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Memory of the Nazi Camps in Poland, 1944-1950 Arrested Mourning WARSAW STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY Edited by Dariusz Stola / Machteld Venken VOLUME 2 Zofia Wóycicka Arrested Mourning Memory of the Nazi Camps in Poland, 1944-1950 Translated by Jasper Tilbury Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. This publication is funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland. Editorial assistance by Jessica Taylor-Kucia. Cover image: A Red Army soldier liberating a camp prisoner (Za Wolność i Lud, 1-15 Apr. 1950). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wóycicka, Zofia, author. [Przerwana żałoba. English] Arrested mourning : memory of the Nazi camps in Poland, 1944-1950 / Zofia Wóycicka. pages cm. -- (Warsaw studies in contemporary history; volume 2) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-3-631-63642-8 1. Collective memory--Poland. 2. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German. 3. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Poland. I. Title. HM1027.P7W6813 2013 940.54'7243--dc23 2013037453 ISSN 2195-1187 ISBN 978-3-631-63642-8 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-03883-5 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03883-5 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Zofia Wóycicka, 2013 Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This book is part of the Peter Lang Edition list and was peer reviewed prior to publication. www.peterlang.com Contents List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................. 7 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 9 PART I. PEOPLE .............................................................................................. 17 Chapter 1 Former Prisoners: “Finest Sons of the Fatherland” or “Hapless Victims of the Camps”? .................................................................................................... 19 Repatriation and Assistance .......................................................................... 21 Former Prisoners Organise Themselves ....................................................... 35 Politicisation of the PZbWP ......................................................................... 43 The Struggle against “Victimhood”.............................................................. 57 Chapter 2 Our “Jewish Comrades”? Who Belongs to the Community of Victims? ........... 71 Anti-Semitism .............................................................................................. 75 Isolation ........................................................................................................ 79 Jews in the PZbWP ....................................................................................... 86 “A Separate Death”? ..................................................................................... 91 “Heroes of the Ghetto” or Passive Victims? ............................................... 108 Other Groups of Victims ............................................................................ 113 Chapter 3 At the “Limit of a Certain Morality”: Polish Debates on the Conduct of Concentration Camp Prisoners ..................................................................... 117 War Crimes Trials in Poland, 1944-1950 ................................................... 119 Controversies Surrounding the Trials of Prisoner Functionaries ............... 128 Beyond the Courtroom ............................................................................... 143 Defending the Image of the Political Prisoner ........................................... 151 PART II. PLACES .......................................................................................... 163 Chapter 4 Sites of Memory, Sites of Forgetting ................................................................ 165 Majdanek and Auschwitz: Vying for “Pre-eminence” ................................ 165 “The Death of Birkenau” ............................................................................ 176 In the Background: Stutthof and Gross-Rosen ........................................... 181 Forgotten Places: Chełmno, Bełżec, Treblinka, Sobibór ............................ 188 6 Content Chapter 5 Disputes over the Method of Commemorating the Sites of Former Concentration Camps ........................................................................................ 193 “Evidence of Crimes” or “A Collection of Curiosities”? ........................... 193 Cemeteries or “Battlefields”? ..................................................................... 204 “Jewish Cemeteries” or “Places of Martyrdom of the Polish Nation and of Other Nations”? ............................................. 214 Chapter 6 A Christian Monument to Jewish Martyrdom? An Unrealised Project from 1947 to Commemorate the Site of the Former Death Camp at Treblinka ....................................................................................................... 233 The “Polish Klondike”: Genesis of the Project .......................................... 233 Iconography of the Memorial ..................................................................... 244 Epilogue: Auschwitz—“A Tacky Stall of Cheap Anti-imperialist Propaganda” ...................................................................................................... 259 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 271 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 277 A. Sources .................................................................................................. 277 B. Studies .................................................................................................... 285 Index ................................................................................................................. 305 List of Abbreviations AAN Central Archives of Modern Records AIPN Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance AK Home Army APMAB Archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim APMM Archives of the State Museum at Majdanek AŻIH Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute BCh Peasants Battalions BŻAP Bulletin of the Jewish News Agency CHD Retail Trade Organisation CKOS Central Committee for Social Welfare CKŻP Central Committee of Jews in Poland CZM Central Museum Board CŻKH Central Jewish Historical Commission FIAPP Fédération Internationale des Anciens Prisonniers Politiques (International Federation of Former Political Prisoners) GKBZNwP Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland GKW Central Vetting Committee of the PZbWP GL People’s Guard KdAW Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer (Committee of Anti-fascist Resistance Fighters) KC PZPR Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party KL Konzentrationslager (Concentration Camp) KG MO Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia KOS Committee for Social Welfare KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany) KUOT Committee for the Commemoration of Treblinka Victims KRN National Homeland Council KŻ Jewish Committee MAP Ministry of Public Administration MKiS Ministry of Art and Culture MON Ministry of Defence MPiOS Ministry of Labour and Social Care NSZ National Army Forces NTN Supreme National Tribunal PCK Polish Red Cross 8 List of Abbreviations PKWN Polish Committee of National Liberation PMM State Museum at Majdanek PMOB State Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau POP Basic Party Cell PPR Polish Workers’ Party PPS Polish Socialist Party PRL Polish People’s Republic PSL Polish Peasants’ Party PUR National Office for Repatriation PZbWP Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi Prisons and Concentration Camps PZPR Polish United Workers’ Party ROPWiM Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites ROS Social Welfare Council of the PZbWP SARP Polish Architects’ Association SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) SD Democratic Party SkAPMAB Repository of Records of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim SN Supreme Court SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany) SSK Special Criminal Court TSKŻ Social and Cultural Association of Jews UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration VVN Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes (Society of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime) WP Polish Army WUBP Provincial Office of State Security YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association ZBoWiD Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy ZG PZbWP Executive Board of the PZbWP ZG ZboWiD Executive Board of ZboWiD ZIW Union of War Disabled ZO PZbWP Branch Executive Board of the PZbWP ZŻP Union of Jewish Partisans ZUWZoNiD Union of Participants in the Armed Struggle for Independence and Democracy ZŻUWZzF Union of Jewish Participants in the Armed Struggle against Fascism ŻIH Jewish Historical Institute ŻKH Jewish Historical Commission Introduction In the mid-1980s, after protracted efforts, the Carmelite Order was granted per- mission by the Polish authorities to
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