Footnotes

[1] According to the testimonies of his neighbours before the war, Salomon was called Szlam, Testimonies of file of investigation conducted by the Institute of National Remembrance, Katowice Branch – hereinafter “IPN Ka”, Case files into the atrocity perpetrated at the labour camp in Świętochłowice-Zgoda, call no. S 61/01/ZK, pp. 2316, 2325.

[2] Personnel files of Salomon Morel, resume of 21 IV 1947 r. (photocopy at the IPN Ka, Case files., pages 2156-2157).

[3] His former commander, Mieczysław Moczar, issued him with a certificate stating that ”he served in partisan units on the territories of the People’s Army in Lublin and took active part in the battle against the Germans”, ibidem, pages 2172-2173.

[4] Tkaczyk hid them in his pig sty and stable, and his mother fed them. Tkaczyk said that a policeman lived in his house, and it was he who murdered Morel’s family. For hiding Salomon and Icek Moel, Tkaczyk was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations, IPN Ka, Case files..., Testimony of Józef Tkaczyk, pp.               2325-2327       .

[5] Central Archives of Modern Records [AAN), MBP, Department of Prisons [DW], call no. 7/24.

[6] Letter from Salomon Morel to the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish People in Katowice dated 7 XI 1992, IPN Ka, Case files..., pp 78-81, see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku. Dokumenty, zeznania, relacje, listy [Labour Camp in Świętochłowice in 1945. Documents, testimonies, reports, letters], selected and edited by and with an introduction by A. Dziurok, Warsaw 2002, pp. 89-92.

[7] F. Piper, Podobóz „Eintrachthütte“[Eintrachthütte sub-camp], Zeszyty Oświęcimskie [Auschwitz Journals] no. 17 (1975), p. 91-153.

[8] In the text, excerpts have been used from A. Dziurok’s article: Więźniowie obozu w Świętochłowicach-Zgodzie w 1945 r., [Prisoners of the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda]in: Obozowe dzieje Świętochłowic. Eintrachthütte- Zgoda [camp history of Świętochłowice, Eintrachthütte- Zgoda], ed. A. Dziurok, Katowice-Świętochłowice 2002, p. 69-77.

[9] Aleksy Krut, born 17 VI 1925 to an Orthodox family in Ostrów, powiat of Chełm. In 1943 he joined the  “Fighting Units” of the Polish Workers’ Party [PPR]. In 1944 he joined the Powiat Office of Public Security [PUBP] in Chełm, and in January 1945 he went to the MBP Officers’ School in Lublin. Among other things, he served as prison commandant in Kluczbork (1946), Sosnowiec-Radocha (1947), Koronów (1947-1949). He died in 196; Remand centre in Bydgoszcz, Personnel files of Aleksy Krut.

[10] The Świętochłowice camp was governed by people who were ignorant of the nationality problem in Upper Silesia. This is illustrated by Morel’s surprise at being told that in the camp there was the father of an officer who used to fight in the German army, but deserted during the Battle of Lenino and became a solider in the Polish Army. Morel arranged his release – he was in Group II on the Volksliste. He confessed that this case gave him a lot of food for thought because he did not know about „population relationships in Silesia.” He also showed that with the passage of time, he became more experienced in life, and contacts with the local population and with footballers from the Ruch Chorzów club were allegedly of great value to him, see” Letter from Salomon Morel ......dated 7 XI 1992. 

[11] Article 1 of this decree stated that “A Polish citizen who, during the German occupation, declared his allegiance to German nationality on the territory of the so-called General Government and voivodship of Białystok (....),shall be subject to (...) detention for an unspecified period in a detention centre (camp) and compulsory work”, Dz.U [Official Journal] no. 11/44, item 54.

[12] Gazeta Urzędowa Województwa Śląskiego [Official Journal of Silesia Voivodship] 1945, no. 1, item 11.

[13] For example, in Syrynia, several people were arrested on the basis of a list drawn up by the wójt of a neighbouring town. Over a dozen people on the Volksliste were detained and sent to the Zgoda camp, but it is not known according to what criteria. They were all permanently resident in Syrynia, worked on the land and in the mines, and did not interfere in politics. None of them had been in the Wehrmacht.  Historia do wyjaśnienia,[A story to be clarified] Nowiny [News] no. 26/1995, p. 7.

[14] IPN Ka, Akta śledztwa..., Zeznanie Józefa Wiesiołka, page 57-59; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 111-112.

[15] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 3/200; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku..,, p. 224-230.

[16] IPN Ka, Case files..., Testimony of Dorota Boreczek, pp. 718-724; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 139.

[17] IPN Katowice,  Case files..., page 1698.

[18] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 37.

[19] AAN, MBP, DW, Inspection Department, Statistical reports on older persons and children aged 13 to 60 - 1945, 2/155, part I, pp. 68, 179; part II, pp. 4, 102.

[20] In May there was one child there, and in August two children aged up to 18 months, AAN, MBP, DW,  Inspection Department, Statistical reports on older persons and children aged up to 13 and 60 - 1945,  2/155, part I, p. 68, part II, p. 102; this is certainly not a complete record. One female prisoner recalls that in her barrack she saw two or three women with children aged 6-7 years, Report of Melania Uherek, Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 176; this was despite the fact that as early as 14 April 1945, Major Teodor Duda, Director of the Department of Prisons and Camps, had already prohibited children aged up to 13 from being taken into camps and prisons. He had instructed the commandants of prisons and camps that children staying with their parents in prisons and camps are subject to the care of the local People’s Councils, AAN, MBP, DW, Inspection Department, Statistical reports on old people and children aged up to 13 and 60  - 1945, 2/155,  part I, p. 53.

[21] IPN Ka, Case files.. Complete extracts of the death records of prisoners in the Labour Camp at Świętochłowice.

[22] See: Statistical reports on the camp population, Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., pp. 42, 52.

[23] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 4/162, page 107-108, Response by the Head of the Labour Camp in Świętochłowice of 15 IX 1945 to the MBP Department of Prisons and Camps; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku..., pp. 55-56.

[24] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 55.

[25] Ibidem, p. 147.

[26] Ibidem, Report by Melania Uherek, p. 176.

[27] Ibidem, Testimony of Józef Wiesiołek, p. 112.

[28] Ibidem, p. 62; Morel says that there were also car workshops on the territory of the camp, and a considerable group of prisoners was allegedly employed in the administration and in offices, ibidem, p. 89.

[29] Ibidem, p. 77.

[30] Ibidem, p. 76..

[31] See IPN Ka, Case files... .

[32] G. Gruschka, Zgoda-miejsce zgrozy. Obóz koncentracyjny w Świętochłowicach  [Zgoda, a place of doom. The concentration camp at Świętochłowice], Gliwice 1998, p. 51.

[33] F. Brachmann, Powrót na Śląsk [Return to Silesia]„Karta” [Charter] 1998, no. 26, p. 33.

[34] Those who survived the epidemic were transferred to blocks 1 and 2, whereas women and children were placed in block 3, G. Gruschka, Zgoda-miejsce zgrozy..., pp. 51, 53.

[35] The statistics were prepared on the basis of extracts from death records, IPN Ka, Case files..., Complete extracts of the death records of prisoners in the Labour Camp at Świętochłowice.

[36] Ibidem

[37] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 3/2, page 1; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku..., p. 48.

[38] State Archives in Katowice, Office of the Voivodship of Silesia, General Department, call no. 271, p. 58.

[39] H. Dominiczak, Organy bezpieczeństwa PRL 1944-1990. Rozwój i działalność w świetle dokumentów MSW, [Security services of the Polish People’s Republic in 1944-1990. Development and operations in the light of Interior Ministry documents], Warsaw 1997, p. 72.

[40] This information is reported by Jakub Ciećkiewicz in a report entitled Niemcy i Polacy [The Germans and the Poles] (typescript with the IPN Ka, Case files ..., appendix to the files). The priest who provided this information is no longer in Świętochłowice, and the present priest is unable to confirm the existence of these records.

[41] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 2/137, page 11; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 78.

[42] IPN Ka, Case files..., Complete extracts of the death records of prisoners in the Labour Camp at Świętochłowice.

[43] AAN. MBP, DW, call no. 4/162, p. 139, see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 49.

[44] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 4/162, p. 107-108, Response by the Head of the Labour Camp in Świętochłowice of 15 IX 1945 to the MBP Department of Prisons and Camps; see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku..., p. 55-56.

[45] AAN, MBP, DW, Inspection Department, Statistical reports on older persons and children aged up to 13 and 60 - 1945, 2/155, part I, p. 179.

[46] IPN Ka, Case files..., Testimony of Józef C., pp. 916-918.

[47] IPN Ka, Case files... .

[48] Memorandum no.107 of 27 XI 1945, copy with the IPN Ka, Case files..., p. 486.

[49] This is illustrated by the example of one prisoner, accused of membership of the SA, who died in the Świętochłowice camp on 2 August 1945 during the typhus epidemic. No one notified the relevant authorities of his death. Unaware of this, the prosecutor prepared an indictment against the prisoner four months after his death, and sent it to the camp. In March 1946, the prosecutor received the reply that the prisoner cannot appear for trial because he has been dead since August 1945, Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 24.

[50] A. Dziurok, Śląskie rozrachunki. Władze komunistyczne a byli członkowie organizacji nazistowskich na Górnym Śląsku w latach 1945-1956, [Silesian settlement of scores. The Communist authorities and former members of Nazi organisations in Upper Silesia in 1945-1956], Warsaw 2000, p. 139.

[51] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 149.

[52] AAN, MBP, DW, call no. 4/162, pp. 107-108, 138; zob. także Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 50, 55.

[53] The above cases and methods of tormenting prisoners inside the Świętochłowice camp have been described in greater detail in the application for the temporary arrest and extradition of Salomon Morel, IPN Ka, Case files... pp               2331-2341       .

[54] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 78.

[55] IPN Ka, Case files..., p. 735.

[56] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., pp. 53-54.

[57] In the case of Jerzy John of Chorzów, the death certificate stated that the cause of death was typhus, whereas the death report signed by Morel stated that the cause of death was “shooting”.

[58] Letter from Salomon Morel to the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish People in Katowice dated 7 XI 1992, IPN Ka, Case files..., pp. 78-81, see also Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku..., p. 89.

[59] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 28.

[60] Order dated 15 IX 1945. copy with the IPN Ka, Case files..., p. 484.

[61] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.., p. 78.

[62] Ibidem, p. 145.

[63] AAN, MBP, DW, Inspection Department, Additional appendices to the protocol of handover of the Labour Camp at Świętochłowice (in liquidation), call no. 2/138, p. 1.

[64] Obóz Pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku.. ,p. 61-75, 79.

[65] AIPN Wa, Regional Court in Cieszyn, call no. 131, pp. 67, 31, 58.

[66] Many of them died in camp, such as Paweł Schmidt – one of the Nazi party Ortsgruppenleiter in Bielsko, APKat, Polish Western Union Silesian District, Lists of war criminals, p. 52; in the early 1980’s, Jerzy Ziętek allegedly said in an interview with Henryk Piecuch: “In Świętochłowice there were few Gestapo men and many Silesians. That is the whole tragedy. The conditions were terrible. During the space of several months, almost 2,000 persons died or were murdered there”, H. Piecuch, Akcje specjalne: od Bieruta do Ochaba [Special operations: from Bierut to Ochab],Warsaw 1996, pp. 27-28.

Response by the State of Israel to the application for the extradition of Salomon Morel and a report by Dr. Adam Dziurok and Prosecutor Andrzej Majcher on the subject of Salomon Morel and the history and operation of the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda. -- No 

Adam Dziurok, District Bureau of National Education, Institute of National Remembrance [“IPN”] Katowice; Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński University, Warsaw.

Andrzej Majcher, prosecutor at the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, IPN Katowice.