The Fate of former Polish Forced Laborers in Germany:
Jadwiga Wójcik
Born 1920 in Budy, Wolskie, Forced Laborer in Holstenhagen (Rügen), Farm Work
In April 1940, Jadwiga was forced to work at the village Holstenhagen. She had to leave behind her sick father, who she would never see again. During her deportation from Warsaw to her place of work, she witnessed the execution of those who tried to flee.
At her working location she was given a small room underneath the roof. Her daily chores were: cleaning the house and yard, feeding the animals, milking seven cows (two to three times daily) and the transportation of the milk from the pasture which was about 3 km away.
She suffered greatly from the treatment of the farmers. After being allowed to return to her hometown to go to her father’s funeral, she never returned to Rügen. Jadwiga would remain in hiding till the end of the war.
Stanisława Lorych
Born 1926 in Swierze, Forced Labor in Binz and Sassnitz (Rügen), Restaurant
In the middle of 1940, special German units entered Stanislawa’s village and took from every second family, two people to the Labor Camps in Germany; in this case her sister and herself. At first, the people would be taken to a assembly camp in Lublin, where they would be inspected and given number signs. During their transportation to Germany non of the workers would know where it is they would be taken. At the train stations, farmers would pick their work forces from the crowd.
Stanislawa L was brought to Binz were she would work as an assistant in the kitchen. Compared to her sister, who had to work in a fishery, she was lucky: she was able to share a room with one of her colleagues, she would eat her meals together with the German personal which went against protocol, and she would receive clothing and soap. Even in Sassnitz where she was relocated to, her life would be bearable. She did most her chores in the kitchen and would work from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening.
She met the forced laborer Antoni L and would give birth to a child in March 1945. Had not the Soviet troops forced the young family to return back to Poland, she would then have wished to stay in Germany to build up a new life.
Janina Przybyszewska
Born 1916 in Jezierna Tomaszow Lubelski, Forced Labor in Boldevitz (Rügen), Country Estate
Prior to her forced resettlement in January 1940, Janina P live in Lettland. From there she would be transported to Germany via a warship. The people would have to remain on deck at minus 35 degrees and only receive a little soup. They would suffer from stomach cramps, nausea and would have to relieve themselves on deck. At their workplace, the Polish workers would live in cold barracks. Of the 100 laborers, 20 would come from Poland, the rest would originate from France, Italy, the Ukraine, Russia or other countries. They would only be allowed leave by receiving a pass from their employer.
The food would consist of cabbage soup which would often contain vermin. They would not be given clothing and soap would have to last for two months.
From 7 in the morning till sunset, Janina P would have to do the following chores: milk the cows, shovel dung, planting and collecting potatoes and help during the harvest of wheat and hay. If one of the forced laborers did not work fast enough, then they would receive a beating. The German children would mock and ridicule the Poles.
On the 9th of May Janina would return to Poland. From her day as a forced laborer she still suffers from kidney problems, frost bite on her legs and a damaged spine.
Paweł Pelka
Born in 1929 in Zieniec, Forced Labor in Gramtitz (Rügen), Farm Work
In April 1942, the three sisters Helena, Stanislawa and Pawel would be woken up at 5 in the morning and dragged from their hometown to a assembly camp in Stralsund. As the group of Polish laborers were required to clean themselves in the public baths, a group of upset German women would begin to make complaints, stating that Poles are not worthy of sharing German baths. A few days later, the sister including a polish family of four people, would be brought to Gramtitz. They lived in two chambers in the house, which on the other side, would be inhabited by German workers.
The children would wake up and between 5 and 6:30, milk and feed the cows, clean the stables and feed the pigs. Afterwards they would have to work on the fields.
Nutrition would be scarce: thin milk, margarine, a little marmalade, some bread, however, potatoes would always be available. Every two months they would receive a new piece of soap yet no new clothe. Beatings and insults from the farmer would become a day to day routine, if the farmers felt that the work was insufficient.
Seeing as the siblings lived in a somewhat remote house, they had the advantage of meeting forced laborers from other regions such as Russia, the Ukraine and Poland.
Like all other foreigners in Gramtitz, the children would also be forced to watch one execution: a Ukrainian laborer who was alleged to have had sexual contact with a German, was brutally murdered.
On September 22, 1945 the sibling would return with the train back to Poland.
Zofia Lubocka
Born ca. 1930 in Brzesc nad Bugiem (today Russia), Forced Labor in Tetzitz (Rügen), Farm Work
Zofia would be displaced to Germany, together with her Mother in 1943. She would move to various different camps. In the last camp she stayed in, she was forced to shave off all the hair on her body and rub herself with Petroleum. Her clothe would be tagged with a identification badge that would bear the first letter of her nationality- in Zofia’s case, the letter “P”.
The transport to Germany would take place in cattle trucks; barb wire on the wagons made fleeing impossible. When arriving in Rügen, the 13 year old girl had to wait two weeks with her sick mother until someone would take them: only people fit for work would be hired.
They would then go to Tetzitz where they would receive a room with a bed, a table and a small oven.
Everyone morning, Zofia would go to the roll call, where she would be assigned work, usually on the fields. She worked during summer from 5 in the morning to 9 at night. If her work was considered lacking then she would be threatened with a beating.
As she returned to Poland with her mother in the spring of 1945, the under aged girl would frantically look for work to support her mother. Her Mother died on February 1946.
<<< back
|
