Section URBAN STUDIES, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

TRANSFORMATION OF TOWNS LOCATED IN AREAS

ANNEXED BY THE THIRD REICH (SELECTED
EXAMPLES)

University of
Technology, Poland

ABSTRACT
After forces of the German Wehrmacht entered Poland, on the 8th of October
1939, the chancellor of the Third Reich Adolf Hitler issued a decree by which a
certain part of the western territory of the Polish state as to be incorporated into the
administrative borders of Germany. They were called "annexed eastern lands". Due
to their value and significance to the occupants they were not damaged as badly as
other areas during wartime operations. On the contrary. They were areas from
which the Polish population was to be expelled, with a plan to have it settled by
Germans. They had to be appropriately prepared for the arrival of the new residents.
Hence, plans of the expansion and redevelopment of many cities and towns started
to be developed at regional construction offices. There were plans to demolish
current building tissue, or even to reorganise extant urban layouts. New industrial
plants and public buildings, such as schools and police precincts, were being
designed, with the intent to have them used solely by the soon-to-arrive German
population. The article discusses the problem of the transformations that were
associated with this and which took place either within urban tissue or that were
architectural changes such as the redevelopment of existing buildings or the
construction of new ones. Three towns from the borderlands of Silesia and Lesser
Poland areas that have been a part of the Polish state since time immemorial and
that have Polish roots were selected as examples. It was decided to investigate
the then-planned and, of course, carried out transformations in the area of
Szczakowa, Chrzanów and Jaworzno. Not all of the development projects that had
been planned were carried out. Some of them remained only on paper, because of
the retreat of the German Wehrmacht and the end of World War II did not allow for
their realisation. The location and temporal framework were, in this case, a chance
to preserve historical urban tissue. Other projects were carried out only partially and
were sometimes continued after wartime operations had ceased, due to their value
to the public. Some of them are in use to this day. It cannot be denied that the spatial
transformations that were induced during that period within the urban tissue of the
cities located in areas that had been annexed into the administrative borders of the
Third Reich are a form of post-war heritage, whose impact can frequently be
observed to this day.
During the investigation of the subject the author studied current literature and
performed archival research, including research at the State Archive in Katowice or

Mazaraki Museum in Chrzanów. Afterwards, the author performed on-site visits

and comparisons of previously obtained materials.

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Keywords: history of architecture, planning, Jaworzno, Szczakowa,

Chrzanów

INTRODUCTION
On the 1st of September 1939 forces of the German Wehrmacht entered Poland.
Defensive operations were being carried out for the next several weeks with the
intent to drive away the enemy's forces. A period of the German occupation of
Polish lands took place after they had ceased. This lasted until the end of the Second
World War in 1945.
According to a decree signed by the chancellor of the Third Reich Adolf Hitler
on the 8th of October 1939[1], the conquered territories were divided into the so-
called General Government (Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen
Gebiete) with a capital in Krakow and in which power was in the hands of general
governor Hans Frank, as well as into so-called eastern areas (eingegliederte
Ostgebiete). The latter were directly incorporated into the administrative borders of
the Third Reich (Das Dritte Reich), also called Nazi Germany. These included the
territories -war
-war Krakow Voivodship, the northern
part of the Warsaw Voivodship and the augustowski and suwalski powiats (counties
or districts). Due to their worth and significance to the occupant (due to, for
instance, their degree of industrialisation), they were not destroyed during wartime
operations. According to the policy carried out by Hitler, which was based on
providing Germans with "living space" (Lebensraum), these were areas from which
the Polish population was to be expelled, with plans to settle Germans there in its
place[2].
The areas incorporated into the Third Reich included, among other territories,
the western part of the pre-war Krakow Voivodship. It was incorporated into the
Katowice administrative district (Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz) of the Province of
Upper Silesia (Provinz Ober-Schlesien). Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa also
found themselves in this area. During the period of German occupation they
constituted a part of the Chrzanów rural district (Landkreis Krenau), which was
located adjacent to the border with the General Government.
The German occupants were well aware of the economic significance of this
industrialised western part of the Krakow Voivodship. This was proven by, among
other things, the course of the fighting and assaults by German forces, which circled
the area from the north and south. In this manner, all of the industrial plants and
mines, as well as the historical urban layouts and the entire infrastructure, got into
the hands of the occupants without sustaining damage[3],[4].
The conviction of the Germans that they were going to permanently stay in these
areas was very strong. Due to this reason plans of expansion or redevelopment were
being developed at regional construction offices for many of these cities and towns.
It was planned to demolish existing urban tissue or even to reorganise existing,
historical urban layouts. New industrial plants or public buildings were being
redeveloped or designed, with the intent of being used solely by the arriving
Germans.

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For Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa, the German occupation began already
at the very start, during the moment of the annexation of these areas by the
Wehrmacht on the 3rd and 4th of September 1939. After the military forces entered
the towns, the first act was the changing of all of the names of streets and squares,
signs, inscriptions and coats of arms to German ones.
This article has the goal of becoming familiar with and analysing the planned
and actually implemented changes within urban tissue, as well as transformations
of selected individual buildings in Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa cities
located in areas incorporated into the Third Reich during the German occupation
of Polish lands during the Second World War.
STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH METHODS
There is a sizable body of well-documented scientific literature describing the
events that took place in Poland and across Europe during the Second World War.
Information about Chrzanów and Jaworzno can be found in scientific monographs
and numerous articles that were written on their subject. We should mention, among
others, Ziemia chrzanowska i Jaworzno written in 1969 under the editorship of
Janina Lewandowska, Jaworzno: Zarys dziejów w latach 1939-1990 from 1996,
under the editorship of Jerzy Zawistowski or Chrzanów studia z dziejów miasta,
volume II part I from 1999. Szczakowa, most probably due
to its incorporation in 1956 into the administrative limits of Jaworzno as a district,
does not possess a document that would provide a complete account of its history.
Information concerning it appear in the abovementioned monographs, as well as in
articles published by the Museum of the City of Jaworzno (Muzeum Miasta
Jaworzna) in the form of the publication Zeszyty Historyczne Miasta Jaworzna
(Historical Bulletin of the City of Jaworzno in English). We will find here a
manuscript of Monografia Szczakowej by Adolf Tatarczuch, published by the
Museum. Despite its immense factual value, it is not a work that meets the rigours
of a scientific document. Nevertheless, it constitutes a very good starting point for
conducting further research. A similar role can be played by 105 lat historia
Szczakowej. It is a small publication of the Society of the Friends of the City of
Jaworzno

During the investigation of the subject, the author familiarised herself with
current literature and performed archival research. It was performed at, among other

the archive of the Museum of the City of Jaworzno (Muzeum Miasta Jaworzno) and
eum in Chrzanów (Muzeum w Chrzanowie

among other volumes, the Records of the city of Szczakowa (Akta miasta
Szczakowej). In a section concerning the Mayor of the city of Szczakowa
(Burmiastrz miasta Szczakowej) (Der Bürgermeister der Stadt Schakowa), in the

Budowlano-Mieszkaniowy), can find highly interesting archival materials about the

plans of the redevelopment of the city. In the archive of the Museum of the City of
Jaworzno we can find materials about the construction of the power plant.
Information concerning the redevelopment of the building of the Polskie

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Polish Gymnastic Society in

English) building into the Haus der Deutschen Heimat is located at the Museum in
Chrzanów.
Simultaneously to the research work at the archives, the author performed on-
site visits. The pieces of information that had been gathered were compared with
each other, as well as with available aerial photographic materials.
CHRZANÓW
For Chrzanów, the period of Nazi occupation began on the 4th of September, at
noon, when the German forces of general Ernst Busch's VIII corps took the city.
The city along with its surroundings was incorporated into the Krakow country
district and put under the supervision of the occupying military authorities. In 1941
the name Chrzanów was changed to Krenau. During the same year the
administrative councillor dr Cantner became the commissionary Landkreis head of
administration. He commenced with the germanisation of the external appearance
of the city. In order to highlight the achievements of the German government and
to divert attention from charges of neglecting Polish municipal administration,
efforts were made to redevelop or adapt some of the buildings to public needs. Two
large, then-modern buildings taken from Jews were adapted into a city hall, while
another into a police precinct. The municipal slaughterhouse was expanded, while
the water and sewerage utility networks were extended, in addition to the
improvement of street surfaces and fitting street lighting.
Among the notable buildings that were transformed is the redevelopment of a
building of Pol
Gymnastic Society a Polish organisation founded during the period of the
partitions focusing on the propagation of physical education, sports and a healthy
life style) into the Haus der Deutschen Heimat at Poststrasse 24 (contemporary
st
of August 1942. The
Haus der Deutschen Heimat played the role of a representative centre of German
cultural and social life. It also featured a hotel section meant for German guests and
tourists, as well as a restaurant. The appropriate amenities made it possible for Nazi
party meetings to be hosted there[5]. Wedding and birthday receptions were held
there, in addition to holiday parties or national and state celebrations, such as
Wehrmacht Day (Tag der Wehrmacht).
The author of the redevelopment of the building into the Haus der
Deutschen Heimat was Karl Laabs an architect fulfilling the role of the head of

lost its character. The visually light form, which was composed of brick decorations
and
a sculpted image of a falcon in flight, was replaced with a massive, heavy form
featuring ornamentation cut into plaster, on which there was a swastika, a stylised
coat of arms of the Third Reich, human figures and an inscr Haus
der Deutschen Heimat
restaurant, an auditorium with a stage and a kitchen. The first floor featured guest
rooms and residential spaces. All of the rooms were furnished in accordance with
German standards and ideas. The Haus der Deutschen Heimat functioned until the

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moment of the departure of the Germans from Chrzanów on the 19th of January
1945[6],[7].
JAWORZNO
The German occupation administration in Jaworzno was directed by mayor
Reder. According to Göring's ordinance of the 1st of November 1939, all Polish
property was seized by the Grundstückgesellschaft, a real estate fund. Factories,
mines and all of the larger industrial plants of the entire region were placed under
the supervision and authority of the General Trust Agency "East" in Berlin. Direct
supervision of the industrial plants of Jaworzno and Szczakowa was performed by
the mine inspector and factory leader (Betriebsführer) SS-Obersturmbahnführer
Begman.
In 1940 all of Jaworzno's coal mines were placed under the management of the

Katowice. It was founded in order to expand the Silesian power plant, which was
to provide electric power to the light metallurgy military production plant which
was being built near Vienna. It constituted an important element of increasing
German military capability. Care was taken of Jaworzno's mines in order to provide
a stable supply of fuel for the energy plant. Some development projects from before
the start of the war were completed, the mines were fitted with iron envelopes, while
the usage of gutters and air and electric windlasses increased, with underground
horizontal transport becoming electrified. Due to defeats on the frontlines towards
the end of 1942 and in 1943 more serious plans, such as the construction of new
mining levels or the installation of goaf equipment, were not carried out. From that
moment on the occupants limited themselves to overexploitation[3].
Efforts to increase the power output of the existing power plant near the
-
of the new "Wilhelm" power and heating plant (Kraftwerk), with an output of 300
thousand MW, was started (current name: Elektrownia Jaworzno II Jaworzno II
Power Plant). The forests located to the southwest of the city were selected as the
site of its construction. According to plans, the first stage of construction was to be
completed on the 1st of October 1944, while the entire power plant was to be
finished in 1946. The slave labour of a branch of the Auschwitz concentration camp
"Neu-Dachs" was used in the construction. Of the entire project, the Germans
managed to complete the drainage of the site, he excavation work and the footing
of the main building, as well as the footing of two concrete smokestacks. [8],[9],
[14].
The "Neu-Dachs" camp was established in order to provide cheap labour to the
energy industry in Jaworzno. The prisoners were put to work in, among other
places, the local mines or in the construction of the power and heating plant. The
complex of several dozens of timber and masonry bunkhouses, surrounded with a
double barbed-wire fence, was built on land belonging to the commune of

mine. The site near the intersection of the Jaworzno-Katowice road with the one

was also located only a short distance away from the power plant that was being
built. In November 1943 construction was finished on 14 bunkhouses, a hospital, a

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kitchen, a clothing warehouse, a boiler house, a laundry house, toilets and baths,
workshops and a foodstuffs storage building. The 6,6 ha site was surrounded by a
double fence of electrified barbed wire. The camp's 8 guard towers were equipped
with machine guns. A gate with the inscription "Neu-Dachs" led inside. Outside of
the walls of the camp there were three buildings which fulfilled the function of
barracks for the SS, a fire safety water reservoir, as well as garages and a guard
th
- of June 1943 and
th
officially existed until the 17 of January 1945[3], [10].
SZCZAKOWA
Szczakowa was also entered by the German Wehrmacht on the 4th of September
1939. Hans Zollna, who had been assigned as its mayor, arrived already during the
same month. He focused a sizable part of his attention on the implementation of the
Nazi nationality policy, particularly in terms of the settlement of Germans and so-
called Volksdeutsche in Szczakowa. (In 1943 a group of 200 Germans was moved
to Szczakowa from Bukowina for resettlement). For the purposes of propaganda,
among other things, he reinvented the history of Szczakowa as that of the town of
Schakowa, with German roots.
In order to create the best possible conditions for the German population that
was to arrive, the new mayor ordered a plan of the expansion of Szczakowa at the
Katowice construction office. The new city centre was placed on a hill near the
church. A central square with radially diverging streets was to be constructed there.
There were plans to build a town hall, a post office, a municipal library, a cinema
and an open-air swimming pool. The industrial plants were grouped in the eastern
part of the city. The south-western areas were assigned for urban built-up areas. The
old part of Szczakowa, due to the majority presence of Jewish houses, was assigned
for demolition green squares and lawns were to take their place. Plans were also
made for the train station and the railway line, which were planned to be expanded
towards the north, while the building of the station was to be remodelled in the
direction of a more German character. Fortunately, the end of the Second World
War put an end to the resettlement plans. The plans commissioned by Zollna were
not carried out. He had only managed to demolish the buildings of the Jewish
religious community. Two monuments: the Grunwald Monument and the Tadeusz

Gymnastic Society was converted into a restaurant. The cinema screening room,
which had had a capacity of 200 seats, was remodelled and modernised [11].
Among the archival materials stored at the State Archive in Katowice there are
design drawings. These include the plan of the redevelopment of the cinema of
1944-1945 by the architect R.W. Haase, as well as a design of 1942 of the mayor's
official apartment . We can also find drawings associated with the modernisation of
the local industrial plants there[12].
Due to increased cargo traffic (as a result of military operations), the Germans
remodelled the Szczakowa railway station in the years 1940-1944, but only to a
small degree. The remodelling included, among other elements, the construction of
a new engine shed in the western area, a classification yard hump and new tracks.

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The Germans resided in Szczakowa up to the middle of January 1945. Around
the 15th of January they evacuated their families, while on the night between the
17th and 18th of January they fled the city in a state of panic[13].

CONCLUSION
During the Second World War Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa were
located in the areas of eastern territories that were directly annexed into the
administrative borders of the Third Reich. This was most probably caused by their
economic significance. As it can be seen from the findings presented above, there
was a very strong belief on the part of the German occupants that they were going
to remain in the area forever. This is why numerous projects associated with
adapting these centres to the new authorities were being planned. Not all of these
plans were carried out. In order to germanise Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa,
the names of streets, squares, signboards, inscriptions and coats of arms were
changed to German ones already at the start of the occupation, including the name
of the town of Chrzanów to the German version Krenau or of Szczakowa to
Schakowa.
In the case of Chrzanów the transformations were based primarily on changing
forms of use, redevelopments or extensions of structures expropriated from the local
Polish and Jewish population. Examples of this include the expansion of the no
longer existing building of the municipal slaughterhouse and the redevelopment of
the building of the
Gymnastic Society in English). On the scale of the entire city these small
transformations and the changes of the forms of use of buildings made it possible
for the historical tissue and layout of the cities to be preserved. In Jaworzno, due to
the presence of numerous industrial plants, their extension was put into focus.
Initially, these efforts included the modernisation of the mines along with a planned
construction of a new power and heating plant, using the prisoners of the branch of
-
themselves solely to overexploitation. The power and heating plant, built only
partially during the occupation, was finished after the war on the basis of new plans
due to its significance, which led to the further industrial development of the centre.
In Szczakowa, despite individual changes, such as the demolition of the buildings
of the Jewish religious community, the redevelopment of a cinema hall and

redevelop the entire urban structure. The plan of the redevelopment of the city was
meant to completely alter its layout and appearance. Thankfully, the end of the war
brought an end to the German occupation, which prevented the existing historical
tissue of the city from being destroyed.
The examples of Chrzanów, Jaworzno and Szczakowa that have been presented
above show that the transformations of cities that took place in areas annexed by
the Third Reich were of varying scale and character. Their location and the time
limit in these cases were a chance for the preservation of the historical urban tissue.
Other development projects were completed only partially and were sometimes
continued after the cessation of wartime operations due to their value to the public.
Some of these buildings are still used today. It cannot be denied that the spatial
transformations that took place in this period in the urban tissue of cities located in

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areas that were incorporated into the administrative borders of the Third Reich are
a form of post-war heritage, whose impact can often be observed to this day.

REFERENCES
[1] Czu
-294.
[3] Zawistowski J, Wojna i okupacja, Jaworzno zarys dziejów w latach 1939-
1990, Kraków, 1996, pp. 9-43.
[4] The map of the Kreis Krenau Reg. Bez. Kattowitz Provinz Ober-Schlesien.

MCh/H/688.
ji 1939-1945, Chrzanów
-
108.
[6] Krenau von 1939 und heute, Heimatkalender, des Kreises Krenau 1942, pp.
106.
h

-Runicka M., Energetyka w Jaworznie, Zeszyty Historyczne Miasta

Jaworzna, vol. 7, pp 13-18, 2003.

Archiwum
68.
-1945, Zeszyty
Historyczne Miasta Jaworzna, vol. 7, pp. 19-23, 2003.
-Runicka M., Okupacja hitlerowska, 105 lat Historia Szczakowej, pp
32-34, 2002.

miasta Szczakowej (The Mayor of the city of Szczakowa) [Der Bürgermeister der
-Mieszkaniowy
(General Seciton, the Construction and Housing Section), Sign. 234, 235, 236.
[13] Tatarczuch A., Monografia Szczakowej, Zeszyty Historyczne Miasta
Jaworzna, vol. 9, pp 22-36, 2005.
[14] Finishing construction work not possibile immediately after the war. The
German plans and equipment were missing (e.g. the tanks and turbo systems
designed by the German company Siemens). Due to the significance of the
structure, New plans were developer, chich made it possibile to complete
construction work and start the power plant in 1953.

506