Bogusław Tracz
Bogusław Tracz (ur. 1972), historyk, doktor nauk humanistycznych, pracownik Biura Badań Historycznych Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Katowicach, mieszka w Gliwicach.
Address: Oddziałowe Biuro Badań Historycznych Instytut Pamięci Narodowej
ul. Józefowska 102, 40-145 Katowice
Address: Oddziałowe Biuro Badań Historycznych Instytut Pamięci Narodowej
ul. Józefowska 102, 40-145 Katowice
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Während des Zweiten Weltkrieges bildete die Zwangsarbeit aus selbstverständlichen Gründen einen immer bedeutender werdenden Faktor der Wirtschaft. Nicht anders war die Lage in Oberschlesien, dessen industrielles Potential für die Kriegsbedürfnisse Deutschlands nach wie vor von Bedeutung verblieb. Auch hier erschienen die Arbeitskräften der „Fremdvölkischen“ und Kriegsgefangenen als unentbehrlich für den störungslosen Verlauf der industriellen Produktion bzw. der Kohlenförderung. In Gleiwitz, einer der wichtigsten Städten Oberschlesiens, sowie in der nächsten Umgebung der Stadt, arbeiteten zwangsweise mehrere Arbeitskommandos mit den sowjetischen und alliierten Kriegsgefangenen, „Ostarbeiter“ und Polen, es bestanden hier ebenso vier Nebenlager des KL Auschwitz (III). Zu Anfang des Jahres 1945 leisteten auf diesem Gebiet über 20. Tsd. Personen ihren Dienst für die oberschlesische Wirtschaft. Mit dem Ende des Krieges veränderte sich die Lage kaum. Immer wieder zählte die Zwangsarbeit in Oberschlesien – das sich nun im polnischen Staat befand – zu den gewichtigsten Elementen der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der Region. Da Oberschlesien für die polnische Verhältnisse ein industriell wohl am stärksten entwickeltes Gebiet darstellte, wurde das Land für das neue kommunistische Regime zum Augapfel. Doch die industrielle Tätigkeit könnte nicht so verlaufen, wie es die Behörden wünschten: teilweise weil die Sowjets die Maschinenparke im hohen Grade demontiert haben, teilweise weil es einfach an Arbeitskräfte mangelte. Einige Zehntausende der Einwohner haben die Sowjets in ihre Industriezentren zur Zwangsarbeit deportiert, mehrere Männer sind als Wehrmachtssoldaten im Krieg gefallen, in die Kriegsgefangenschaft geraten bzw. ins polnische Oberschlesien nicht zurückgekehrt. So entschlossen die polnischen Behörden, anfänglich lediglich die deutsche und „volksdeutsche“ Bevölkerung im Oberschlesien, ab Herbst 1945 auch die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen, die in sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenschaft verblieben, in Zahl von rund 40 Tsd. Personen, zur zwangsläufigen Arbeitsleistung nötigen. Das vorliegende Buch versucht anhand des Beispiels des Gleiwitzer Kohlenindustriedistriktes (Gliwickie Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Weglowego) detailliert die Entstehung im Jahre 1945, spätere Entwicklung und Auflösung im Jahre 1949 des lokalen Systems der Zwangsarbeit – vor allem der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen, aber auch den internierten deutschen Zivilisten – darzustellen. In fünf Zwangsarbeitslagern, die bei den Kohlenbergwerken „Makoszowy“, „Knurów“, „Sośnica“, „Bielszowice“, „Zabrze Wschód“ (in den heutigen Grenzen der Städten Gleiwitz, Ruda, Zabrze, Knurow) lokalisiert waren, weilte gleichzeitig durchschnittlich über 3 Tsd. Insassen, die an den erwähnten Gruben (hauptsächlich unter Tage) arbeiten mussten. Dieser Distrikt wurde ausgewählt, weil er in der Literatur (J. Kochanowski) als im gewissen Sinne „musterhafter“ Lagersystem fungierte (also wenig durch die Pathologien des Lagerlebens belastet). Man versuchte mit dieser Studie ein realitätsnahes Bild der Lager, ihrer Insassen und Wachmannschaft darzustellen, aber zugleich auch einen Ansporn zur weiteren Forschungen in dieser Thematik geben, die sich mit relativ geringem Interesse der Historiker in Polen (außer J. Kochanowski ist hier noch K. Miroszewski zu nennen), aber auch in Deutschland erfreut. Der Band schildert einerseits die normativen Regelungen, die die Existenz der Lager, die darin herrschenden Verhältnissen und das Funktionieren des Lagerschutzes und der Lagerverwaltung usw. bestimmten, andererseits aber auch die faktische Lebensbedingungen der Inhaftierten, die Formen ihrer Beschäftigungen unter und oben Tage, die Unfälle in der Arbeit, die Sterblichkeit und die Krankheiten. Weiter schildern die Autoren das alltägliche Leben der Kriegsgefangenen (Zivilisten waren in den GZPW-Lagern eine kaum vorhandene Gruppe), Freizeitbeschäftigungen, Selbstverwaltung, Wohnverhältnisse, Nährung, Kleidung, Seelsorge, Ausbrüche, Strafen, Briefwechsel und andere Aspekte des Lebens „hinter dem Stacheldraht“. Man versucht auch, kollektive Biographien zweier Personenkreisen zu erstellen: der Lagerinsassen und ihrer Wachmannschaft. Das Buch schließt mit einem zweiteiligen Quellenanhang: prosopografischen Tafeln mit den Informationen über den Kriegsgefangenen und einer Sammlung von Korrespondenz der Insassen, sowie mehreren anderen Dokumenten verschiedener Art, die das Bild des Lageralltags anschaulich machen sollten.
1945 was a turning - point for entire Europe. The post - war Europe entered entirely new stage due to such events as: military failure of the III Reich, conferences of the leaders of authoritative empires, mass migrations, re-housing and deportations, political and social transformations of the countries, which got under the domination of the victorious Red Army. For the duration of the respective period, radical transformations of political and nationalistic relations took place on the Upper Silesia. The offensive of the Red Army in January forced the German Army to back out; the victors’ encroachment to the city was followed by escape and evacuation of vast number of inhabitants. Since the front had become stabilized, the Military Headquarter of the Red Army took over the authority of the city and the district, and was the sole administrator of the invaded territory up till March 1945. As soon as the Polish administration had arrived to the city, in March 1945, the process of integration of the City with Poland was initiated. The opening balance - sheet was characterized by borders displacement, uncertain political situation, enormous biologic losses, war damages of properties and disorganization of general and economic administration. The premise of the transformations was the decision of victorious coalition to move the pre - war border of Republic of Poland to the west. This experiment had strong effect on the Germans, Silesians and Polish dwellers of Gliwice, moreover it influenced the inhabitants of the Eastern Borderlands of pre - war Poland who, in the second part of 1945, had been arriving to the City. Hence „The last year - the first year” exemplifies a turning - point in the history of Gliwice, for it had decisive sway on immediate change of the national, social and political character of the city.
The book is the result of many years of the research commenced by the author during historic studies on Jagiellonian University in Krakow and carried on after his graduation. The interpretation of the year 1945 in Gliwice was based on extensive source analysis. The author resorted to the archival sources kept in National Register Office in Katowice, National Register Office in Katowice subsidiary in Gliwice, Registry of Security Delegacy Office, National Reminiscence Institute Register Office in Katowice. The archival assignments were supplemented with press research based on the newspapers, which were published in 1945 such as: „Dziennik Zachodni” (Western Daily), „Gazeta Robotnicza” (Workers’ Newspaper), „Trybuna Slaska” (Silesian Tribune), „Trybuna Robotnicza” (Workers’ Tribune) and „Gosc Niedzielny” (Sunday Guest). Moreover, the author enriches the paper with the interviews he made with the eyewitnesses of the described events. Many of the availed documents and photos were drawn from private collections, thus for the first time they were laid bare. Additionally, records of the proceedings, statistical sources in print and elaborations concerning post - II war Gliwice and Upper Silesia were used in the book.
The book has chronological - problematical structure and is composed of seven chapters. The author referred to the most recent administrative division of the city as the starting - point to territorial
analysis. If necessary, he borrowed information from the events, which took place in Gliwice district, directly by urban agglomeration, or by analogy in nearby cities: Zabrze and Bytom. The last two, similarly to Gliwice were part of Germany before 1939. The chronological turn refers to the state of affairs in 1945 - from the moment the Red Army invaded the city in January 1945 to December of the very same year. Where necessary the events from the first half of the 1946 were shown.
So as to have better comprehension of the situation of Gliwice in 1945, one need to take into account the significance of the earliest history of the city and region, therefore the first chapter portrays the character of Gliwice against a background of the city history in Piast Country, subsequently in Saint Waclaw realm, Habsburg monarchy, than in the Prussian country, and eventually - more exhaustively described - in the III Reich. The subsequent chapters describe the period of The Red Army Military Headquarter supervision in the initial months of 1945, as well as intricate conditions of coexistence of Polish civil administration, German Antifascist Committee and Russian Military Authorities. The main subject matters analyzed in respective chapters are: the level of security, damages, the rate of ravages and robberies, homicides and violence of victorious soldiers. Besides, the book describes the early stage of political life in the reality of constructing the country dominated by striving for power communist, the process of the city polonization conducted by order of superior authority, often violently implemented, the national verification of hitherto inhabitants, the flow of Polish people ejected and displaced from previous Eastern Borderlands as well as re-housing of Germans. The presented issues still have crucial influence on the city image. They decided about the city distinctiveness in the second part of 20th century, image and the foundations of growth as well as traditions cultivated by contemporary dwellers of Gliwice. The issues under discussion are still topical, even though they were infrequently solidly put through historical analysis. The book is an expression of opinion in present-day debate about „natives” and „aliens” in Upper Silesia, the conditions and failures of the Polish nationalistic and integration policy after II World War, methods and means of ^reinforcing communal authority” and finally the stereotype of „Polish - Russian friendship”. Simultaneously, the essay destroys the typecast of „Pole - the Conqueror”, who was supposed to approach the western lands with joy and enthusiasm. The new dwellers, who were forced to leave previous houses, commonly found it hard to adjust themselves to new environment. The meeting of local contrast cultures was doomed to inspire antagonism. Strives of various backgrounds and consequences commonly took place between the settlers from the east and native Silesians. The book concludes its description at the turn of 1945, which according to the author is the final phase of the first stage of integration of Gliwice with the Polish country. The process of displacing the German inhabitants of the city behind the new Polish western borders was intensified and at the same time the new settlers were becoming more and more involved in social and political issues. New problems, characteristic for the whole country, escalated. Furthermore the difficulties, which entailed from the specific Upper Silesian character of the city, were still dissolved. The turn of the 1945 and the beginning of the 1946 introduced a new stage to the city.
The book is addressed to all people interested in the city and region history, as well as the complex nationalistic problems of Upper Silesia. The author’s intention is to make book not only attractive for scientist, he aims also to inspire discussion on the local history among previous and contemporary dwellers of the city, and what is more the book should be useful when obtaining knowledge about region history.
NKVD established the camp in Toszek some time at the end of May and the beginning of June 1945 in the premises of the former mental asylum. The camp was known as "tyurma-lager Tost" - i.e. "Toszek prison and labour camp", though the Soviets used the German name of the place. At the beginning they put about 800 interned civilians there, mainly from Lower Silesia, particularly from Wroclaw, and from Upper Silesia. The latter group included people who were previously kept in a prison in Bytom. Meanwhile, from mid-June until mid-July, three transports of over one thousand people each were sent from Bautzen to Toszek. Altogether, there were 3654 prisoners brought from Bautzen to Toszek. There were about 4.5 thousand prisoners placed in that camp at the same time, mainly the inhabitants of Saxony, also from Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Sudeten- land, Lower and Upper Silesia. They were arrested on various charges, some were former Nazi party o^cials, but for others the reasons for internment cannot be determined. All the more so, given that the prisoners were never indicted for anything in particular. Most of the interned were middle-aged and older males (40-60 years of age); there were about 60 women and a pretty large group of minors, too. Some account state that there were also about 30-40 Poles - the Home Army soldiers - kept in the camp.
The conditions of work in the camp were very harsh. The prisoners would sleep in hospital rooms and in the chapel, on the ^oor. For the first weeks they could not wash themselves and they were deprived of even the basic personal hygiene. In order to get rid of louse, their heads were shaved and kerosene was rubbed into them. Each day they were woken up at 5.00 in the morning. After the morning calls and serving meals, the so called work commands were given and the prisoners were sent to work. They would mainly work on the surrounding felds where they would remove weeds, collect cereal and cut trees in the woods. Specialists were used to work in the water and gas station. Some labour groups were sent to other towns e.g. to collect coal from sunken barges in the area of Kozle. The work lasted until 8.00 p.m. The daily food ratio was composed of one loaf of bread per four prisoners, watery low-calorie soup and half a litre of warm liquid in the morning and in the evening. The meals did not satisfy the needs of the prisoners, especially those who performed hard physical work. Low calorific value and lack of vitamins resulted in abrupt weakening of their bodies, diseases and ultimately deaths of the people kept in the camp.
The prisoners were tortured in many ways. The guards would beat them with rubber hoses flled with sand and with wooden truncheons. Other painful forms of harassment included all kinds for "plays", such as e.g. putting a mouse in one's trousers and tying the legs, pouring water in the shoes, forcing one to eat live frogs. Another form of tormenting the prisoners was organising races in the basement of the facilities. A prisoner would sit on the back of another prisoner being on all fours. The guards would rush such dyads with whips. The race would last until the prisoner dropped from exhaustion. Women were better treated in the camp than men. They worked in the kitchen, in the laundry and in the lazaretto or as servants for the Soviet oncers' families. The guards would not beat them nor abuse them.
Horrible living and sanitary conditions, low-calorie food, overworking, physical and mental abuse of the prisoners and finally insu^cient medical care led to exhaustion of their bodies and resulted in a number of incidents of typhus, dysentery, tuberculosis, erysipelas, phlegmon and skin diseases. Camp doctors did not have enough measures to help the patients. Every week there were more and more deaths.
The corpses would be taken away by a wagon and buried in mass tombs located outside the camp: in the Jewish cemetery and in the sand mine (today: Wielowiejska Street). The corpses were buried naked. They were put in layers and covered with lime and soil.
The camp functioned until about 25th of November 1945. Then, some of the prisoners who were still alive - about one thousand people - were transported to the NKVD camp in Grudziqdz and some were left free. Very few prisoners were kept in Toszek until the end of December 1945. It is certain that the number of people who died in the camp is over 1.3 thousand as the list of the deceased with this number of names is preserved. However, it is assumed that the real number could be as high as three thousand deaths.
After 1945 a veil was drawn over the events that took place in the labour camp in To- szek. The families of the deceased, living in Germany, tried to look for any traces of their kin. After the breakthrough of 1989 the inhabitants of Toszek also reclaimed remembrance of the crimes committed in the camp. There was a meeting of former prisoners and the kin of the victims with the inhabitants of Toszek. On the 23rd of November 1991 a cross with a bilingual plate was unveiled near the place of the mass tomb of the victims. The event was attended by the inhabitants and by guests from Germany. On the 28th of June 1991 the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Katowice initiated an investigation on "deprivation of liberty of German citizens, combined with extreme cruelty" in the period form January to September 1945 in the NKVD camp in Toszek. In course of the investigation a huge amount of evidence was collected. Based on the findings the investigators could ascertain that NKVD oncers in Toszek committed crimes against humanity and the crime of homicide. It was also established that the goal of the camp was "to turn people into slaves, and there were no criminal nor investigation procedures carried out against the prisoners". However, it was impossible to find those who were guilty of the crimes committed in the camp, therefore in November 1998 the proceedings were discontinued. At that time a new monument was erected in the place of the mass tomb, and there are regular ceremonies commemorating the victims organised there. In the very same year of 1998, Sybille Kragel - the daughter of one of the camp victims - and Siegfried Petschel who was imprisoned in Toszek when he was 15 years old, published the first book about the camp in German, which is a mine of knowledge on the subject. This work is the first book on the NKVD Tost prison and labour camp in Polish.