Showing posts with label 1940. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 March 2020
Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union (after 1939)
Thursday, 28 March 2019
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Thursday, 24 January 2019
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Saturday, 12 January 2019
Friday, 11 January 2019
Sunday, 15 April 2018
Gestapo Prison in the Lublin's Castle
The medieval castle of Lublin hides too many dreadful stories to be told just in a few paragraphs. However, do you know that it served as one of the heaviest prisons not only during German occupation of Poland but also right away after its end under the communist rule?
Let us analyse the statistics (Germans loved numbers during WWII, didn't they?):
In between 1939-1944:
40,000 prisoners
18,600 deported to concentration camps
3,600 killed in the camps
4,500 executed on the spot
2,200 killed in the course of interrogation process/in prison
10,000 released/escaped or sent free
4,700 no data available
Just to compare let us look at the statistics going back to the period when the Lublin's Castle was under Soviet governance. Soviets did not like to be worse...
In between 1944 - 1954:
33,000 prisoners
440 transports to other prisons
10,196 deported to other prisons in Poland
7,000 deported to Siberia (e.g. Borovitche and Svierdlovsk NKVD labour camps)
515 death sentences released (333 executed).
The Lublin Cactle prison had 73 cells which normally would welcome up to 12 prisoners. During the war more that 60 would be detained in each. Also the prisoners would be kept in a 19th century donjon which had walls 3 meter wide and the detention there was a 'real medieval experience'.
One of the cruellest 'episodes' in the history of the Castle came at the final days of the existence of the Gestapo prison there. On 19 July 800 prisoners were taken to KL Majdanek and executed there. Then on 22 July German SS units executed further 300 prisoners. They would have killed 1000 other prisoners too but an order to leave the city came and they were in desperate rush to leave the city as the Soviets were almost there.
There are many photographs which depict the tragedy of the period however let us spend a few moments pondering on the depth behind the one below showing a relative of the victims after the German execution of 22 July 1944.
Original footage showing the scenes of German barbarity upon the "glorious entrance" of the Soviets to Lublin may be viewed here:
Read more:
Let us analyse the statistics (Germans loved numbers during WWII, didn't they?):
In between 1939-1944:
40,000 prisoners
18,600 deported to concentration camps
3,600 killed in the camps
4,500 executed on the spot
2,200 killed in the course of interrogation process/in prison
10,000 released/escaped or sent free
4,700 no data available
Just to compare let us look at the statistics going back to the period when the Lublin's Castle was under Soviet governance. Soviets did not like to be worse...
In between 1944 - 1954:
33,000 prisoners
440 transports to other prisons
10,196 deported to other prisons in Poland
7,000 deported to Siberia (e.g. Borovitche and Svierdlovsk NKVD labour camps)
515 death sentences released (333 executed).
The Lublin Cactle prison had 73 cells which normally would welcome up to 12 prisoners. During the war more that 60 would be detained in each. Also the prisoners would be kept in a 19th century donjon which had walls 3 meter wide and the detention there was a 'real medieval experience'.
One of the cruellest 'episodes' in the history of the Castle came at the final days of the existence of the Gestapo prison there. On 19 July 800 prisoners were taken to KL Majdanek and executed there. Then on 22 July German SS units executed further 300 prisoners. They would have killed 1000 other prisoners too but an order to leave the city came and they were in desperate rush to leave the city as the Soviets were almost there.
There are many photographs which depict the tragedy of the period however let us spend a few moments pondering on the depth behind the one below showing a relative of the victims after the German execution of 22 July 1944.
Author: Stefan Kiełsznia, 1944
Images source: Internet
Original footage showing the scenes of German barbarity upon the "glorious entrance" of the Soviets to Lublin may be viewed here:
Clip source: Youtube
Read more:
- http://teatrnn.pl/about-us/tourism/
- http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/chodakiewicz1.htm accessed on 15 April 2018
Saturday, 14 April 2018
Former Gestapo Headquarters, Warsaw
Just within an eye range, two places on the map of Warsaw overlook each other. Still nowadays the two cause thrill on the back. Why? Millions of Poles suffered indirectly because of the men who resided in those buildings and more than dozens of thousands were imprisoned, interrogated, tortured and murdered there.
Former Gestapo Headquarters now housing in its ORIGINAL interiors the Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom at Szucha Avenue, 25, Warsaw is definitely a place one needs to visit. Looking at the "tramlines' where the detained waited for their interrogation, discerning names carved into the walls...still visible as witnesses of the horrifying German occupation of Poland during WWII.
The other building, at Ujazdowskie Avenue, 11 now housing the Ministry of Justice, hides in the basement a terrible testimony of the ruling period of communists in afterwar Poland. Since 1945 there used to be the Ministry of Public Security and the basement served as jail. Unfortunately, the detained were not criminals but soldiers who fought for Poland's independence when Poland was attacked in 1939 by Germans and Soviets, who continued their fight all through the WWII as welll as Warsaw insurgents and all those who did not accept that Soviet Union took over Poland in 1944.
The Museum "Cele Bezpieki" (Eng. Stalinist Jail) opened in March 2018 houses exhibition in ORIGINAL cells and interiors of the former jail which operated here after 1945 during Communist Rule in Poland after WWII. Peep into the cells, grab a torch and discern names, pictures, letters, inscriptions carved into the walls. So much suffering in one place...
Please watch a short clip which introduces us to the exposition:
https://www.facebook.com/celebezpieki/videos/468286023569505/
Images source: Internet
For a short video showing the exposition go here:
Read more:
Former Gestapo Headquarters now housing in its ORIGINAL interiors the Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom at Szucha Avenue, 25, Warsaw is definitely a place one needs to visit. Looking at the "tramlines' where the detained waited for their interrogation, discerning names carved into the walls...still visible as witnesses of the horrifying German occupation of Poland during WWII.
The other building, at Ujazdowskie Avenue, 11 now housing the Ministry of Justice, hides in the basement a terrible testimony of the ruling period of communists in afterwar Poland. Since 1945 there used to be the Ministry of Public Security and the basement served as jail. Unfortunately, the detained were not criminals but soldiers who fought for Poland's independence when Poland was attacked in 1939 by Germans and Soviets, who continued their fight all through the WWII as welll as Warsaw insurgents and all those who did not accept that Soviet Union took over Poland in 1944.
The Museum "Cele Bezpieki" (Eng. Stalinist Jail) opened in March 2018 houses exhibition in ORIGINAL cells and interiors of the former jail which operated here after 1945 during Communist Rule in Poland after WWII. Peep into the cells, grab a torch and discern names, pictures, letters, inscriptions carved into the walls. So much suffering in one place...
Please watch a short clip which introduces us to the exposition:
https://www.facebook.com/celebezpieki/videos/468286023569505/
For a short video showing the exposition go here:
Read more:
- http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/chodakiewicz1.htm TRULY RECOMMENDED!
- https://www.facebook.com/celebezpieki/
- http://www.muzeum-niepodleglosci.pl/mauzoleum_szucha/
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Intelligenzaktion - Extermination of the Polish elite
Hitler's plan to annihilate Polish nation was started by operations within the scope of Intelligenzaktion which aimed at the extermination of Polish elite members (teachers, academics, doctors, lawyers, priests, clerks, public functionaries etc.).
The operation was launched right after German troops took over Poland in September 1939 and continued till 1943.
It is estimated that 100,000 Poles were victims to the German "purification" policy with 50,000 executed on the spot and further 50,000 sent to concentration camps.
Please note chosen statistics as for the numbers of the executed as for different areas of occupied Polish territory:
Read more:
It is estimated that 100,000 Poles were victims to the German "purification" policy with 50,000 executed on the spot and further 50,000 sent to concentration camps.
Please note chosen statistics as for the numbers of the executed as for different areas of occupied Polish territory:
- Pomerania (Northern Poland) - 30,000 killed
- Greater Poland (Wielkopolska, Western Poland) - 2,000 killed
- Mazovia District - 6,700 killed
- Silesia - 2,000 killed
- Łódź area - 1,500 killed
- AB Aktion (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion) with Cracow as one of the main 'targets' - 3,500 killed.
Read more:
- http://www.berlin-1945.com/horrors-of-war/german-ab-aktion-in-poland/ accessed on 15 March 2018
Monday, 12 March 2018
Kościan and the Euthanasia (action T4)
 |
| Hospital in Kościan |
"Kościan (47 km from Poznań) was one of the first places where Nazi euthanasia action took place, even before such measures had commenced in Germany and Austria. The reasoning behind the "cleaning" of the Polish mental homes surely was almost certainly to obtain space for German troops at the beginning of the war.
In early 1940 the hospital in Kościan was taken over by the SS Sonderkommando Lange and the Gau-Selbstverwaltung (German Council Association) from Poznan. The Polish medical personnel were dismissed, leaving behind 612 Polish patients. Now the hospital was administered by Dr Johann Keste (psychiatrist), Dr. Fritz Lemberger (gynaecologist), Hans Meding (medical inspector) and Wilhelm Haydn (chief of the male nurses), killers in white doctor’s gowns.
In early January 1940, an SS Sonderkommando arrived, carrying a dark brown bottle containing a morphine-scopolamine mixture used to calm the victims.
Probably on 15 January 1940, the first group of naked patients received an injection and were bundled into a mobile gas chamber (gas van or gas trailer) inscribed with an advertisement for "Kaiser's Kaffee Geschäft". Of course, Kaiser's Coffee Company was not involved in the action. The van's (or trailer's) inner sides were lined with metal sheets, the floor was covered with a wooden grate and a lamp on the ceiling illuminated the gas chamber for inspection through a peephole in the back door.
When the driver (an SS man) started the vehicle's engine, the exhaust fumes were emitted into the loading space. The victims screamed loudly before they died. Then the gas van drove from Koscian to Jarogniewice Forest (a site on the road Koscian - Poznan, about 15-20 km north of Koscian). After 15-20 minutes the van finally reached the forest, and nobody in the gas chamber was left alive.
At Jarogniewice Forest prisoners (from KZ Fort VII in Poznan) opened the back doors of the gas van and buried the corpses in mass graves. One week later (on 22 January 1940) a second group of patients were killed in an identical fashion.
Within that week, all in all, 534 patients had been killed - 237 men and 297 women. However, this was only the beginning of a more extensive action in Koscian. On 9 February a transport from Germany with 2,750 Jewish and non-Jewish (German) patients from mental and old people's homes arrived in Koscian. All were killed in the same manner as the first patients. It is most likely that on 24 February 1940 the last transport left Koscian Hospital for Jarogniewice Forest. In total, 3,334 patients lost their lives in course of this euthanasia action in Koscian." (1)
Thursday, 22 February 2018
Palmiry. Warsaw's Katyń Forest
Germans used to have the same methods as Soviets when it came to eradicating Polish elites' members during World War II. Bringing detained to a secluded place, executing by machine guns, covering the mass graves with soil, planting trees. So that no one knows... However, the Truth is always triumphant. Sometimes it takes time but in the end it always wins.
The Palmiry Forest Massacre was a series of mass executions by German forces on members of Polish elites as well as prisoners of the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw (the prison which had the biggest numer of prisoners during WWII).
About 1700 persons are reported to be executed there. The best documented of these massacres took place on 20–21 June 1940, when 358 members of the Polish political, cultural and social elite were murdered in a single operation.
Among the executed were politicians: Maciej Rataj, Mieczysław Niedziałkowski and the winner of the 10,000 metres race at the 1932 Olympics Janusz Kusociński.
Mass graves were always dug a few days before the planned execution. Usually it was done by the Arbeitsdienst unit which was quartered in Łomna or by Hitlerjugend members who camped near Palmiry.
In most cases the graves were shaped like a ditch and were more than 30 metres (98 ft) long and 2.5–3 metres (8 ft 2 in–9 ft 10 in) deep. Sometimes, for smaller groups of convicts or for individual victims, irregularly shaped graves were prepared, similar to natural terrain landslides. Victims were transported to the place of execution by trucks. Usually they were brought from Pawiak prison, rarely from Mokotów Prison. SS soldiers tried to convince their victims that they are going to transfer them to another prison or to a concentration camp. For this reason, death transports were usually formed at dusk and prisoners were allowed to take their belongings with them. Sometimes before departure convicts received an additional food ration and they were given back their documents from the prison's depository. Initially, these methods were so effective that the prisoners were not aware of the fate awaiting them. Later, when the truth about what was happening in Palmiry spread through Warsaw, some victims tried to throw short letters or small belongings from the trucks, in hopes that in this way they would be able to inform their families about their fate. During postwar exhumation some bodies were found with a card reading "Executed in Palmiry", written by the victims shortly before their death.
The Palmiry Forest Massacre was a series of mass executions by German forces on members of Polish elites as well as prisoners of the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw (the prison which had the biggest numer of prisoners during WWII).
About 1700 persons are reported to be executed there. The best documented of these massacres took place on 20–21 June 1940, when 358 members of the Polish political, cultural and social elite were murdered in a single operation.
Among the executed were politicians: Maciej Rataj, Mieczysław Niedziałkowski and the winner of the 10,000 metres race at the 1932 Olympics Janusz Kusociński.
Mass graves were always dug a few days before the planned execution. Usually it was done by the Arbeitsdienst unit which was quartered in Łomna or by Hitlerjugend members who camped near Palmiry.
In most cases the graves were shaped like a ditch and were more than 30 metres (98 ft) long and 2.5–3 metres (8 ft 2 in–9 ft 10 in) deep. Sometimes, for smaller groups of convicts or for individual victims, irregularly shaped graves were prepared, similar to natural terrain landslides. Victims were transported to the place of execution by trucks. Usually they were brought from Pawiak prison, rarely from Mokotów Prison. SS soldiers tried to convince their victims that they are going to transfer them to another prison or to a concentration camp. For this reason, death transports were usually formed at dusk and prisoners were allowed to take their belongings with them. Sometimes before departure convicts received an additional food ration and they were given back their documents from the prison's depository. Initially, these methods were so effective that the prisoners were not aware of the fate awaiting them. Later, when the truth about what was happening in Palmiry spread through Warsaw, some victims tried to throw short letters or small belongings from the trucks, in hopes that in this way they would be able to inform their families about their fate. During postwar exhumation some bodies were found with a card reading "Executed in Palmiry", written by the victims shortly before their death.
Read more:
· Władysław Bartoszewski (1970). Warszawski pierścień
śmierci 1939–1944 (in Polish). Warszawa: Interpress.
· Jochen Böhler; Klaus-Michael Mallmann; Jürgen Matthäus (2009). Einsatzgruppen w Polsce (in Polish). Warszawa:
Bellona. ISBN 978-83-11-11588-0.
· Regina Domańska (1978). Pawiak – więzienie Gestapo.
Kronika lat 1939–1944 (in Polish). Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza.
· Krzysztof Dunin-Wąsowicz (1984). Warszawa w latach
1939–1945 (in Polish). Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-04207-9.
· Richard C. Lukas (2004). Forgotten Survivors:
Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1350-2. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
Image source: Internet
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