Marsz śmierci z KL Stutthof. Opisy polskie i kaszubskie

Abstract

KL Stutthof was a place of violence and terror from September 1939 to May 1945. About 65,000 people died there, most of them Jews. Beginning in January 1945, the camp’s command ordered its evacuation, through which columns of men and women were forced to march daily, along a chaotically planned route through Pomerania and Kashubia. Due to exhaustion, harsh winter, and German violence, 5,500 of the initial 11,000 prisoners reached the towns where the columns were liberated by the Red Army. The article presents documentary and literary accounts of the events of the death march of Stutthof Concentration Camp prisoners written down by participants and witnesses. In addition to this type of material, texts written many decades after the war as a result of research, deepening self-awareness, and artistic acts saving the memory after the events of the winter of 1945 are also cited. In addition to the factual factor, what is also important in the latest descriptions is that the published works emphasize the active role of Kashubians in helping the prisoners and thus point to their patriotic and humanitarian attitudes. This is one of the elements of the fight against the stereotype of Kashubians as those who had a „grandfather from the Wehrmacht.”