Lamsdorf internment camp

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The Lamsdorf internment camp was initially a prisoner of war camp for French prisoners from 1870/71 near Lamsdorf (Polish: Łambinowice ) in Silesia. During the Second World War , prisoners of war were also imprisoned here in various main camps, many of whom were killed: Stalag VIII B, Stalag VIII F / 318, Stalag 344 .

After the end of the war, the Polish state used the camp as an internment / labor camp, known in Polish as Obóz Pracy w Łambinowicach , until 1946, to intern German civilians living in the region. A memorial of the post-war Lamsdorf camp has been located here since 1995 .

Memorial of the Martyrdom of Prisoners of War
Atonement cross in the memorial of the post-war Lamsdorf camp, erected in 1995
Measurement table from approx. 1930: Location of the internment camp 1945–1946 (green), "Britenlager" (Stalag VIIIB, light blue), "Russian camp" (Stalag VIIIF, red) and the camp from the Franco-German War (dark blue)

Storage complex since 1871

A camp for 3,000 French prisoners of war was first set up in Lamsdorf in 1870/71 during the Franco-German War . During the First World War , there were mainly Russian, but also Polish, Romanian, Italian, Serbian, English, French, Belgian and Greek soldiers as prisoners. 6,969 graves testify to this in the nearby cemetery.

POW camp in World War II

During the Second World War one of the largest prisoner-of-war camp complexes of the Wehrmacht , or Stalags for short, was in Lamsdorf :

  • Stalag VIII B, so-called British camp
  • Stalag VIII F / 318, so-called Russian camp
  • Stalag 344

Around 400,000 prisoners, including 200,000 people with Soviet citizenship, are said to have passed through the camps. Today the memorial of the martyrdom of prisoners of war in Łambinowice indicates 42,000 dead .

The Red Army reached and liberated the camp (s) on March 17, 1945.

Internment / labor camp until 1946

After the Second World War, under Polish administration, the Polish District Administrator of the Powiat Niemodliński (formerly Falkenberg OS ) on the basis of Ordinance No. 88 of General Aleksander Zawadzki of June 18, 1945 near Łambinowice established the Lamsdorf internment camp (officially: Łambinowice Labor Camp , Polish Obóz Pracy w Łambinowicach ), in which German civilians were imprisoned. The largest group was made up of people who were interned because they were to be taken to western Germany. In Poland one spoke of " evacuation ", in Germany this procedure was called " expulsion ".

The best-known camp commandant was Czesław Gęborski , a 20-year-old militia sergeant. He was the camp manager for just under three months, followed by three others until the camp was closed in September / October 1946. Over 1,000 of the 9,000 interned Germans died because of inhumane conditions such as a shortage of medicines and food, as well as the torture and acts of violence instigated by camp commandant Czesław Gęborski . Gęborski was tried several times in Poland because of his arbitrariness and acts of violence.

October 4th 1945 and its processing

On October 4, 1945, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., a fire broke out. The cause is unclear. On the one hand, it is believed that the fire was started by German inmates to distract from an escape that had been prepared well in advance. Another version describes the fire as a provocation of the camp commandant Czesław Gęborski in order to have a pretext for the use of weapons. The fire caused a panic. Guards forced inmates to put out the fire even though there was no water. Gęborski had machine guns deployed, reports Edmund Nowak in his book "Shadows of Łambinowice".

On November 29, 1956, initial investigations were initiated against the former camp commandant. On June 18, 1957, Gęborski was temporarily arrested but not sentenced.

A historical review of the events around the camp was only possible after the fall of the Wall in the Eastern Bloc . Since February 27, 2005, there has been a case against him before the Voivodship Court in Wroclaw for the murder of 48 German inmates. The trial was discontinued because of the defendant's health problems. The former camp commandant died in July 2006.

Central museum

The history of these camps is documented in the Central Museum of Prisoners of War in Łambinowice / Opole (in Lamsdorf and Opole) - as is the post-war history of the camp.

Documentation about the processes in Lamsdorf

Bilingual board in the cemetery of the camp victims

The doctor Heinz Esser, who lived as a prisoner in the camp, had already published a brochure in 1949 about the "Hell of Lamsdorf". This later became the work “Die Hölle von Lamsdorf. Documentation about a Polish extermination camp ”(1st edition 1969). In Poland, the historian Edmund Nowak was only able to go public with the book "Cień Łambinowic" (German shadow of Łambinowice ) after the fall of the Wall . In 2003 he added his more detailed book “Camps in Opole Silesia in the System of Post-War Camps in Poland (1945–1950)”, in which other camps are discussed in addition to Lamsdorf (in Polish as early as 2002). - The museum in Opole is continuing to work on the scientific analysis of the relationship between Poles and Germans in Silesia. The branch in Łambinowice offers information, guided tours, films and seminars on the history of the camps.

Detail on the Memorial of the Martyrdom of Prisoners of War

The relationship between Germans and Poles in the face of Łambinowice

After Heinz Esser's publications on the Lamsdorf internment camp and the appeal to the Polish government on April 13, 1965 by the Oberschlesier Landsmannschaft , the situation between Germans and Poles was very tense. After the political change in 1989/90, a wooden cross was finally erected on the camp grounds to commemorate the internees and the victims. After being set on fire several times, it was made of iron. On September 16, 2002 the inauguration of the cemetery of the victims of the labor camp with Archbishop Alfons Nossol ( Diocese of Opole ) took place. The names of the victims of the Łambinowice labor camp were recorded on stone tablets. A stone tablet reads in German and Polish:

“Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
Odpuść nam nasze winy, jako i my odpuszczamy naszym winowajcom. "

References

literature

  • Edmund Nowak (ed.): Camp in Lamsdorf / Łambinowice (1870–1946). Opole 2009.
  • Edmund Nowak: Camp in Opole Silesia in the system of post-war camps in Poland (1945–1950). History and implications. Central Prisoner of War Museum Łambinowice-Opole, Opole 2003, ISBN 83-915154-5-1 ( reviews at perlentaucher.de ).
  • Edmund Nowak: The shadow of Łambinowice. Attempt to reconstruct the history of the labor camp in Łambinowice from 1945–1946. Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych w Łambinowicach, Opole 1994, ISBN 83-900241-2-8 ; 2nd edition Opole 2005, ISBN 83-922178-5-3 .
  • Helga Hirsch : The revenge of the victims. Germans in Polish camps 1944–1950. Rowohlt, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-87134-308-0 .
  • Heinz Esser: The hell of Lamsdorf. Documentation about a Polish extermination camp. Landsmannschaft der Oberschlesier - Bundesverband, Bonn 1969 (13th unchanged edition, ibid. 2000, ISBN 3-87466-015-X ), (here: excerpts from the book ).

Web links

Commons : Lamsdorf internment camp  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Inscription of the memorial cross on the memorial for the victims of the post-war camp: "GERMAN AND POLAND VICTIMS OF THE LAMSDORF CAMP IN THE YEARS 1945–1946" (also in Polish), inaugurated on September 30, 1995, see Edmund Nowak 2003 (literature), p 249: "a memorial in the shape of a Silesian atonement cross"
  2. ↑ Detailed documentation with many enlargeable pictures about the Lamsdorf shooting range, edited by Mariusz and Elzbieta Wozniak. February 2009 according to the book: “Łambinowice na dawnej pocztówce, Lamsdorf OS on the old postcard” ( memento of the original from April 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.niemodlin.org
  3. ↑ Edmund Nowak did extensive research on the number of those who perished in the Lamsdorf internment camp. In the second edition of his book "Shadows of ..." (see literature) he goes on to p. 133-146 on the "comparison of H. Esser's brochure with the court files". He writes: “The investigations and the court proceedings confirm a number of the facts described by H. Esser.” According to Esser, “8064 people passed through the camp, of which 6488 died in the camp or as a result of their stay in the camp. After these According to figures, the death rate among inmates would amount to 80%. ”Nowak's conclusion after careful consideration:“ Some descriptions [Esser's] should be viewed with caution and critically. They are not free from subjective and emotional elements, the source of which was and is in the personal experiences of people affected by the tragedy of our epoch. "
  4. ↑ The Polish historian Nowak writes in 2003: “There is no doubt that the decision to dismiss C. Gęborski was influenced to a certain extent by various institutions that gave very positive opinions.” / See: Camp in Opole Silesia ..., p 263.

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 ′ 22.6 "  N , 17 ° 33 ′ 41.7"  E