28 studies / 54 · Łódź
Radogoszcz: prisoners locked in a burning building
17–18 January 1945 · Burning people alive and killings during pacifications
The last night of the German prison at Radogoszcz was a planned massacre. Detainees were murdered in the rooms, and then the building was set alight with living people inside. Attempts to get out through windows and the roof were met with gunfire. The museum at the site gives about 1,500 people killed and only 30 survivors. [1] [2]
Editorial account based on the sources listed below. Sources checked: 5 September 2026.
- Victims and toll
- About 1,500 prisoners according to the Museum of Independence Traditions; about 30 survivors.
- Perpetrators
- The German police prison guard under Walter Pelzhausen, supported during the liquidation by police and military personnel.
- Documented methods
- setting the prison on fire with people inside · shooting at those escaping · finishing off the wounded · earlier beatings and starvation of prisoners
A place of imprisonment
The Expanded Police Prison was housed in the former Samuel Abbe factory. It held men from Łódź and the Wartheland. The museum operating at the crime site presents the prison as part of German repression against the region's inhabitants. Its history includes both the daily destruction of detainees and the massacre that ended the institution's operation. [1]
The night of liquidation
Jakub Parol's IPN study describes the sequence of events. First the sick were killed; then the remaining detainees were shot and the wounded were finished off. At dawn, the main building was set on fire. A cordon around the prison prevented escape, and people attempting to get out through the roof or windows were shot at. The fire was meant to kill those still alive and erase traces of the earlier murders. [2]
Violence before the massacre
The burning of the prison was preceded by a system of abuse. Guards beat people forced to run around the yard. During another punishment, they revived a beaten prisoner with water so that he would not lose consciousness from the blows inflicted on him. Parol identifies Commandant Walter Pelzhausen as responsible for the liquidation. Separating the everyday torture from the final massacre makes it possible to see the continuity of violence at this site. [2]
Traces left by the victims
The museum's digital exhibition makes available documentation of the post-war investigation, including descriptions of the record of an examination of secured evidence from 8 March 1946 and the record of Stanisław Jabłoński's testimony of 15 February 1946. The descriptions include file references and page numbers. They provide a route for further verification, but do not replace reading the documents themselves. [3]
Limits of the findings
About 1,500 is a museum estimate, not an exact result of identification. Not all died in the fire: some were murdered earlier by gunfire. The catalogue descriptions of documents are not a full analysis of them. [1] [2] [3]
Sources and notes
-
redakcja muzeum. Oddział Martyrologii Radogoszcz. Muzeum Tradycji Niepodległościowych w Łodzi.
Use of this source: Data, około 1500 ofiar i 30 ocalałych.
-
Jakub Parol. Największa niemiecka zbrodnia na terenie Łodzi. Likwidacja więzienia na Radogoszczu 17/18 stycznia 1945 r. IPN — Przystanek Historia.
Use of this source: Tortury, kolejność likwidacji, kordon i rola komendanta.
-
zespół wystawy. Sala 1 — akta śledztwa. Muzeum Tradycji Niepodległościowych w Łodzi.
Use of this source: Istnienie i oznaczenia dokumentacji śledczej; odczytano opisy katalogowe.
How we assess sources
The evidence base consists primarily of Polish scholarly publications, investigative findings, archives, museums and documented witness accounts. Reliability is assessed through the document’s provenance, scholarly method and the ability to check the finding. Statements by perpetrators and family accounts of perpetrators require especially critical comparison with other material. Two pages from the same institution may repeat one finding; they are not automatically treated as independent confirmation.
Full methodology