40 studies / 54 · Kraków-Kobierzyn and Auschwitz-Birkenau
Kobierzyn: Starvation, Deportation and Killing of Hospital Patients
1939–1942; liquidation, 23–24 June 1942 · Killing patients, camp violence and experiments
The German liquidation of the psychiatric hospital in Kobierzyn did not begin with the final transport. Patients had first been worn down by restrictions on food and medicines. In June 1942 those remaining were divided according to whether they could be transported: most were murdered after deportation to Auschwitz, while people who remained in their beds were killed in the hospital. The cover story was that they were being transferred. [1] [2]
Editorial account based on the sources listed below. Sources checked: 5 September 2026.
- Victims and toll
- 535 patients deported and murdered at Auschwitz, and 30 bedridden patients killed on site according to the IPN; this is not the complete total of deaths at the hospital under occupation.
- Perpetrators
- The German management of the institution, including Aleksander Kroll, and SS functionaries; responsibility for specific injections requires cautious attribution.
- Documented methods
- deliberate starvation and restriction of treatment · deportation under the pretext of transfer to another institution · gassing and lethal injections
Destruction before liquidation
The history prepared by today's hospital describes drastic restrictions on rations and access to medicine. In 1941, 91 Jewish patients were also removed. They were not people from the June transport: distinguishing the stages prevents counting the same victims in different operations. Before the final liquidation, the institution had 565 patients. [2]
The false transfer
The IPN reconstructs preparations directed by Aleksander Kroll. Polish doctors were removed from the patients and deprived of their records. A transfer to Drewnica was announced, but on 23 June 1942 patients were led out for transport under SS supervision. Five hundred and thirty-five people were sent to Auschwitz; they died in the gas chamber at Birkenau. Thirty bedridden patients were left behind and killed by injections. The identification of Werner Beck as the person who administered the injections appears in the study as a supposition, not a certain finding. [1]
What survived in the institution's history
The hospital chronicle states that deportees were taken in cattle cars and killed at Auschwitz without being registered. It also recalls Waleria Białońska, hidden by staff in a wardrobe and secretly taken out to the countryside. This is a specific story of saving a person during the planned liquidation. After the patients were removed, the buildings served German formations and military institutions. [2]
The total for the last operation does not include all earlier deaths from hunger or the separate fate of Jewish patients. The number 565 must not be presented as the complete number of Polish victims throughout the occupation: the cited studies do not provide such a breakdown by nationality. [1] [2]
Limits of the findings
The figures concern different stages. A detailed Polish total by nationality does not follow from the brief studies used. The name of the doctor who administered lethal injections is not treated here as indisputable. [1] [2]
Sources and notes
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opracowanie instytucjonalne. 80. rocznica likwidacji przez Niemców Zakładu dla Umysłowo i Nerwowo Chorych w Kobierzynie. IPN Kraków.
Use of this source: Przygotowanie likwidacji, Kroll, transport 535 osób, zabicie 30 chorych.
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opracowanie szpitalne. Historia szpitala. Szpital Kliniczny im. dr. Józefa Babińskiego SPZOZ w Krakowie.
Use of this source: Głodzenie, brak leków, etapy likwidacji, brak rejestracji w Auschwitz i ocalenie Walerii Białońskiej.
How we assess sources
The evidence base consists primarily of Polish scholarly publications, investigative findings, archives, museums and documented witness accounts. Reliability is assessed through the document’s provenance, scholarly method and the ability to check the finding. Statements by perpetrators and family accounts of perpetrators require especially critical comparison with other material. Two pages from the same institution may repeat one finding; they are not automatically treated as independent confirmation.
Full methodology