Beginnings
Initially the Potulice camp was one of numerous transit points for Poles expelled by the German authorities from territories of western Poland annexed into the newly-created Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen. The forcible displacement of Polish nationals known as Lebensraum; was meant to create space for German colonists (the Volksdeutsche) brought in Heim ins Reich from across Eastern Europe. The facility quickly expanded to include a slave-labor subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp nearby, supplying free workforce for the Hansen Schneidemuehl machine shop set up on premises.
The camp served as place for detention of Polish children; of the 1,296 people who died there, 767 victims were minors. In 1943 a special unit in the camp was created especially for children and the name „Ostjugendbewahrlager Potulitz” or „Lebrechtsdorf” started to appear in German documentation. Racist theories and a policy of Germanisation that sought to Germanise children who tested for racial purity of the supposed Aryan race traits led to organised kidnappings by German officials in occupied Poland. The children from the camp were placed there as a result of this policy. If the tests were positive and it was believed the child had lost emotional contact with their parents, then it could be sent to German families for Germanisation. This operation was organised by SS Rasse und Siedlungshauptamt RuSHA (SS Office of Race and Settlement).
Formally designated a labour camp, the camp was not controlled by concentration camp authorities. However, the conditions in it were comparable to those in the Stutthof concentration camp.
Read more about this topic: Potulice Concentration Camp
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