With military ceremonies - burial of the remains of the victims of the Łódź camp

With military ceremony

After the Holy Mass, led by the Bishop of the Archdiocese of Łódź, Piotr Kleszcz, a speech by the President of the Republic of Poland is planned, and then the funeral procession will go to the burial place at the cemetery at ul. Chickens, where funeral services will be held according to military ceremonies.

Children's remains found

The children's remains were collected during four-stage exhumation works conducted by the Institute of National Remembrance's Search and Identification Office in 2023–2024. As a result of the research carried out, so far the genetic identification of two boys has been obtained: Zdzisław Kafarski and Henryk Słaboszewski.

Based on historical research, preserved documentation and anthropological opinions, it was established that the remaining remains of the children most likely belonged to: Edmund Agaciński, Tadeusz Kalbarczyk, Zygmunt Olejniczak, Jan Frej, Henryk Kadziński and Edward Gąsiorek. Despite the genetic analyses, it was not possible to confirm the identity of the searched people, which was due to the poor preservation of DNA in the remains. The research work of the Institute of National Remembrance is still ongoing.

Children's camp in Łódź

The Preventive Security Police Camp for Polish Youth in Łódź (Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt) operated from December 1, 1942 to January 1945. It was established in an area separated from the Łódź ghetto and was managed by the German criminal police. It was located at Przemysłowa, Emilii Plater and Górnicza streets. The main reason for placing the child in the camp was Polish nationality and any form of opposition or "non-adaptation" to the rules imposed by the occupier.

In the camp, children worked hard for several hours. Boys most often straightened weaving needles or weaved wicker mats. Girls, on the other hand, were engaged in tailoring work, for example. Some of the children did not survive their stay in the camp. The causes of their deaths were starvation food rations, excessive work, terrible sanitary conditions and brutal treatment of juvenile prisoners.

Thousands of children in the camp

2-3 thousand people passed through the camp. Polish children. It was possible to identify 77 victims of the camp at ul. by name and surname. Industrial. They were established on the basis of the burial book preserved in the office of the cemetery of St. Wojciech in Łódź, where the bodies of small prisoners were buried.

In the post-war period, a housing estate and a park were built on the site of the former camp. Gray Ranks. In 1971, the Children's Broken Heart Martyrdom Monument was unveiled there.

In 2023, at the cemetery of St. Wojciech, the Monument to the Memory of Polish Children was unveiled. It is located near the cemetery chapel, in the immediate vicinity of the actual burial place of children from the camp at ul. Industrial.

National Day of Polish War Children