“You, you and you are German from now on”

Places like resettlement camps or the German concentration camp for Polish children on Przemysłowa street in Łódź constituted the first step in the Germanisation procedure. Children were preselected during special roll-calls and transferred to further, more detailed examinations. In occupied Łódź, these were carried out, among others, in the “race camp” at Sporna street. One of the children subjected to such examinations was a prisoner of the camp on Przemysłowa street, Teofil Tratowski, who described the selection process years later.

"The civilians, along with the Lagerführer, started examining us. They told us to take off our hats. In front of some of the children, they stopped for a little longer, talked something in German (...) and after we were checked up, the Lagerleiter took us to the warehouse (...) and there we changed into civilian clothes. (…) After dressing up, we were brought to a photographer. The photographer took photographs and fingerprints. (…) We were checked again for exact personal details and our appearance. We were led out through the main gate, and not far away, about one kilometre, there was a wooden fence at the foot of a small hill. (…) We walked to a building that had a sign saying Rase Zidlung Amt Licmanstat [Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt Litzmannstadt].”

Source of quotation: an account by Teofil Tratowski, AIPN GK 165/379, t. 16, k. 79-80.

Photo 1. Inspection by the Germanisation Commission in the camp on Przemysłowa Street (Institute of National Remembrance).

Selected Germanisation centres for Polish children

Germanisation took place in a number of special centres dedicated to this purpose. One of their tasks was to prepare documents for children to “certify” their new identity. Among the numerous post-war accounts of deported people, three centres of this type are mentioned: in Bruczków, in Kalisz and in Połczyn-Zdrój.

The figure shows the locations of selected Germanisation centres during the Second World War.

1. Bruckau (Bruczków) – District Children's Home (Gaukinderheim);
   
   
2. Kalisch (Kalisz) – District Children's Home (Gaukinderheim);
   
   
3. Bad Polzin (Połczyn-Zdrój) – Lebensborn centre.
   
   

Source of figure: a shot from the film “Skradziona tożsamość” (Stolen Identity), directed by Katarzyna Pełka-Wolsztajn, 2023.

Gaukinderheim Kalisch (Kalisz)

The District Children's Home in Kalisz (Gaukinderheim Kalisch) was established in autumn 1942. It was situated in the building of the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth at Śródmiejska 43. On 19 September 1942, the sisters were taken by the Germans to a labour camp in Bojanowo. At one time, the “Gaukinderheim Kalisch” housed 60 to 80 children between the ages of 2 and 14. They were beaten for speaking Polish. In the Kalisz centre, fourteen-year-old Zygmunt Światłowski lost his life after being pushed by headmistress Johanna Zander onto unsecured electrical wires.

“After a few days, I was taken way to Kalisz with some of the children. I stayed there for several months and was also subjected to qualifying examinations by another group of German soldiers. They placed us at a convent or vicarage next to a small church. The conditions were very harsh, a record was kept by the German guardians on our progress. They forbade us from speaking Polish. There, too, because of my resistance to speak German, I suffered a lot. I also tried to escape.”

Source of quotation: an account by Irena Michalska, APŁ, Association of Polish Children Germanised by the Nazi Regime, based in Łódź, ref. 39/2381/0/7, k. 212.

“Another way of breaking us for any, even small, offence was to put us in the so-called “chimney.” It was a recess from which soot was removed, 60 cm high and 50 cm × 50 cm wide, where you could neither stand nor sit, but had to stand in a hunched position for up to 48 hours without food or water. When they dragged a young offender out the chimney, the child was often unconscious, shocked, soiled with soot, vomit and faeces.”

Source of quotation: an account by Janusz Bukorzyski, APŁ, Association of Polish Children Germanised by the Nazi Regime, based in Łódź, ref. 39/2381/0/6, k. 196.

Photo 1. A girl from Gaukinderheim Kalisch (National Archive in Kalisz).

Perpetrators

Heinrich Himmler was born on 7 October 1900 in Munich and died on 23 May 1945 in Lüneburg.

He was responsible for executing the Third Reich’s Germanisation policy. He was the initiator of the Lebensborn association that was founded in 1935 and was involved in the transfer of Polish children to German families during World War II. In 1939, appointed Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood (Reichskomissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums), whose mission included the “Germanisation” of occupied Western Poland. From 1940, he coordinated the work of the SS Main Office for Race and Settlement (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt), which conducted racial examinations in subordinate establishments. “All good blood – and this is the first objective you must bear in mind – wherever you encounter it in the East, you can either conquer it or kill it (…) Wherever you encounter good blood, you must conquer it for Germany, or make sure it ceases to exist. Under no circumstances should it remain on the side of our enemies.”

Speech by Heinrich Himmler, September 1942, after: R. Hrabar, “Lebensborn” czyli źródło życia, Katowice 1976, p. 24.

Photo 1. Heinrich Himmler, 1940 r. (National Digital Archive / public domain).

Perpetrators

Inge Viermetz was born on 7 March 1908 in Aschaffenburg and died on 23 April 1997 in Vaterstetten. Since 1923, she worked as a stenographer for several companies in Krefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia). Since 1937, she belonged to the National Socialist People's Welfare (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt). Through the German employment office, she secured a job in 1938 at the Lebensborn headquarters in Munich, where she worked successively in: the Department of Admissions to Centres, the Department of Care and Adoption, the Department of War Orphans, while from September 1941, she was in charge of the Main Department A “Work.” She was responsible for sending Polish children selected for Germanisation from the “Reichsgau Wartheland” to the Reich. Since December 1942, as a Lebensborn representative for northern France, she was in charge of the “Ardennes” Children's Home in Wégimont. A year later, she finished working at Lebensborn. She was arrested on 30 July 1945 and released in January the following year. Arrested again in January 1947, she was tried in the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, Case #8 (the so-called “RuSHA Case”) on 10 October. On 10 March 1948, she was acquitted due to insufficient evidence.

Photo 1. Inge Viermetz during the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, Case #8, 28 January 1948 (public domain).

Patron of robbed children

As early as in 1945, the Polish Red Cross began an arduous search for children transferred to the Third Reich and children of Polish forced labourers. In 1947, however, the new Polish authorities created the position of Government Plenipotentiary for the Revindication of Polish Children. A young lawyer from Silesia, Roman Hrabar, was chosen for this role.

“I was born on 28 March 1909 in Kolomyia (…). After studying law for four years at the Lviv and Krakow Universities and receiving a master’s degree, I completed a one-year judge training, after which, having attended a short attorney’s training, I went on to serve in the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Poland in Warsaw. (…) I was unemployed for a long time during the occupation (…) and then worked until the outbreak of the uprising, as a trainee with Att. Dominik Pogłodziński in Warsaw. After the Warsaw Uprising, I moved to Kraków, where I worked in a transport company until I was arrested by the Gestapo. After the liberation of Kraków and Silesia, I immediately went to Katowice, where I reported to the Provincial Office (…). As of 1 October 1945, I assumed the role of Head of Department (of Labour and Social Security). (…) During the occupation, I secretly completed my doctoral thesis in commercial law under the supervision of Professor Jan Namitkiewicz. I speak French, English and German.”

Source of quotation: the résumé of Roman Hrabar of 1946 r., AAN, General Plenipotentiary for Revindication, ref. 315, k. 8.

Photo 1. A photograph of Roman Hrabar of 1946 (Archive New Files).

These are our children

“(…) children [from Poland] account for about 90% of the total number of children sought and found. In fact, Child Search [a division of the Red Cross International Tracing Service for the recovery of abducted children] works exclusively for Polish cases.”

Source of quotation: Roman Hrabar's remarks on the cancelling of the revindication campaign in Germany, AAN, Ministry of Labour and Social Security in Warsaw, ref. 373, k. 4.

“(…) A major achievement is the finding of a larger group of children in the German establishment ‘Schloss Hubertus’ near Würzburg. There was a long struggle over this case, as the German party claimed adamantly that all the children in the establishment were of German origin. Based on documents brought by me from Silesia on 7/5/47, 25 children were identified, the majority of whom had families residing in Poland. The recovery of the children from the establishment on 10/5/47 took place in the presence of the press, and articles about the event appeared in American newspapers (…).”

Source of quotation: an excerpt from Roman Hrabar's report of 26/05/1947, AAN, General Plenipotentiary for Revindication, ref. 317, k. 69.

Photo 1. Diagram of the search for children in Germany (Archive of New Files).

Alodia and Daria Witaszek

Their father, Franciszek Witaszek, an eminent doctor and microbiologist, headed the “Union of Retaliation” of the Poznań District of the Union of Armed Struggle during the occupation. He and a group of collaborators were captured and executed. The doctor's family also became a target for the Germans. Already in March 1943, Dr Witaszek's wife, Halina, was arrested and imprisoned in the Auschwitz and then in the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. In September 1943, five-year-old Alodia and four-year-old Daria – two of his five children who the family had failed to hide – were subjected to Germanisation.

“In February 1943, we had to come with our guardians to the SS office (…). We were examined with regard to the race and suitability for Germanisation (…). Our guardians had to leave us there and we were taken to a transit camp on Główna street in Poznań.”

Source of quotation: an account by Alodia Witaszek-Napierała in the film “Skradziona tożsamość” (Stolen Identity), directed by Katarzyna Pełka-Wolsztajn, 2023.

After being taken from Poznań, the girls were first put in a camp on Przemysłowa street in Łódź, and then successively in two Germanisation centres.

“Already in the second half of October (…) the daughters were transferred to SS-Kinderheim in Kalisz. In the first days of November, my brother found them here (…). Both girls were in SS-Heim in Kalisz until mid-January 1944, where they were partially germanised. My brother was forbidden to visit them. (…) From Kalisz, they were both taken to SS-Heim in Połczyn. (…) They continued to be germanised. By the time they left this establishment, they could only speak German (…).”

Source of quotation: an account by Halina Witaszek, AIPN GK 165/379, t. 17, k. 292.

The children were separated and adopted by two families. Alodia ended up near Berlin in the Dahl family in April 1944, while Daria was taken to Austria and stayed with the Schoeln family. In 1947, Halina Witaszek turned to Roman Hrabar with a request to find her daughters. After several months, both girls were found. Alodia returned to Poland in November 1947, while Daria almost a month later.

Photo 1. Alodia and Daria Witaszek (private archive of Alodia Witaszek-Napierała’s family).

Roman Roszatowski / Hermann Lüdeking

Roman Roszatowski was born on 20 January 1936. During the Second World War, he stayed in an orphanage on Karolewska street (at that time – Albrecht-Thaer-Straße 1). In 1942, he was transported to the District Children's Home in Bruczków (Gaukinderheim Bruckau), then to the District Children's Home in Kalisz (Gaukinderheim Kalisch), and finally to the “Sunny Meadow” (Sonnenwiese) Children's Home in Kohren-Sahlis (Saxony). From the last establishment, he was adopted in December 1942 by Maria Lüdeking, an activist in the Association of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) living in Lemgo (Rhineland-North Westphalia). She had lost her adult son, who fought in occupied Greece. After the Second World War, Hermann stayed in Germany and only found out about his true descent after the passing of his adoptive parents, that is almost thirty years after his arrival in Lemgo.

“At the beginning of December, Himmler, who was the author of this entire system (…) bought this house that had previously been an old people's home and a nursing home, making it into another Lebensborn home. I was put there. From there, I was taken away by my foster mother (…) the head then said: ‘Yes, Mrs. Lüdeking, you can choose one boy for yourself out of these two children and take him.’ This happened within five minutes. ‘You only need to sign here.’ She signed. She took me by the hand and we drove through Nuremberg to Lemgo in North Rhine-Westphalia.”

Source of quotation: an account by Hermann Lüdeking in the film “Skradziona tożsamość” (Stolen Identity) directed by Katarzyna Pełka-Wolszatajn, 2023.

Photo 1. Hermann Lüdeking (a shot from the film produced by the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism entitled “Skradziona tożsamość” [Stolen Identity] directed by Katarzyna Pełka-Wolsztajn, 2023).