back...The camp for Polish children in Łódź was a concentration camp

The Main Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerian Crimes in Poland – Institute of National Remembrance is of the opinion that the camp for young Poles in Łódź should be treated as a concentration camp.

For several decades after the war, the classification of the German camp for Polish children on Przemysłowa Street in Łódź was disputed.  Some authors dealing with the history of the camp maintained that it was a labor camp. On the other hand, some researchers pointed out that it would be more appropriate to refer to it as a concentration camp. Former inmates also believe that it was used as a concentration camp, and they have asked that the issue be formally clarified by the authorities.

“Various decisions were made on this issue, but one of the most important was undoubtedly the confirmation of the camp's status as a concentration camp. One such testimony is a document obtained by Mr. Jerzy Jeżewicz, a former inmate of the camp on Przemysłowa Street,"explains Dr. Ireneusz Piotr Maj, director of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.

The Main Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerian Crimes in Poland – Institute of National Remembrance is of the opinion that the camp for young Poles in Łódź should be treated as a concentration camp. Similar decisions were also made on the other side of the "Iron Curtain" – in 1969 the camp was classified as a concentration camp by the International Search Agency, which is based in Bad Arolsen, West Germany, and is subordinate to the International Red Cross.

"In January 1970, the Bundestag, the lower house of the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, also passed a similar resolution. As a result of similar decisions, there is a consensus among German researchers that the camp on Przemysłowa Street had the status of a concentration camp,” explains Dr. Andrzej Janicki, Head of the Museum's Collections Department.

In the context of Western historical literature, the latest evidence of such categorization is the latest monograph on the camp published a few days ago, written by Johannes-Dieter Steinert and Polish researcher Katarzyna Person, entitled "Przemysłowa Concentration Camp: The Camp, the Children, the Trials."