Transport from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Friedrichsweiler, Camp, Poland on 14/11/1941

Szymanowo (Friedrichsweiler) is a small village located roughly 3 kilometers east of Rawicz. After its occupation by Nazi Germany on September 5, 1939, it was incorporated into Landkreis Rawitsch. In November 1941, a forced labor camp was established with an average of between forty and fifty Jews of all ages, mostly from the Łódź ghetto. They were originally Polish and German Jews. According to the Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, there was a German authority in Leszno that managed all forced labor camps for Jews in Landkreis Rawicz. No details have been recorded. The camp was located in two houses opposite each other without barbed wire or other security features. It was guarded by local ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche); the name of the camp commander remains unknown.

The inmates were made to dig and clean ditches and build dykes for regulating the Orla River. They were often transferred to other camps for work, primarily the Weisser Adler camp (Biały Orzeł) in the community of Łaszczyn (Gutfeld), about 4 kilometers north of Rawicz or the Paulseck camp (Pawłówo), roughly 30 kilometers northeast of Rawicz. The work conditions were dire, and included severe malnutrition, an outbreak of typhus, and torture and death for misconduct....