Trawniki concentration camp
Encyclopedia
Trawniki concentration camp, in the village of Trawniki
about 40 km southeast of Lublin in Poland, was an SS
labour camp which provided forced labourers for a nearby industrial plant to work in appalling conditions with little food. The Trawniki camp was commanded initially by Hermann Hoefle, and later by Karl Streibl.
Initially established in July 1941 as a camp to hold Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, from June 1942 to May 1944 it served as a forced labor camp for Jews, initially under Operation Reinhard
and from September 1943 as part of the Majdanek concentration camp system.
From September 1941 until July 1944, the camp was also utilized for training guards recruited from Soviet
POWs
, known as "Hiwi", for service with Nazi occupation forces
in occupied Poland
and neighbouring countries. The Hiwi included ethnic Germans from eastern Europe, Belarus
ians, Estonia
ns, Latvia
ns, Lithuania
ns, Russians, Ukrainians
, and others. "Trawniki" guards took part in Operation Reinhard
, the Nazi plan for extermination of the Polish Jews, and/or served at extermination camps.
in his 1992 book Ordinary Men, Kudryashov argued that the Trawniki men were examples of how ordinary people could become willing killers.
was extradited to the USSR where he was sentenced to death and executed in short order. In March 2009 Josias Kumpf
an Austrian who served as a guard in Trawniki, was deported from the U.S. to Austria. In May 2009 John Demjanjuk
was deported from the US to Germany. In July 2010 a former Soviet POW
, Samuel Kunz, was charged with being a Belzec guard who had been trained at Trawniki. Kunz died in November 2010 before his trial.
Jakiw Palij, another guard, was stripped of his United States citizenship for having "made material misrepresentations in his application for a visa to immigrate to the United States" Another guard, Jaroslaw Bilaniuk, a friend of Palij, was placed into denaturalization proceedings, but it is not clear if those proceedings had concluded or if he was still a U.S. citizen at the time of his death in 2007.
Reinhard, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 25, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–99.
Trawniki
Trawniki is a village in Świdnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Trawniki. It lies approximately south-east of Świdnik and south-east of the regional capital Lublin....
about 40 km southeast of Lublin in Poland, was an SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
labour camp which provided forced labourers for a nearby industrial plant to work in appalling conditions with little food. The Trawniki camp was commanded initially by Hermann Hoefle, and later by Karl Streibl.
Initially established in July 1941 as a camp to hold Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, from June 1942 to May 1944 it served as a forced labor camp for Jews, initially under Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
and from September 1943 as part of the Majdanek concentration camp system.
From September 1941 until July 1944, the camp was also utilized for training guards recruited from Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
POWs
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, known as "Hiwi", for service with Nazi occupation forces
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in occupied Poland
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
and neighbouring countries. The Hiwi included ethnic Germans from eastern Europe, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ians, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
ns, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
ns, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
ns, Russians, Ukrainians
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and others. "Trawniki" guards took part in Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
, the Nazi plan for extermination of the Polish Jews, and/or served at extermination camps.
Key role of Trawniki men in Final Solution
Between 70 and 120 Trawniki Hiwi men were selected to act as the guard unit at each of the three Reinhardt death camps and came under the jurisdiction of the relevant camp commandant. Almost all of the Trawniki guards were involved in shooting and beating Jews at some point in their careers. The Russian historian Sergei Kudryashov, who made a special study of the Trawniki guards reported that there was little sign of any attraction to National Socialism or anti-Semitism with the Trawniki men. Most of the Trawniki men volunteered in order to leave the POW camps and/or because of self-interest. Despite the generally apathetic views of the Trawniki guards, the vast majority faithfully carried out the SS's expectations of how to treat Jews, and that mistreatment of Jews was "systematic and without any particular cause". Many, though not all of the Trawniki men as part of their training executed Jews. Following the lead of the American historian Christopher BrowningChristopher Browning
Christopher Robert Browning is an American historian of the Holocaust.-Education:Browning received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1968 and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975. He taught at Pacific Lutheran University from 1974 to 1999, eventually becoming...
in his 1992 book Ordinary Men, Kudryashov argued that the Trawniki men were examples of how ordinary people could become willing killers.
Later careers of Trawniki personnel
In 1984 Feodor FedorenkoFeodor Fedorenko
Feodor Fedorenko was a naturalized U.S. citizen, a former Soviet citizen, who was denaturalized, extradited to the USSR, sentenced there to death for treason and participation in the Holocaust and executed.-Biography:...
was extradited to the USSR where he was sentenced to death and executed in short order. In March 2009 Josias Kumpf
Josias Kumpf
Josias Kumpf was a Nazi concentration camp guard.-WWII-Era:Josias Kumpf, born in the former Yugoslavia, served under the SS guard forces at Sachsenhausen in 1942 at the age of 17 and served there for about a year before transferring to Trawniki concentration camp...
an Austrian who served as a guard in Trawniki, was deported from the U.S. to Austria. In May 2009 John Demjanjuk
John Demjanjuk
John Demjanjuk is a retired Ukrainian-American auto worker who gained notoriety after being accused numerous times of Holocaust-related war crimes....
was deported from the US to Germany. In July 2010 a former Soviet POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, Samuel Kunz, was charged with being a Belzec guard who had been trained at Trawniki. Kunz died in November 2010 before his trial.
Jakiw Palij, another guard, was stripped of his United States citizenship for having "made material misrepresentations in his application for a visa to immigrate to the United States" Another guard, Jaroslaw Bilaniuk, a friend of Palij, was placed into denaturalization proceedings, but it is not clear if those proceedings had concluded or if he was still a U.S. citizen at the time of his death in 2007.
Reference
- Kudryashov, Sergei “Ordinary Collaborators: The Case of the Travniki Guards” pages 226-239 from Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy Essays in Honour of John Erickson edited by Mark and Ljubica Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004,ISBN 0297849131.
Further reading
- Peter Black: Foot Soldiers of the Final Solution: The Trawniki Training Camp and Operation
Reinhard, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 25, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–99.
External links
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Trawniki
- In depth overview of the Trawniki Camp, Trawniki Staff, Photos. - All about Trawniki
- Belzec: Stepping Stone to Genocide, Sources of Manpower