Bereza Kartuska Prison (, "Place of Isolation at Bereza Kartuska") was operated by Poland's
Sanation
Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
government from 1934 to 1939 in
Bereza Kartuska
Biaroza ( be, Бяро́за, official Belarusian romanization standard: ''Biaroza'', formerly Бяро́за-Карту́зская; rus, Берёза, Beryoza; pl, Bereza Kartuska; Yiddish: קאַרטוז־בערעזע, tr. ''Kartùz-Bereze'' ...
,
Polesie Voivodeship
Polesie Voivodeship ( pl, województwo poleskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939), named after the historical region of Polesia. It was created by the Council of Ministers of the Second Polish Republic on February 19, 1 ...
(today, Biaroza,
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
). Because the inmates were detained without trial or conviction, it is considered an
internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
or
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
.
Bereza Kartuska Prison was established on 17 June 1934 by order of President
Ignacy Mościcki to detain persons who were viewed by the Polish state as a "threat to security, peace, and social order"
[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 16.] or alternately to isolate and demoralize
political opponents of the Sanation government such as
National Democrats,
communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, members of the
Polish People's Party
The Polish People's Party ( pl, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) is an agrarian political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although i ...
, and
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
and
Belarusian nationalists. Prisoners were sent to the camp
on the basis of an administrative decision, without
formal charges
In chemistry, a formal charge (F.C. or q), in the covalent view of chemical bonding, is the charge assigned to an atom in a molecule, assuming that electrons in all chemical bonds are shared equally between atoms, regardless of relative electroneg ...
, judicial sanction, or
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...
, and without the possibility of
appeal.
Prisoners were detained for a period of three months, with the possibility of indefinite extension of detention.
Detainees were expected to perform
penal labour. Often prisoners were
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
d, and at least 13 prisoners died.
[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 53.]
Besides political prisoners, starting in October 1937 recidivists and financial criminals were also sent to the camp.
[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 85.] During the
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
in September 1939, the camp guards fled on news of the German advance, and the prisoners were freed.
History
It was created on July 12, 1934, in former Russian barracks and prison at
Bereza Kartuska
Biaroza ( be, Бяро́за, official Belarusian romanization standard: ''Biaroza'', formerly Бяро́за-Карту́зская; rus, Берёза, Beryoza; pl, Bereza Kartuska; Yiddish: קאַרטוז־בערעזע, tr. ''Kartùz-Bereze'' ...
on the authority of a June 17, 1934, order issued by Polish President
Ignacy Mościcki. The event that directly influenced Poland's ''de facto'' dictator,
Józef Piłsudski
Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...
, to create the prison was the
assassination of Polish Minister of Internal Affairs
Bronisław Pieracki on June 15, 1934, by the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( uk, Організація українських націоналістів, Orhanizatsiya ukrayins'kykh natsionalistiv, abbreviated OUN) was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization esta ...
(OUN).
[ Andrzej Misiuk ]
BIAŁYM ŻELAZEM
'', Gazeta Wyborcza, 12/07/1994 It was intended to accommodate persons "whose activities or conduct give reason to believe that they threaten the public security, peace or order."
The Bereza Kartuska prison was organized by the director of the Political Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
Wacław Żyborski Wacław is a Polish masculine given name. It is a borrowing of cz, Václav, Latinized as Wenceslaus.
For etymology and cognates in other languages, see Wenceslaus.
It may refer to:
* Wacław Leszczyński
* Wacław of Szamotuły
* Wacław Hańsk ...
, and the head of that Department's Nationalities Section (''Wydział Narodowościowy''), Colonel
Leon Jarosławski
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
. The institution was later supervised by the
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of
Polesie Province, Colonel
Wacław Kostek-Biernacki
Wacław Kostek-Biernacki (1882–1957) was a Polish interwar politician and a popular fantasy writer ( pen name Brunon Kostecki) .
[ In the view of some historians, Kostek-Biernacki did not serve as ]commandant
Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...
; they identify its commandants as police inspector
Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it.
Australia
In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...
s Bolesław Greffner Boleslav or Bolesław may refer to:
In people:
* Boleslaw (given name)
In geography:
* Bolesław, Dąbrowa County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
* Bolesław, Olkusz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
* Bolesław, Silesian Voivodeship, ...
(whose given name is sometimes stated as "Jan"), of Poznań, and Józef Kamala-Kurhański. Officially, Bereza Kartuska was not a part of Poland's penitentiary system, and the staff was composed of policemen, sent there as a punishment, rather than professional prison guards.
Individuals were incarcerated at Bereza Kartuska by administrative decision, without right of appeal, for three months, although this term was often extended while Colonel Wacław Kostek-Biernacki
Wacław Kostek-Biernacki (1882–1957) was a Polish interwar politician and a popular fantasy writer ( pen name Brunon Kostecki) served as its commander. The average prisoner would spend 8 months in the camp.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 100.] In the first three years of its history, the camp incarcerated people perceived as subversives and political opponents of the ruling Sanation
Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
regime. Recidivists and financial criminals were also detained starting from October 1937. Citizens suspected of pro-German sympathies were first detained in Bereza in the middle 1938.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 90.] In the first days of the September Campaign
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...
of 1939, Polish authorities started mass arrests of people suspected of such sympathies.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 91.] Some members of the German minority in Poland were detained in whole families, including women (previously never detained in the camp).[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 91.]
The camp ''de facto'' ceased to exist on the night of September 17–18, 1939 when, after learning about the Soviet invasion of Poland
The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subs ...
, the staff had abandoned it.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 92.] According to two reports, the departing policemen murdered some prisoners.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 93.]
Inmates
According to the surviving documentation of the camp, more than 3000 people were overall detained in Bereza Kartuska from July 1934 until August 29, 1939.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 83] However, the camp's authorities stopped formally registering detainees in September 1939, after mass arrests began.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 84] According to incomplete data from Soviet sources, at least 10,000 people had gone through the prison.[Ladusev U.F. Communist party of Western Belarus as organizer of workers struggle for democratic rights and freedoms. Minsk, 1976, Page 24.]
Reasons for arrest
Prisoners included members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( uk, Організація українських націоналістів, Orhanizatsiya ukrayins'kykh natsionalistiv, abbreviated OUN) was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization esta ...
(OUN), Polish Communist Party (KPP) and National Radical Camp
The National Radical Camp ( pl, Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) refers to at least three groups that are fascist, far-right, and ultranationalist Polish organisations with doctrines stemming from pre-World War II nationalist ideology.
The cur ...
(ONR), as well as members of the People's Party (SL) and Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland.
It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...
(PPS). The detainees included Bolesław Piasecki
Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki, alias Leon Całka, Wojciech z Królewca, Sablewski (18 February 1915 – 1 January 1979) was a Polish politician and writer.
Biography
In the Second Polish Republic he was one of the more prominent Polish nationa ...
and, for some dozen days, the journalist Stanisław Mackiewicz (the latter, paradoxically, a warm supporter of the prison's establishment). Also a number of Belarusians who had resisted Polonization
Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя ...
found themselves in the camp.
The first inmates - Polish ONR activists - arrived on July 17, 1934. A few days later, OUN activists arrived: Roman Shukhevych
Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych ( uk, Рома́н-Тарас Йо́сипович Шухе́вич, also known by his pseudonym, Tur and Taras Chuprynka; 30 June 1907 – 5 March 1950), was a Ukrainian nationalist, one of the commanders of N ...
, Dmytro Hrytsai
Dmytro Hrytsai ( a.k.a. "''Perebyinis''"; Ukrainian: Дмитрó Грицáй-Переб́ийніс; Dorozhiv, Galicia, 1 April 1907 – 22 December 1945, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a leader in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and ...
and Volodymyr Yaniv.Viktor Idzio
Viktor Sviatoslavovych Idzio ( uk, Віктор Святославович Ідзьо) is a Ukrainians, Ukrainian historian and director of the Institute for Eastern Europe. Idzio was born in Ivano-Frankivsk on November 26, 1960.
Notability
In th ...
, ''Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya: zhidno zi svidchennia nimetskykh ta radianskykh arkhiviv'' (The Ukrainian Insurgent Army: Gleanings from German and Soviet Archives), Lviv, 2005, , p. 6. By August 1939, Ukrainians constituted 17 percent of prisoners.
In April 1939, 38 members of ''Karpacka Sicz'' organization were detained in the camp.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 88.] They were ethnic Ukrainians, previously residing in the Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia ( rue, Карпатьска Русь, Karpat'ska Rus'; uk, Закарпаття, Zakarpattia; sk, Podkarpatská Rus; hu, Kárpátalja; ro, Transcarpatia; pl, Zakarpacie); cz, Podkarpatská Rus; german: Karpatenukrai ...
region of Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, where they were attempting to create an independent Ukrainian state. After this region was annexed by Hungary, Hungarian authorities deported them to Poland, whey they were sent to Bereza Kartuska. Unlike other prisoners, they didn't have to perform any labours and had the right to freely talk to each other in low voice.
Reason for detention by percentage of inmates:[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 84]
Known inmates
* Polish nationalists - Zygmunt Dziarmaga, Władysław Chackiewicz, Jan Jodzewicz, Edward Kemnitz, Bolesław Piasecki
Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki, alias Leon Całka, Wojciech z Królewca, Sablewski (18 February 1915 – 1 January 1979) was a Polish politician and writer.
Biography
In the Second Polish Republic he was one of the more prominent Polish nationa ...
, Mieczysław Prószyński, Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman (24 December 1896 – 23 February 1937) was a Polish lawyer and political activist of the nationalist movement, co-founder of the National Radical Camp
The National Radical Camp ( pl, Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) refers to ...
, Bolesław Świderski, Witold Borowski, Stanisław Mackiewicz, Adam Doboszyński, Leon Mirecki
* Polish communists - Henryk Bromboszcz, Leib Dajez, Abram Germański (died there), Leon Pasternak
Leon Pasternak (1910-1969) was a Polish poet and satirist. His Jewish family came to Poland in the 1880s from the town of Tula, Russia, which was outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement, where Jews usually were not allowed to reside.
Pasternak was ...
, Marek Rakowski, Aron Skrobek, Szymon Dobrzyński (aka "Eckstein")
* Ukrainian nationalists - Taras Bulba-Borovets
Taras Dmytrovych Borovets ( uk, Тарас Дмитрович Борове́ць; March 9, 1908 – May 15, 1981) was a Ukrainian resistance leader during World War II. He is better known as Taras Bulba-Borovets after his ''nom de guerre'' ''Tar ...
, Dmytro Dontsov
Dmytro Ivanovych Dontsov ( ua, Дмитро Іванович Донцов) (August 29, 1883 – March 30, 1973) was a Ukrainian nationalist writer, publisher, journalist and political thinker whose radical ideas, known as integral nationalism, ...
, Dmytro Hrytsai
Dmytro Hrytsai ( a.k.a. "''Perebyinis''"; Ukrainian: Дмитрó Грицáй-Переб́ийніс; Dorozhiv, Galicia, 1 April 1907 – 22 December 1945, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a leader in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and ...
, Dmytro Klyachkivsky
Dmytro Klyachkivsky ( uk, Клячківський Дмитро (Роман), also known by his pseudonym Klim Savur; 4 November 1911 – 12 February 1945), also known by his pseudonyms Klym Savur, Okhrim, and Bilash, was a commander of the Ukrai ...
, Hryhory Klymiv, Omelian Matla, Roman Shukhevych
Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych ( uk, Рома́н-Тарас Йо́сипович Шухе́вич, also known by his pseudonym, Tur and Taras Chuprynka; 30 June 1907 – 5 March 1950), was a Ukrainian nationalist, one of the commanders of N ...
, Mykhailo Yaniv, Volodymyr Yaniv, Bohdan Pashkovskyi
* Ukrainian communists - Włodzimierz Sznarbachowski
* Belarusian nationalists - Viachaslau Bahdanovich, Uladzislau Pauliukouski, Juljan Sakovich
* Others - Orest Kazanivsky, Leonard Malik
Leonard Malik (25 October 1908 – 10 October 1945) was a Polish association football, footballer. He played in one match for the Poland national football team in 1930.
Personal life
Malik's cousin Richard Malik, Richard was also a footbal ...
, Jan Mozyrko (died there), Janka Shutovich
Conditions
From 1934 to 1937, the facility usually housed 100–500 inmates at a time. In April 1938 the number went up to 800.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 84.] In early 1938, the Polish government suddenly increased the number of inmates by sending 4,500 Ukrainian nationalists, terrorists, and members of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( uk, Організація українських націоналістів, Orhanizatsiya ukrayins'kykh natsionalistiv, abbreviated OUN) was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization esta ...
to Bereza Kartuska without the right of appeal.
Conditions were exceptionally harsh, and only one inmate managed to escape. Only one suicide occurred; on 5 February 1939, inmate Dawid Cymerman slit his throat in a toilet.[Śleszyński 2003b, 49.] The number of deaths in detention was kept artificially low by releasing prisoners who were in poor health.[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 51.] According to Śleszyński, 13 inmates died during the facility's operation, most of them at a hospital in Kobryń
Kobryn ( be, Кобрын; russian: Кобрин; pl, Kobryń; lt, Kobrynas; uk, Кобринь, Kobryn'; yi, קאָברין) is a city in the Brest Region of Belarus and the center of the Kobryn District. The city is located in the southwest ...
. In other sources, the total number of deaths, is variously given as between 17 and 20. This number is also repeated in recent sources; for example, Norman Davies in ''God's Playground
''God's Playground: A History of Poland'' is a history book in two volumes written by Norman Davies, covering a 1000-year history of Poland. Volume 1: ''The origins to 1795'', and Volume 2: ''1795 to the present'' first appeared as the Oxford Cl ...
'' (1979) gives the number of deaths as 17.[ Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', Columbia University Press, 2005, ]
Google Print, p. 316."> Google Print, p. 316.
/ref> Ukrainian historian, Viktor Idzio
Viktor Sviatoslavovych Idzio ( uk, Віктор Святославович Ідзьо) is a Ukrainians, Ukrainian historian and director of the Institute for Eastern Europe. Idzio was born in Ivano-Frankivsk on November 26, 1960.
Notability
In th ...
, states that according to official statistics, 176 men – by unofficial Polish statistics, 324 Ukrainians – were murdered or tortured to death during questioning, or died from disease, while escaping, or disappeared without a trace. According to Idzio, most were ''OUN'' members.
''OUN'' members who were incarcerated at Bereza Kartuska testified to the use of torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
. There were frequent beatings (with boards being placed against inmates' backs and struck with hammers), forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
, constant harassment, the use of solitary confinement without provocation, punishment for inmates' use of the Ukrainian language
Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lan ...
, etc. By the time they were released from Bereza Kartuska, many Ukrainians had had their health destroyed or had died. Taras Bulba-Borovetz, who later became ''otaman
Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; Russian: атаман, uk, отаман) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military command ...
'' of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...
(''UPA)'', developed epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrica ...
as a result of his stay in Bereza Kartuska.
Prisoners were accommodated within the main compound, in a three-story brick building. A small white structure served for solitary confinement (in Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
, "''kartser''"; in Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
, "''karcer''"). South of the solitary-confinement structure was a well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
, and south of that was a bathing
Bathing is the act of washing the body, usually with water, or the immersion of the body in water. It may be practiced for personal hygiene, religious ritual or therapy, therapeutic purposes. By analogy, especially as a recreational activity, the ...
area. The whole compound was encircled by an electrified barbed-wire
A close-up view of a barbed wire
Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...
fence. Across a road from this compound were the commandant
Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...
's house and officers' barracks. In the prisoners' building, each cell initially held 15 inmates. There were no benches or tables. In 1938 the number of inmates per cell was increased to up to 70. The floors were of concrete and were constantly showered with water so that inmates could not sit.
wrote that "the rigour detectable in Beraza Kartuska camp can by no means be compared with the dreadful conditions of the Nazi or Soviet-organized labour camps".
Naming
The Polish government called the institution "''Miejsce Odosobnienia w Berezie Kartuskiej''" ("Place of Isolation at Bereza Kartuska"). From the facility's inception, the Sanation
Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
government's opponents openly criticized the legal basis for its establishment and operation, calling it a "concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
."[Śleszyński 2003a, p. 151.] This term was also used by Western media sources such as ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', both during the interbellum and immediately after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. It was later popularized by communist propaganda
Communist propaganda is the artistic and social promotion of the ideology of communism, communist worldview, communist society, and interests of the communist movement. While it tends to carry a negative connotation in the Western world, the t ...
, which cited the prison as evidence that Poland's prewar government had been a " fascist" regime. In 2007, the Polish Embassy objected to the use of the term in a memorial plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...
in Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
for the Bereza Kartuska inmate Aron Skrobek. Its objections were successful and the plaque instead described the facility as a seclusion camp.
Modern scholarship has characterized the facility as a concentration camp, including Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
professor Timothy Snyder
Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute ...
, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...
, the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
, Polish Nobel prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
-winning author Czesław Miłosz
Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...
, and historian Karol Modzelewski
Karol Cyryl Modzelewski (23 November 1937 – 28 April 2019) was a Polish historian, writer, politician and academic of Russian origin, one of the leading figures of the democratic opposition in the Polish People's Republic from the 1960s to the 1 ...
, who was political prisoner and one of the leaders of the democratic opposition in the communist Poland.
Ukrainian sources such as Kubijovych and Idzio representing the Ukrainian Nationalist camp of the interpretation of history also categorize Bereza Kartuska as a concentration camp. Polish-American historian Tadeusz Piotrowski who also calls it a concentration camp, notes that the establishment of the facility was a norm of its times, similar to other facilities where political opponents were locked up, often in an extrajudicial manner. (Like the giant German or Soviet networks of concentration camps, degrees of brutality and number of prisoners aside.).[ Tadeusz Piotrowski, ''Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947'', McFarlandMcFarland, 1998, ]
p.193
/ref> Describing Bereza Kartuska as a concentration camp may be against the Polish Holocaust law, according to historian .
See also
* Internment
* List of concentration and internment camps
This is a list of internment and concentration camps, organized by country. In general, a camp or group of camps is designated to the country whose government was responsible for the establishment and/or operation of the camp regardless of the c ...
* Kresy
Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...
References
Further reading
* "Bereza Kartuska," ''Encyklopedia Polski
This is a list of encyclopedias by language.
Albanian
Encyclopedias written in Albanian.
* '' Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary'' ( sq, Fjalori Enciklopedik Shqiptar): published by Academy of Sciences of Albania;
** First Edition (1985; ''FESH'') ...
'' (Encyclopedia of Poland), p. 45.
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External links
Bereza Kartuzka - The Documentary Feature Film
*
Byłem więźniem Berezy
' - Z Lucjanem Motyką, więźniem Berezy Kartuskiej, rozmawia Magdalena Kaszulanis, Trybuna.com.pl.
* Włodzimierz Kalicki,
', Gazeta Wyborcza
''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...
, 2006-09-11.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bereza Kartuska Prison
Western Belorussia (1918–1939)
1934 establishments in Poland
Defunct prisons in Belarus
Defunct prisons in Poland
Internment camps
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Polesie Voivodeship