„Niedoszły Himmlerstadt”. O niemieckich planach przebudowy Zamościa i Zamojszczyzny
"The Unfulfilled Himmlerstadt". On German Plans to Reconstruct Zamość and the Zamość Region

Summary/Abstract: This article constitutes the first attempt to interpret the Zamość Aktion in the context of the broadly understood German initiatives in creating a new order in urban planning and architecture. Previous work on the Nazi architecture in the General Government concerned primarily Cracow, Warsaw and Oświęcim (Auschwitz). Zamość architecture in this period has not been of interest to researchers yet.Treating Zamość region as an experimental field for further activities by the Germans in the broadly understood Eastern territories influenced defining this territory as the SS Sonderlaboratorium in historiography. The organised campaign of the displacement of Poles was connected with introducing a new order in spatial planning, urban planning and architecture. The designing work was carried out by both German architects who came to Zamość during the war, and Polish designers. Compared to the community of architects in the territories annexed to the Reich, especially Warthegau, this situation was unique. Although in these areas Polish designers were also involved in the process, they occupied subordinate positions and only performed drawings that were later signed by their German supervisors.All initiatives undertaken in response to the specific needs of the occupying forces led to the improvement of standards in buildings located in the Zamość old town, neglected or destroyed during the Russian occupation and renovated from the outside in the second half of the 1930s. Also in the rural areas the German activities were limited to cleaning and repair works. The German population, settled in the homes of expelled Poles, citizens, was to live in the in the reality according to new rules – including the ordered space. Although only a few changes were introduced in the short span of four years, they were of great ideological importance and influenced promoting the Zamość region as an important „German bastion”.

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