Лемковина в Центральным Лаґрі Працы в Явожні

Abstract

The Lemko Region at the Central Labour Camp in Jaworzno On April 28, 1947 Polish communist authorities began Operation ‘Vistula’ which they argued was to eliminate the activity of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). One way to support this goal, according to them, was to resettle civil Ukrainian and Lemko population to the western and northern territories of Poland. Suspected UPA collaborators were to be imprisoned at the Central Labor Camp in the city of Jaworzno (formerly a part of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp). The first prisoners were brought in the early May of 1947. At least 543 people from the Lemko Region were eventually held there. The majority of them were Lemkos, but some Poles living among Lemkos were also arrested. Most had no ties to UPA and were victims of ethnic persecution. They were brought from local prisons and railway stations where the resettled population was loaded on the trains or were later pulled from transports during a stop-over in the city of Oświęcim. Due to brutal interrogations, torture, poor food and hygiene, all suffered loss of health while 18 Lemkos died. Prisoners were gradually released beginning in late December 1947, while some were moved to be imprisoned elsewhere. The Ukrainian part of the camp was closed in January 1949.

Keywords

• Operation 'Vistula'
• Central Labor Camp in Jaworzno
• Lemkos
• ethnic cleansing
• ethnic persecution