Łemkowie w Centralnym Obozie Pracy w Jaworznie

Abstract

The Lemkos in the Central Labour Camp in Jaworzno The article presents the circumstances of settling Lemko ethnic sub-group members in the Central Labour Camp in Jaworzno [CLC Jaworzno] as the result of the Operation ‘Vistula’ carried out in 1947 by the order of communist Polish authorities. The communist labour camp in Jaworzno was established in February 1945, using the infrastructure of the former German concentration camp Neu-Dachs founded in 1943. The CLC Jaworzno was liquidated at the end of 1949 and turned into the detention center for juvenile political prisoners. It was finally shut down in 1956. Functioning between 1943 and 1956, the Camp is now known as ‘the Camp of the two totalitarian regimes’. The Lemkos and Ukrainians sent to the CLC after the Operation ‘Vistula’ were held in a separate sector of the Camp. From May 1947 until the end of 1948, 3873 prisoners of Lemko and Ukrainian origin were imprisoned in total, and 161 people died as the result of bad living conditions and brutal treatment. The issue of recollection of the Camp in the collective memory of the Lemkos and forms of commemorating the Camp and its prisoners will be discussed as well.

Keywords

• camp of the Two Totalitarian Regimes
• Central Labour Camp in Jaworzno
• Lemkos
• Operation 'Vistula'
• collective memory
• commemoration