In a hidden part of the Litzmanstad Ghetto, from 1st of December 1941 to 19th of January 1945 stood the only German concentration camp exclusively for children - a so called detention camp for Polish juveniles 'Przemyslowa Camp' (ger. Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt). In the camp, kids were constantly humiliated, beaten, forced to do exhausting labour work and starved to death. Camp's premise was set by the Reich Main Security Office that ordered 'Police managment of children and youth, so that by their behaviour they would not stand as a risk to German children'. Children placed in the camp ranged from the age of 2 to 16 and would be categorised under similar titles: 'Banditen' or 'Terrorist's child'.
Based on the German documentation, the camp's prisoners where put into 12 groups:
1. Common misbehaviour.
2. Economy related crime.
3. Poor hygiene.
4. Homeless children or the ones that are 'wandering around' in public places.
5. Children described as 'social element'.
6. Avoiding compulsory work.
7. Children that are suspected of being a part of the resistance.
8. Children from families that did not sign the German National list.
9. Children of parents who were sent to concentration camps.
10. Religious and racial considerations.
11. Physical or mental disability.
12. Polish children, without any specified reasons for the transportation.
Film
Jerzy Jerzewicz who survived almost a year in the camp as a 2 year old, dedicated his retirement in Poland and Germany, spreading the once-forgotten story of the Przemyslowa camp and its' consequences. Our film takes a form of an observational portrait of Jerzy which will follow him in two major scenarios: his re-union with other survivors at the Przemyslowa camp liberation anniversary, where they all face the land that scarred them when they were children, and his journey to Germany, in which we would closely investigate the process of his storytelling and the discussions it raises in schools.
Our team may happen to have the privilege of following Jerzy - the last representative survivor of Przemyslowa camp that is capable of educating in such an extended way - on what could potentially be his last journey to Germany.