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This book explores one of the most notorious aspects of the German system of oppression in wartime Poland: the only purpose-built camp for children under the age of 16 years in German-occupied Europe. The camp at Przemyslowa street, or the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt as the Germans called it, was a concentration camp for children. The camp at Przemyslowa existed for just over two years, from December 1942 until January 1945. During that time, an unknown number of children, mainly Polish nationals, were imprisoned there and subjected to extreme physical and emotional abuse. For almost all, the consequences of atrocities which they endured in the camp remained with them for the rest of their lives. This book focuses on the establishment of the camp, the experience of the child prisoners, and the post-war investigations and trials. It is based on contemporary German documents, post-war Polish trials and German investigations, as well as dozens of testimonies from camp survivors, guards, civilian camp staff and the camp leadership
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. The Camps.- 3. The Children.- 4. The Trials.- 5. Conclusion.
About the author
Katarzyna Person is a historian of the Holocaust working at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland.
Johannes-Dieter Steinert is Professor of Modern European History and Migration Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
Report
"One of the strengths of this book is its reliance on testimonies. ... Throughout the book Person and Steinert are noticeably cautious in drawing conclusions. They share with their readers the research dilemmas that they encountered and ways of solving them. ... Przemyslowa Concentration Camp is written with depth and thoroughness; it proves that the camp is an important part of the discussion of the ideology of the German occupation in Poland ... ." (Yaron Nir Freisager, Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 52 (2), December, 2024)
