Werner Kampe

Werner Adolf Kampe (1911–1974) was a Kreisleiter of the NSDAP, a SS Hauptsturmführer and a Mayor of Bydgoszcz between September 1939 and February 1941. He was a war criminal, responsible for the murder of Poles and Jews in Bydgoszcz in 1939. He additionally ordered the demolitions carried out in the area of Bydgoszcz Old Town during WWII.

Life Before 1939 Werner Adolf Kampe was born Werner Kamiński on 11 May 1911 in Nowy Dwór Gdański, then called Tiegenhof. He was the eldest son of Adolf Kamiński, a merchant, and Berta née Schwichtenberg. His father was killed in 1918, while fighting on a World War I front. Consequently, his mother, looking for providing sustenance, moved the family from Nowy Dwór Gdański to Berlin then Sopot. Werner attended various schools but was never interested in science: he only managed to receive a basic education.

In 1920, Berta Kamińska remarried Heinrich Freimann, a merchant. Werner stayed at the family's house till November 1927, when he was sent to learn a trade at Ertmann and Perlewitz, a clothing firm in Gdańsk. Here he started a professional career, holding different positions: salesman, branch manager and sales representative.

In October 1930, Werner, aged 19, joined the NSDAP in Gdańsk where his political activity quickly propelled him as the head of the section. In 1932, he lost his position at Ertmann and Perlewitz and found himself unemployed. Although he started to work in his parents' shop in Nowy Dwór Gdański, he had a lot of free time which he dedicated to immerse fully himself into the political activity of the NSDAP. Hence, Werner served in the office of propaganda, in the office of economic affairs and for a time, he even worked as Aide-de-camp to the Kreisleiter. During this period, he joined the SS, where eventually he reached the rank of Hauptsturmführer.

At his arriving, Kampe installed himself in the Town Hall, soon creating and managing the local Nazi party. He set his abode in 50 Gdańska street, though he also rented an apartment in the villa at 8a Sielanka, which was close to the seat of Selbstschutz at 7 Ossoliński Alley. He was regularly seen in the city SS headquarters set up at 48 Gdańska street. On 27 October 1939 Werner Kampe was officially appointed Mayor of Bydgoszcz.

The criminal actions carried out in the area of Bydgoszcz were looked with interest in Gdańsk and Berlin, thanks to regular visits that W. Kampe made to Albert Forster, gauleister of the province and to both Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels. Despite this result, four days later, Kampe asked Franz Froese, then municipal construction counselor, to organize the dismantlement of the synagogue by professionals as soon as possible. Eventually, the building demolition was completed by December 1939.

Furthermore, on 20 September 1939, Kampe demanded the liquidation of: the building of then Polish district office at 7 Słowackiego street; the monument to Henryk Sienkiewicz located in today's Jan Kochanowski Park in Bydgoszcz (replica from 1968); the monument to the Unknown Insurgent of the Greater Poland uprising in today's Bernardyńska street (rebuilt in 1968 on a design by Stanisław Horno-Popławski and Aleksander Dętkoś). The mass was celebrated on the morning of Monday 8 January 1940, and the demolition works started straight away.

Activity after WWII Escaping the war crimes investigations Since Kampe's name did not appear on the list of international war criminals issued by the CROWCASS, he was released by the Americans. It is presumed that he settled in Erfurt, in the then Soviet occupation zone of Germany, under an assumed identity.

His name is mentioned in the files of the former "Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland" for Bydgoszcz, as late as August 1946. On 30 November 1946 the city District Court issued a decision accusing Werner Kampe of war crimes. The proceedings sped up in spring 1947, when archives about Kampe's actions were discovered in the City Hall, establishing his role in the mass executions during the first months of the German occupation. On 27 May 1947 the investigating judge in Warsaw wrote to the director of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland in order to prosecute Werner Kampe together with Albert Forster, who was to be judged in 1948 by the Supreme National Tribunal .

Following this decision it appeared that the name of Kampe was not on the lists of war criminals wanted by Poland. In addition, the search carried out by the Polish military missions investigating German war crimes in the Western occupation zones did not bring results, since Werner was hidden in the Soviet zone at the time, a move that no one expected.

End of life in West Germany In 1954, Werner Kampe made his way to West Germany and settled in Hanover. Living in the city center at 18 Gustaw Adolf, he officially opened afterwards an insurance office under his real name.

During the "Brombergerprozess" in Munich which took place in 1966, the prosecutor charged Kampe with the murder of Bydgoszcz mayor Leon Barciszewski and his son. However, the court did not follow the indictment placed and only summoned him as a witness.

Krzysztof Kąkolewski, a Polish reporter, sought out Kampe in Hanover and asked for an interview. The latter refused; he only advised the journalist as follows:

Werner Kamiński alias "Werner Adolf Kampe" died in Hanover on 23 May 1974, aged 63.