Skoda Battery - International Brigades - Spanish Civil War

[StefanM]

Just purchased a document for Polish-French volunteer/veteran of the International Brigade, Spanish Civil War. He is given as serving with "Skoda" artillery battery which one source states was composed of Czechs - which is an interesting discrepancy. The man in question was one of the 3,800 Polish miners working in France that volunteered to fight in Spain. He was also a member of the French communist party and in WWII was a prisoner at Mauthausen concentration camp.








150th International Brigade - Skoda Battery - Composed of Czechs.

Reference: Legions of Babel, The International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Verle B. (1967). University Park :Pennsylvania University Press.

[StefanM]

This man, Joseph Balcerzak., was arrested on 11 January 1943 and from 22 April 1943 a forced worker of kommando Loibl Pass (two subcamps of Mauthausen concentration camp) his prisoner number was: 27 759.

The April 1943 date ties in with the history of the SS forced labour camps of Loibl Pass:

"In the spring of 1943, the SS began preparing the construction of a road tunnel and an access road through the Loibl Pass, an Alpine pass between Austria and what is today Slovenia. Civil workers and an increasing number of prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp were involved in the construction. In all, over 1,600 forced labourers were deployed in the Loibl Pass. The prisoners were accommodated in a concentration camp, which they were for the most part forced to build themselves. The camp was divided into two parts: the Concentration Camp South (today on Slovenian territory) and the Concentration Camp North on the Austrian side of the mountain pass. In December 1944, after twenty months of construction, the first Wehrmacht vehicles could use the over 1,500 metre long tunnel. Only a few months later, the tunnel became an important retreat route from the Balkans for the Wehrmacht.

Until May 1945, over 1,500 people were incarcerated by the SS in the north and south Loibl concentration camps combined. Most of them were political prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Frenchmen and Poles constituted the largest prisoner groups at the Loibl concentration camps. Among the inmates were also Russians, Yugoslavs, Germans, Italians, Czechs, Hungarian Jews, Norwegians, Luxembourgers, Spaniards and others.

Over 30 prisoners died during construction work at the Loibl Pass or were killed by SS guards. The SS had approximately 300 ill and weak prisoners transported back to Mauthausen where most of them were murdered

On April 15, 1945, the SS dissolved the Loibl Concentration Camp North due to intensified partisan attacks and transported most of the prisoners to the south camp. Between May 7 and 8, 1945, camp inmates and partisans liberated the camp and took the SS guards captive. "

• Memorial at Loibl Concentration Camp North

[CARL]

Interesting Stefan, thank you.

Außenlager Loibl is addressed in this thread:

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/konzen...-loibl-396885/

[StefanM]

Joseph Balcerzak, 1945 French Communist Party document:





Joseph Balcerzak, 1947 Former concentration camp prisoner document:

[YarikGork]

I have Soviet Document "To the participant of the national revolutionary war in Spain" awarded to a Polish Person.
The Polish soldier is called. Guzik Boleslaw.

He also joined the artillery unit "Skoda" (Liebknecht battery)

Where can I find more information of him and potentially photos?