Łukasz Revers: German Crimes in east Wielkopolska

Łukasz Revers: German Crimes in east Wielkopolskae

Moving on in my earlier work – The communist crimes and post-war testimonies of religion of the inhabitants of the Konin County, the subject of the crime of communism, could not leave without presenting an equally crucial and tragic communicative about German crimes which, during the Second planet War, bloodyly covered the Konin Land...

The beginning of horror

German crimes per inhabitant of the future Konyńsk Voivodeship were started on 1 September 1939. It was that day that the enemy air force bombed, among others, the village of Anielewo in the municipality of Kazimierz Biskupi (luckily, there were no casualties in people). Shortly thereafter, the Germans dropped bombs close the railway stations in the towns of Babiak, Czarków (one of the later districts of Konina), Cienin Kościelny, Koło (bomb fell on the evacuation train, killing more than 200 people) and Strzelkowo.

The raids did not miss either: Koscielec, Uniejowa or Wilczna. On September 5, the Germans bombed the area after a deserted field airport located in Białobrody close Kazimierz Biskupi. Fortunately, our airmen evacuated in time before their coming death.

As the raids progressed, Wehrmacht’s troops besides continued. The Polish army bravely faced them, fighting for Turks and Unies. Unfortunately, the graves of soldiers from September 1939 in various cemeteries attest to the spilled Polish blood and the losses we suffered on land... and in the air. On 5 September 1939 Lieutenant Edmund Górecki was shot down close the village of Borecznia Wielka. At a akin time, 2 unknown Polish airmen were killed in the area of Sobótka village.

Among the graves of soldiers who died for their homeland, there are besides graves of civilians who were murdered by the German occupier in the first days and weeks of the occupation. Germans in almost all larger village, town or town shot one, two, several, several, respective twelve and even respective 100 people, in order to intimidate and subdue Poles.

The towns that experienced this horror were, among others, Kazimierz Biskupi (1 victim), Kleczew (9 victims), Konin (2 victims), Turk (about 300 victims [sic!]) or Wylatkowo (4 victims). The first civilian executions were carried out by soldiers of the Wehrmacht (the story of the “clean hands of the Wermacht” in Germany is as actual as the pseudotheory of flat Earth). In later months and years, collective murders occurred in specified places, or around these places as: Koło, Kramsk, Osiny, Ostrowite, Struga and Zagórów.

The first social layers, which were exterminated by the Germans, were intelligence and clergy. Social activists, members of the Polish Military Organization and Wielkopolska insurgents besides murdered. They feared that the elite of the country, which I mentioned groups and social strata, would search to organize a partisan organization on their occupied lands. Already in September 1939, the occupiers murdered 2 Wielkopolska insurgents from Witkow – Adam Szczepański and Franciszek Świerkowski.

In November 1939, there were mass murders on the Konin Land elite: 1 took place in Konin at the fresh judaic cemetery, and the another in the Rzeszhowski Forest at Chełmno nad Ner. It is assumed that 56 Poles were shot in both executions, but according to the memories of any witnesses in Konin, a lot more people were to die. Unfortunately, until present the IPN investigators have failed to confirm this...

However, it is known that among the victims, known by name and surname, were Czesław Freudenreich – the last pre-war owner of the faiance mill in Kole or Stanisław Kwilecki of the coat of arms of Bylina – landowner, last heir of Grodźc, lieutenant of the Polish Army reserve, veteran of the Wielkopolska Uprising and the Polish Bolshevik War and prominent social activist. On 27 February 1940, in the Dąbrowicki Forests, close Tur and Dąbrowic, the Germans murdered about 35 Poles.

Cross with Him!

For Germans, it was crucial not only to fight people, but besides to what shapes us, or religion and culture. Following his second left-wing duplicate – communism, German fascism on a massive scale persecuted Catholicism. Hating Jesus Christ was not the only common denominator of Germans (national socialism) and communists (scientific socialism).

The cult of chiefs, demolition of opposition, censorship, propaganda, cruel apparatus of terror, contempt for life, traditions and another nations, genocide, the belief of constant conflict and cooperation of both systems (e.g. in the 4th partition of Poland) were almost identical components of both sick ideologies.

The proximity of our western neighbours to the communists is besides evidenced by the fact that Marxism was a kid of the Germans: Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx (of judaic origin), and the strong support of Marxist ideas, by part of German society in the first half of the 20th century. It was then, precisely in November 1918, a year after the celebrated October Revolution, that the supporters of Marx's thoughts led to a red revolution in Germany.

On Konin land, the fight against religion, and in peculiar against the Catholic Church, which has been the basis of patriotism and Polishness for centuries, was very bloody. The Germans closed almost all churches for Poles. The closed centres of worship were devastated, plundered from valuable items, replaced them with e.g. a granary, and any completely, or partially, razed to the ground (e.g.: church in Budisław Kościelny, Ostroważ, Spicymierz, Dębach Szlakecki or Koszutach).

Similar destiny was besides met by monasteries. The Kamedul Erem in Bienishev turned into a training centre for Hitlerjugend. Members of this paramilitary youth organization devastated the monastery, even committing desecration of the remains of deceased monks. And they terrorized the local population. Road crosses and chapels were besides destroyed. This dreary destiny was met, for example, by the Tarajwa Cross and the historical wooden chapel “Lososka” in Kazimierz Biskupi, which was celebrated for its construction – shingles on its domes resembled a fish shell.

German occupiers besides wanted to destruct the stone cross from the Old Lichen. So they ordered it to be destroyed by local Poles, but fortunately, the devout usurymen hid it in the waters of Lake Lichen. After the war, the same people pulled the cross out of the water and put it again in the village.

The Lichen church at St. Dorota's was converted into a school for Hitlerjugend boys. In July 1944, their educator – antitheist Berta Bauer, wanting to show her pupils that “God has no” gathered them all before the cemetery chapel. She then fired a weapon into the crucifix, which was above the entrance to the chapel. She said: “If God existed, he should punish me immediately.”

A fewer hours later, on his way to the train station to Konin, she died from the plane's bullets. Until now, this crucifix can be seen in the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Lichen.

Catholic clergymen, both priests and nuns, were arrested. any of them were settled by the Germans in the concentration camp in Dachau. Unfortunately for many, this was the last step in their earthly journey... Among others, Camedula and Servant of God – father of Alojza Maciej Correction from Bienishev (completed with an injection). The second Servant of God was gassed at the center of euthanasia in Hartheim Castle, as well as the Camedula of Bienishev – the father of Cherubin Valenty Kozik.

On a massive scale, they besides destroyed monuments dedicated to heroic ancestors and glorious events for the Polish Nation, specified as places of bloody battles of the January Uprising in east Wielkopolska. Among those destroyed were monuments from Bork Lądkowski, Dąbia, Ignacew, Swordsmen, Nowin Brdowski and Sławoszew.

One of the fewer pagan relics was besides to be destroyed. In the authorities, the occupiers, to harden the local road, utilized the erstwhile Slavic statue, for centuries standing close the buildings of the village.

Law of the Drakon in the German version

The Germans fought our countrymen in many another ways. They rapidly changed Polish town names to German, banned hanging the national flag and emblem, introduced a curfew, requisitioned warm clothes for winter, importantly restricted access to culture and food.

They closed the Polish schools, however, agreeing later to open a fistful of schools, in which science, in addition to the saturation of German propaganda, was limited to the transfer of cognition in the field of handwork and basic mathematics and instilling basic German words.

They opened objects intended only for Germans, specified as grocery stores. They ordered to bow down and remove their headgear before them and confiscated books which they subsequently destroyed (for example, they burned a very valuable collection of prominent landowners, penultimate owner of the property Kazimierz Biskupi, patriot, socialist and senator – Stanisław Mańkowski's coat of arms Zaremb).

It was even prohibited to have a radio, to sale livestock and to slaughter animals, for which the death punishment was threatened (two farmers from the municipality of Kazimierz Biskupi – Władysław Jagodinski and Józef Michalski). The occupiers took hostages, which they utilized as “guard shields” during anti-partisan actions (unless it is essential to compose that only 1 punishment was threatened for the conspiracy...). Many inhabitants of the equine region were brutally and unjustly beaten, imprisoned, and even killed, in German concentration and extermination camps.

In late 1939, Germany deported the first inhabitants of east Wielkopolska to General Guberni. They had no mercy on the elderly, the sick, and the children. Deportations were always held at night or in the morning. The occupiers gave a maximum of 30 minutes to prepare and leave the house. The expelled Poles could not bring with them precious items, savings books, mottos or sheets.

Only hand baggage weighing up to 30 kg per individual was allowed (it was half as much for children). Often, people were thrown out by physical force. The occupiers brought German colonists to the site of the displaced. From the municipality itself, Kazimierz Bishops deported over 2,000 people, including my ancestors of the Revers from Bochlewa. It is worth noting that already in the first period of planet War II Germany took over large well-developed assets of Polish landowners.

Another way of indirect extermination was to transport Poles to Germany for forced labour. any 500 people, including underage residents of the municipality, were transported from Kazimierz Biskup and the surrounding areas.

The forced labors in Germany were very difficult, due to the fact that German farmers frequently treated Poles as slaves, frequently tormented them, starved them and forced them to work, lasting even 18 hours a day.

The Germans had no mercy even for prisoners of war. On 14 September 1939, 2 unknown names and names of Polish soldiers were shot in Kazimierz Biskupim. On October 19, 1942, in the courtyard of the Kazimier municipal office, they shot a Russian prisoner of war – captain of the aviation of Mikołaj Sworow. They besides forced those taken into captivity to do forced labor. 30 English POWs were utilized to build the Warta – Goplo Canal.

People have prepared this fate...

The judaic population, from the first days of the occupation, was discriminated against by the German occupier. First, the Germans limited their rights, e.g. to medical care. They destroyed or adapted many synagogues, judaic libraries, and cemeteries for another purposes. They robbed and banned public worship. Later they created separate zones of residence for them – the alleged ghetto.

They founded them in cities, towns and larger villages. In east Wielkopolska, they existed, among others, in Dąbi, Grabów, Grodzic, Kłodawa, Kole, Konin, Rzgów, Turku, Uniejów, Zagórów or the Kowal of the Lord. any of these places served as “collective points” for judaic people from another ghettos.

The gettas were overflowing. They were multiplied by poverty, hunger, sickness, and death. In time, their residents were resettled to another ghettos, labour camps or transported to the first German extermination camp in Chełmno nad Ner in Europe. It is besides impossible to forget the remaining victims of Chełmn: about a group of dozens of Czech children from the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, about 4300 Roma and Sinti, russian POWs, unknown number of priests, nuns, residents of old age homes and urban shelters in Włocławek and Polish children from Zamość.

The site of extermination functioned from December 1941 to April 1943, then from June 1944 to January 1945. According to any estimates, in specified a short time, Chelmno could consume as many as 350,000 lives.

The camp itself was small. Extermination was limited mainly to the area after the erstwhile property and the surrounding Forest of Torzhowski. Jews, among others from Bełchatov, Brzezin, Dąbia, Gąbin, Grabowa, Kłodawa, Koła or Łódź, were transported by local railway, and were then brought to the palace, where the Germans stripped the mediocre of their possessions. The occupiers then ordered them to enter the gas-cells (called mobile gas chambers) waiting at the palace.

The Germans connected the exhaust pipes to them, causing the exhaust gases to scope the interior, suffocating Jews in them to die. The cars reached the Forest of Toshovsky, where all day a group of respective twelve prisoners dug and burned thousands of bodies in pits and crematoria. The unburnt bones of the victims had in a peculiar cutting mill.

In addition to ghettos, there were besides forced labour camps where Jews were forced to slave labor. specified centres existed in Ciąń, Czarków, Grodzic, Land, Slesin and Zagórów. On August 12, 1943, in Czarkow, after many days of deadly distress and exhaustion, the prisoners decided to rebel. They set fire to any camp barracks. On the same day, any rebels committed suicide. Shortly after, the Germans liquidated the camp.

In Golina, Jews were forced to build a large plant, specially located by occupiers in the judaic cemetery. According to the oral accounts of the older golinian and residents of surrounding villages, The Germans were to erect crematoria in this building, whose intent was to burn the bodies of murdered Poles. The occupiers, like their Buchenwald colleagues, attempted to tan their skin and produce soap from human bodies.

Unfortunately, these accounts cannot be supported by any known documents. However, the fact is that shortly after the war Poles launched the facility in this place, creating a rendering plant in it ‘Bacutil’, intended, inter alia, for burning fallen animals.

At least until the 1950s, large German trucks were supposedly abandoned in Golina, which were to be utilized to gas Jews at the places of massacre. However, there is no more information about this.

For Poles Germany has allocated forced labour camps in Gosławice and Świnice Warcki. There was besides a dense prison in Konin on Water Street where our countrymen were held, tortured and murdered. Interestingly, the function of this building did not change even after the armed forces ceased. During the years of Stalinism, the communists imprisoned, tortured and killed the alleged "enemies of the people". To the south of Water Street, on the Grey Lines, there was a Gestapo detention, in which after the war there was an arrest of the safety Office.

For priests, Germany created a transitional camp, located in the buildings of the monastery of Missionary Missionaries of the Holy household in Kazimierz Biskup. In the abbey of the land was a prison for clergymen.

Michał Wagner of Daninow (Gmina Kazimierz Biskupi) – 1 of many victims of German crimes
in the horse powiat

When writing about German crimes on Koninska Land, 1 cannot forget about the 2 large places of execution of Jews: the Forest of Krążel and Rudzicki Forest. In the area of both forest complexes, about 9,500 Jews from the powiat Konyński died. The Germans utilized mobile gas chambers there, among others, but what was happening in the ellipse seems the most frightening: for human execution the occupiers used, for example, burnt lime, which in consequence to water became a corrosive substance utilized on surviving people.

One of the witnesses of this execution – the vet Mieczysław Sękiewicz from Konin – remembered how 1 of the Gestapo smashed the head of a tiny kid on the edge of the car. Then the killer threw this body at his grieving mother, in specified a way that the brain leaking out of her skull sealed her mouth...

It is worth noting that despite the constant fear and surrounding death thousands of Poles decided to give shelter to the Jews persecuted by the Germans. Many of them paid for the act with their lives (like the blessed Ulm family). We are the nation which, for saving Jews during planet War II, received the most awards of the Righteous Among the Nations. More than 7,200 Poles were awarded this award.

Of course, it is not to be believed that those distinguished by this discrimination were the only Polish people who saved the Jews. To this day many another Poles have not been appreciated by the Israeli institute Jad Ościm. 1 of them was Stefan Staszak – a farmer from Wierzch. Despite the threat of detection from his folksdomic neighbour, with the hazard of his life and his immediate family, he hid a judaic female and her kid on his farm. Fortunately, both Staszacy and the 2 Jews mentioned survived the German occupation.

It is simply a pity that so many Jews, led by the State of Israel, forgot our large same - sacrifice toward their ancestors. It has been here, since the mediate Ages, that they have found the desired asylum. It's a pity so many of them forgot about our planet War II Righteous. alternatively of gratitude, they slander us in the media, claiming that we are anti-Semites and have the blood of their ancestors on our hands (e.g. they accuse us of being liable for the murders in Jedwabne, for which Germany is actually guilty).

Some Polish citizens, writing poisonous articles, books and filming specified films as Pokłosie, capture and spread this false communicative around the world. Why do Jews not resent Ukraine, France, or Croatia, whose tens of thousands of citizens have been actively active in murdering believers of Moses? Why do they keep quiet about their own judaic police, whose officers frequently helped Germans catch and deport Jews from ghettos to extermination camps? These questions stay unanswered...

Bleeding and impunity

On the Konin land, Germany caused immense harm to road infrastructure, railway infrastructure, residential, public and spiritual buildings, which only after any time we managed to build. We've lost many objects irretrievably. The unknown number of works of art burned or disappeared. Most synagogues and judaic cemeteries were destroyed. They have devastated dozens of churches and mansions. They robbed local factories.

They murdered and maimed hundreds of thousands of people physically and mentally, and yet only a fewer of them got justice. Being more accurate, only part of the crew of the Chełmno extermination camp over Ner responded for their actions. The Gendarms, Lenza and Haas, were murdered by the prisoners themselves during his violent liquidation on the night of 17 to 18 January 1945 (rebellied Jews burned alive in the granary, set on fire by the occupiers).

Founder and first commander of the camp – Herbert Lange, co-responsible, among others, for the execution in the Forest of Krążel died in battles with the Red Army in April 1945. Hans Bothmann (second chief) and Albert Plate (second deputy chief) committed suicide. After the war, Walter Piller (second deputy chief) and Herman Gielov (one of the gas-car drivers) were executed for his crimes.

Manikovsky household palace in Kazimierz Biskup, devastated by Germans during planet War II

The end?

Even after 1989 Germany's policy towards Poland remained unchanged. Modern Germany, following the footsteps of its erstwhile ancestors – Frederick II, Frederick Wilhelm II, Otto von Bismarck and the repeatedly mentioned "ubermenschs", has launched another attack on Poland, which, for greater efficiency, has chosen a different form of attack. In the period of economical transformation, German capital, in cooperation with the “Polish” post-communists, actively active in the negation of the Polish economy.

These actions involved, among others, the acquisition of Polish plants by Germans, whose large part later declared bankruptcy. It is not essential to mention that many inhabitants of Konin inactive remember the privatization and sale of Gosławice Sugar Plant to our western neighbours. What was the consequence of this transaction? In 2008, a prosperous and modern plant went back to history...

German slanders on Poland besides seem frightening, lyingly accusing us of, for example, complicity in the Holocaust, indifference in the prosecution and judgement by the Germans of their own war criminals, negation of their crimes, failure to pay Poland due compensation for war losses, continued interference with our interior policy and opposition to the implementation of key investments for Poland – e.g. the excavation of Wiślany Mierzea or the construction of CPK.

The communicative has circled, but it should not surprise us Poles. For hundreds of years, always the same— Nihil novi sub saltsBut, dear God... How much longer?

My great-grandfather – Władysław Revers from Bochlewa – 1 of many Bochlevans displaced by the Germans during planet War II

Author: Łukasz Revers

Source:

– Piotr Maluskiewicz, Horse Province: monographic sketch, Issue 1, State technological Publishing House, Warsaw 1983, pp. 81-340, ISBN 83-01-00534-3;

– Collective work edited by Zbigniew Chodyła, History of Casimir Bishop, Issue 2, Aspeks Publishing House, Konin 2001, pp. 189-228, ISBN 83-88349-03-01;

– A. Grzegorczyk, P. Wąsowicz, Kulmhof extermination camp in Chełm nad Nerm – Memory Site Guide, Issue 1, UNI-DRUK Publishing and Printing House, 2016, pp. 7-37, ISBN 978-83-937352-9-7;

– Jerzy Jaworski, Scars, Issue 1, edited by the author, Marki 2018, pp. 17-138, ISBN 978-83-934718-8-1;

– Marek Granic, History of the Kamiedulów Bieniszewski, Issue 1, City of Kazimierz Bishops, Kazimierz Bishops 2016, pp. 156-161, ISBN 978-83-946325-0-2;

– Institute of National Memory in Poznań [online] – https://poznan.ipn.gov.pl/pl7/dla-mediow/communications/200505,Exhumations-exhumations-exhumations-exhumations-exhumations-sacrifices-mass-executions- carried out-by-functionali.html [accessed at 22:18, 16.04.2024];

– Shrine of Our woman of Lichen Painful Queen of Poland [online] – >TABLE> [accessed at 22:04, 16.04.2024];

– Oral account of John Krzysztof Tomczak, collected by Luke Revers on 30 March 2023;

– The oral account of Gustav Revers, collected by Luke Revers on 5 April 2023;

– Oral account of Andrzej Balcerzak, collected by Łukasz Revers on 20 April 2023;

– Oral account of Tomasz Jankowski, collected by Łukasz Revers on 15 April 2024;

– The oral account of Kazimierz Cyferkowski, collected by Łukasz Revers on 10 January 2025.

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