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{{Short description|Nazi concentration camp in Poland (1943–1944)}}
{{good article}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{use British English|date=November 2021}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox concentration camp
|name=Warsaw
|type=[[Nazi concentration camp]]
|___location=[[Warsaw]], [[General Government]], [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]]
|image=File:Gęsiowka Prison in Warsaw (1944).jpg
|caption=Barracks and watchtowers of KL Warschau during capture of the concentration camp by Battalion Zośka, 5 August 1944
|other names=See [[#Name|relevant section]]
|known for=[[#Discredited extermination camp story|Discredited extermination camp theory]]
|built by=Camp's inmates
|coordinates={{coord|52|14|54.3|N|20|59|23.7|E|region:PL-MA_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
|operated by=[[Nazi Germany]]
|commandant=[[Wilhelm Göcke]] (June 1943 – September 1943)<br>[[Nikolaus Herbet]] (September/October 1943 – April 1944)<br>[[Wilhelm Ruppert]] (May–June 1944)<ref name="USHMM" />
|original use=[[Gęsiówka]] prison<ref name="USHMM" />
|construction=19 July 1943 – 10 June 1944
|in operation=19 July 1943 – 5 August 1944
|prisoner type=Mostly [[Jews]] from countries other than Poland (Greece and Hungary in particular)<ref name="USHMM" /><br />300 Germans
|inmates=8,000–9,000<ref name="USHMM" />
|killed=4,000–5,000 prisoners <br />total: 20,000
|liberated by=[[Home Army]] during the [[Warsaw Uprising]]<ref name="USHMM" />
|alt=A black-and-white photo of barracks and watchtowers of the Warsaw concentration camp, as photographed by Battalion Zośka on 5 August 1944, the day of its liberation
}}
'''Warsaw''' was a [[Nazi concentration camps|Nazi concentration camp]] in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] during [[World War II]]. It was formed on the base of the now-nonexistent [[Gęsiówka]] prison, in what is today the [[Warsaw]] neighbourhood of [[Muranów]], on the order of [[Reichsführer-SS]] [[Heinrich Himmler]]. The camp operated from July 1943 to August 1944.
Located in the ruins of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]], {{Abbr|KL|Konzentrationslager}} Warschau first functioned as a camp in its own right, but was demoted to a branch of the [[Majdanek concentration camp]] in May 1944. In late July that year, due to [[Operation Bagration|the Red Army approaching Warsaw]], [[the Nazis]] started to evacuate the camp. Around 4,000 inmates were forced to march on foot to [[Kutno]], {{convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away; those who survived were then transported to [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]. On 5 August 1944, KL Warschau was captured by [[Battalion Zośka]] during the [[Warsaw Uprising]], liberating 348 [[Jews]] who were still left on its premises. It was the only German camp in Poland to be liberated by [[Resistance during World War II|anti-Nazi resistance]] forces, rather than by [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] troops. After the [[Red Army]] definitively expelled the Germans from Warsaw in January 1945, the new communist administration continued to run the buildings as a forced labour camp, and then as a prison, until it was closed in 1956. All the camp's premises were demolished in 1965.
The ''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|Encyclopedia on Camps and Ghettos]]'' says that a total of 8,000 to 9,000 inmates were held there, while [[Bogusław Kopka]] estimates the number as at least 7,250 prisoners, all but 300 of whom were Jews from various European countries, in particular from [[Hungary]] and [[Greece]]. The Jewish inmates were used as [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labor]] to clean the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, with the ultimate goal of creating a park in the former ghetto's territory. They also had to find and sort whatever precious items were still left on its territory. The camp and adjacent ruins were additionally used by the [[Nazi Germany|German administration]] as a place of [[Executions in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto (1943–1944)|execution]], the victims being [[Political prisoners in Poland|Polish political prisoners]], Jews caught on the "[[Nazi racial theories|Aryan]] side", and generally people [[Łapanka|rounded up]] on the streets of Warsaw. About 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners died during the camp's existence,<ref name="USHMM">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2009|title=Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|___location=[[Bloomington, Ind.]]|url=https://www.ushmm.org/online/camps-ghettos-download/EncyclopediaVol-I_PartB.pdf|access-date=14 September 2021|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|author-link=Gabriel N. Finder|editor1=Geoffrey P. Megargee|editor-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee|series=[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945]]|volume=I|pages=1512–1515|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911004538/https://www.ushmm.org/online/camps-ghettos-download/EncyclopediaVol-I_PartB.pdf|archive-date=11 September 2021|entry=Warschau main camp|editor2=Martin Dean|editor3=Mel Hecker|url-status=live}}</ref> while the total number of people murdered in the camp is estimated at 20,000.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=16, 120|ps="It is estimated that the death toll of KL Warschau amounted to a total of about 20,000 people (these were the victims of the camp itself plus those who were executed in the camp vicinity, and near the camp, in the restricted zone, mostly anonymous)."}}<ref name="lrb2019" />
The camp played a comparatively minor role in [[the Holocaust]] and thus seldom appears in mainstream historiography.<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name=":2">{{cite journal|last=Mix|first=Andreas ([[Center for Research on Antisemitism]])|date=2003|title=M. Trzcinska: Konzentrationslager Warschau|url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-4675|url-status=live|journal=[[H-Soz-Kult]]|isbn=9788388822162|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902095738/https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-4675|archive-date=2 September 2019|access-date=5 September 2019}}</ref> However, it has been at the centre of a [[conspiracy theory]], first promoted by [[Maria Trzcińska]], a Polish judge who served for 22 years as a member of the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation]]. The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an [[extermination camp]] operating a giant [[gas chamber]] inside a tunnel near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station]] and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.<ref name="lrb2019">{{cite journal|last=Davies|first=Christian|date=9 May 2019|title=Under the Railway Line|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/christian-davies/under-the-railway-line|url-status=live|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|volume=41|issue=9|issn=0260-9592|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191004150523/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/christian-davies/under-the-railway-line|archive-date=4 October 2019|access-date=28 August 2019|quote=}}</ref>
== Name ==
[[File:Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising_02.jpg|thumb|The building of the Wołyń Caserns was commonly known as Gęsiówka. Photo of the burnt edifice taken during the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]|alt=A black-and-white photo of a partially destroyed building of the Wołyń Caserns (commonly known as Gęsiówka), taken during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.]]
During the first nine months, the Warsaw concentration camp functioned in its own right. At this time it carried the official name of {{Langx|de|Waffen-SS Konzentrationslager Warschau|label=none}} (often referred to as {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none}}{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=41}} for short in Nazi documents and in Polish scholarship, or, in most contemporary German-language works, {{Langx|de|[[wikt:KZ|KZ]] Warschau|label=none}}).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kopka|first=Bogusław|title=Das KZ Warschau : Geschichte und Nachwirkungen|publisher=Instytut Pamieci Narodowej|year=2010|isbn=978-83-7629-079-9|___location=Warszawa|language=de|oclc=699705139|orig-year=2007}}</ref><ref name="Lehnstaedt" /> In May 1944, {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} became a branch of [[Majdanek concentration camp]],{{Efn|Majdanek also served as an extermination camp}} so the camp's name changed to {{Langx|de|Waffen-SS Konzentrationslager Lublin – Arbeitslager Warschau|lit=Waffen-SS Concentration Camp Lublin – Labour Camp Warsaw|label=none}}. It was also sometimes referred to in German sources as {{Langx|de|Arbeitslager Warschau|label=none}}.<ref name=":13" />
The name {{Langx|pl|Gęsiówka|label=none}} ([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]: {{IPAc-pl|g|ę|'|ś|u|f|k|a}}) often appears in Polish sources. This is due to the fact that the camp occupied the complex of now non-existent {{Interlanguage link|Koszary Wołyńskie|lt=Wołyń Caserns|pl}}, which were relatively well-preserved after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The caserns, at the corner of then-existing Gęsia and Zamenhof streets, were a military prison before [[World War II]]. During German occupation, they accommodated the central prison for the Jewish district, the {{Interlanguage link|Wychowawczy obóz pracy policji bezpieczeństwa w Warszawie|lt=correcting labour camp of the ''Sicherheitspolizei''|pl}}, as well as the {{Langx|de|[[Judenrat]]|label=none}}.<ref name="Kombatanci">{{Cite journal|date=June 2016|title=Niemiecki obóz koncentracyjny w Warszawie: Wspólna historia Żydów i Polaków|url=https://kombatanci.gov.pl/images/DOC/Kombatant/2016/201606.pdf|journal=[[Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression]]|volume=6|language=pl|issue=306|pages=24–29|access-date=14 September 2021|archive-date=20 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820165651/http://www.kombatanci.gov.pl/images/DOC/Kombatant/2016/201606.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The prison complex became colloquially known as {{Langx|pl|Gęsiówka|label=none}} (named for Gęsia street), which nickname transferred to {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} as well.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}}{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=43}} Supporters of the [[Warsaw concentration camp#Discredited extermination camp story|Trzcińska's theory]] tend to prefer the German name, which Aleksandra Ubertowska says has to do with the name being perceived as more serious.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ubertowska|first=Aleksandra|date=2008-11-02|title=Bogusław Kopka Konzentrationslager Warschau. Historia i następstwa|url=https://www.zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/article/view/294|journal=Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały|language=pl|issue=4|pages=576–580|doi=10.32927/ZZSiM.294|issn=2657-3571|access-date=25 November 2021|archive-date=25 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125000651/https://www.zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/article/view/294|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}</ref>
After World War II, the camp, although with changed purposes, was still run by Communist authorities under other names (see the relevant [[Warsaw concentration camp#Postwar|section]] for details).{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=116}}{{Sfn|Łuszczyna|2017}}
==Creation==
[[File:Oswald_Pohl_KL_Warschau_1943.jpg|thumb|Letter from [[Oswald Pohl]] to [[Heinrich Himmler]], dated 23 July 1943, on the creation of KL Warschau, noting arrival of the first 300 prisoners|alt=A typewritten letter from Oswald Pohl (signed at the bottom) to Heinrich Himmler, dated 23 July 1943. The letter, written in German, relates about the creation of KL Warschau and notes about the arrival of the first 300 prisoners.]]
According to [[Bogusław Kopka]], the first person behind the idea of creating a new concentration camp in Warsaw was [[Heinrich Himmler]], [[Reichsführer-SS|head]] of the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS), who mentioned it in a letter dated 9 October 1942.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsErAAAAYAAJ&dq=Himmler+16+February+1943&pg=PA254|title=Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuremberg, October 1946-April 1949|date=1950|publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]]|volume=V|___location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|pages=254–255, 623|language=en|access-date=19 November 2021|archive-date=27 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227154003/https://books.google.com/books?id=CsErAAAAYAAJ&dq=Himmler+16+February+1943&pg=PA254|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=28}} The letter informed the local posts of SS and the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' in the [[General Government]] that all Jewish craftsmen who so far had managed to avoid deportation to [[extermination camp]]s were to be "assembled by SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' [[Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger|Krüger]] and SS-''Obergruppenführer'' [[Oswald Pohl|Pohl]] on the spot, i.e. in the concentration camps in [[Warsaw]] and [[Lublin]]{{Efn|The "Lublin camp" (Majdanek) was already functioning when the letter was written}}".{{Sfn|Salter|2007|p=44}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://digisam.ub.uni-giessen.de/ubg-ihd-hl/3223411|title=Faschismus – Getto – Massenmord : Dokumentation über Ausrottung und Widerstand der Juden in Polen während des Zweiten Weltkrieges|publisher=[[Żydowski Instytut Historyczny]]/Rütten & Loening|year=1961|editor-last=Berenstein|editor-first=Tatiana|pages=445–446|language=de|editor-last2=Eisenbach|editor-first2=Artur|editor-last3=Mark|editor-first3=Bernard|editor-last4=Rutkowski|editor-first4=Adam}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The two camps were also intended to host Jewish labourers, who were supposed to be working for weapons factories operating on-site; as for production facilities, they were planned to be successively moved to concentration camps near Lublin, and then farther east.{{Sfn|Longerich|2011|p=621}} Himmler assumed that concentrating all Jewish labour in the camps controlled by the [[SS Main Economic and Administrative Office]] (SS-WVHA) would be the basis for the creation of an SS economic empire in the East.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=29-31}} His ideas, however, were met with resistance from the military, the police and civil administration of the General Government, as well as from the [[Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production]] and from German companies using Jewish [[slave labour]]. Himmler was thus unable to bring his idea to fruition, so the concentration camp in Warsaw did not appear, nor did all factories using Jewish labour become controlled by SS.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=31-32}}
As plans to demolish the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] appeared, Himmler soon returned to the idea of creating a concentration camp in Warsaw. In a letter dated 16 February 1943, Himmler instructed SS-''Obergruppenführer'' Oswald Pohl, head of SS-WVHA, to create a concentration camp in the "Jewish district" and ordered all German-owned private enterprises operating in the Ghetto to be relocated there.<ref name=":0" /> The camp, together with its enterprises and inhabitants, was planned to be "transported as quickly as possible to Lublin and nearby areas". On the same day, Himmler also wrote a letter to SS-{{Abbr|Ogruf|Obergruppenführer}} Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, Higher [[SS and police leader]] for the General Government, which demanded that the buildings of the deserted ghetto be demolished after the concentration camp was transported to Lublin.<ref name=":0" /> The task of demolition, it was suggested, was to be handed over to the local Jews.<ref name="Pohl">{{cite book|last=Pohl|first=Dieter|title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26321-8|editor1-last=Wachsmann|editor1-first=Nikolaus|editor-link1=Nikolaus Wachsmann|pages=156–157|language=en|editor2-last=Caplan|editor2-first=Jane|author-link=Dieter Pohl}}</ref> The idea's implementation was marred with numerous difficulties, so when the Germans decided to accelerate the deportations on 19 April, they met strong resistance from the Jews, who began the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]].<ref name="Pohl" />{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=4}}{{Sfn|Mix|2008|p=122}} The concentration camp failed to materialise again, and only part of the enterprises, together with some of the Jews, were evacuated to the concentration camps in Majdanek, [[Trawniki concentration camp|Trawniki]], and [[Poniatowa concentration camp|Poniatowa]].<ref name="Pohl" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=38}}
The idea of the camp was revived once again after the failure of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. [[SS-Brigadeführer|SS-''Brigadeführer'']] [[Jürgen Stroop]], who led the efforts aimed at quashing the insurgency, proposed on 16 May 1943, the day the uprising came to an end, to convert the [[Pawiak prison]] to a concentration camp. The building was previously used by the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] and the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' (Security Police).{{Sfn|Stroop|1943|ps=It is proposed to change the Dzielna Prison into a concentration camp and to use the inmates to remove, collect and hand over for reuse the millions of bricks, the scrap-iron, and other materials.}} It is suggested that by creating such a camp, the Germans wanted to destroy evidence of the crimes committed during the suppression of the uprising<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|last=Wieczorek|first=Paweł|title=Pamiętamy: KL Warschau (19.07.1943 – 01.08.1944)|url=https://1943.pl/artykul/pamietamy-kl-warschau-19-07-1943-01-08-1944/|access-date=2022-06-02|website=Muzeum Getta Warszawskiego|language=pl-PL}}</ref> as well as to enrich themselves by the loot that would be collected in the rubble by slave labourers.<ref name=":10" /> Himmler agreed to the proposal and issued the order, which read:<ref name=":0" />
{{Blockquote|text=I herewith order, that the <em>Dzielna prison</em> [Pawiak prison – note] in the former <em>ghetto of Warsaw</em>, is to be transformed into a concentration camp. The prisoners are to gather and secure the millions of building stones, scrap iron, and other building material from the former ghetto. Special care is to be taken for the secure guards of the prisoners during this work.
I instruct [...] to make sure that during this cleaning up the city center of the former ghetto is to be flattened completely and every cellar and every canalization is to be filled in.
After the work is finished the area is to be covered up with earth and a large park is to be planted.|author=Heinrich Himmler|title=letter to Oswald Pohl ordering him to make the Jews completely flatten the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto, 11 June 1943 (emphasis in original)}}
Eventually, Pawiak's status as a prison did not change, but the concentration camp was created on nearby Gęsia street, which was also located inside the Ghetto walls. One of the reasons why {{Langx|pl|Gęsiówka|label=none}} was chosen was because it was among the only buildings left intact in the area previously occupied by the Ghetto.<ref name="Sofsky" /> In addition to that, Bogusław Kopka argues that its position within a deserted area with restricted access to civilians was also a factor. Another advantage was the camp's proximity to the warehouses at ''[[Umschlagplatz]]'' as well as German militarised units: an SS outpost on {{Interlanguage link|ulica Żelazna w Warszawie|lt=Żelazna|pl}} street, a strong German army command at {{Interlanguage link|ulica Stawki w Warszawie|lt=Stawki|pl}} street and the staff of the Pawiak prison, all of whom could be quickly dispatched in case of mutiny.<ref name="Kombatanci" />
On 19 July 1943, the first 300 prisoners, who were German and predominantly criminals, were transported from [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]. This date is considered to be the day when {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} started operation.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=40}}
== Description ==
[[File:Warsaw Ghetto.png|thumb|Outline of the Warsaw concentration camp as overlaid on today's Warsaw map. The {{Langx|de|Lager I|label=none}} (old part) is to the east of Smocza Street, while {{Langx|de|Lager II|label=none}} (new part) is to its west|alt=Excerpt from an OpenStreetMap map, zoomed at the Warsaw neighbourhood of Muranów, with the borders of the Warsaw concentration camp outlined. The camp occupied a long and narrow strip of land of a roughly rectangular shape, bordered by Okopowa street to the west, Gliniana, Ostrowska and Wołyńska (now Józefa Lewartowskiego) streets to the north, Zamenhofa street to the east and Gęsia (today's Mordechaja Anielewicza street) to the south.]]
[[File:Aerial_photograph_of_the_destroyed_Warsaw_Ghetto.jpg|thumb|An aerial photograph of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] (south to the top), probably taken in November 1944, showing the camp's structure (a long and narrow rectangle in the image's centre) surrounded by the ghetto's ruins. For the detailed scheme of the camp, see [[Warsaw concentration camp#External links|external links]] section|alt=An aerial photograph of the former Warsaw Ghetto area, showing the camp's structure (a long and narrow rectangle in the image's centre) surrounded by Warsaw Ghetto's ruins]]
[[File:KL Warschau crematorium.jpg|thumb|Warsaw concentration camp's crematorium|alt=A black-and-white photograph of a low building with a tall chimney. The structure served as a crematorium.]]
=== Location and facilities ===
{{See also|Gęsiówka}}
The Warsaw concentration camp was created inside a closed and deserted zone of the former ghetto, which was surrounded by walls regularly patrolled by German guards and the police.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=46, 49}} {{Langx|de|Gęsiówka|label=none}}, a former military prison, and spaces along Gęsia Street were adapted for the purposes of the camp. Since none of the camp's buildings survived, its general appearance and facilities can only be deduced from witness testimony, aerial photography, and photos made during [[exhumation]]s and after the camp's liberation. According to the evidence, {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} was divided into two parts. The first, called {{Langx|de|Lager I|label=none}} and also known as "the old camp", was located between what is now {{Interlanguage link|Aleja Jana Pawła II w Warszawie|lt=John Paul II Avenue|pl}} and {{Interlanguage link|ulica Smocza w Warszawie|lt=Smocza Street|pl}}, and comprised {{Langx|de|Gęsiówka|label=none}} proper (the camp's easternmost part) and wooden barracks erected during the initial months of the camp's operation. The camp's second part, between Smocza and Okopowa Streets, was called {{Langx|de|Lager II|label=none}} or "the new camp" and contained brick barracks.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=8}}{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=47-48}}{{Efn|The initial project of the Warsaw concentration camp created by [[Hans Kammler]] assumed that three camp sectors would have appeared by late February 1944, but the third never materialised, and the camp's capacity was halved.<ref name=":13" />}} In total, 21 barracks were built, each around {{convert|70|m|ft|abbr=on}} long with a capacity of {{Circa}} 600 inmates.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=53}}
[[File:Warsaw_Uprising_-_Gęsiówka_-_3.jpg|thumb|upright|Close-up of one of the towers protecting the concentration camp. Photo taken during the camp's liberation. Soldiers from [[:pl:Batalion Zośka|Zośka Battalion]] appear in the photo|alt=A 1944 photo showing the details of a brick turret protecting the concentration camp]]
[[File:Friedrich_Ruppert.jpg|thumb|upright|Wilhelm Ruppert, the last commandant of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}. [[Mugshot]] taken in [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] custody|alt=A mugshot of WIlhelm Ruppert, the last commandant of KL Warschau]]
The camp was surrounded by high walls guarded by watchtowers.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=53}} The main entrance was located at what was then Gęsia Street 24.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=43}} The former military prison and {{Langx|de|Judenrat|label=none}} seat, at what is today {{Interlanguage link|ulica Karmelicka w Warszawie|lt=Karmelicka Street|pl}} 17a, served as a [[crematorium]] for bodies of dead inmates and executed civilians from outside the camp.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kozubal|first=Marek|date=2017-04-11|title=Koniec sporu historyków: wiadomo, gdzie był KL Warschau|url=https://www.rp.pl/historia/art2784051-koniec-sporu-historykow-wiadomo-gdzie-byl-kl-warschau|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl|archive-date=31 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031173719/https://www.rp.pl/historia/art2784051-koniec-sporu-historykow-wiadomo-gdzie-byl-kl-warschau}}</ref> The Germans also started building two other cremation sites, but did not manage to open them before they evacuated the camp; even the one that existed was not operated in the camp's final days.<ref name=":2" /> Additionally, one of Gęsiówka's buildings was used as a torture room, while a prison yard came to be an SS officers' [[mess]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=50}} A bathhouse was built in late 1943 and early 1944, and bunkers were also available on-site.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} By February 1944, the camp's infrastructure was in an advanced stage of completion, with 90% of {{Langx|de|Lager I|label=none}} and 75% of {{Langx|de|Lager II|label=none}} finished<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Matusak|first=Piotr|date=1973|title=Obóz koncentracyjny dla Żydów w Warszawie|url=https://cbj.jhi.pl/documents/767560/255/|url-status=live|journal=Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego|issue=86–87|pages=253–256|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227154027/https://cbj.jhi.pl/documents/767560/255/|archive-date=27 December 2021|access-date=24 November 2021}}</ref> (Berenstein gives figures of 95% and 60%, respectively).{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=8-9}} However, the construction was repeatedly halted due to the recurring [[typhus]] epidemic, which decimated the inmate population and forced the camp's administration to [[quarantine]] the premises twice (in January and February 1944, see [[Warsaw concentration camp#Conditions|below]], and again in April and May). Therefore, work on the camp was only completed in June 1944.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=9}}
=== Personnel ===
Initially, about 380 SS soldiers were maintaining the concentration camp, approximately the size of a [[Company (military unit)|company]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86}} The number of SS guards was relatively low, as the former ghetto, itself a closed zone, was surrounded by patrolled walls, and due to the fact that the [[prisoner functionaries]] were Germans from the initial transport and were thus delegated much more power than was usual for their counterparts in other camps.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":10" /> The original SS unit was gathered from various other camps, including the Trawniki concentration camp and the [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]]. Following the attachment to Majdanek in May 1944, they were replaced with SS personnel from Lublin, and the guard was reduced to 259 people.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} Leadership positions were occupied by high- and middle-ranking SS members who were pre-war [[Third Reich]] citizens (''[[Reichsdeutsche]]''), while the rank-and-file were usually recruited among the ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'', mainly from [[Southeast Europe]] but also from other areas.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}}
In comparison with other concentration camps, KL Warschau had a less sophisticated internal structure.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} Bogusław Kopka writes that the camp lacked the political department (''[[Politische Abteilung]]''), and some other positions remained unoccupied. Conversely, the [[Institute of National Remembrance]]'s report on the investigation of the crimes committed in KL Warschau says that the ''Politische Abteilung'' did exist, but it was directly subordinate to the commandant of ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' and ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' in Warsaw, instead of being the main department of the camp's administration.<ref name=":12" /> Among the 208 identified members of the camp's administration,<ref name=":16">{{Cite web|last=Kozubal|first=Marek|date=2017-06-04|title=Śledztwo w sprawie obozu zagłady w Warszawie umorzone|url=https://www.rp.pl/historia/art10419881-sledztwo-w-sprawie-obozu-zaglady-w-warszawie-umorzone|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl|archive-date=10 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110065646/https://www.rp.pl/historia/art10419881-sledztwo-w-sprawie-obozu-zaglady-w-warszawie-umorzone}}</ref> SS-{{Abbr|Uscharf|Unterscharführer}} Karl Leuckel was the director of the administrative department, SS-''[[Oberscharführer]]'' {{Interlanguage link|Franz Mielenz|lt=|pl}} was the ''[[Rapportführer]]'' and the person responsible for prisoner work management, while SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Willy Jobst|lt=|pl}} and SS-{{Abbr|Hstuf|Hauptsturmführer}} {{Interlanguage link|Heinrich Schmitz|lt=|pl}} were camp doctors.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=84, 89}} The camp's staff was subordinate to SS-WVHA, but it also was obliged to cooperate closely with the SS and police leader for the [[Warsaw District]] due to an agreement reached between the two SS institutions.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|date=2017-01-23|title=Śledztwa zakończone wydaniem postanowienia o umorzeniu|trans-title=Discontinued investigations|url=https://warszawa.ipn.gov.pl/waw/sledztwa/sledztwa/oddzialowa-komisja-w-wa/31499,Sledztwa-zakonczone-wydaniem-postanowienia-o-umorzeniu.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525172847/http://warszawa.ipn.gov.pl/waw/sledztwa/sledztwa/oddzialowa-komisja-w-wa/31499,Sledztwa-zakonczone-wydaniem-postanowienia-o-umorzeniu.html|archive-date=2017-05-25|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Institute of National Remembrance – Warsaw District|language=pl}}</ref> The coordination was particularly strong during the pacification that happened at the turn of 1943/44, which was targeted at the Polish population of the capital.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=62-63, 120}}
There were three concentration camp commandants ({{Langx|de|Lagerkommandant}}) in the course of the camp's history:{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=42}}
* SS-''[[Obersturmbannführer]]'' [[Wilhelm Göcke]] served until September 1943, when he was transferred to the newly created [[Kauen concentration camp|concentration camp in Kaunas]] in [[Generalbezirk Litauen]];<ref name="USHMM" />
* SS-''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Nikolaus Herbet]] commanded the camp from September<ref name="USHMM" /> or October 1943{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=42}} until his arrest in late April 1944;
* SS-''[[Obersturmführer]]'' [[Wilhelm Ruppert|Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert]] was appointed in May 1944 and dismissed in late June the same year.
As for the ''[[Schutzhaftlagerführer]]'', who was simultaneously the camp director and the chief of the guards, SS-''Obersturmführer'' {{Interlanguage link|Wilhelm Härtel|lt=|pl}} served in this role from {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}'s creation until his arrest in late April 1944, while SS-''[[Unterscharführer]]'' {{Interlanguage link|Heinz Villain|lt=|pl}} occupied the position for the remainder of the camp's existence.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=88-89}}
The Warsaw concentration camp usually featured SS officers who were deemed to be low-value workers.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} The first two commandants exhibited incompetence and little interest in the functioning of the camp.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=85-86}} Many of the ''Volksdeutsche'' were hardly able to speak German, while some were [[illiterate]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86, 89}} [[Corruption]] was rampant and extended up to the apex of the camp's hierarchy,<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|last1=Vági|first1=Zoltán|last2=Kádár|first2=Gábor|date=2019-11-14|title=From the Ghetto Revolt to the Warsaw Uprising – Hungarian Jews in KL Warschau|url=https://blog.ehri-project.eu/2019/11/14/hungarian-jews-in-warsaw/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-14|website=[[European Holocaust Research Infrastructure]] Project – Document Blog|language=en-GB|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114143655/https://blog.ehri-project.eu/2019/11/14/hungarian-jews-in-warsaw/}}</ref> which Andreas Mix attributes to the fact that like the senior SS officers, the [[kapo]]s were Germans, therefore, the SS officers frequently made illicit agreements with them.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Mix|first=Andreas|date=2005|title=Arbeitslager Warschau jako filia obozu koncentracyjnego na Majdanku|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=23|pages=55–70}}</ref> The irregularities were so numerous that SS authorities eventually intervened.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} Mix suggests an escape of a ''Reichsdeutsche'' prisoner triggered this intervention.<ref name=":13" />
In late April 1944, Commandant Nikolaus Herbet, ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' Wilhelm Härtel as well as ''[[Lagerälteste]]'' (camp supervisor) {{Interlanguage link|Walter Wawrzyniak|lt=|pl}}, were all arrested. The whole command of the camp was dissolved and almost all of its members were relieved of duty.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=86-88}} By early May, the guards who were until then performing their duties in Warsaw were transported to [[Sachsenhausen]] and were replaced by personnel delegated from Majdanek.<ref name=":12" /> This scandal coincided with the degradation of the status of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} to a [[Subcamp (SS)|subcamp]] of [[Majdanek]] on 1 May 1944, and was thus renamed "[[Lublin]] concentration camp – Warsaw labour camp".<ref name="USHMM" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=42}} According to some sources, it came due to deportations of prisoners to other camps as well as the [[Operation Bagration|advances of the Soviet army towards the territory of the General Government]].<ref name="Pohl" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Poprzeczny|first1=Joseph|title=Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1625-7|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NAIyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 222–223]|language=en}}</ref> Bogusław Kopka, Andreas Mix and Paweł Wieczorek write, however, that it was the corruption scandal that was the causative agent for the change in status, though, as the former two historians say, the camp's reorganisation failed to get rid of the corruption issues.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":11" />{{sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=87–88}}
=== Prisoners ===
==== General information ====
The trait that distinguished the Warsaw concentration camp from the other ones was that, with the exception of the initial transport of 300 Germans, the inmates were uniformly [[Jewish]].<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|last=Rajca|first=Czesław|date=1976|title=Podobozy Majdanka|journal=Zeszyty Majdanka|volume=IX|issn=0514-7409|language=pl}}</ref> Additionally, {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} only accepted prisoners who were previously in concentration camps under the jurisdiction of SS-WVHA; in contrast, it did not accept those prisoners who were to serve in concentration camps due to a decision of the [[Reich Security Main Office]] (RSHA), local [[Sicherheitspolizei|Security Police]] outposts, or new prisoners.<ref name=":13" /> These were predominantly young males (under 40 years old), whom the Germans deemed to be suitable for demanding physical work.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=53}} Only in the last days of the camp's existence was a group of Jewish women from the nearby Pawiak prison delivered to {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}.<ref name="USHMM" /> The Nazis were trying to transport Jews from various European countries and specifically sought to exclude Polish-speaking Jews, hoping that the lack of knowledge of Polish would prevent them from communicating with the residents of Warsaw.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|last=Finder|first=Gabriel N.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbg9j|title=The Shtetl: Myth and Reality|date=2004|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=9781874774754|series=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry|volume=17|pages=325–352|language=en|chapter=Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944|doi=10.2307/j.ctv4cbg9j.27|jstor=j.ctv4cbg9j|access-date=2021-09-13|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914151650/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbg9j|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Rutkowski|first=Adam|date=1993|title=Le camp de concentration pour Juifs à Varsovie (19 juillet 1943–5 août 1944)|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-monde-juif-1993-2-page-189.htm#re1no15|journal=Le Monde Juif|volume=147–148|language=fr|issue=147–148|pages=189–216|doi=10.3917/lmj.212.0189 |via=[[Cairn.info]]|access-date=10 November 2021|archive-date=10 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110070013/https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-monde-juif-1993-2-page-189.htm#re1no15|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2021-06-30|title=Without a compass: Salonikan Jews in Nazi Concentration Camps and later|url=https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/esrap/article/view/9126|journal=European Spatial Research and Policy|language=en|volume=28|issue=1|pages=45–71|doi=10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.03|s2cid=242441445|issn=1896-1525|access-date=14 November 2021|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114143655/https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/esrap/article/view/9126|url-status=live|doi-access=free|hdl=11089/39577|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Therefore, few Polish Jews were detained at the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=":8" />
The first inmates, who previously were German prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp, arrived on 19 July 1943.<ref name="Pohl"/><ref name="Sofsky">{{cite book|last1=Sofsky|first1=Wolfgang|title=The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2218-8|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ClmQ8PPjF44C&pg=PA337 337]|language=en}}</ref> Among these 300 people, 224 were professional criminals ({{Langx|de|Berufsverbrecher|label=none}}, or {{Interlanguage link|Befristete Vorbeugungshaft|lt=BV|de}} for short), 41 were deemed [[political prisoner]]s, and 35 were considered "[[Black triangle (badge)|asocial]]".<ref name=":13" /> They became prisoner functionaries, such as kapos and {{Langx|de|Blockältester|label=none}} (block supervisors).<ref name=":13" /> Walter Wawrzyniak got hold of the chief position of camp supervisor ({{Langx|de|Lagerältester|label=none}}). Most of the German kapo prisoners, in particular those imprisoned as criminals, intimidated fellow Jewish inmates and acted towards them with cruelty, seeing them as expendable;<ref name="USHMM" /> though, as Gabriel Finder argues, this was not in most cases due to inherent anti-Semitism but rather due to the fact such violence granted them survival.<ref name=":10" /> Unlike in most other Nazi camps, Jewish kapos were absent from the camp and there is little evidence an internal hierarchy among Jewish prisoners has ever developed.<ref name=":10" />
The first transport of Jewish prisoners arrived from [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]] on 31 August 1943, and three subsequent ones were made up to 27 November the same year, bringing 3,683 Jews in total, according to official data.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=8}} The labourers represented Jews from various countries – the most numerous were [[Greeks|Greek]] [[History of the Jews in Thessaloniki|Salonican Jews]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2016|title=In Their Own Voices|url=https://www.eupsycho.com/index.php/TM/article/viewFile/135/119|journal=Trauma and Memory|volume=4|issue=3|pages=90–118|access-date=10 November 2021|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914152315/http://www.eupsycho.com/index.php/TM/article/viewFile/135/119|url-status=live}}</ref> but some [[Austrian Jews|Austrian]], [[Belgian Jews|Belgian]], [[French Jews|French]], [[Dutch jews|Dutch]], [[German Jews|German]] and even 50 [[Polish jews|Polish]] representatives of that religion (who only came because Germans had to meet 1,000 people transport quota) arrived to Warsaw as well.<ref name="Kossoy">{{cite journal|last=Kossoy|first=Edward|author-link=Edward Kossoy|date=2004|title=The Gesiówka Story: A Little Known Page of Jewish Fighting History|url=https://gesiowka.adactio.com/|url-status=live|journal=Yad Vashem Studies|volume=32|pages=323–350|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411033124/https://gesiowka.adactio.com/|archive-date=11 April 2021|access-date=6 September 2021}}</ref><ref name=":8" /> The ethnic composition changed substantially in spring 1944, when several trains from Auschwitz delivered {{Circa}} 3,000 [[Hungarian Jews]] (most of whom originally were deported from ghettos in [[Mukachevo]], [[Uzhhorod]], [[Khust]] and [[Tiachiv]], then in [[Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II|Hungarian-occupied]] [[Carpathian Ruthenia]])<ref name=":9" /> who became the majority in the Warsaw concentration camp in the last months of its existence.<ref name=":10" />
[[File:KL Warschau - multilingual warning sign.jpg|thumb|A multilingual sign saying that those who trespass the so-called "neutral zone" may be shot at without warning|alt=A multilingual sign (in German, Polish, Hungarian and French) warning people against trespassing for fear of being shot. Broken fence with some barbed wire appears behind the sign]]
The exact number of prisoners who went through KL Warschau remains difficult to ascertain, as witness and expert estimates vary from 1,500 to 40,000.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} As [[Gabriel N. Finder]] noted, the Warsaw concentration camp played a minor role in the [[Holocaust]] in comparison to other camps and is thus often absent from standard narratives of the period.<ref name=":10" /> In his entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'', he suggested that some 8,000–9,000 people were incarcerated there.<ref name="USHMM" /> Bogusław Kopka says in his monograph that at least 7,250 inmates went through the Warsaw concentration camp, including 300 German prisoner functionaries, about 3,700 Jews who arrived in 1943 and 3,000 Jews who came in 1944 from Auschwitz, in addition to 50 highly skilled Jews sent to the camp by the [[Ostbahn (General Government)|Ostbahn]] railway company in 1943 and 200 Jews moved from the Pawiak prison.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=54}} Successful escapes were rare and Jews who were caught in the attempt were hanged in front of the assembled prisoner population.<ref name="USHMM" />
===
Prisoners were tasked with constructing the concentration camp they were residing in, demolishing the remaining ruins of the ghetto, clearing {{convert|2640000|m3|ft3|abbr=on}} of rubble and with flattening the terrain at {{convert|1.20|m|ft|abbr=on}} above the previous ground level, so as to convert the former ghetto into a park as Himmler envisaged in his order from 11 June 1943.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=6}}<ref name=":8" /> While doing that, the workers were also ordered to salvage building materials (mainly scrap metal and bricks) for the German war effort. {{convert|10000000|m2|ft2|abbr=on}} of buildings were demolished, which yielded some 8,105 tonnes of metal (of which about 7,300 tonnes of ferrous scrap metals and 805 tonnes of non-ferrous metals) and 34 million bricks.<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name=":17" /> A separate search team was formed to find whatever precious items, such as money or jewellery, were left in the ruins; yet another team was working on the ''[[Umschlagplatz]]'' near {{Interlanguage link|ulica Stawki w Warszawie|lt=Stawki|pl}} street, where salvaged items were sorted and stored in warehouses.<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":8" />
Tatiana Berenstein and Adam Rutkowski estimate the value of the pre-war houses demolished at 220 million pre-war [[Polish zloty|zlotys]] (i.e. slightly above [[US$]]800 million in 2021 dollars),{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=6}} but, according to Andreas Mix, the salvaged materials were only worth 5 million [[Reichsmark]]s, thus, with the initial investment of 150 million Reichsmark, the camp ran at steep losses.<ref name=":9" />
A couple thousand Polish civilians, who were paid, also worked in the area, as did dozens of German technicians.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=11}}<ref name=":8" /> At one period, these people, who usually handled more sophisticated tasks, such as the maintenance of demolition machines and handling explosives, outnumbered the inmates. German constructions companies, including Berlinisches Baugeschäft ([[Berlin]]), Willy Keymer (Warsaw), Merckle ([[Ostrów Wielkopolski]]), and Ostdeutscher Tiefbau ([[Naumburg]]), operated there on contract and benefitted from slave labour provided by the prisoners.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=7}} The Ostbahn assisted them.<ref name="USHMM" />
==== Conditions ====
The conditions in {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} were extremely harsh. Prisoners' food rationing was meagre and hunger was common among the inmates, which was exacerbated by lack of food parcels from the outside, as these were not delivered to the camp.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":17" /> The shortages, however, were somewhat alleviated by the presence of Polish workers contracted to remove the ruins of the ghetto, as this was an opportunity for the inmates to clandestinely buy food for whatever valuables they could find in the ruins, and, in later days, when such items became scarce, for [[Gold teeth|gold fillings]] extracted from their teeth.<ref name="USHMM" /> However, the gold contained there was also of interest of the SS guards, who strictly forbade removal of the teeth. They sought to [[Nazi dental gold|enrich themselves by getting the precious metal]] after the death of the labourers.{{Sfn|Berenstein|Rutkowski|1967|p=6}}<ref name=":10" />
The Jews were subjected to [[extermination through labour]]. The demolition and salvage work were hard and perilous labor, carried out at a brisk pace with no regard to loss of life of the prisoners, so fatal workplace incidents were commonplace. The guards were torturing and murdering the Jews on a whim, viewing them as enemies of the state, and prisoner functionaries, particularly criminal prisoners, were hardly better in their treatment of fellow inmates.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=63, 89–91}} [[Sanitation]] was sorely lacking to the extent that hungry and drained prisoners were decimated by outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the lack of [[hygiene]] gave way to infestations of [[lice]] and [[flea]]s.<ref name=":8" /> In particular, a typhus epidemic in January and February 1944 decreased the prison population by two-thirds,<ref name="Kossoy" /><ref name="USHMM" /> though the sanitary situation improved somewhat by the time the leadership was changed and the camp's construction was finished.<ref name=":13" /> The camp infirmary, according to Felician Loth, was "a parody of a sick ward",<ref name="Kombatanci" /> and patients who were unable to continue work were usually killed.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=234}} For these reasons, almost 75% of original prisoners have died by March 1944, reducing the camp's population to around 1,000 inmates.<ref name="USHMM" /> This prompted the Germans to supply about 3,000 Hungarian Jews from [[Auschwitz]].<ref name="USHMM" />
Just as the Jews in other concentration camps, the inmates in {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} were forced to wear {{Interlanguage link|Pasiak|lt=camp uniforms|pl}} and wooden [[clog]]s. The former had the [[Star of David]] badge sewn on it and a Latin letter marking the inmate's provenance.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=235}} The newly arrived prisoners had their hair cut shortly and then underwent a procedure of bathing and [[wikt:disinsectization|disinsectisation]], which, before the bathhouse was built in the camp, was happening in Pawiak prison. Prisoner functionaries, however, were treated differently – they lived in a separate barrack (with the exception of the {{Langx|de|Blockältester|label=none}}), could wear civilian clothes, bear arms, and were even sometimes allowed to go outside the camp's premises.<ref name=":13" /> Jewish inmates speaking German and/or Polish also had slightly better conditions, the former because they could easily understand the guards' orders and communicate with them, while the latter could barter more efficiently with the Polish workers.<ref name=":10" />
==
{{main|Executions in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto (1943–1944)}}
[[File:Warsaw ghetto ruins – place of mass executions at 27 Dzielna Street.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the tenement house at 27 Dzielna Street in former Warsaw Ghetto, near [[Pawiak prison]]. This site was used as an execution spot in 1943–1944.|alt=A heap of bricks on the place of what was a residential building. The photo shows one of the places where people were executed.]]
In 1943–1944, camp inmates, Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the ghetto's ruins, Polish [[political prisoner]]s ([[Pawiak]] inmates) and Polish [[hostage]]s captured during the [[Roundup (history)|street roundups]] (''[[Łapanka|łapanki]]'') were executed in the ruins of the former ghetto, which surrounded the camp.{{Sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2013}} These executions took place almost daily and on some days, the number of victims reached dozens or even hundreds.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|pp=441–442}}{{Sfn|Domańska|1978|pp=27–28}} The bodies were then burnt, first in open air pyres and later in the camp's crematorium.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=26–27, 60–63, 120}}
The ruins of the ghetto supplanted previous execution sites, which were operating in the countryside around Warsaw, such as in [[Kampinos Forest]] (the site of the [[Palmiry massacre]]). The proximity of the Pawiak prison and the isolation of the former ghetto from the rest of the city, made them – from the German perspective – a far more suitable place for mass killings.{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=256}} Members of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} personnel, along with the members of other SS and ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' formations in Warsaw, were among the executioners. Furthermore, a special ''[[Sonderkommando]]'', composed of the Jewish prisoners of the {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}, was used to dispose the bodies of the victims.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=26–27, 60–63, 120}} The members of that detachment were often murdered after completing the task, too.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}}
It is impossible to determine the exact number of victims of executions in the ruins since the documents related to the camp were destroyed during its [[Warsaw concentration camp#Evacuation and liberation|evacuation]].<ref name=":15">{{Cite web|title=Prof. Kopka: Obóz koncentracyjny KL Warschau mieścił się m. in. na terenie, gdzie stoi Muzeum Polin|url=https://wpolityce.pl/historia/398924-nasz-wywiad-prof-kopka-oboz-koncentracyjny-kl-warschau-miescil-sie-m-in-na-terenie-gdzie-stoi-muzeum-polin|access-date=2022-06-25|website=wpolityce.pl}}</ref> Bogusław Kopka and [[Jan Żaryn]] estimate that some 20,000 people died as a result of the camp's activity, of which 10,000 were Poles. The number includes prisoner deaths as well as victims of executions in and around the camp, among whom were Polish [[political prisoner]]s and Polish Jews caught hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw or in the restricted zone of the former Warsaw Ghetto.{{Sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2013}}{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=16, 120|ps="It is estimated that the death toll of KL Warschau amounted to a total of about 20,000 people (these were the victims of the camp itself plus those who were executed in the camp vicinity, and near the camp, in the restricted zone, mostly anonymous)."}}<ref name="Lehnstaedt">{{cite journal|last=Lehnstaedt|first=Stephan|author-link=Stephan Lehnstaedt|date=2010|title=Review: New Polish Research on German Violent Crimes in the Second World War|url=http://www.sehepunkte.de/2010/06/druckfassung/17990.html|journal={{ill|sehepunkte|de}}|issue=6|access-date=4 September 2019|archive-date=7 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007165233/http://www.sehepunkte.de/2010/06/druckfassung/17990.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Kopka later clarified that 10,000 people at most could have died in the camp itself.<ref name=":15" /> The ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' gives a smaller estimate of 4,000–5,000 people, counting only prisoners of KL Warschau,<ref name="USHMM" /> while Vági and Kádár suggest 3,400 to 5,000 prisoners.<ref name=":9" />
== Evacuation and liberation ==
{{Multiple image
| total_width = 250
| image1 = Gesiowka.jpg
| image2 = Jewish prisones of KZGesiowka liberated by Polish Soldiers of Home Army Warsaw1944.jpg
| direction = vertical
| caption2 = Female prisoners constituted part of the prisoner population by the end of the camp's existence. Photo taken at liberation, 5 August 1944
| caption1 = Prisoners of camp with Polish soldiers from Battalion Zośka on 5 August 1944
| alt1 = An assembled group of prisoners together with Battalion Zośka posing for a photo
| alt2 = Another photo of camp inmates with the liberators, notably showing female prisoners, who were moved to the camp in the final days of its existence
}}
In summer 1944, as the [[Red Army]] [[Operation Bagration|was approaching]], the Germans decided to evacuate the prisons and camps in Warsaw. By the end of July, ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' Heinz Villain demanded that all prisoners who would not be able to endure a march to assemble, promising the sick and exhausted that they would be transported in horse carriages. However, on 27 July, all those who appeared on the camp director's call were shot. The same day, all patients in the camp's infirmary were also killed. In total, around 400 prisoners, including at least 180 Hungarians, died due to these actions.<ref name=":9" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=55–56}}
The evacuation of the Warsaw concentration camp started on 28 July. About 4,500 inmates were then forced to march to [[Kutno]], {{convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} away, in sweltering heat. During the march, which lasted for three days, the prisoners were not given water nor food; the guards additionally murdered everyone who was unable to proceed or who was too slow to execute orders.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=55–56}} Those who survived were loaded in freight carriages on 2 August, where poor conditions and the guards' cruelty added to the tally of dead prisoners. A total of 3,954 prisoners eventually arrived at the [[Dachau concentration camp]] on 6 August,<ref name=":10" /> of which there were only 280 Greek Jews who arrived at the beginning of the camp's existence.<ref name=":1" /> The ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' says that at least 500 inmates died during the operation,<ref name="USHMM" /> while Kopka gives a higher estimate of approximately 2,000 prisoners.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=55–56}} Most of the prisoners were subsequently transported to Dachau's subcamps in [[Mühldorf concentration camp complex|Mühldorf]], [[Kaufering concentration camp complex|Kaufering]] and [[Allach concentration camp|Allach-Karlsfeld]], while a few were sent to [[Flossenbürg concentration camp|Flossenbürg]]'s subcamp in [[Leitmeritz concentration camp|Leitmeritz]] (today's [[Litoměřice]] in the [[Czech Republic]]).<ref name=":1" />
The Warsaw concentration camp was still operating, however. Ninety SS personnel stayed there, as did about 400 prisoners who volunteered to stay in the camp to demolish it.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} Among those were about 300 original prisoners<ref name=":10" /> as well as dozens of Jewish prisoners of Pawiak (38–100 people, including 24 women), who were moved to {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} on 28 July.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=49}}
On 1 August, the [[Home Army]] (AK) started an [[Warsaw Uprising|uprising against Germans in Warsaw]]. In the first day of fighting, the ''[[Kedyw]]'' (sabotage command) for the [[Home Army]] [[District of Warsaw (of Armia Krajowa)|District of Warsaw]] led by [[Lieutenant (Poland)|Lt.]] {{Interlanguage link|Stanisław Janusz Sosabowski|lt=Stanisław Janusz Sosabowski|pl}} "Stasinek" (son of [[Stanisław Sosabowski]]) captured Waffen-SS warehouses on Stawki street (''Umschlagplatz'') and a school on nearby {{Interlanguage link|ulica Niska w Warszawie|lt=Niska|pl}} street, setting free around 50 {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} prisoners who were working there.{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}}{{Sfn|Bartoszewski|1970|p=236}} By that time, the Home Army also partially controlled the area of "the new camp", located near Okopowa street. In light of these advances by AK, the concentration camp's staff and the prisoners retreated to the fortified defence positions in "the old camp".{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|p=560}}
In the following few days, the patrol of the insurgent forces made several incursions into {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}, with little success.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|pp=567–568}} Meanwhile, [[Captain (armed forces)|Cpt.]] {{Interlanguage link|Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|lt=Jan Kajus Andrzejewski|pl}} "Jan", head of the {{Interlanguage link|Brygada Dywersji Broda 53|lt=Diversionary Brigade ''Broda 53''|pl}}, asked his superior, [[Lt. Col.]] [[Jan Mazurkiewicz]] "Radosław", to storm the buildings of Gęsiówka. Control over the concentration camp's area was important from a tactical standpoint, as the Home Army could gain control over the road leading to the [[Warsaw Old Town|Old Town]] via the ghetto's ruins, while also serving a humanitarian purpose of liberating the prisoners, who could be murdered.<ref name=":8" />{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|pp=571–572}} "Radosław" eventually agreed, and according to the plan, scout [[Battalion Zośka]] was handed the task of capturing the concentration camp's premises.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|pp=571–572}}
[[File:Warsaw by Deczkowki - Gęsiówka Bunker - 15803 (1945).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A bunker of the concentration camp near Okopowa street, destroyed by Battalion Zośka. Photo taken in 1945|alt=Ruins of the concentration camp, with remnants of what was a bunker seen in the foreground]]
{{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} was attacked on 5 August at 10:00, when [[Ryszard Białous]] "Jerzy", Zośka's commander, and [[Wacław Micuta]], who commanded one of its platoons, started the offensive. The military advantage was on the Polish side due to their prior capture and usage of a [[Panther tank]], which destroyed the camp's watchtowers and bunkers.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Radzilowski|first1=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PglnDwAAQBAJ&dq=KL+Warschau&pg=PP1|title=Frantic 7: The American Effort to Aid the Warsaw Uprising and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944|last2=Szczeniak|first2=Jerzy|date=2017|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=978-1-61200-561-4|pages=6–7|language=en|access-date=19 November 2021|archive-date=27 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227154006/https://books.google.com/books?id=PglnDwAAQBAJ&dq=KL+Warschau&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref> The German defence eventually collapsed and SS personnel hid in the Pawiak prison walls. Battalion Zośka's losses were rather small – one person was [[killed in action]], another died of wounds and one person was [[wounded in action]] but survived; German losses are unknown but were presumably larger.{{Sfn|Borkiewicz-Celińska|1990|pp=573–575}} The Home Army thus liberated 348 Jews, among which 24 were women.<ref name="Pohl" /><ref name="YVClearing2">[https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto_testimonies/gesia_camp.asp Clearing the Ruins of the Ghetto] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007165235/https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto_testimonies/gesia_camp.asp |date=7 October 2019 }}, Yad Vashem</ref> Those released were mostly Hungarian (200–250 people)<ref name=":9" /> and Greek Jews, with some Czechoslovakians and Dutch Jews, who knew very little Polish.<ref name="Kossoy" /> It is known that only 89 people among the liberated had been Polish citizens,{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=101}} and historians have only been able to identify 73 prisoners by name.<ref name=":12" /> The Warsaw concentration camp was the only German concentration camp in Poland that was not liberated by main Allied troops, but by resistance fighters.<ref name=":9" />{{Sfn|Zezza|2020}}{{Efn|Another camp liberated by partisan forces was the one in [[Liberation of the Holýšov concentration camp|Holýšov]], a branch of the [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]]. This was done, with consent of the [[US Army]], by the [[National Armed Forces|NSZ]]'s [[Holy Cross Mountains Brigade]] on 5 May 1945, days before World War II ended in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brzoza|first=Czesław|date=2004|title=Od Miechowa do Coburga. Brygada Świętokrzyska Narodowych Sił Zbrojnych w marszu na zachód|url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=111440|journal=Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość.|language=Polish|volume=5|issue=1|pages=242–243|issn=1427-7476}}</ref>}}
The vast majority of released Jewish prisoners swiftly took part in the uprising, which Gabriel Finder attributes to an informal political group which that prevented the camp's inhabitants from moral deterioration.<ref name=":10" /> Some of them were fighting along with other soldiers, but most, given their lack of combat experience, were helping with logistical issues, rescuing those under ruins as well as extinguishing fires.<ref name="Kossoy" /><ref name="YVClearing2" /> Morale among Jewish fighters was hurt by displays of [[antisemitism]], with several former Jewish prisoners in combat units killed by antisemitic Poles,{{r|USHMM|p=1514|q=The vast majority of liberated prisoners volunteered to fight in the uprising and served the revolt in various capacities. A special Jewish fighting platoon and a Jewish brigade to construct barricades were formed from liberated prisoners. These units sustained heavy losses. The morale of the former prisoners was corroded, however, when antisemitism reared its ugly head in the fighting units; antisemitic Poles even killed several liberated prisoners who volunteered for combat units."}} in particular those associated with the [[National Armed Forces]].<ref name="Kossoy" /> After the defeat of the uprising, the survivors fled or hid in bunkers. There were as few as 200 Jewish survivors (former prisoners as well as Jews who were hiding on the "Aryan" side) on 17 January 1945, on which date the [[Red Army]] {{Interlanguage link|Walki o Warszawę (1945)|lt=entered Warsaw|pl}}.<ref name="USHMM" />
== Postwar ==
After the retreat of the German forces from Warsaw, the former Nazi camp was first operated by the Soviet [[NKVD]] for German [[prisoners of war]], as well as for the soldiers of the Home Army loyal to the [[Polish government-in-exile]] and other persons suspected of opposing the Soviet occupation. As in the case for the German period, the prisoners were held in poor conditions and it is probable that numerous executions were taking place in the camp.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=116}}
The camp was then turned over to the Polish [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|Ministry of Public Security]] (MBP) in mid-1945, when it became known as the Central Labour Camp for Warsaw's Reconstruction ({{Langx|pl|Centralny Obóz Pracy dla Odbudowy Warszawy|label=none}}). Its prisoners were used for construction and demolition works in the capital. Most of the prisoners of war were released in 1948 and 1949, and in November 1949 the labour camp was converted to a prison.{{Sfn|Łuszczyna|2017}} The facility, which became known under two names: Central Prison – Labour Centre in Warsaw ({{Langx|pl|Centralne Więzienie – Ośrodek Pracy w Warszawie|label=none}}) or Central Prison Warsaw II Gęsiówka ({{Langx|pl|Centralne Więzienie Warszawa II Gęsiówka|label=none}}),{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=116}} did not ''de facto'' change its purpose. The inmates were still producing building materials for [[History of Warsaw#Modern times|Warsaw's reconstruction]], and {{Langx|pl|Gęsiówka|label=none}} still used forced labour, but instead of prisoners of war, common criminals and people accused by the {{Interlanguage link|Komisja Specjalna do Walki z Nadużyciami i Szkodnictem Gospodarczym|lt=Special Commission for Fighting Abuse and Economic Sabotage|pl}} of economic wrongdoings were sent there.{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=116}} According to Bogusław Kopka, 1,800 people died in the postwar prison;{{Sfn|Kopka|2019|pp=441–442}} though an estimate of 1,180 victims also appears in the literature.{{Sfn|Kopka|2019|pp=523, 525}} The fact that the former Nazi camp was taken and run by the communist authorities was the main reason why the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation|Chief Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland]] ceased its investigation in 1947.{{sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=19–20, 26, 51}}
The prison was closed in 1956 and was demolished in 1965. No element of the Nazi camp was preserved.{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=52}} As of 2023, the site is occupied by a garden square, residential buildings, and the building of the [[POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews]].{{sfn|Kopka|2007|p=117}}
== Inquiries ==
[[File:Exhumation at the courtyard of Gęsiówka prison in Warsaw (1946).jpg|thumb|Exhumed bodies in Gęsiówka prison courtyard, part of Polish government's September 1946 inquiry into crimes committed in the camp]]
It did not take long for the newly established Communist government in Poland to start analysing the events that happened in the camp's history. Already in May 1945, the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation|Warsaw Circuit Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland]] launched a formal inquiry into the crimes committed in Warsaw concentration camp.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=19}} Prosecutors inspected the premises several times, which yielded rich photographic documentation of the camp's buildings.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=26, 52, 66, 149–156, 160–163, 180–181, 609–620}} On 15–25 September 1946, a total of 2180 kg of human corpses was exhumed and analysed (the corpses were then buried again in {{Interlanguage link|Cmentarz Wolski w Warszawie|lt=Wola Cemetery|pl}}); however, the exhumations did not cover the whole territory of the camp.<ref name=":12" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=51–52}}
In 1947, the inquiry was halted for the first time due to political considerations, as the former concentration camp was functioning converted to a labour camp under the Communist [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|Ministry of Public Security]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=19–20, 26, 51}} It was only in 1974 that the investigation was continued on the request of the [[Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes]] in [[Ludwigsburg]], [[Germany]]; however, after two years, it was again suspended as the prosecutors deemed it impossible to retrieve more evidence in Poland. The investigation was once again opened in 1986, only to be closed in 1996 due to the unavailability of the perpetrators for interrogation (who either went missing or were already dead). A parallel inquiry by German federal officials was also closed.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=20–22}}
The topic of the camp returned to prominence in early 2000s, not least due to the July 2001 [[Sejm]] resolution commemorating the victims of the concentration camp,<ref name=":6" /> so the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw decided to open the Warsaw concentration camp case once again in 2002.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web|last=Kochanowski|first=Jerzy|date=2007-11-17|title=Śmierć w Warschau|url=https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/historia/235510,1,smierc-wwarschau.read|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-11|website=[[Polityka]]|language=pl|archive-date=13 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113102323/https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/historia/235510,1,smierc-wwarschau.read}}</ref> The case was first managed by the Institute of National Remembrance's District Commission in Warsaw, then it was transferred to [[Łódź]],{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=22}} but was promptly returned to the capital. On 23 January 2017, the case was closed for the fourth time.<ref name=":12" />
=== Criminal responsibility of perpetrators ===
Following [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] victory in World War II, some people related to the Warsaw concentration camp's history were convicted in criminal or military courts.
* 53 SS officers and prisoner functionaries were convicted by the judiciary of the [[Polish People's Republic]], who in most cases received relatively light sentences. Five SS officers from the camp were executed for their role in administering {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}; seven died in prison and the rest was released in 1956 at the latest.<ref name="USHMM" />{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=92–98}}
* Some members of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} staff were convicted in [[Dachau trials]] in the American zone of [[Allied-occupied Germany]]. [[Wilhelm Ruppert]], [[Alfred Kramer (war criminal)|Alfred Kramer]] and {{Interlanguage link|Franz Mielenz|pl}}, for instance, received [[death penalties]] in the [[Dachau camp trial]] (Ruppert and Kramer were executed in 1946, while Mielenz died in prison); {{Interlanguage link|Willy Jobst|pl}}, the camp doctor, also received capital punishment and was hanged in 1947, though he was indicted in a different trial, which concerned the [[Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials|Mauthausen-Gusen camp]].{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=89, 91, 99}}
* {{Interlanguage link|Walter Wawrzyniak|pl}}, who was a prisoner functionary, was also sentenced to death for his activities in {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} in an [[East German]] court in 1950, but this was reduced to [[life imprisonment]] on appeal.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-10|title=DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen – Walter Wawrzyniak|url=http://www1.jur.uva.nl:80/junsv/ddr/ddrtatortengfr.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030910021505/http://www1.jur.uva.nl/junsv/ddr/ddrtatortengfr.htm|archive-date=10 September 2003|access-date=2021-09-10|website=jur.uva.nl|language=de}}</ref>
* {{Interlanguage link|Heinz Villain|pl}}, whom Bogusław Kopka described as among the most cruel staff members of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}, was ultimately convicted in the [[Third Majdanek Trial]]. In 1981, a court in [[Düsseldorf]] in [[West Germany]] gave him a 6-year prison term.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=55, 76, 89}}
Additionally, [[Theodor Szehinskyj]], a former guard who immigrated to the US in the 1950s, had his [[US citizenship]] revoked as a [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|federal court]] in [[Pennsylvania]] found in July 2000 that he had lied in his initial visa application about his past in the SS [[Totenkopf Division]], including in the Warsaw concentration camp; the decision was upheld on appeal to the [[3rd Circuit]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Belsan|first1=Timothy A.|last2=Petty|first2=Aaron R.|date=2020-02-15|title=Civil Revocation of Naturalization: Myths and Misunderstandings|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1682&context=cwlr|journal=California Western Law Review|volume=56|issue=1|page=16|access-date=13 November 2021|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914151658/https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1682&context=cwlr|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Whelan|first=Aubrey|date=2013-08-26|title=Accused Nazi still has Chesco address|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/20130826_Accused_Nazi_still_has_Chesco_address.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-10|website=[[Philadelphia Inquirer]]|language=en|archive-date=13 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113102317/https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/20130826_Accused_Nazi_still_has_Chesco_address.html}}</ref> [[Jürgen Stroop]]'s trial in 1950 also included significant evidence relating to the concentration camp (Stroop was hanged in Warsaw in 1952).{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=89}}
Most of the staff of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}, however, did not face consequences for the war crimes.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=98}} In particular, the whereabouts of Nicolaus Herbet, the second commandant of the camp, as well as ''[[Schutzhaftlagerführer]]'' {{Interlanguage link|Wilhelm Härtel|lt=|pl}} remained unknown. The [[Institute of National Remembrance]]'s (IPN) prosecutors inquired about 208 people whom it identified to be staff members of the concentration camp in 2014, but the Ludwigsburg office only sent information about a fraction of them because of staffing issues related to processing the request of this breadth.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Byszewski|first1=Grzegorz|last2=Kozubal|first2=Marek|date=2014-10-17|title=Na tropie KL Warschau|url=https://www.rp.pl/historia/art4843311-na-tropie-kl-warschau|access-date=2021-12-28|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl}}</ref> In January 2017, IPN's prosecutors speculated that some SS officers involved in {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} might be still alive,<ref name=":12" /> but decided to discontinue the investigation due to the fact the prosecutors had no confirmation of this.<ref name=":16" />
== Discredited extermination camp story ==
=== Hypothesis ===
[[File:Tunnels near the Warsaw West railway station.jpg|thumb|Tunnels near [[Warszawa Zachodnia station|Warsaw West rail and bus station]]. The second tunnel from the left supposedly housed a German gas chamber used to exterminate ethnic Poles.|alt=A black-and-white photo of the tunnels near the Warsaw West railroad station, central to the conspiracy theory related to the operation of a gas chamber supposedly used to exterminate some 200,000 non-Jewish Poles]]
[[File:KL_Warschau_gas_chambers_scheme.jpg|thumb|A purported scheme, in Polish, of the gas chamber in the tunnels near Warszawa Zachodnia station.{{Efn|According to the scheme, a ventilation shaft, which was located closer to the railway station and is seen on the left of the scheme, pumped in air from the outside. In the meantime, [[hydrogen cyanide]] gas appearing from [[Zyklon B]] was transported by two pipes to the ventilators, where the gas was mixed with air, and then blown into the tunnel via vents in its walls that could be closed. These were the two gas chambers that Trzcińska alleged to have existed. The gas was then pumped out of the gas chambers by the ventilator engines and released into the atmosphere. The scheme says that the Institute of National Remembrance and the [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]] are to blame for the destruction of what is said to be the remnants of the gas chamber infrastructure in 1996.}}|alt=A proposed scheme of the Warsaw concentration camp. According to the scheme, a ventilation shaft pumped in air from the outside. In the meantime, hydrogen cyanide gas appearing from Zyklon B was transported by two pipes to the ventilators, where the gas was mixed with air, and then blown into the tunnel via vents in its walls that could be closed. These were the two gas chambers that Trzcińska alleged to have existed. The gas was then pumped out of the gas chambers by the ventilator engines and released into the atmosphere. The scheme says that the Institute of National Remembrance and the [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]] are to blame for the destruction of what is said to be the remnants of the gas chamber infrastructure in 1996.]]
Despite the availability of reliable information about the Warsaw concentration camp,<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Lehnstaedt"/> in the 1980s a since-discredited legend<ref name="Lehnstaedt"/> or [[conspiracy theory]]<ref name="lrb2019"/> developed concerning the camp.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chomątowska|first=Beata|date=2017-04-18|title=KL Warschau jak katastrofa smoleńska, czyli manipulacja pamięcią|trans-title=KL Warschau is like the [[Smolensk air disaster]]|work=[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]|url=https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,21647847,kl-warschau-jak-katastrofa-smolenska-czyli-manipulacja-pamiecia.html|access-date=2019-10-18|language=pl|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114143654/https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,21647847,kl-warschau-jak-katastrofa-smolenska-czyli-manipulacja-pamiecia.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Maria Trzcińska]], a Polish judge who served in 1974–1996 as a member of the [[Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation|Chief Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland]] (named Chief Commission for Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation after 1991), was assigned to investigate German documents that her counterparts in Ludwigsburg had found.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|title=Dzieje KL Warschau były zakłamywane|url=https://www.rp.pl/wydarzenia/art12222041-dzieje-kl-warschau-byly-zaklamywane|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Rzeczpospolita|language=pl|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107181557/https://www.rp.pl/wydarzenia/art12222041-dzieje-kl-warschau-byly-zaklamywane|url-status=live}}</ref> In mid-1988, testimony began to emerge suggesting that the concentration camp was also located near [[Warszawa Zachodnia railway station]], more than {{convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on}} away from Gęsia Street, and included [[gas chamber]]s. These witnesses said that other camps had also existed in the vicinity of the camp's generally recognised area.<ref name=":32"/><ref name=":22"/> The earliest mention of the gas chambers appeared in the early 1970s in an issue of ''Perspektywy,'' a Polish weekly political magazine discontinued in 1990.<ref name=":132">{{Cite web|title=Zygmunt Walkowski: podczas II wojny obok Dworca Zachodniego nie było komory gazowej|url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/zygmunt-walkowski-podczas-ii-wojny-obok-dworca-zachodniego-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej|access-date=2021-09-14|website=dzieje.pl|language=pl|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114143654/https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/zygmunt-walkowski-podczas-ii-wojny-obok-dworca-zachodniego-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej|url-status=live}}</ref>
Thereafter Trzcińska advocated commemoration of the concentration camp's victims, based on the testimony from the late 1980s. In 2002 Trzcińska published a book, ''Obóz zagłady w centrum Warszawy. Konzentrationslager Warschau'' (''The [[Extermination camp|Extermination Camp]] in the Centre of Warsaw: Konzentrazionslager Warschau'').{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002}} According to Jan Żaryn, when the idea of a monument to the victims of the Warsaw concentration camp approached fruition, the interested parties were unable to agree on inscriptions to be placed on it, so Trzcińska requested that the IPN verify which version was correct.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-06-11|title=Prof. Żaryn dla wPolityce.pl: Gdy ujawniłem, że Muzeum Polin jest zbudowane na szczątkach ludzkich starano się zwolnić mnie z pracy|url=https://wpolityce.pl/historia/398961-prof-zaryn-dla-wpolitycepl-gdy-ujawnilem-ze-muzeum-polin-jest-zbudowane-na-szczatkach-ludzkich-starano-sie-zwolnic-mnie-z-pracy|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-11|website=wpolityce.pl|archive-date=14 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114143656/https://wpolityce.pl/historia/398961-prof-zaryn-dla-wpolitycepl-gdy-ujawnilem-ze-muzeum-polin-jest-zbudowane-na-szczatkach-ludzkich-starano-sie-zwolnic-mnie-z-pracy}}</ref> The institute's conclusions, published in a book by Bogusław Kopka, however, diverged so strongly from hers that she retracted her section of the book and independently published her own conclusions,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Trzcińska|first=Maria|title=KL Warschau w świetle dokumentów: raport dla Prezesa Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, na potrzeby szkół i budowy Pomnika Ofiar Obozu KL Warschau|publisher=Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne|year=2007|isbn=9788389862945|___location=Radom}}</ref> reiterating the points she had made five years before.<ref name=":32" />{{efn|This [[English Wikipedia]] article about the Warsaw concentration camp was created in 2004 and for 15 years presented Trzcińska's extermination-camp story as fact, despite it having been discredited by 2007.<ref name="Post-truth" /> The story was removed in August 2019 and drew media attention in October 2019, when Omer Benjakob of ''[[Haaretz]]''{{sfn|Benjakob|2019}} called it "Wikipedia's longest-standing hoax".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/wikipedia-page-on-fake-warsaw-concentration-camp-was-15-year-hoax-report/|title=Wikipedia page on Warsaw death camp where 200,000 were killed was 15-year fake|work=[[Times of Israel]]|date=5 October 2019|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107183051/https://www.timesofisrael.com/wikipedia-page-on-fake-warsaw-concentration-camp-was-15-year-hoax-report/|url-status=live}}</ref>}} These can be summarised as follows:
* {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} started its operation in October 1942, just after [[Himmler]]'s first order (see [[Warsaw concentration camp#Creation|Creation]] section);<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-10-09|title=Wmurowano akt erekcyjny pod pomnik ofiar KL Warschau|url=https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/wmurowano-akt-erekcyjny-pod-pomnik-ofiar-kl-warschau-6036722891375745a|access-date=2021-12-28|website=PAP|language=pl|via=[[Wirtualna Polska]]}}</ref>
* The Warsaw concentration camp was, according to Trzcińska, an extensive complex consisting of five subcamps. The main camp, which purportedly had previously served as a POW camp for the [[Polish Army]] soldiers detained after [[Invasion of Poland|September 1939]], was located in a small forest in the neighbourhood of [[Koło, Warsaw|Koło]] called {{Interlanguage link|Lasek na Kole|pl}}; two subcamps were located in the former ghetto (one on Gęsia street, which is the generally recognised ___location, and another on {{Interlanguage link|ulica Bonifraterska w Warszawie|lt=Bonifraterska|pl}} street); and two were located near the Warszawa Zachodnia station.<ref name=":2" />{{Efn|According to her theory, the subcamps near Warszawa Zachodnia station were to be located on both sides of the tunnel supposedly containing a giant gas chamber. One of them supposedly had an area of about {{convert|30|hectare|acre}} and was situated between Mszczonowska, Armatnia and Józef Bem streets; the other was located on the other side of the railway tracks, near what was then Skalmierzycka street (today's part of [[Jerusalem Avenue]] running from Niemcewicza street to the road tunnel).}} These are said to have extended over an area of around {{convert|120|hectare|acre}}, containing 119 barracks capable of housing 41,000 inmates.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|title=Na Jasnej Górze odsłonięto tablicę upamiętniającą ofiary KL Warschau|url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/na-jasnej-gorze-odslonieto-tablice-upamietniajaca-ofiary-kl-warschau|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124222301/https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/na-jasnej-gorze-odslonieto-tablice-upamietniajaca-ofiary-kl-warschau|archive-date=24 November 2021|access-date=2021-11-24|website=dzieje.pl|language=pl}}</ref>{{Sfn|Trzcińska|2002|p=31|ps=KL Warschau, zbudowany w trzech dzielnicach Warszawy jako pięciolagrowy kompleks, taką liczbę [około 40 tys. osób] osiągnął. Zajmował tereny o powierzchni około 120 ha, na których wzniesiono 119 baraków o pojemności łącznej do 41 tys. miejsc}}
* {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}, as Trzcińska purported, operated as an extermination camp for Poles.<ref name=":2" /> Around 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Poles, were said to have been killed by gassing and mass shootings.<ref name="lrb2019" /> A road tunnel under the railway line, which is today part of {{Ill|Aleja Prymasa Tysiąclecia|pl}} (then part of {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}), was allegedly converted into a [[gas chamber]], which she claimed played a central role in that extermination.<ref name="lrb2019" />
* The [[Polish People's Republic]] authorities were loath to study the history of the Warsaw concentration camp or commemorate its victims, as they were afraid of disclosing the information about the functioning of Soviet NKVD and Polish Communist MBP administrations in {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}.<ref name="lrb2019" />
=== Refutation ===
These contentions, in addition to not being confirmed by Bogusław Kopka, have also been refuted by the IPN in a later analysis by {{ill|Zygmunt Walkowski|pl}}.<ref name=":12" /> The findings were also cast in doubt by other historians, including [[Władysław Bartoszewski]], [[Tomasz Szarota]],{{Sfn|Szarota|2014|p=364}} Andreas Mix<ref name=":2" /> and Jan Żaryn.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=16}} In particular, they say that:
* no credible evidence exists for the assertion that {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} had more camps than the one at Gęsia street. There is no testimony whatsoever about the existence of the camp at Bonifraterska street;<ref name=":2" /> as for three other camps which supposedly existed, available testimony is scarce, is contradictory and contains few details.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=24}} There is also no evidence for a POW camp in Koło neighbourhood that had allegedly existed before {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}},{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|p=122}} or in general of any spatially separated camps;<ref name=":2" />
* there is no credible evidence for the hypothesis that KL Warschau was an extermination camp, or that it featured a giant gas chamber under the railway tracks. Neither the [[Polish Underground State]] reports nor the German archives reveal any such information, nor did any piece of testimony coming from wartime period or shortly thereafter mention it.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=130–131}} The oral and written submissions Trzcińska relied on were created more than 40 years after the war, and their veracity is dubious.<ref name="lrb2019" /> Moreover, retired workers of "Kolprojekt", a rail construction bureau, and available documents of the enterprise suggest that the ventilation shafts near {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, which supposedly were remnants of the gas chamber, were in fact built in the 1970s{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=469–485, 490–495, 505–506}} and that in 1960, the technical plan of Warszawa Zachodnia station did not have any gas chambers detected;<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Panasiuk|first1=Agnieszka|last2=Niezgoda|first2=Arkadiusz|date=2001-08-25|title=Tunel pod pomnik|url=https://www.polityka.pl/archiwumpolityki/1837694,1,tunel-pod-pomnik.read|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Polityka]]|language=pl}}</ref>
* known estimates of the losses Warsaw endured in World War II contradict the notion that 200,000 people could have died in the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Getter|first=Marek|date=August–September 2004|title=Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim|url=https://www.polska1918-89.pl/pdf/straty-ludzkie-i-materialne-w-powstaniu-warszawskim,5774.pdf|journal=Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance|volume=8–9|issue=43–44|issn=1641-9561|language=pl|access-date=14 November 2021|archive-date=29 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829034100/http://www.polska1918-89.pl/pdf/straty-ludzkie-i-materialne-w-powstaniu-warszawskim,5774.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Bogusław Kopka suggested that this number is in fact a sum of those who died in Warsaw Uprising, the deaths in the camps and some other civilian deaths in Warsaw.{{Sfn|Kopka|2007|pp=130–131}}
In 2010, the Institute of National Remembrance commissioned a report from historian and [[Aerial photography|aerial-photography]] expert {{ill|Zygmunt Walkowski|pl}}, which was submitted in December 2016 (it is not yet published as of August 2022).<ref name=":132" /> The report confirmed that the only place {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} existed on was on Gęsia Street and that no camp infrastructure existed in the areas said to have contained other subcamps.<ref name=":132" /> Walkowski also noted that the tunnels were not closed and that vehicles could drive through them, while the two ventilation shafts and a ventilator engine that were supposedly used to pump [[Zyklon B]] into the tunnel were only built in the 1970s.<ref name=":4">{{cite news|date=17 April 2017|title=Sprawa KL Warschau: nie było komory gazowej przy dworcu Zachodnim|language=pl|work=TVN Warszawa|url=https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/sprawa-kl-warschau-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej-przy-dworcu-zachodnim-186454|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=18 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918203845/https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/sprawa-kl-warschau-nie-bylo-komory-gazowej-przy-dworcu-zachodnim-186454|url-status=live}}</ref> It was also shown that during the [[History of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]], access to the forest near Koło was not restricted for civilians, the barracks were already built in the 1930s and were used by civilians, while the purported "death wall" only emerged in 1972.<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name=":132" />
=== Reactions ===
According to Christian Davies, the discredited story that the Germans built a gas chamber to kill non-Jews, together with the fact of some 200,000 Polish fatalities in the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising (1944)|Warsaw Uprising]] (for a total of 400,000 non-Jewish deaths in Warsaw, which is also the usual estimate of the number of Jews imprisoned in Warsaw), has been used by the story's advocates to seek parity between Jewish and non-Jewish victimhood that would make the Holocaust seem less unique, a notion that Davies dubbed the "Polocaust".<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name=":112">{{Cite journal|last=Subotić|first=Jelena|author-link=Jelena Subotić|date=2020-08-04|title=The Appropriation of Holocaust Memory in Post-Communist Eastern Europe|journal=[[Modern Languages Open]]|volume=1|language=en|issue=1|page=22|doi=10.3828/mlo.v0i0.315|s2cid=225418192|issn=2052-5397|doi-access=free}}</ref> He also pointed to [[Law and Justice]] party (PiS) officials' endorsement for {{Interlanguage link|Mira Modelska-Creech|pl}}, who emerged as one of the main proponents of the extermination camp hypothesis after Trzcińska died in 2011,{{efn|For publications advocating Trzcińska's thesis since she died in 2011, see:
* {{Cite book|last=Zaorska|first=Aldona|title=KL Warschau. Historia obozu zagłady w Warszawie|date=2013|isbn=978-83-63865-48-1|publisher=Bollinari Publishing House|___location=Warsaw|oclc=855590248|language=pl|trans-title=KL Warschau. History of an extermination camp in Warsaw}}
* {{Cite book|title=Plan zagłady Warszawy: KL Warschau|date=2014|publisher=Wydawnictwo "Myślę Ojczyzna"|editor-last=Bojarski|editor-first=Włodzimierz Witold|isbn=978-83-939232-2-9|___location=Warszawa|oclc=924728007|trans-title=Plan of Warsaw's extermination: KL Warschau}}
* {{Cite book|last=Modelska-Creech|first=Mira|title=KL Warschau: to miała być zbrodnia doskonała...|date=2015|publisher=Wydawnictwo Instytutu Teologicznego Księży Misjonarzy|isbn=978-83-7869-226-3|___location=Warsaw|oclc=939908797|trans-title=KL Warschau: it was supposed to be a [[perfect crime]]...}}}} and IPN's lack of reaction when the commemorative plaque citing Trzcińska's data was unveiled in 2017.<ref name="lrb2019" /><ref name="Lovett">{{Cite news|last=Lovett|first=Patrick|date=2020-01-08|title=In Polish capital Warsaw, nationalists want to rewrite history of World War II|work=[[France 24]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7TZzzNrDnE|access-date=2021-09-12|via=[[YouTube]]|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234035/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7TZzzNrDnE|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DaviesHaaretz">{{Cite news|last=Davies|first=Christian|date=2019-11-24|title=How Poland's Ruling Party Cynically Fuels anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-how-poland-s-ruling-party-cynically-fuels-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-denial-1.8168175|access-date=2020-01-26|archive-date=26 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126113837/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-how-poland-s-ruling-party-cynically-fuels-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-denial-1.8168175|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Nasz Dziennik]],'' a right-wing to far-right Catholic newspaper, and affiliated ''[[Radio Maryja]],'' have promoted the hypothesis as an emblem of Polish martyrdom. These media outlets have also advocated for introducing the story into school curricula and for constructing a museum of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349899/1/498316.pdf|last=Kwiatkowska|first=Hanna Maria|title=Conflict of images. Conflict of memories. Jewish themes in the Polish right-wing nationalistic press in the light of articles from ''Nasz Dziennik'' 1998–2007|degree=PhD|institution=University of London|date=2008|pages=67, 82–88|access-date=28 August 2019|archive-date=7 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007165233/http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349899/1/498316.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Maszkowski|first=Rafał|date=December 2006|title=A different World: The Jews as Seen by Radio Maryja|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271371344|journal=Jewish History Quarterly|language=pl|issue=4|pages=669–687|access-date=14 November 2021|archive-date=27 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227154004/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271371344_Inny_swiat_obraz_Zydow_w_Radiu_Maryja_A_different_World_The_Jews_as_Seen_by_Radio_Maryja|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2001, Bartoszewski dismissed the gas chamber theory as being propagated among those "who think that too few people have died in Warsaw".<ref name=":32" /> [[Havi Dreifuss]], [[Jan Grabowski (historian)|Jan Grabowski]], and [[Gideon Greif]]<ref>{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPIn8oBVzU#t=323s|title=העולם היום – 06.10.19|date=2019-10-06|last=ורדי|first=מואב|language=he}}</ref> have related the gas-chamber story to the current [[history policy of the Law and Justice party|Polish government's history policy]] and interpreted the account as a [[conspiracy theory]] (Grabowski) or [[fake history]] (Dreifuss).{{Sfn|Benjakob|2019}} Walkowski, who said he was bemused by the fact that people were unhappy with his findings about fewer deaths, told reporters he had received threats.<ref name="Lovett" /> Historian [[Daniel Blatman]], on the other hand, while seeing the hypothesis as "one of numberless stories that [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust deniers]] around the world are posting online", warned against generalising on the Polish society or the governments it brought to power.<ref name="Blatman 2019-10-182">{{Cite news|last=Blatman|first=Daniel|date=2019-10-18|title=Israel, It's Time to Call Off the anti-Polish Hunt|language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-it-s-time-to-call-off-the-anti-polish-hunt-1.7995017|access-date=2019-10-21|archive-date=19 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019065831/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-it-s-time-to-call-off-the-anti-polish-hunt-1.7995017|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Commemoration ==
[[File:Briefmarke_Konzentrationslager.jpg|alt=A 1995 German stamp (worth 1 Deutschmark), printed on white paper. On top, the text in German reads "50th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners from the concentration camps". A stylised fragment of prisoner's clothes and some barbed wire appear in the post stamp area; the sheet containing it additionally includes names of concentration and extermination camps, including KL Warschau|thumb|A 1995 [[Deutsche Post|German]] post stamp, mentioning the Warsaw concentration camp]]
Probably in the 1950s, a [[Tchorek plaques|Tchorek plaque]], which said that "in 1943–1944, Polish patriots were repeatedly shot to death and burnt by the Hitlerites in this building", was installed on a wall of the burnt-out Wołyń Caserns, specifically on the east wall, facing Zamenhof Street. The plaque was lost in 1965, when Gęsiówka was demolished.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Nazaruk|first1=Igor|last2=Jastrzębski|first2=Jakub|date=2017-10-03|title=Te kolorowe zdjęcia Muranowa z lat 60. znalazł przez przypadek. Bloki wyrastają wokół ostatnich ruin getta|work=Gazeta.pl|url=https://metrowarszawa.gazeta.pl/metrowarszawa/56,141636,19378294,koszary-wolynskie-od-strony-ul-zamenhofa,,3.html|access-date=2021-09-08|language=pl|archive-date=10 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110113323/http://metrowarszawa.gazeta.pl/metrowarszawa/56,141636,19378294,koszary-wolynskie-od-strony-ul-zamenhofa,,3.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Bogusław Kopka says, though, that during his visit to Warsaw in 1959, [[Richard Nixon]], then [[Vice President of the United States]], managed to lay a wreath in front of the main building of the former concentration camp.<ref name=":15" />
Commemoration efforts were renewed in July 2001, when the [[Sejm]], the lower house of the Polish parliament, adopted a resolution commemorating the victims of the concentration camp while calling to create a monument "in remembrance of thousands of Polish inhabitants of Warsaw who were murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp as part of the [[Pabst Plan|plan of annihilating the Capital City of Poland]], as well as murdered citizens of other nationalities: Jews, Greeks, [[Gypsies]], [[Belarusians]] and [[Italians|Italian]] officers".<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|title=UCHWAŁA Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 27 lipca 2001 r. w sprawie upamiętnienia ofiar Konzentrationslager Warschau|url=http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/proc3.nsf/uchwaly/3262_u.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Chancellery of the Sejm|language=pl|archive-date=14 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114223604/http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/proc3.nsf/uchwaly/3262_u.htm}}</ref>
In March 2004, the Warsaw city council allowed to build a commemoration site on the Alojzy Pawelek square in the southern part of [[Wola]] district, next to what Trzcińska contended were gas chambers and subcamps of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}}.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-03-11|title=Uchwała nr XXVI/494/2004 z 11-03-2004|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/BA0C5BB7-DEA4-4BE7-8AE5-4D7A1229B1AD,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] – Warsaw|language=pl|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234048/https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/BA0C5BB7-DEA4-4BE7-8AE5-4D7A1229B1AD,frameless.htm}}</ref> It became a place of informal monthly gatherings of supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis.<ref name="Lovett" /> Despite the fact that relevant authorities consider the monument an [[illegal building]] and do not cover it by protection afforded to other monuments as it cites false historical data, the monument still stands.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-12-02|title='Patopomnik' teorii spiskowej ma się świetnie. Zarząd Zieleni gra na zwłokę|url=http://tustolica.pl/patopomnik-teorii-spiskowej-ma-sie-swietnie-zarzad-zieleni-gra-na-zwloke_86954|access-date=2022-01-04|website=Tu Stolica|language=pl}}</ref>
The resolution that initially allowed the monument's construction was cancelled in October 2009 after consultations with the [[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]], a governmental body responsible for the preservation of sites of wartime persecution, and it was decided to place a new monument in the neighbourhood of [[Muranów]], on the site of what was then [[Serbia Prison, Warsaw|Serbia prison]], some {{convert|200|m|ft|abbr=on}} away from the walls of the actual concentration camp.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web|last=Pinkas|first=Aleksandra|date=2010-06-11|title=Sąd na pomnikiem KL Warschau|url=https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/484849.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-08|website=Życie Warszawy|language=pl|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234039/https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/484849.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-10-22|title=Uchwała nr LXIII/1994/2009 z 22-10-2009|url=https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/E22E0F69-6813-4600-AA08-48E55F27F756,frameless.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej]] – Warsaw|language=pl|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234042/https://bip.warszawa.pl/NR/exeres/E22E0F69-6813-4600-AA08-48E55F27F756,frameless.htm}}</ref>{{efn|As of March 2022, the monument in Muranów has not yet appeared.}} That decision was opposed by supporters of Trzcińska's hypothesis, who argued that placing the monument there would suggest that only Jews were victims of the concentration camp, but the [[Supreme Administrative Court of Poland|Supreme Administrative Court]] denied their request to invalidate the new resolution.<ref name=":14" />
Supporters of the extermination camp theory have created their own commemoration sites. Their efforts have resulted in the 2004 monument, a plaque on a nearby {{Interlanguage link|Kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} on {{ill|Józef Bem Street|pl|Ulica Józefa Bema w Warszawie}}, placed in 2009 and consecrated by Archbishop [[Kazimierz Nycz]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Podulka|first=Maciej|date=2009-06-10|title=KL Warschau wychodzi z cienia historii|url=http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110043943/http://www.wola.waw.pl/data/newspapersFiles/kw-nr30.pdf|archive-date=2016-11-10|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Kurier Wolski|language=pl}}</ref> and another two in 2017, one on a {{Interlanguage link|Kościół Matki Bożej Królowej Polskich Męczenników w Warszawie|lt=church|pl}} in the Warsaw district of [[Praga-Południe]] and its copy in the [[Jasna Góra Monastery]] in [[Częstochowa]]; all of these are repeating Trzcińska's conjecture about 200,000 Poles murdered in the Warsaw concentration camp.<ref name=":112" /><ref name=":5" /> An unofficial plaque was also installed in the Lasek na Kole forest, contending that a place of execution connected with the Warsaw concentration camp existed there.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-09-16|title=Tajemnica Lasku na Kole|url=http://www.warszawaexpress.pl/8_58_tajemnica-lasku-na-kole.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Warszawa Express – Warszawski Magazyn Codzienny|language=pl|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234042/http://www.warszawaexpress.pl/8_58_tajemnica-lasku-na-kole.html}}</ref> Marius Gudonis and Benjamin T. Jones, in their book ''History in a [[Post-truth|Post-Truth]] World'', relate the fact such plaques appeared to the indifference to established facts and to an ideological devotion to the preferred historical narrative, which, in the case of the 2009 plaque, was further cemented by approval of high church authorities.<ref name="Post-truth">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBj0DwAAQBAJ|title=History in a post-truth world : theory and praxis|date=2021|editor1=Marius Gudonis|editor2=Benjamin T. Jones|isbn=978-1-000-19822-5|___location=New York|pages=9–11|oclc=1157756093|access-date=14 November 2021}}</ref>
As a result, the only place of commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp in the area of {{Langx|de|KL Warschau|label=none|italic=unset}} is a plaque that was initially embedded into a wall of a building at 34 Anielewicza Street in 1994;<ref name=":10" /> it was moved in 2018 and is now located on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa Streets, which was the south-west corner of KL Warschau.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Węgrzynowicz|first=Artur|date=2018-07-23|title=Przeniosą tablice upamiętniające odbicie Gęsiówki i śmierć mieszkańców Woli|trans-title=Plaques commemorating capture of Gęsiówka and Wola massacre to be moved|url=https://tvnwarszawa.tvn24.pl/informacje,news,przeniosa-tablice-upamietniajace-odbicie-gesiowki-i-smierc-mieszkancow-woli,265342.html|url-status=live|access-date=2018-09-23|website=TVN 24 Warszawa|language=pl|archive-date=27 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727122743/https://tvnwarszawa.tvn24.pl/informacje,news,przeniosa-tablice-upamietniajace-odbicie-gesiowki-i-smierc-mieszkancow-woli,265342.html}}</ref> The plaques, written in Polish, [[Hebrew]] and English tell about the camp's liberation by Battalion Zośka and the subsequent participation of the prisoners in the Warsaw Uprising. A plaque in remembrance of the victims was also unveiled near the [[Museum of Pawiak Prison]] in November 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-11-22|title=Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej ofiarom KL Warschau|url=http://muzeum-niepodleglosci.pl/pawiak/903/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Museum of Pawiak Prison]]|language=pl-PL|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112234038/http://muzeum-niepodleglosci.pl/pawiak/903/}}</ref>
The camp's name appears on the 1995 German post stamp, prepared for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Blockausgabe: 50. Jahrestag der Befreiung der Gefangenen aus den Konzentrationslagern|url=https://www.suche-briefmarken.de/marken/brd/d1995027.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-14|website=www.suche-briefmarken.de|archive-date=13 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113001045/https://www.suche-briefmarken.de/marken/brd/d1995027.html}}</ref> In 2020, a 10 [[Polish złoty|PLN]] silver commemorative coin was issued by the [[National Bank of Poland]], honouring the camp's victims.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-08|title=NBP upamiętnił ofiary obozu KL Warschau|trans-title=The National Bank of Poland commemorated the victims of KL Warschau|url=https://www.nbp.pl/banknoty_i_monety/monety_okolicznosciowe/2020/2020_22___kl_warschau_pl.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=National Bank of Poland|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914151652/https://www.nbp.pl/banknoty_i_monety/monety_okolicznosciowe/2020/2020_22___kl_warschau_pl.pdf}}</ref>
<gallery caption="Commemoration of the Warsaw concentration camp" mode="packed">
File:„Gęsiówka” commemorative plaque at Anielewicza Street in Warsaw 01.jpg|alt=Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp. The plaque in English reads: "On 5 August 1944, 'Zośka', the scouts' battalion of the 'Radosław' unit Armia Krajowa captured the German concentration camp 'Gęsiówka' and liberated 348 Jewish prisoners – citizens of various European countries, many of whom later fought and fell in the Warsaw Uprising"|Official commemorative site of the Warsaw concentration camp, on the corner of Anielewicza and Okopowa street, near the camp's south-west corner.
File:KL Warschau commemorative plaque at the Museum of the Prison Pawiak.jpg|alt=A commemorative plaque near Pawiak Prison (in Polish). It says: "In honour of the victims of the German concentration camp KL Warschau – inhabitants of Warsaw – the city that was never subdued. Warsaw 2013"|Commemorative plaque near [[Pawiak Prison]]
File:200,000 Poles killed - 200 tys. zamordowanych Polaków KL Warschau.jpg|alt=Commemorative plaque placed in 2017, which follows Trzcińska's hypothesis of the camp's history. The plaque reads: "We consecrate the white blot of history that was being hidden [from us] to Our Lady, the Queen of Polish martyrs: In homage to the 200,000 Poles murdered in Warsaw in the German extermination camp KL WARSCHAU in 1942-1944. The camp existed 'in the framework of the annihilation of the Capital of Poland' – from the Sejm resolution dated 27 July 2001 on the victims of KL Warschau. Compatriots – 2017" To the right, a scheme of Warsaw appears with the caption "Pabst Plan – 1940 – Plan of Warsaw's destruction".|Commemorative plaque placed in Warsaw in 2017, contending that 200,000 Poles were murdered in KL Warschau, which it says was "a white blot of history that was being hidden". Its copy was placed in Częstochowa
File:Tablica KL Warschau kościół św. Stanisława Biskupa i Męczennika w Warszawie.jpg|alt=Another commemorative plaque put by Trzcińska's supporters, citing the same number|Another commemorative plaque citing the same number
File:Pomnik ofiarom KL Warschau na Skwerze im. Alojzego Pawełka w Warszawie (3).JPG|alt=Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. The site consists of a round place surrounded by stones. At one side of the site appears a large stone with an inscription repeating Trzcińska's number, behind which stands a metal cross. Information boards outlining Trzcińska's hypothesis appear on either side of the site|Commemoration site for the Warsaw concentration camp on Alojzy Pawelek square, an unofficial gathering place of Trzcińska's supporters. Photo taken in 2012
</gallery>
== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book|last=Bartoszewski|first=Władysław|title=Warszawski pierścień śmierci 1939–1944|publisher=Interpress|year=1970|___location=Warszawa|trans-title=Warsaw Ring of Death 1939-1944|author-link=Władysław Bartoszewski|language=pl}}
* {{Cite web|last1=Berenstein|first1=Tatiana|last2=Rutkowski|first2=Adam|date=1967|title=Obóz koncentracyjny dla Żydów w Warszawie (1943-1944)|trans-title=A concentration camp for the Jews in Warsaw (1943-1944)|url=https://cbj.jhi.pl/documents/777882/0/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Bulletin of the [[Jewish Historical Institute]]|pages=3–22|language=pl|via=Central Jewish Library|archive-date=1 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101013029/https://cbj.jhi.pl/documents/777882/0/}}
* {{Cite book|last=Borkiewicz-Celińska|first=Anna|title=Batalion "Zośka"|publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy|year=1990|isbn=83-06-01851-6|___location=Warsaw|trans-title=Battalion Zośka|language=pl}}
* {{Cite book|last=Domańska|first=Regina|title=Pawiak – więzienie Gestapo. Kronika lat 1939–1944|publisher=Książka i Wiedza|year=1978|___location=Warsaw|language=pl|trans-title=Pawiak – the prison of Gestapo. Chronography of 1939-1944}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Engelking|first1=Barbara|title=Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście|last2=Leociak|first2=Jacek|publisher=Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów|year=2013|isbn=978-83-63444-27-3|___location=Warsaw|language=pl|trans-title=Warsaw Ghetto. A guide to a non-existent city|author-link=Barbara Engelking|author-link2=Jacek Leociak}}
* {{Cite book|last=Kopka|first=Bogusław|title=Konzentrationslager Warschau. Historia i następstwa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance]]|year=2007|isbn=978-83-60464-46-5|___location=Warsaw|language=pl|trans-title=Konzentrationslager Warschau. History and consequences|author-link=Bogusław Kopka}}
* {{Cite book|last=Kopka|first=Bogusław|title=Gułag nad Wisłą. Komunistyczne obozy pracy w Polsce 1944–1956|publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie|year=2019|isbn=978-83-08-06753-6|___location=Kraków|language=pl|trans-title=GULag on the Vistula. Communist forced labour camps in Poland in 1944-1956|author-link=Bogusław Kopka}}
* {{Cite book|last=Longerich|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBQchepZ-7EC&q=Heinrich+Himmler%3A+A+Life|title=Heinrich Himmler: A Life|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2011|isbn=9780199592326|___location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|last=Łuszczyna|first=Marek|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oro9DwAAQBAJ&q=kl+warschau|title=Mała zbrodnia: Polskie obozy koncentracyjne|publisher=Znak-Horyzont|year=2017|isbn=978-83-240-4175-6|___location=Warsaw|language=pl|chapter=Antifa, czyli punkt widzenia Heinza Grischke}}
* {{Cite book|last=Mix|first=Andreas|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3bI8JS3NjkC&pg=PA122|title=[[Der Ort des Terrors]]. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager|publisher=[[C.H.BECK]]|year=2008|isbn=978-3-406-57237-1|editor-last=Benz|editor-first=Wolfgang|volume=8|___location=[[Munich]]|language=de|chapter=Warschau-Stammlager|editor-last2=Distel|editor-first2=Barbara}}
* {{Cite book|last=Salter|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH2NAgAAQBAJ&dq=Himmler+9+October+1942&pg=PA44|title=Nazi War Crimes, US Intelligence and Selective Prosecution at Nuremberg: Controversies Regarding the Role of the Office of Strategic Services|date=2007-06-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-33133-7|language=en}}
* {{Cite book|last=Stroop|first=Jürgen|url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/1061-ps.asp|title=The Warsaw Ghetto is no more|publisher=Yale Law School Lillian Goodman Law Library|year=1943|isbn=978-83-7629-455-1|___location=[[New Haven]]|author-link=Jürgen Stroop}}
* {{Cite book|last=Szarota|first=Tomasz|title=Warszawa walczy 1939–1945. Leksykon|publisher=Fundacja Warszawa Walczy 1939–1945/[[Bellona Publishing House]]|year=2014|isbn=978-83-1113474-4|editor-last=Komorowski|editor-first=Krzysztof|editor-link=Krzysztof Komorowski|___location=Warsaw|trans-title=Warsaw fights 1939-1945. A dictionary|chapter=Konzentrationslager Warschau|author-link=Tomasz Szarota|language=pl}}
* {{Cite book|last=Trzcińska|first=Maria|title=Obóz zagłady w centrum Warszawy. Konzentrationslager Warschau|publisher=Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne|year=2002|isbn=83-88822-16-0|___location=[[Radom]]|trans-title=An extermination camp in the centre of Warsaw. Konzentrationslager Warschau|author-link=Maria Trzcińska|language=pl}}
== Further reading ==
* {{Cite news|last=Benjakob|first=Omer|date=2019-10-04|title=The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed|work=[[Haaretz]]|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-fake-nazi-death-camp-wikipedia-s-longest-hoax-exposed-1.7942233|access-date=2019-10-18}}
* {{Cite book|last=Biskupska|first=Jadwiga|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781009026017/type/book|title=Survivors: Warsaw under Nazi Occupation|date=2022-02-28|chapter=Pawiak Prison|pages=80–104|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-009-02601-7|edition=1|doi=10.1017/9781009026017.004}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Gajewska|first=Bożena|date=December 2023|title="Marsz Śmierci" z KL Warschau (Gęsiówka) do Kutna|url=https://um.kutno.pl/sites/default/files/attachments/2024-07/Marsz_20_C5_9Bmierci_20GAJEWSKA.pdf|journal=Kutnowskie Zeszyty Regionalne|volume=XXVII|via=[[Kutno]] city government|language=pl}}
* {{Cite book|last=Goldstein|first=Chaim Itzl|title=The Bunker|publisher=[[Jewish Publication Society]]|year=1970|___location=[[Philadelphia]]}} – survivor's account
* {{Cite journal|last=Libionka|first=Dariusz|date=2014-12-01|title=Zapisy dotyczące Żydów w warszawskich kronikach policyjnych z lat 1942–1944|url=https://www.zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/article/view/537|journal=Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały|language=pl|issue=10|pages=558–591|doi=10.32927/ZZSiM.537|issn=2657-3571|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}
* {{Cite book|last=Mannheimer|first=Max|title=Spätes Tagebuch. Theresienstadt – Auschwitz – Warschau – Dachau|publisher=Pendo|year=2000|isbn=9783858423740|___location=[[Zürich]]|language=de}} – survivor's account
* {{Cite web|last1=Panasiuk|first1=Agnieszka|last2=Niezgoda|first2=Arkadiusz|date=2001-08-25|title=Tunel pod pomnik|url=https://www.polityka.pl/archiwumpolityki/1837694,1,tunel-pod-pomnik.read|access-date=2021-09-14|website=[[Polityka]]|language=pl}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Zezza|first=Stefania|date=2020|title=We are a strict, iron group: from Salonika to Warsaw via Auschwitz|url=https://www.sephardichorizons.org/Volume10/Issue3&4/Zezza.html#_edn2|journal=Sephardic Horizons|volume=10|issue=3–4|access-date=2021-11-14}}
== External links ==
* [http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/pic/bigkzwarsaw02.jpg Scheme of the camp], [https://niezlomni.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kl-w.jpg partially superimposed on current layout of the streets (in Polish)]
* [https://zdjecia.korzeniemiasta.pl/ A tool] comparing 1944 aerial photographs of Warsaw with today's satellite imagery or [[OpenStreetMap]] layers, by the [[Warsaw Uprising Museum]]
* [https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZ_UcHiCU5Q/YDp3VFCfNZI/AAAAAAAAEaY/CYXGoF2KC-8jMeGGI4oYCjNNIrXEcQDPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s4608/P1190350.JPG Photograph of the informal commemorative plaque in Lasek na Kole], as taken in 2020
* [http://klwarschau.pl.eu.org/ Collection of materials related to the Warsaw concentration camp (particularly related to Kopka's book and controversy about Trzcińska's findings), in Polish]
{{KZ}}
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[[Category:Warsaw concentration camp| ]]
[[Category:1943 in Poland]]
[[Category:1944 in Poland]]
[[Category:1944 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Warsaw Ghetto]]
[[Category:Nazi concentration camps in Poland]]
[[Category:The Holocaust in Warsaw]]
[[Category:Warsaw Uprising]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Poland]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Death conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:World War II-related historical negationism]]
[[Category:Nazi-related conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories in Poland]]
[[Category:Former buildings and structures in Warsaw]]
[[Category:World War II sites in Warsaw]]
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