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Felicja Karay, “Heaven or Hell? The Two Faces
of the HASAG-Kielce Camp”
The article
looks at a forced labor camp for Jews established by the Granat
munitions firm in Kielce, Poland, in November 1942 and lasting until
June 1944. This was one of six labor camps established by the German
HASAG concern (Hugo Schneider A.G. Leipzig) alongside its factories.
This camp had approximately 500 Jewish men and women. The article
describes the prisoners’ struggle for survival, their
socio-demographic make-up, mutual aid, types of labor, the attitudes
of the German overseers, selections, relations with Polish laborers,
and more. The article focuses on two issues. First, why there are
two opposing assessments of the camp and its commandant, Axel
Schlicht – very negative and fraught with starvation and oppression,
according to the testimonies of Polish laborers; and “heaven” in
Jewish testimonies, where even poor prisoners did not go hungry, and
Schlicht himself is referred to as “the father of the Jews.” The
second issue relates to the role of the prisoners’ internal
administration (Lagerverwaltung) in camp life and the degree of
responsibility of camp elder Haim Rosenzweig. Did he, indeed, merely
follow German orders, or did he display initiative in trying to help
the prisoners. The article concludes with an attempt to try to
resolve the issues of which authority (SS, the German factory
administration, the German camp commandant) had the greatest
influence on how the prisoners lived in labor camps, and how did the
relations between the local German command and the internal prisoner
administration affect camp life in general. |
