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| The Gas Chamber |
In
October 1939 the
SS Sonderkommando
Lange arrived in
Owinska
(a town about 13 km north of
Poznan). In the
second half of
October 1939, the SS started to kill the patients of the
Owinska Mental Home.
1-3 military trucks left the hospital nearly every day, carrying always 25 persons. The staff was told that the
hospital should be closed and all patients transferred to other facilities.
At first all men were deported, followed by the women, finally 78 children were sent to death
on
11 November 1939. Until
30 November 1939
the mental home was empty, apart from a few persons for economic affairs. About 1,000 patients were killed
in a primitive gas chamber at
Fort VII in
Poznan or later in
gas vans which drove them to secluded forests in the vicinity of
Poznan where
their corpses were buried in mass graves. The nurse
Pelagia Gumna testified
that some vans drove into the direction of
Poznan (13 km south of
Owinska), others to the direction of
Murowana
Golina (10 km north of
Owinska).
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| Fort VII |
After a truck has arrived at Fort VII, the patients were brought into a gas chamber which was installed in a bunker
in the court of the fort. After the iron door of the gas chamber was closed it was sealed with clay. The victims
had to stay in the gas chamber while the SS installed gas cylinders with carbon monoxide gas besides the entrance.
When all victims were gassed, a special group of regular prisoners were forced to open the door and to remove the
corpses which were then loaded onto trucks and driven away.
Most probably the Nazis killed around 10,000–15,000 persons at Fort VII by torture, executions and gassing.
Only 479 victims can be proved. Today Fort VII is a memorial of martyrdom.
© ARC 2005
