Litzmannstadt labor education camp

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Notice board on the wall of the Sikawa Lodz prison
Information board on the history of the Sikawa camp on the front of today's prison on the premises

The Litzmannstadt labor education camp was established by the National Socialists in 1943 at the time of the German occupation of Poland in World War II . It existed until the Red Army marched in at the beginning of 1945 and was then converted into a labor camp for Germans. The camp was located east of the city center of Łódź in the Widzew district in the Sikawa district.

1943 to 1945: Labor education camp under the National Socialists

The Litzmannstadt penal and labor education camp was set up by the National Socialists on March 12, 1943. However, there seems to have been a forerunner facility since 1941, as the Foundation EVZ recognized the camp as a place of detention for forced laborers for periods from 1941 onwards .

At least 2500 people, predominantly of Polish nationality, passed through the camp. They were forced laborers as well as people who had fled their jobs and were considered “work-shy”. Men and women were housed separately from each other.

The camp was set up on the site of a farm in Sikawa and at that time had the address "Am Bach 40". The house became an office, the stable became a washing area for the prisoners and the sheds became workshops, and a barn was demolished. Wooden barracks were also built to house the prisoners. The camp area was fenced with barbed wire and there were watchtowers at the corners.

The camp inmates were mainly used for heavy physical work, including a. in the construction of the Andrzejów - Olechów railway junction , in the expansion of the Lublinek military airfield , in the construction of bunkers, extinguishing water basins and air raid ditches , the expansion of the cemetery in Choiny , the demolition of old buildings and in agriculture. Work was also carried out in the warehouse workshops, such as B. the carpentry, the blacksmith or in the production of straw shoes and clothes. In addition to working in the kitchen, the women were also used for emptying excrement pits and then fertilizing the fields. In addition to the heavy labor, the inmates were subjected to special humiliation, torture, food deprivation and detention.

As the front approached at the end of the war, the administrative officials and the guards left the camp. The following day, January 19, 1945, a gardener freed the prisoners. The camp was then taken over by the Red Army.

From 1945

→ Main article: Sikawa Central Labor Camp

Immediately after the Red Army marched in, the labor education camp was initially converted into an assembly camp for German men who were to be deported to the Soviet Union . This later became the Sikawa Central Labor Camp , which was again closed in 1948. From 1948 to 1950 the facility was used as a prisoner of war camp for German officers. In addition, in 1949 numerous transports with ethnic Germans deported to Germany were arranged here. From December 1950 the camp was only intended for Poles. From 1950 to 1951 it also served as a remand prison for the city of Łódź. At the site of the camp there is now prison No. 1 ( Zakład Karny nr 1 ) at Beskidzka 54, Łódź.

See also

literature

  • Krystyna Radziszewska: The Germans in Lodz after the end of the occupation and the Sikawa camp from 1945–1950 , in: Monika Kucner / Krystyna Radziszewska: Strangers in the Promised Land. On the history of the Germans in Lodz after the Second World War , Osnabrück 2013, pp. 45–73, ISBN 978-3-938400-88-3 , pp. 53f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c List of detention sites of the Foundation EVZ, subpage about the Litzmannstadt-Sikawa penal and labor education camp , accessed on May 30, 2012.
  2. ↑ Reinhard Tenhumberg's website / 1933-1945 lager , accessed on May 30, 2012.
  3. ↑ Reinhard Tenhumberg's website / 1933-1945 lager , accessed on May 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b c d Lodz – Sikawa - labor education camp - description of the camp on the website of the German-Polish Youth Office , accessed on.
  5. ↑ a b c d Krystyna Radziszewska: The Germans in Lodz after the end of the occupation and the Sikawa camp in the years 1945-1950 , in: Monika Kucner / Krystyna Radziszewska: Strangers in the Promised Land. On the history of the Germans in Lodz after the Second World War , Osnabrück 2013, pp. 45–73, ISBN 978-3-938400-88-3 , pp. 53f.
  6. ↑ Silvia Waade: Barrack 7, the fate of women behind barbed wire - many walked the way to Sikawa (1945/46) , Berlin / Bonn 1985, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Silke Spieler: Expulsion and Expulsion Crimes 1945-1948 , Report of the Federal Archives of May 28, 1974, Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-88557-067-X , p. 78f.
  8. ↑ Manfred Gebhardt and Joachim Küttner: Germans in Poland after 1945. Prisoners and foreigners , Munich 1997, p. 136.
  9. ↑ Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims: The expulsion of the German population from the areas east of the Oder-Neisse , Augsburg 1993, Volume I, p. 153Ef.

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 1.1 ″  N , 19 ° 30 ′ 42.5 ″  E