The cemetery of prisoners of the German camp in Borowice - prisoners of war of different nationalities and Polish forced labourers, builders of the Sudecka Road who died or were murdered in 1939-1945 by German watchmen.

The forest track of Kacza Valley connecting Podgórzyn with Borowice was brought to existence in 1902-1904 thanks to Mayntz - the ducal forester of Schaffagotschs. The road was covered with tarmac in 1937. From 1914 Czechs were building the road connecting Szpindlerowy Młyn with Karkonoska Saddle – the track was successfully finished in 1921. In 1938 Germany annexed Czechoslovakia and therefore had the ambition to merge Silesian and Czech part of Karkonosze Mountains. Without any doubts it was a strategic investment of high military importance. In the end of the 30s the built of the Sudecka Road (from Borowice in the direction of Karkonoska Saddle - the place where there are two shelters: Polish Odrodzenie and Czech Špindlerova bouda) was begun.

The work was commissioned to the company H. Plüschke from Legnica. Suitable buildings for the workers appeared in the forest between Borowice and Przesieka – in the Myja Valley, on the area of two hectares, at the hight of 635 m above sea level.

During the Second World War the buildings were converted into, first, a camp for forced labourers Arbeitskommando no. 374 and, second, a war-prisoners’ camp, the workers of which built the road in extremely hard conditions.

Already in October 1939 the first group of Polish labourers was brought to Borowice. The workers were to build barracks for future prisoners of the stalag.

On 20th April 1940 about 2000 Poles were transported from Silesia (particularly Sosnowiec, Będzin and Olkusz) to Jelenia Góra for forced labour. A fraction of them – approximately 100 people – were settled in Borowice to work over the built of the Sudecka Road and in ironworker and carpenter workshops located in the camp’s neighbourhood.

In July 1940 250 Belgian war prisoners, who had lived in the former German custom house, and 500 other prisoners arrived to Karkonoska Saddle and were also settled in the camp of Borowice. They were forced mainly to work over the built of the road. By the end of 1941 Wehrmacht released most of Belgian prisoners who were replaced by 200 French ones for a couple of months. In autumn 1941 400 Soviet prisoners joined.

The civilian camp was liquidated in 1943. Polish labourers were moved and their place was taken by Polish, Russian, French, Belgium, and Danish war prisoners from the Stalag no. VIIIE and no. 308 in Świętoszów, no. VIIIC in Żagań and no. VIII in Zgorzelec and Wojcieszyce. The average numer of prisoners in the camp was about 700 men, including 300 French. The area of the camp was well-guarded, surrounded by barbed wire and additionally secured by guard towers. The prisoners slept in over a dozen of wooden barracks. The work was still coordinated by the company from Lednica, but the task of prisoners’ supervision was taken by SS officers.

The labour was very hard. Using pickaxes in stone-pits they had to crash rocks for the broken stone needed for the built of the main road. On the Sudecka Road three massive bridges were built: over Kacza River, Myja River and Podgórna – with tracks of the breadth of 11 m. Given bad feeding, tremendously hard work and cold people suffered from emaciation and illnesses and died. The putrid fever epidemic decimated people. Eventually, Germans did not succeed in fulfilling their plans and between 1944 and 1945, due to the front moving forwards, led to the camp’s liquidation. The war prisoners who managed to survive hunger and oppression were shot. It is estimated that the overall number of dead prisoners oscillated between 800 and 1000 people. 40 prisoners have been buried in a common tomb hard upon the camp. 500-600 people of different nationalities have been buried in mass unmarked graves on the area of this cemetery. In 1945 about 70 people were moved to Przesieka. Their fate is still unknown. The Barracks were pulled down and burned so that on the place they once stood remained only stones.

Nowadays on the area of the former camp it is possible to recognise, apart from the basements of stony buildings (the kitchen), flattenings – remainders of barracks, stony paths and two strange objects – something that seems to be stony containers or cisterns.

The dead were exhumed in 1956 and in 1970. We know that the buried people were soldiers. Things which were found next by them: buttons of soldiers’ uniforms or two identifications entitled Stalag 308 can be treated as an evidence.

On the cemetery in Borowice there are 38 anonymous graves with oak crosses marked with found camp identifiers, surrounded by cement curbstones and one mass tomb. A sign-post and a tablet embedded in a granite stone inform the tourists about the character and meaning of the place.

In the 70s appeared an idea and a project of finishing the built of the Sudecka Road, which through Karkonoska Saddle, would create a new circular communication highway of Karkonosze between Poland and Czechoslovakia. The project has been given up. In that period the surface of existing road was only covered with tarmac.

Nowadays behind the crossroad of the road with the blue track connecting Przesieka with Karkonoska Saddle there is one kilometer long wide and indurate segment of the Sudecka Road, which is ready to be used. Through the next kilometer Sudecka Road changes into a patch, by which stone banks are visible. It is probably the material, which was prepared 60 years ago for further built. Later the path becomes hard to be passed and turns in North-East direction crossing the blue track. The last part before Karkonoska Saddle of the length of 1.5 km has also been hardened. From the Czech side to Karkonoska Saddle runs a broad tarmac road.

In 2007 the cemetery in Borowice was thoroughly renewed by the authors of the website www.Borowice.pl cooperating with the forum (visit link) the website www.Przesieka.pl and the Fight and Martyrdom Protection Council in Warsaw, Śnieżka Forestry in Kowary and the Departament of Podgórzyn Commune.

English version prepared by Marysia Łuszpińska.

The cache is located under big stone.

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