For a long time, it looked as though the search for Jan Poliwczak’s relatives was a lost cause. Apart from his name, his date of birth and his Polish nationality, nothing was known about his origins. It was his prisoner number that ultimately led volunteer Nathalie Letierce-Liebig to northern France. There, not far from Jan’s last place of residence in Prémont, his bereaved family were presented with his final personal belongings in April 2026.The items also remind them of another member of the family.

“I can really feel how this watch connects me to my great-uncle, even though he’s been dead for so long. It helps us to tell his story in full, before the memory of him fades completely,” said Patricia Dehent. Visibly moved, she held the small silver watch with a red dial in her hands. Together with Jan’s great-nephew Didier Dehent and other relatives, she came to Prémont town hall to take stock of  the traces Jan Poliwczak left behind: a watch, two signet rings, and a few hazy memories of a relative who disappeared without trace after his arrest by the Germans in 1944.

“At family meals, there was often talk of a great-uncle who was a Communist and who was arrested by the Gestapo as he got off a bus.” He was my grandmother’s brother. “She spent her whole life trying to find out what had happened to him, but she was unable to discover anything,” recalled Didier Dehent. “For us as a family, it’s truly special to have these items – this watch, these rings – returned to us now, to hold them in our hands, 80 years after he went missing.”

Last place of residence: Bohain-en-Vermandois

Jan Poliwczak was born on December 15, 1910, in Uherce, Sambor District (now Sambir, Ukraine). He had a sister, Anna. It is unclear when his family moved to France, but when the war broke out, both Jan and Anna were living in Bohain-en-Vermandois, a small town in northern France. It was there that Anna married Louis Dehent in 1941. A year later, the Vichy government pressured Jan and his brother-in-law Louis into taking up work in Austria – a propaganda scheme designed to secure the release of French prisoners of war from the Nazis.

Jan worked at Saurerwerke in Vienna, helping with the production of commercial vehicles. Louis had to work for the Reichsbahn. At the end of 1943, they both returned to France. In mid-1944, the Gestapo arrested them both in quick succession and deported them to the Compiègne internment camp. It is unclear what the Nazis accused Jan of.

Deported to Neuengamme concentration camp in a cattle car

Jan and Louis were among the 2,064 French men whom the SS herded into railway carriages at the Compiègne transit camp on 4 June 1944 and deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp. Those who were deported were either members of the resistance or had refused to perform the forced labor service imposed by the Vichy government. During their journey in extreme heat, they experienced hunger, thirst, and violence.

Forced labor in a battery factory

On arrival at Neuengamme concentration camp, the deportees were required to hand over all their personal belongings. Jan had a wristwatch and two signet rings with him. They were stored on the concentration camp grounds alongside thousands of other items and remained there until the SS cleared the camp in the final days of the war. Jan, on the other hand, was taken away by the SS as early as 1 July 1944 and transported further towards Hanover. On arrival at the Stöcken sub-camp, he was presumably forced to carry out hard labor for Accumulatoren-Fabrik AG, now known as Varta AG. The prisoners were put to work there in the production of submarine batteries. Working conditions were appalling. Many people fell ill or died in accidents. A total of 402 deaths were recorded at the Stöcken camp; an unknown number of prisoners died after being transported back to the main camp at Neuengamme.

As American troops advanced in early April 1945, the SS evacuated the sub-camp. The prisoners who were still able to walk were herded towards Bergen-Belsen. Those who were too weak – between 400 and 600 people – were forced into railway cars by the SS and transported away. According to research carried out by the International Tracing Service – now known as the Arolsen Archives – Jan was among these. The train came to a halt near Gardelegen, about 120 kilometers east of Hanover. They were surrounded by the Allies, and the railway network to the east had been destroyed. Trains from other camps also terminated here.

Gardelegen massacre

For several days, the SS forced thousands of people to endure the cramped conditions in the railway cars without any food. On 11 April, the doors were opened and the SS forced the survivors to march to Gardelegen along various routes. At least 373 died on the way or were shot dead; only a few managed to escape. On 13 April, the Nazis locked the remaining people in a barn on the outskirts of Gardelegen. Gerhard Thiele, the NSDAP district leader, in consultation with other officials, gave the order to kill the prisoners. They lit a fire in the barn. 1,016 people were burnt to death, suffocated, or were shot whilst trying to escape. The US Army reached the barn a day later, rescued the few survivors, and documented the crime. Gerhard Thiele managed to escape. In total, over 100 people took part in the Gardelegen massacre.

It is unclear exactly when Jan was murdered in or near Gardelegen. Not all of the nearly 1,600 bodies that were hastily buried by the Nazis around the small town could be identified later. In 1950, the authorities assumed that he was one of the unidentified individuals who, under the supervision of the US Army, was reburied by villagers shortly after his murder and who has remained buried in the cemetery of honor to this day.

Unlike Jan, his brother-in-law Louis Dehent survived his internment in German concentration camps. He returned to his wife Anna after the war ended. She spent her whole life waiting for her brother Jan to return. She died in 1988 without ever having learnt anything about his fate. The family are now planning to place his personal effects in the family grave and to have his name engraved on the gravestone.