Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
Summary
Abstract: Between 1939 and 1945, Polish children were victims of the relentless extermination policies of the Third Reich. From the beginning of WWII, they became the direct objects of Nazi Säuberaktion or “field cleansing” policy in Gdańsk Pomerania. Polish children were among the victims of mass killings in the Piaśnicki and Szpęgawski forests and, as patients of psychiatric hospitals, they were also euthanized. Together with their parents they were kept in re-location camps, one of them in Riesenburg (Prabuty) in East Prussia, from where they were transferred to labor camps in the Third Reich. Some of the children were sent to KL Stutthof, where the number of prisoners between the ages of 12 and 18 was estimated to have been above 2000. From the age of 12, Polish children were part of a slave labor force whose role was to work for the interests of the Third Reich; they were sent to KL Stutthof to receive “for upbringing” (Erziehung). They were imprisoned in KL Stutthof for their participation in the Polish resistance, or for not signing the Deutsche Volksliste (the German People's List). In concentration camps, Polish children were treated the same way as adults and just as adults they had to obey the same rules and regulations of the camp.
Keywords: euthanasia, Reichsgau Danzig Westpreussen, Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German Nation, Ubergangslager Riesenburg Westpreussen, re-location Camp in Prabuty, Concentration Camp Stutthof
In years between 1939–1945, children became the victims of the criminal policy of the Third Reich. They were shot like the worst criminals, treated as objects that could be taken away with impunity. As creatures “unworthy of life”, patients of psychiatric hospitals were killed in gas chambers or with phenol injections. They were also harnessed into the system of slave labor for Germany.
It should be noted that the repression of Poles living in Pomerania did not start only on the day of the outbreak of war on September 1st 1939. In parts of Pomerania which remained in the hands of Germany after the Versailles Treaty, the Germanization policy had not changed since the times of the Prussian partition.
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- Crime without PunishmentThe Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945, pp. 163 - 178Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2022