Skip to main content

Delousing—Naked in Litzmannstadt (Łódź), 1943-44

She was only six, but my mother Kathe Bräul’s most vivid recollections of the trek out of Molotschna in 1943 are the lice-infested barns that they slept in—an experience shared by thousands of Mennonites. Katie Friesen recalled how her mother and friends tried to sleep sitting on pails with their skirts pulled up “so that the parasites at least could not crawl up on them” (note 1). “We were full of lice, in our hair and up and down the seams of all our clothes,” a slightly older neighbour in Marienthal—Albert Dahl—recalled when my mother and I met him for coffee a few years ago.

There were many indignities suffered by those evacuated from Ukraine, and lice are part of that story. But so is the memory of public nakedness when they were deloused upon entry into “Greater Germany” at Litzmannstadt (Lodz). All were required to be disinfected and deloused in large facilities outside the city at the rail junction in Görnau (Zgierz) or Pobianitze. About 1,600 persons could be deloused in those facilities in one day (note 2). "That was no fun either, but very necessary to prevent diseases” (note 3).

Katie Friesen recalls how “males and females were put in separate rooms and then put through the cleaning ritual” while their clothes were taken elsewhere to be disinfected (note 4). Mennonite modesty kept her from noting further details.“ Now in her old age, my mother has told me multiple times how embarrassed she was seeing her mother and all the other Mennonite women naked as steam came from ceiling vents.

Margaret Siemens Braun (b. 1930) of Neuendorf had similar recollections and feelings.

"We had to go through a big room where they put us all in, and deloused us. You had to take your clothes off: babies, pregnant women, everyone, all in the same room! I thought it was the most terrible thing. They had us all in there, and they sprayed us, and the clothes did go into an oven. How we found our clothes, I don't remember, but they brought the clothes back, and they were baked." (Note 5)

In her memoir Helene Dueck offers further details:

“We were led into large rooms where men and women were separated. Little boys under six went with the women and the older boys with the men. In one large room we all had to undress. The clothes were labelled and brought away to be deloused. We ourselves entered a huge bathroom with dozens of showers and long rows of benches. Here we had to wait for hours and sit naked on the cold benches. How embarrassing that was! Most of us had never been to the beach and had never worn a bathing suit, and here were hundreds of naked women with their children, exposed to every eye. The workers, men and women, were walking around. We could have sunk into the earth [with embarrassment].

Workers went from woman to woman powdering their hair, which was washed in troughs after a long wait. The water had a pungent smell. Then we got into the shower, and after a long wait, we stood in long lines again, still without clothes, to get a stamp on our left arm. The dark blue stamp clearly said CLEAN, and with that we were now ready to live in the Reich. In the other room we found our clothes, which had been dry cleaned and were barely recognizable. They were wrinkled and had lost their colours. We had to wear them because we had no others. We were told that all this was necessary to avoid disease. Everyone who came from the East had to go through the delousing camp." (Note 6)

One report confirms that they received the stamp “REIN” (clean) on their “left wrist,” but the official complained that it is easily washed off, “especially by the women” (note 7). In another report it is noted that resettlers bathed with a 5% cresol soap formula and washed hair with sabadilla vinegar (note 8).

Connie Braun tells her father’s account and adds that the men and the boys had their heads shaved and that the girls had their braids “snipped off if necessary” (note 9).

Isaac Reimer—a former mayor of Einlage and Novo-Zaporizhzhia under German occupation—is most graphic in his recollection:

“We entered Poland, Warthegau, and stopped at the Pobianitze station [near Litzmannstadt]. Here the whole transport was first bathed and deloused. During the bathing in the large bathing room, the women in charge of the transports stood on the balcony in the bathing room and looked at the naked men. Little attention was paid to the old, weak men, but more to the young, strong men. If such a man was discovered, he was thoroughly looked over, one of them alerted the other women to him, even pointing her finger at him, and he was then admired and complimented.

With the women vice versa, there the men stood and looked at the women while bathing and passing by. Liese Jäger, who was never at a loss for words, said to them: ‘Well, have you looked at me enough from the front?’ Then she turned around, bent down, and said: ‘Now look at me from behind, too.’ After delousing the women had to spend the night in their railroad car and the men were allowed back into theirs.” (Note 10)

After delousing another Marienthal child remembered that when their clothes were finally returned they “were treated to a hot milk soup with a slice of bread. That felt great” (note 11). Helene Dueck was a little older and remembered above all her exhaustion:

“We were now led into a huge room where thousands of refugees had already bedded down for the night. Exhausted, we lay down on the straw bed that had been assigned to us and waited for dinner. Finally it came. A big piece of bread with jam and a piece of sausage. I ate it very slowly to keep the taste in my mouth longer. Then I fell asleep and slept well, even though the lights were on all night, children were crying and there was a constant coming and going.” (Note 12)

After leaving Litzmannstadt and arriving at their resettler camps, a second delousing would occur. A medical officer for the camps in the District of Schieratz reported to the Governing President of the City of Litzmannstadt that when delousing locally, he personally “had to ensure that women were not deloused by men and that the appropriate separation was observed. I found little understanding for this. The transport leader told me that other Black Sea Germans had complained bitterly that their women had been deloused by soldiers in Litzmannstadt” (note 13).

It is difficult not to contrast the Mennonite experience of delousing and nakedness in Nazi Germany and that of the Jews of Warthegau sent naked into showers which were gas chambers.

As Nazi Germany was cleansing and resettling its “chosen people” from the east for a new “blond province” in Wartheland (as Himmler once directed; note 14), the historical “chosen people” had a very different fate, of which previous posts have touched upon (note 15).

In 1942 Himmler had visited Mennonites in Halbstadt and then two months later over New Years met with Prof. Benjamin H. Unruh, their representative in Germany. “I have been in Ukraine [October 1942] and I have observed the people there for myself. Your Mennonites are the best,” Himmler told Unruh (note 16). Himmler's criteria of value were racial purity, racial prowess and racial fecundity. And when he addressed ethnic Germans in Halbstadt, Himmler promised his Mennonite hearers that they would be compensated according to their assets as of August 1, 1914—a promise they would cling to and repeat to officials as they entered Warthegau (note 17).

Mennonites remained a favoured and desired resettler group for officials in Litzmannstadt as well (note 18). Though humiliated in this initiation process, they were now clean, lice-free and soon ready to contribute as settlers in the strange new world of the Greater German Reich.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Sampler delousing photos from WW1 from Thomas Edelman, “Wen juckt’s?,” https://blog.hgm.at/2021/03/15/wen-juckts/. Lodsch/Litzmannstadt EWZ photo above from Bundesarchiv Bild 146/74/79/73.

Note 1: Katie Friesen, Into the Unknown (Steinbach, MB: Self-published, 1986), 67.

Note 2: Medical Officer for the State Health Office of the District of Schieratz (Warthegau) to the Governing President of the City of Litzmannstadt, February 4, 1944, regarding the field report on the deployment of Black Sea Germans, February 4, 1944. In Unterbringung der Schwarzmeerdeutsche, SAP-53/299/0, series 2.2, file 1978, Blatt 95, https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/de/jednostka/-/jednostka/1049367. See also Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, Lodz (Paderborn: Brill-Schöningh, 2022), 192. On entering Litzmannstadt, see related post: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/03/litzmanstadt-odz-entering-reich-1943-44.html.

Note 3: Martha Cornies, “Auf der Flucht,” Mennonitische Rundschau 93, no. 15 (April 15, 1970), 14, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1970-04-15_93_15/page/14/mode/2up.

Note 4: Friesen, Into the Unknown, 73.

Note 5: George Braun and Margaret Siemens Braun, Follow the Black Lines, p. 55 (courtesy of Dave Loewen).

Note 6: Helen Dueck, Durch Trübsal und Not (Winnipeg, MB: Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 1995), 79f., https://archive.org/details/durch-truebsal-und-not/mode/2up.

Note 7: N.N. (Lodsch) to SS-Sturmbannführer Sandberger, letter, December 26, 1939, Bundesarchiv R69/69, Blatt 2, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/6692a3a8-098c-440e-9d11-a42035ff6755/.

Note 8: February 3, 1944, Gesundheitsamt Kreises Schrimm (Warthegau), Blatt 59, slide 64, Unterbringung der Schwarzmeerdeutsche (see note 2).

Note 9: Connie Braun, The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia: A Mennonite Memoir (Vancouver, BC: Ronsdale Press, 2014), 136, https://archive.org/details/steppesarecolour0000brau/. 

Note 10: In Heinrich Bergen, ed., Einlage/ Kitschkas, 1789–1943: Ein Denkmal (Regina, SK: Self-published, 2008), 389.

Note 11: Selma Kornelsen Hooge and Anna Goossen Kornelsen, Life Before Canada (Abbotsford, BC: Self-published, 2018), 70.

Note 12: Dueck, Durch Trübsal und Not, 80.

Note 13: Medical Officer for District of Schieratz to the Governing President of Litzmannstadt, February 4, 1944, Unterbringung der Schwarzmeerdeutsche (see note 2).

Note 14: Chef des Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamtes-SS Günther Pancke to Himmler, December 20, 1939, letter, Bundesarchiv NS 2/60, Blatt 4, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/d90b9bc3-f8d2-441d-af46-36a23b3a5d11/; also reported by SS-Sturmbannführer Künzel, December 12, 1939, Blatt 16. In this context Künzel quotes Hitler extensively on racial value from his Mein Kampf (1931, pp. 448f.). On delousing and the concentration camps, see Himmler’s handwritten discussion point no. 7 with Oswald Pohl, December 5, 1939 in Lodz/Litzmannstadt, where he first discusses the idea of a “crematorium with a delousing installation.” In Bundesarchiv NS 19/1449, Blatt 16, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/5e0c3166-d1fa-4a25-8629-db0f7cd7b477/. Pohl was the Chief of the Main Bureau for Budget and Construction, and would later control 20 SS-run concentration and labour camps.

Note 15: See previous posts, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-small-town-near-auschwitz-chortitza.html; AND https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/10/eugenics-and-euthanasia-russian.html (other links forthcoming).

Note 16: Cited in Diether Götz Lichdi, Mennoniten im Dritten Reich. Dokumentation und Deutung (Weierhof/Pfalz: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1977), 140f. https://archive.org/details/mennonitenimdrit0000lich/.

Note 17: Horst Hoffmeyer, “Die Lage der Rußlanddeutschen im Warthegau” 1944, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, T-175, film 72, 2588975-983, 975.

Note 18: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/08/mennonites-highly-attractive-and.html. Also see Andreas Strippel, NS Volkstumspolitik und die Neuordnung Europas: Rassenpolitische Selektion der Einwandererzentralstelle des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (1939–1945) (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2011).

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Delousing--Naked in Litzmannstadt (Lodz), 1943-44," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 3, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/11/delousingnaked-in-litzmannstadt-odz.html.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of Schardau (and other Molotschna villages), 1941

My grandmother was four-years old when her parents moved from Petershagen, Molotschna to Schardau in 1908. This story is larger than that of Schardau, but tells how this village and many others in Molotschna were evacuated by Stalin days before the arrival of German troops in 1941. -ANF The bridge across the Dnieper at Chortitza was destroyed by retreating Soviet troops on August 18, 1941 and the hydroelectric dam completed near Einlage in 1932 was also dynamited by NKVD personnel—killing at least 20,000 locals downstream, and forcing the Germans to cross further south at Nikopol. For the next six-and-a-half weeks, the old Mennonite settlement area of Chortitza was continuously shelled by Soviet troops from Zaporozhje on the east side of the river ( note 1 ). The majority of Russian Germans in Crimea and Ukraine paid dearly for Germany’s Blitzkrieg and plans for racially-based population resettlements. As early as August 3, 1941, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Forces received noti...
Post a Comment
Read more

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

On Becoming the Quiet in the Land

They are fair questions: “What happened to the firebrands of the Reformation? How did the movement become so withdrawn--even "dour and unexciting,” according to one historian? Mennonites originally referred to themselves as the “quiet in the land” in contrast to the militant--definitely more exciting--militant revolutionaries of Münster ( note 1 ), and identification with Psalm 35:19f.: “Let not my enemies gloat over me … For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.” How did Mennonites become the “quiet in the land” in Royal Prussia? Minority non-citizen groups in Poland like Jews, Scots, Huguenots or the much smaller body of Mennonites did not enjoy full political or economic rights as citizens. Ecclesial and civil laws left linguistic or religious minorities vulnerable to extortion. Such groups sought to negotiate a Privilegium or charter with the king, which set out a legal basis for some protections of life an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sesquicentennial: Proclamation of Universal Military Service Manifesto, January 1, 1874

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago Tsar Alexander II proclaimed a new universal military service requirement into law, which—despite the promises of his predecesors—included Russia’s Mennonites. This act fundamentally changed the course of the Russian Mennonite story, and resulted in the emigration of some 17,000 Mennonites. The Russian government’s intentions in this regard were first reported in newspapers in November 1870 ( note 1 ) and later confirmed by Senator Evgenii von Hahn, former President of the Guardianship Committee ( note 2 ). Some Russian Mennonite leaders were soon corresponding with American counterparts on the possibility of mass migration ( note 3 ). Despite painful internal differences in the Mennonite community, between 1871 and Fall 1873 they put up a united front with five joint delegations to St. Petersburg and Yalta to petition for a Mennonite exemption. While the delegations were well received and some options could be discussed with ministers of the Crown, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2  is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...
Post a Comment
Read more

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws.  It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

School Reports, 1890s

Mennonite memoirs typically paint a golden picture of schools in the so-called “golden era” of Mennonite life in Russia. The official “Reports on Molotschna Schools: 1895/96 and 1897/98,” however, give us a more lackluster and realistic picture ( note 1 ). What do we learn from these reports? Many schools had minor infractions—the furniture did not correspond to requirements, there were insufficient book cabinets, or the desks and benches were too old and in need of repair. The Mennonite schoolhouses in Halbstadt and Rudnerweide—once recognized as leading and exceptional—together with schools in Friedensruh, Fürstenwerder, Franzthal, and Blumstein were deemed to be “in an unsatisfactory state.” In other cases a new roof and new steps were needed, or the rooms too were too small, too dark, too cramped, or with moist walls. More seriously in some villages—Waldheim, Schönsee, Fabrikerwiese, and even Gnadenfeld, well-known for its educational past—inspectors recorded that pupils “do not ...
Post a Comment
Read more