74 years ago, partisans from the Świętokrzyska Brigade of the National Armed Forces liberated the German concentration camp in Holiszów.
Holiszów is a small town located near Pilzno in the Czech Republic. In 1945, there was a German concentration camp, in which there were about 1000 female prisoners - Polish women, Jewish women, French women, Belgians, and Dutch women.
The commandant of the camp was Gerhard Lichtenau, and the prisoners were guarded by the SS unit.
On 5 May, the Świętokrzyska Brigade attacked the camp. This was the last moment for the release of female prisoners, because the commandant of the camp had already prepared to carry out Hitler's order to murder prisoners staying in the camp. The Jewish women had already been separated from the rest of the prisoners, locked in the shed and the SS-men were about to begin the execution.
The camp's crew capitulated after a short fight. SS men raised their hands and threw their weapons to the ground. About 200 enemy soldiers and fifteen SS guards got to Polish captivity.
Concentration camp in Holiszów was created in large farm buildings converted into makeshift barracks and surrounded by barbed wire. Some of the women who were saved by Poles partisans were previously imprisoned in Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and other places of mass death. Most of them were in a terrible condition . They were exhausted, starved, battered by SS-men.
Polish partisans, shocked by what they found in the camp, did not have mercy for SS men. The torturers, whom the women indicated, were immediately taken away and shot on the spot. In this way, the commandant Gerhard Lichtenau was killed.
After the war, French, Belgian and Dutch officers came to the place of stationing the brigade, to thank the Poles for saving their compatriots.
source of the image - https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/5-maja-1945-zolnierze-brygady-swietokrzyskiej-nsz-wyzwolili-niemiecki-oboz-w-holiszowie
my post on steemit - https://steemit.com/history/@ptaku/calendar-card-05-may-1945-liberation-of-the-concentration-camp-in-holiszow-czech-republic
