Gęsiówka

Jewish prisoners of Gęsiówka and Polish resistance fighters of the "Zośka" battalion of the Armia Krajowa after the liberation of the camp in August 1944

Gęsiówka (Polish pronunciation: [ɡɛ̃ˈɕufka] - the colloquial Polish name for a prison that once existed on Gęsia ("Goose") Street in Warsaw - literally, "Goose Farm") which became a Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War. In the years 1945-1956 Gęsiówka was used as a prison and labour camp, first by the Soviet NKVD and subsequently by the Polish communist secret police.

History of Gęsiówka

Before the war, Gęsiówka was a military prison of the Polish Army on Gęsia Street (now Anielewicza Street), near the intersection with Okopowa Street and the Jewish cemetery. Beginning in 1939, after the German occupation of Poland, it became a re-education camp of the German security police (Arbeitserziehungslager der Sicherheitspolizei Warschau). In 1943 it was turned into a concentration camp for inmates from beyond Warsaw and Poland, equipped with a crematorium. The camp, together with the nearby Pawiak prison, formed the backbone of the Warsaw concentration camp complex. Gęsiówka inmates (mostly Jews) included prisoners from Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Hungary, Belgium and Germany.[1]

The liberation of Gęsiówka during the Warsaw Uprising

Polish resistance fighters of the "Zośka" battalion of the Armia Krajowa pose on a captured German Panther Tank - 2nd August 1944
Soldiers of the "Wacek" tank platoon of the "Zośka" battalion on the corner of Okopowa and Żytnia Street - 2nd August 1944
Liberated Jewish women posing with Polish resistance fighters of the "Zośka" battalion - 5th August 1944

On 5 August 1944, during the early phase of the Warsaw Uprising, the "Zośka" battalion of the Armia Krajowa's Radosław Group led by Ryszard Białous and Eugeniusz Stasiecki attacked the Gęsiówka camp which was being liquidated at the time. The Panther tank "Magda", one of two captured by the insurgents on 2 August, was instrumental in the attack, supporting the assault with fire from its main gun. In the ensuing one-and-half-hour battle most of the SD guards were killed or captured, although some of the Germans managed to flee in the direction of the Pawiak prison. Only two Polish fighters were killed in the attack and 348 able-bodied Jewish prisoners, who had been retained by the Germans as slave labourers after the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, were rescued from certain death.[2]

Many of the Jewish prisoners joined the ranks of the insurgents, and most of them were subsequently killed during the nine weeks of fighting that followed, as were the majority of their liberators (the "Zośka" battalion lost 70% of its members during the uprising).[3]

After the war

In January 1945 Gęsiówka was used by the Soviet NKVD to imprison Polish resistance fighters of the Home Army and other opponents of Poland's new Stalinist regime, who were kept there in appalling conditions. The Polish communist secret police took over the administration of the camp later that year and continued to use it as a prison and labour camp for criminal and political prisoners, including so-called "class enemies", until 1956.[1]

Gęsiówka liberation memorial

Gęsiówka was demolished in the 1960s and the only visible evidence of its existence today is a memorial plaque commemorating the liberation of the camp in 1944, which is located on the wall of 34 Anielewicza Street[4] and features inscriptions in Polish, Hebrew and English.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Obóz koncentracyjny na terenie ruin getta warszawskiego („Gęsiówka”) - in Polish
  2. ↑ http://www.warsawtour.pl/en/warsaw-for-everyone/judaica-1863.html?page=0,3
  3. ↑ Stefan Korbonski The Polish Underground State: A Guide to the Underground, 1939-1945
  4. ↑ http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/warszawa/13,sites-of-martyrdom/3549,gesiowka-a-prison-and-nazi-concentration-camp-on-the-gesia-street/

See also

Coordinates: 52°14′40.7″N 20°58′44.18″E / 52.244639°N 20.9789389°E