Exhibition V

Work and starvation. A history of a branch of the German concentration camp for Polish children

The main camp and its branch

The youngest children, regardless of gender, were held in the north-western section of the camp, which was designated for girls. Some of them were selected for Germanisation. The older prisoners, those who had reached the age of eight, were forced to perform arduous labour, primarily in the camp workshops. This work lasted from early morning until late afternoon. In the evening, the children were also required to perform additional tasks, such as cleaning.

Disobedience, or work that was deemed too slow or inadequate, was severely punished by beatings or by reducing their already starvation rations. Although the camp in Przemysłowa Street was subordinate to the German Criminal Police (Kripo), and its commandant was Camillo Ehrlich, the head of the Kripo in occupied Łódź, the forced labour of the imprisoned children was organisationally integrated into the operations of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate within the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office.

Almost concurrently with the organisation of the children's camp in Łódź, in November and December 1942, initial steps were taken to establish a branch of the camp. The village of Dzierżązna, on the outskirts of Zgierz, was initially considered as a potential location for the main camp. Ultimately, in March 1943, it was here that the agricultural branch of the German concentration camp for Polish children was opened, bearing the name Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt Arbeitsbetrieb “Dzierzazna” über Biala.

Branch management

From its inception, the manager of the Dzierżązna branch of the camp in Przemysłowa Street was Heinrich Fuge. Fuge arrived in German-occupied Łódź from the Reich. He was a functionary in the German Criminal Police (Kripo) and initially served as the first deputy to the commandant of the camp in Przemysłowa Street, Camillo Ehrlich.

In the second half of March 1943, he took up permanent residence in a confiscated manor house in Dzierżązna. He initially lived there with his first wife and mother-in-law, and, after becoming a widower in 1944, quickly remarried.

Heinrich Fuge was perfectly comfortable in his role as “overlord” of the sub-camp in Dzierżązna. He remained there until 17 January 1945, when he fled in fear of the advancing Soviet troops.

After his escape, he worked for a further three months at a camp for German youths located in the Lower Saxon town of Moringen.

In Allied-occupied Germany, he was apprehended and subjected to a verification procedure.

He settled in West Germany, where he worked first as a police officer and then as a tax advisor in Hamburg. He was never brought to justice.

Camp regime

The conduct (Betragen) of each girl incarcerated in the Dzierżązna branch was meticulously documented in the camp diary. Physical punishments were employed for insubordination, or even the mere suspicion thereof. Food rations were withdrawn or reduced, the children's heads were shaved, and the girls were confined to the cellars, which also functioned as solitary confinement cells for the inmates. These punishments (Strafen) were also meticulously recorded in the diary.

“I remember rats in the cellar and a lot of water. I sat in that room all night, terrified, but I had to serve my punishment.”

The Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Interview report of witness Maria Jaskulska née Delebis, 29 May 1971, ref. Ld 503/106, i. 7. k. 86 v.

Particularly brutal and humiliating was the punishment of flogging, inflicted upon the young female prisoners during roll calls. These roll calls were conducted under the personal supervision of Heinrich Fuge, who not only encouraged the female guards under his command to beat the girls more severely, but frequently took up the whip himself. 

Violence against the girls extended beyond the formal punishment system. Fuge would beat them in fits of temper, and his first wife, Elsa, was also prone to extreme violence towards the girls. Her death in February 1944, exacerbated by alcohol abuse, was greeted with relief by the young inmates.

Despite this brutal regime, the girls dreaded the prospect of returning to the main camp in Przemysłowa Street. The conditions there were far worse.

Forced labour

The girls forced to work in the sub-camp participated in the production of food intended for the camp in Przemysłowa Street, although the fruits of their labour primarily benefited the camp staff. The children imprisoned in the sub-camp received only the scraps.

The Dzierżązna sub-camp for Polish children served as a vital component in the operation of the main camp in Łódź.

The tasks assigned to the girls were varied. Initially, they were engaged in heavy agricultural work, sometimes assisted by adult helpers. From dawn until dusk, the female prisoners were compelled to work in the fields, in the garden, tending livestock or even fishing by hand from the camp pond – even on cold autumn days. As a result, many former prisoners suffered from rheumatism later in life. During the winter months, the girls hemmed garments or crafted straw mats. Throughout the year, they were also required to perform cleaning duties on the sub-camp premises.

Each girl's work record was meticulously documented in the camp diary, and harsh punishments were inflicted on any who were deemed reluctant.

Prisoners

Maria Orlicka. Following her arrest by the Germans during a round-up, fourteen-year-old Maria was incarcerated in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Her parents were informed of their daughter's alleged execution, as a consequence of which Maria's father reportedly suffered a heart attack. However, the girl had not been executed; instead, she was transferred to the camp for Polish children in Łódź, and subsequently moved to its sub-camp in Dzierżązna. Severely ill, Maria was eventually released from the camp in November 1944.

In the latter part of March 1943, the initial transport of ten female inmates arrived at the Dzierżązna sub-camp of the German facility for Polish children. Further transports, each carrying twenty girls, followed shortly thereafter. By 1944, it was anticipated that the number of young female prisoners transferred from the main camp to the Dzierżązna branch would reach 140. In total, it is estimated that up to 200 girls originating “from Przemysłowa” may have been imprisoned in this sub-camp. The period of German occupation cast a particularly dark shadow over the lives of each of these children.

Jadwiga Heigelmann. Eleven-year-old Jadwiga was interned in the camp in Przemysłowa Street alongside her twin brother, Tadeusz. They were consigned to the camp as a result of their mother's refusal to sign the Volksliste. Their mother was subsequently murdered in a German concentration camp. At the Przemysłowa facility, the children were separated – Jadwiga was despatched to the Dzierżązna sub-camp. The siblings survived the war. The twins were only reunited with their father, who, as a Polish soldier, had found himself in England. He lived there under the mistaken impression that his entire family had perished.

Urszula Grenda. Ten-year-old Urszula was seized along with her mother and siblings. This occurred after her father and two eldest brothers had already been taken into custody. Her father was murdered in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and the brothers disappeared without trace. The girl's mother and two older sisters were imprisoned in Auschwitz, where Urszula's eighteen-year-old sister, Irena, perished. Together with her two surviving brothers, Eugeniusz and Jerzy, and her younger sister Domicela, the girl was transported to the camp in Łódź. Upon reaching the age of sixteen, Eugeniusz was deported to adult concentration camps in the interior of Germany, where he survived until the end of the war. Domicela was moved to a camp in Potulice. It was not until two years after the cessation of hostilities that her mother located her. Urszula and Jerzy remained incarcerated in the camp in Przemysłowa Street, where they witnessed the escape of the German guards. Earlier, Urszula had also been compelled to work in the Dzierżązna sub-camp.

Augustyna Borowiec. Following her capture by the Germans during a round-up, fourteen-year-old Augustyna was imprisoned in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. From there, she was sent to a concentration camp for Polish children in Łódź. She was subsequently transferred to the Dzierżązna sub-camp, where she ultimately experienced liberation.

Elżbieta Konarska. Following her arrest at the age of ten, along with her five-year-old sister Alina, in connection with their father's underground resistance activities. The girls' father was murdered at Fort VII in Poznań, and their mother also died after her arrest. After initial imprisonment in the camp in Przemysłowa Street, Elżbieta was temporarily moved to the Dzierżązna sub-camp. Eventually, the sisters were separated when Alina was transferred to the camp in Potulice. The girls were not reunited until after the war concluded.

Commemoration

The memory of the girls interned in a branch of the concentration camp for Polish children has always persisted within the local community. However, it was only through the efforts of local history enthusiasts reaching out to former female inmates of the sub-camp, and through the examination of archives and photographs documenting its operation, that it became feasible to organise various forms of remembrance for the harrowing events of the Second World War. In 1972, a plaque was affixed to the now-disused school building in Dzierżązna – one of the locations where the prisoners were held during the sub-camp's operation – as a tribute to the child victims of this facility.

Thanks to the collection of pertinent artefacts, it became possible to establish an Institute of National Remembrance within the same school building in Dzierżązna, featuring an exhibition detailing the history of the sub-camp. Since 2002, the Institute of National Remembrance has been operating within the Jan Kasiński Primary School in Biała. Exhibitions on the history of the camp's sub-camp are also presented by the Community Centre for Culture, Sports, Tourism and Recreation of the Zgierz Municipality, situated within a part of the former Arbeitsbetrieb „Dzierzazna” über Biala.