In July 1941, the Nazis set up a POW camp at Trawniki, a village in the General Government for the occupied Polish Region. The camp was intended for Soviet soldiers captured after the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet prisoners of war were offered a way out of captivity by cooperating with the SS as Hilfswilligen (relief troops). The ones who accepted the offer were mainly anti-communist and antisemitic Ukrainians, Latvians, and Lithuanians. They were trained in Trawniki and deployed from September 1941 onwards. As the war with the Soviet Union became less successful and the number of prisoners of war dwindled, regular civilians were recruited as well. Over 5,000 men were trained in the camp.
The Hilfswilligen helped the Nazis with the raids and the evacuation of the ghettos in occupied Poland. They were involved in actions against the partisans and supported the Einsatzgruppen. They worked as guards in the extermination camps and operated the killing facilities there.
From the summer of 1942 onwards, Jewish forced labourers were imprisoned in the camp. They had to endure the cruel treatment by the camp leadership and their disciples.
In July 1944, the camp was abandoned by the Nazis and discovered by the Soviet army.
