The so-called “Germanisation” of Poles in the SS-run Hinzert concentration camp

Racial inspection and arbitrariness: The “Re-Germanisation Process” for “E-Poles”
 

As Felix Klormann showed in a study on behalf of the Hinzert SS special camp/concentration camp memorial site, the intended processes and the actual practice of the “Re-Germanisation process” differed considerably. If a Pole was accused of “forbidden contact”, it was initially provided that for each inspection the responsible State Police office would check for “racial” prerequisites using the so-called race cards. If the outcome of this investigation was positive, he was admitted to the “re-Germanisation process” as a so-called E-Pole and transported to the Hinzert SS special camp/concentration camp.

In these first steps alone, many of the factors were completely arbitrary. It was not just the subjective assessment of a number of features, which were used in the pseudo-scientific determination of the “racial” features, that was often subjected to arbitrary assessments by individuals. The accusation of forbidden contact was also an arbitrary construct, as Klormann shows using the example of the story of Josef Krajewski:[8] Josef Krajewski was born in Warsaw in 1913. He was a locksmith by trade and married to Sarbina Krajewska, née Dopkowska. From 10 October 1941 if not before, he was a forced labourer working in agriculture in the southwest of Germany.[9] He was arrested on 10 June 1942 because, when driving a cart, he allegedly did not leave a local farmers’ leader enough space on a narrow path. In addition, there was a rumour that he had sexual relations with a German woman. After Krajewski had been arrested and interviewed, the woman accused of the relationship took her own life. This was taken as an admission of guilt and considered to corroborate the suspicion. The “racial screening” was actioned and because Josef Krajewski passed it, he was moved to the Hinzert SS special camp/concentration camp. This was followed by the next step in the “re-Germanisation process”, the so-called family screening. However, the process was not completed, and Krajewski, who had only been detained on the basis of rumours, was never freed.[10] On 13 October 1943, he died of severe pneumonia and pleurisy in Hermeskeil hospital, which was responsible for the prisoners from Hinzert.[11] He had contracted the illness whilst he was imprisoned in the concentration camp. Instead of aiding his recovery, the SS-Sturmbannführer Dr Theophil Hackethal, who was both the camp doctor and head of the hospital, ensured that he was graded “unfit” and had his prison sentence extended, which resulted in the death of Josef Krajewski.[12] He was initially buried in the Waldfriedhof Reinsfeld and later moved to the Hinzert memorial cemetery which had been set up by the French military administration in 1946.[13]