We, the people of Mosina. Past and present.
Mosina during the occupation
“they took mum away in the night”
Mosina is one of the oldest towns in Greater Poland. German troops entered the town on
9 September 1939. The first public execution took place there on 20 October 1939 when, as part of Operation Tannenberg, 15 residents were shot after a sham trial. It is estimated that nearly 60 families were displaced from the town during the war, and over five hundred people were arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps. Many of them perished. The German occupation of the town ended on 25 January 1945 with the arrival of the Red Army.
The maelstrom of war did not spare the youngest. One of the most painful stories of that time is that of the several dozen children from Mosina arrested in September 1943, whose fates were mostly intertwined with the camp for Polish children in Łódź.
Source of quote:
testimony of Bohdan Kończak, b. 1935 (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism ).
Photo sources:
map of Mosina and the surrounding area (National Library),
Moschin Marktplatz, Hotel Silberstein (National Library),
northern part of the market square in Mosina (Poznań University Library),
monument on 20 Października Square in Mosina and the Mosina coat of arms, photo: Andrzej Janicki (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
The Mosina case
“I don't know why my parents were arrested”
In early 1943, a report by Hermann Beukenbusch – head of the Gendarmerie Post in Mosina – came to light. This document prompted an investigation aimed at uncovering a secret sabotage organisation in the town. Mass arrests of Mosina residents took place between January and April. The Nazi operation primarily targeted the local intelligentsia – teachers, lawyers, doctors and midwives. The residents were accused not only of illegal underground activities but also of killing the local “German elite” and animals belonging to Germans.
A similar investigation was underway in Poznań concerning members of a conspiracy group led by Dr Franciszek Witaszek, head of the Retaliation Union, a branch of the Union of Armed Struggle, who faced identical charges. Based on verdicts issued by Summary Courts, those who were exposed were sentenced to death or sent to concentration camps.
In September 1943, a “reprisal operation” – another wave of arrests – took place in Mosina. Its victims were the families of those who had been previously accused and killed or deported. This time, the Germans spared no one – as part of “the Mosina case”, children were also taken from their homes.
Source of quote: Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Domicela Janaszek née Grenda, b. 1970, S.36.2019.Zn, t. VI, k. 1187.
Photo sources:
southern part of the market square in Mosina (Poznań University Library),
market square in Mosina, view of the western side (Poznań University Library),
market square in Mosina in 1941 (Mosina Art Gallery),
municipal office building in Mosina (Poznań University Library).
Lost youth
teenage prisoners
As a result of the Nazis’ ruthless policies, teenagers over the age of 16 were treated as adults. The young people of Mosina, on the threshold of adulthood, spent their best years in prison cells or behind the camp's barbed wire. For some, their lives ended before they had truly begun.
The teenagers from Mosina arrested in 1943 who were aged 16 or over included:
Stanisława Adamczyk (aged 17) died on 21.04.1944 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Bożena Cieślewicz (aged 16) survived
Zofia Figlerowicz (aged 17) survived
Józef Hoppe (aged 16) went missing after deportation from Fort VII
Stanisław Jankowski (aged 17) died in May 1944 in Gusen Concentration Camp
Łucja Kozłecka (aged 16) died on 2.01.1944 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Bogumił Kukucki (aged 17) survived
Felicja Kukucka (aged 16) died on 12.01.1944 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Jarosław Litke (aged 16) survived
Irena Muszyńska (aged 16) survived
Witalis Namysł (aged 16) survived
Feliks Pawlak (aged 17) survived
Rajmund Papież (aged 17) survived
Irena Śliwińska (aged 16) died on 22.12.1943 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Irena Tomowiak (aged 16) died on 16.06.1944 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Ludwika Urbanek (aged 16) survived
Edward Vogt (aged 17) survived
Photo sources:
primary school pupils in Mosina collecting recyclable materials to raise money for the National Defence Fund (National Digital Archives),
railway station in Mosina, 1940 (Mosina Art Gallery),
market square in Mosina, view of the eastern side (Poznań University Library),
monument on 20 Października Square in Mosina, photo: Andrzej Janicki (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
The arrests
A night that cannot be forgotten
“The operation in Mosina is ongoing. Tonight, 156 people were arrested. A further 60 children are to be arrested today.”
Report from wachtmeister Hermann Beukenbusch of the Gendarmerie Post in Mosina to the District Gendarmerie Headquarters in Śrem, 10 September 1943.
“Being separated from my parents and left alone at home was dreadful.”
Kazimierz Cieślewicz (aged 13 at the time of his arrest)
“…the moment my mother was taken from me… I couldn't calm down for a long time. As she was saying goodbye, she was pushed and kicked until she fell flat on her face, and I wasn't allowed to turn around and call out for my mum.”
Czesław Jarnot (aged 13 at the time of his arrest)
As part of the reprisal operation, the fathers were taken into captivity in the first half of 1943. Most of the children were arrested under dramatic circumstances on Friday, 10 September of that year. At night, their mothers, adult siblings and other close relatives were taken away. In the morning, the children were led to the auditorium in Mosina. Cardboard signs with their names, surnames and dates of birth were hung around their necks. From the Mosina market square, the young prisoners were transported to the Gestapo headquarters at the Soldiers' House in Poznań, and then to the Zachodni railway station.
Most of them arrived in Łódź (then Litzmannstadt) by passenger train on the night of 10-11 September 1943. From Łódź Kaliska station, they were taken by lorry to the camp for Polish children in Przemysłowa Street. Once the camp gates closed behind them, they became prisoners with the status of “polnischen Terroristenkinder” (children of Polish terrorists). They formed a group of political prisoners, even though the youngest among them – Marek Zakrzewski – was just 2 years and 3 months old.
Source of quotes:
Położenie ludności polskiej w kraju Warty 1939-1945. Dokumenty niemieckie, selected and translated by Cz. Łuczak, Poznań 1987, p. 115,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Kazimierz Cieślewicz to Józef Witkowski, 1969, GK 165/379, t. 2, k. 99,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Czesław Jarnot to Józef Witkowski, 1969, GK 165/379, t. 5, k. 62.
Photo sources:
transport of children to the camp in Przemysłowa Street (Institute of National Remembrance),
photograph from the file of Kazimierz Cieślewicz (Mosina Art Gallery),
roll call in the camp (Institute of National Remembrance),
roll call for new prisoners (Institute of National Remembrance),
Kazimierz Cieślewicz before his arrest (Pinkowski family collection).
The children of Mosina
List of children and youths under 16 from the Mosina municipality arrested in 1943:
Donata Adamczyk (aged 13)
Zenon Bolewski (aged 12)
Kazimierz Cieślewicz (aged 13)
Sisters Maria (aged 15), Józefa (aged 14) and Czesława (aged 11) Czechowska
Siblings Leon (aged 14) and Maria (aged 5) Gierszol
Siblings Eugeniusz (aged 15), Jerzy (aged 14), Urszula (aged 10) and Domicela (aged 6) Grenda
Twins Jadwiga and Tadeusz Heigelmann (aged 11)
Siblings Teresa (aged 14) and Aleksander (aged 12) Iwicki
Czesław Jarnot (aged 13)
Gabriela Jeżewicz (aged 14) and her nephews Edward (aged 4) and Jerzy (aged 2 years, 10 months)
Maciej Jurdzyński (aged 7)
Jan Kałan (aged 10)
Siblings Eugenia (aged 15), Zdzisław (aged 14) and Janina (1 year, 6 months) Kaźmierczak
Brothers Bohdan (aged 8) and Ireneusz (aged 6) Kończak
Henryk Kordylewski (aged 11)
Jan Koźlecki (aged 13)
Wacław Krzan (aged 15)
Cecylia Kukucka (aged 13)
Sisters Zofia (2 years, 6 months) and Bogumiła (1 year) Kurzawa
Siblings Janina (aged 13), Jan (aged 12), Józef (aged 10), Joanna (aged 4) and Kazimiera (6 months) Maciejewski
Siblings Aleksandra (aged 5) and Zbigniew (1 year, 7 months) Michalak
Siblings Jerzy (aged 15), Gertruda (aged 13) and Edward (aged 6) Nowak
Władysław Pachojka (aged 15)
Siblings Jerzy (aged 10), Wojciech (aged 8) and Gertruda (2 years, 10 months) Papież
Edward Piotrowski (aged 14)
Eugeniusz Prętki (aged 14)
Siblings Wiesława (aged 10), Jerzy (aged 7), Wojciech (aged 3) and Szczęsny (1 year, 6 months) Skibiński
Genowefa Stróżyńska (aged 3)
Siblings Zofia (aged 14) and Kazimierz (aged 11) Urbanek
Józef Wośkowiak (aged 15)
Siblings Danuta (aged 4) and Marek (2 years, 3 months) Zakrzewski
Photo sources:
commemorative plaque in Mosina, photo: Andrzej Janicki (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Ireneusz and Bohdan Kończak with their mother (Kończak family collection),
Kazimierz Cieślewicz (Pinkowski family collection),
Edward Nowak (Hetmański family collection),
Gertruda Papież before her arrest (Marcinkowski family collection).
Alone, hungry and cold.
On the way to places of isolation
“The camp was a terrible sight; it did not bode well. It was enclosed by a high plank wall topped with barbed wire, watched over by German guards. When we arrived, it was already after supper, so we got nothing to eat or drink; we hadn’t been given anything on the journey either. […] Three days after being brought to the labour camp, we were put into camp uniforms. Our belongings were taken from us, our hair was cut short, we were given shirts and underwear made of grey-and-white striped canvas, dresses with short sleeves and a jacket made of grey sacking, wooden shoes covered with white fabric with pieces of leather sewn on the toes and heels, and foot wraps to keep our feet warm.”
Jadwiga Heigelmann (aged 11 at the time of her arrest)
After dark on the night of 10-11 September 1943, most of the arrested children from Mosina arrived at the camp in Przemysłowa Street. They spent the rest of the night feeling afraid and alone, hungry and frozen with cold.
They joined their peers from the town who were already imprisoned there – Donata Adamczyk, Henryk Kordylewski, Wacław Krzan, Edward Piotrowski and Józef Wośkowiak. The five youngest – Kazimiera Maciejewska (6 months), Bogumiła Kurzawa (1 year), Janina Kaźmierska (1 year, 6 months), Szczęsny Skibiński (1 year, 6 months) and Zbigniew Michalak (1 year, 7 months) – were sent to an orphanage in Poznań’s Śródka district.
Source of quote:
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Jadwiga Starosta née Heigelmann to Józef Witkowski, 1968, GK 165/379, t. 4, k. 3-3v (contemporary record).
Photo sources:
photograph from the file of 11-year-old Jadwiga Heigelmann (Mosina Art Gallery),
camp letter from Bohdan Kończak to Mrs Mazurkiewicz, 1943 (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism),
group of prisoners in the camp in Przemysłowa Street (Institute of National Remembrance),
reverse of Jerzy Nowak's record card (Mosina Art Gallery),
camp roll call with commandant Camillo Ehrlich (Institute of National Remembrance).
Together in the transport – separated in the camp
“I was taken with my [twin] brother. The only times we met were coming out of the latrines, and then we would only say to each other: ‘you should live, and I should die,’ and my brother would say the same back, ‘no, you should live’. Those were the words of 11-year-old children who had no chance of living in such conditions.”
Jadwiga Heigelmann (aged 11 at the time of her arrest)
“I remember the brothers were separated, my sister was separated because she was 4, and I was on my own. I also remember our first night trying to sleep, on bunk beds, a pillow stuffed with straw and one dirty blanket, there was no mattress, just bare boards. We couldn't get warm all night.”
Janina Maciejewska (aged 13 at the time of her arrest)
“I would see my brothers when they were passing by. I know that the younger brother [was] in the camp hospital; the girls who worked there told me. I didn't recognise my brother at the time because he had a scar on his neck.”
Wiesława Skibińska (aged 10 at the time of her arrest)
The one thing that most helped people survive the maelstrom of war was family bonds. This was also true in the Łódź camp. The story of one pair of siblings from Mosina, the twins Jadwiga and Tadeusz Heigelmann, shows how separation was an exceptionally difficult part of daily life for Polish children during the occupation. The two were separated immediately after their mother's arrest. They stayed with their grandmothers, separately. When they were arrested, they met briefly in the same transport, but the camp separated them again. After the war, they ended up with different aunts who raised them. They grew up and lived their lives apart.
Source of quotes (contemporary record):
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Jadwiga Starosta née Heigelmann to Józef Witkowski, 1968, GK 165/379, t. 4, k. 4v,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Janina Jastrzębska née Maciejewska to Józef Witkowski, GK 165/379, 19.
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Wiesława Skutecka née Skibińska, 1968, S.36.2019.ZN, t. II, k. 324.
Photo sources:
photographs from the files of: 13-year-old Janina Maciejewska, 11-year-old Czesława Czechowska, 14-year-old Józefa Czechowska, 10-year-old Jan Kałan, 12-year-old Jan Maciejewski (Mosina Art Gallery),
roll call for new prisoners (Institute of National Remembrance).
Treated like criminals
“When I saw that bed with its bare boards, without a mattress […], I started to cry and cling to my older sister. I was simply seeking refuge with someone older. The supervisor greeted us with shouting and orders, it was something terrible. […] For the first few days I didn't eat the dinner, it was disgusting. All sorts of things were floating in the soup – worms and other things like that. After a few days, you had to start eating anything just to avoid starving to death. The hunger was terrible, they gave us very little food, and we had to work.”
Czesława Czechowska (aged 11 at the time of her arrest)
“It meant you slept on a bare bunk bed, in a windowless room with a reduced food ration. After leaving the punishment cell, you went to the so-called Haus V, where discipline was stricter. This stricter discipline meant you were forbidden from entering the camp grounds, any guard could beat you for no reason, and you were used for the hardest labour. Children punished in this way had special bands painted in red oil paint on their sleeves, similar ones on their trouser legs, and transverse stripes on the front and back.”
Jerzy Papież (aged 10 at the time of his arrest)
Before being placed in such “hauses”, the children underwent a registration procedure.
They had their photographs taken, full-face and in profile, their fingerprints were taken, record cards were created with their identification data and a description of the prisoner, they were assigned numbers, their hair was cut (boys’ heads were shaved, girls’ hair was cut very short), all their personal belongings were taken, and they received camp clothing and equipment:
a bowl, a cup and a spoon.
Source of quotes:
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Czesława Ochocka née Czechowska to Józef Witkowski, 1968, GK 165/379, t. 2, k. 140-140v (contemporary record),
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Jerzy Papież, 1976, S.36.2019.Zn, t. VI, k. 1019.
Photo sources:
record card and file photograph of 15-year-old Jerzy Nowak (Mosina Art Gallery),
camp roll call (Institute of National Remembrance),
prisoners queuing for the camp kitchen (Institute of National Remembrance),
a meal in the camp (Institute of National Remembrance).
Slave labour from the age of 7
“I was assigned to the youngest group of children. This group consisted of about 40 of them. Boys and girls were together. Compared to the older children, our food was better, we even got milk, coffee with milk, and sometimes rolls for breakfast. The beds were bunk beds with blankets, but the blankets had no covers, and the mattresses were made of paper. There were six of the youngest – 3-year-olds. There was one bed for them.”
Ireneusz Kończak (aged 6 at the time of his arrest)
“I spent six months in the girls' camp, where the only activity was working in the camp garden, plus two days in the ghetto fields harvesting vegetables, and learning songs and picking lice from our clothes. In the winter, they would make us take off our trousers first and lay them on the snow, and then our jackets. We would stand like that for about an hour in the freezing cold in our long johns and shirts, waiting for the lice to die, but they turned out to be hardier than us.”
Wojciech Papież (aged 8 at the time of his arrest)
In peacetime, a 7-year-old child goes to school, writing their first letters and numbers in notebooks. In the camp, Polish children were denied an education and forced to work for the Third Reich. The camp regime was based on slave labour that was beyond a child’s strength. In spring and summer, the working day began at 5 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. No prisoner escaped being struck with a rawhide. The most defiant were sent to the worst place of all – the punishment cell.
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Ireneusz Kończak, 1968, S.36.2019.ZN, t. II, k. 297,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Wojciech Papież to Józef Witkowski, GK 165/379, t. 12, k. 81v.
Photo sources:
photograph from the file of 8-year-old Wojciech Papież (Mosina Art Gallery),
two photographs of prisoners at work in the workshops (Institute of National Remembrance),
prisoners on their way to work (Institute of National Remembrance).
Daily Life in the Mädchenlager– “we were subjected to harsh discipline”
“[…] Then we were taken to a building within the Mädchenlager, shown where we would sleep, and so began the daily routine of camp life […] I was very frightened and cried constantly. […] At first, I worked peeling potatoes, and then I was assigned to making artificial flowers […] At one of the daily morning roll calls, I was selected to work in the sewing workshop, darning clothes […] Every morning we marched in pairs to the sewing room. There were about six to eight of girls working there, all from Mosina and one from Poznań.”
Cecylia Kukucka (aged 13 at the time of her arrest)
The girls were separated from the boys – along with children under 8, they lived in a designated, fenced-off area in the north-western part of the camp. Their daily life consisted of hunger, fear, cold and hard labour, mainly in the kitchen, laundry, sewing room and garden. Even if they performed their duties well, they lived under the constant threat of all kinds of violence from the camp staff. Those girls who were physically strong enough were sent to the camp’s agricultural sub-camp in the village of Dzierżązna for the spring and summer months.
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Zofia Nowak née Urbanek, 1970, s. 36.2019. ZN, t. VII, k. 1220,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Cecylia Czuchwicka née Kukucka to Józef Witkowski, 1967, GK 165/379, t. 7 cz. 2, k. 261-262.
Photo sources:
female prisoners during a meal in the girls' section of the camp (Museum of Independence Traditions),
roll call of female prisoners in the camp (Institute of National Remembrance),
photograph from the file of 10-year-old Urszula Grenda (Mosina Art Gallery),
staff and female prisoners in the camp kitchen (Museum of Independence Traditions).
Dzierżązna – hard labour on the manor
“In the autumn of 1944, I was taken to the manor house and worked there as a housemaid. There were four girls in the house. […] We had to clean every day, each of us had her assigned work, and we also helped with the laundry. The owner of the estate lived there with just his wife. They often had guests. We were also obliged to serve the guests.”
Józefa Czechowska (aged 14 at the time of her arrest)
According to a name list of prisoners, 14 girls from the Mosina transport were sent to work in the sub-camp at Dzierżązna in the spring of 1944. Several of them, including Teresa Iwicka, Józefa Czechowska and Janina Maciejewska, remained there until the camp was closed in January 1945.
Although the living conditions, particularly in terms of access to food, were considered somewhat better than in the Przemysłowa Street camp, the daily life of the female prisoners was invariably marked by exhaustion and the overexertion of their young people. From early morning until late evening, the girls performed hard physical labour in the fields, gardens, forests or with farm animals. They were constantly exposed to violence and corporal punishment from the camp manager, Heinrich Fuge, and his family, who lived with him in the manor house.
Source of quote:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Józefa Stawna née Czechowska, 1968, S.36.2009.Zn, t. II, k. 294 (contemporary record).
Photo sources:
plaque of the sub-camp for Polish children in Dzierżązna (Museum of Independence Traditions),
group photograph of female prisoners in Dzierżązna (Mosina Art Gallery),
three photographs – manor house in Dzierżązna, female prisoners in front of the kitchen in Dzierżązna, female prisoners at work (Magdalena Blanka Hauke’s collection).
Health and disease in the camp
“apparently there was some kind of doctor”
“The medical care included a female doctor whom you were reluctant to see because she beat patients with a rawhide. They said she had no qualifications at all […] In the camp, I first fell ill with typhus and was in the infirmary.
I didn't receive any medicine and was fed the same in sickness as before, potatoes in their peelings, swede soup, and in the morning we got a 2 kg loaf of bread for 6 people, and in the evening a 2 kg loaf for 8 people, plus black, bitter coffee.”
Zenon Bolewski (aged 12 at the time of his arrest)
Children who fell ill in the camp did not have the right conditions to recover. Access to medicine was limited, and prisoners who were not working due to illness received only half of their allotted food ration.
Poor sanitation, exhausting labour and malnutrition meant that the children faced a wide range of health problems. Among the prisoners from Mosina, the most frequently mentioned diseases were typhus, inflammations of the eye and scabies. They also suffered from colds, fevers and diarrhoea, as well as wounds from beatings and poor working conditions. The only doctor employed at the camp was Leon Urbański. The testimonies of witnesses also mention Emil Vogl – a Jewish doctor from the Łódź ghetto.
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Jan Koźlecki, 1971, S.36.2019.Zn, t. VIII, k. 1579,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Zenon Bolewski, 1972, S.36.2019.Zn, t. VIII, k. 1572.
Photo sources:
Ausweis Isolde Beyer (Museum of Independence Traditions),
roll call of girls in front of the infirmary building (Museum of Independence Traditions),
shots from the film “Litzmannstadt – gehenna polskich dzieci.Doktor Emil Vogl – na ratunek dzieciom[Litzmannstadt – Gehenna of Polish children. Doctor Emil Vogl – to the rescue of children], 2024, dir. K. Pełka-Wolsztajn (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism),
excerpt from the testimony of Leon Urbański, 1945 (Institute of National Remembrance).
Germanisation
“During the time I was in the camp, they were taking children for examination of their racial characteristics. They wanted to take me, among others, but as soon as I said I was from the Mosina transport, they rejected me.”
Kazimierz Cieślewicz (aged 13 at the time of his arrest)
“I know that the Germans took children who were suitable to the Rassenamt. I was on that list too. Those girls never returned to the camp. On two occasions, they took about ten girls each time. […] Two Witaszek sisters from Poznań also never came back.”
Urszula Grenda (aged 10 at the time of her arrest)
Of the children imprisoned in the camp, the youngest were examined for racial suitability. Those who, in the Germans’ opinion, met the required criteria were placed in Lebensborn homes or Germanisation centres, including those in Ludwikowo and Puszczykowo. The theme of selection based on “race” also appears in the testimonies of former prisoners from the Mosina transport. The children were aware that they could be sent to Germanisation centres, but most avoided being deported to an unknown fate, the reason for being “struck off” the list being their place of origin. A different fate befell Alodia and Daria Witaszek – the daughters of Dr Franciszek Witaszek, who faced similar accusations to the residents of Mosina.
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Kazimierz Cieślewicz, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 309 (contemporary record),
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Urszula Susz née Grenda, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 289.
Photo sources:
building of the former racial camp, now Bł. Anastazego Pankiewicza 15 Street (Institute of National Remembrance),
Alodia and Daria Witaszek (Alodia Witaszek-Napierała family collection),
Daria Witaszek with her German adoptive parents (Wojtowicz family collection),
photograph from the file of 10-year-old Urszula Grenda (Mosina Art Gallery).
From Litzmannstadt to Lebrechtsdorf
transports of children to Potulice
In July 1944, the children’s block was officially liquidated. The young prisoners from Łódź were transported to Potulice – a German resettlement camp operating since 1941 in the Gdańsk-West Prussia district, which had previously been a sub-camp of Stutthof concentration camp.
By order of the Reich Security Main Office dated 21 July 1944, the transport to Potulice included 19 underage prisoners from Mosina, described as “children of terrorists”.
“From Łódź I was taken to Potulice, but I don't remember the journey itself. I know that in Potulice we lived in barracks. As I recall, no one looked after us.”
Maria Gierszol (aged 5 at the time of her arrest)
“At 4 in the morning, we were loaded onto a horse-drawn cart and taken to Łódź Kaliska station. […] We travelled to Potulice by train with the windows covered. […] We were placed in wooden barracks. […] The children were driven out of the barracks during the day and we spent the whole day outside, regardless of the weather.”
Ireneusz Kończak (aged 6 at the time of his arrest)
“In Potulice, there was practically no supervision; the food was poor, we basically just wandered around the camp until the liberation.”
Aleksandra Michalak (aged 5 at the time of her arrest)
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Maria Gierszol, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 305,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Ireneusz Kończak, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 297,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Aleksandra Nowacka née Michalak, 1970, S.36.2019.Zn t. VII, k. 1427.
Photo sources:
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Order of the Reich Security Main Office dated 31.07.1944 concerning the transport of children to the camp in Potulice (Institute of National Remembrance),
two photographs of children aged 12-14 working in workshops at the Potulice camp (Hall of Memory at the "Children of Potulice" School and Nursery Complex in Potulice),
War cemetery of the victims of German Nazi terror in Potulice, photo: Jolanta Sowińska-Gogacz (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
It’s not the end, it’s a stage…
Leaving the Przemysłowa Street camp did not mean the end of their wartime ordeal. Boys and girls who had turned 16 were sent to other camps – to Żabikowo, Ravensbrück or Gross-Rosen.
“From Żabikowo, I was deported to the Ravensbrück camp. I worked very hard there. We were filling in a lake and carrying bricks. I became very ill there. After the liberation, the Red Cross took the seriously ill children to Sweden.”
Maria Czechowska (aged 15 at the time of her arrest)
“As soon as I arrived in Ravensbrück, I saw women in white aprons carrying what were probably corpses covered with sheets on stretchers. […] We were evacuated to Neubrandenburg, and from there to Czechoslovakia.”
Eugenia Kaźmierczak (aged 15 at the time of her arrest)
“From the camp in Łódź, I was transported to Poznań, to Żabikowo, and from Żabikowo to Gross-Rosen. […] I worked in the quarries. This was in 1944. I was then transported to Dora and then to Bergen-Belsen. In May 1945, I was liberated by American troops.”
Eugeniusz Grenda (aged 15 at the time of his arrest)
Source of quotes:
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Maria Jessa née Czechowska, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 313,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Eugeniusz Grenda, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 292,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Eugenia Krzywicka née Kaźmierczak, 1966, S.36.2019.Zn, t. I, k. 181 (contemporary record).
Photo sources:
portrait photograph of Eugenia Kaźmierczak (Mosina Art Gallery),
portrait photograph of Jerzy Nowak (Museum of Independence Traditions),
photograph from the file of Eugeniusz Grenda (Mosina Art Gallery),
the grounds of the Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica, photo: Michał Hankiewicz (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism),
the camp in Żabikowo in 1945, photo: Władysław Kintz (Museum of Martyrdom in Żabikowo).
“…we set off on foot, because the trains weren’t running yet, and we were in a hurry to get home”
“We ran breathlessly, winding through the streets to get as far away from the camp as possible. Soon we split up and there were eight of us children from Mosina left in our group. […] We had nowhere to go. We wanted to cry, but none of us thought of going back to the camp for the night.”
The first days of freedom in the memories of Cecylia Kukucka, then aged 15.
“The liberation was the most unexpected moment for me. After leaving the camp gates, some older men took care of us. […] I got home on a Red Cross transport. And here again, tragedy.
I only found my brother Edmund, who had recently returned from a camp. The rest had perished in Oświęcim.”
In 1945, Jan Kałan was 12 years old – he spent the rest of his childhood in a children's home.
“After returning from the camp I came back to an empty place. The neighbours looked at me reluctantly.
I wandered the streets and they wouldn't give me any food, […] A few days later I went to my grandmother's.”
14-year-old Czesław Jarnot waited until September 1945 for his mother to return from the camp and from treatment in Sweden.
“When I returned from the camp, I was 4 years old. My aunt, my murdered mother’s sister, brought me. I was afraid to enter the house; when I saw the cot, I screamed that it was a cage and I wouldn't sleep in it. Beetroot or potato peelings suited my tastes; before I got used to home life, it caused my aunt a lot of difficulty.”
Zofia Kurzawa was one of the youngest prisoners.
Source of quotes (contemporary record):
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Czesława Ochocka née Czechowska to Józef Witkowski, 1968, GK 165/379, t. 2, k. 140v,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Czesława Jarnota to Józef Witkowski, Mosina 1969, GK 165/379, t. 5, k. 62,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Jan Kałan to Józef Witkowski, Mosina 1968, GK 165/379, t. 6, k. 31v-32,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Cecylia Czuchwicka née Kukucka to Józef Witkowski, 1967, GK 165/379, t. 7, k. 263-264,
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Zofia Koralewska née Kurzawa to Józef Witkowski, 1967, GK 165/379, t. 7, k. 347.
Photo sources:
identity tags of Teresa and Urszula Kurzawa, photo: Jolanta Sowińska-Gogacz (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism),
photograph of the Papież family (Papież family collection),
post-war photograph, second from right Wojciech Papież (Papież family collection),
Mosina, photo: Jolanta Sowińska-Gogacz (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Future and present
“Tell me, my little girl, if you met a fairy in the woods and she asked you what you wanted to come true – give me three answers. I answered that first, I would like to do very well at school, second, that I would have long plaits, and third, I answered, I would like my daddy and mummy to be alive. Then I burst into tears.”
Joanna Maciejewska was 6 years old in 1945.
“In 1946, I met my mother in Germany. In Poznań, I met my sisters Domicela and the older one, Urszula, and my brother Jerzy… After the war, I had to take care of my family.”
Eugeniusz Grenda entered adulthood with the burden of his concentration camp experiences and
a sense of responsibility for his family.
Childhood dreams were confronted with the harsh post-war reality. Almost all the children from Mosina under the age of 15 who were arrested in 1943 as part of the reprisal operation were orphans or had lost one parent after the war. They were raised by distant family or in children's homes. Before reaching adulthood, they had to take on adult roles. They became guardians to their younger siblings, as the burden of supporting the family fell on them. As adults, but still young at 30-40 years old, they applied for disability pensions. From the 1960s, they fought for compensation and veterans' benefits.
In their adult lives, their shared camp past brought them together again. They gave testimony of German crimes during prosecutorial proceedings and court trials. They participated in reunions and state ceremonies commemorating the Children of War.
Source of quotes:
The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Letter from Joanna Piotrowska née Maciejewska to Józef Witkowski, 165/397, t. 9, k. 23,
Branch Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, Interview report of witness Eugeniusz Grenda, 1968, S.36.2019.Zn, t. II, k. 290.
Photo sources:
survivors from the Przemysłowa Street camp with children from Łódź, September 2023 – Urszula Grenda-Susz, Jerzy Jeżewicz, Bohdan Kończak, Joanna Maciejewska-Piotrowska, Wojciech Skibiński, Alodia Witaszek-Napierała, photo: Maciej Kiński (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism
education – research – collections – remembrance
“Today, only a handful of us are still alive. What happened behind the camp barbed wires will remain with us forever. We cannot forget it, discard it or explain it away. We lost our families, our childhood and our joy for life. But we are alive. We are still alive and we remember.
We should all remember. For our future generations, our children and their children, so that this never happens again. So that the world knows what man is capable of. And what the world must be protected from.”
The Museum began its work on 1 June 2021. We are all co-creating it, as it would be hard to find a Polish family that did not suffer during the Second World War as a result of the criminal policies of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Among the survivors of the Przemysłowa Street camp, whose stories shaped this message, were people from Mosina who played a vital role in establishing the Museum. The institution's mission is to commemorate the youngest victims of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes – children who were murdered, orphaned, imprisoned, sentenced to exile or displaced, stripped of their dignity and robbed of their childhood.
Source of quote:
Excerpt from a letter from the Survivors of the Przemysłowa Street camp, 2021 (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism ).
Photo sources:
Survivors' Reunion, 2024,
the Museum's temporary headquarters, Łódź, Piotrkowska 90 Street,
Monument to the Memory of Polish Children, Victims of German Camps in and around Łódź, by Maciej Jagodziński-Jagenmeer, Święty Wojciech Cemetery in Łódź,
the Museum's exhibition spaces
sculpture from the Kinder Muster series, designed by Marcin Mielczarek,
Monument to the Martyrdom of Children in Łódź (The Broken Heart), by Jadwiga Janus.
Photographers: Renata Borowska and Hin Lok Tsang (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Let us remember
10 September
National Day of Polish Children of War
The Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism was one of the initiators behind the establishment of the National Day of Polish Children of War. The choice of date was no coincidence – it takes our memories back to 10 September 1943 and the arrest of the children from Mosina. The youngest residents of Mosina became a symbol of the wartime fate of children, just like the camp in Przemysłowa Street. On this day, the past meets the present.
The words LET US REMEMBER, so often spoken during anniversary ceremonies, holds
a message directed especially at the younger generation, as the memory of wartime experiences is fundamental to building identity, particularly in our current, unstable times. Secondly, it is
a capacious term that carries the story of the youths and children who fell victim to two totalitarianism systems – Nazism and Sovietism. Of those kidnapped for Germanisation, displaced, sentenced to exile, forced into slave labour, confined in ghettos, prisons and camps. Of those who were deprived of their health and dignity, who were murdered.
It is an unfinished story. Their lives were accompanied by trauma, often by orphanhood and health problems resulting from their wartime experiences. Despite these ordeals, they built their adult lives, of which we, the people of today, are also a part.
Photo sources:
Title exhibition boards Byliśmy tylko dziećmi.Gehenna polskich dzieci w czasie II wojny światowej i po jej zakończeniu[We were just children.Gehenna of Polish children during and after World War II]by Anna Dudek, Michał Hankiewicz, with graphic design by Aneta Kosin,
Monument to the Martyrdom of Children in Łódź,
commemoration of the National Day of Polish Children of War,
sculpture from the Kinder Muster series, designed by Marcin Mielczarek.
Photographer: Renata Borowska (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Exhibition board authors: Paulina Fronczak-Chruściel, Agnieszka Fronczek-Kwarta
Exhibition design author: Renata Borowska
Text editor: Jolanta Sowińska-Gogacz
On the title board:
photograph from the file of Kazimierz Cieślewicz and Donata Adamczyk (Mosina Art Gallery),
Survivors' Reunion, 2021, photo: RUN Artur Rusek (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism),
Family photograph of Wojciech Skibiński (Skibiński family collection),
Monument on 20 Października Square in Mosina, photo: Andrzej Janicki (Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism).
Publisher: Museum of Polish Children – victims of totalitarianism The German Nazi Camp for Polish Children in Łódź (1942–1945).