GERMANY BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD — THE PLACE OF THE CURRENCY AND THE panic OF THE POLISH NATION
KUJAVsko – POMORSKI VOIVATION – 15. IX. 1940 – 20. I. 1945
The various camps created by the Germans on the occupied Polish lands served primarily the physical liquidation of the population in prison and
using prisoners for the economical needs of the 3rd Reich. An extended camp strategy was in operation in the German military conquered country. It consisted of thousands of camps and subcamps, operating according to peculiar criteria for their purpose. German business policy included, among others, the creation of extermination camps, where the prisoners arrived were killed in gas chambers immediately. Mass execution inexpensive in production and highly fatal cyclone B besides occurred in concentration camps, where large-scale prisoners were used, among others, to execute all kinds of dense works. In contrast, tens of thousands of people were directed to physical work under human force, deliberately leading them to death. These various types of camps include criminal-insulation camps and sub-camps, prisoners of war (functioning during the first business period), Germanization camps (so-called ‘tanking camps’, where mainly people with the 2nd or 3rd group of German national lists were placed), resettlement or transition camps. The surviving conditions in practically all types of camps contributed to the advanced mortality of the prisoners in them. As a consequence of hunger, cold, fatal hygiene conditions, inhuman treatment (e.g. forcing sick people to work and aged people), many prisoners died from exhaustion or as a consequence of spreading diseases (spires, typhoid, typhoid typhoid, typhoid, etc.). Hundreds of thousands of people placed in camps besides suffered death on the place as a consequence of torture and ad hoc executions, frequently carried out for no apparent reason to accidentally selected camp prisoners.
NAME AND NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS
All the mentioned elements of Nazi panic besides took place in a transitional camp built in August and September 1940 in Błonia, Inowrocław, a branch of the Nazi extermination camp in Stutthof. The Błonie camp was subject to the local Gestapo and was created to the site of a prisoner of war camp operating from March 1940 and work in Szczeglin. authoritative name of the surrendered
"use"15 September 1940 sounded:Staatspolizeistelle Hohensalza – Übergangslager (Inowroclaw State Police Office – Transition Camp). In 1944, it was changed to Polizeigefängnis der Sicherheitspolizei und Arbeitserziehungslager (Security Police Prison and Education Camp). Both Błoniech camp names – "transitional" and "work" do not reflect its actual character. It is precisely due to the scale of panic and the multitude of savage forms of bullying against the people who are being held here that this place deserves to be described as a “camp of destruction” or
Construction, interior layout and functions of the individual camp sites The Camp in Błonie in Inowrocław was built behind the barracks of the erstwhile 4th Light Artillery Regiment, at Okrożek Street (at the time of the business of Immellmannstrasse 2), on a game of about 13,000 m2. A road over 200 metres long was paved outside the main camp gate. The full was fenced with a concrete wall over which barbed wire was attached. 2 other corners of the square (north-western and south-eastern) were placed watch Towers (almost 6 m) with moving lighting. The prisoners were held in 2 wooden residential barracks (separated for women and men). They were divided into respective halls (so-called sztubs) where windows were permanently secured with barbed wire. A common washroom (a separate area with respective faucets only in cold water) was placed in the men's barracks, while the “female barracks” included a box with six targets without windows of approx. 4 m2. It is known from the memories of those imprisoned, that there have frequently been cases where even respective people were imprisoned simultaneously. In a separate barracks, workshops and infirmary were located. It is known that the first medicines and dressings did not appear in it until 1944! Inside the camp, there was an undamaged, muddy roll-call square, where regular respective hours of exhaust gatherings and drills were held (jumps in the side, i.e. frogs, "walks" with concrete discs under the armpit, falling and rising on the command, moving the square repeatedly, or multi-hour rounding it over and over again, etc.). Those who have survived these practices are described as ‘training’. It is worth noting that they were held both during the day and at night. The appeals read the names of persons who were sent to work outside the camp on a given day. Here, too, there was public harassment and torture of those imprisoned, among others, in the usage of specially trained wolves dogs, stilted on people (which most frequently ended in death). There was besides a gallows in the square. Here besides during appeals
The mentally sick imprisoned were humiliated by forcing them to follow the voices of animals (mowing buzzing or barking). The camp plan besides includes rooms for the camp crew and the “office” for the camp commander and Gestapo officers. These included murderous interrogations.
Buildings for the Nazis separated from the remainder of the parkans from barbed wire.
SECURITISATION IN BORDER AND ESTIMATED NUMBERS
The overwhelming group of people held in Błoń in Inowrocław were Poles and Jews – residents of Inowrocław and the full Inowrocław district. However, the prisoners besides include Americans, English, French, Canadians, and since 1941 besides Soviets. These nations are primarily prisoners of war. Among the reasons for the prison of Poles in the camp, the 2 most crucial categories are participation in the opposition movement ("political prisoners" from the Włocławian Kujawski Politicno-Literary Union, operating throughout the territory representatives of the ZWZ-AK, representatives of the National Military Organization – sub-district “Ruina” in Inowrocław, or Military Service of Poles, Grey Serials, Intelligence Group – “Face” and many others), or violation of the law established by the occupier (e.g. by evading from working through the Labour Office, participating in secret sets, or organizing them, failing to carry out compulsory deliveries, helping fugitives, for example.
from forced labour, “damaging German property”, which was treated as sabotage, etc.). 1 percent of prisoners were besides caught. During the various periods of operation of the camp (the fall of 1940 – the turn of 1944/45), between 400 and 500 prisoners (about 400-500 men, about 100 women, and children were imprisoned). At the time of the overflow, any of the inmates slept on the floor, the remainder of them a fewer people on four-storeyed boards of bunks. During 4 years, 4 months and 5 days of the camp's existence, it is calculated that a full of at least 10 1000 people were present. Of this number, the most cautious estimates are about 500 dead and murdered. These data are quoted on the basis of incomplete, abbreviated extracts from the books of the deceased civilian State Office in Inowrocław from 1940 to 1945, and lists buried in the cemetery of the parish of St Nicholas, drawn up by the undertaker Wacław Modrzejewski (in the period from 28 X 1941 to 2 I 1945). The 2 sources, however, surely do not supply a basis for a definitive determination of the actual number of victims of organized camp beasthood. They do not include, for example, the dead buried according to the accounts of witnesses in collective graves behind the camp barrier and bodies of persons exported to unknown graves. They besides do not include Jews murdered in the camp, who died there about 300. The number of Błonie camp casualties in Inowrocław remains unknown to this day.
GEHENNA
The Błonie camp was imprisoned for a transitional period – from a fewer weeks to a fewer months – after which they were transported to another places of punishment, including Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Neuengamme, Dachau
(and others), or they were taken to the place of execution (e.g. to Poznań, where death was done by guillotining). The camp gehenna began erstwhile the main gate was crossed. In the process of determining personalities, giving private things and questions about the reasons for imprisonment, the prisoners were beaten with rubber sticks. Prisoners were “accommodated” in unheated barracks.
In comparatively many memories and accounts, erstwhile prisoners emphasize hunger rations: “The food was more than mean: the soup from the crumpets and cobblers, for dinner dry bread and black coffee or bitter peppermint tea, on Sunday any marmalades from the cobbler. We did not receive breakfast: the bread that was given to us for dinner besides had to last until dinner the next day" (Maria Wikarska's account). The packages sent were robbed by the camp crew, and part of the food packages were utilized for dog food. Staying in the camp meant for prisoners forcing them to work hard, including at a location more than 10 km from the location of the railway track's imprisonment, where they were reached on foot. Outside the camp, political prisoners were not allowed to work. Fatal sanitary conditions have caused a number of diseases to spread (tyfus, scarlet, dysentery, diarrhea). Squaddle and shiv were common. specified surviving conditions prevailed until the end of the camp’s existence
KACI AND TERROR
In the first period of operation, the camp in Błonie in Inowrocław was subject to the Gestapo facility in Inowrocław. After the reorganization carried out in October 1943, Błonie was subjugated to the Gestapo in Poznań while transforming the "transition camp" into a police prison and educational camp. With these changes, there was an expansion of the prison site, which now accommodates as many as 600 people. The direct supervision of the prisoners was exercised at the same time by respective SS – "Lords of Life and Death", alleged Wachmans: Aschner, Belda (a.k.a. Bold), Walther Boetscher, Frank, Gatzke, Ludolf (a.k.a. Erwin) Herzke, Adalbert Joppek, Kapel, Kluge, Kostuch, Anna Müller, Rakowski, Schmallenberg (Schwalenberg?), Schneider, Schultz, Stube, Szudrowicz, Schwanke, Willi Tetzlaf, Hans Vorndran, Zacharian and others. Named and anonymous members of the camp crew in the vast majority came from the local Selbstschutz, a paramilitary organization which by the end of October 1939 murdered only in the territory of 3 districts (inowrocławski, aleksandrowski and partly-Zniński) more than 20,000 Poles. They were subject to the commandant of the camp (Lagerführer). This function was performed by:Waldemar Tenstadt and Schulz (before March 1941)Campe (March – September 1941),Alfred Hugo Dietze (October 1943 – January 1944),Willi Schmelter (March – November 1944),Zellmer (November 1944 – January 1945, formerly Deputy Commandant of the camp), and possibly Kurt Schmidt, author of the album with respective 100 photographs depicting the cruelty of German occupation, including in the inowrocław region, including panic against those held in the Błonia camp. Violent interrogations were conducted by Gestapo officers, including Herman Baltruschat, Jühningen, Felix Schlütter and Donat. Named during the “examination” of those arrested during the investigation, they committed sadistic practices involving, among others, brutal beatings to unconsciousness, breaking bones, teeth, eardrums, strangulation, chest crushing, digging, etc.The Gestapo did not give way to the SS, including lagerführers. panic was part of a regular day: executions, abrupt shots to the trapped, drowning in cloacic holes, gnawing to death with dogs, forcing to work beyond force (e.g. by moving from place to place of dense stones), appeals in the cold after pouring cold water, fatal beatings, etc. In memory of the inmates, the freezing day of December 8, 1942, when, without any interruption, for about 10 hours, the Germans subjected violent torture to all prisoners, setting up a murderous place of “gymnastics”, mass beatings and killings at the appeal square, including the gust described above
Wolf. Most of the camp executioners have never been held liable for their crimes against the Polish Nard.
During the German occupation, Inowrocław was part of the alleged Reichsgau Wartheland District. The highest authority in the structure of the civilian administration of the territory was the politician and gauleiter Arthur Greiser – erstwhile president of the legislature of the Free City of Gdansk. Greiser as politician of the Reich in the "Warta district" was the head of the presidents (presidents) of the 3 districts forming the Land of Warta Poznań, Łódź and Inowrocławska (Regierungshauptstadt Hohensalz).The president of the Nowrocławska territory (with the capital in Inowrocław) was appointed Dr. Hans Burkhardt (1rd of 1940), whom they succeeded in the following years: Dr. Wilhelm Pickel (since 28 III 1944) and Dr. Karl Wilhelm Albert (since the second half of 1944). The Inowrocław region covered an area of nearly 14.5 1000 km2. It consisted of 12 agrarian districts (Ciechociński, Gniezniński, Gostyniński, Inowrocławskikutnowski, Kolski, Koninski, Mogilski, Szubinski, Wągrowiecki, Włocławski, żniński) and 3 urban districts (Inowrocław, Gniezno, Włocławek). In 1940 it was inhabited by almost 1 million 2 100 1000 people (1156 thousand), including almost 1 million Poles (more than 987,000), about 40 1000 Jews, nearly 127 thousand. Germans and somewhat more than 2,000 representatives of another nationalities (including Ukrainians, (Czechs).In subsequent years of business terror, the number of Jews Poles was decreasing. By July 1943, the number of Jews had fallen, at the same time in the Inowroclaw territory there were somewhat more than 920,000 Poles. Burkhardt, Pickel and Albert, as presidents of the district, held superior authority over all local civilian administration authorities of the occupier, liable for the extermination, germanization, economical exploitation and displacement of the population inhabiting the conquered territory. The secret state police (GeheimeStaatspolizeistelle) played a peculiar function in this regard, namely the Gestapo.The leadership of Staatspolizeistelle and of the fresh Wrocław-based Staatspolizeistelle rested in the hands of SS Sturmbannführer Friedrich Hegenscheidt and his deputy SS – Hauptsturmführer Heisig. Parallel to the police, there was a judicial panic apparatus. His task was, among others, to fake the legality of executions. Innowrocław was based on the peculiar Court (Sondergericht) and the territory Court (Landgericht). In the Inowrocław district, until March 1940 the arrests and executions of the population were besides carried out by Selbstschutzu troops. Their commander was SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Hans Kölzov, and the managers were Hans Ulrich Hempel (innowroclaw County) and Kohlmayer (in Inowroclaw City). Local sites for mass executions in Poles and representatives of another nations were mainly forests in the vicinity of Gniewkow, Kruszwica and Rozniaty. The place of punishment and execution was besides the prison in Inowrocław. During the first months of the occupation, more than a 100 people a week were deported to death from here. Here, too, only 1 night – from 22 to 23 October 1939 – the Inowrocław Landrat Otton Krystian Hirschfeld and associate of SS Hans Ulrych Jahnz, after an earlier alcohol libation, executed the execution of the 56th imprisoned people, for which the Poznań peculiar Court sentenced Hirschfeld to 15 years in prison. (Jahnza was acquitted), considering that “the execution was carried out by an inappropriate official, prematurely, voluntarily and unlawfully”. Referring to this justification, the acknowledged Toruń investigator of the past of the business Niziling rightly emphasized: "(...) Thus the conduct of SS,SD, Gestapo, Selbstschutzu and the Nazi administration was lawful according to the German court." The legal Nazis besides considered the camp strategy extended during the occupation. It was 1 of the cruelest elements of Nazi terror, and was besides the primary "tool" of the German extermination policy aimed at the inhabitants of the countries conquered by the 3rd Reich. In the Inowrocław territory there were a full of 5 camps, including the largest in Błoń in Inowrocław. As it is calculated, from September 1940 to January 1945 more than 10,000 people passed through it. Careful estimates say over 500 victims of this camp, tortured and murdered in the cruelest way.
Quotes:
1) ‘(...) There were 2 women's pieces, 1 alleged penalty, called "the lice" in which we stayed at the time and the another heated, lit, alleged "the model" in which the selected prisoners lived, who made sewing for SS men, made sweaters for them, embroidered various napkins for SS women and made toys for SS children. The choice depended on Lagerführer; he passed among the prisoners and, depending on his preference, chose (...)"The fragment of Maria Czarnecki's account, [in:] The memoirs of the teachers from the camps... p. 697.
2. ‘(...) 2 large dogs – wolves were introduced from somewhere. Then 2 Jews were ordered to step out of line and be smitten with these dogs. The dogs were torn by their clothes and their body. The blood poured out of them then and the body ripped out simply flew in the air. We looked at it and we trembled with horror and fear that it would happen to us. erstwhile these Jews were almost bitten by these dogs to death and were lying almost motionless on the ground, he came out of (...) a German barracks in a shirt, without a hat and with a weapon in his hand and shot them twice.” Fragment of evidence of the witness Bolesław Szmadzinski, [in:] J. Libiszewski, Błoń Camp in Inowrocław, p. 56.
3)“Every morning, erstwhile receiving reports, the block SSman wrote down the dead. erstwhile about 20 of them gathered, then the order came out to make a coffin. On the day of this sad rite, the Germans wore parades, drinking vodka all morning. After the fundraiser, we did not usually go to the gym, but we set ourselves up in 2 long ranks which stretched through the square until the gate opened. 4 prisoners were then selected who, under the supervision of the Germans, went to the first part and put 1 of the dead into a fresh beautifully made coffin. Then, on the second loud “attention”, between our inactive ranks he passed by the sounds of a dirty song, which was sung on the note of a ceremony march, a unusual march (...). Then with a deaf moose, a bare corpse was thrown on the boards of the car and the coffin was empty, he wandered in a unusual parade back to 1 of the blocks where another victim lay...’. Fragment of Marian Paprocki's account, [in:] Nazi Camp in Błonie in Inowrocław... p. 31.
4) “... Baltruschat... beat me in the face, kicked me, boxed me. Finally, he called 2 SS men and they tied my hands with a line through the table and each leg separately to the leg of the table. They started beating me with cold water. I felt my ass crack, but I didn't scream. I was certain I'd die, so I didn't care. As long as it lasted – I don't know. due to the fact that erstwhile I opened my eyes, I was lying somewhere in the corner of the part all wet and bloody. The blood flowed from the nose. I felt it was broken. The teeth pierced the cheeks. The skin came down from cords from hands and legs. Legs hurt and bled. I think the head was twice as large as normal. Baltruschat had me kicked and ordered me to stand up. I couldn't, I felt the cross broken and I had no power in my legs. He lifted me by pulling my hair (...)".Klemens Kwiatkowski's report, [in:] "Hitler's Camp in Błonia in Inowrocław...", p. 66.
Marek Szymaniak, Kamila Churska IPN Bydgoszcz
Did the victims of these inhuman German crimes, Poles and Jews die in the German extermination camp in the Holocaust, or in genocide!?
Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province. to those held in the Błonie camp. Violent interrogations were conducted on the grounds of the camp by Gestapo officers, including in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship. way of martyrdom – planet War II, among others, in the inowrocław district, including panic against people being held in the camp in Błonia. Violent interrogations were conducted by Gestapo officers, including Herman Baltruschat, Jühningen, Felix Schlütter and Donat. Named during the “examination” of the arrested during the investigation, sadistic practices involving, among others, violent beating to unconsciousness, breaking bones, teeth, eardrums, strangulation, chest crush, kicking, etc. In the bestial treatment of prisoners of the camp in Błonia, Gestapo did not give way to the SS, including lagerführers. panic was part of a regular day: executions, abrupt shots to the trapped, drowning in cloacic holes, gnawing to death with dogs, forcing to work beyond force (e.g. by moving from place to place of dense stones), appeals in the cold after pouring cold water, fatal beatings, etc. In memory of the prisoners, the freezing day of 8 December 1942 was peculiarly dramatic, when, without any interruption, for about 10 hours, the Germans subjected violent torture to all prisoners, setting up on the appeal square a place of murderous “gymnastics”, mass beatings and killings, including the wolves described above. Most of the camp executioners have never been held liable for their crimes against the Polish Nard.
The full was fenced with a concrete wall over which barbed wire was attached. 2 other corners of the square (north-western and south-eastern) were placed watch Towers (almost 6 m) with moving lighting. The prisoners were held in 2 wooden residential barracks (separated for women and men). They were divided into respective halls (so-called sztubs) where windows were permanently secured with barbed wire. Construction, interior layout and functions of individual camp sites Camp in Błonie in Inowrocław was built behind barracks of the erstwhile 4th Light Artillery Regiment, at Okrożek Street (at the time of the business of Immellmannstrasse 2), on a game of about 13 1000 m2.
Selected bibliography:
- Archive materials collected at the Institute of National Memory, Delegation in Bydgoszcz.
- Reports from the German camp in Błoniech, Inowrocław, published in: Appendix to the “Gazeta Pomorskie” – “Gazeta Toruńska” from: 18-19 XI 1972, pp. 7; 25-26 XI 1972, pp. 7; 25-26 XII 1972, pp. 7; 2-3 XII 1972, pp. 7; 16-17 XII 1972, pp. 7; 6-7 I 1973, pp. 7; 20-21 I 1973, pp. 7; 14-15 IV1973, pp. 7; 5-6 V1973, p. 7.
"Memoirs of Teachers from Nazi Camps and Prisoners 1939–1945", Warsaw 1962.Developments and Communications: Z. Czyńska, K. Kaście,
"Extermination camps, concentration camps and labour camps on Polish lands from 1939 to 1945, Bulletin". t. 1, p. 61.J. Brodziński,
"A Session dedicated to Nazi Crimes in the Błonie camp in Inowrocław", "Kujewska Land" 1971, Vol. 3, pp. 245–248. The president
"Blood camp in Inowrocław". "From investigation into the extermination of Jews in Pomerania and Kujawy", edited by T. Jaszowski, Bydgoszcz 1983, pp. 53–57.
