German retribution against Poles who helped Jews

In the first years of the Second World War, German policy in relation to the "Jewish question" in occupied Poland was not coherent and consistent. Nevertheless, its fundamental aim was to isolate Jews, loot their property, exploit them through forced labour and, in the final stage, remove them completely from the land under the authority of the Third Reich. On that day, a meeting was held in Berlin led by SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, attended by the chief heads of the main departments of the General Security Police Office and commander of Einsatzgruppen operating in Poland. It was then established that all Jews living in the lands, which were to be incorporated into the Reich, would be resettled in central Poland. Mass deportations were to be preceded by removal of the Jewish population from rural areas and its concentration in larger urban centers. The first Jewish ghetto was established in October 1939 in Piotrków Trybunalski. The German propaganda attempted, among other things, to blame Jews for the outbreak of the war and the occupational shortages, as well as to dehumanize them in the eyes of Polish society, e. g. through accusations of spreading infectious diseases (e. g. poster "Jews – lice – typhoid typhus"). Polish and Soviet Jews. In December 1941, extermination of Jews from the Warta Country began in the extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem. == Retribution against Poles helping Jews ==

Criminal penalties for helping Jews . Photograph taken in summer 1945. In 1941, the rapid spread of infectious diseases in overpopulated ghettos and the general radicalisation of German anti-Jewish policy resulted in tightening of the isolation restrictions imposed on Polish Jews. Finally, in November 1941, the German police authorities issued the so-called Schießbefehl order, which authorised police officers to shoot all Jews who were outside the ghetto (including women and children). Historians estimate that in occupied Poland from 100 thousand In Warsaw, the number of "szmalcownik people", blackmailers and denunciators, often associated in well-organized gangs, was calculated at 3000–4000. In rural areas there were gangs — usually made up of criminals, members of the social margin and declared anti-Semites Soon afterward, orders with similar content were issued in all districts of the General Government, signed by local governors or SS and police leaders. In many cases, similar orders and announcements were also published by the lower administrative authorities. The announcement issued on November 10, 1941, by the governor of the Warsaw district, Dr Ludwig Fischer, was even more restrictive than Frank's regulation, as it provided for the death penalty for every Pole who "consciously grants shelter or otherwise helps the hiding Jews by providing accommodation (e.g., overnight accommodation), subsistence, by taking them to vehicles of all kinds". In this context, one can mention, among others, the announcement of SS Commander and Police Commander of the Warsaw district SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg of 5 September 1942 and the announcement of the district chief administrative officer of Przemyśl County Dr Heinischa of July 27, 1942, police decree of the Starosta of Sanok County, Dr Class of 14 September 1942, announcement of the City Starosta in Częstochowa E. Franke of September 24, 1942, In § 3 of these regulations, the threat of the death penalty is repeated for people providing shelter or food to Jews who hide outside the designated housing districts. At the same time, unspecified police sanctions (sicherheitspolizeiliche Maßnahmen) were announced against people who do not inform the occupation authorities about the known fact of Jewish presence outside the ghetto (in practice, this meant deportation to a concentration camp). At the end of 1942, a similar decree for the Białystok district was announced by gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch. Strict penalties for helping Jews were also imposed in the Warta Country. Enforcement of German ordinances According to the provisions of the Third Ordinance on Restrictions on Residence in the General Government and lower-ranking acts, the death penalty was aimed both at Poles who provided shelter to Jews, as well as at those who offered money, food, water, or clothing to escapees, provided medical assistance, provided transport or transferred correspondence prepared by the Jew. The highest penalties were imposed on people who helped Jews for altruistic reasons, as well as those who helped Jews for compensation or who were involved in commercial transactions with them. As a result of the invader's principle of collective responsibility, the families of carers and sometimes even entire local communities were threatened with retribution. Moreover, in the occupied Polish lands, the Germans created a system of blackmail and dependence, obliging Poles, under the threat of the most severe punishments, to report every case of hiding Jewish fugitives to the occupation authorities. In particular, Poles holding positions at the lowest levels of administration (village heads, commune heads, officials). The "2014 Record of the facts of repression against Polish citizens for the help of the Jewish population during World War II" indicates that those accused of supporting Jews also received punishments such as beatings, imprisonment, exile for forced labor, deportation to a concentration camp, confiscation of property, or fines. Sebastian Piątkowski, relying on preserved documents of the special court in Radom, pointed out that especially in the case of small and disposable forms of assistance – such as providing food, clothing or money to the escapees, indicating the way, accepting correspondence – the punishment could be limited to imprisonment or exile to a concentration camp. However, there are also numerous cases where the detection of the fugitive resulted in the execution of the whole Polish family, who took him under their roof, and the robbery and burning of their belongings. Frank's decree of October 15, 1941 stipulated that cases of aid to Jewish refugees would be dealt with by German special courts. Until 2014, historians were able to identify 73 Polish citizens, against whom special courts of the General Government conducted cases in this respect. Many times, however, the Germans refused to carry out even simplified court proceedings, and the Jews captured together with their Polish caregivers were murdered on the spot or at the nearest police station or military police station. Moreover, in the times of the People's Republic of Poland, no in-depth research was conducted into the problem of Polish aid to Jews. The first major publications on this subject appeared only in the 1960s. According to Grzegorz Berendt, the communist authorities did not, for various reasons, care about comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of aid or, more broadly, about Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War. The official historiography focused rather on the search for positive behavioural examples, which could then be used for propaganda on internal and international level. In 1968 he published a brochure "Forest of the Righteous. A charter from the history of rescuing Jews in occupied Poland", in which he presented 105 documented cases of crimes committed by Germans against Poles who saved Jews. Datner established that 343 Poles were murdered because of the help given to Jews, and in 242 cases the victim's name was established. Among the identified victims were 64 women and 42 children. The findings of the Commission's employees showed that 242 inhabitants of the Kraków District, 175 inhabitants of the Radom District, 141 inhabitants of the Warsaw District and 66 inhabitants of the Lublin District were among the victims. The number of 704 murdered did not include Poles murdered in villages, which were to be destroyed by the Germans due to support for Jews. In 2014, INR historians estimated that Bielawski's brochure and the preparation of Those Who Helped.... are "archaic", but they remain "still representative of the topic discussed". On the same day Marianna Rogozińska and her three-year-old son Peter fell into the hands of the Germans. Both of them were taken to the German Gendarmerie headquarters in Pilica Castle, where they were murdered after a brutal interrogation. • Adam Sztark – a Jesuit priest serving in Słonim. During the occupation, he called to help the Jews from the pulpit, collected money and valuables for them, organized "Aryan" documents, and helped hide and save an orphaned Jewish child. He was executed by the Germans in December 1942. • Mieczysław Wolski and Janusz Wysocki – caretakers of the so-called "Krysia" bunker in Warsaw's Ochota district, where in 1942–1944 about 40 Jews were hiding, including the historian Emanuel Ringelblum with his wife and son. On March 7, 1944, the hiding place was discovered by the Gestapo, and Mieczysław and Janusz together with those under their care were arrested. A few days later, all of them were shot in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. Some authors consider helping Jews as the reason of pacification of such villages as: Bór Kunowski (3/4 July 1943, 43 victims), Cisie (28 June 1943, 25 victims), Krobonosz (26 May 1942, 15 victims), Liszno (18 May 1942, 60 victims), Obórki (November 1942, at least several dozen victims), Parypse (22 May 1942, 8 victims), Przewrotne (14 March 1943, 36 victims), Staw (26 May 1942, 8 victims), Tarnów (May 1942, 40 victims), Widły (26 May 1942, several dozen victims), Wola Przybysławska (10 December 1942, 19 victims). == Repercussions ==

Analysing the impact of the German acts of retribution on the attitude of Poles towards Jewish refugees, one should take into account the fact that decisions on the possible granting of aid were taken in a situation where significant parts of the Polish nation were exterminated, and the entire ethnic Polish population remained under threat of Nazi terror. In some cases, the fear of denunciation and severe penalties resulted in the expulsion of fugitives into the hands of Germans. It also happened that Poles who, for various reasons, could not or did not want to hide Jewish fugitives, preferred to murder them instead of allowing them to seek refuge elsewhere. However, according to the historian Mateusz Szpytma, this crime took place in the neighbouring Sietsza village – in addition, most probably two years before the Ulmas' death. Numbers of those who helped and survivors Marek Arczyński believed that "in the conditions of the Nazi occupation terror, unprecedented elsewhere, saving Jews in Poland grew to an act of special sacrifice and heroism". However, in Polish society there were people willing to take such a risk. Gunnar S. Paulsson estimated that there were 280,000 to 360,000 Poles involved in various forms of aid to Jews, It is difficult to determine the number of Jews who survived the German occupation, hiding among Poles. Shmuel Krakowski claimed that not more than 20 thousand people survived on the Aryan side. Israel Gutman estimated that about 50 thousand Jews survived in the occupied territory of Poland, of which between 30 thousand and 35 thousand survived thanks to the help of Poles. According to estimates by Teresa Prekerowa, between 30 thousand and 60 thousand Jews survived by hiding among the Polish population ("with or without their help"). Grzegorz Berendt estimated that in occupied Poland about 50 thousand Jews "on the Aryan side" survived. Gunnar S. Paulsson, on the other hand, estimated that about 100 thousand Jews were hiding in occupied Poland, of which nearly 46 thousand managed to survive the war. According to him, 28 thousand Jews were hiding in Warsaw alone, of which nearly 11.5 thousand were saved. Comparison with the situation in other occupied countries in Europe Marek Arczyński pointed out that "in no occupied country did the Nazis use such far-reaching repressive and cruel terror for the help of the Jewish population as in Poland". Stefan Korboński claimed that in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, there was not a single case of death sentence imposed on a person helping Jewish fellow citizens. Only in Denmark there was an incident when a man was shot dead when he was helping Jews to get on a ferry to neutral Sweden. However, the Yad Vashem Institute points out that there are known cases of deaths of Western European citizens in concentration camps, to which they were deported due to aiding Jews. Nevertheless, the difference between the reality of occupied Poland and the situation in Western European countries may be measured by the fact that in Holland it was possible to organise public protests against deportations of the Jewish population. In Western Europe the number of helpers was similarly small, though the risk associated with these activities was incomparably lower. == References ==