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{{Infobox concentration camp
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[[File:Poniatowa - KL Lublin Majdanek - WC Toebbens & Co.jpg|thumb|340px|right|[[Forced labor]] camp at [[Poniatowa]], the workshop of WC Toebbens]]
| name = Poniatowa
| image = Poniatowa - KL Lublin Majdanek - WC Toebbens & Co.jpg
| image size =
⚫
| caption = [[Forced labor]] camp at [[Poniatowa]], the workshop of WC Toebbens
| alt =
| location map =
| map alt =
| map caption =
| latd = 51.139267 | latNS = N
| longd= 22.993140 | longEW= E
| coordinates type = type:landmark
| coordinates display = inline,title_region:PL
| other names = ''[[Stalag]] 359 Poniatowa''
| known for =
| location = [[Poniatowa]], [[Poland]]
| built by =
| operated by =
| original use =
| construction =
| in operation = {{Start date|1941}}-{{End date|1943}}
| gas chambers =
| prisoner type=
| inmates =
| killed =
| liberated by =
| notable inmates = [[Israel Shahak]]
| notable books =
}}

{{The Holocaust}}
{{The Holocaust}}
'''Poniatowa concentration camp''' in the town of [[Poniatowa]] in [[occupied Poland]], {{convert|36|km}} west of [[Lublin]], was an expanded and redesigned ''[[Schutzstaffel|SS]]'' ''Stammlager'' established in the latter half of 1941, initially, to hold Soviet prisoners of war following [[Operation Barbarossa]]. It was known at that time as the ''[[Stalag]] 359 Poniatowa''. By {{nobreak|mid-1942}}, about 20,000 Soviet [[POW]]s had perished there from hunger, disease and executions. The camp soon expanded to provide [[slave labour]] supporting the German war effort, with workshops set up on the grounds of a prewar Polish telecommunications equipment factory founded in the late 1930s.<ref name="MK">Michał Kaźmierczak, [http://www.poniatowa.szm.sk/ Poniatowa unofficial site] with links to History and Gallery of photographs. Retrieved April 19, 2013. Location of Poniatowa factory: {{coord|51.173172|22.069564|format=dms|type:landmark|display=inline}}</ref> Poniatowa became part of the [[Majdanek concentration camp]] system of subcamps in the early autumn of 1943.<ref name=USHMM-Poniatowa>{{cite web | url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005190 | title=Forced labor-camps in District Lublin: Budzyn, Trawniki, Poniatowa, Krasnik, Pulawy, Airstrip and Lipowa camps | publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | work=Holocaust Encyclopedia: Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp | accessdate=April 19, 2013}}</ref> The wholesale massacre of its mostly Jewish workforce took place during the ''[[Aktion Erntefest]]'', thus concluding the [[Operation Reinhard]] in [[General Government]].<ref name="Rosenberg">{{cite web | url=http://history1900s.about.com/cs/persecution/a/erntefest.htm | title=Aktion Erntefest | publisher=About.com Education | work=20th Century History | accessdate=2013-04-16 | author=Jennifer Rosenberg}}</ref><ref name="holocaustresearchproject">{{cite web | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/Aktion%20Erntefest%20Orders.html | title=Aktion Erntefest | publisher=Holocaust Research Project.org | work=Interrogation of Sporrenberg – National Archives Kew WO 208/4673 | year=2007 | accessdate=2013-04-17}}</ref>
'''Poniatowa concentration camp''' in the town of [[Poniatowa]] in [[occupied Poland]], {{convert|36|km}} west of [[Lublin]], was an expanded and redesigned ''[[Schutzstaffel|SS]]'' ''Stammlager'' established in the latter half of 1941, initially, to hold Soviet prisoners of war following [[Operation Barbarossa]]. It was known at that time as the ''[[Stalag]] 359 Poniatowa''. By {{nobreak|mid-1942}}, about 20,000 Soviet [[POW]]s had perished there from hunger, disease and executions. The camp soon expanded to provide [[slave labour]] supporting the German war effort, with workshops set up on the grounds of a prewar Polish telecommunications equipment factory founded in the late 1930s.<ref name="MK">Michał Kaźmierczak, [http://www.poniatowa.szm.sk/ Poniatowa unofficial site] with links to History and Gallery of photographs. Retrieved April 19, 2013. Location of Poniatowa factory: {{coord|51.173172|22.069564|format=dms|type:landmark|display=inline}}</ref> Poniatowa became part of the [[Majdanek concentration camp]] system of subcamps in the early autumn of 1943.<ref name=USHMM-Poniatowa>{{cite web | url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005190 | title=Forced labor-camps in District Lublin: Budzyn, Trawniki, Poniatowa, Krasnik, Pulawy, Airstrip and Lipowa camps | publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | work=Holocaust Encyclopedia: Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp | accessdate=April 19, 2013}}</ref> The wholesale massacre of its mostly Jewish workforce took place during the ''[[Aktion Erntefest]]'', thus concluding the [[Operation Reinhard]] in [[General Government]].<ref name="Rosenberg">{{cite web | url=http://history1900s.about.com/cs/persecution/a/erntefest.htm | title=Aktion Erntefest | publisher=About.com Education | work=20th Century History | accessdate=2013-04-16 | author=Jennifer Rosenberg}}</ref><ref name="holocaustresearchproject">{{cite web | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/Aktion%20Erntefest%20Orders.html | title=Aktion Erntefest | publisher=Holocaust Research Project.org | work=Interrogation of Sporrenberg – National Archives Kew WO 208/4673 | year=2007 | accessdate=2013-04-17}}</ref>
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*[http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec1/bel040.html Belzec: Stepping Stone to Genocide, Sources of Manpower]
*[http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec1/bel040.html Belzec: Stepping Stone to Genocide, Sources of Manpower]


{{Coord|51.139267|22.993140|display=title|format=dms|region:PL_type:landmark}}
{{SS organizations}}
{{SS organizations}}


Revision as of 21:18, 7 May 2013

Poniatowa
Concentration camp
File:Poniatowa - KL Lublin Majdanek - WC Toebbens & Co.jpg
Forced labor camp at Poniatowa, the workshop of WC Toebbens
Other namesStalag 359 Poniatowa
LocationPoniatowa, Poland
Operational1941 (1941)-1943 (1943)
Notable inmatesIsrael Shahak

Poniatowa concentration camp in the town of Poniatowa in occupied Poland, 36 kilometres (22 mi) west of Lublin, was an expanded and redesigned SS Stammlager established in the latter half of 1941, initially, to hold Soviet prisoners of war following Operation Barbarossa. It was known at that time as the Stalag 359 Poniatowa. By mid-1942, about 20,000 Soviet POWs had perished there from hunger, disease and executions. The camp soon expanded to provide slave labour supporting the German war effort, with workshops set up on the grounds of a prewar Polish telecommunications equipment factory founded in the late 1930s.[1] Poniatowa became part of the Majdanek concentration camp system of subcamps in the early autumn of 1943.[2] The wholesale massacre of its mostly Jewish workforce took place during the Aktion Erntefest, thus concluding the Operation Reinhard in General Government.[3][4]

Camp operation

In October 1942 Amon Göth–soon to become the commandant of Kraków-Płaszów–visited Poniatowa with a blueprint for redevelopment. The construction of a brand new forced labor camp was assigned to Erwin Lambert. The camp was meant to supply workers for the Walter Többens army-uniform factory moving in from the Warsaw Ghetto, where at least 254,000 Jews were sent to Treblinka extermination camp in two months of summer 1942. Obersturmführer Gotlieb Hering was appointed the camp commander.[4][5]

The first transport of Jews arrived at Poniatowa in October 1942 from Opole where the ghetto liquidation to Sobibor extermination camp was under way. The new barracks were built. By January 1943 there were 1,500 Jews in the camp. In April 1943, during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, about 15,000 more Polish Jews were delivered. For the next six months, they all produced fresh garments for the Wehrmacht. Due to the nature of the work performed, the prisoners were not maltreated like in most other camps. They were allowed to keep children through daycare, wear their own clothes, and retain their personal effects, because the new uniforms made by them, were great morale boosters at the Front. The Jewish tailors and seamstresses of Warsaw worked practically free of charge for the German war profiteer Walter Caspar Többens (Toebbens) who was making a fortune. He was later described as the anti-Schindler.[6] The Jews of Poland were augmented by around 3,000 Slovakian and Austrian Jews (the camp elite) housed separately from the rest.[7]

Aktion Reinhard

After the closure of the nearby Belzec death factory in June 1943,[8] head of the Operation Reinhard, Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik inspected the Poniatowa facility in August 1943. Gottlieb Hering, the camp commander,[4] was reprimanded for a total lack of prison discipline. Drastic changes were introduced immediately with daily executions of at least several people. The new crematorium was constructed.[9] From September 1943, the Poniatowa forced labor camp became part of the KL Majdanek concentration camp system of subcamps under Aktion Reinhard, the most deadly phase of the Holocaust.[10]

File:Majdanek - Aktion Erntefest (1943).jpg
One of many mass graves of the Nazi German Operation Harvest Festival

During the secretive Operation Harvest Festival (Aktion Erntefest) the inmates were ordered to dig anti-aircraft trenches at Poniatowa, Trawniki, as well as at the Majdanek concentration camps, unaware of their true purpose.[4] On November 3, 1943, by the orders of Christian Wirth, the German SS and police began shooting all Jews from the camps at these locations. They were massacred simultaneously across the entire Lublin District with subcamps in Budzyn, Kraśnik, Puławy, Lipowa and other places.[11] At Poniatowa the inmates were compelled to undress and enter the self-prepared trenches naked, where they were shot one-by-one over the course of two days. In one of the barracks at Poniatowa Jews staged a revolt. To stamp it out the SS set the building on fire and the killings went on as planned.[12] In total, some 43,000 male and female prisoners were shot on November 3/4, 1943, over a long line of fake anti-aircraft trenches. The camp was closed.[13] Commandant Gotlieb Hering then joined fellow SS-men from the Operation Reinhard staff in Trieste, Italy.[4][5][9][11][14]

Commemoration

The first two monuments in memory of the victims of Nazism at Poniatowa were erected in communist Poland at the city centre in 1958 and at the PZT factory in 1959. A different monument, commemorating only the Jewish victims of the Holocaust was unveiled in Poniatowa on November 4, 2008, for the 65 anniversary of their deaths. The inscription in both Polish and English mentions the 14,000 victims of the Aktion Erntefest in Poniatowa from across Poland, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia (without the remaining locations). The monument was unveiled in the presence of the ambassador of Israel to Poland David Peleg, the ambasador of Austria Alfred Langle; Andreas Meitner, minister from the German embassy; Jan Tomaszek, minister from the Czech embassy; Henryka Strojnowska, voivode of Lublin; the town mayor Lilla Stefanek, and many other officials, includings Warsaw rabbi and priests.[15]

Notable survivors

  • Estera Rubinstein, survived beneath the dead bodies of others. Testimony No. 301/1013 at the archives of Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (ŻOB).[16]
  • Ludwika Fiszer, escaped from the mass grave. Testimony (45 pages) in the book Destruction and Rising published by the General Federation of Jewish Labour in Eretz Israel, Tel Aviv 1946 (digitized by Yad Vashem).[17]
  • Israel Shahak, Israeli professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Notes

  1. ^ Michał Kaźmierczak, Poniatowa unofficial site with links to History and Gallery of photographs. Retrieved April 19, 2013. Location of Poniatowa factory: 51°10′23″N 22°04′10″E / 51.173172°N 22.069564°E / 51.173172; 22.069564
  2. ^ "Forced labor-camps in District Lublin: Budzyn, Trawniki, Poniatowa, Krasnik, Pulawy, Airstrip and Lipowa camps". Holocaust Encyclopedia: Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  3. ^ Jennifer Rosenberg. "Aktion Erntefest". 20th Century History. About.com Education. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Aktion Erntefest". Interrogation of Sporrenberg – National Archives Kew WO 208/4673. Holocaust Research Project.org. 2007. Retrieved 2013-04-17. Cite error: The named reference "holocaustresearchproject" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Szmuel Krakowski, Poniatowa. Source: Robert Rozett & Shmuel Spector: "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust", Yad Vashem & Facts On File, Inc., Jerusalem, 2002. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  6. ^ Günther Schwarberg (2010). "Walter Caspar Többens: the anti-Schindler". Le camp de concentration de Poniatowa (in French). Encyclopédie B&S Editions. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  7. ^ Alexander Donat, The Holocaust kingdom: a memoir (London, 1965), pp.216-217. Retrieved April 19, 2013
  8. ^ "Belzec extermination camp". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  9. ^ a b Kaj Metz, Concentration Camp Poniatowa. Traces of War.com. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  10. ^ "Trawniki". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  11. ^ a b ARC (2004). "Erntefest". Occupation of the East. ARC. Retrieved 2013-04-26. Cite error: The named reference "ARC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ Jakub Chmielewski (2013). "Obóz pracy w Poniatowej". Obozy pracy w dystrykcie lubelskim (Labor camps in the Lublin District). Leksykon Lublin. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  13. ^ Re: Morgen affidavit at International Military Tribunal (Red Volume series), Supplement Volume B, pp. 1309-11 (Part II. 5. "Ernst Kaltenbrunner"). Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. PDF direct download, 25.0 MB. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  14. ^ Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard). Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
  15. ^ Rafał Pastwa (2010). "65 rocznica likwidacji niemieckiego obozu pracy". Poniatowa - Miejsce Martyrologii Narodow. Towarzystwo Przyjaciol Poniatowej. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  16. ^ "Nazistowski obóz pracy przymusowej w Poniatowej". Miejsca martyrologii - Zabytki - Poniatowa. Virtual Shtetl. 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  17. ^ "The Liquidation of the Camp in Poniatowa". Testimony of Ludwika Fiszer. Poniatowa Memorial Web Page. August 22, 2003. pp. 45 pages. Retrieved April 19, 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

Bibliography

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