The Warsaw concentration camp was an associated group of the German Nazi concentration camps, including possibly a dedicated extermination camp, located in
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
-occupied
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
,
capital cityCapital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The various details regarding the camps are very controversial.
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) estimates that the number of victims who died at these camps to be "not less than tens of thousands". However, it refrains from making a more precise estimate due to scant evidence. Some estimates place the number of the camp's victims as high as 200,000 (mostly
gentileThe term Gentile refers to non-Israelite tribes or nations in English translations of the Bible, most notably the King James Version....
PolesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
). Others estimate the amount of deaths at 20,000 to 35,000 (not including some 37,000 executed at
PawiakPawiak was an infamous political prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Poland. During the World War II German occupation of Poland, it eventually became part of the Warsaw concentration camp.-History:...
), with a proportionally larger percentage of the Polish and European Jews among the dead. Other, smaller groups of victims included
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
, Romani people,
BelarusiansBelarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Belarusian language...
and officers of the
Italian ArmyThe Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Republic. It has recently become a professional all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 109,703 in 2008...
.
http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/
Establishment date controversy
The earliest official mention of the
KZ Warschau is from June 19, 1943, which referred to the concentration camp in the ruins of the former
Warsaw GhettoThe Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe, located in the territory of General Government in occupied Poland during World War II.-Creation:...
. However, the term
KZ Warschau was also used to describe similar camps that were discovered at an earlier date.
Nevertheless, it is estimated that
KZ Warschau was in operation from the autumn of 1942 until the
Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
. The First Commander of the camp was
SS-ObergruppenführerObergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...
Wilhelm Goecke, a former
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration campMauthausen Concentration Camp and its sub Labor camp Gusen, combined to form the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi concentration camp, were located near the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz....
commander. In addition to
genocidalGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
purposes, the camp was designed to provide the Nazi Party with a work force to clean up the leveled ruins of the former Warsaw Ghetto into a future
recreationRecreation or fun is the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one's body or mind. While leisure is more likely a form of entertainment or sleep, recreation is active for the participant but in a refreshing and diverting manner...
al area for the SS.
The exact date of the camp's creation is unknown. Some historians (IPN among them) have suggested that it was created following the orders of
SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald PohlOswald Pohl was a Nazi official and member of the SS , involved in the mass murders of Jews in concentration camps, the so-called Final Solution.-Early years:...
on June 11 1943. However, others have (among them historian and
IPNInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation...
judgeA judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is like an umpire in a game and...
Maria Trzcińska) claimed that the camp was already operational prior to the
Warsaw Ghetto UprisingThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp.The insurgency was launched against the...
. The factual basis for this aforementioned claim is that on October 9, 1942,
Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Luitpold Himmler , one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, served as Chief of the German Police and Minister of the Interior...
issued an order in which he stated:
I've issued orders and requested that all the so-called arms factories workers working only as tailors, furriers or bootmakers be grouped in the nearest concentration camps, that is in Warsaw and in LublinMajdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
.
Organization
The camp was composed of five parts located in different areas of Warsaw, all of which were connected by railway and were under unified organization and one command. In chronological order of opening:
- Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) at Koło area (formerly a Kreigsgefangenenlager
In Germany, Stalag was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is an abbreviation for "Stammlager", itself a short form of the full name "Mannschaftsstamm- und Straflager".- Legal definitions :...
POW camp for the Polish Army soldiers captured in 1939); this part remains controversional
- Vernichtungslager (extermination camp) composed of two sub-camps near the Warszawa Zachodnia train station
A railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
; this part remains controversional
- Gęsia Street (now: Anielewicza
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the commander of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Life:...
Street) concentration camp (formerly ArbeitserziehungslagerArbeitslager is a German language word which means Labor camp.During World War II the Nazis operated several categories of Arbeitslager for different categories of inmates...
, or re-education labour camp) in the former Ghetto, known as GęsiówkaGęsiówka , was a Nazi concentration camp in Warsaw, Poland.- History of Gęsiówka :Before the war, Gęsiówka was a military prison of the Polish Army on Gęsia Street...
; a sub-camp for the foreign Jews was located on Nowolipie Street
- Bonifraterska Street camp near Muranowski Square in the former Ghetto
- Former Gestapo
The was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning in April 1934, it was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel under Heinrich Himmler in his position as leader of the SS and Chief of German Police...
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
on Pawia Street, known as PawiakPawiak was an infamous political prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Poland. During the World War II German occupation of Poland, it eventually became part of the Warsaw concentration camp.-History:...
.
The overall area of the camp was 1.2 km², with 119 barracks purposely built to hold approximately 40,000 prisoners. The camp
infrastructureInfrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
included five crematoriums (including one electrical), and the guards included
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
and
LatviansLatvians , the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia, occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
.
Pabst Plan
According to the
Pabst PlanThe Pabst Plan - was a nazist urban plan to reconstruct Warsaw after its near-total destruction in 1944.-The plan:...
, prior to the Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw was to be turned into a provincial German city. To ensure this modification, the population of the city was to be reduced from over a million to less than 500,000 inhabitants. To accomplish this goal, the Jewish population was grouped together in the Warsaw Ghetto before being eventually removed and exterminated. The Nazis' next step in their plan was the removal of the gentile population.
The gentile population of Warsaw became the target of the
łapanka policy, in which
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
and police rounded up civilians on a street. Between 1942 and 1944, there were approximately 400 victims of łapanka in Warsaw daily. The individuals caught were first transferred to the KZ Warschau complex; from there, many were transported to other concentration and labor camps in Poland.
Executions
According to IPN, most victims were executed by gunfire, mostly using
machine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rifle bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute...
s, both in the camps and in an adjoining "security zone", with some of the
hostageA hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
s
publicly executedPublic Execution is a Mouse and the Traps retrospective album that has been released in both LP and CD formats. The LP has an unusually large number of tracks , while the CD includes 4 bonus tracks and catalogues almost all of the released music by Mouse and the Traps and their associated bands: ...
in the streets of Warsaw. Numerous others were gassed in the
gas chamberA gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used. Gas chambers were used as a method of execution for...
s at Gęsia Street, where a considerable quantity of
Zyklon BZyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by Nazi Germany against human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust....
was found after the war (the first gassing there happened on October 17 1943, killing 150 Poles from the Warsaw roundups and 20 Jews from
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
). A relatively small number of victims were murdered by drunken guards at so-called "
amphitheatreAn amphitheatre is an open-air venue for spectator sports, concerts, rallies, or theatrical performances. There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word 'amphitheatre' is used: Ancient amphitheatres, built by the ancient Romans, were large central performance spaces...
" at Gęsiówka or
hangedHanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. It hurts a lot. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", although it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would...
at the so-called "death wall" at Koło. There was also a mysterious T-shaped building in the forest at Koło where the truckloads of prisoners were sometimes shipped but never returned.
Besides mass shootings and other killings, the majority of other deaths resulted from physical exhaustion and the
typhusEpidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
epidemicDefining an epidemic can be subjective, depending in part on what is "expected". An epidemic may be restricted to one locale , more general or even global...
s. The dead bodies were either burned in crematoriums and open-air
pyreA pyre is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon the pyre which is then set on fire. Pyre is wood used for burning.Traditionally, pyres are used for the cremation of the deceased in Hinduism & Sikhism...
s, including on the former
stadiumA modern stadium is a place, or venue, for outdoor sports, concerts or other events, consisting of a field or stage partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.-History of the stadium:The word originates from the Greek word...
, or were buried under blown-up buildings of the former Ghetto. At the same time, a group of SS men wearing white coats would pose as medical workers in order to find and execute Jews still hiding in the ruins.
In atlas „Atlas zur deutschen Zeitgeschichte 1918-1968” published in 1986 in Deutchland KL Warschau is signed as "Hauptlager", and has the same status like
KL DachauDachau concentration camp was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.Opened in March 1933, it...
. .
Ulica Bema tunnel controversy
A remaining controversy centers around the existence of an enormous gas chamber in the pre-existing
tunnelA tunnel is an underground passageway. The definition of what constitutes a tunnel is not universally agreed upon. However, in general tunnels are at least twice as long as they are wide. In addition, they should be completely enclosed on all sides, save for the openings at each end...
on
Józef BemJózef Zachariasz Bem was a Polish general and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European nationalisms...
Street near the Warszawa Zachodnia train station. The tunnel was 630 square meters, large enough to kill up to 1,000 people at a time - other known Nazi gas chambers were typically smaller and lower, and the use of a large tunnel as a gas chamber could be highly irregular and inefficient (according to the propagators of the gassing theory, the traffic tunnel could be used to kill multiple
truckA truck or lorry is a motor vehicle - more specifically a commercial vehicle commonly used for transporting goods and materials. Some light trucks/lorries are similar in size to a passenger automobile...
loads of prisoners).
The tunnel was restored to street
trafficTraffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
after the war. The alleged gassing
pumpA pump is a device used to move fluids, such as gases, liquids or slurries. A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. One common misconception about pumps is the thought that they create pressure. Pumps alone do not create pressure; they only displace fluid, causing a flow. ...
s and connected massive ventilators (used to remove the gas into the
atmosphereAn atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
prior to removal of bodies in the large Nazi gas chambers) were destroyed during a renovation works in 1996 and early 2000s. It is unknown if
Zyklon B or
carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, yet very toxic to humans. It consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, connected by a covalent double bond and a dative covalent bond...
was used in this case.
The hotly discussed controversy was not publicly debated and almost completely unknown during the era of the communist rule in Poland. One of the possible reasons behind this secrecy was to increase the number of the perceived victims in the
Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
; this uprising was initiated by the Polish Home Army against the Germans in August 1944, resulting in a massive number of civilian casualties. In 2001 the Polish
SejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...
appealed for building the
memorialA memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains ....
; in the meantime, a part of the tunnel was turned into an unofficial
mausoleumA mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
by citizens of Warsaw.
In 2002
SejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...
rejected the inconclusive findings of the Warsaw's IPN investigation. The new IPN investigation by another unit started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2007.
Liquidation and liberation
On July 20 1943,
SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm KoppeWilhelm Koppe was a German Nazi commander who was responsible for numerous atrocities against Poles and Jews in Reichsgau Wartheland and the General Government during the German occupation of Poland in World War II.-Biography:Born in Hildesheim, he fought in the First World War...
ordered the complex to be liquidated and dismantled. The majority of prisoners were either executed or were transferred to other concentration camps, such as
DachauDachau concentration camp was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.Opened in March 1933, it...
,
Gross-RosenKL Gross-Rosen was a German concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia . It was located directly on the rail line between Jauer and Striegau ....
and
RavensbrückRavensbrück or Ravensbrueck was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
. Between July 28 and July 31 1943, four major railway transports left Warsaw, containing some 12,300 prisoners. A small group of several hundred inmates, mostly Jews from
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an countries, were left in Pawiak and Gęsiówka to dig up and burn bodies. The camp's documentation was burnt, and the railway tunnel and the prison were mined for
demolitionDemolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
.
On August 5 1944, an assault group of Polish Home Army (AK), which included a captured German tank commanded by
Wacław MicutaWacław Micuta, also known as Wacek was a Polish economist, functionary of the United Nations and a soldier – participant in the Polish September Campaign and a commander of one of two Polish tanks in the Warsaw Uprising with the rank of first lieutenant.-Life:Micuta was born to a...
stormed the Gęsiówka camp located in the former Warsaw Ghetto and set free the remaining 360 men and women. Later, these survivors fought in the uprising. On August 21, 1944, after the failure of an insurgent attack on Pawiak, all but seven of its remaining prisoners were executed and the building was blown up by the Germans.
Communist prison camp
After the Soviet takeover of Warsaw in January 1945, the camp continued to operate as a
prison campPrison camp may be:* Concentration or internment camp* Federal prison camp, low-security facility among those on list of U.S. federal prisons* Labor camp* Death or extermination camp* Prisoner-of-war camp...
for the former AK fighters and other "
enemies of the people's powerThe term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. Its usage is derogatory, and meant to imply that the "enemies" are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notions of "public enemy" and "enemy of the state". The term...
" under the Soviet
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
and then Polish
MBPThe Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954...
until 1954 (the last prisoners left in 1956). It was the second biggest prison after the
Mokotów PrisonMokotów Prison is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located on Rakowiecka street 37. During World War II and until 1989 it was a place of detention and execution of the Polish opposition and freedom fighters.The Mokotów prison was built in early 20th century as a tsarist prison used...
.
http://www.bankier.pl/pogodzinach/1645200,IPN-wydal-ksiazke-o-obozie-KL-Warschau.html
See also
- Camps in Poland during World War II
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- Gęsiówka
Gęsiówka , was a Nazi concentration camp in Warsaw, Poland.- History of Gęsiówka :Before the war, Gęsiówka was a military prison of the Polish Army on Gęsia Street...
- Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
In addition to about three million Polish Jews , 2.5 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
- Pawiak
Pawiak was an infamous political prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Poland. During the World War II German occupation of Poland, it eventually became part of the Warsaw concentration camp.-History:...
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp.The insurgency was launched against the...
- Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
External links
KZ Warschau Many documents about KL Warschau in orginal "True about KL Warschau" Polish Wikipedia article KL Warschau Wieniec i kamienie pamięci ku czci ofiar KL Warschau Onet.plOnet.pl is the largest Polish web portal. It is owned by the Kraków-based Grupa Onet.pl S.A. It was founded in 1996 by Optimus company. According to Alexa rankings, as of December 2007, it is the 45th most popular website worldwide and the 3rd most popular site in Poland.Onet is currently owned by...
Zapomniany KL Warschau Życie WarszawyŻycie Warszawy is a local Polish newspaper published in Warsaw. It was founded in October 1944 as an initiative of Polish Workers' Party. Currently it is published by Dom Prasowy Sp. z o.o. and owned by Michał Sołowow.-External links:*...
Dowody KL Warschau Czas upamiętnić ofiary KL Warschau