Radogosz (Poland)

The memorial.

Radogosz is located not far from the industrial city of Lodz. Installed in a factory, the camp of Radogosz was exclusively under the command of the SS and the Gestapo administration. Different than other camps, the prisoners in Radogosz were not forced to work but they were constantly beaten and tortured by SS and Gestapo guards.

The SS and the Gestapo invented a lot of "games" in order to slowly kill the prisoners of the camp. Prisoners were forced to run on live coals, they had to crawl in circle on all fours while SS guards were beating them with a whip. Several prisoners were drowned in casks full of water, others had to stay naked outside, in the middle of the winter, until they died.

More than 40,000 Polish citizens were jailed in Radogozs. Only 10,000 survived. On January 17th 1945, the SS burned all the buildings with the prisoners inside. The prisoners who tried to escape from the fire were shot. When the russian troops arrived, they was no survivors.