back...Nationalities of the crew of the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt

The Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt (PJVL) was a type of German concentration camp for Polish children operating in occupied Łódź from December 1942 to January 1945. A branch camp was opened in Dzierżązna in March 1943, which - like the main camp - existed until January 1945. The camp's commandant was Saxon-born Friedrich Camillo Ehrlich, head of the German Criminal Police (Kripo) in occupied Łódź from January 1942 to January 1945.

The PJVL's commanding staff of 10 was mostly recruited from Sicherheitspolizei (Kripo and Gestapo) officers and included Reichsdeutsche, i.e. Reich Germans (6 people) and Volksdeutsche (4 people). They were subordinate to the Gestapo and Kripo officers who performed administrative functions and were guards and overseers responsible for the prisoners. In these groups, 13 police officers (Gestapo and Kripo) and 103 guards and overseers have been identified. At least 86% of them were resettlers of German origin (Umsiedler), Volksdeutsche and Reich Germans (Reichsdeutsche), and 7.8% (9 people) were Poles (five of them were State Police officers from the period of the Second Republic employed by the Kripo during the occupation, one was an overseer and Gestapo interviewer at the same time, and three women who were ordered to work in the Dzierżązna branch and acted as overseers/workers there). The commanding staff of the PJVL, together with Gestapo and Kripo officers as well as guards and overseers, created the camp regime and was responsible, among other things, for the sanitary and living conditions there which were devastating for little prisoners.

There were also administrative employees, craftsmen, maintenance workers and agricultural labourers working for the camp. Fifty-six people were identified in this group, 86% of whom were of Polish origin (this subgroup included 22 agricultural and other workers employed in Dzierżązna). Most of them were ordered to work in the PJVL, as were 36 identified Jews from the Łódź ghetto who were forced to work on the construction of the main camp and were the crew of its workshops. Both these Poles and Jews worked together with little prisoners and had little influence on the conditions in the camp.