Historians of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism have come across a document revealing the details of the German camp for Polish children in Łódź. According to the document of the Criminal Police (Kripo) from Łódź of August 30, 1941, young Poles who were deprived of their parents and deprived of access to schools by the invaders, were considered as a “danger” to the German population.

Historians of the Museum of Polish Children found documents describing the process of establishing the Kinder-KL Litzmannstadt concentration camp. According to the records in the copy kept in the archives of the Łódź branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, the children who survived the camp conditions were planned to be used for slave labor after their prior Germanization.

Ireneusz Maj, the director of the Museum explains that they were supposed to be farmworkers and servants allowed by the master race to survive only in this way.

The document stated “From the point of view of the race (…) a Pole is a man of low value, [with] the nature of a slave and he will also be treated as such. If a Pole as a slave is obedient he can make a living for his work, and if he is lazy and sluggish, he must be flicked with a knout”.

The Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism uses trial archives, e.g. Eugenia Poll’s watchwoman archive and other German archives. On their basis, it has recently been possible to discover the post-war fate of the camp commandant, Camillo Ehrlich. The documents show that he was never called to account for the crimes he had committed.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński