Liban penal camp: a doctor’s remarks

In May 1942, the German authorities established a penal labour camp on the premises of Liban¹, a Kraków company which owned a limestone quarry and lime kilns. The camp was intended as a place of confinement for young men who were to perform slave labour for Arbeitsdienst (the Reich Labour Service),² but had either tried to dodge conscription, or absconded, or were in breach of the Nazi German labour regulations. All of them were Poles aged 17–20 and had previously lived either in urban or rural areas.

From the point of view of the Germans, the camp had a very convenient location. Liban was situated in Kraków’s Podgórze district, south of the Vistula, then on the city’s peripheries. The quarry had been worked for a very long time, so the camp was surrounded on three sides by a ring of steep cliffs in the shape of an amphitheatre rising up to about fifty metres. Liban also had two lime kilns working, which could be reached by a rail siding (Photos 1 and 2). Therefore the camp had to be cut off from town only on the northern side, along the street Za Torem (which literally means “behind the track” from Kraków to Zakopane), where the camp’s one-storey office buildings stood.

Photo 1. Liban penal camp—a panoramic view. Source: Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1970. Click the image to enlarge.

So both the site and the kind of work that had to be done there made Liban an ideal place for a penal camp. It was separated from densely populated city areas and easy to guard, and offered extremely hard and dangerous labour, which posed special risks particularly to youngsters who were not physically resilient and usually had no experience of such work. As usual, the harsh working conditions were made even less bearable by the Germans, who made sure that the living conditions were dismal too: the prisoners were starved, and no standards of hygiene were observed, while the work was exhaustive, as the labourers often had to toil for twenty-four hours without any protective gear or warm clothes in the winter months. The prisoners lived on the upper storey of a disused kiln and slept on a thin bedding of straw.

Their work was to excavate the limestone as instructed by specialist miners, the company’s regular employees, as well as to produce quicklime. The latter process was more complicated: the kiln had to be loaded and attended while the limestone was being processed, and the quickline had to be removed from the kiln. The latter task was the heaviest: due to the high temperatures, the prisoners often got burnt because they had no protective gloves. Other jobs were unloading coal from freight trains or loading them with the quicklime or crushed rock for road construction. The prisoners were overseen and urged to work apace by the foremen, who were quick to punish them by giving them a beating. The food rations were small and contained too little protein, so the labourers soon grew weak and emaciated.

Fig. 2. Lime kilns in Liban penal camp and a rail siding. Source: Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1970. Click the image to enlarge.

Arbeitsführer³ Benecke, the camp’s commandant, had absolute power. The site was constantly guarded by a few Sonderdienst⁴ soldiers; due to the location, the number of the guards could be low. Medical care was provided by the Sozialversicherungskasse, the social insurance company whose wartime manager was Dr Puppe, while the Polish medical professionals in that institution were headed by Dr Ciećkiewicz.⁵

In early May 1942, shortly after the camp was established, I was appointed the prisoners’ doctor. At the time, I was employed in a clinic in Podgórze and my catchment area adjoined the camp. I was given an hour overtime to take care of the prisoners. There were seventy men confined at the time, later numbers oscillated between one hundred and over two hundred. The first arrivals looked quite well, since they had been in the camp only for a few days. However, some were already suffering from burns or injuries at work or from abscesses on the skin caused by poor hygiene and the bad, inadequate diet which made for gastrointestinal problems.

In those early days, I had to look after patients, arrange a very basic infirmary, and procure some medicines and dressings. The infirmary of circa 30 square metres was situated in a brick barrack, far from the gates.⁶ It was furnished only with a couple of old metal bedsteads, straw mattresses and blankets, but no sheets. The same room also served as an outpatient clinic, with a table and a couple of chairs. The following year, the infirmary and clinic were moved to two small, damp rooms in the one-floor office buildings next to the street. The health care was provided also by two medical students, now distinguished doctors, Wilibald Rzicha, who worked at Liban for the first few months, and Stanisław Mondelski.

The living and working conditions were so bad that even an absolutely healthy and strong person would have found it hard to survive there for long. Luckily for the young men, their confinement in a penal labour camp usually lasted for three months, so after they had served their time, they were reassigned to exactly the same Arbeitsdienst unit. Sometimes they got longer sentences, but not exceeding a few months. Most prisoners were extremely debilitated by the time they were released from the camp. A few of them were released if during the preliminary medical on arrival, they were found to be disabled or seriously ill, because even such people were called up to serve in the Arbeitsdienst.

The tragic situation of the prisoners was ameliorated by the efforts of the Kraków medical community and the local branch of the RGO⁷ (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza, Main Welfare Council). As I have said, the young men were given medical care within the Sozialversicherungskasse, which took over the prewar Polish social insurance company. All the health care institutions were aware of the plight of the prisoners, so it was possible to provide sick boys with the necessary medicines, have them examined by specialists if necessary, or admit them to hospital. Often hospitalisation proved the only feasible way to save their young lives. It must be emphasised that the doctors in all the hospitals in Kraków took a patriotic approach and, notwithstanding the limitations in hospital treatment offered to Poles, tended to take in the youngsters from Liban and keep them in their wards for many weeks, sometimes until the usual three months were over, in order to protect their life and health. Specialists in outpatient clinics helped the prisoners too by giving them the best treatment available. In addition, a prisoner who was given a doctor’s appointment was able to leave work for a few hours guarded by an orderly, talk to Polish people outside the camp, and sometimes meet his family.

The aid offered by the local RGO was extremely important. Although the Council was allowed little latitude while a great many Poles required relief, it also wanted to satisfy at least some of the needs of those held in Nazi German jails and concentration camps. It was from the Council that we received bread and other food supplies, sometimes workmen’s footwear and clothing. The quantities were not large, but at least it was something to alleviate the poverty of our existence in the camp.

The two medical students of medicine whom I have mentioned and who worked as orderlies in the camp co-ordinated the RGO aid. Both of them, but especially Stanisław Mondelski, who replaced Wilibald Rzicha after a few months, were in close touch with the Kraków hospitals and outpatient clinics as well as with the Kraków branch of the RGO. As they were employed in the camp and lived in, they were familiar with the living and working conditions, so their information facilitated the medical aid provided to save the lives of the detainees.

However, help from outside was not enough, because the hard labour, starvation food rations, and insanitary conditions made for an invariably tragic situation in the camp. It was further aggravated by the various forms of harassment inflicted on prisoners by the SS personnel, as well as their exhaustion, as the work was definitely too heavy a burden for those young, undernourished boys. They were frequently forced to toil for twenty-four hours without a break, especially when there were coal trains waiting to be unloaded and filled up again with fresh quicklime, sometimes still hot and just out of the kiln.

The SS used various methods of physical abuse. One of the commonest was lashing prisoners with bullwhips. But there were many other punishments. Once, a boy was punished for a minor misdemeanour. He was chained up by the leg to the outer wall of the kiln for a week and had to stay standing up during the day, while the chain was not longer than one metre. He did not get anything to cover himself up with for the night. Two other “offenders” had their legs bound together with a chain and work for a week chained together. Both developed deep festering wounds on their legs, yet Benecke did not permit the removal of the chain, he did not even agree to have the prisoners bound by the arms, so that the wounds on their legs could be treated. Yet another young detainee had to slog to work for many days, dragging an iron ball weighing about 10 kilos behind him. He was not allowed to carry it in his hands to give some relief to his leg, which was constantly being hurt by the chain.

Whipping was the favourite punishment applied by several foremen, most of whom were Ukrainian nationalists, eager to please the Germans. Commandant Benecke himself took a sadistic pleasure in beating the prisoners. One day, when I arrived in the camp for my morning round, I saw that the infirmary was empty. Benecke had come to a conclusion that all the patients were malingerers and took a whip to drive them all out to work in the quarry. It must be admitted, though, that when I protested vehemently, Benecke ordered the sick prisoners brought back to the infirmary. . . .⁸ In general, the commandant of Liban tended to respect firm opinions from a doctor and did not interfere in purely medical matters. This made it possible to help many patients.

Yet perhaps the most barbaric way of torturing prisoners was employed as a punishment for an attempt to escape. Although there were just a few guards, as a rule escapes were unsuccessful due to the camp’s location and environs. What made it difficult for the prisoners to run off was also the fact that they were extremely weak and easy to spot outside the camp by their old, tattered clothes. However, attempts to abscond were made quite often. If a fugitive was caught, a peculiar kind of “decimation” was applied. One in every group of ten prisoners was selected and had to join in flogging the fugitive. Prisoners were warned they would be beaten by their foremen if they refused to inflict the punishment on their fellow. Usually the threat worked, and defectors were thrashed violently. Afterwards, they had to stay in the infirmary for several days and sometimes had surgery. Prisoners were so scared of a cruel beating that even seriously ill boys did not want to turn up at the infirmary to ask for medical assistance, because such a request was punished by a flogging. As a result, only severe conditions were reported, when the only possible solution was hospitalisation, which luckily was permitted.

However, some prisoners received medical attention far too late. In the first months of the camp’s operations, a prisoner’s dead body was found in the shrubbery behind the kiln. It had been there for two days. Apparently, the boy had been suffering from diarrhoea (or may have had dysentery) and told his foreman several times that he needed to see a doctor, but on each occasion he was beaten up and sent back to work. Since no help was provided, he hid among the vegetation and died there. There were several incidents when defecting prisoners were killed: the guards, proud of their marksmanship, shot them like rabbits. Once a guard shot a boy attempting to escape in broad daylight; he used a rifle, although he could have easily caught the youngster, who was about fifty metres away. Later, he bragged to me that the first shot was actually a miss, so he had to kill the injured boy by shooting him point-blank straight in the head. Another youth managed to escape, but returned after a few days, realising that otherwise his family would suffer reprisals. The commandant ordered a guard to lead the prisoner away and shoot him in front of the rock face. The guard fulfilled the order dutifully: he fired at the poor fellow standing just a few metres away and left bullet holes in his head, chest, and abdomen. Of course, the boy was already dead when he received the final shots.

I worked in Liban until the autumn of 1943, when my duties were taken over by Dr Grus. So I learned about the tragic end of that camp only vicariously, from an account from Mondelski, with whom I stayed in contact. In late July 1944, when it seemed that the victorious Soviet summer offensive would continue westward, the Germans were hurriedly evacuating from Kraków. The prisoners were not guarded too closely. Indeed, they were escaping in large numbers, as the SS personnel did not seem to mind. A group that was left behind included twenty-three detainees whose homes were far away or who simply did not want to take risks. The guards locked them up in a barrack. On 21 July 1944 in the evening, as panic among the Germans was mounting, the camp’s office buildings were occupied by a retreating unit for its quarters. Mondelski, who was in the camp at that time, believed it was a subdivision of flak artillery. After a drinking spree, the unit’s commander as well as Commandant Benecke, and Reit, an Arbeitsdienst inspector, burst into the barrack and murdered the prisoners, firing at them with machine guns. A few tried to escape through the adjoining latrine, but the Germans threw hand grenades at them and the prisoners drowned in the cesspit. Only two of them survived the cruel massacre. The camp was closed down and never re-opened.⁹

I think it’s worthwhile to tell the story of Liban for several reasons. It was a small camp and is estimated to have held no more than 1,500–2,000 young men altogether.¹⁰ This is why it is often overshadowed by huge camps like Auschwitz or even Plaszow, a camp for Jewish inmates in a district of Kraków. At Liban, the time of confinement was defined beforehand and usually not extended, so the vast majority of detainees survived the ordeal. Hence it may seem the conditions in that camp were relatively bearable, but as a matter of fact, the opposite was true. The prisoners did extremely hard labour, were seriously undernourished, harassed, and violence was used against them. Therefore, when those young people were released from the camp, having served their three months, they were in a state of extreme cachexia and took a long time to recuperate or never managed to recover their health. Some of them were saved only because they were hospitalised. Undoubtedly, given such working conditions and starvation, the majority of the prisoners would have perished if their confinement had lasted longer, for instance six months. Very many young men died there anyway, punished for no crime at all. The methods used to torture prisoners were the same as those in the harshest concentrations camps; their sophistication and sadistic cruelty are still horrific. Despite the brutality, the Germans did not manage to break the prisoners morally, and they continued to be sympathetic to one another and show solidarity with their fellow inmates.

Hopefully, thanks to such articles, even as short as mine, the suffering of the young people who did slave labour for the German construction industry shall not be forgotten.

***

Translated from original article: Mruk, Józef, “Obóz karny „Liban”. Uwagi lekarza.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1970.

1. The Germans opened Liban penal camp on 15 April 1942. See Marcin Chorązki, “Niemiecki obóz „Liban” w Krakowie. Praca przymusowa w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie,” Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, https://krakow.ipn.gov.pl/pl4/edukacja/przystanek-historia/95427,Niemiecki-oboz-Liban-w-Krakowie-Praca-przymusowa-w-Generalnym-Gubernatorstwie.html, Accessed 21 November 2022; Muzeum Armii Krajowej — Kalendarium, “Powstał obóz karny „Liban” w Krakowie,” https://muzeum-ak.pl/kalendarium/powstal-oboz-karny-liban-w-krakowie/. Accessed 21 November 2022.^a
2. On 9 December 1940 the German administration of the Generalgouvernement (the GG, i.e., the part of German-occupied Poland not directly incorporated in Germany) issued an ordinance establishing Baudienst, a slave labour force “for general utility work important for the [German] State and its policy, which may also be used in the event of a disaster” (as § 1 of the Ordinance said). Conscripts were called up on the grounds of § 2, and § 1 of the Ordinance of 26 October 1939 on the compulsory employment of the Polish population of the GG, and segregated in three racial groups (for Poles, Ukrainians, and “Goralenvolk”). In fact, the Baudienst Ordinance was put into effect already on 1 December 1940—nine days before its publication in Verordnungsblatt des Generalgouverneurs für die Besetzten Polnischen Gebiete, the GG’s official journal of ordinances (Part I, p. 359–360). A local Baudienst service had already been in operation in Distrikt Krakau earlier in 1940. See “Baudienst. Służba Budowlana w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie 1940–1945,” Instytut Pamięci Narodowej 2012, and Chorązki. Baudienst was under the authority of Reichsarbeitsdienst (the Reich Labour Service).^a
3. Arbeitsführer—Plant manager (German, literally “work leader”).^b Sonderdienst (German, “special service”), a paramilitary unit created by Hans Frank for the Generalgouvernement (the part of German-occupied Poland not directly annexed to Germany).^b
4. Dr Marian Ciećkiewicz (1893–1999), Polish physician (and towards the end of his life the oldest member of his profession in Poland). When the War started, Dr Ciećkiewicz was chief physician in the Polish national insurance company. He had to cede his post to Dr Albrecht Puppe when the German occupying authorities took over the company, but remained as the chief Polish doctor on its staff. http://www.malopolskawiiwojnie.pl/index.php?title=Cie%C4%87kiewicz_Marian.^b
5. The original sentence is faulty and some information seems to be missing.^c
6. Rada Główna Opiekuńcza, the Main Welfare Council, the only Polish charity organisation recognised by the Germans in occupied Poland.^b
7. The latter part of the original sentence is incomprehensible.^c
8. Liban penal camp was closed down on 22 July 1944. Only 3 out of the 23 of its inmates who did not manage to escape survived the closing down of the camp. See Chorązki and Roman Gieroń, “Masakra więźniów karnego obozu pracy Liban,” Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, https://ipn.gov.pl/pl/historia-z-ipn/147535,Roman-Gieron-Masakra-wiezniow-karnego-obozu-pracy-Liban.html. Accessed 21 November 2022.^a
9. Currently available estimates give an overall figure of over 2 thousand inmates, peaking in the summer of 1942 with about 800 inmates. See Chorązki and Muzeum Armii Krajowej — Kalendarium.^a
10. The Germans opened Liban penal camp on 15 April 1942. See Marcin Chorązki, “Niemiecki obóz „Liban” w Krakowie. Praca przymusowa w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie,” Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, https://krakow.ipn.gov.pl/pl4/edukacja/przystanek-historia/95427,Niemiecki-oboz-Liban-w-Krakowie-Praca-przymusowa-w-Generalnym-Gubernatorstwie.html, Accessed 21 November 2022; Muzeum Armii Krajowej — Kalendarium, “Powstał obóz karny „Liban” w Krakowie,” https://muzeum-ak.pl/kalendarium/powstal-oboz-karny-liban-w-krakowie/. Accessed 21 November 2022.^a

a—notes by Katarzyna du Vall, Expert Consultant for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; c—notes by Marta Kapera, the translator of the above article.

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