View source for Trawniki men

{{Short description|Central and Eastern European Nazi military unit}}
{{Infobox military unit
| unit_name         = ''Trawnikimänner''
| image             = Karl Streibel KL Trawniki.jpg
| image_size        = 340
| caption           = Inspection of ''Trawnikimänner'' (some of them still wearing Soviet [[Budenovka]]s) by ''SS-Hauptsturmführer '' [[Karl Streibel]] (center) at the [[Trawniki concentration camp|SS Trawniki training division]]. As ''Hiwi''s, they were tasked with liquidating Nazi-era Jewish ghettos in [[occupied Poland]]
| dates             = Founded in 1941
| country           = [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]]
| allegiance        = {{flag|Nazi Germany}}, the ''[[Schutzstaffel|SS]]''
| branch            = [[File:3rd SS Division Logo.svg|15px]] [[Totenkopfverbände]]
| type              = [[Paramilitary]] police reserve
| role              = Logistical support for [[Order Police battalions]] and the SS during [[Operation Reinhard]]; shooting actions, deportations to death camps
| size              = Over 5,000 [[Hiwi (volunteer)|Hiwis]]
| command_structure =
}}
During [[World War II]], '''Trawniki men''' ({{IPA|pl|travˈniki|}}; {{langx|de|Trawnikimänner}}) were Eastern European [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|Nazi collaborators]], consisting of either volunteers or recruits from [[Prisoner of war|prisoner-of-war]] camps set up by [[Nazi Germany]] for [[Red Army|Soviet Red Army]] soldiers captured in the border regions during [[Operation Barbarossa]] launched in June 1941. Thousands of these volunteers served in the [[General Government]] territory of [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] until the end of World War&nbsp;II. Trawnikis belonged to a category of [[Hiwi (volunteer)|''Hiwi''s]] (German abbreviation for ''Hilfswilliger'', literally "[[European non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II|those willing to help]]"), Nazi auxiliary forces recruited from native subjects serving in various jobs such as concentration camp guards.<ref name=USHMM1/>{{sfn|Browning|1998|p=52}}

Between September 1941 and September 1942, the German ''[[SS]]'' and police trained 2,500 Trawniki men known as ''Hiwi Wachmänner'' (guards) at the special [[Trawniki concentration camp|training camp at Trawniki outside of Lublin]]; by the end of 1944, 5,082 men were on active duty.<ref name=USHMM1 /> ''Trawnikimänner'' were organized by [[Karl Streibel|Streibel]] into two ''SS [[Sonderdienst]]'' [[battalion]]s. Some 1,000 ''Hiwis'' are known to have run away during field operations.<ref name="Black">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M7KbsHLnbwgC&q=Hamburg%2C++Karl++Streibel&pg=PA331 |title=Police Auxiliaries for Operation Reinhard ''by'' Peter R. Black  |publisher=Enigma Books |work=Secret Intelligence and the Holocaust |year=2006 |access-date=July 12, 2014 |editor=David Bankir |pages=331&ndash;348 |isbn=192963160X |format=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|366}}  Although the majority of Trawniki men or ''Hiwis'' came from among the prisoners of war, there were also ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'' from Eastern Europe among them,<ref name="Procknow">{{cite book |author=Gregory Procknow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVnCbDAKTe4C&pg=PA35 |title=Recruiting and Training Genocidal Soldiers |publisher=Francis & Bernard Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-0986837401 |page=35 }}.</ref><ref name="Arad-22">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QpAgHYTPRz0C&pg=PA21  |title=Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps |author=Yitzhak Arad |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=1987 |isbn=0253342937 |page=21 |author-link=Yitzhak Arad }}</ref> valued because of their ability to speak Russian, Ukrainian and other languages of the occupied territories. All the officers at the Trawniki camp were ''[[Reichsdeutsche]]'' (citizens of the German Reich), and most of the squad commanders were ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'' (people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship).<ref name="Arad-22" /> The conscripted civilians and [[Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs|former Soviet POWs]] included Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Belarusians, Estonians, Georgians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Russians, Tatars, and Ukrainians.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> The ''Trawnikis'' took a major part in [[Operation Reinhard]], the Nazi plan to exterminate [[Polish Jews#The Holocaust: German-occupied Poland|Jews]]. They also served at [[extermination camp]]s and played an important role in the annihilation of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] (see the [[Stroop Report]]), among others.

== Creation ==

In 1941 [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]] instructed SS officer [[Odilo Globocnik]] to start recruiting mainly Ukrainian auxiliaries among the Soviet POWs, due to ongoing close relations with the local Ukrainian ''Hilfsverwaltung''.<ref name="Eikel">{{cite book |author=Markus Eikel |chapter=The local administration under German occupation in central and eastern Ukraine, 1941–1944 |at=110–122 in PDF |title=The Holocaust in Ukraine: New Sources and Perspectives |quote=Ukraine differs from other parts of the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, whereas the local administrators have formed the ''Hilfsverwaltung'' in support of extermination policies in 1941 and 1942, and in providing assistance for the deportations to camps in Germany, mainly in 1942 and 1943. |publisher=Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |year=2013 |chapter-url=http://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20130500-holocaust-in-ukraine.pdf}}</ref> Globocnik had selected [[Karl Streibel]] from Operation Reinhard as the key person for this new secret project.<ref name="Piotrowski">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBbnrEMswbUC&q=Trawniki&pg=PA217 |chapter=Ukrainian Collaboration |publisher=McFarland |title=Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 |year=2006 |access-date=2014-07-12 |author=Tadeusz Piotrowski |page=217 |isbn=0786429135|author-link=Tadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist) }}</ref> Streibel, with the assistance of his officers, visited all POW camps for the Soviets behind the lines of the advancing [[Wehrmacht]], and after individual screening recruited Ukrainian as well as Latvian and Lithuanian volunteers as ordered.<ref name=USHMM1>{{cite web |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/trawniki |title=Trawniki |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |author=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=March 12, 2021 |format=permission granted to be reused, in whole or in part, on Wikipedia; [[OTRS]] ticket no. 2007071910012533 |quote=''Text from USHMM has been released under the [[GFDL]].''|author-link=Holocaust Encyclopedia}}</ref>{{sfn|Browning|1998|p=52}}

Due to successful adaptation of Soviet army's strategy and tactics against German forces, as well as Nazi policy of Soviet war prisoners' extermination, the influx of POW was dramatically reduced, so Streibel's personnel from the summer of 1942 started to conscript civilians of Ukrainian nationality, generally young males, from Western Ukraine (Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia and Lublin).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/trawniki | title=Trawniki }}</ref>

[[Petro Mirchuk]], who himself was a political prisoner in the [[Auschwitz]] camp, relates in his memoirs that he engaged in conversation with members of an auxiliary guard detachment in the second half of 1943: "To the extent of that I could determine, it was a unit {{sic|comprised |hide=y|of}} representatives of various so called "Eastern peoples"-primarily Russians, Belorussians, Caucasians and others, and least of all Ukrainians, although for some reason the unit was officially called 'Ukrainian'."<ref>{{Cite book|title=In the German mills of death, 1941-1945 (U nimetsʹkykh mlynakh smerty)|last=Petro|first=Mirchuk|publisher=Vantage Press|year=1976|location=New York-London}}</ref>

Also very interesting are the remarks of the French publicist Louis Saurel. In an analogous book about the death camps he writes: "Part of the SS soldiers were not Germans. There were many Romanians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats and so on… Interpreters were required to convey explanations between the Germans and the foreign SS troops". In Saurel's account Ukrainians are not mentioned at all, and probably fall under the category of "and so on".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ukrainian-Jewish relations in historical perspective|last=Aster, Howard. Potichnyj, Peter J.|date=1990|publisher=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta|isbn=0920862535|oclc=23249506}}</ref>
{{location mark|float=right|image=General Government camps of Lublin Reservation.png|width=262|x%=49.5|y%=36.5|position=right |caption=Location of the [[Trawniki concentration camp|SS Trawniki training compound]] in between [[Nazi camps|target camps]] of [[Lublin Reservation]] ([[General Government]])|type=thumb}}
The Trawniki-men were assembled at a [[training camp|training facility]] adjacent to the [[Trawniki concentration camp]] built for the Jews deported from the [[Warsaw Ghetto]]. The complex (serving dual purpose in 1941&ndash;43) was set up in the industrialized village of [[Trawniki]] about {{convert|40|km}} southeast of [[Lublin]] with rail lines in all directions in the [[General Government|occupied territory]]. From there, the ''Hiwi'' shooters were deployed to all major killing sites of the [[Final Solution]]. It was their primary purpose of training. They took an active role in the extermination of Jews at [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]], [[Sobibor]], [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka II]], [[Warsaw Ghetto|Warsaw]] (three times), [[Częstochowa Ghetto|Częstochowa]], [[Lublin Ghetto|Lublin]], [[Lvov Ghetto|Lvov]], [[Radom Ghetto|Radom]], [[Kraków Ghetto|Kraków]], [[Białystok Ghetto|Białystok]] (twice), [[Majdanek]] as well as [[Auschwitz]], not to mention Trawniki [[concentration camp]] itself,<ref name=USHMM1 /><ref name="Jabłoński">{{cite web |url=http://www.trawniki.hg.pl/traw/obozjab.html |title=Hitlerowski obóz w Trawnikach |publisher=Trawniki official website |work=The camp history |access-date=July 12, 2014 |author=Mgr Stanisław Jabłoński (1927&ndash;2002) |language=pl}}</ref> and the remaining subcamps of KL Lublin/Majdanek camp complex including [[Poniatowa concentration camp|Poniatowa]], Budzyn, Kraśnik, Puławy, [[Lipowa 7 camp|Lipowa]], and also during massacres in [[Łomazy]], [[Międzyrzec Podlaski|Międzyrzec]], [[Łuków]], [[Radzyń Podlaski|Radzyń]], [[Parczew]], [[Końskowola]], [[Komarówka, Lublin Voivodeship|Komarówka]] and all other locations, augmented by the SS and [[Schutzpolizei (Nazi Germany)|Schupo]], as well as the [[Reserve Police Battalion 101]], part of over two dozen [[Order Police battalions]] deployed to the occupied territories. The German Order Police performed [[Roundup (history)|roundups]] inside the [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]] shooting everyone unable to move or attempting to flee, while the Trawnikis conducted large-scale civilian massacres in the same locations.<ref name="Browning" /><ref name="ARC1">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/erntefest.html |title=Erntefest |publisher=ARC |work=Occupation of the East |year=2004 |access-date=March 12, 2021 |author=Aktion Reinhard Camps}}</ref>

== Organization ==

Auxiliaries were not allowed to wear German uniforms or insignia, carry German weapons, or use German ranks. This was mostly for political reasons. The [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|racial policies of Nazi Germany]] regarded Slavs as [[Untermensch|subhuman]] and not deserving to be treated as German soldiers. There was also a real fear of mutiny or desertion by foreigners in German uniform. To reinforce the social levels between them, guards were therefore referred to as ''Wachmänner'' ("watchmen") rather than ''Schützen'' ("riflemen") and given different uniforms and rank insignia. A practical reason for this policy was that there was a dearth of German equipment to be spared, yet piles of captured war materiel that would otherwise be unused.

The German officers and senior NCOs were issued the obsolete black M32 SS tunic or [[feldgrau|field-grey]] M37 tunic with blue facings. This was to mark them out from the men they commanded, but at the same time denoted them as auxiliaries rather than regular troops.

Units were initially organized in ''Gruppen'' (''Gruppe'' ["Group"] > "squad") of about 50 men and ''Züge'' (''Zug'' ["Procession"] > "platoon") of around 90 to 120 men. These were further assigned to companies and battalions, under German officers and higher-level NCOs. After they abandoned Trawniki in 1944 ahead of the Soviet advance, they were reorganized into combat units. This is when they introduced the ''Rotten'' (''Rotte'' ["Chain"] > "File" or "Fire Team") level of organization at a time when the depleted German Army was consolidating into ''Halbzüge'' ("half-platoons" or "Sections"). This was perhaps adopted to deter desertion, a big problem towards the end of the war.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan=5 |''Wachmänner'' Ranks (1942–1945)
|-
!Dienstgrad !! Translation !! Equivalent SS / Heer Rank !! Duties !! Notes
|-
| ''Oberzugwachmann'' || "Senior Platoon Guard" || [[SS-Oberscharführer]] / [[Feldwebel]] || Senior Platoon Sergeant || Created in 1944<ref>Black, Peter. ''Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution'', Forschungen zum Nationalsozialismus und dessen Nachwirkungen in Österreich Festschrift für Brigitte Bailer, p.117 (footnote 108). Vienna, ''Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes'' (2012). The ranks of ''Rottwachmann'' and ''Oberzugwachmann'' were created in 1944.</ref> Highest NCO rank.
|-
| ''Zugwachmann'' || "Platoon Guard" || [[SS-Scharführer]] / [[Unterfeldwebel]] || Platoon Sergeant || Created October 19, 1942<ref>Black, Peter. ''Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution'', Forschungen zum Nationalsozialismus und dessen Nachwirkungen in Österreich Festschrift für Brigitte Bailer, p.117 (footnote 108). Vienna, ''Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes'' (2012). The new auxiliary ranks were first detailed in circular ''CA 156/KdG Lublin''. It was issued on October 19, 1942.</ref>
|-
| ''Gruppenwachmann'' || "Squad Guard" || [[SS-Unterscharführer]] / [[Unteroffizier]] || Squad Leader or Corporal || Created October 19, 1942.
|-
| ''Rottwachmann'' || "File Guard" || [[Rottenführer|SS-Rottenfuhrer]] / [[Gefreiter]] || File Leader or Lance Corporal || Created in 1944. Highest enlisted rank.
|-
| ''Oberwachmann'' || "Senior Guard" || [[Oberschütze|SS-Oberschütze]] / [[Oberschütze]] || Senior Private || Created October 19, 1942.
|-
| ''Wachmann'' || "Watchman" or "Guard" || [[Schütze|SS-Schütze]] / [[Schütze]] || Private || Created October 19, 1942.
|}

The guards initially wore their Soviet Army uniforms. In the autumn of 1941 they were given the dyed-black Polish Army uniforms worn by the former ''[[Selbstschutz]]'' forces. In the summer of 1942 they were issued brown Belgian Army uniforms for warm weather wear. The guardsmen tended to wear a mixture of the two.<ref>Black, Peter. Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution, p.117 (footnote 109).</ref> They were usually issued captured enemy weapons but sometimes received German Mauser Kar-98 carbines. Automatic rifles and pistols were issued when on special assignment.

== Role of Trawniki men in the Final Solution ==
{{further|The Holocaust in Poland}}

At each of the [[Operation Reinhard]] extermination camps Trawniki ''Hiwi'' men served as the ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' guard units (between 70 and 120 depending on location) and were selected to act as the [[Gas chamber#Germany|gas chambers]] operators. They came under the jurisdiction of the relevant camp commandant. Almost all of the Trawniki guards were involved in shooting, beating, and terrorizing Jews.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> The Russian historian Sergei Kudryashov, who made a study of the Trawniki men serving at death camps, claimed that there was little sign of any attraction to [[National Socialism]] among them.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> He claimed that most of the guards volunteered in order to leave the POW camps and/or because of self-interest.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> On the other hand, the Holocaust historian [[Christopher R. Browning]] wrote that ''Hiwis'' "were screened on the basis of their anti-Communist and hence almost invariably [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic sentiments]]."<ref name="Browning">{{harvnb|Browning|1998|pages=52, 77, 79, 80, 135}}</ref> Despite the generally apathetic views of the Trawniki guards, the vast majority faithfully carried out the ''SS'' expectations in the mistreatment of Jews.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> Most Trawniki men had executed Jews already as part of their job training.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239"/> Similarly to [[Christopher Browning]]'s 1992 book ''Ordinary Men'', Kudryashov argued that the Trawniki men were examples of how ordinary people could become willing killers.<ref name="Kudryashov, Sergei pages 226-239">Sergei Kudryashov, "Ordinary Collaborators: The Case of the Travniki Guards" (in) ''Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy Essays in Honour of John Erickson'' edited by Mark and Ljubica Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004; pages 226–227 & 234-235.</ref>

=== Murder operations ===

[[File:Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Umschlagplatz 1943 05.jpg|thumb|right|280px|[[Stroop Report]] Trawniki shooters during the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]], with [[Jürgen Stroop]] (on the right), 1943 at the Umschlagplatz, with Stawki 5/7 in the back. Their military overcoats came from the ''Allgemeine-SS'' surplus no longer used by the German SS.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gordon Williamson |year=2012 |title=German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |page=44 |isbn=978-1782000075 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpjvCwAAQBAJ|author-link=Gordon Williamson (writer) }}</ref>]]

The Trawniki shooters  were assigned to the worst of the "on-the-spot dirty work" by ''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' Karl Streibel (wrote Browning),<ref name="Browning"/> so the Germans from the parallel [[Reserve Police Battalion 101]] of the [[Ordnungspolizei|Order Police]] from Hamburg "would not go crazy" from the horror of hands-on killing for hours or days on end. The Trawnikis used to arrive in squads numbering around 50 at the killing site, and start by sitting down to a sandwich and bottles of vodka from their knapsacks behaving like guests,<ref name="Browning"/> while the Germans dealt with unruly crowds of thousands of ghetto inhabitants: as in [[Międzyrzec Podlaski|Międzyrzec]], [[Łuków]], [[Radzyń Podlaski|Radzyń]], [[Parczew]], [[Końskowola]], [[Komarówka, Lublin Voivodeship|Komarówka]] and all other locations.<ref name="Browning"/>

[[File:Askaris im Warschauer Getto - 1943.jpg|thumb|right|280px|"Trawniki" men during the destruction of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] at Zamenhofa 42 / Kupiecka 18.<. Photo from [[Jürgen Stroop]] Report, May 1943]]

The Trawniki men shot so fast and so wildly that the German policemen "frequently had to take cover to avoid being hit."{{sfn|Browning|1998|p=95}} Ukrainian ''Hiwis'' were perceived as indispensable. In [[Łomazy]], the Germans were "overjoyed" to see them coming after the messy [[Józefów, Biłgoraj County#Józefów Massacre|Józefów massacre]] which permanently traumatized the untrained executioners. The wave of mass killings of Jews from the [[Międzyrzec Podlaski Ghetto]] lasting non-stop for several days were conducted by the Trawniki battalion of about 350 to 400 men, same as in Parczew, or the [[Izbica Ghetto]].{{sfn|Browning|1998|p=93}} Some German police officers felt uneasy about killing non-Jewish Poles. Their unit shot 4,600 Jews by September 1942, but disproportionately only 78 ethnic Poles. In contrast, the ''Hiwis'', saw the Christian Poles as equal opportunity offenders. When they got too drunk to show up in [[Aleksandrów, Kraśnik County|Aleksandrów]], Major [[Wilhelm Trapp]] ordered the release of prisoners rounded up for mass execution.{{sfn|Browning|1998|p=77}}

The ''[[SS-Gruppenführer]]'' [[Jürgen Stroop]] who was in charge of the suppression of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] and the methodical destruction of [[Warsaw Ghetto|the Ghetto]] itself – responsible for the massacre of over 50,000 [[Polish Jews]] – later remarked in a prison interview with [[Kazimierz Moczarski]], published in his original Polish edition of the [[Conversations with an Executioner]]:<ref name="Podgórski/scribd">Andrzej Szczypiorski (1977), [https://www.scribd.com/doc/80572900/70230112-Moczarski-Kazimierz-Rozmowy-z-Katem Moczarski Kazimierz, ''Rozmowy z katem''] text with ''Notes'' and ''Biography'' by Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert (PDF 1.86 MB, available from Scribd.com). Page 103. Retrieved {{nowrap|August 28, 2014.}} {{in lang|pl}}</ref>

{|
|-
| width="50%" valign="top" |<var style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">We used the word '[[askari]]s' for the volunteers serving with our auxiliary forces in the SS, recruited from the indigenous populations in the areas acquired in Eastern Europe. They were, in principle, Latvians, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. They were trained at the 'SS-Ausbildungslager-Trawniki' near Lublin. They did not make the best of soldiers, although they were nationalists and anti-Semites. Young people, often without the elementary education, culturally savage, with inclination to cheating. But obedient, physically tough and steadfast against the enemy. Many 'askaris' we used during the '[[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Grossaktion]]' (especially in its initial stages) were Latvians. They did not understand Polish and therefore were unable to communicate with the people of Warsaw. This was exactly what we wanted. We also called them "Trawniki men".</var>
| width=3% |
| valign="top" |<var style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">Myśmy nazywali "askarisami" ochotników do służb pomocniczych w SS, którzy rekrutowali się z ludności autochtonicznej na terenach zdobytych w Europie Wschodniej. Byli to w zasadzie Łotysze, Litwini, Białorusini i Ukraińcy. Przeszkalano ich w ''SS-Ausbildungs-lager-Trawniki'' pod Lublinem. Nie najlepsi żołnierze, choć nacjonaliści i antysemici. Młodzi, bez podstawowego najczęściej wykształcenia, o kulturze dzikusów i skłonnościach do kantów. Ale posłuszni, wytrwali fizycznie i twardzi wobec wroga. Wielu "askarisów" użytych w ''Grossaktion'' (szczególnie we wstępnych działaniach) to Łotysze. Nie znali języka polskiego, więc trudno im się było porozumiewać z ludnością Warszawy. A o to nam szło. Nazywaliśmy ich również ''Trawniki-Männer''.<ref name="Podgórski/scribd"/></var>
|}

Trawniki personnel was also used in the August 1943 suppression of the [[Białystok Ghetto Uprising]], as well as the lesser-known [[Mizocz Ghetto]] uprising of October 1942 among similar others. In other locations, the lists compiled by the local Ukrainian ''Hilfsverwaltung'' enabled them to quickly and precisely identify their Jewish targets.<ref name="Eikel"/>

== End and post-war{{anchor|SSBS}} ==

The Trawniki training camp was dismantled in July 1944 because of the approaching frontline.<ref name="USHMM1"/> The last 1,000 ''Hiwis'' forming the ''SS Battalion Streibel'' led by [[Karl Streibel]] himself,<ref name="Hartmann">{{cite web |url=http://www.sopos.org/aufsaetze/4bdfd55e42f57/1.phtml |title=Der Alibiprozeß |publisher=Ossietzky 9/2010 |work=Den Aufsatz kommentieren |year=2010 |access-date=July 12, 2014 |author=Ralph Hartmann |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202222254/http://www.sopos.org/aufsaetze/4bdfd55e42f57/1.phtml |archive-date=December 2, 2013 }}</ref> were transported west to still functioning death camps.<ref name="USHMM1"/> The Jews of the adjacent Trawniki labor camp were massacred in November 1943 during ''[[Aktion Erntefest]]''. Their exhumed bodies were incinerated in ''[[Sonderaktion 1005]]'' by ''Sonderkommandos'' from [[Milejów, Lublin Voivodeship|Milejów]] who in turn were executed on site upon the completion of their task by the end of 1943. The Soviets entered the completely empty training facility on July 23, 1944.<ref name="USHMM1"/> After the war, the Soviet authorities arrested and prosecuted hundreds, possibly as many as one thousand ''Hiwis'' who returned home to USSR.<ref name="USHMM1"/> The more conservative number of trials given by Kudryashov is over 140 between 1944 and 1987.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Леонид Терушкин |title=Conference in Warsaw on the 70th anniversary of the Sobibor uprising |trans-title=70 лет восстанию в Собиборе, международная научная конференция в Варшаве |at=p. 7/20 in DOC format |journal=Кудряшов С. "Травники. История одного предательства." «Родина». 2007. № 12 |url=https://www.holocf.ru/Editor/assets2/Leonid%20Terushkin%20Report.doc |year=2013 |access-date=2018-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909083636/http://www.holocf.ru/Editor/assets2/Leonid%20Terushkin%20Report.doc |archive-date=2016-09-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Those brought to trial in the Soviet Union were tried before both civilian courts and military tribunals. Almost all of those tried in the Soviet Union were convicted and some were executed.<ref name="USHMM1"/> Most were sentenced to a [[Gulag]], and released under the [[Khrushchev Thaw|Khrushchev amnesty]] of 1955.<ref name=USHMM2>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007397 |title=Trawniki |publisher=[[USHMM]] |author=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=July 12, 2014 |format=ibidem}}</ref>

The number of ''Hiwis'' tried in the West was very small by comparison. Six defendants were acquitted on all charges and set free by a West German court in [[Hamburg]] in 1976 including commandant Streibel.<ref name="Hartmann"/><ref name="ushmm.org/chronology">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007394 |title=Trawniki: Chronology |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |date=May 11, 2012 |access-date=July 12, 2014 |author=USHMM}}</ref> The main difference between them and the Trawnikis apprehended in the Soviet Union was that the former claimed lack of awareness and left no live witnesses who could testify against them,<ref name="Spiegel">{{cite news | url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-very-ordinary-henchman-demjanjuk-trial-to-break-legal-ground-in-germany-a-635526-2.html | title=A Very Ordinary Henchman | publisher=Spiegel International | work=Germany > The Holocaust | date=July 10, 2009 | access-date=July 12, 2014 | author=Georg Bönisch, Jan Friedmann and Cordula Meyer}}</ref> while the latter were charged with treason and therefore were doomed from the start. In the U.S. some 16 former ''Hiwi'' guards were denaturalized.<ref name="USHMM1"/>

== Known Trawnikis having served at death camps ==

The notoriety of crimes committed by Trawnikis at the [[extermination camps]] of [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]] ''<small>{{grey|[}}Be{{grey|]}}</small>'', [[Sobibor]] ''<small>{{grey|[}}So{{grey|]}}</small>'', and [[Treblinka]] ''<small>{{grey|[}}Tr{{grey|]}}</small>'' during [[Operation Reinhard]] have led to many specific names being publicized in postwar literature and by museums of the Holocaust, based on Jewish and Polish survivor-testimonies, memoirs, and archives. The long list of at least 234 names of camp guards written out phonetically can be attributed to more than a dozen sources in which they appear.<ref name="Listing"/> They often feature arbitrary spellings in English and Polish translation (or transliteration from [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]) based on memory alone, by which the perpetrators could not be legally identified. The following are the most notable of them, confirmed by the courts, and arranged in alphabetical order.<ref name="Listing">{{cite web | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/Trawniki/TRAWNIKI%20STAFF.html | title=Trawniki Staff Page. Alphabetical Listing | publisher=H.E.A.R.T | work=Aktion Reinhard | year=2007 | access-date=8 August 2013 | author=S.J. | quote=''Source:'' Yitzhak Arad, Thomas (Toivi) Blatt, [[Alexander Donat]], Rudolf Reder, Tom Teicholz, [[Samuel Willenberg]], [[Richard Glazar]]; museums and private collections.}}</ref><ref name="D.T.N.">{{cite book | url=http://www.polacyizydzi.pl/dam-im-imie-na-wieki.pdf | title=Treblinka. Załoga obozu | publisher=Drohiczyńskie Towarzystwo Naukowe. Kuria Diecezjalna w Drohiczynie | work=Dam im imię na wieki 'Iz 56,5' (Will give them names for ever) | year=2011 | access-date=July 12, 2014 | author=[[Edward Kopówka]], Paweł Rytel-Andrianik | page=87 | isbn=978-83-7257-496-1 | format=PDF file, direct download 15.1 MB | trans-title=Treblinka concentration camp staff | quote=Archiwum Państwowe w Siedlcach (APS), ''Akta Gminy Prostyń'' (AGP), t. 104, "Budowa i odbudowa, 1946–1947". }}{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

[[File:Group of auxiliary guards at the Nazi death camp Sobibor in 1943.jpg|thumb|right|Picture of Trawniki guards at [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]], taken in 1943. Demjanjuk has been "inconclusively identified" as the guard in the middle front left.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn715033#?rsc=207981&cv=107&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-127,-1276,2515,4047|title=Sobibor perpetrator collection - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|website=collections.ushmm.org}}</ref>]]

# [[John Demjanjuk]], a Ukrainian who joined the Trawniki men and served as a guard at [[Sobibor]]. Demnjanjuk immigrated to the United States, but was deported to Israel to stand trial as [[Ivan the Terrible (Treblinka guard)|"Ivan the Terrible"]] in 1986. Demjanjuk was found guilty and sentenced to [[Capital Punishment|death]], but his conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court after new evidence cast doubt on the identity of Demjanjuk as "Ivan the Terrible". In 2009, Demjanjuk was deported to Germany where he was convicted in 2011 for having been a guard at Sobibor.<ref name= "Matussek">{{cite news |last= Matussek | first=Karin |title=Demjanjuk convicted of helping Nazis to murder Jews during the Holocaust |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-12/demjanjuk-convicted-of-helping-nazis-to-murder-jews-during-the-holocaust.html |access-date=12 May 2011 |publisher=Bloomberg |date=12 May 2011}}</ref>
# [[Feodor Fedorenko|Fedor Federenko]] (Fedorenko) ''<small>{{grey|[}}Tr{{grey|]}}</small>'', the Soviet POW recruited from ''Stalag 319'' at [[Chełm]], guard at the Jewish [[Lublin Ghetto|ghetto in Lublin]], sent to Warsaw and to Treblinka death camp in September 1942. After the war Federenko settled in the US; he was extradited to the Soviet Union in December 1984. He was found guilty of treason, sentenced to death, and executed in 1987.<ref name="D.T.N." />
# [[Josias Kumpf]], a Yugoslav ''[[Volksdeutsche|Volksdeutscher]]'' who took part in the murderous ''[[Operation Harvest Festival|Aktion Erntefest]]'' at Trawniki, stripped of his US citizenship in 2005 and deported to Austria in March 2009. Escaped responsibility due to [[statute of limitations]] in that country.<ref>US Department of Justice. [http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/pr/press_releases/2008/06/06-16-08kumpf.pdf Press release; case of Josias Kumpf]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }} (PDF), 16 June 2008.</ref>
# Samuel Kunz ''<small>{{grey|[}}Be{{grey|]}}</small>'', former Soviet [[prisoner of war|POW]] trained at Trawniki, charged in Bonn, Germany in July 2010 with being a Belzec camp guard.<ref>BBC (July 29, 2010) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10806506 German Nazi suspect Samuel Kunz.]</ref> Kunz died in November 2010 before his trial.<ref>BBC (November 22, 2010) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11808994 German Nazi suspect Samuel Kunz dies ahead of trial.]</ref>
# [[List of denaturalized former citizens of the United States|Wasyl Lytwyn]] born 1921; ordered to be deported from the United States in December 1995; repatriated to Ukraine.
# [[List of denaturalized former citizens of the United States|Ivan Mandycz]] born 1920; came to US in 1955; ordered deported 2005; Not deported because of age; died 2017
# [[Ivan the Terrible (Treblinka guard)|Ivan Ivanovych Marchenko]] ''<small>{{grey|[}}Tr{{grey|]}}</small>'' in the Red Army since 1941, brought to Trawniki from POW camp in Chełm, a guard at the Jewish ghetto in Lublin and in Treblinka together with [[Nikolay Shalayev]] who was tasked with forcing Jews into the gas chambers; the "motorists" cranking up the gas engine when asked to "turn on the water", called by the Jews "Ivan the Terrible" (Ivan Grozny), Marchenko exhibited special savagery during the killing process; photographed with Ivan Tkachuk at Treblinka. In 1943 he was transferred to Trieste, and in 1944 fled to Yugoslavia. Fate unknown, never tried.<ref name="Procknow"/>
# [[Jakiw Palij]], (August 16, 1923- January 10, 2019) a ''Hiwi'' guard who was deported in the U.S. in 1949 and claimed to have worked on his father's farm, was stripped of his [[United States citizen]]ship for having ''"made material misrepresentations in his application for a visa to immigrate to the United States"''.<ref name="Obituary"/><ref>{{cite news |last=Kilgannon |first=Corey |title=Accused Nazi Guard Speaks Out, Denying He Had Role in Atrocities |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/nyregion/accused-nazi-guard-speaks-out-denying-he-had-role-in-atrocities.html?scp=1&sq=Jakiw%20Palij&st=cse |access-date=July 12, 2014 |newspaper=New York Times |date=November 1, 2003}}</ref><ref name="ukranejew">[http://www.umoloda.kiev.ua/number/202/116/7174 Report on Palij (in Ukrainian)] "Яків Палій." Україна Молода, June 17, 2004. Retrieved July 12, 2014.</ref> Deported from United States on 21 August 2018 at the age of 95.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-26-mn-11099-story.html|title=Demjanjuk Trial Resumes With Testimony on KGB Forgeries|date=1987-10-26|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> He later died on January 10, 2019, at the age of 95.<ref name= "Obituary">{{Cite news|title=Last Known WWII Nazi Living In U.S., Deported To Germany Last Year, Is Dead at 95|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/01/11/684324935/last-wwii-nazi-living-in-us-deported-to-germany-last-year-is-dead-at-95|last=Schwartz|first=Matthew|date=January 11, 2019|work=[[NPR]]}}</ref>
# [[Jakob Reimer]] a.k.a. Jack Reimer, a ''Hiwi'' guard at [[Trawniki concentration camp|Trawniki]] in 1944. Denaturalized in 2002; died in 2005 before he could be deported from the United States to Germany.<ref>Benjamin Weiser (September 6, 2002). [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/06/nyregion/judge-revokes-citizenship-of-man-linked-to-nazi-war-crimes.html?scp=4&sq=Jack+Reimer&st=nyt "Judge Revokes Citizenship of Man Linked to Nazi War Crimes".] The New York Times. ''Also in:'' Barry, Dan (September 17, 2005). [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/nyregion/17about.html?scp=1&sq=Jack+Reimer&st=nyt "A Face Seen and Unseen on the Subway".] The New York Times.</ref><ref>[http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7249&start=0 Axis history Forum]</ref>
# [[Nikolay Shalayev]], a ''Hilfswilliger'' guard serving at [[Treblinka extermination camp]]. He was one of two Ukrainian guards (along with Ivan Marchenko) in charge of the motor that produced the exhaust fumes which were fed through pipes into the gas chambers during the killing process. Tried by the Soviets after the war for treason and sentenced to death.<ref name="ARC2">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/hiwis.html |title=Volunteer Auxiliaries |publisher=ARC |date=May 6, 2005 |access-date=March 12, 2021 |author=Aktion Reinhard Camps |at=(see: Nikolay Shalayev)}}</ref>
# [[Vladas Zajančkauskas]], a ''Hiwi'' shooter deployed to participate in the annihilation of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]]; had his U.S. citizenship revoked in 2005 at the age of 90; at the time he was reported to be 95, but he was born in 1915.<ref name="Zajanckauskas">{{cite web |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1531166.html |title=Vladas Zajanckauskas |publisher=United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit |work=Petitioner |date=July 13, 2010 |access-date=July 12, 2014 |author=Circuit Judge}}</ref> Died 2013, aged 97.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== References ==

* {{citation |last=Browning |first=Christopher R. |author-link=Christopher Browning |orig-year=1992 |year=1998 |title=Arrival in Poland |publisher=Penguin Books |work=Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland |access-date=May 1, 2013 |pages=1–298 |format=PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019043400/http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf |archive-date=19 October 2013  |url=http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf }}
* {{cite book |author-link=Daniel Goldhagen |first=Daniel Jonah |last=Goldhagen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oO-96IwWw1cC&q=Battalion+101 |title=Hitler's Willing Executioners, Ordinary Germans and Holocaust |publisher=Random House, New York |orig-year=1997|year=2007 |format=Google Books preview |pages=203, 232–233 |isbn=978-0307426239 }}
* Kudryashov, Sergei, "Ordinary Collaborators: The Case of the Travniki Guards," in Mark and Ljubica Erickson (eds), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xM9wQgAACAAJ Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy Essays in Honour of John Erickson]'' (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), 226–239. {{ISBN|0297849131}}.
* Witold Mędykowski, "Obóz pracy dla Żydów w Trawnikach," in Wojciech Lenarczyk, Dariusz Libionka (eds.), ''Erntefest 3–4 listopada 1943. Zapomniany epizod Zagłady'' (Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku, 2009), 183–210. {{ISBN|9788392518754}}.
* {{cite journal |last= Steinhart |first= Eric C. |title= The Chameleon of Trawniki: Jack Reimer, Soviet ''Volksdeutsche'', and the Holocaust |pages= 239–262 |journal=[[Holocaust and Genocide Studies]] |volume= 23 |number= 2 |year= 2009 |doi= 10.1093/hgs/dcp032 |via=Project MUSE 90 |url= http://muse.jhu.edu/article/315456 |access-date=31 January 2021}} [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/holocaust_and_genocide_studies/v023/23.2.steinhart.html article Project MUSE 90 (abstract and for-pay access)]

{{Coord|51.139267|22.993140|display=title|format=dms|region:PL_type:landmark}}

{{SS organizations}}

{{Holocaust Poland}}

{{The Holocaust}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trawniki Concentration Camp}}

[[Category:Trawniki concentration camp| ]]
[[Category:1941 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:1941 establishments in Poland]]
[[Category:1942 in Poland]]
[[Category:1943 disestablishments]]
[[Category:1943 in Poland]]
[[Category:The Holocaust]]
[[Category:Collaborators with Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]