Archive/File: holocaust/poland/stutthof stutthof.001 Last-Modified: 1995/01/08 "The purpose of these labour camps was actual physical work, albeit in cruel conditions. But from the first days of the German conquest of Poland, two other types of camp had been created, both near the Free City of Danzig, annexed to the Reich on the outbreak of war. The first was [Piascnica]. The second camp was in the village of Stutthof, twenty miles east of Danzig. Several hundred Danzig Jews had been deported to Stutthof in the third week of September, among them the writer and journalist Jacob Lange, and the cantor of the Danzig synagogue, Leopold Shufftan. Within a few weeks, most of them had died.<28> A Polish Socialist leader, who was imprisoned at Stutthof for fifteen months, later described a 'mass slaughter' of Jews at Stutthof during the Passover of 1940. This festival of Jewish liberation from bondage began, in 1940, on the evening of April 23: All the Jews were assembled in the courtyard; they were ordered to run, to drop down and to stand up again. Anybody who was slow in obeying the order was beaten to death by the overseer with the butt of his rifle. Afterwards Jews were ordered to jump right into the cesspit of the latrines, which were being built; this was full of urine. The taller Jews got out again since the level reached their chin, but the shorter ones went down. The young ones tried to help the old folk, and as a punishment the overseers ordered the latter to beat the young. When they refused to obey they were cruelly beaten themselves. Two or three dired on the spot and the survivors were ordered to bury them. The surviving Jews were then sent to a smaller camp at Gransdorf where discipline, the Polish Socialist reported, 'was even more severe.' His account continued: One single Jew, a sculptor, was left in Stutthof. The SS men took all his works, put him to a carriage loaded with sand, and forced him to run while flogging him with a lash. When he fell down then turned the carriage over on him; and when he nevertheless succeeded in creeping out of the sand they poured water on him and hung him; but the rope was too thin and gave way. They then brought a young Jewess, the only one in the camp, and with scornful laughter they hanged both on one rope. Women were also detained at Stutthof, the Polish Socialist recalled. 'The beautiful ones had to clean the houses of the everseers and officers; most of them were pregnant, and were released from the camp. The young Jewess above mentioned was also pregnant, but instead of being released she was hanged.<29>" (Gilbert, 115-116) Notes <28> Stefan Krakowski, 'Stutthof': Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 15, column 464. <29> 'The Sufferings of Jews in the Concentration Camp at Stutthof (near Danzig)': Bulletin of the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, March 1945, Foreign Office papers, 371/51116 Work Cited Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985
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