International conference on the fate of Polish prisoners of KL Sachsenhausen - 16th June 2021 - 4:00 p.m. - IPNtv
15.06.2021
The Institute of National Remembrance, the City of Kielce authorities and the KL Sachsenhausen Museum and Memorial Site are organizing an on-line conference entitled "Polish prisoners of KL Sachsenhausen. Commemoration of General Bolesław Roja” on 16 June 2021 at 4:00 p.m. on IPNtv The conference can be viewed in English, German and Polish
From the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Germans began the extermination of all social groups, mainly the Polish intelligentsia. These tragic events are, unfortunately, not widely present in the historical consciousness of both Polish and foreign societies.
In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of KL Sachsenhausen, a monument to General Bolesław Jerzy Roja, one of the four signatories of the order to establish an independent Polish Army, was erected on the site of this former German concentration camp near Berlin. This commemoration became the starting point for resuming the discussion on the fate of the Polish intelligentsia, Polish prisoners in the Sachsenhausen camp.
The conference will be an opportunity to present the figure of General Bolesław Roja, the circumstances of his arrest, imprisonment and death in KL Sachsenhausen. Additionally, the meeting will be an opportunity to look into the fate of Polish prisoners in KL Sachsenhausen and the arrests of the intelligentsia in occupied Polish territories. Issues of the legal classification of German crimes against the Polish intelligentsia during World War II will also be discussed.
Online conference
Polish prisoners of KL Sachsenhausen. Commemoration of General Bolesław Roja - 16th June 2021 - 4:00 p.m. - IPNtv
PROGRAM:
Aleksandra Anna Kozłowska, Ph.D. (Łódź). The death of Major General Bolesław Roja (1876-1940) as told by documents and the recollections of Sachsenhausen prisoners
Astrid Ley, Ph.D. (Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen) Polish prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Joanna Lubecka, Ph.D. (IPN) Alle Professoren raus! Krakow academics arrested and held in Sachsenhausen (November 6, 1939 – February 8, 1940)
Marcin Przegiętka, Ph.D. (IPN) Detention and deportation of Polish intelligentsia from Polish territories annexed to the Third Reich
Maciej Mazurkiewicz, Ph.D. Intelligenzaktion and genocide
More information on General Bolesław Roja:
Bolesław Roja (1876–1940) was one of the most important commanders of the Polish Legions and one of four people who signed the order to form the Polish Army in the independent Poland. During World War II he was active in the Polish Red Cross. Arrested by the Germans, he was transferred the Sachsenhausen German concentration camp, where he was murdered on 27 May 1940.
