| Ethnic cleansing of Polish Zamojszczyzna | |
|---|---|
| Part ofGeneralplan Ost,Nazi crimes against the Polish nation, andExpulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany | |
.jpg) Kidnapping of Polish children during the "resettlement" operation inZamość county | |
| Part of | |
| Mass kidnappings and expulsions | |
| Territory | General Government,Lublin District |
| Victims | 116,000 Polish men and women including 30,000 children[2] |
| Destinations | Forced labour and concentration camps (Auschwitz,Majdanek)[3] |
| Motives | Nazi racist policy,Anti-slavism,Anti-polonism |
Theethnic cleansing of Zamojszczyzna by Nazi Germany (German:Aktion Zamosc,[4] also:Operation Himmlerstadt)[5] during World War II was carried out as part ofa greater plan of forcible removal of the entire Polish populations from targeted regions ofoccupied Poland in preparation for the state-sponsored settlement of the ethnic GermanVolksdeutsche. The operation of mass expulsions from Zamojszczyzna region around the city ofZamość (now inLublin Voivodeship, Poland) was carried out between November 1942 and March 1943 on direct order fromHeinrich Himmler.[6] It was preplanned by bothGlobocnik fromAction Reinhard and Himmler, as the first stage of the eventual murderous ethnic cleansing ahead of projectedGermanization of the entireGeneral Government territory.[7]
In Polish historiography,[8] the events surrounding theNazi German roundups are often named alternatively as theChildren of Zamojszczyzna [pl] to emphasize the simultaneous apprehension of around 30,000 children at that time, snatched away from their parents transported from Zamojszczyzna to concentration camps and slave labour in Nazi Germany.[9] According to historical sources the German police and military expelled 116,000 Polish men and women in just a few months during Action Zamość.[10]
Wartime fate of the Polish children from Zamojszczyzna was closely related to the German plans for the expansion of their own so-called "living space in the East", part of a broader Nazi policy called theGeneralplan Ost. The plans for "ethnically cleansing the land" of its inhabitants were created in the fall of 1941 in Berlin and were closely connected with the idea of the newgreat consolidation of German nationhood. Country-wide actions dubbedHeim ins Reich ("Home to the Reich") were conducted across all of Central and Eastern Europe (seeAction Saybusch in Polish Silesia). Their main purpose was to transplant colonistsof the German origin fromRussia,Romania, and other countries, to occupied Poland. At the beginning of war, the programme was mainly realised in western parts of Poland, includingWielkopolska,Eastern Silesia andDanzig-Westpreußen already controlled by Nazi Germany; but afterOperation Barbarossa, it was continued throughout theGeneral Government.[10]
In order to prepare the land for the new German settlers, both German military and allbranches of police includingSonderdienst, aided by theUkrainian Auxiliary Police battalions,[1] conducted mass deportations of native Polish inhabitants usingHolocaust trains as well aslorries and even horse-drawnwagons. Zamojszczyzna was recognized as one of the core German settlement areas inDistrikt Galizien, and according to the order ofReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler became the first intervention target in the region.[9]Ukrainians were transferred to villages on the perimeter of German colonies to provide a buffer zone protecting the German settlers fromPolish partisans.[11][12]
Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and, in the euphoric atmosphere surrounding its initial victories, theAktion Zamosc was first outlined by Himmler together with GovernorHans Frank who initially requested that the programme be delayed until complete victory, but was convinced otherwise.[1] In accordance with the General Plan East, the first forcible removal of the 2,000 inhabitants from selected villages was conducted between 6 and 25 November 1941, while the general deportation programme began a year later on the night of 27–28 November 1942 inSkierbieszów and its vicinity. By then, the murderousOperation Reinhard was already in full swing.[1]
The expulsions encompassed the districts ofHrubieszów,Tomaszów Lubelski,Zamość andBiłgoraj, and were completed in March 1943. In total, 297 Polish villages were depopulated.[6] A concentration camp was created in Zamość around the streets of Piłsudskiego and Okrzei. Initially, it was a transit camp for SovietPOWs, rebuilt and expanded with 15 new barracks added for the imprisonment of rounded up families.SS-Unterscharführer Artur Schütz was appointed the camp's commandant.[1] From there, transports of children no older than 14 years of age – whose names have already been Germanized – were sent elsewhere.[6] Historians estimate that 116,000 people in total were forcibly removed from Zamojszczyzna, among them 30,000 children.[10]
The camp in Zamość(pl), located on S. Okrzei street, served as the transit point for selections and further deportations. In the first month of Action Zamość, the camp processed 7,055 Polish inhabitants of 62 villages.[1] People were divided into four main categories with the following code letters: "WE" (re-Germanization), "AA" (transport to the Reich), "RD" (farm-work for the settlers), "KI" (Kindertransport), "AG" (work in theGeneral Government); and finally, "KL" (concentration camp).[13] Those expelled from Zamojszczyzna toperform slave labour in Germany were loaded onto trains departing for temporary displacement camps governed by main resettlement HQ inŁodź. People from the last group were sent to theNazi concentration camps atAuschwitz andMajdanek.[1]
The camp in Zamość processed 31,536 Poles according to Germany's own records,[1] or 41,000 based on postwar estimates.[9] Dispossessed Polish families were sent to other transit camps as well, includingZwierzyniec in the Zamość County, which processed 20,000-24,000 Poles (12,000 between July and August 1943).[14] Transit camps existed inBudzyń,[13]Frampol, Lublin (on Krochmalna street),Stary Majdan, Biłgoraj County,Tarnogród, Wola Derezieńska, Old Wedan,Biłgoraj andPuszcza Solska.[15] Race selections based on forcible abduction of children from their parents were conducted in all of them.[15] The term "Children of Zamojszczyzna" originates from the multitude of those locations.[1]
I have seen with my own eyes how the Germans took children away from their mothers. The act of their forcible separation shook me terribly... The Germans beat them with whips until the blood flew in case of slightest opposition, mothers and children alike. One could hear moaning and crying throughout the entire camp on those occasions... I have also seen small children being killed by the Germans. – Leonard Szpuga, farmer expelled fromTopólcza[16]
Children suffered the most in these camps. The average stay lasted several months.[13] Starvation, cold, and disease were fatal for them a lot more often than for adults. Separated from their parents, children were transported in cattle wagons (100 up to 150 children in one wagon) to other destinations. Many of them were sent to aKinder KZ (concentration camp for children) run side by side with theŁódź Ghetto. Kinder KZ processed up to 13,000 children. The dramatic news of the children from Zamojszczyzna quickly spread through the entire country. Polish railwaymen were forwarding messages about transports to inhabitants of the cities where transports were stopping. There were several stations where residents risked rescuing the children, such asSobolew,Żelechów,Siedlce,Garwolin,Pilawa andWarsaw. Another deportation action, calledOperation Werwolf,[1] was conducted during the summer of 1944 ahead of the Soviet advance. Many of the inhabitants were forced to evacuate after being previously transferred into these areas by Germany as early as 1939.[13] Entire families ended up in concentration camps at Majdanek (up to 15,000 prisoners of Action Zamość) and Auschwitz, before deportation to forced labour in the Reich. At Majdanek, due to severe overcrowding, entire train-loads were kept in open fields numbered from III to V.[1]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)... to co, się działo na Zamojszczyźnie, szczególnie w pierwszym rzucie wysiedleń, począwszy od listopada 1942 r. i zimą, do lutego 1943 r., to była sprawa wręcz nie do opowiedzenia. Starsi ludzie pamiętają, mróz sięgał trzydziestu stopni i poniżej. I w takich warunkach rozpoczęły się transporty kolejowe z obozu zamojskiego (od 10 listopada 1942 r.) w okolice Siedlec.
Die Vertreibung der polnischen Bevölkerung und die Neuansiedlung führte nicht nur zum Anwachsen der Widerstandsbewegung, sondern auch zu geringerer Produktion von Lebensmitteln und damit zu geringeren Ablieferungen an die Besatzungsbehörden. Das Ostheer der Wehrmacht wurde aus dem Generalgouvernement versorgt. Frank und der Gouverneur von Lublin, Ernst Emil Zörner, kritisierten die Ansiedlungen, konnten sich jedoch nicht gegen Himmler und Globocnik durchsetzen.
Als Deutschland 1939 Polen überfiel, hat Heinrich Himmler, dem Reichsführer-SS, die Stadt und die Gegend so gut gefallen, dass er dieses Gebiet zur Kernzelle der in Polen durchzuführenden Germanisierung machen wollte - Zamosc sollte dann nach dem Abschluss der Operation Himmlerstadt heißen.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Lublin District – which included Zamojszczyzna, the area around the town of Zamosc - became the focal point ofGeneralplan Ost. It was envisaged by Himmler's planners that over a period of some 25 years Ukrainians and a large proportion of the Baltic peoples would be resettled [there].
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Zamojszczyzna 116,000.
