Częstochowa Forced Laborers

by Peter W. Landé

INTRODUCTION

The Hasag Pulcery forced labor camp in Częstochowa existed from June 1943 through January 1945.  Most of the prisoners came from Częstochowa, but some came from elsewhere.  A list of 4,724 of those prisoners is held by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.  When the file was transcribed, it was discovered that it actually only contained 4,610 names.

Forced laborers, Jewish and others, were used in all parts of Europe occupied by the Germans, including the former Soviet Union, and within Germany itself. Such laborers were used in industry and agriculture, sometimes locally where they had resided but also as a result of shipments of workers between different cities and countries. The length of time that Jews were used as forced laborers varies widely, with some killed after a few months and others kept for years. The conditions under which they worked also varied widely, but the vast majority of Jewish forced laborers either died where they had been "employed" or were sent to death camps when they were found no longer to be useful.

The collection (USHMM file #RG 15.071M) consists of five reels of film. The first four of these consist of alphabetical cards on each prisoner. The fifth reel, prepared after World War II, combines the names into a single alphabetical list. It is this list of names that has been transcribed. The data provided from the fifth reel are as follows:

Family name
Given name
Year of birth
Place of birth
Residence in 1939
From where sent
Profession (in Polish)
Card number

Neither the cards, nor the combined list, provides information about the fate of the prisoners. The cards themselves contain the following additional information which is not included here:

Date of birth (not just year)
Former profession
Work group to which prisoner was assigned

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The information contained in this database was indexed from the files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (#RG 15.071M). This information is accessible to you today thanks to the effort of the following JewishGen volunteers who are responsible for the transcription of this file: David Amdurer (coordinator), Helen Rowley, Steve Hoffman, Aaron, Agmon and Mark Schilling.

JewishGen Holocaust Database
Last updated May 7, 2003 by WSB