Jewish women from Kamionek
The first to write about the Jewish women brought by the Germans to Kamionek (German: Steindorf, now Mogilno municipality) was Anna Rink in her book Renia's Diary (2019). It is a fictionalized story by her mother and relatives about the Wrzeszczynski family displaced from the nearby Kamieniec (German: Steinau) to the vicinity of nearby Myslatkowo, to the so-called Caucasus and Siberia (Figure 1).
According to Renia's account, in the spring of 1942 the Jewish women were accommodated on the first floor of the former school building (Photo 1). Bunk beds were erected for them in the classroom (from which it can be inferred that there may have been a dozen or more of them). They had a kitchen in the basement where they cooked for themselves.
The girl passed this building on her way to work in the village of Katno (German: Eckenau). Every morning she saw from afar the Jewish women going to work by the Notec River.
From her friend Basia Ciejek, née Zaparucha, I learned that the women built fascines on the banks of the river to fortify them [1]Faszynowanie to umocnianie skarp, rowów wiązkami wikliny lub młodych pędów drzew polegające na wykonaniu wzdłuż rowu płotków.Zob. rozmowa Agnieszki Kostuch z Barbarą Ciejek z dn. … Czytaj dalej. Her younger brother Edward added that when the river was drained, they could catch fish, which they then carried to their home, where their mother would fry them. They would come one at a time. They ate the fish - with the bones - on the spot and took the rest with them. Florianna Zaparucha also gave them extra food [2]Recording of conversation with Edward Zaparucha dated June 11, 2024, in private archive of Agnieszka Kostuch..
The older brother of Basia and Edward - Bernard Zaparucha - recalled to a colleague years later that he had seen them transported by truck toward Strzelno. And that they were very pretty. Everyone remembered them as very young. Unfortunately, their identities and further fate are still unknown.
Documents concerning the employment of Jews from the Lodz ghetto in forced labor camps in the Mogilno district do not mention Kamionek. Perhaps they were subordinate to some nearby camp. The largest one for women was in Linowiec (German: Schleichenberg), administered by the Rittergut Diestelberg Rittergut Diestelberg , a mansion in Osowiec. The women were to arrive there in the spring of 1942. There were 88 of them, and the camp was liquidated on August 29, 1943. [3] The State Archive in Lodz, ref. 39/221/0/5.1.10/29694..
However, Kamionek, as a landed estate, was subordinated to someone else - a German named Baron Klaus von Schilling. He was also entrusted with the management of the estate in Katno [4]Amtliches Fernsprechbuch fur den Bezirk der Reichspostdirektion Posen. 1942 [ Oficjalna książka telefoniczna dla okręgu Posterunek Rzeszy Poznań 1942], dostęp online: … Czytaj dalej.
According to the accounts of Renia and Basia, Jozef Zaparucha worked on a farm in Katno occupied by Germans who came from Latvia named Fromhold-Treu. He had graduated from an agricultural school and was appointed to “manage” this property in Katno. The idea was to distribute and supervise the work of the Poles. To assist him he had Hieronim Antoniewicz, who was a gardener and the brother of Anna Wrzeszczynska - Renia's mother.
The surname Schilling never appears in Renia's memoirs, but this is what appears in the 1942 phone book (Photo 3):
So perhaps the Fromhold-Treu had one farm and the Schilling family had another and an estate in Kamionek. Therefore, the Jewish women of Kamionek should be subject to the Schilling. At this point it is not known on what terms he brought them in.
Nevertheless, they were undoubtedly very much needed. Clearing and strengthening the banks of the Notec River, clearing or building drainage channels from the fields – these tasks were crucial to the prosperity of the crops.
The problem of flooding in the fields had accompanied the residents since before the war. The Germans who had lived in the area for a long time also knew it well. Not surprisingly, it was precisely to solve this issue that water and drainage companies were established. Waldemar Schindler, owner of the estate in Ostrowek (German: Kleinostrau), located near the above villages, belonged to one of them. In September 1939 he joined the SS, but as residents of the Orchowo community testified in his postwar trial - he was good to the locals, he had a worse reputation when it came to treating “others.” Interestingly, it was he who gave shelter to Hieronim Antoniewicz when the latter came to Kamieniec to his sister at the beginning of the war, from his native Kozmin. And then he tried to get him a job in Katno [5]Akta w sprawie karnej przeciwko Waldemarowi Schindlerowi, IPN, sygn. Po 794/30.]. Schindler's mother was also remembered very well by Renia Wrzeszczynska. It was to her that they gave sacks of potatoes, some of the furnishings of the apartment, and clothes for safekeeping when they had to move out of Kamieniec. On many occasions she shared the scarce food products with them [6]A. Rink, Renia's Diary, Warsaw 2019..
In the trial against Schindler, only the Bukowski sisters accused him of causing the death of their brother Boleslaw, who had been a teacher at a school in Kamionek before the war. He died in Auschwitz. Perhaps it was Schindler who indicated Bukowski for deportation. However, there is no clear information in the files as to how Schindler contributed to Bukowski's death.
Ostrowek, where Schindler lived, lies in the immediate vicinity of Kamionek. It is impossible that he did not know about the Jewish women placed in the school, as well as those brought to Linowiec.
According to Edward Zaparucha, the Jewish women were not guarded by military men during their work in Notts, but by a Pole. Renia, on the other hand, recalled that they were always watched there by guards. And that they were very emaciated. On top of that, people said they had ulcers on their legs from standing in the river. That's why one time she dropped off ointment for their ulcers from her mother, despite her uncle's prohibition against going near the school building. The basement window was always ajar and the residents threw food to them there. The girl's last memory is from December 1942:
“It's already very cold, but the Notec River hasn't completely frozen over yet, so these Jewish girls from the Kamionek school go to work all the time and have to stand in the icy water until their clothes freeze on them” [7]Ibid, p. 221..
Will we someday know their names and surnames? Will we find out where they came from? They spoke Polish, so it narrows down the search area. I know, it's weak consolation. And yet there is something encouraging in the fact that, thanks to the testimony of several people, the crime of which they were victims has not been completely erased.
Agnieszka Kostuch
Translated by Kasia Smialkowski
I would like to thank Ms. Basia Ciejek and Mr. Edward Zaparucha for sharing their valuable memories, Ms. Ania Rink for the many years of effort she put into writing Renia's Diary and Mr. Pawel Dragan for his tremendous help in searching for information.
Przypisy
| ↑1 | Fascining is the reinforcement of slopes and ditches with bundles of wicker or young tree shoots; it consists of making fences along the ditch. See Agnieszka Kostuch's conversation with Barbara Ciejek dated March 10, 2024, available online: https://zydzi-trzemeszno.pl/en/wspolczesnosc/wspomnienia-mieszkancow/rozmowa-z-barbara-ciejek-zd-zaparucha/ |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Recording of conversation with Edward Zaparucha dated June 11, 2024, in private archive of Agnieszka Kostuch. |
| ↑3 | The State Archive in Lodz, ref. 39/221/0/5.1.10/29694. |
| ↑4 | Amtliches Fernsprechbuch fur den Bezirk der Reichspostdirektion Posen. 1942 [ Official phone book for the district of the Reichspostdirektion Posen 1942], accessed online: https://bc.wbp.lodz.pl/Content/73535/Amtliches_Fernsprechbuch_1942a.pdf |
| ↑5 | Akta w sprawie karnej przeciwko Waldemarowi Schindlerowi, IPN, sygn. Po 794/30. |
| ↑6 | A. Rink, Renia's Diary, Warsaw 2019. |
| ↑7 | Ibid, p. 221. |