A few weeks ago I wrote about feeding the prisoners of the camp in Bereza Kartuska. Today I would like to introduce you to the day of universal prisoners in "the only Polish concentration camp". For this purpose, let us refer directly to the memories of one of them, namely Władysław Ryncarz, camp number 702.
Władysław Ryncarz in the 1930s was one of the most active activists of the People's Party in the Bochnia poviat. This is evidenced by, inter alia, the fact that he was the secretary of the County Board of SL in Bochnia.
In August 1936, he was arrested for organizing and participating in the strikes that broke out in connection with the celebration of the "feast of the peasant act" (August 15), commemorating the contribution of the peasants to the defense of the country against the Bolshevik onslaught in 1920. However, he was not brought to trial, but like several other agrarian people from Krakowski, he ended up straight to the camp in Bereza Kartuska. Years later, this is how he recalled his stay in the place of retreat:
As for the classes in Bereza, it was like this:the work lasted 8 hours, but all these activities were for 15 hours, because exercise, running, washing toilets, scrubbing, yes it took 15 hours. Wake up at 5 o'clock Then getting dressed in the corridor, then standing at attention in the room, staring straight ahead at the wall.
Władysław Ryncarz was a people's activist, as was Maksymilian Malinowski, a long-time MP and senator, the actual leader of the People's Party. However, Malinowski managed to avoid being imprisoned in Bereza Kartuska (source:public domain).
At the whistle signal, the whole room in twos with mess tins and towels to wash around the block, on the other side of which there were barrels of water on two-wheeled carts, pulled the previous day by prisoners from the pump treadmill and located a few hundred meters from the block.
There were holes clogged with corks on the back of the barrels. After pulling out these bolts, the water ran in a stream, and the prisoners placed the canteens, scooping up water and running under the barbed wire. Makes a mess very quickly because the time was counted in minutes.
The isolation camp in Bereza Kartuska was established in 1934 by a decree of President Ignacy Mościcki. According to the originators, it was intended for the detention of "disturbers of public order and security". Among others, opposition politicians, activists of national minorities and communists were sent there without a court sentence. About 3,000 people had passed through the camp before the outbreak of the war.
Whistle in a moment. Everyone on alert, no matter if everyone has managed to wash up or not. Two more blasts of the whistle. Collection in two rows. I run upstairs to the hall. Again, attention by his bunk. Two more whistles, run to the basement. Breakfast. Mostly caraway soup, a piece of bread, black as earth (...) . Break at 12 o'clock. It lasted for an hour. Lunch, One Course, Potato Soup (...) . Same for dinner, just soup.
There were five rooms at that time. An average of 38 people per room. The fifth hall - the so-called criminal. Mostly young people studying at universities. The prisoners in this room were always the first to run to the meeting and the last to eat. So you can imagine how quickly this hot soup had to be eaten to get something to eat.
After all, a whistle is about to come, so be careful, you mustn't move, then run in twos outside the canteen washing block and there the remnants of the soup, not eaten with regret, were poured into the drain. / em> After eating and washing the canteens, the whole hall runs to the toilet. The latrines were at the two ends of the block, but it so happened that one toilet was still closed, so all the rooms were running to the other one. There were a couple of openings in the toilets and it was impossible for all of the five rooms to settle down, because the time was short, so where could anyone ...
Today it is difficult to know that in this inconspicuous town the tragedy of the prisoners took place. A contemporary view of Bereza (photo:Czalex, license CC BY 3.0). So cleaning the toilets with only one bucket of water, a piece of rag and an old broom was extremely heavy and painful. Because cleanliness had to be kept, and there was not enough water for that, so you had to use your bare hands. Sleeping. At 7 p.m. we went to sleep. But that sleep run usually failed, so back and forth under the blanket and back again as the "commandant" would have it. In the long corridor, next to the walls, there were benches where undressing and dressing took place.
The garment had to be arranged in a pretty cube, which was rarely the case, according to policemen, who dropped the dice on purpose to put them back together. The room was lit at night. The police were on guard in the corridor, peering through the glass to see if the prisoners were talking.
(...) There were often house searches during the night. On a whistle, people jumped up from the bunk and each ran to their position with clothes arranged in ankles, waiting for an inspection. What was looked for in straw mattresses, it was difficult to guess. However, these searches took their toll. Well, because stand here, man, on the cold floor, barefoot, in underwear, especially in winter. In Bereza, everything had to be done by running. The activities, as I said before, were different, e.g. mixing the compost heap with your hands , or land leveling, which was done in such a way that the prisoners carried the earth on shovels to lower areas at a distance of up to 200 meters. When the prisoner was carrying dirt on his shovel, he walked slowly and jogged back down to the ground. At the same time the commandants said that the run should be like at the Olympics.
(…) We know what must be in Poland, because we want it to. There must be order. It has to be serious and it will be. Concentration camps. Yes. Why? Because you can see these eight years of work on the greatness of Poland, eight years of example and eight years of achievements, eight years of solidification - it was not enough for everyone (...). (Quoted after the press body of Sanacja:Gazeta Polska, No. 168, June 19, 1934, p. 2). There were often cases where the commandant chose a victim and when calling him he said:"Why is the arrested person doing the job reluctantly?" Immediately 25 he burned and ran again to the fence and back until the prisoner, completely exhausted, could no longer drag his feet. Then hands with the shovel up, squat, crawl, then back to work. While digging the area, rubble, bricks, stones were removed and the prisoners were loaded onto carts (...) . Despite great effort, it was difficult to haul such a loaded wagon. Then the policemen came running and beat the prisoners with rubber truncheons wherever they could. " For politics, you motherfuckers, you had the strength, and you lack it for the job? Push faster! " The prisoners bury their heads in their arms and try to move the cart. However, it was not always successful.
Ryncarz was "lucky" because he stayed in Bereza for only a few months and was released at the beginning of November. As a peasantry he was also treated a bit more leniently than some inmates - Ukrainian communists and nationalists.
So much today is left of the building where the inmates were held in Bereza Kartuska (photo:Czalex; license:CC BY SA 3.0 Unported). Status for 2010.
After returning to his homeland, he continued to be active in the popular movement, disregarding the "teachings" he had received in the place of isolation. This is best evidenced by the fact that on November 19 he spoke at the SL poviat congress, discussing organizational matters and encouraging hard work for the party.
These memories are especially interesting precisely because the author was not a communist, but a people's activist. Unfortunately, most of the surviving accounts of Bereziaków were written by activists of the Communist Party of Poland and they are heavily saturated with communist phraseology. It's different here.
The article was based mainly on the book "Bereziacy", edited by Leon Pasternak, Warsaw 1965.
Of course, as always with memories, one should bear in mind their subjectivity and the fact that they were written down after almost 30 years. Nevertheless, what the author writes about is confirmed in the book by Wojciech Śleszyński entitled Retreat camp in Bereza Kartuska 1934-1939 - probably the best studies on this topic published so far.
Finally, it is worth adding that the example of Ryncarz proves that the methods applied to those detained in Bereza did not bring the intended results. Instead of padlocking their mouths, in many cases they even led to a radicalization of views.
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