The heroic jews in the "parasol" battalion. liberation of the camp in warsaw.

"PARASOL" The liberation of the camp in Warsaw.

HEROIC FIGHT OF THE BATALION "ZOX"

Author Tomasz Szarota – historian, publicist

“Gęsiówka” – the usual name of the prison complex located in Koszary Wołyński close the confluence of Gęsiej and Zamenhofa streets in Warsaw. During the years of the German business and during the Stalinist period, this name defined various prison and camp facilities located in the area of Gęsia Street, including KL Warschau concentration camp.

Before the Second planet War at the confluence of Gęsiej and Zamenhofa Streets in the Warsaw Muranów there were artillery barracks built in the Stanislaw era. In 1875 the barracks complex was converted by the Tsarian authorities into a military prison. He besides served as a barracks during the Second Republic. From 1920 to 1939, the Military Prison of Investigation was located there. The prison complex was usually called “The Goose.

During the siege of Warsaw in September 1939 the barracks were heavy affected by German bombings. In October 1940, the prison complex was within the limits of the Warsaw ghetto.

In a comparatively good condition the front siege adjacent to Zamenhofa Street survived, hence there was a post office, a post office of the judaic order service (Ordnungdienst – judaic police) and respective orders of the judaic community. On 15 November 1940, according to another sources in the summertime of 1941, the alleged Central Arrest for the judaic territory (German Zentralarrest für jüdischen Wohnbezirk) was organized in the barracks. In 1941–1942, as well as in post-war literature, this facility was called "The Goosemaker".

The arrest was initially located in a tiny building on 22 Goose Street. It could hold only a fewer twelve to a 100 prisoners, while the number of Jews imprisoned exceeded 1500 very quickly.

In this situation, it was essential to grow the prison, resulting in its gradual expansion towards Lubeckiego Street.

Because of the constant overcrowding and hard surviving and sanitary conditions in the Central Arrest, there was a advanced mortality rate (tuberculosis and typhus in peculiar took a advanced toll). Many executions took place in the prison courtyard. During German displacement actions, the prison served as 1 of the aggregate points for transports to the Treblinka extermination camp.

The Central Arrest was liquidated after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

In the fall of 1942, the Germans organized at Gęsiej Street, the alleged “Covered safety Police labour Camp” (German: Arbeitserziehungslager der Sicherheitspolizei Warschau, /AEL/).

This camp was besides called “The Goose”. It was located in part of the buildings of the erstwhile military prison and in barracks built on its courtyards. usually there were 300 to 400 prisoners in the prison.

AEL had the character of a penal camp for Poles. His prisoners in most cases were persons detained for wrongdoing and insignificant crimes, e.g. black marketplace trade, illegal border crossings, deficiency of work card, being on the streets after curfew. Bogusław Kopka reports that peasants suspected of helping guerrillas and any prisoners released from prison in Pawiak were besides sent to the camp. most likely the camp besides served as a place of temporary detention of Jews captured “on the Aryan side” of Warsaw.

Living conditions in the educational work camp were difficult, but incomparably better than in close Pawiak.

On a regular basis, the prisoners worked in German companies or in craft workshops producing for German needs, as well as doing various works in Pawiak, Gestapo office in Szucha or German barracks and warehouses. In addition, they were hired to demolish the erstwhile ghetto. Polish prisoners stayed in the camp for 56 days. They were usually put at the disposal of the German office of employment after the punishment was finished and exported to Germany for forced labour.

At the turn of November and December 1943, the educational work camp was moved to ul. Litewska 14 in Śródmieście South, where it occupied the building of the erstwhile Bauman Children's House.

By Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's decision in Warsaw, a concentration camp was established in the second half of 1943, commonly known as KL Warschau.

The camp was organized on the grounds of the erstwhile ghetto, adapting buildings of the erstwhile military prison and adjacent squares extending along Gęsiej Street – from Zamenhofa Street to Okopowa Street.

The beginning of the camp's operation is dated on 19 July 1943, erstwhile the first group of prisoners, most German criminals from KL Buchenwald, arrived there. On 31 August 1943, the first transport of judaic prisoners was sent to Gęsia (listed from Auschwitz-Birkenau camp). KL Warschau initially functioned as a stand-alone camp, but due to many abuses and corruption spread among its crew members, he was demoted to the Majdanek camp branch on 1 May 1944. The population of the capital over time besides began to mention to KL Warschau as “Ghosts”.

The minimum number of prisoners who passed through the concentration camp at Goose Street is estimated at 7250. Jews from various European countries – Hungary, Greece, Germany, France and the Benelux countries were primarily sent to KL Warschau. There was besides a tiny number of Polish Jews. Among the prisoners were men under 40. They were forced to work in the demolition of the ruins of the ghetto and in the acquisition and segregation of all the valuable property inactive in its territory. As a consequence of the devastating working conditions, hunger, illness and cruelty of the guards, the mortality among the prisoners was very high.

From 1943 to 1944, the camp and its ruins besides served as a site for mass executions. Polish political prisoners, Warsaw prisoners captured during street captures, as well as Jews captured on the “Aryan side” of Warsaw were shot there. The Institute of National Memory estimates the number of victims of KL Warschau for about 20,000 people, including about 10,000 Poles (both murdered prisoners and people shot in the camp or in its neighbourhood are included in this statistics).

As the Red Army approached, the Germans began to evacuate the camp in summertime 1944.

On 28 July, nearly 4,000 prisoners were rushed on ft to Kutna. Those who survived this “death march” were taken to Dachau on 2 August. On 5 August, on the 5th day of the Warsaw Uprising, the camp at Gęsiej Street was captured by soldiers of the “Zośka” Battalion, who liberated the last prisoners arriving there. According to the National Army Command, the insurgents released 348 Jews that day, including 24 women.

From a military point of view, the Warsaw insurgents could bypass Gęsiówka alternatively of attacking Gęsiówka on August 5, 1944. However, they made a different decision. Why?

After the collapse of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Himmler's order of 11 June 1943, a concentration camp was created in the ruins, commonly called Gęsiówka (from Gęsiej Street).

The prisoners-Jews who were imported from another camps and from occupied European countries were tasked with extracting from the ruins of usable building materials, removing debris and planning the site. The camp in April the following year became a subsidiary of Majdanek.

In late July 1944, the Germans proceeded to evacuate it. On the day of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, on 1 August, about 430 judaic prisoners were present in the camp, whose crew was about 90 SS men. On the same day, 50 of them sent Germany to order work in the area of the erstwhile Umschlagplatz. There they were freed by the Kediwu branch. Among the others, the most was, as Bronisław Anlen thinks (the prisoner of this camp), Polish citizens, then Greeks, Hungarians and French, but there were besides Belgian, Dutch and Czech citizens.

CURRENT ENOUGH

Why was the Goose attacked? There were respective reasons for this. possibly the most crucial was to extract a stunned SS officer from the bunker captured by the insurgents, as it shortly turned out during the interrogations (the translator was late the late Jan Rossman. The German was captured by Eugeniusz Kecher-Kolczan, Deputy Commandant of Gęsiówka.

He was the 1 who sent the message about judaic prisoners who caused respective commanders in insurgent troops, among them Brody's commander Jan Kajus Andrzejewski-Jan and Zośki's commander Ryszard Białous-Jerzy went to Radosław to get approval from him to attack the camp. The commander feared besides much failure of his own, he didn't even want to hear about it. He was persuaded by the argument that 1 of the captured tanks could be utilized in the attack, and success achieved by surprise.

The attack on Gęsiówka on 5 August 1944 was carried out by soldiers of the Alek and Felek platoons of the Scout Battalion “Zośka”, but the Panther tank led by Wacław Micuta played a decisive role. The tank was headed by Zdzisław Moszczeński-Ryk, the mark of the weapon was Jan Bagiński-Myszkowskips. Bajon, radio gunner Jan Zenka-Walek, and Witold Bartnicki, who lives in Warsaw today, ps. Wiktor Kadłubek. The Germans did not see a white-red chessboard and a lily drawn on the tank – they thought that Okopowa Street was their vehicle. This 1 abruptly turned at a right angle at the tallness of the erstwhile Smoka Street, swept 2 barricades along the way, the fire took down 2 defender towers and then broke the camp gate. The German crew fled in a panic, seeking shelter in Pawiak's buildings.

Reporter Witold Bartnicki:

"A bunch of stripes are pouring into the square. There's quite a few prisoners. All cheered up to the highest degree. Enthusiast cheers. The joy of almost madness. The old, crushed hebrew stands in front of the tank, silent, raised his hands up. He laughs with his oddly curved face, and only tears flow down his cheeks. I'm incredibly embarrassed. What are they thanking us for? Without a word we shake his hands.”

Similarly, Juliusz Deczkowski-Laudański remembered these moments:

“I saw Kolchan surrounded by respective Jews who tried to kiss him in his hands. The colza struggled, plucked, could not realize the thanksgiving words spoken in French, Greek, Hungarian, German, Hebrew. ... abruptly I saw a friend from Pawiak. – Miodowski! – I called. A friend met me due to the fact that erstwhile he issued any shout he ran up, grabbed by his neck and began to make a change of kiss and talk with a moved voice: – A fewer days ago, the SS chose seventeen of us and shot for no reason. You know, my brother's with me. A tailor, too. Remember?’ It just so happens that 1 of the photographs taken after the capture of Gęsiówka was besides Bronisław Miodowski, and after the war Bernard Miodon lived in Paris.

Let's besides cast the voice of 1 of the survivors. In a text published in 1946 in “Kuznica” by Zofia Zamsztejn-Kamieniec, she wrote: “The ward of insurgents who had rebounded (Gęsiówka) for respective days has been fighting continuously. The boys were tired, dirty, defensive. There was a barber of a Frenchman and a madbeard. There was besides a Greek-musician who did not forget his mandolin – he rapidly learned the tune of the Polish anthem. He played and his eyes lit up with happiness. The French sang Marseillen, Polish insurgents – guerrilla songs. It was a moving and symbolic image.”

LIVED LOSS

Today we are incapable to answer the question of what happened to most of the Jews saved by the insurgents, we do not know how many of them foreigners returned to their homeland after the war. possibly any are inactive alive. No uncertainty we have the most information about those who joined insurgent troops.

Bronisław Anlen intended to compose a book about them, and in 1968 he first made contact with Wacław Micuta, a resident in Switzerland, and then with another Zośka soldiers. In his account to Anlen Wacek wrote:

"After the fight, tired and beaten by tank jumps, I went for a lonely walk to a part of the camp previously scored. To my amazement, I was found in a large square of 2 large prisoners in a model military order. At the head of the branch was a prisoner who placed the troops on alert and reported to me: “Sir, will he be (or lieutenant?) Henryk Lederman of – here mentioned the name of the infantry regiment – reports the judaic battalion ready to fight.” My amazement turned to emotion and admiration for those people whose German savagery not only did not break, but who could organize themselves under the conditions of the concentration camp and be ready to fight at the first opportunity. I immediately reported this incidental to Radosław. (...) Colonel Radosław allowed me to halt the branch.”

The commander Zoski besides asked him to do the same. Whitey says:

"Consent to enlist and uniform was accepted by those released with the highest enthusiasm. With what feverish haste they dropped their stripes to dress in uniform (the customized German panthers – T.S.), which until late only their stalkers had the right to wear. How much joy was in the face of those whose eyes were so many times in death. Zygmunt (Zbichorski – T.S.) and Wacek selected mechanics to operate tanks and cars. Fil (Ludwik Michalski – branch quartermaster – T.S.) sought out cooks. There were tailors, shoemakers, and barbers. Everyone would like to fight in the ward that set them free and I saw a certain profession in the eyes of those I had to hand over to another troops.”

The armoured platoon, commanded by Wacław Micuta, became the engineer Joseph Pillar. In 1 of the insurgent tanks, the electrical strategy broke down. "Kpr. Pillar – writes in his memoirs Deke – understood the situation. He threw himself across the street covered with device fire of the enemy, with extraordinary luck, risking almost certain death, he found himself in a tank and removed the defect.” He was awarded the conflict Cross, died in Czerniakow on 15 September 1944.

The mechanic in the armoured platoon was Ensign Henry Lederman, the 1 who reported Micuta to the readiness of the judaic troops to fight. Previously he participated in the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, he knew the passages through the canals. He died on September 5, and was besides given the conflict Cross. The same was given to Micuta Rysiek, a subordinate who emigrated to Israel after the war. 2 another Jews were killed during the uprising who joined the branch – David Goldman-Gutek and unknown by the name of Cuba.

The beautiful insurgent card was besides recorded by the Jews who joined the Parasol, the second 1 next to Zośka's Scout Battalion. Henryk Poznań-Bystra, a soldier of the judaic Military Union (ZZW) and a associate of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, deserves peculiar distinction. He repeatedly conducted insurgent troops through sewers erstwhile utilized his aid erstwhile the commander of the AK Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski-Bór had to go this way. Henryk Poznański – Bystry died on 10 September 1944.

Medical service in the department was performed by surgeon Soltan Safijew ps. Dr. Turk. As a russian citizen, he served in the Red Army, had an officer's degree. He died on 22 September in Powiśle, shot by the Germans, when, along with besides liberated from Gęsiówka Hungarian Peter Forrö-Pawel as parliamentarians, they reported surrendering to 1 of the insurgent facilities.

In Anna Borkiewicz-Celińska's book on the past of the Zosek Battalion, we would in vain look for the name of Jakub Wiśnia, a hebrew who, as a cook, volunteered to the branch

quartermaster, commanded by Phil. He came from Wola, through Old Town, to the Czerniaków. His colleagues asked him not to go into captivity with them after the fall of the uprising, as they realized that the Germans would kill him after recognizing him as a Jew. Jakub Wiśnia became 1 of the Warsaw Robinsons. After the war, he became the owner of the bar erstwhile a soldier, Zośki Stanisław Sieradzki, arrived there, he could sit for free. It was not until the early 1980s that Jakub Wiśnia decided to make Kombatant papers. erstwhile he died in 1983, he asked to be put in the coffin of the Insurgency Cross. His grave at the judaic Cemetery is visited by comrades of arms.

OLD SOLDIERS

Just 2 hours after Gęsiówka was captured, a typical of the insurgent press appeared. She spoke to both drunken soldiers and happy judaic survivors. On 18 August, the study of this writer was broadcast in the Polish Radio insurgent broadcast. (The text of this broadcast was preserved and was late recalled in a volume of papers "Poles–Jews 1939–1945). The following day, after the attack in the insurgent “Information Bulletin”, a short note “The Liberation of 350 Jews” was published.

After the war, information about the large success of the Scout Battalion was placed in almost all book about the Warsaw Uprising, but inactive there was no public tribute to Zośka soldiers. The case started erstwhile the Polish-Israeli relationship Society took place on 29 April 1992 for the first time in celebration of the Day of Memory and Holocaust. Participants of both uprisings together appeared in front of the statues of the Heroes of Ghetto and the Warsaw Uprising.

After learning about this, Wacław Micuta, a Swiss resident, decided to fund a memorial plaque to celebrate Jews released from Gęsiówka who joined his armoured platoon and died a soldier. The Kombatant communities have taken the initiative, and the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom has been active in it.

On 5 August 1994, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building at 34 Anielewicza Street. Among those present were the chief of Grey ranks Stanisław Broniewski-Orsz and chaplain of insurgent troops Fr Józef Warszawski ps. Wacław Micuta came from Geneva and talked about the Boy Scout rule “man's brother”. He besides spoke in a moving way from Israel for this occasion 1 of the released prisoners of Goosewka. Unfortunately, his speech was not recorded, and even now no 1 could give me his name. There was besides a man who told Zoski soldiers that he owed them his life due to the fact that they saved a woman, his future mother. Maria Morecka is in a reproduced photograph.

It was not until 28 November 2000 that Dr Mordechai Paldiel of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem expressed his appreciation for the “heroic conflict of the Zośka Battalion” which liberated and saved the Jews held in the camp on Gęsiej Street. In an article published on 9 April 2001 in the London "Polish diary and Soldier's Journal", Jan Nowak-Jezioranski wrote: "Why was this well-deserved expression of designation given only now, in 57 years after the Uprising? Until recently, there was a belief that the attack on Gęsiej Street was not motivated by the desire to save people's lives, but by the necessity of beginning the road to the Old Town. This case was curious in years ago by Dr. Edward Kossoy, a lawyer who acted as an advocate for the victims of Nazism in German damages cases. He collected evidence that the attack of the Zosek Battalion had no military targets. It was about saving lives.”

Israel's Ambassador to Poland Shewach Weiss had no uncertainty about this shadow erstwhile he decided, as part of the judaic Day held at the University of Warsaw on 8 May 2003, to organize a celebration of tribute to those who saved as many as 348 Jews, his fellow believers from the Holocaust 59 years ago. The surviving soldiers of Zoska were invited. They were touched.

Mr Szarota

Article published in Policy No 31/2003



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