There were two labour camps in Radom: in Szwarlikowska and Szkolna Street. In the second half of August 1942 in Radom there were about 3,000 Jews, mostly men. At first they were transferred to the houses in Szwarlikowska Street, where a makeshift camp was created. On 6 November 1943, the camp at Szwarlikowska Street was liquidated, and some of its inhabitants were transferred to Szkolna Street. From 17 January 1944, the camp in Szkolna Street was managed by the SS company called Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke (ADW, the German Equipment Works). The so-called "Jewish forced labour camp" changed to "Konzetrationslager der Waffen SS In Lublin, Abteilug Radom" (SS concentration camp in Lublin, branch in Radom). The camp was staffed by 80 SS men from Lublin, headed by Robert Frick. The camp commandant was SS - Obersturmführer Wilhelm Siegmann. At that time, about 2,500 prisoners remained in the camp.
To strengthen the workforce, about 100 prisoners were brought to the camp from Majdanek. Because many Jews were transferred to other towns and because of transports arriving in Radom from other labour camps, the number of prisoners kept changing all the time.
The prisoners of the camp in Szkolna Street stayed in four wooden barracks, equipped with bunk beds; the camp was surrounded by a double barbed wire. The Jews worked mainly in the camp workshops and in the Arms Factory belonging to the "Steyer Daimler - Puch" group or performed tasks assigned by the Germans, mainly extracting peat in Piotrówka, one of Radom’s districts. In the second half of 1943, the Germans formed a special commando consisting of about 60 prisoners, whose task was to exhume the bodies of those murdered during the liquidation of the ghetto and buried in the so-called Pentz garden.
Gruelling work was often accompanied by numerous persecutions; the Germans daily forced prisoners to perform heavy physical exercise, beat them unconscious, placed them under camp arrest and deprived them of warm food. Both camps were the site of mass murders committed by the Germans. Constant selections were a daily occurrence; those unable to work, mainly women, children and the elderly were most frequently deported to Auschwitz.
In mid-1944, as the eastern front approached the Vistula River, the Germans decided to evacuate the labour camps in the Radom district; in Szkolna Street it began on 26 July 1944. A column of about 2,500 people surrounded by SS men made its way to Tomaszów Mazowiecki via Wolanów, Mniszek, Przysucha and Opoczno. It was followed by carts picking up those unable to walk; when the carts were full, the passengers were shot. This ‘death march’ lasted three days. When they reached Tomaszów Mazowiecki, railway cars were waiting to take them to Auschwitz. Only those who found refuge among the Polish population remained in Radom.
Bibliography:
S. Piątkowski, Dni życia, dni śmierci. Ludność żydowska w Radomiu w latach 1818 - 1950, Warszawa 2006; J. Franecki, Zagłada Żydów radomskich w czasie II wojny światowej, „Radomir. Kwartalnik Turystyczno - Krajoznawczy Zarządu Wojewódzkiego PTTK Radom, Radom 1987; B. Gotfryd, Anton the Dove Fancier and Other Tales of the Holocaust,USA 1990.