Potulice concentration camp
Potulice (Potulitz) concentration camp | |
---|---|
occupied Poland. Work brigade, pictured | |
Coordinates | 53°07′30″N 17°41′14″E / 53.1249379°N 17.68713°E |
Other names | Lebrechtsdorf |
Location | Potulice, German-occupied Poland |
Operational | 1 February 1941 – 21 January 1945[1] |
Inmates | Expelees from German-occupied Pomerania, forced labourers, kidnapped Polish children: 11,188 prisoners as of 21 January 1945 officially |
Potulice concentration camp (
Beginnings
Initially the Potulice camp was one of numerous transit points for Poles expelled by the German authorities from territories of western Poland annexed into the newly created Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.[2] The forcible displacement of Polish nationals known as Lebensraum; was meant to create space for German colonists (the Volksdeutsche) brought in Heim ins Reich from across Eastern Europe. The facility quickly expanded to include a slave-labor subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp nearby, supplying a free workforce for the Hansen Schneidemühl machine shop set up on the premises.[1][3] The first mass transport of 524 Poles came to the Potulice concentration camp from Bydgoszcz on February 4, 1941.[4]
The camp served as a place for detention of Polish children; of the 1,296 people who died there, 767 victims were minors. In 1943 a special unit in the camp was created especially for children and the name „Ostjugendbewahrlager Potulitz” or „Lebrechtsdorf” started to appear in German documentation.
Formally designated a labour camp, the camp was not controlled by concentration camp authorities. However, the conditions in it were comparable to those at the Stutthof concentration camp.
Slave work and punishment
As part of camp life the children were forced to perform
One child recalled his ordeal in the camp: "Out of hunger I together with my six-year-old friend decided to take two or three potatoes, which we wanted to roast in an oven. This was seen by some German out of the guardhouse, who ran after us. After taking the potatoes from us, we were taken to the guardhouse and there Germans had beaten us severely. We were hit with leather whips, and during this beating I fainted. I regained consciousness as a result of an enormous pain I felt. I realized that Germans are holding me in place and one of them is burrowing a hole in my leg with a heated iron rod. I started to scream and fainted again."
Children were also beaten in the face with canes, imprisoned in a bunker that was filled with water up to their knees, or denied food for days. The sight of dying prisoners who couldn't fend off rats attacking them was also a traumatic experience for many. German guards also engaged in psychological torture; for example, the starving children were placed near tables on which bread, cabbage, and cereals were put and the guards would take photographs of the scene, after which the food was taken away from the children. The camp was used also for involuntary blood donations from the young children. There were children born in the camp. These infants faced a harsh fate as their exhausted mothers weren't able to feed them and the food rations were always in short supply. As a result, infants born in the camp usually weighed around 1 kilo and died after a few weeks.
Increased brutality in the camp
As the war went on, conditions in camp became even more brutal and harsh, and penalties such as standing on broken glass were introduced. In 1943 a transport of 543 children from the regions of Smolensk and Vitebsk arrived. Some of the children were treated as normal prisoners, even when they were as young as two years old. As the children were ill from Typhoid fever, the Germans placed them in separate, primitive-condition barracks that were separated by barbed wire. In 1944 the conditions in the camp reached their most brutal phase. Children were regularly called "children of bandits", were beaten and kicked by camp personnel, and were forced to dig trenches. Most of the children had fallen ill, and many died from exhaustion, maltreatment, hunger or disease. Infants were cared for by the older children. There are also witness statements about the deliberate murder of children by camp personnel. One witness described in detail how he had seen three children approximately 7 years old being drowned by Germans near the camp. According to him, Germans first threw the children into a water canal and then threw bricks at them, looking satisfied.
Assessment
Out of acts listed as genocide by The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the
The use of the camp after 1945
Following World War II, the site of the camp was used as a
See also
References
- ^ a b c d "Potulice". Zabytki i ciekawe obiekty w Bydgoszczy i okolicy (in Polish). Bydgoskie Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Zabytków "BUNKIER". October 2008. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
- ^ Poles, Victims of the Nazi Era. Holocaust-TRC.org.
- ^ Marian Trzebiatowski. "Wywózki do obozu w Potulicach" (in Polish). Fundacja NAJI GOCHE; Magazyn regionalny. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
- Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 193.
- ^ Hitler's War; Hitler's Plans for Eastern Europe
- ^ A. Dirk Moses, Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History
- ^ A. Dirk Moses, Genocide and Settler Society (Google Print, p.260) Berghahn Books, 2004.
- ^ "Dzieciństwo zabrała wojna > Newsroom - Roztocze Online - informacje regionalne - Zamość, Biłgoraj, Hrubieszów, Lubaczów,Tomaszów Lubelski, Lubaczów - Roztocze OnLine". Archived from the original on 2016-04-23. Retrieved 2006-03-16.
- ^ "Byli więźniowie hitlerowskiego obozu Potulice nie mogą się starać o przyznanie im renty inwalidzkiej". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). PAP (Polska Agencja Prasowa). - ^ KentBio.html
- ^ "Potulice". Miesięcznik Forum Penitencjarne (monthly) (in Polish). Centralny Zarząd Służby Więziennej, Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości. 2009. Archived from the original (Wayback Machine capture) on June 23, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
- ^ G. Bekker, W. Stankowski (2009). "Centralny Obóz Pracy w Potulicach (1945 – 1949)" (in Polish). Urząd Marszałkowski Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego / Departament Edukacji, Sportu i Turystyki. pp. 1 of 3. Archived from the original (PDF direct download, 942 KB) on October 30, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
- ^ "TRANSODRA 18: Polnische Beschäftigung mit den Lagern für Deutsche nach 1945". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
- ^ Rache ist eine Krankheit: Im Lager Potulice litten zuerst Polen, nach 1945 Deutsche. Am 5. September wird zum erstenmal der deutschen Opfer gedacht. Das ist das Verdienst eines Deutschen - und eines Polen | Nachrichten auf ZEIT online
Sources
- Polish IPN Bulletin, Issue 12-1(December–January) 2003/2004, Alicja Paczoska Dzieci Potulic.