Smukale

About ten kilometres north Bydgoszcz there is a small town called Smukale. Between 1941 and 1943, the Germans established a transit camp for Poles, mainly from Pomerania, to be deported to other camps and places. The camp was set up in former warehouses and an estimated 4,000 people passed through the camp during its existence. Overcrowding and inadequate sanitary facilities led to diseases and during the winter of 1942 a typhus epidemic erupted. The camp was under Gestapo’s control. In February 1943, the camp was closed and the prisoners were moved to a camp in Potulice. Although it was a transit camp, the prisoners were used for various slave labor and about 800 people lost their lives while being camp prisoners. About half of them were children. Those who died were buried in a cemetery just south of Smukale.