In
1967, when the Polish Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes opened
an investigation into the SS training camp and work camp for Jewish prisoners in
Trawniki, one of the witnesses to be interrogated was
Eugenius Maytchenko. During the investigation, the prosecutor reviewed the files of
Maytchenko, who had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment in
1952 in Poland because
he had been one of the guards who were trained in the
SS-Ausbildungslager
Trawniki.
Maytchenko is a good example of a person who served two regimes. In
1939 he lived in
Chelm Lubelski, only about 50 km from
Trawniki.
At the beginning of the German occupation, his mother and two sisters declared themselves
to be Ukrainians. His father wanted to be recognized as a Pole and refused to take a
Ukrainian ID-card. Maytchenko's mother owned a bar, which during the war had the
category "
Nur für Deutsche" ("Only for Germans"). During Maytchenko's
trial in
1952, witnesses from
Chelm stated
openly that the entire family,
other than the father, collaborated with the Germans and were very hostile towards Poles.
Maytchenko himself stated in his evidence that he had never been nor felt himself a
Ukrainian:
"
I did not take Ukrainian nationality, I was a Pole and I wrote this
nationality in my ID-card from the Trawniki training camp."
In
1943 (in fact probably in
1942) Maytchenko was a
pupil at a secondary technical school in
Chelm:
"
In 1943, whilst still at school, I was taken by the Germans, together
with my colleagues, and we were sent to the camp at Trawniki. After a medical
examination some of us were sent to assist the German armed forces, mainly the air force,
and others were left at Trawniki for guard duty in the camp. We, who were left in
Trawniki, signed a questionnaire in which we declared ourselves volunteers."
This information can be regarded as providing positive evidence that Maytchenko could
not have been regarded as being a Pole at the time he was taken to
Trawniki. There was a group of people whom witnesses described as Poles in
Trawniki (about 30 people identified themselves as Poles, but did so only after
the war). As a pupil of a secondary school, Maytchenko was sent directly to
Trawniki, where there was a recruitment of personnel for duty supplementing the German
armed forces. None of Maytchenko's colleagues was sent to Germany for slave labour –
they joined the
SS-Wachmannschaft in
Trawniki
or were enlisted as auxiliary units serving with the
Luftwaffe (air-force). In contrast,
none of the Polish pupils from secondary schools were enlisted as
Wehrmacht auxiliaries.
Many of them who were arrested after their school lessons in
Lublin or in
Chelm
were deported to
Germany for slave labour. Only Ukrainians had the chance not to be deported but instead
could join the
SS-Wachmannschaf in
Trawniki.
Among them was Maytchenko.
During his
1952 trial, in trying to defend himself, Maytchenko declared that he joined the
SS-Ausbildungslager because he was in the contact with the Home Army (Polish
underground organisation), and that he received an order to become a guard at
Trawniki and to collect information about the camp. He alleged that
apart from collecting
information, he purchased weapons for the Polish underground. According to his account he
did this when visiting his family in
Chelm,
where he had made contact with Hungarian soldiers who were stationed in his hometown.
Of course, this was not the truth. During his trial, another former guard who had served with
Maytchenko told of how his colleague was very helpful to the Germans. On one occasion
Maytchenko denounced another colleague who had deserted from
Trawniki. Maytchenko met this individual in
Chelm
and on that same day informed the German Gendarmerie about him, knowing that for desertion
from the SS-Training Camp there was only one sentence – death.
The same witness described how Maytchenko was visited quite often by his mother and
sisters, who would return to
Chelm with suitcases full
of Jewish goods. During his time at
Trawniki, Maytchenko was
a guard at the Jewish work camp and he had contact with Jewish prisoners. There are many
stories in connection with the personal theft from Jewish prisoners by Ukrainian guards from
Trawniki. The witness who described the visits of the Maytchenko family to
Trawniki also stated that Maytchenko and other recruits from the
Chelm region were people who "wanted to profit something from the Jews". Maytchenko
said that he had not had special contact with the Jewish prisoners:
"
During my term of duty there were incidents when Jews escaped,
but I never shot at escaping people. I was not often on duty in the camp because I was an
aide to the SS company commander."
During the trial he stated that he was a witness of the
Erntefest executions, adding at the same time that
he had not been a participant.
Maytchenko deserted from
Trawniki in
July 1944.
According his statement, he joined the Home Army and several months later, after the liberation of
Lublin, he related his activities to the Communist Secret Police, by whom
he had been arrested as a former guard. He was released after several weeks and was
enlisted in the Polish army, where he began to make a career. As a soldier and eventually a
sergeant, he was in the front line and was decorated for bravery. After the war he served as
a political officer. He was arrested for the first time in
1947 and was imprisoned
for 11 months, following which he was probably released from the army and lived in
Krasnik near
Lublin. He was arrested
for a final time in
1952, together with the other group of fomer
Trawniki
guards who at that time lived in Poland. During this final trial he wanted to show that he was
connected with the Polish underground and that after the war he had been a good Communist
(he showed the judge high Polish decorations for bravery at the front and even 5 laudatory
letters from comrade
Stalin). Despite this, the judge sentenced
him to 10 years imprisonment.
Source:
Archive of Majdanek State Museum. Documents of Regional Commission for the
Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Lublin and Main Commission for the Investigation
of Nazi Crimes in Warsaw. Investigation in the case of Trawniki camp, 1966-1967.
© ARC 2005