Karolewo internment camp

Karolewo internment camp (German: Internierungslager Karlshof) was a makeshift concentration camp for residents of Krajna, established by the German Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz on the estate of Karlshof (now Karolewo) near Vandsburg (now Więcbork). It operated from mid-September to mid-December 1939.

The internment camp in Karolewo held residents of modern Sępólno County and neighboring counties, arrested in the first months of the German occupation as part of the so-called Intelligenzaktion Pommern. In the camp, they were starved, forced into exhausting labor, and subjected to inhumane treatment. The Internierungslager Karlshof was primarily created for the clandestine liquidation of prisoners – most of the detained Poles were executed in nearby forests. Post-war exhumations uncovered the remains of 1,781 people murdered in the camp in the autumn of 1939. Some sources suggest the number of victims may have reached several thousand. The Karolewo camp is considered one of the largest sites of execution of the Polish population in Pomerelia during World War II. It is also sometimes referred to as a "destruction camp".