back...We have found documents confirming the identity of Edward August – a criminal from the camp on Przemysłowa Street
"Some Germans, SS men from the camp staff, working in leading positions, maintained constant terror – they beat and tortured prisoners. I have in mind here the notorious August (...). He would beat the prisoners not only at work, but he would come after the assembly, order you to lie down or assume a certain position and he would torture you," reads the testimony of Stefan Marczewski, a former prisoner of the camp on Przemysłowa Street. The profile of Edward August (a camp guard) and the latest findings of the Museum's historians were presented at a press conference on 23 March 2023.
Edward August was born on 9 April 1909 in Łódź as the son of a German, Juliusz August (born on 6 June 1867) and the half-German, half-Polish Michalina née Schuster (born on 11.02.1881). He completed three years of primary school. He did his military service in the 9th Infantry Regiment of the Legions in Zamość (1932-1933). In 1934, he was sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment by the Bydgoszcz Magistrate Court for theft.
In 1939, he took part in the defence of Poland, during which he was taken prisoner by the Germans. A year later, he signed the Volkslist. During the occupation, he worked at a rag processing plant on Pomorska Street, and later at R. Geyer's factory in the wool pulling department.
From April 1943, he was employed as a guard at the German concentration camp for Polish children on Przemysłowa Street, where he was known for his exceptional ruthlessness and cruelty.
"At work we were beaten and kicked. August was particularly brutal. When we stopped tired from work, he would say to us: you typhuses, and he would start beating us, driving us to work" recalled Jan Kuczyński, a former inmate of the camp on Przemysłowa Street.
According to witnesses who were imprisoned in the German concentration camp for Polish children in Łódź, it is clear that Edward August was responsible for the brutal abuse of young prisoners.
"SS-man August was on duty on Christmas Eve 1943 and at about 10 p.m., being drunk and accompanied by one civilian and one uniformed German, he made a wake-up call and checked the order in the room (...). He said that one of the boys was dirty. Then all three of them beat that boy with sticks and bullwhips until he lost consciousness," said Henryk Chrzanowski.
Edward August was remembered by the children as a ruthless torturer who was constantly under the influence of alcohol.
After the war, he was brought before the Special Criminal Court for the District Court of Appeal in Warsaw, based in Łódź. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to death, which was carried out on 28 January 1946.
