Distributing bread in the Dulag 121 transit camp (photo: National Digital Archives) After two days of horrific massacres in Wola, the SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski appeared in the district. He issued an order: from then on, only men were to be killed, while women and children were sent to the camp in Pruszków. He decided that this was the best solution, as mass murders were hindering the suppression of the uprising.
Dulag 121 Transit Camp The dramatic exodus of Warsaw residents began from Wola: the main direction of the journey through torment was first Pruszków, specifically the Dulag 121 transit camp, from where they were then transported to Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and forced labor sites. At least five hundred thousand people passed through the camp.
To the exiled Warsaw residents—traumatized, exhausted to the limit, and hungry—help was provided by the kitchen staff of the Central Welfare Council, the Red Cross, local residents as much as possible, and many nuns from several orders. Among them, the Benedictine Samaritans played an important role. Paradoxically, the Benedictine Samaritans were both among those helping and those imprisoned in Dulag 121. They had come from St. Lazarus Hospital, but also from the so-called St. Helena’s Hostel, located at Barska Street 16. From this home for rehabilitated women, likely run by Sister Immaculata Rudnik, the sisters miraculously managed to escape with their lives, as the place was being pacified by the enemy.
After the building was burned down, the Germans drove the Samaritans to Pruszków. And it was precisely there, in the immediate vicinity of Durchgangslager 121, Dulag 121, that the Samaritan centers operated. During the Warsaw Uprising, both the boys' and girls' facilities were not overcrowded because it was summer vacation. Therefore, there was space for those in need. And the Samaritans from both homes immediately got involved in helping the displaced in Pruszków.
"The risk was always there. Nevertheless, we took the risk because it was a matter of saving lives, of releasing or transporting young people out of the camp," recalled Sister Charitas Soczek, who, along with her fellow sisters and nuns from other orders, saved hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people from being deported to death camps more than twenty years after the war.
The camp for the expelled residents of the capital was established in Pruszków in the first days of August 1944. And on August 6, the first transport of people who needed to be fed, treated for wounds, and cared for arrived. Dulag 121 was established on the premises of the Railway Repair Works. It consisted of several barracks. In the first, the elderly, mothers with children, and unaccompanied children were held. The second barrack was designated for the sick. Polish doctors and nurses, as well as nuns: Samaritans, Immaculata Sisters, Magdalene Sisters, Ursuline Sisters, and Grey Sisters, as well as probably a few other nuns, served there. From the fourth and fifth barracks, people were directly sent to concentration camps and to work in Germany. In the largest hall of the fifth barrack, people were sorted.
Smuggling Young People The barracks were tightly fenced and guarded. To move from one to another, a special pass was required. The Samaritans were granted permission to work among the detainees. Sister Charitas Eugenia Soczek, who had experience in underground work during the occupation when she saved Jews and collaborated with Żegota, was employed in the camp as a nurse. She stayed overnight at the convent to work in Dulag from dawn to dusk. She was supported by Sister Wacława Helena Rawska and Eugenia Szymańska, a Jew hiding from the Germans, disguised as a novice, who was fluent in German. The sisters had special IDs and armbands. Officially, they worked in the second barrack, where the sick were, among Polish doctors, nurses, but there was also Dr. Adolf Köning—a German who could sign the lists of those released from the camp. Sister Charitas cleverly used this many times.
When new transports from Warsaw arrived, the Samaritans stood by the gate and tried to move as many people as possible from the fifth to the first and second barracks before the selection process. Then, they ingeniously smuggled young people from the fifth and sixth barracks to the "two." By doing so, they saved them from being deported to extermination camps.
"One never knew where the ideas came from on how to make young people look old, or the healthy appear sick. We led these transformed individuals from barrack to barrack in Pruszków, handing them over to nuns or doctors and women with Red Cross armbands—paramedics," wrote Sister Charitas years later.
Hiding Places for Those Rescued On some days, there was an opportunity to take babies out of the camp. So the sisters legally took out the little ones who had a better chance of survival outside the camp. But they also used this chance to save older children. They wrapped toddlers (!) in blankets, explaining to the children beforehand not to cry or say anything. They carried the children out with their legs tucked in and handed them over to safe hands. The Samaritans also carried rosaries and medicines for those who requested them. They also delivered baskets of bread and cigarettes. Such risky operations required caution, knowledge, and experience. The sisters always had to know who was on guard duty. It was easier to arrange an illegal exit with Wehrmacht soldiers, harder with SS men. However, most Germans—tired of the war and sensing their defeat—could be bribed: they accepted vodka and pieces of jewelry.
The Samaritans prepared ingenious hiding places for those they were rescuing: in barrels, under wagons, in every possible nook and cranny, they "stashed" people to later help them blend into the crowd and escape. Sister Wacława, in particular, became famous for her cleverness in these operations, with her good intuition and ideas for creating ever-new hiding places.
"The risk was enormous because the Germans thoroughly checked the emptied barrack. Once, I almost paid the price for such help by being sent to a concentration camp," recalled Sister Charitas.
Sister Charitas also wrote: "As a camp worker, I was treated with elaborate courtesy. I often encountered these contrasts among the Germans: elaborate politeness and brutality. I remember an incident, seemingly minor but very characteristic. It was after the fall of the Old Town. Through the Piast gate, a huge crowd poured into the camp. We stood there, petrified with pain at the sight of these witnesses of defeat. They barely walked, dragging themselves along, many being supported by their companions, burned, horrific. The invaluable Mr. Hozer sent tomatoes. We stood by large baskets, hastily brought from the kitchen, and began distributing the red fruits. Thin hands reached out in a motion that made one want to cry. People from cellars, sewers, people who hadn't seen greenery or food for a long time. At that moment, an SS man jumped at us in a fury. How dare we distribute tomatoes? He could see that the tomatoes were unwashed. Hadn't we heard about the existence of bacteria? How could we risk causing an epidemic by giving people unwashed tomatoes? Away with the baskets! There could be no protests. The outstretched hands fell, the stunned crowd moved on to the assigned barracks to immediately collapse onto the concrete floor and rest."
The "Mr. Hozer" mentioned by the sister is Piotr Hoser, a well-known gardener, co-founder of the Hoser Brothers Horticultural Company. He was the first cousin of Archbishop Henryk Hoser's father.
*Excerpts from the book "Sisters of the Uprising: Unknown Stories of Women Fighting for Warsaw" by Agata Puścikowska.
**Subheadings provided by the editors.
