Obóz szkoleniowy Polskich Kompanii Wartowniczych w Mannheim-Käfertal (1945-1947)

The Käfertal training centre, since April 1946 called the “Tadeusz Kościuszko Civilian Guard Training Center,” played an exceptional role in the history of the Polish Guards Companies of the US Army. Since January 1946, it trained companies to be used by the 7th American Army, and since the summer of 1946, after the dissolution of other such centres, it remained the only training centre catering for the whole American occupation zone. Throughout its existence, until the summer of 1947, more than 130 companies had been trained and partly also formed there. Regardless of its main function, Käfertal was also an important vocational education centre for the guards, as well as a place where the Polish cultural, literary, sport, educational and cooperative life developed. The centre was dissolved by the Americans in the summer of 1947, when the decision was made to dissolve the Polish guards companies and replace them with the international, and in fact German, industrial police. The Käfertal tradition, although limited to forming new units and complementing the existing ones, was continued for a few months by the Guard Company Replenishment Center in Fulda, Germany.