From the Warsaw Uprising to Frankfurt/Main. Polish concentration camp prisoners in the ‘Adlerwerke’ factories

What did the citizens and people living in the neighbourhood know? 
 

The city authorities were confronted with the camp and the high death rate among the prisoners in a number of different ways. The city not only took on the task of officially registering the names of those who died, but also their transfer to the crematorium in the main cemetery and their cremation and burial. In October 1944, camp director Franz informed the Frankfurt burial authority that the dead needed to be taken from the satellite camp to the nearest city crematorium. After being cremated, they were to be buried in a secluded part of the cemetery in unmarked graves. The burial authority was requested to claim for the costs by sending a bill to the commander of the Natzweiler concentration camp. (Figs. 18 . , 19 . )

At their places of work, the prisoners came into contact with Germans, particularly with the foremen, who inducted them into their work and monitored their progress, as well as with ancillary guards who were provided by the Adlerwerke as a support for the guard squad. The people living in the neighbourhood saw the prisoners when they were made to clear the rubble on the streets in the area. The work in the mine clearance squad, which was tasked with defusing unexploded bombs, was particularly dangerous. Some of the prisoners were also deployed in the private homes of Adler workers after bombing raids. (Fig. 20 . ) The weakened prisoners walked to the bathing facilities in the nearby Ackermannschule school at least three times. (Fig. 21 . ) The “delousing procedure” conducted there was torture for the prisoners, who were forced to stand naked for hours in the cold waiting for their clothing. During this process, they came into contact with the factory employees. One member of staff was of Polish origin and tried to help the prisoners. For example, he gave Jan Kozłowski a pair of trousers, which helped him escape, since he would have attracted attention in his striped prisoners’ trousers. 

The shop owners in the area knew the members of the SS who worked in the camp, particularly the head cook Martin Weiß, who set out every day to procure food and alcohol. In March 1945 at the latest, the camp was being talked about in the city, when the camp SS shot Georgiy Lebedenko and Adam Golub, two Ukrainian prisoners who had escaped in the early hours of the morning, on Lahnstrasse. Lebedenko was shot by two SS guards shortly after his escape. Golub managed to hid in cellars in apartment buildings for several hours before the people living there helped the SS to find him. He was seized during the afternoon and shot right in front of several of the neighbours. Today, there is a square named in memory of the two prisoners, Golub-Lebedenko-Platz. (Fig. 22 . )

The murderous camp clearance
 

In March 1945, shortly before the Americans entered Frankfurt, the SS cleared the camp. In mid-March 1945, 450 prisoners who were unable to march were transported by train to Bergen-Belsen. At least 100 of them died during the journey, while most of the others did not survive the appalling conditions in the completely overfilled and undersupplied camp. Only eleven are known to have survived. They were freed on 15 April 1945 when Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British troops. On the evening of 24 March 1945, the SS forced the approximately 360 prisoners who remained in Frankfurt to march along the railway track to Gelnhausen, Schlüchtern and Fulda until they reached Hünfeld, where they were loaded onto trains that took them to Buchenwald. During the march, the SS shot anyone who was too exhausted to keep pace. Days, weeks and in some cases even years later, a total of 50 bodies were discovered along the route which can be ascribed to the death march. (Fig. 23 . )

The post-war investigations clearly demonstrate the extent to which the civilian population was witness to these crimes. For example, Ferdinand Müller from Fulda gave the following statement on 29 November 1947: “On 29/3/1945, on Maundy Thursday, at around 10 a.m., I travelled from Fulda to Lehnerz in the direction of Hünfeld. At the exit of the town, at the level of Kollmann’s barn, a transport of around 150 concentration camp prisoners emerged from the barn. As they continued their march along the road, a person suddenly fell down at the end of the line of prisoners. This person was taken to the side of the road by an SS man and a person wearing civilian clothes. After the unconscious person had been dragged to one side, the SS man shot him through the head with his automatic pistol without any hesitation. The body of the man who had been shot was then thrown down the slope into the gallows ditch. During this time, there were a lot of people about on the street. All the people using the road were very angry with the SS man. They protested against his behaviour, whereupon he threatened the people with his automatic pistol.”[6]

A few days after their arrival in Buchenwald, the survivors were sent on further death marches by the SS. The majority were forced to march to Flossenbürg and then on to Dachau, where around 40 former prisoners from the Adlerwerke were liberated on 29 April 1945. Many of them did not survive the death marches. Some succeeded in fleeing along the way. Among them was Janusz Garlicki, who described in detail in his book how he made the decision to escape and what conditions needed to be in place for him to succeed.