INFORMATION PORTAL OF THE MARSHAL'S OFFICE OF THE KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE Region IN TORUŃ

Yesterday (9 April), the Toruń Cultural and Congress Centre Jordanki hosted the premiere screening of the feature documentary ‘Dzieci Szmalcówki’ (Children of Szmalcówka), dedicated to the victims of the German displacement camp operating between 1940 and 1943 on Grudziądzka Street in Toruń.

– Those events are still alive in our hearts. My uncle was killed then. My grandparents and my mother were miraculously saved from the transport. They only managed to survive because, among the many bad German neighbours, there were also the good ones who simply bailed them out of Szmalcówka [the so-called Szmalcówka in Toruń was a camp and a selection site for arrested and displaced Poles].  There are thousands of such stories in Pomerania,’ said Marshal Piotr Całbecki during the recent celebrations of the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the 1939 German Pomeranian Massacre.

The film has considerable documentary value, its makers having reached almost thirty eyewitnesses. Among the guests invited to the premiere were Marshal Piotr Całbecki and witnesses of those events, including 100-year-old Halina Pniewska, honoured with the Marshal’s Unitas Durat Palatinatus Cuiaviano-Pomeraniensis medal. See also: Nestors honoured.

‘Children of Szmalcówka’ is the latest production of the Unislaw Historical Society, previously known for its series of documentaries devoted to the 1939 Pomeranian crime – “Barbarka 1939”, “Szpęgawsk 1939”, “Dąbrowa 1939” and “Karolewo 1939”.

The regional government is the main patron of the film.

Beata Krzemińska

Spokesperson of the Marshal’s Office

10 April 2025.