Hotel Polski (Warsaw)

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The former hotel on Ulica Długa from the west

The former Hotel Polski (German: Polish Hotel ) in Warsaw has existed since the beginning of the 19th century. During the Second World War , the hotel was used by the German occupiers to intern wealthy Jews who had bought foreign passports. The murder of most of these Jews is known as the "Hotel Polski Affair". The magazine Spiegel described the action in 1973 as "Warsaw Gestapo trap Hotel Polski".

History of the building

The current structure is based on a mansion from the 17th century. From 1762 to 1784 this building was transformed in various sections into a palace for the Warsaw banker Fryderyk Kabrit. The building was probably used as a hotel from 1808. From 1816 to 1819 another major renovation - also as a hotel - was carried out for Jan Nowakowski. In 1944, the hotel burned down as part of the warfare of the Warsaw Uprising and was largely destroyed in the process. The building was rebuilt in 1949 and 1950. Today there are apartments and commercial space here. An Asian restaurant is currently in operation in the western part of the ground floor.

The building is located at 29 ulica Długa. Across the street is a building now used by Warsaw University , the former Potkański Palace . The palace facing the four winds lies diagonally eastwards .

The world-famous photo of the boy from the Warsaw ghetto . According to Tsvi Nussbaum , who thinks he is the boy, it is said to have been taken in front of the Hotel Polski as part of the “home recovery campaign”.

Hotel Polski affair

The exact circumstances surrounding the internment of Jewish Poles in the Hotel Polski have not yet been clarified. It was probably started as part of the “repatriation campaign” and with the aim of exchanging German prisoners with the Allies . At a later date, the action in Warsaw probably also served the personal enrichment of SS and Gestapo forces. It is controversial whether the action should primarily lure out Jews hiding outside the ghetto for the purpose of later execution, or whether the applicants should actually be deported.

At the end of 1942, the German occupying power announced in Warsaw that Jews with citizenship of neutral states would leave the country. Jewish organizations at home and abroad (including Switzerland) then forged passports, mainly of South American countries, in order to save residents of the Warsaw ghetto and hiding Jews from the expected murder. The forgeries were often based on the original documents of foreign Jews who had already died. In May 1943, such documents were also sold by Jewish collaborators - presumably with the approval of the Gestapo - to wealthy Jews who were hiding outside the ghetto. The collaborators Skosowski and Zurawin are said to have acted on the orders of the commander of the Warsaw Security Police, Ludwig Hahn .

Around 3,000 Jews applied for emigration on the basis of the documents received and were interned in the Hotel Polski and two other, smaller Warsaw hotels ("Terminus" and "Royal"). Most of the hotel residents were transported to the German internment camp in Vittel and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for final deportation after staying in the hotel for several weeks . On July 15, 1943, the remaining 300 to 400 Jews who had no papers were shot in Warsaw's Pawiak . The Jews housed in Vittel and Bergen-Belsen could not leave the country, however, because the South American authorities did not recognize their identity papers. The rejection of admission by the authorities was partly due to a lack of coordination with the issuing consulates in Europe. As a result, the majority of the Hotel Polski Jews were brought to the Auschwitz concentration camp by October 1943 and murdered there. Only around 350 of those who had Palestinian papers survived.

The internees at the Hotel Polski included personalities such as Jizchak Katzenelson , Menachem Kirszenbaum and Jehoszua Perle. The heads of the Joint Distribution Committee in Warsaw, David Guzik and Józef Gitler-Barski, initially support the idea of ​​leaving the country. They later changed their minds, seeing the danger of a trap. Both survived the war .

References and comments

  1. ↑ according to Article processes. To the last , in Spiegel , issue 1/1973, Hamburg 1973.
  2. ↑ Fryderyk Kabrit, also Cabrit or Kabrytt (1745–1801) was a Warsaw banker who was ennobled in 1790, according to Ludwik Hass, Stanisław Małachowski-Lempicki. Wykaz polskich lóż wolnomularskich oraz ich członków ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 862 kB) p. 25 (in Polish).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wbc.poznan.pl
  3. ↑ During the "repatriation campaign", the German government called on various neutral and allied states to repatriate their Jews.
  4. ↑ Even after the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, almost 30,000 Jews were hiding in the so-called “Aryan” part of the city (i.e. outside the ghetto). Through the Hotel Polski action, some of these Jews betrayed themselves, according to John Radzilowski in a meeting with Gunnar S. Paulsson, Secret City. The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. Unveiling the Secret City , Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-09546-3 , New Haven 2002.
  5. ↑ after passed in the fire. Diaries from the ghetto , with a foreword by Stefan Zweig (transferred by Viktor Mika, original title: Brygada śmierci, Pamiętnik Justyny, Oczyma dwunastoletniej dziewczyny, Przemineło z ogniem and Wspomnienia uczestniczki powstaniaw & getcie Warsingzyny-4 , license number Rs. 13/60, 7th edition. Berlin 1960, pp. 542f. originally South American Jews were able to acquire citizenship in the respective South American countries for Polish relatives by purchasing land on behalf of their relatives. However, due to delays in sending these documents to Poland, a large number of the Warsaw Jews concerned had already been murdered
  6. ↑ according to another source (passed in the fire. Diaries from the ghetto , see EN + A above) the names of the Gestapo representatives were Skokowski, Kenig and Koniecpol
  7. ↑ according to Julian Grzesik: Alija. History of the people of Israel. Its dispersion and recollection , Lublin 2006, p. 274.
  8. ↑ The Hotel Terminus existed from 1930 to 1974 in the Kleifa building erected in 1862 at Ulica Chmielna 28
  9. ↑ a b according to Article Hotel Polski (PDF; 27 kB) on the Shoa Resource Center website (in English)
  10. ↑ Menachem Kirszenbaum was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Zionist Organization and an important activist in the ghetto. He was executed in Pawiak
  11. ↑ Jehoszua Perle (1888–1943) was a Jewish author and publicist of realism
  12. ↑ Józef Gitler-Barski (1898–1990) was Secretary General of the Joint Distribution Committee in Poland and, after the war, manager of various companies

literature

  • Julius A. Chroscicki, Andrzej Rottermund: Architectural Atlas of Warsaw. 1st edition. Arkady, Warsaw 1978, p. 60.
  • Abraham Shulman : The Case of Hotel Polski. An Account of One of the Most Enigmatic Episodes of World War II. New York 1982
  • Alexandra-Eileen Wenck: Between human trafficking and the “final solution”: The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Schöningh, 2000. (especially pp. 147-155).

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 48 ″  N , 21 ° 0 ′ 17 ″  E