The Nazi concentration camp in Sztutowo, established in the annexed areas of the Free City of Gdańsk, was the first and longest existing German camp in what is now Poland. It operated from September 2, 1939 to May 9, 1945, and housed approximately 110,000 prisoners, the largest national group of which were Jews. According to Agnieszka Chyrek in the book “Numbering and marking prisoners in the Stutthof camp”, about half of the given number died in the camp as a result of diseases, hard work, malnutrition and abuse.
Grzegorz Kwiatkowski: This is one of my most important missions in life
The camp in Sztutowo held, among others, the grandfather and aunt of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, guitarist and vocalist of the Gdańsk band Trupa Trupa. The artist talked about his mission in an area with a terrible history. “I have been monitoring this area since 2015 and I always hope that I won’t find anything again, that one day the entire area will be cleaned,” says the artist.
Currently, the remains of prisoners’ shoes can be found on the site of the former camp. In 1962, a memorial museum was opened, where several thousand pairs of shoes were placed behind glass in the former camp canteen. However, all the rest stayed in the forest. Kwiatkowski recalls his grandfather taking him to the museum when he was little. The musician remembers his shock when he saw a huge mound of shoes. It wasn’t until years later that he realized it was only a fraction of the total.
The lead singer of Trupa Trupa confessed that searching for the shoes of Holocaust victims has become one of the most important missions in his life. “Of course, they had to be protected from the very beginning. And now they not only have to be excavated, preserved and put on public display, but also carefully examined to find out who owned them, where these people came from, where the shoes were made. In honor and memory of the victims “This should be the pride of the museum,” emphasizes Kwiatkowski.
Shoes of Nazi victims can still be found in the forest in Sztutowo
According to “”, boards have recently been placed in the forest near the Stutthof Museum, informing that during a walk you can come across “historical objects”. “The Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo occupies only 1/6 of the area of the former camp, and over 100 hectares lie outside its area,” reads the announcement. “Due to the history of this place, we would like to inform you that you may come across historical items related to the tragic past of the Stutthof concentration camp. Please leave them in the place where you found them, take and send a photo and mark its location, e.g. a pin on the map,” we read next.
Łukasz Kępski, spokesman for the museum, assures that efforts are underway to obtain funds for search work for all items that may come from the times of the camp’s operation.
The forest near the Stutthof Museum Photo private archive of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski
During the war, there was a repair point for leather items in Sztutowo. Shoes from all Nazi concentration camps, mainly Auschwitz, were transported there. After the owners of the shoes were sent to their deaths, the shoes were recycled and made into belts, backpacks, holsters and other leather products. According to “The Guardian”, in the report the Red Army investigating officer recalls what he and the soldiers found after the liberation of the camp. It was a huge pile of shoes of various sizes, containing “no less than 410,000 pairs of shoes.”
Grzegorz Kwiatkowski and his band Trupa Trupa will soon play three concerts in Poland. On May 10, the musicians will visit Gdańsk, on May 23 they will play in Gliwice and on May 24 in Krakow. In the fall, the artists plan to perform in Warsaw and California.
Source: Gazeta
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