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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
When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
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
Summary: The Children of Zamość are a symbol of the martyrdom of Polish children during the World War II. Their tragic fate was made even worse by the incredibly brutal methods used by the Germans beginning in the earliest phases of the deportations. They were torn away from their parents by force during racial selection at the transit camp in Zamość (UWZ-Lager Zamosc), were Poles awaiting deportation were interned. Polish children from Zamość were also interned at other transit camps, such as the one in Zwierzyniec or at KL Lublin (Majdanek) and KL Auschwitz, where they were killed with lethal injections of phenol into the heart (the so-called practice of “needling”), and also at the extermination camp at Kulmhof (Chełmno nad Nerem). To this day the fate of thousands of Polish children carried away from Zamość into the Third Reich for Germanization remains unknown. Those who were not earmarked for Germanization were deported by the Germans in cattle cars (“death transports”) to the Warsaw district.
Keywords: German occupation, the Children of Zamość, deportation, Germanization, camps for Poles, the Zamość region
Introduction
During World War II, approximately 2,250,000 Polish children perished as the result of military and terrorization actions carried out by Germany. At least an additional 200,000 children were transported out of Poland in order to be Germanized. Only about 15 per cent of these children never returned home (Theiss, 2012, p. 80; Wieczorek, 1982, p. 12). The German crimes carried out against Polish children in 1939–1945 constitute a crime of genocide, and therefore a crime against humanity. As stated in the justification of the Nuremberg trial (No. 9), “This crime spared neither women nor children, the protection of whom, until then, had been regarded as a duty by even the most ruthless and barbaric enemy” (Pilichowski,1982, p. 39).
Among the great crimes committed by Germany during World War II, the crimes against the Polish children of the Zamość region are particularly tragic. During this time, as Germany attempted to implement the General Eastern Plan (Generalplan Ost), it experimented with expelling nativepopulations from areas subsequently to be settled by German colonists.
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- Information
- Crime without PunishmentThe Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945, pp. 99 - 114Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2022