View over Unisław Sugar Refinery. Working Commando of Stalag XXA in Toruń

Around Stalag XXA Thorn, also known as Stalag 20A or the POW Camp in Toruń, numerous labor detachments operated during World War II. Prisoners of war were sent to farms, factories, workshops, and industrial facilities throughout the region to perform forced labor for the German war economy.

Today, many of these locations have disappeared or have lost their original character. However, some places still preserve traces of the wartime past. One of them is Unisław, a village located approximately 30 kilometers north of Toruń (Thorn).

During the German occupation, the local sugar refinery became one of the workplaces connected with Stalag XXA Thorn. Prisoners from the POW camp in Toruń were assigned here as part of labor detachments. Their daily lives were shaped not only by exhausting work but also by the reality of captivity, separation from their families, and uncertainty about the future.

The sugar refinery where Stalag XXA prisoners worked

The former sugar refinery in Unisław is a place filled with stories that are slowly disappearing from collective memory. During the war, prisoners of different nationalities passed through this location, leaving behind traces of their presence that are difficult to reconstruct today.

Some prisoners did not only work in Unisław.. The village became a temporary home for men who had been brought thousands of kilometers away by the circumstances of war. Behind the walls of the refinery were countless individual experiences: moments of hardship, attempts to maintain everyday routines, relationships between prisoners and local inhabitants, and memories carried by survivors long after the war ended.

The history of this place shows that Stalag XXA Thorn was not limited to the main camp area in Toruń. Its network of labor detachments extended across the surrounding region, connecting many towns and villages with the history of the POW camp.

A disappearing witness of World War II history

I recently visited the former sugar refinery in Unisław and documented the remaining buildings. Unfortunately, their current condition raises questions about how much longer this important historical site will survive.

Every year, more traces of the wartime period disappear. Buildings that once witnessed the lives of prisoners from Stalag 20A are slowly deteriorating, and with them the physical evidence of thousands of forgotten stories.

These photographs are shared as a way of preserving the memory of the people who worked here and of the role that Unisław played in the history of Stalag XXA Thorn.

One small detail deserves special attention – the date formed from bricks in the wall. Such elements may seem insignificant, yet they connect us directly with the past and remind us that these buildings were created by real people and witnessed real events.

Preserving the memory of Stalag XXA and its labor detachments

Places like the former sugar refinery in Unisław are important reminders that the history of a prisoner-of-war camp is not limited to fences and barracks. The story of Stalag XXA Thorn is also the story of dozens of villages, workplaces, and people who became connected with the camp system during World War II.

Preserving these locations means preserving the memory of the prisoners who passed through them.

Just few hours to understand life in Stalag XXA(20A) in Torun

"I will always be grateful to Pawel for helping me understand better what happened to my father when he was captured by the German army after the fighting at Dunkirk. Like many former British POWs, Dad was reluctant to tell his children very much about what he had endured during the war. We knew he spent most of the war in German POW camps, in particular one in Poland. From his army records we discovered that camp was Staleg XX-A. I contacted Pawel at very short notice recently when I was in traveling with my husband in Europe. Pawel was able to meet me in Torun to walk me through the history of Staleg XX-A and some of the forts of Torun. My father, John Wilkinson, was with the British Expeditionary Force, serving in the Light Tank Regiment of the 1st East Riding Yeomanry. We believe he fought at Cassel in France before being captured. It was extraordinary for me to walk with Pawel at Torun where the British POWs disembarked, knowing my father would hav...

Thanks this trip we've discovered new facts about POW from Stalag XXA in 1945

That was wonderful trip. During three days we saw couple of places connected with POW path of Jack Stansfield. Moreover thanks his son Michael we saw notes with memories of last days in Stalag XXA in Torun. In opposit to all facts which says that prisoners left camp in late december 1945 Jack wrote that they started to march on 21 january! That means that lasts groups of POW left camp in 10 days before Torun was liberated. Fortunatley Jack survived afeter he escaped from march. He met russians army and polish partizants. Below we presents you short memories about Jack and trip to Poland... My father was called Jack Stansfield, he was born in August 1918. He was brought up in the market town of Malton in North Yorkshire where his parents were publicans. He joined the Territorial Army in March 1939 and was mobilised on the declaration of war. Jack enlisted in his local regiment joining the 5th Battalion of the Green Howards. After a short time at the Regimental HQ in Richmond, North...

Living conditions in Stalag XXA

Monthly bath in Stalag XXA Living conditions Lawrence Travers Dorins a former POW describes „fort XI was surrounded by a high bank and the fence around it with gates across the entrance road, on one side there was also a dry moat with a bridge on it. The bridge led to a tunnel” The fortress was covered with trees, bushes and earth so that the fortress could not be visible from the bird's eye. Prisoners slept in caponiers where initially were supposed to sleep Prussian soldiers. Yet PoW describes the rooms as if there were designed as rooms in the concentration camps. Rooms looked as semi tunnels. “The perpendicular walls were about 3m high and the height of the arched roof was about 5 m, wooden bunks provided sleeping spaces. Each room had only two small windows which obviously allowed no ventilation. Due to the end of the night the air was solid and everyone would have a headache due to oxygen starvation” .In those rooms kept approximately 32 men. There were three shelves whe...

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