In the psychiatric ward Kocborowo (German: Konradstein) in Starogard Gdański (German: Preußisch Stargard ) a memorial stone and a plaque remember patients who were murdered by the National Socialists from September 1939.
Preußisch Stargard, previously Starogard, became part of Prussia after the First Partition of Poland in 1772. After World War I. the town became Polish again and was located in the so-called corridor, separating the German province East Prussia from the German Reich. Since the end of the 19th century a psychiatric ward was located on a spacious grounds in the borough of Kocborowo (German: Konradstein). Shortly before the war the institution with its 2,100 patients was the biggest of its kind in Poland.
Within days of the attack on Poland the German Wehrmacht took Starogard. As anywhere in the »corridor« German authorities started breaking the Polish influence by force. SS units and ethnic Germans of the »Selbstschutz« carried out shootings of thousands of civilians in the occupied territories as part of the »Intelligenzaktion« to eliminate the Polish state and to »Germanise« the region. The patients of psychiatric wards were deemed to be »useless eaters«, whole institutions were made empty by murder in a short time. Between September 22, 1939 and the end of January 1940 the SS murdered 1,692 patients of Kocborowo as well as the hospital's Polish executives in the nearby forest of Szpęgawsk (German: Spengawsken). After January 1940 the killing continued using different methods. Many were left to die of starvation. In July 1940 510 patients were taken to Pirna-Sonnenstein in Saxony, where a killing centre of the National Socialist's »euthanasia« campaign was located. There the women and men were killed in gas chambers. Afterwards at least 500 German children classified as mentally ill, so-called Reichsausschusskinder (Reich Committee children), have probably been killed in the institution.
Within days of the attack on Poland the German Wehrmacht took Starogard. As anywhere in the »corridor« German authorities started breaking the Polish influence by force. SS units and ethnic Germans of the »Selbstschutz« carried out shootings of thousands of civilians in the occupied territories as part of the »Intelligenzaktion« to eliminate the Polish state and to »Germanise« the region. The patients of psychiatric wards were deemed to be »useless eaters«, whole institutions were made empty by murder in a short time. Between September 22, 1939 and the end of January 1940 the SS murdered 1,692 patients of Kocborowo as well as the hospital's Polish executives in the nearby forest of Szpęgawsk (German: Spengawsken). After January 1940 the killing continued using different methods. Many were left to die of starvation. In July 1940 510 patients were taken to Pirna-Sonnenstein in Saxony, where a killing centre of the National Socialist's »euthanasia« campaign was located. There the women and men were killed in gas chambers. Afterwards at least 500 German children classified as mentally ill, so-called Reichsausschusskinder (Reich Committee children), have probably been killed in the institution.
According to Polish accounts the SS shot 1,692 patients from the Kocborowo hospital, including 838 women and 854 men in a forest near Szpęgawsk (German: Spengawsken). 510 patients from the hospital were killed in the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre. On top of that there is an unknown number of patients who died in the institution itself, either killed by malnutrition or the administration of poison. Among the victims are Polish physicians and nursing staff, including the institution's pre-war director Dr. Józef Kopicz.
The psychiatric ward still exists and is one the the biggest of its kind in Poland. In 1949 a plaque was mounted in the main building, remembering the 2,203 »patients murdered by the barbaric Nazis in hospitals, prisons and in the forests of Szpęgawsk« as well as hundreds of murdered children and individually listed murdered staff.
In the context of the International Year of the Child Polish boy scouts erected a memorial stone, remembering the hundreds of children who were murdered as Reichsausschusskinder (Reich Committee children) in the institution. A huge memorial complex was built in the forest of Szpęgawsk, where the majority of the patients and thousands of other Polish civilians had been shot.
In the context of the International Year of the Child Polish boy scouts erected a memorial stone, remembering the hundreds of children who were murdered as Reichsausschusskinder (Reich Committee children) in the institution. A huge memorial complex was built in the forest of Szpęgawsk, where the majority of the patients and thousands of other Polish civilians had been shot.
- Name
- Pamięć pomordowanych pacjentów zakładu psychiatrycznego w Kocborowie
- Address
-
ul. Skarszewska 7
83-200 Starogard Gdański - Phone
- +48 (0)58 56 20 600
- Fax
- +48 (0)58 56 23 650
- Web
- http://www.kocborowo.pl/
- szpital@kocborowo.pl
- Open
- The memorial stone in the hospital's park is accessible at all times.