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Mielec, Poland: The Shtetl That Became a Nazi Concentration Camp

 * Established in 1941 in outskirts of Mielec, Poland at    site of former PZL Polish airplane factory.
 * This was known as the Mielec Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, the    German aircraft factory and work camp where Mielec Jewish population was     impounded on March 9, 1942.
 * 1st functioned as work camp, then as an SS    concentration camp until the summer of 1944.
 * For a short time, it was a subsidiary of Płaszów.
 * No Nazi documentation that says how many prisoners    there were or when it went from Labor camp to concentration camp and     inmate testimonies are conflicting.
 * Definitely concentration by spring 1944 because when a    contingent arrived from Budzyń, Jewish prisoners had "KL"     tattoos on their arms (for Konzentrationslager).
 * May have changed when the first SS commander, Hering,    arrived in fall of 1943, or when Josef Schwammberger took over in 1944.
 * 100-300 young people (mostly men) were made slave    laborers at the factory during the time of the March 9 roundup and     subsequent deportation.
 * ONCE IT WAS A CONCENTRATION CAMP:::
 * Schwammberger's innovations made life even worse for    Jews.
 * He arrived in February 1944

Kowalski, Tadeusz. Obozy hitlerowskie w Polsce południowo – wschodniej [Nazi camps in southeastern Poland]. Warszawa: Ksiazka i Wiedza, 1973.


 * In spring 1942, Germans built a barbed wire fence on    the terrain of the factory surrounding about one hectare (2.741 acres) of     it.
 * They built wooden barracks there where Jews from Mielec    and surroundings and later other areas of Poland were placed.
 * The next year, the barbed wire was connected to high    voltage electricity.
 * Prisoners later had to build additional barracks.
 * At any time there was 1500-2000 Jewish prisoners    between 18-50 years old.
 * At the beginning, the camp was under the command of the    Werkschutz (factory security service), and then their commandant     Gotthold Stein.
 * Later taken over by SS.
 * Prisoners guarded by Germans who walked around the camp    and manned a watch tower.
 * Wake up at 5 AM
 * During roll call, people were counted and then    allocated different jobs including producing airplane parts, cleaning the     factory, load and unload the cargo.
 * Work 6-6
 * Breakfast: black coffee and 7 oz of bread.
 * Lunch: cabbage soup
 * Dinner: cabbage soup
 * Prisoners who managed to buy something or got help from    Polish workers could survive, the others who lived only on camp food got     weaker, collapsed from hunger, and were shot.
 * Epidemics caused a lot of deaths
 * Typhus epidemic broke out in the camp in 1942.
 * There was a specially organized room for sick people    but they weren't treated.
 * They were shot in the woods near Berdechów.
 * Jewish police in the camp: Ordnungsdienst
 * Led by Bitkower, who was respected by the prisoners    along with his wife (a doctor).
 * Other leaders were not as nice/respected.
 * Jacob Keimann from Wielopole near Mielec was a leader    who chose the people for daily execution.

Chiel Jassy


 * Buciu Gotinger (supervising prisoner) tortured    prisoners, beat them, ordered them to carry two-meter packages, and when     they couldn't handle it he beat them with a wooden floorboard until they     lost consciousness.


 * Both of the above were testified by Chiel Jassy and his    stories were corroborated by several other Jewish prisoners.

Sidney Birnbaum


 * For example, Sidney Birnbaum from Kraków who came to    Mielec in January 1943 said "we had Kapos here. The Jewish police,     they used to call them. Some were good. Some were mean. Some of them     became like animals. They wanted to endear themselves to the Germans. They     felt they would survive better that way, so even they used to beat up the     other Jews."

Jakub Grynblum


 * came to Mielec camp in June 1943
 * Friedman brothers: one was commandant of the camp and    one was the head of the kitchen
 * They recieved him with Doctor Birn.
 * Doc was holding a rawhide in his hand and beat them up.
 * One night, commandant Ordnungsdienst, Henryk    Friedman and Jankiel Kleinman from Ordnungsdienst came into his     barrack and told him to get down from the bed, they took all their     belongings and one inmate didn't want to give up his sweater, so they beat     out his teeth.

Mielec through the holocaust

·     Located on bank of vistual river. Prior to WWI was part of Austrialia-Hungary; after it became a part of Poland

·     Situated in a wooded, agricultural region. Most Jews were poor, and worked as laborers, small businessmen, tradesmen, and professionals.

·     Even before Nazi’s rise to power there was a lot of mass anti-Jewish violence.

o  Looting of Jewish stores

o  Breaking of home and store front windows.

·     Mielec’s general religious character was orthodox conservative.

·     Prior to W.W.II, Poland included Mielec in a triangle of land, called the C.O.P., targeted for industrialization. The resulting economic activity brought in more people--mostly non-Jews. Tensions between Poles and Jews increased. A wave of Nationalism swept through the region, venting its emotions on Jews and their places of business.

·     On September 1st, 1939, the German army invaded Poland and by September 13th, German forces had overrun Mielec—the aircraft factory situated there had made it an attractive target.

·     1st German soldiers to arrive in Mielec arrived by motorcycle.

·     Local authorities replaced by Germans

·     Jewish stores looted

·     Jews conscripted for menial tasks, such as cleaning offices, washing cars, and sweeping sidewalks.

·     Later a Judenrat was instituted with “official” responsibilities for taxing the Jewish reserves of jewelry, furs, and money.

·     Mielec was to be one of the first Judenfree towns in Poland.

·     In the closing months of 1939, Nazi Germany expelled many Polish Jews living in the region east of the River Vistula, eastward across the River San and the new Soviet border. Many drowned or were shot, others were turned back by the Soviets--the majority did not survive.

SECTIONS:

·     PEOPLE ASSOCIATED

·     CONDITIONS IN THE CAMP

·     LIFE BEFORE THE NAZIS

·     Testimonies?