} in the neighbourhood of [[Koło, Warsaw|Koło]] called ''Lasek na Kole''; two were located in the former ghetto (one on Gęsia street, which is the generally recognised location, and another on {{Interlanguage link|ulica Bonifraterska w Warszawie|lt=Bonifraterska|pl}} street), and two were located near the Warszawa Zachodnia station.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=17}}{{Efn|According to her theory, the subcamps near Warszawa Zachodnia station were to be located on both sides of the tunnel supposedly containing a giant gas chamber. One of them supposedly had an area of about {{conv|30|hectare|acre}} and was situated between Mszczonowska, Armatnia and Józef Bem streets; the other was located on the other side of the railway tracks, near what was then Skalmierzycka street (today's part of [[Jerusalem Avenue]] running from Niemcewicza street to the road tunnel).}} These are said to have extended on an area of around {{Convert|120|hectare|acre}}, containing 119 barracks capable of housing 41,000 inmates.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=31}} |
|||
* The camp was part of the so-called [[Pabst Plan]], which envisaged the reduction of Warsaw to a provincial Nazi-style city by demolishing most of Warsaw's buildings and greatly reducing its population.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=17, 89-91}} In the framework of the plan, as Trzcińska claims, KL Warschau operated as an [[extermination camp]] for Poles. Around 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Poles, were said to have been exterminated by gassing and mass shootings.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=35, 48, 50–51}} The alleged gas chamber, which Trzcińska contended was located in a road tunnel near {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, converted specifically for that purpose, was central to these efforts.<ref name="lrb2019" /> According to the historian, the corpses were then secretly transported to Gęsia street for cremation.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=35-48, 74}} |
|||
* The [[Polish People's Republic]] authorities were loath to study the history of the Warsaw concentration camp or commemorate its victims, as they were afraid of disclosing information about the functioning of Soviet [[NKVD]] and Polish Communist [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|MBP]] administrations in KL Warschau, which she considered damaging.{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=94}} |
|||
=== Refutation === |
|||
Historian [[Daniel Blatman]] described the Trzcińska story as "one of numberless stories that [[Holocaust denier]]s around the world are posting online".<ref name="Blatman 2019-10-18">{{Cite news|last=Blatman|first=Daniel|date=2019-10-18|title=Israel, It's Time to Call Off the anti-Polish Hunt|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-it-s-time-to-call-off-the-anti-polish-hunt-1.7995017|access-date=2019-10-21}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=November 2021}} [[Havi Dreifuss]], [[Jan Grabowski (historian)|Jan Grabowski]], and [[Gideon Greif]]{{fact|date=October 2021}} have criticized the Polish government for its history policy, which they believe has not been successful in discrediting Trzcińska.<ref name="Haaretz 2019-10-03">{{Cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-fake-nazi-death-camp-wikipedia-s-longest-hoax-exposed-1.7942233 |title=The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed |last=Benjakob |first=Omer |date=2019-10-03 |work=Haaretz |access-date=2019-10-03 |language=en}}</ref> |
|||
The contentions, in addition to not being confirmed by Bogusław Kopka, have also been refuted by the IPN in a later analysis by {{ill|Zygmunt Walkowski|pl}}.<ref name=":12" /> The findings were also cast in doubt by other historians, including [[Władysław Bartoszewski]], [[Tomasz Szarota]],{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} Andreas Mix<ref name=":2" /> and [[Jan Żaryn]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16}} In particular, they say that: |
|||
* no credible evidence exists for the assertion that KL Warschau had more camps than the one at Gęsia street. There is no testimony whatsoever about the existence of the camp at Bonifraterska street;<ref name=":2" /> as for three other camps which supposedly existed, available testimony is scarce, contains few details and contradicts esch other.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=24}} There is also no evidence for a POW camp in Koło neighbourhood that had allegedly existed before KL Warschau,{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=122}} or in general of any spatially separated camps;<ref name=":2" /> |
|||
* there is no credible evidence for the hypothesis that KL Warschau was an extermination camp, featuring a tunnel near Warszawa Zachodnia station which had been converted to a giant [[gas chamber]]. Neither the [[Polish Underground State]] reports nor the German archives reveal any such information, nor did any piece of testimony coming from wartime period or shortly thereafter mention it.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=130-131}} The oral and written submissions Trzcińska relied on were created more than 40 years after the war, and their veracity is dubious.<ref name="lrb2019" /> Moreover, retired workers of "Kolprojekt", a rail construction bureau, and available documents of the enterprise suggest that the ventilation shafts near {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, which supposedly were remnants of the gas chamber, were in fact built in 1970s{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=469–485, 490–495, 505–506}} and that in 1960, the technical plan of Warszawa Zachodnia station did not have any gas chambers detected; |
|||
* known estimates of the losses Warsaw endured in World War II contradict the notion that 200,000 people could have died in the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Getter|first=Marek|date=August-September 2004|title=Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim|url=https://www.polska1918-89.pl/pdf/straty-ludzkie-i-materialne-w-powstaniu-warszawskim,5774.pdf|journal=Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance|volume=8–9|issue=43-44|issn=1641-9561|lang=pl}}</ref> Bogusław Kopka suggested that this number is in fact a sum of those who died in Warsaw Uprising, the deaths in the camps and some other civilian deaths in Warsaw.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=130-131}} |
|||
In 2010, the Institute of National Remembrance commissioned a report from historian and [[Aerial photography|aerial-photography]] expert {{ill|Zygmunt Walkowski|pl}}, who analysed aerial photographs of the area. The report, which was submitted in December 2016 (not yet published as of November 2021),<ref name=":132">{{Cite web|title=Zygmunt Walkowski: podczas II wojny obok Dworca Zachodniego nie było komory gazowej|url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/zygmunt-walkowski-podczas-ii-wojny-obok-dworca-zachodniego-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej|access-date=2021-09-14|website=dzieje.pl|language=pl}}</ref> confirmed that the only place KL Warschau existed was on Gęsia street and that no camp infrastructure existed in the areas said to have contained other subcamps.<ref name=":132" /> Walkowski also noted tunnels were not closed and that vehicles could drive through them, while the two ventilation shafts and a ventilator engine that were supposedly used to pump [[Zyklon B]] were only built in the 1970s.<ref name=":4">{{cite news|date=17 April 2017|title=Sprawa KL Warschau: nie było komory gazowej przy dworcu Zachodnim|language=pl|work=TVN Warszawa|url=https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/sprawa-kl-warschau-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej-przy-dworcu-zachodnim-186454|access-date=21 December 2020}}</ref> It was also shown that during the [[History of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]], access to the forest near Koło was not restricted for civilians, the barracks were already built in 1930s and were used by civilians, while the purported "death wall" only emerged in 1972.<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name=":132" /> |
|||
=== Reactions === |
|||
According to Christian Davies, the discredited story that the Germans built a gas chamber to kill non-Jews, together with the fact of some 200,000 Polish fatalities in the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising (1944)|Warsaw Uprising]] (for a total of 400,000 non-Jewish deaths in Warsaw, which is the usual estimate of the number of Jews imprisoned in Warsaw), has been used by the story's advocates to seek parity between Jewish and non-Jewish victimhood that would make the Holocaust seem less unique, a notion that Davies dubbed the "Polocaust".<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name=":112">{{Cite journal|last=Subotić|first=Jelena|date=2020-08-04|title=The Appropriation of Holocaust Memory in Post-Communist Eastern Europe|url=http://www.modernlanguagesopen.org/articles/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.315/print/|journal=Modern Languages Open|language=en|issue=1|pages=22|doi=10.3828/mlo.v0i0.315|issn=2052-5397}}</ref> He also pointed to [[Law and Justice]] party (PiS) officials' endorsement for {{Interlanguage link|Mira Modelska-Creech|pl}}, who emerged as one of the main proponents of the extermination camp hypothesis after Trzcińska died in 2011, and IPN's lack of reaction when the commemorative plaque citing Trzcińska's data was unveiled in 2017.<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name=":52">{{Cite news|last=Lovett|first=Patrick|date=2020-01-08|title=In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II|work=[[France 24]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7TZzzNrDnE|access-date=2021-09-12|via=[[Youtube]]}}</ref><ref name="DaviesHaaretz">{{Cite news|last=Davies|first=Christian|date=2019-11-24|title=How Poland's Ruling Party Cynically Fuels anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-how-poland-s-ruling-party-cynically-fuels-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-denial-1.8168175|access-date=2020-01-26}}</ref> ''[[Nasz Dziennik]],'' a right-wing to far-right Catholic newspaper, and affiliated ''[[Radio Maryja]],'' have promoted the hypothesis as an emblem of Polish martyrdom. The media outlets have also advocated for introducing the story into school curricula and for constructing a museum of KL Warschau.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349899/1/498316.pdf|last=Kwiatkowska|first=Hanna Maria|title=Conflict of images. Conflict of memories. Jewish themes in the Polish right-wing nationalistic press in the light of articles from ''Nasz Dziennik'' 1998–2007|degree=PhD|institution=University of London|date=2008|pages=67, 82–88}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Maszkowski|first=Rafał|date=December 2006|title=A different World: The Jews as Seen by Radio Maryja|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271371344_Inny_swiat_obraz_Zydow_w_Radiu_Maryja_A_different_World_The_Jews_as_Seen_by_Radio_Maryja|journal=Jewish History Quarterly|language=pl|issue=4|pages=669-687}}</ref> |
|||
[[Havi Dreifuss]], [[Jan Grabowski (historian)|Jan Grabowski]], and [[Gideon Greif]]<ref>{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPIn8oBVzU#t=323s|title=העולם היום – 06.10.19|date=2019-10-06|last=ורדי|first=מואב|language=he}}</ref> related the gas-chamber story to the current [[Historical policy of the Law and Justice party|Polish government's historical policy]] and dismissed the account as a conspiracy theory (Grabowski) or fake history (Dreifuss).{{Sfn|Benjakob|2019}} Walkowski, who said he was bemused by the fact that people were unhappy with his findings about fewer deaths, told reporters he received threats.<ref name=":52" /> Historian [[Daniel Blatman]], on the hand, while seeing the hypothesis as "one of numberless stories that [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust deniers]] around the world are posting online", warned against generalisations on the Polish society or the Polish government.<ref name="Blatman 2019-10-182">{{Cite news|last=Blatman|first=Daniel|date=2019-10-18|title=Israel, It's Time to Call Off the anti-Polish Hunt|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-it-s-time-to-call-off-the-anti-polish-hunt-1.7995017|access-date=2019-10-21}}</ref> |
|||
== Commemoration == |
== Commemoration == |
||
Line 175: | Line 195: | ||
In March 2004, the Warsaw city council allowed to build a commemoration site on the Alojzy Pawelek square in the southern part of [[Wola]] district, next to what Trzcińska contended were gas chambers and subcamps of KL Warschau.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-03-11|title=Uchwała nr XXVI/494/2004 z 11-03-2004|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/BA0C5BB7-DEA4-4BE7-8AE5-4D7A1229B1AD,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] - Warsaw|language=pl}}</ref> The resolution was cancelled in October 2009 after consultations with the [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]], a governmental body responsible for preservation of sites of wartime persecution, and it was decided to place a new monument in [[Muranów]] neighbourhood, on the site of what was then [[Serbia Prison, Warsaw|Serbia prison]], some {{Convert|200|m|ft|abbr=on}} away from the walls of the actual concentration camp.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web|last=Pinkas|first=Aleksandra|date=2010-06-11|title=Sąd na pomnikiem KL Warschau|url=https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/484849.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-08|website=Życie Warszawy|publisher=|lang=pl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-10-22|title=Uchwała nr LXIII/1994/2009 z 22-10-2009|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/E22E0F69-6813-4600-AA08-48E55F27F756,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] - Warsaw|language=pl}}</ref> That decision was opposed by supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis, who argued that placing the monument there would suggest that only Jews were victims of the concentration camp, but the [[Supreme Administrative Court of Poland|Supreme Administrative Court]] denied their request to invalidate the new resolution.<ref name=":14" /> As of November 2021, the monument in Muranów has not yet appeared. |
In March 2004, the Warsaw city council allowed to build a commemoration site on the Alojzy Pawelek square in the southern part of [[Wola]] district, next to what Trzcińska contended were gas chambers and subcamps of KL Warschau.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-03-11|title=Uchwała nr XXVI/494/2004 z 11-03-2004|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/BA0C5BB7-DEA4-4BE7-8AE5-4D7A1229B1AD,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] - Warsaw|language=pl}}</ref> The resolution was cancelled in October 2009 after consultations with the [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]], a governmental body responsible for preservation of sites of wartime persecution, and it was decided to place a new monument in [[Muranów]] neighbourhood, on the site of what was then [[Serbia Prison, Warsaw|Serbia prison]], some {{Convert|200|m|ft|abbr=on}} away from the walls of the actual concentration camp.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web|last=Pinkas|first=Aleksandra|date=2010-06-11|title=Sąd na pomnikiem KL Warschau|url=https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/484849.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-08|website=Życie Warszawy|publisher=|lang=pl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-10-22|title=Uchwała nr LXIII/1994/2009 z 22-10-2009|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/E22E0F69-6813-4600-AA08-48E55F27F756,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] - Warsaw|language=pl}}</ref> That decision was opposed by supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis, who argued that placing the monument there would suggest that only Jews were victims of the concentration camp, but the [[Supreme Administrative Court of Poland|Supreme Administrative Court]] denied their request to invalidate the new resolution.<ref name=":14" /> As of November 2021, the monument in Muranów has not yet appeared. |
||
Supporters of the extermination camp theory have created their own commemoration sites. One was built with municipal approval in 2004 and became a place of informal monthly gatherings of supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|last=Lovett|first=Patrick|date=2020-01-08|title=In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II|work=[[France 24]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7TZzzNrDnE|access-date=2021-09-12|via=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> Their efforts have resulted in a plaque on a nearby {{Interlanguage link|Kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} on {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, placed in 2009 and consecrated by Archbishop [[Kazimierz Nycz]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Podulka|first=Maciej|date=2009-06-10|title=KL Warschau wychodzi z cienia historii|url=http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110043943/http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|archive-date=2016-11-10|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Kurier Wolski|language=pl}}</ref> and another one on a {{Interlanguage link|Kościół Matki Bożej Królowej Polskich Męczenników w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} in the Warsaw district of [[Praga-Południe]] in 2017; both are repeating Trzcińska's conjecture about 200,000 Poles murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=": |
Supporters of the extermination camp theory have created their own commemoration sites. One was built with municipal approval in 2004 and became a place of informal monthly gatherings of supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|last=Lovett|first=Patrick|date=2020-01-08|title=In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II|work=[[France 24]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7TZzzNrDnE|access-date=2021-09-12|via=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> Their efforts have resulted in a plaque on a nearby {{Interlanguage link|Kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} on {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, placed in 2009 and consecrated by Archbishop [[Kazimierz Nycz]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Podulka|first=Maciej|date=2009-06-10|title=KL Warschau wychodzi z cienia historii|url=http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110043943/http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|archive-date=2016-11-10|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Kurier Wolski|language=pl}}</ref> and another one on a {{Interlanguage link|Kościół Matki Bożej Królowej Polskich Męczenników w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} in the Warsaw district of [[Praga-Południe]] in 2017; both are repeating Trzcińska's conjecture about 200,000 Poles murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=":112"/> An unofficial plaque was also installed in ''Lasek na Kole'' forest, contending that a place of execution connected with the Warsaw concentration camp existed there.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-09-16|title=Tajemnica Lasku na Kole|url=http://www.warszawaexpress.pl/8_58_tajemnica-lasku-na-kole.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Warszawa Express - Warszawski Magazyn Codzienny|language=pl}}</ref> Marius Gudonis and Benjamin T. Jones in their book ''History in a [[Post-truth|Post-Truth]] World'' relate the fact such plaques appeared to the indifference to established facts and to an ideological devotion to the preferred historical narrative, which, in the case of the 2009 plaque, was further cemented by the approval of high church authorities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1157756093|title=History in a post-truth world : theory and praxis|date=2021|others=Marius Gudonis, Benjamin T. Jones|isbn=978-1-000-19822-5|location=New York, NY|pages=9-11|oclc=1157756093}}</ref> |
||
As a result, the only place of commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp in the area of KL Warschau is a plaque that was initially embedded into a wall of a building at 34 Anielewicza street in 1994;<ref name=":102">{{Cite book|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbg9j|title=The Shtetl: Myth and Reality|date=2004|journal=|series=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry|volume=17|pages=325-352|language=en|chapter=Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944|doi=10.2307/j.ctv4cbg9j.27|access-date=2021-09-13|via=JSTOR}}</ref> it was moved in 2018 and is now located on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, which was the south-west corner of KL Warschau.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Węgrzynowicz|first=Artur|date=2018-07-23|title=Przeniosą tablice upamiętniające odbicie Gęsiówki i śmierć mieszkańców Woli|trans-title=Plaques commemorating capture of Gęsiówka and Wola massacre to be moved|url=https://tvnwarszawa.tvn24.pl/informacje,news,przeniosa-tablice-upamietniajace-odbicie-gesiowki-i-smierc-mieszkancow-woli,265342.html|url-status=live|access-date=2018-09-23|website=TVN 24 Warszawa|lang=pl}}</ref> The plaques, written in Polish, [[Hebrew]] and English inform about the camp's liberation by [[Battalion Zośka]] and the subsequent participation of the prisoners in the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. A plaque in remembrance of the victims was also unveiled near the [[Museum of Pawiak Prison]] in November 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|date=2013-11-22|title=Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej ofiarom KL Warschau|url=http://muzeum-niepodleglosci.pl/pawiak/903/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Museum of Pawiak Prison]]|language=pl-PL}}</ref> |
As a result, the only place of commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp in the area of KL Warschau is a plaque that was initially embedded into a wall of a building at 34 Anielewicza street in 1994;<ref name=":102">{{Cite book|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbg9j|title=The Shtetl: Myth and Reality|date=2004|journal=|series=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry|volume=17|pages=325-352|language=en|chapter=Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944|doi=10.2307/j.ctv4cbg9j.27|access-date=2021-09-13|via=JSTOR}}</ref> it was moved in 2018 and is now located on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, which was the south-west corner of KL Warschau.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Węgrzynowicz|first=Artur|date=2018-07-23|title=Przeniosą tablice upamiętniające odbicie Gęsiówki i śmierć mieszkańców Woli|trans-title=Plaques commemorating capture of Gęsiówka and Wola massacre to be moved|url=https://tvnwarszawa.tvn24.pl/informacje,news,przeniosa-tablice-upamietniajace-odbicie-gesiowki-i-smierc-mieszkancow-woli,265342.html|url-status=live|access-date=2018-09-23|website=TVN 24 Warszawa|lang=pl}}</ref> The plaques, written in Polish, [[Hebrew]] and English inform about the camp's liberation by [[Battalion Zośka]] and the subsequent participation of the prisoners in the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. A plaque in remembrance of the victims was also unveiled near the [[Museum of Pawiak Prison]] in November 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|date=2013-11-22|title=Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej ofiarom KL Warschau|url=http://muzeum-niepodleglosci.pl/pawiak/903/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Museum of Pawiak Prison]]|language=pl-PL}}</ref> |
||
The camp's name appears on the 1995 German post stamp, prepared for the 50th anniversary of liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Blockausgabe: 50. Jahrestag der Befreiung der Gefangenen aus den Konzentrationslagern|url=https://www.suche-briefmarken.de/marken/brd/d1995027.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=www.suche-briefmarken.de}}</ref> In 2020, a 10 [[Polish złoty|PLN]] [[silver]] commemorative coin was issued by the [[National Bank of Poland]], honouring the camp's victims.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-08|title=NBP upamiętnił ofiary obozu KL Warschau|trans-title=The National Bank of Poland commemorated the victims of KL Warschau|url=https://www.nbp.pl/banknoty_i_monety/monety_okolicznosciowe/2020/2020_22___kl_warschau_pl.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=National Bank of Poland}}</ref |
The camp's name appears on the 1995 German post stamp, prepared for the 50th anniversary of liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Blockausgabe: 50. Jahrestag der Befreiung der Gefangenen aus den Konzentrationslagern|url=https://www.suche-briefmarken.de/marken/brd/d1995027.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=www.suche-briefmarken.de}}</ref> In 2020, a 10 [[Polish złoty|PLN]] [[silver]] commemorative coin was issued by the [[National Bank of Poland]], honouring the camp's victims.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-08|title=NBP upamiętnił ofiary obozu KL Warschau|trans-title=The National Bank of Poland commemorated the victims of KL Warschau|url=https://www.nbp.pl/banknoty_i_monety/monety_okolicznosciowe/2020/2020_22___kl_warschau_pl.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=National Bank of Poland}}</ref> |
||
<gallery caption="Commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp"> |
|||
File:„Gęsiówka” commemorative plaque at Anielewicza Street in Warsaw 01.jpg|alt=Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp. The plaque in English reads: "On 5 August 1944, 'Zośka', the scouts' battalion of the 'Radosław' unit Armia Krajowa captured the German concentration camp 'Gęsiówka' and liberated 348 Jewish prisoners - citizens of various European countries, many of whom later fought and fell in the Warsaw Uprising"|Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp, on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, near the camp's south-west corner. |
File:„Gęsiówka” commemorative plaque at Anielewicza Street in Warsaw 01.jpg|alt=Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp. The plaque in English reads: "On 5 August 1944, 'Zośka', the scouts' battalion of the 'Radosław' unit Armia Krajowa captured the German concentration camp 'Gęsiówka' and liberated 348 Jewish prisoners - citizens of various European countries, many of whom later fought and fell in the Warsaw Uprising"|Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp, on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, near the camp's south-west corner. |
||
File:KL Warschau commemorative plaque at the Museum of the Prison Pawiak.jpg|alt=A commemorative plaque near Pawiak Prison (in Polish). It says: "In honour of the victims of the German concentration camp KL Warschau - inhabitants of Warsaw - the city that was never subdued. Warsaw 2013"|Commemorative plaque near [[Pawiak Prison]] |
File:KL Warschau commemorative plaque at the Museum of the Prison Pawiak.jpg|alt=A commemorative plaque near Pawiak Prison (in Polish). It says: "In honour of the victims of the German concentration camp KL Warschau - inhabitants of Warsaw - the city that was never subdued. Warsaw 2013"|Commemorative plaque near [[Pawiak Prison]] |
||
File:200,000 Poles killed - 200 tys. zamordowanych Polaków KL Warschau.jpg|alt=Commemorative plaque placed in 2017, which follows Trzcińska's hypothesis of the camp's history. The plaque reads: "We consecrate the white blot of history that was being hidden [from us] to Our Lady, the Queen of Polish martyrs: In |
File:200,000 Poles killed - 200 tys. zamordowanych Polaków KL Warschau.jpg|alt=Commemorative plaque placed in 2017, which follows Trzcińska's hypothesis of the camp's history. The plaque reads: "We consecrate the white blot of history that was being hidden [from us] to Our Lady, the Queen of Polish martyrs: In homage to the 200,000 Poles murdered in Warsaw in the German extermination camp KL WARSCHAU in 1942-1944. The camp existed 'in the framework of the annihilation of the Capital of Poland' - from the Sejm resolution dated 27 July 2001 on the victims of KL Warschau. Compatriots - 2017" To the right, a scheme of Warsaw appears with the caption "Pabst Plan - 1940 - Plan of Warsaw's destruction".|Commemorative plaque placed in 2017, contending that 200,000 Poles were murdered in KL Warschau, which it says was "a white blot of history that was being hidden" |
||
File:Tablica KL Warschau kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie.jpg|alt=Another commemorative plaque put by Trzcińska's supporters, citing the same number|Another commemorative plaque citing the same number |
File:Tablica KL Warschau kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie.jpg|alt=Another commemorative plaque put by Trzcińska's supporters, citing the same number|Another commemorative plaque citing the same number |
||
File:Pomnik ofiarom KL Warschau na Skwerze im. Alojzego Pawełka w Warszawie (3).JPG|alt=Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. The site consists of a round place surrounded by stones. At one side of the site appears a large stone with an inscription repeating Trzcińska's number, behind which stands a metal cross. Information boards outlining Trzcińska's hypothesis appear on either side of the site|Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. Photo taken in 2012 |
File:Pomnik ofiarom KL Warschau na Skwerze im. Alojzego Pawełka w Warszawie (3).JPG|alt=Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. The site consists of a round place surrounded by stones. At one side of the site appears a large stone with an inscription repeating Trzcińska's number, behind which stands a metal cross. Information boards outlining Trzcińska's hypothesis appear on either side of the site|Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. Photo taken in 2012 |
||
Line 225: | Line 246: | ||
* {{Cite journal|last=Libionka|first=Dariusz|date=2014-12-01|title=Zapisy dotyczące Żydów w warszawskich kronikach policyjnych z lat 1942–1944|url=https://www.zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/article/view/537|journal=Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały|language=pl|issue=10|pages=558–591|doi=10.32927/ZZSiM.537|issn=2657-3571}} |
* {{Cite journal|last=Libionka|first=Dariusz|date=2014-12-01|title=Zapisy dotyczące Żydów w warszawskich kronikach policyjnych z lat 1942–1944|url=https://www.zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/article/view/537|journal=Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały|language=pl|issue=10|pages=558–591|doi=10.32927/ZZSiM.537|issn=2657-3571}} |
||
* {{Cite book|last=Mannheimer|first=Max|title=Spätes Tagebuch. Theresienstadt - Auschwitz - Warschau - Dachau|publisher=Pendo|year=2000|isbn=9783858423740|location=[[Zurich]]|language=de}} - survivor's account |
* {{Cite book|last=Mannheimer|first=Max|title=Spätes Tagebuch. Theresienstadt - Auschwitz - Warschau - Dachau|publisher=Pendo|year=2000|isbn=9783858423740|location=[[Zurich]]|language=de}} - survivor's account |
||
*{{Cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2020|title=We are a strict, iron group: from Salonika to Warsaw via Auschwitz|url=https://www.sephardichorizons.org/Volume10/Issue3&4/Zezza.html#_edn2|url-status=live|journal=Sephardic Horizons|volume=10|issue=3-4|access-date=2021-11-14}} |
|||
{{KZ}} |
{{KZ}} |
||
{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
Revision as of 14:36, 14 November 2021
Coordinates: 52°14′54.3″N 20°59′23.7″E / 52.248417°N 20.989917°E
Warsaw | |
---|---|
Nazi concentration camp | |
Known for | Discredited extermination camp theory |
Location | Warsaw, General Government, German-occupied Poland |
Built by | Camp's inmates |
Operated by | Nazi Germany |
Commandant | Wilhelm Göcke (June 1943 – September 1943) Nikolaus Herbet (September 1943 – April 1944) Wilhelm Ruppert (May- June 1944)[1] |
Original use | Gęsiówka prison[1] |
First built | 19 July 1943-10 June 1944 |
Operational | 19 July 1943-5 August 1944 as a Nazi concentration camp January 1945-November 1949 as a labour/POW camp 1949-1956 as a prison |
Inmates | Mostly Jews from countries other than Poland (Greece and Hungary in particular)[1] 300 Germans |
Number of inmates | 8,000–9,000[1] |
Killed | 4,000–5,000 prisoners 20,000 overall |
Liberated by | Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising[1] |
The Warsaw concentration camp (see other names),[2] was a German concentration camp created on the order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, on the base of the now non-existent Gęsiówka prison in what is today the Warsaw neighbourhood of Muranów. It was operating from July 1943 to August 1944.
The Encyclopedia on Camps and Ghettos says that in total, some 8,000 to 9,000 inmates were held there. Bogusław Kopka estimates that at least 7,250 of the camp's prisoners were Jews from various countries in Europe, who were used as forced labour to clean the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto and to find and sort whichever precious items were still left on its terrirory, with the ultimate goal of creating a park in the former ghetto's area. The camp and adjacent ruins were also used by the German administration as a place of execution, where Polish political prisoners, Jews who were caught on the "Aryan side" as well as whoever was rounded up on Warsaw streets were executed en masse.
KL Warschau first functioned as a camp in its own right. However, in May 1944, KL Warschau became a branch of the Majdanek concentration camp. In late July 1944, due to the Red Army approaching, the Germans started to evacuate the camp. Around 4,000 inmates were forced to march on foot to Kutno, 120 km (75 mi) away; those who survived were then transported to the Dachau concentration camp. On 5 August 1944, the camp was captured by the Battalion Zośka during the Warsaw Uprising, liberating 348 Jews who were still left on its premises. It was the only German camp to have been liberated by anti-Nazi resistance forces, rather than the Allied troops.
About 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners have died during the camp's existence,[1] while the total number of deaths attributable to the camp's activity is estimated at 20,000.[3][a]
The camp, which seldom appears in mainstream historiography,[1][4] has been at the centre of a conspiracy theory, first promoted by Maria Trzcińska, a Polish judge who served for 22 years as a member of the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an extermination camp which operated a giant gas chamber inside a tunnel near Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.[5]
After the Nazis were expelled from Warsaw by the Red Army, the new Communist administration continued to run the buildings as a forced labour camp, and then as a prison, until it was closed in 1956. All of the camp's premises were demolished in 1965.
Name
During the first nine months, KL Warschau was a concentration camp in its own right. Its staff was subordinate to SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-WVHA), but it also cooperated closely with the police authorities in Warsaw, particularly during the pacification that happened at the turn of 1943/44 and which was targeted at the Polish population of the capital.[6][7] At this time it carried the official name of Waffen-SS Konzentrationslager Warschau (or KL Warschau for short).[8] [b] though, Gabriel N. Finder has stated it played a rather minor role in comparison with other camps.[9]
In May 1944, the KL Warschau became a branch of Majdanek concentration camp, so the camp's name changed to Waffen-SS Konzentrationslager Lublin – Arbeitslager Warschau (Waffen-SS Concentration Camp Lublin - Labour Camp Warsaw). It was also sometimes referred to in German sources as Arbeitslager Warschau.[10]
In Polish sources, the name Gęsiówka (IPA: [ɡɛ̃ˈɕufka]) often appears as a name for the camp. This was due to the fact that the camp occupied the complex of Wołyń Caserns (now non-existent), which were relatively well preserved after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The caserns, at the corner of then-existing Gęsia and Zamenhof streets, were a military prison before WWII, and afterwards accomodated the central prison for the Jewish district, the correcting labour camp of the Sicherheitspolizei , as well as the Judenrat.[11] The prison complex came to be colloquially known as "Gęsiówka" (named for Gęsia street), which nickname transferred to KL Warschau as well.[12][13]
After World War II, the camp, although with changed purposes, was still run by Communist authorities under other names (see the relevant section for details).
Creation
According to Bogusław Kopka, the first person behind the idea of creating a concentration camp in Warsaw was Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), who mentioned it in a letter dated 9 October 1942.[14][15] The letter informed the local posts of SS and Wehrmacht in the General Government that all Jewish craftsmen who so far had managed to avoid deportation to the extermination camps were to be "collected in the nearest concentration camps on the spot, i.e. in Warsaw and Lublin."[16] Camps which were located close to the ghettos – like the one in Warsaw – were also intended to host Jewish labourers, who would be working for the weapons factories operating on-site; these, in their turn, were planned to be successively moved to concentration camps near Lublin, and then farther east.[17] Himmler assumed that concentrating all Jewish labour in camps controlled by the SS-WVHA would be the basis for the creation of an SS economical empire in the East.[18] His ideas, however, were met with resistance from the military, police and civil administration of the General Government, as well as from the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production and from German companies using Jewish slave labour. Himmler was thus unable to bring his idea to fruition, so the concentration camp in Warsaw did not appear, nor did all factories using Jewish labour become controlled by SS.[19]
As plans to demolish the Warsaw Ghetto appeared, Himmler soon returned to the idea of creating a concentration camp in Warsaw. In a letter dated 16 February 1943, addressed to SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, head of SS-WVHA, Himmler ordered the creation a concentration camp in the "Jewish district" and directed that all German-owned private enterprises operating in the Ghetto be relocated there.[14] The camp, together with its enterprises and inhabitants, was planned to be "transported as quickly as possible to Lublin and nearby areas". On the same day, Himmler also wrote a letter to SS-Ogruf Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger, Higher SS and police leader for the General Government, which demanded the demolishing of the buildings of the deserted ghetto after the concentration camp was transported to Lublin.[14] The task of demolition, it was suggested, was to be handed over to local Jews.[20] The idea's implementation was marred with numerous difficulties, so when the Germans decided to accelerate the deportations on 19 April, they met strong resistance from the Jews, who began the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[20][21][22] The concentration camp, again, failed to materialise, and only part of the enterprises, together with some of the Jews, were evacuated to the concentration camps in Majdanek, Trawniki, and Poniatowa.[20][23]
The idea of the camp was revived once again after the failure of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who led the efforts aimed at quashing the insurgency, proposed on 16 May 1943, the day the uprising came to the end, to convert the Pawiak prison, used previously by the SD and the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), to a concentration camp.[24] Himmler agreed to the proposal and issued the order, which read:[14]
I herewith order, that the Dzielna prison [Pawiak prison - note] in the former ghetto of Warsaw, is to be transformed into a concentration camp. The prisoners are to gather and secure the millions of building stones, scrap iron, and other building material from the former ghetto. Special care is to be taken for the secure guards of the prisoners during this work.
I instruct [...] to make sure that during this cleaning up the city center of the former ghetto is to be flattened completely and every cellar and every canalization is to be filled in.
After the work is finished the area is to be covered up with earth and a large park is to be planted.
— Heinrich Himmler, Letter of Himmler to Oswald Pohl ordering the complete flattening of the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto by Jews, 11 June 1943
Eventually Pawiak's status as a prison did not change, but the concentration camp was erected on the nearby Gęsia street, which was also located inside the Ghetto walls, partially because it was the only building left intact in the area previously occupied by the Ghetto.[25] In addition to that, Bogusław Kopka argues that this position was chosen due to the fact that it was in a deserted area with restricted access to civilians, which additionally was in proximity to the warehouses at Umschlagplatz as well as German militarised units: an SS outpost on Żelazna street, a strong German army command at Stawki street and the staff of the Pawiak prison, all of whom could be quickly dispatched in case of mutiny.[26]
On 19 July 1943, the first 300 prisoners, who were German and predominantly criminals, were transported from Buchenwald concentration camp. This date is considered to be the day when KL Warschau started operation.[1][27]
Description
Location and facilities
The Warsaw concentration camp was created inside a closed and deserted zone of the former ghetto, which was surrounded by walls regularly patrolled by German guards and police officers.[28] Gęsiówka, a former military prison, as well as spaces stretching along the Gęsia street, were adapted for the purposes of the camp. Since none of the buildings in KL Warschau survived, the general appearance and facilities in the camp can only be deduced based on the testimony of witnesses, aerial photographs, and photos made during exhumation procedures and after the camp's liberation. According to the evidence, KL Warschau was divided into two parts. The first of these was called Lager I, also known as "the old camp", which consisted of Gęsiówka proper (the easternmost part of the camp), as well as wooden barracks erected during the initial months of the camp's operation (located between what is now John Paul II avenue and Smocza street). The second part, between Smocza and Okopowa streets, was called Lager II, or, colloquially, "the new camp", contained brick barracks.[21][29][c] In total, 21 barracks were built, each around 70 m (230 ft) long and having a capacity of approx. 600 inmates.[30]
It is known that the camp was surrounded by high walls guarded by watchtowers.[30] The main entrance was located at what was then 24 Gęsia street.[13] The former military prison and Judenrat seat, at what is today 17a Karmelicka street, served as a crematorium, where bodies of dead and murdered inmates, as well as those who were executed in the ghetto's ruins, were incinerated.[31] The Germans also started to build two other cremation sites, but did not manage to open them before they evacuated the camp; even the one that existed was not operated in the final days of the camp.[4] In addition to that, one of Gęsiówka's buildings was used as a torture room, while a prison yard came to be a casino for SS officers.[32] A bathhouse was built in late 1943 and early 1944, and bunkers were also available on site.[33] The whole construction process was completed by June 1944.[21]
Personnel
About 380 SS officers were maintaining the concentration camp, approximately the size of a company.[1] The original SS unit, was gathered from various other camps, including the Trawniki concentration camp and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Following the attachment to Majdanek in May 1944, they were replaced with SS personnel from Lublin, and the guard was reduced to 259 people.[1][34] The leadership positions were occupied by high- and middle-ranking SS members who were pre-war Third Reich citizens (Reichsdeutsche), while the rank-and-file were usually recruited among the Volksdeutsche, mainly from Southeast Europe but also from other areas.[34]
As Bogusław Kopka shows, in comparison with other concentration camps, KL Warschau had a less sophisticated internal structure.[35] For example, the camp lacked the political department (Politische Abteilung),[d] and some other positions remained unoccupied. Among the 208 identified members of the camp's administration,[36] SS-Uscharf Karl Leuckel was the director of the administrative department, SS-Oberscharführer Franz Mielenz was the Rapportführer and the person responsible for prisoner work management, while SS-Hstuf Willy Jobst and SS-Hstuf Heinrich Schmitz were camp doctors.[35]
The Warsaw concentration camp usually featured SS officers who were deemed to be low-value workers.[34] The first two commandants exhibited incompetence and little interest in the functioning of the camp.[37] Many of the Volksdeutsche were hardly able to speak German, while some were illiterate.[34] Corruption was rampant and extended up to the apex of the camp's hierarchy,[38] which Andreas Mix attributes to the fact that like the senior SS officers, the kapos were Germans, therefore, the SS officers frequently made illicit agreements with them and delegated much more power to the kapos than was usual for the concentration camps.[10] The irregularities were so numerous that SS authorities eventually intervened,[39] presumably due to an escape of a Reichsdeutsche prisoner.[10]
In late April 1944, Nikolaus Herbet, the commandant, Schutzhaftlagerführer (camp director) Wilhelm Härtel as well as Walter Wawrzyniak , the camp supervisor (German: Lagerälteste), were all arrested. The whole command of the camp was dissolved and almost all of its members were relieved from duty.[39] By early May, the guards who were until then performing their duties in Warsaw were transported to Sachsenhausen and were replaced by personnel delegated from Majdanek.[7] This scandal coincided with the degradation of the status of KL Warschau to a subcamp of Majdanek on 1 May 1944, and was thus renamed "Lublin concentration camp – Warsaw labour camp".[1][40] According to some sources, it came due to deportations of prisoners to other camps as well as the approach of the Soviet army to Warsaw.[41][42] Bogusław Kopka and Andreas Mix write, however, that it was the corruption scandal that was the causative agent for the change in status, and that the camp's reorganisation failed to get rid of the corruption issues.[10][43]
There were three concentration camp commandants (German: Lagerkommandant) in the course of its history:[40]
- SS-Obersturmbannführer Wilhelm Göcke served until October 1943;
- SS-Hauptsturmführer Nikolaus Herbet commanded the camp from October 1943 until his arrest in late April 1944;
- SS-Obersturmführer Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert was appointed in May 1944 and dismissed in late June the same year.
As for the Schutzhaftlagerführer, who was concurrently the chief of the guards, SS-Obersturmführer Wilhelm Härtel served in this role from KL Warschau's creation until his arrest in late April 1944, while SS-Unterscharführer Heinz Villain occupied the position for the remainder of the camp's existence.[44] The guards were violent towards the Jews, viewing them as enemies of the state.[1]
Prisoners
General information
The trait that distinguished the Warsaw concentration camp from the other ones was that, apart from the initial transport of 300 Germans, the inmates were uniformly Jewish.[45] Additionally, KL Warschau only accepted prisoners who were previously in concentration camps under the jurisdiction of SS-WVHA; in contrast, it did not accept those prisoners who were to serve in concentration camps due to a decision of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), local Security Police outposts, or new prisoners.[10] These were predominantly young males (under 40 years old), whom the Germans deemed to be suitable for demanding physical work.[30] Only in the last days of the camp's existence was a group of Jewish women from the nearby Pawiak prison delivered to KL Warschau.[1] The Nazis were trying to transport Jews from various European countries and specifically sought to exclude Polish-speaking Jews, hoping that the lack of knowledge of Polish would prevent them from communicating with the residents of Warsaw.[9][46][47] Therefore, few Polish Jews were detained at the Warsaw concentration camp.[46]
The first inmates, who previously were German prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp, arrived on 19 July 1943.[48][25] Among these 300 people, 224 were professional criminals (German: Berufsverbrecher, or BV for short), 41 were deemed political prisoners, and 35 were considered "asocial".[10] They became prisoner functionaries, such as kapos and Blockältester (block supervisors).[10] Walter Wawrzyniak got hold of the chief position of camp supervisor (Lagerälteste). The German kapo prisoners, in particular those imprisoned as criminals, intimidated fellow Jewish inmates and acted towards them with cruelty, seeing them as expendable;[1] though, as Gabriel Finder argues, this was not in most cases due to inherent anti-Semitism but rather due to the fact such violence granted them survival.[9] Unlike in most other Nazi camps, there is little evidence an internal hierarchy among Jewish prisoners has ever developed and Jewish kapos were absent from the camp.[9]
The first transport of Jewish prisoners arrived from Auschwitz-Birkenau on 31 August 1943, and three subsequent ones were made up to 27 November the same year, bringing 3,683 Jews in total, according to official data.[21] The labourers represented Jews from various countries – the most numerous were Greek Salonican Jews,[49] but some Austrian, Belgian, French, Dutch, German and even 50 Polish representatives of that religion (who only came because Germans had to meet 1,000 people transport quota) arrived to Warsaw as well.[2][46] The ethnic composition changed substantially in spring 1944, when several trains from Auschwitz delivered a total of ca. 3,000 Hungarian Jews (most of whom originally were deported from ghettoes in Hungarian-occupied Carpathian Ruthenia, established in the cities of Mukachevo, Uzhhorod, Khust and Tiachiv)[38] who became the majority in the Warsaw concentration camp in the last months of its existence.[9]
The exact number of prisoners who went through KL Warschau remains difficult to ascertain, as witness and expert estimates vary wildly, from 1,500 to 40,000 inmates.[33] Gabriel N. Finder in his entry in the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos suggested some 8,000-9,000 people were incarcerated there.[1] Bogusław Kopka, in his monography, says that at least 7,250 inmates went through the Warsaw concentration camp, including 300 German prisoner functionaries, about 3,700 Jews who arrived in 1943 and 3,000 Jews who came in 1944 from Auschwitz, in addition to 50 highly skilled Jews sent to the camp by the Ostbahn in 1943 and 200 Jews moved from the Pawiak prison.[33] Successful escapes were rare, and Jews who were caught in the attempt were hanged in front of the assembled prisoner population.[1]
Tasks
Prisoners were tasked with constructing the concentration camp they were residing in, demolishing the remaining ruins of the ghetto, clearing 2,640,000 m3 (93,000,000 cu ft) of rubble and with flattening the terrain at 1.20 m (3.9 ft) above the previous ground level, so as to convert the former ghetto into a park as Himmler envisaged in his order from 11 June 1943.[21][46] While doing that, the workers were also ordered to salvage building materials (mainly scrap metal and bricks) for the German war effort. 10,000,000 m2 (110,000,000 sq ft) of buildings were demolished, with some 8,105 tonnes of metal (of which about 7,300 tonnes of ferrous scrap metals and 805 tonnes of non-ferrous metals) and 34 million bricks salvaged.[1][45] Tatiana Berenstein and Adam Rutkowski estimate the value of the materials at 220 million pre-war złotys (i.e. slightly above US$800 million in 2021 dollars),[21] however, Andreas Mix counters that while the camp's construction cost Germans 150 million Reichsmark, the materials were only worth 5 million Reichsmark.[38] In addition to that, a separate search team was formed to find whatever precious items (such as money or jewellery) were left in the ruins; yet another team was working on the Umschlagplatz near Stawki street, where salvaged items were sorted and stored in warehouses.[45][46]
A couple thousand of Polish civilians, who were paid, worked in the area, as did dozens of German technicians.[46] At one period, these people, who usually handled more sophisticated tasks, such as the maintenance of demolition machines and handling explosives, outnumbered the inmates. German constructions firms, including Berlinisches Baugeschäft (Berlin), Willy Keymer (Warsaw), Merckle (Ostrów Wielkopolski), and Ostdeutscher Tiefbau (Naumburg), operated there on contract and benefitted from slave labour provided by the prisoners.[21] The Ostbahn railway company assisted them.[1]
Conditions
The conditions in KL Warschau were extremely harsh. Prisoners' food rationing was meagre and hunger was common among the inmates, which was exacerbated by lack of food parcels, as these were not delivered to the camp.[9][45] The shortages, however, were somewhat alleviated by the presence of Polish workers contracted to remove the ruins of the ghetto, as this was an opportunity for the inmates to clandestinely buy food for whatever valuables they could find in the ruins, and, in later days, when such items became scarce, for gold fillings extracted from their teeth.[1] The Jews were subjected to extermination through labour. The demolition and salvage work were hard and perilous labor, carried out at a brisk pace with no regard to loss of life of the prisoners, so fatal workplace incidents were commonplace. Sanitation was sorely lacking to the extent that hungry and drained prisoners were decimated by outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the lack of hygiene gave way to infestations of lice and fleas[46] (though the situation got somewhat better by the time the leadership was changed and the camp's construction was finishing).[10] In particular, a typhus epidemic in January and February 1944 decreased the prison population by two-thirds.[2][1] The camp infirmary, according to dr Felician Loth, was "a parody of a sick ward",[50] and patients who were unable to continue work were usually killed.[51] The guards and prisoner functionaries tortured and murdered prisoners on a whim.[52] For these reasons, almost 75% of original prisoners have died by March 1944, reducing the camp's population to around 1,000 inmates.[1] This prompted the Germans to supply about 3,000 Hungarian Jews from Auschwitz.[1]
Just as the Jews in other concentration camps, the inmates in KL Warschau were forced to wear camp uniforms and wooden clogs. The former had the Star of David badge sewn on it and a Latin letter marking the inmate's provenance.[53] The newly arrived prisoners had their hair cut shortly and then underwent a procedure of bathing and disinsectisation, which, before the bathhouse was built in the camp, was happening in Pawiak prison. Prisoner functionaries, however, were treated differently – they lived in a separate barrack (with the exception of the Blockältester), could wear civilian clothes, bear arms, and were even sometimes allowed to go outside the camp's premises.[10]
Executions
Camp inmates, Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the ghetto's ruins, Polish political prisoners (Pawiak inmates) and Polish hostages captured during the street roundups (łapanki) were executed in the ruins of the former ghetto (which surrounded the camp) in 1943–1944.[54] During the camp's existence, these executions took place almost daily, and in some days, dozens or even hundreds of Poles and Jews were executed there.[55][56] The bodies were then burnt, first in open air pyres and later in the camp's crematorium.[57]
The ruins of the ghetto supplanted previous execution sites, which were operating in the countryside around Warsaw, such as in Kampinos Forest (the site of the Palmiry massacre). The proximity of the Pawiak prison and the isolation of the former ghetto from the rest of the city, made them – from the German perspective – a far more suitable place for mass killings.[58] Members of KL Warschau personnel, along with the members of other SS and Ordnungspolizei formations in Warsaw, were among the executioners. Furthermore, a special "death detachment" composed of the Jewish prisoners of the KL Warschau was used to dispose the bodies of the victims.[57] The members of the Sonderkommando were often murdered after completing the task, too.[12]
It is impossible to determine the exact number of victims of executions in the ruins, since most of them were not identified. Historians Bogusław Kopka and Jan Żaryn, who wrote the foreword to Kopka's work, estimate that some 20,000 people died as a result of the camp's activity, of which 10,000 were Poles. The number includes prisoner deaths as well as victioms of executions in and around the camp, among whom were Polish political prisoners and Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the restricted zone of the former Warsaw Ghetto.[54][3][59] The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos gives a smaller estimate of 4,000-5,000 people, counting only prisoners of KL Warschau,[1] while Vági and Kádár suggest a broader range, from 3,400 to 5,000 prisoners.[38]
Evacuation and liberation
In summer 1944, as the Red Army was approaching, Germans decided to evacuate the prisons and camps in Warsaw. By the end of July Schutzhaftlagerführer Heinz Villain demanded that all prisoners who would not be able to endure a march to assemble, promising the sick and exhausted that they would be transported in horse carriages. However, on 27 July, all those who appeared on the camp director's call were shot. The same day, all patients in the camp's infirmary were also killed. In total, around 400 prisoners, including at least 180 Hungarians, died due to these actions.[38][60]
The evacuation of the Warsaw concentration camp started on 28 July. About 4,500 inmates were then forced to march to Kutno, 120 km (75 mi) away, in sweltering heat. During the march, which lasted for three days, the prisoners were not given water nor food; the guards additionally murdered everyone who were unable to proceed or who were too slow to execute orders.[60] Those who survived were loaded in freight carriages on 2 August, where poor conditions and the guards' cruelty added to the tally of dead prisoners. 3,954 prisoners eventually arrived to the Dachau concentration camp on 6 August,[9] of which there were only 280 Jews who came from Greece.[47] The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos says that at last 500 inmates died during the operation,[1] while Kopka gives a higher estimate of approximately 2,000 prisoners.[60] Most of the prisoners were subsequently transported to Dachau's subcamps in Mühldorf, Kaufering and Allach-Karlsfeld, while a few were sent to Flossenbürg's subcamp in Leitmeritz (today's Litoměřice in the Czech Republic).[47]
The Warsaw concentration camp was still operating, however. 90 SS personnel stayed there, so did about 400 prisoners who volunteered to stay in the camp to demolish it.[12] Among those were about 300 original prisoners[9] as well as dozens of Jewish prisoners of Pawiak (38-100 people, including 24 women), who were moved to KL Warschau on 28 July.[1][61]
On 1 August, the Home Army (AK) started an uprising against Germans in Warsaw. In the first day of fighting, the Kedyw (sabotage command) for the Home Army District of Warsaw led by Lt. Stanisław Sosabowski "Stasinek" captured Waffen-SS warehouses on Stawki street (Umschlagplatz) and a school on nearby Niska street, setting free around 50 KL Warschau prisoners who were working there.[12][62] By that time, the Home Army also partially controlled the area of "the new camp", located near Okopowa street. In light of these advances by AK, the concentration camp's staff and the prisoners retreated to the fortified defence positions in "the old camp".[63]
In the following few days, the patrol of the insurgent forces made several incursions into the camp, with little success.[64] Meanwhile, Cpt. Jan Kajus Andrzejewski "Jan", head of the Diversionary Brigade Broda 53 asked his superior, Lt. Col. Jan Mazurkiewicz "Radosław", to storm the buildings of Gęsiówka. Control over the concentration camp's area was important from a tactical standpoint, as the Home Army could gain control over the road leading to the Old Town via the ghetto's ruins, while also serving a humanitarian purpose of liberating the prisoners, who could be murdered.[46][65] Mazurkiewicz eventually agreed, and according to the plan, scout Battalion Zośka was handed the task of capturing the concentration camp's premises.[65]
KL Warschau was attacked on 5 August at 10:00, when Ryszard Białous "Jerzy", Zośka's commander, and Wacław Micuta, who commanded one of its platoons, started the offensive. The military advantage was on the Polish side due to their prior capture and usage of the Panther tank, which destroyed the camp's watchtowers and bunkers.[66] The German defence eventually collapsed and SS personnel hid in the Pawiak prison walls. Battalion Zośka's losses were rather small - one person was killed in action, another died of wounds and one person was wounded in action but survived; Germans' losses are unknown but were presumably larger.[67] The Home Army thus liberated 348 Jews, among which 24 were women.[68][69] Those released were mostly Hungarian (200-250 people)[38] and Greek Jews, with some Czechoslovakians and Dutch Jews, who knew very little Polish.[2] It is known that only 89 people among the liberated had been Polish citizens,[70] and historians have only been able to identify 73 prisoners.[7] The Warsaw concentration camp was the only German concentration camp that was not liberated by main Allied troops, but by resistance fighters.[38][71]
The vast majority of released Jewish prisoners swiftly took part in the uprising, which Gabriel Finder attributes to an informal political group, which he says prevented the camp's inhabitants from moral deterioration.[9] Some of these were fighting along other soldiers, while others were helping with transport and provisioning issues, rescuing those under ruins as well as extinguishing fires.[1][69] Morale among Jewish fighters was hurt by displays of antisemitism, with several former Jewish prisoners in combat units killed by antisemitic Poles,[1]: 1514 in particular those associated with the National Armed Forces.[2] After the defeat of the uprising, the survivors fled or hid in bunkers. There were as little as 200 Jewish survivors (former prisoners as well as Jews who were hiding on the "Aryan" side) when the Soviets entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945.[1]
Postwar
The Red Army entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945. After the retreat of the German forces, the former Nazi camp was first operated by the Soviet NKVD for German prisoners of war, as well as for the soldiers of the Home Army loyal to the Polish government-in-exile and other persons suspected of opposing the Soviet occupation. As in the case of the German period, the prisoners were held in poor conditions and it is probable that numerous executions were taking place in the camp.[72]
The camp was then turned over to the Ministry of Public Security (MBP) in mid-1945, when it became known as the Central Labour Camp for Warsaw's Reconstruction (Polish: Centralny Obóz Pracy dla Odbudowy Warszawy) and whose prisoners were used for construction and demolition works in the capital. Most of the prisoners of war were released in 1948 and 1949, and in November 1949 the labour camp was converted to a prison.[73] The facility, which became known under two names: Central Prison — Labour Centre in Warsaw (Polish: Centralne Więzienie – Ośrodek Pracy w Warszawie) or Central Prison Warsaw II Gęsiówka (Polish: Centralne Więzienie Warszawa II Gęsiówka),[72] did not change its purpose, as the inmates were still producing building materials for Warsaw's reconstruction, and it still used forced labour, but instead of prisoners of war, common criminals and people accused by the Special Commission for Fighting Abuse and Economic Sabotage of economic wrongdoings were sent there.[72] According to Bogusław Kopka, 1,800 people died in the postwar prison;[74] though an estimate of 1,180 victims also appears in the literature.[75] The fact that the former Nazi camp was taken and run by the communist authorities was the main reason why the Chief Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland ceased its investigation into the Nazi camp in 1947.[76]
The prison was closed in 1956 and was demolished in 1965. No element of the Nazi camp was preserved.[77] As of 2021, the site is occupied by a garden square, residential buildings, and the building of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.[78]
Inquiries
It did not take long for the newly established Communist government in Poland to start analysing the events that happened in the camp's history. Already in May 1945, the Warsaw Circuit Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland began a formal inquiry into the crimes committed in the Warsaw concentration camp.[79] The premises were inspected by prosecutors for several times, which yielded a rich photographic documentation of the camp's buildings.[80] On 15-25 September 1946, a total of 2180 kg of human corpses were exhumed and analysed (the corpses were then buried again in Wola Cemetery ), however, the exhumations did not cover the whole territory of the camp.[7][81]
In 1947, the inquiry was halted for the first time due to political considerations, as the former concentration camp was taken by the Ministry of Public Security, which ran a labour camp in the area.[76] It was only in 1974 that the investigation was continued on the request of the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Germany; however, after two years, it was again suspended as the prosecutors deemed it impossible to retrieve more evidence in Poland. In light of the new evidence, the investigation was once again opened in 1986, only to be closed in 1996 due to the unavailability of the perpetrators for interrogation (who either went missing or were already dead). A parallel inquiry by German federal officials was also closed.[82]
The topic of the camp returned to prominence in early 2000s, not least due to the July 2001 Sejm resolution commemorating the victims of the concentration camp,[83] so the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw decided to open the Warsaw concentration camp case once again in 2002.[84] The case was first managed by the Institute of National Remembrance's District Commission in Warsaw, then it was transferred to Łódź,[85] but was promptly returned to the capital. On 23 January 2017, the case was closed for the fourth time.[7]
Criminal responsibility of perpetrators
Following Allied victory in World War II, some people related to the Warsaw concentration camp's history were convicted in criminal or military courts.
- 53 SS officers and prisoner functionaries were convicted by the judiciary of the Polish People's Republic, who in most cases received relatively light sentences. Five Schutzstaffel officers from the camp were executed for their role in administering KL Warschau; seven died in prison and the rest was released in 1956 at the latest;[1][86]
- Some members of KL Warschau staff were convicted in Dachau trials in the American zone of Allied-occupied Germany. Wilhelm Ruppert, Alfred Kramer and Franz Mielenz , for instance, received death penalties in the Dachau camp trial (Ruppert and Kramer were executed in 1946, while Mielenz died in prison); Willy Jobst , the camp doctor, also received capital punishment and was hanged in 1947, though he was indicted in a different trial, which concerned the Mauthausen-Gusen camp.[87]
- Walter Wawrzyniak , who was a prisoner functionary, was also sentenced to death for his activities in KL Warschau in an East German court in 1950, but this was reduced to life imprisonment on appeal.[88]
- Heinz Villain , whom Bogusław Kopka described as among the most cruel staff members of KL Warschau, was ultimately convicted in the Third Majdanek Trial. In 1981, a court in Düsseldorf in West Germany gave him a 6-year prison term.[89]
In addition to that, Theodor Szehinskyj, a former guard who immigrated to the US in the 1950s, had his US citizenship stripped as a federal court in Pennsylvania found in July 2000 that he had lied in his initial visa application about his past in the SS Totenkopf Division, including in the Warsaw concentration camp; the decision was upheld on appeal to the 3rd Circuit.[90][91] Jürgen Stroop's trial in 1950 also included significant evidence relating to the concentration camp (Stroop was hanged in Warsaw in 1952).[92]
Most of the staff of KL Warschau, however, did not face consequences for the war crimes.[93] In particular, the whereabouts of Nicolaus Herbet, the second commandant of the camp, as well as Schutzhaftlagerführer Wilhelm Härtel remained unknown. In January 2017, IPN's prosecutors speculated that some SS officers involved in KL Warschau might be still alive,[7] but decided to discontinue investigation due to the fact the prosecutors had no confirmation of this.[36]
Discredited extermination camp story
Hypothesis
Despite the availability of reliable information about the Warsaw concentration camp,[4][59] in the 1970s and 1980s a since-discredited legend[59] or conspiracy theory[5] developed in Poland concerning the camp.[94] Maria Trzcińska, a Polish judge who served in 1974-1996 as a member of the Chief Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland (named Chief Commission for Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation after 1991), was assigned to investigate the German documents that her counterparts in Ludwigsburg have found.[95] In mid-1988, testimony began to surface suggesting that the concentration camp was also located near Warszawa Zachodnia railway station, more than 3 km (1.9 mi) away, and included gas chambers; the witnesses also said that other camps also existed in the vicinity of the camp's generally recognised area.[95][96]
Since then, Trzcińska engaged in activism for commemoration of the victims of the concentration camp. In 2002, on the wave of public interest that appeared since the Sejm's resolution, Trzcińska published a book titled Obóz zagłady w centrum Warszawy. Konzentrationslager Warschau (The Extermination Camp in the Centre of Warsaw. Konzentrazionslager Warschau).[97] According to Jan Żaryn, when the idea of erecting a monument in honour of the victims of the Warsaw concentration camp came closer, the interested parties were not able to agree on descriptions for the monument, so Trzcińska requested that the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) verify which version was the correct one.[98] The conclusions, which were published in a book by Bogusław Kopka, however, were so divergent from hers that she decided to retract her part of the publication and proceeded with her own book,[99] which reiterated her points.[96] These can be summarised in the following way:
- KL Warschau started its operation in October 1942, just after Himmler's first order (see Creation section);[100]
- The Warsaw concentration camp was, according to Trzcińska, an extensive complex consisting of five subcamps: the main camp, which purportedly had previously served as a POW camp for the Polish Army soldiers detained after September 1939, was located in a small forest in the neighbourhood of Koło called Lasek na Kole; two were located in the former ghetto (one on Gęsia street, which is the generally recognised location, and another on Bonifraterska street), and two were located near the Warszawa Zachodnia station.[100][f] These are said to have extended on an area of around 120 hectares (300 acres), containing 119 barracks capable of housing 41,000 inmates.[101]
- The camp was part of the so-called Pabst Plan, which envisaged the reduction of Warsaw to a provincial Nazi-style city by demolishing most of Warsaw's buildings and greatly reducing its population.[102] In the framework of the plan, as Trzcińska claims, KL Warschau operated as an extermination camp for Poles. Around 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Poles, were said to have been exterminated by gassing and mass shootings.[103] The alleged gas chamber, which Trzcińska contended was located in a road tunnel near Józef Bem Street , converted specifically for that purpose, was central to these efforts.[5] According to the historian, the corpses were then secretly transported to Gęsia street for cremation.[104]
- The Polish People's Republic authorities were loath to study the history of the Warsaw concentration camp or commemorate its victims, as they were afraid of disclosing information about the functioning of Soviet NKVD and Polish Communist MBP administrations in KL Warschau, which she considered damaging.[105]
Refutation
The contentions, in addition to not being confirmed by Bogusław Kopka, have also been refuted by the IPN in a later analysis by Zygmunt Walkowski .[7] The findings were also cast in doubt by other historians, including Władysław Bartoszewski, Tomasz Szarota,[12] Andreas Mix[4] and Jan Żaryn.[106] In particular, they say that:
- no credible evidence exists for the assertion that KL Warschau had more camps than the one at Gęsia street. There is no testimony whatsoever about the existence of the camp at Bonifraterska street;[4] as for three other camps which supposedly existed, available testimony is scarce, contains few details and contradicts esch other.[107] There is also no evidence for a POW camp in Koło neighbourhood that had allegedly existed before KL Warschau,[108] or in general of any spatially separated camps;[4]
- there is no credible evidence for the hypothesis that KL Warschau was an extermination camp, featuring a tunnel near Warszawa Zachodnia station which had been converted to a giant gas chamber. Neither the Polish Underground State reports nor the German archives reveal any such information, nor did any piece of testimony coming from wartime period or shortly thereafter mention it.[109] The oral and written submissions Trzcińska relied on were created more than 40 years after the war, and their veracity is dubious.[5] Moreover, retired workers of "Kolprojekt", a rail construction bureau, and available documents of the enterprise suggest that the ventilation shafts near Józef Bem Street , which supposedly were remnants of the gas chamber, were in fact built in 1970s[110] and that in 1960, the technical plan of Warszawa Zachodnia station did not have any gas chambers detected;
- known estimates of the losses Warsaw endured in World War II contradict the notion that 200,000 people could have died in the Warsaw concentration camp.[111] Bogusław Kopka suggested that this number is in fact a sum of those who died in Warsaw Uprising, the deaths in the camps and some other civilian deaths in Warsaw.[109]
In 2010, the Institute of National Remembrance commissioned a report from historian and aerial-photography expert Zygmunt Walkowski , who analysed aerial photographs of the area. The report, which was submitted in December 2016 (not yet published as of November 2021),[112] confirmed that the only place KL Warschau existed was on Gęsia street and that no camp infrastructure existed in the areas said to have contained other subcamps.[112] Walkowski also noted tunnels were not closed and that vehicles could drive through them, while the two ventilation shafts and a ventilator engine that were supposedly used to pump Zyklon B were only built in the 1970s.[113] It was also shown that during the German occupation, access to the forest near Koło was not restricted for civilians, the barracks were already built in 1930s and were used by civilians, while the purported "death wall" only emerged in 1972.[5][112]
Reactions
According to Christian Davies, the discredited story that the Germans built a gas chamber to kill non-Jews, together with the fact of some 200,000 Polish fatalities in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising (for a total of 400,000 non-Jewish deaths in Warsaw, which is the usual estimate of the number of Jews imprisoned in Warsaw), has been used by the story's advocates to seek parity between Jewish and non-Jewish victimhood that would make the Holocaust seem less unique, a notion that Davies dubbed the "Polocaust".[5][114] He also pointed to Law and Justice party (PiS) officials' endorsement for Mira Modelska-Creech , who emerged as one of the main proponents of the extermination camp hypothesis after Trzcińska died in 2011, and IPN's lack of reaction when the commemorative plaque citing Trzcińska's data was unveiled in 2017.[5][115][116] Nasz Dziennik, a right-wing to far-right Catholic newspaper, and affiliated Radio Maryja, have promoted the hypothesis as an emblem of Polish martyrdom. The media outlets have also advocated for introducing the story into school curricula and for constructing a museum of KL Warschau.[117][118]
Havi Dreifuss, Jan Grabowski, and Gideon Greif[119] related the gas-chamber story to the current Polish government's historical policy and dismissed the account as a conspiracy theory (Grabowski) or fake history (Dreifuss).[120] Walkowski, who said he was bemused by the fact that people were unhappy with his findings about fewer deaths, told reporters he received threats.[115] Historian Daniel Blatman, on the hand, while seeing the hypothesis as "one of numberless stories that Holocaust deniers around the world are posting online", warned against generalisations on the Polish society or the Polish government.[121]
Commemoration
Probably in the 1950s, a Tchorek plaque, which said "in 1943-1944, Polish patriots were repeatedly shot to death and burnt by the Hitlerites in this building", was installed on a wall of the burnt-out Wołyń Caserns, specifically on the east wall, facing Zamenhof street. The plaque was lost in 1965, when Gęsiówka was demolished.[122]
Commemoration efforts were renewed in July 2001, when the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, adopted a resolution commemorating the victims of the concentration camp, while calling to create a monument "in remembrance of thousands of Polish inhabitants of Warsaw who were murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp as part of the plan of annihilating the Capital City of Poland, as well as murdered citizens of other nationalities: Jews, Greeks, Gypsies, Belarusians and Italian officers".[83]
In March 2004, the Warsaw city council allowed to build a commemoration site on the Alojzy Pawelek square in the southern part of Wola district, next to what Trzcińska contended were gas chambers and subcamps of KL Warschau.[123] The resolution was cancelled in October 2009 after consultations with the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, a governmental body responsible for preservation of sites of wartime persecution, and it was decided to place a new monument in Muranów neighbourhood, on the site of what was then Serbia prison, some 200 m (660 ft) away from the walls of the actual concentration camp.[124][125] That decision was opposed by supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis, who argued that placing the monument there would suggest that only Jews were victims of the concentration camp, but the Supreme Administrative Court denied their request to invalidate the new resolution.[124] As of November 2021, the monument in Muranów has not yet appeared.
Supporters of the extermination camp theory have created their own commemoration sites. One was built with municipal approval in 2004 and became a place of informal monthly gatherings of supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis.[126] Their efforts have resulted in a plaque on a nearby church on Józef Bem Street , placed in 2009 and consecrated by Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz,[127] and another one on a church in the Warsaw district of Praga-Południe in 2017; both are repeating Trzcińska's conjecture about 200,000 Poles murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp.[114] An unofficial plaque was also installed in Lasek na Kole forest, contending that a place of execution connected with the Warsaw concentration camp existed there.[128] Marius Gudonis and Benjamin T. Jones in their book History in a Post-Truth World relate the fact such plaques appeared to the indifference to established facts and to an ideological devotion to the preferred historical narrative, which, in the case of the 2009 plaque, was further cemented by the approval of high church authorities.[129]
As a result, the only place of commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp in the area of KL Warschau is a plaque that was initially embedded into a wall of a building at 34 Anielewicza street in 1994;[130] it was moved in 2018 and is now located on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, which was the south-west corner of KL Warschau.[131] The plaques, written in Polish, Hebrew and English inform about the camp's liberation by Battalion Zośka and the subsequent participation of the prisoners in the Warsaw Uprising. A plaque in remembrance of the victims was also unveiled near the Museum of Pawiak Prison in November 2013.[132]
The camp's name appears on the 1995 German post stamp, prepared for the 50th anniversary of liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.[133] In 2020, a 10 PLN silver commemorative coin was issued by the National Bank of Poland, honouring the camp's victims.[134]
Commemorative plaque near Pawiak Prison
Notes
- ^ "It is estimated that the death toll of KL Warschau amounted to a total of about 20,000 people (these were the victims of the camp itself plus those who were executed in the camp vicinity, and near the camp, in the restricted zone, mostly anonymous)."
- ^ Majdanek also served as a concentration camp
- ^ The initial project of the Warsaw concentration camp created by Hans Kammler assumed that three camp sectors would have appeared by late February 1944, but the third one never appeared, and the capacity was halved.[10]
- ^ According to the Institute of National Remembrance's report on the Warsaw concentration camp, Politische Abteilung did exist, but it was directly subordinate to the commandant of Sicherheitsdienst and Sicherheitspolizei in Warsaw, instead of being the main department of the camp's administration.[7]
- ^ According to the scheme, a ventilation shaft, which was located closer to the railway station and is seen on the left of the scheme, pumped in air from the outside. In the meantime, hydrogen cyanide gas appearing from Zyklon B was transported by a pipe to two ventilators, where the gas was mixed with air, and then blown into the tunnel via vents in the tunnel's walls that could be closed. These were the two gas chambers that Trzcińska alleged to have existed. The gas was then pumped out of the gas chamber by the ventilators and released in the atmosphere. The scheme says that the Institute of National Remembrance and Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites are to blame for an alleged destruction of their remnants in 1996.
- ^ According to her theory, the subcamps near Warszawa Zachodnia station were to be located on both sides of the tunnel supposedly containing a giant gas chamber. One of them supposedly had an area of about 30 hectares (74 acres) and was situated between Mszczonowska, Armatnia and Józef Bem streets; the other was located on the other side of the railway tracks, near what was then Skalmierzycka street (today's part of Jerusalem Avenue running from Niemcewicza street to the road tunnel).
External links
- Scheme of the camp, partially superimposed on current layout of the streets (in Polish)
- A tool comparing 1944 aerial photographs of Warsaw with today's satellite imagery or Openstreetmap layers, by the Warsaw Uprising Museum
- Photograph of the informal commemorative plaque in Lasek na Kole, as taken in 2020
- Collection of materials related to the Warsaw concentration camp (particularly related to Kopka's book and controversy about Trzcińska's findings), in Polish
Sources
Books
- Bartoszewski, Władysław (1970). Warszawski pierścień śmierci 1939–1944 [Warsaw Ring of Death 1939-1944] (in Polish). Warszawa: Interpress.
- Borkiewicz-Celińska, Anna (1990). Batalion „Zośka” [Battalion Zośka] (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. ISBN 83-06-01851-6.
- Domańska, Regina (1978). Pawiak – więzienie Gestapo. Kronika lat 1939–1944 [Pawiak - the prison of Gestapo. Chronography of 1939-1944] (in Polish). Warsaw: Książka i Wiedza.
- Engelking, Barbara; Leociak, Jacek (2013). Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście [Warsaw Ghetto. A guide to a non-existent city] (in Polish). Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. ISBN 978-83-63444-27-3.
- Kopka, Bogusław (2007). Konzentrationslager Warschau. Historia i następstwa [Konzentrationslager Warschau. History and consequences] (in Polish). Warsaw: Institute of National Remembrance. ISBN 978-83-60464-46-5.
- Kopka, Bogusław (2019). Gułag nad Wisłą. Komunistyczne obozy pracy w Polsce 1944–1956 [GULag on the Vistula. Communist forced labour camps in Poland in 1944-1956] (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ISBN 978-83-08-06753-6.
- Łuszczyna, Marek (2017). "Antifa, czyli punkt widzenia Heinza Grischke". Mała zbrodnia: Polskie obozy koncentracyjne (in Polish). Warsaw: Znak-Horyzont. ISBN 978-83-240-4175-6.
- Longerich, Peter (2011). Heinrich Himmler: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199592326.
- Mix, Andreas (2008). "Warschau-Stammlager". In Benz, Wolfgang; Distel, Barbara (eds.). Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager (in German). Vol. 8. Munich: C.H.BECK. ISBN 978-3-406-57237-1.
- Salter, Michael (11 June 2007). Nazi War Crimes, US Intelligence and Selective Prosecution at Nuremberg: Controversies Regarding the Role of the Office of Strategic Services. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-33133-7.
- Stroop, Jürgen (1943). The Warsaw Ghetto is no more. New Haven: Yale Law School Lillian Goodman Law Library. ISBN 978-83-7629-455-1.
- Szarota, Tomasz (2014). "Konzentrationslager Warschau". In Komorowski, Krzysztof (ed.). Warszawa walczy 1939–1945. Leksykon [Warsaw fights 1939-1945. A dictionary] (in Polish). Warsaw: Fundacja Warszawa Walczy 1939–1945/Bellona Publishing House. ISBN 978-83-1113474-4.
- Trzcińska, Maria (2002). Obóz zagłady w centrum Warszawy. Konzentrationslager Warschau [An extermination camp in the centre of Warsaw. Konzentrationslager Warschau] (in Polish). Radom: Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne. ISBN 83-88822-16-0.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Finder, Gabriel N. (2009). "Warschau main camp". In Geoffrey P. Megargee; Martin Dean; Mel Hecker (eds.). Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA) (PDF). Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. I. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. pp. 1512–1515.
- ^ a b c d e Kossoy, Edward (2004). "The Gesiówka Story: A Little Known Page of Jewish Fighting History". Yad Vashem Studies. 32: 323–350.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 16, 120.
- ^ a b c d e f Mix, Andreas (Center for Research on Antisemitism) (2003). "M. Trzcinska: Konzentrationslager Warschau". H-Soz-Kult.
- ^ a b c d e f g Davies, Christian (9 May 2019). "Under the Railway Line". London Review of Books. 41 (9). ISSN 0260-9592.
Around twenty thousand people – Polish Jews, non-Jewish Poles and non-Polish Jews – are estimated to have died at Gęsiówka.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 62-63, 120.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Śledztwa zakończone wydaniem postanowienia o umorzeniu" [Discontinued investigations]. Institute of National Remembrance - Warsaw District (in Polish). 23 January 2017. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 41.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Finder, Gabriel N. (2004). "Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944". The Shtetl: Myth and Reality. Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry. Vol. 17. pp. 325–352. doi:10.2307/j.ctv4cbg9j.27. Retrieved 13 September 2021 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mix, Andreas (2005). "Arbeitslager Warschau jako filia obozu koncentracyjnego na Majdanku". Zeszyty Majdanka. 23: 55–70.
- ^ "Niemiecki obóz koncentracyjny w Warszawie: Wspólna historia Żydów i Polaków" (PDF). Bulletin of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression (in Polish) (6 (306)): 24–29. June 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Szarota 2014, p. 364.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 43.
- ^ a b c d Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuremberg, October 1946-April 1949. Vol. V. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1950. pp. 254–255, 623.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 28.
- ^ Salter 2007, p. 44.
- ^ Longerich 2011, p. 621.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 29-31.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 31-32.
- ^ a b c Pohl, Dieter (2009). Wachsmann, Nikolaus; Caplan, Jane (eds.). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Routledge. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-1-135-26321-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g Berenstein, Tatiana; Rutkowski, Adam (1967). "Obóz koncentracyjny dla Żydów w Warszawie (1943-1944)" [A concentration camp for the Jews in Warsaw (1943-1944)]. Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute (in Polish). pp. 3–22. Retrieved 13 September 2021 – via Central Jewish Library.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Mix 2008, p. 122.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 38.
- ^ Stroop 1943It is proposed to change the Dzielna Prison into a concentration camp and to use the inmates to remove, collect and hand over for reuse the millions of bricks, the scrap-iron, and other materials.
- ^ a b Sofsky, Wolfgang (2013). The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp. Princeton University Press. p. 337. ISBN 978-1-4008-2218-8.
- ^ "Niemiecki obóz koncentracyjny w Warszawie: Wspólna historia Żydów i Polaków" (PDF). Bulletin of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression (in Polish) (6 (306)): 24–29. June 2016.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 40.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 46, 49.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 47-48.
- ^ a b c Kopka 2007, p. 53.
- ^ Kozubal, Marek (11 April 2017). "Koniec sporu historyków: wiadomo, gdzie był KL Warschau". Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kopka 2007, p. 50.
- ^ a b c Kopka 2007, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d Kopka 2007, p. 86, 89.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 84, 89.
- ^ a b Kozubal, Marek (4 June 2017). "Śledztwo w sprawie obozu zagłady w Warszawie umorzone". Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kopka 2007, p. 85-86.
- ^ a b c d e f g Vági, Zoltán; Kádár, Gábor (14 November 2019). "From the Ghetto Revolt to the Warsaw Uprising – Hungarian Jews in KL Warschau". European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Project - Document Blog. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 86-88.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 42.
- ^ Pohl, Dieter (2009). Wachsmann, Nikolaus; Caplan, Jane (eds.). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Routledge. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-1-135-26321-8.
- ^ Poprzeczny, Joseph (2004). Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East. McFarland. pp. 222–223. ISBN 978-0-7864-1625-7.
- ^ Kopka 2007, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 88-89.
- ^ a b c d Rajca, Czesław (1976). "Podobozy Majdanka". Zeszyty Majdanka (in Polish). IX. ISSN 0514-7409.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rutkowski, Adam (1993). "Le camp de concentration pour Juifs à Varsovie (19 juillet 1943-5 août 1944)". Le Monde Juif (in French) (147–148): 189–216 – via Cairn.info.
- ^ a b c Zezza, Stefania (30 June 2021). "Without a compass: Salonikan Jews in Nazi Concentration Camps and later". European Spatial Research and Policy. 28 (1): 45–71. doi:10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.03. ISSN 1896-1525.
- ^ Pohl, Dieter (2009). Wachsmann, Nikolaus; Caplan, Jane (eds.). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Routledge. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-1-135-26321-8.
- ^ Zezza, Stefania (2016). "In Their Own Voices". Trauma and Memory. 4 (3): 90–118.
- ^ "Niemiecki obóz koncentracyjny w Warszawie: Wspólna historia Żydów i Polaków" (PDF). Bulletin of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression (in Polish) (6 (306)): 24–29. June 2016.
- ^ Bartoszewski 1970, p. 234.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 63, 89-91.
- ^ Bartoszewski 1970, p. 235.
- ^ a b Engelking & Leociak 2013.
- ^ Bartoszewski 1970, p. 441-442.
- ^ Domańska 1978, p. 27-28.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 26–27, 60–63, 120.
- ^ Bartoszewski 1970, p. 256.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
Lehnstaedt
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Kopka 2007, p. 55-56.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 49.
- ^ Bartoszewski 1970, p. 236.
- ^ Borkiewicz-Celińska 1990, p. 560.
- ^ Borkiewicz-Celińska 1990, p. 567-568.
- ^ a b Borkiewicz-Celińska 1990, p. 571-572.
- ^ Radzilowski, John; Szczeniak, Jerzy (19 September 2017). Frantic 7: The American Effort to Aid the Warsaw Uprising and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944. Casemate Publishers. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-1-61200-561-4.
- ^ Borkiewicz-Celińska 1990, p. 573-575.
- ^ Pohl, Dieter (2009). Wachsmann, Nikolaus; Caplan, Jane (eds.). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Routledge. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-1-135-26321-8.
- ^ a b Clearing the Ruins of the Ghetto, Yad Vashem
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 101.
- ^ Zezza 2020.
- ^ a b c Kopka 2007, p. 116.
- ^ Łuszczyna 2017.
- ^ Kopka 2019, p. 441-442.
- ^ Kopka 2019, p. 523, 525.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, pp. 19–20, 26, 51.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 52.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 117.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 19.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 26, 52, 66, 149–156, 160–163, 180–181, 609–620.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 51-52.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 20-22.
- ^ a b "UCHWAŁA Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 27 lipca 2001 r. w sprawie upamiętnienia ofiar Konzentrationslager Warschau". Chancellery of the Sejm (in Polish). Retrieved 11 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kochanowski, Jerzy (17 November 2007). "Śmierć w Warschau". Polityka (in Polish). Retrieved 11 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kopka 2007, p. 22.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 92-98.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 89, 91, 99.
- ^ "DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen - Walter Wawrzyniak". jur.uva.nl (in German). 10 September 2003. Archived from the original on 10 September 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 55, 76, 89.
- ^ Belsan, Timothy A.; Petty, Aaron R. (15 February 2020). "Civil Revocation of Naturalization: Myths and Misunderstandings". California Western Law Review. 56 (1): 16.
- ^ Whelan, Aubrey (26 August 2013). "Accused Nazi still has Chesco address". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kopka 2007, p. 89.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 98.
- ^ Chomątowska, Beata (18 April 2017). "KL Warschau jak katastrofa smoleńska, czyli manipulacja pamięcią" [KL Warschau is like the Smolensk air disaster]. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- ^ a b "Dzieje KL Warschau były zakłamywane". Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Retrieved 11 September 2021.
- ^ a b Kochanowski, Jerzy (17 November 2007). "Śmierć w Warschau". Polityka (in Polish). Retrieved 11 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Trzcińska 2002.
- ^ "Prof. Żaryn dla wPolityce.pl: Gdy ujawniłem, że Muzeum Polin jest zbudowane na szczątkach ludzkich starano się zwolnić mnie z pracy". wpolityce.pl. 11 June 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Trzcińska, Maria (2007). KL Warschau w świetle dokumentów: raport dla Prezesa Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, na potrzeby szkół i budowy Pomnika Ofiar Obozu KL Warschau. Radom: Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne. ISBN 9788389862945.
- ^ a b Trzcińska 2002, p. 17.
- ^ Trzcińska 2002, p. 31.
- ^ Trzcińska 2002, p. 17, 89-91.
- ^ Trzcińska 2002, p. 35, 48, 50–51.
- ^ Trzcińska 2002, p. 35-48, 74.
- ^ Trzcińska 2002, p. 94.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 16.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 24.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 122.
- ^ a b Kopka 2007, p. 130-131.
- ^ Kopka 2007, p. 469–485, 490–495, 505–506.
- ^ Getter, Marek (August–September 2004). "Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim" (PDF). Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance (in Polish). 8–9 (43–44). ISSN 1641-9561.
- ^ a b c "Zygmunt Walkowski: podczas II wojny obok Dworca Zachodniego nie było komory gazowej". dzieje.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "Sprawa KL Warschau: nie było komory gazowej przy dworcu Zachodnim". TVN Warszawa (in Polish). 17 April 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ a b Subotić, Jelena (4 August 2020). "The Appropriation of Holocaust Memory in Post-Communist Eastern Europe". Modern Languages Open (1): 22. doi:10.3828/mlo.v0i0.315. ISSN 2052-5397.
- ^ a b Lovett, Patrick (8 January 2020). "In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II". France 24. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via Youtube.
- ^ Davies, Christian (24 November 2019). "How Poland's Ruling Party Cynically Fuels anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial". Haaretz. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- ^ Kwiatkowska, Hanna Maria (2008). Conflict of images. Conflict of memories. Jewish themes in the Polish right-wing nationalistic press in the light of articles from Nasz Dziennik 1998–2007 (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of London. pp. 67, 82–88.
- ^ Maszkowski, Rafał (December 2006). "A different World: The Jews as Seen by Radio Maryja". Jewish History Quarterly (in Polish) (4): 669–687.
- ^ ורדי, מואב (6 October 2019). העולם היום – 06.10.19 (in Hebrew).
- ^ Benjakob 2019.
- ^ Blatman, Daniel (18 October 2019). "Israel, It's Time to Call Off the anti-Polish Hunt". Haaretz. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
- ^ Nazaruk, Igor; Jastrzębski, Jakub (3 October 2017). "Te kolorowe zdjęcia Muranowa z lat 60. znalazł przez przypadek. Bloki wyrastają wokół ostatnich ruin getta". Gazeta.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ "Uchwała nr XXVI/494/2004 z 11-03-2004". Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej - Warsaw (in Polish). 11 March 2004. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Pinkas, Aleksandra (11 June 2010). "Sąd na pomnikiem KL Warschau". Życie Warszawy (in Polish). Retrieved 8 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Uchwała nr LXIII/1994/2009 z 22-10-2009". Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej - Warsaw (in Polish). 22 October 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Lovett, Patrick (8 January 2020). "In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II". France 24. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ Podulka, Maciej (10 June 2009). "KL Warschau wychodzi z cienia historii" (PDF). Kurier Wolski (in Polish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "Tajemnica Lasku na Kole". Warszawa Express - Warszawski Magazyn Codzienny (in Polish). 16 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ History in a post-truth world : theory and praxis. Marius Gudonis, Benjamin T. Jones. New York, NY. 2021. pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-1-000-19822-5. OCLC 1157756093.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Finder, Gabriel N. (2004). "Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944". The Shtetl: Myth and Reality. Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry. Vol. 17. pp. 325–352. doi:10.2307/j.ctv4cbg9j.27. Retrieved 13 September 2021 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Węgrzynowicz, Artur (23 July 2018). "Przeniosą tablice upamiętniające odbicie Gęsiówki i śmierć mieszkańców Woli" [Plaques commemorating capture of Gęsiówka and Wola massacre to be moved]. TVN 24 Warszawa (in Polish). Retrieved 23 September 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej ofiarom KL Warschau". Museum of Pawiak Prison (in Polish). 22 November 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Blockausgabe: 50. Jahrestag der Befreiung der Gefangenen aus den Konzentrationslagern". www.suche-briefmarken.de. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "NBP upamiętnił ofiary obozu KL Warschau" [The National Bank of Poland commemorated the victims of KL Warschau] (PDF). National Bank of Poland. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Further reading
- Benjakob, Omer (4 October 2019). "The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- Goldstein, Chaim Itzl (1970). The Bunker. Philadelphia, Pa.: Jewish Publication Society. - survivor's account
- Libionka, Dariusz (1 December 2014). "Zapisy dotyczące Żydów w warszawskich kronikach policyjnych z lat 1942–1944". Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały (in Polish) (10): 558–591. doi:10.32927/ZZSiM.537. ISSN 2657-3571.
- Mannheimer, Max (2000). Spätes Tagebuch. Theresienstadt - Auschwitz - Warschau - Dachau (in German). Zurich: Pendo. ISBN 9783858423740. - survivor's account
- Zezza, Stefania (2020). "We are a strict, iron group: from Salonika to Warsaw via Auschwitz". Sephardic Horizons. 10 (3–4). Retrieved 14 November 2021.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)