Page 1

Record of witness testimony No. 453

(Text, Manuscript)

Language

Polish

Persons

Kupiec, Wacław, 1912- (interviewee)
Kurowski, Bożysław, 1911-2006 (interviewer)

Origin

Trelleborg, 1946-07-18

Physical description

ff. 13

Format: Non digital + Digital, reformatted digital

Abstract

This document is part of a series of interviews with former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. The interviews were conducted in 1945-1946 by the Polish Research Institute in Lund.

On 27 August 1944, the Warsaw citizens were ordered by the German authorities to leave their properties. Those who did not follow the order would be executed. A number of citizens – the Warsaw evacuees - had been robbed by the Ukrainian guards before being forwarded to the transient camp in Pruszków where the first selection were carried out. All the evacuees were divided up: the young and healthy-looking were separated and taken away. The witness was among 3500 other evacuees who were loaded onto freight wagons and transported to Stutthof. When they arrived at their destination, they were met by SS men who accompanied them on the trip to the camp. The newcomers were told to turn in all items in their possession and change their clothes. Shortly afterwards, they were assigned to a regular barrack but they were not allowed to converse with other inmates. The witness was among 1500 other prisoners who were selected for transport to Neuengamme. After arriving at the camp, the new prisoners went into quarantine for two weeks. After finishing quarantine, the witness was transferred to the Husum camp. He was assigned to a work crew that was responsible for digging ditches. The daily life consisted of physically demanding work, inadequate food rations and corporal punishment. In December 1944, the witness was sent back to Neuengamme. On 31 January 1945, he was transferred to Fersen where about 1700 prisoners were used as slave labourers. In April 1945, the Fersen camp was evacuated.

Notes

About the collection: At the end of World War II approximately 20,000 Nazi concentration camp prisoners were evacuated to Sweden. Many of them were Polish citizens. In order to document their experiences, Zygmunt Łakociński founded the Polish Research Institute in Lund. The collection contains 512 in-depth interviews with survivors, materials that they brought with them to Sweden, and also other material that the institute collected, compiled, and created.

External links

The Polish Research Institute collection

Document type

Interview

Subject, topics

Warsaw uprising, 1944
Guards (Ukrainian)
Work crews
Evacuation
Catholic interviewee
Male interviewee

Subject, geographic

Stutthof
Neuengamme
Fersen
Sandbostel

Contact

Location

Lund University LibraryHelgonabackenBox 3

221 00 Lund

The Polish Research Institute in Lund (PIZ)

Identifiers (general)

urn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-103753 (nbn)

Identifiers (local)

alvin-record:103753 (alvin)