Betrayals Jews By Poles Bogus Accusation By Engelking

“Szanowny Panie Gistapo”, by Barbara Engelking. 2003

Denunciations of Polish Citizens Other Polish Citizens BEFORE the German-Made Holocaust. Used Misleadingly By Jan Grabowski in His JUDENJAGD

DEAR MR. GESTIPO [GESTAPO] is the title of this Polish-language book. It features some surviving anonymous denunciation letters written to the Gestapo, from 1940-1941, in the Warsaw area.

THESE DENUNCIATION LETTERS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GERMAN-MADE HOLOCAUST–WHICH CAME LATER!

Neo Stalinist Jan Grabowski, in his book on the JUDENJAGD (HUNT FOR THE JEWS, pp. 266-267), cites this book. This is misleading–at least to the average, low-information reader, who is led to believe that these acts of Polish denunciation were connected with the Nazi German extermination of Jews. They were not. They had NOTHING to do with the Holocaust because they PREDATED the Holocaust!

Note that the very LAST entry in this book is from June 23, 1941. (p. 5). The systematic mass shootings of Jews, by Germans, did not start until late June 1941, and then much further east, on the new Russian front, and with news arriving in Poland much later. Systematic Nazi mass gassings of Jews did not begin until very late 1941 (at Chelmno, in German-occupied northwest Poland), and not until Spring or Summer 1942 in the General Government (German-occupied central Poland).

There is more. The German death penalty for Jews caught beyond the Warsaw Ghetto did not begin until November 10, 1941 (p. 46), long after the most recent entry cited in this book. Consequently, Poles who denounced Jews could not possibly, before this date, been unknowingly or knowingly sending these Jews to their deaths!

But what do the facts matter? So long as it makes for a better Jewish-victimization, Polish-villainy story, that is all that counts.

POLISH DENOUNCERS? OR THE WORK OF VOLKSDEUTSCHE?

A major shortcoming of this work is that it admittedly cannot differentiate betrayals coming from ethnic Poles, and those coming from non-Poles (such as VOLKSDEUTSCHE). (p. 62).

HOLOCAUST SUPREMACISM SPAWNS BELITTLING OF POLISH SUFFERING–YET AGAIN

In common with other like-minded authors, Barbara Engelking departs from objectivity in that she downplays the severity of the German occupation against Poles. She soft-pedals the Gestapo, and cites their “low” numbers. (p. 53). Tell the swimmer in shark-infested waters that there are “only a few sharks”. Finally, the German terror against Poles was wreaked by Germans of ALL affiliations, and not only the Gestapo!

THE DENUNCIATION LETTERS TO THE GESTAPO IN PERSPECTIVE

The scale of the denunciations should be kept in perspective. Only a few denunciation letters have survived. On the other hand, the letters came from a huge population base (Warsaw and environs). Over 90% of the denunciation letters show obvious errors in spelling or grammar. (p. 64). This is consistent with the premise that most (though not all) Poles who collaborated with the Nazis were low-character or marginal members of Polish society.

Author Barbara Engelking places collaboration in a broader context. For instance, in German-occupied France, there were an estimated 3-5 million denunciatory letters written to the Germans and the French collaborationist police. (p. 14). Quite a few.

How much damage did the Polish denunciations actually cause? Against anecdotal claims of half (or more) German arrests stemming from denunciations, actual estimates are much less (17% down to 2%: p. 27).

DENUNCIATIONS WERE GENERALLY MOTIVATED BY SELFISH PERSONAL GAIN, NOT AGREEMENT WITH NAZI GERMAN IDEOLOGY OR POLICIES!

Few of the denunciations were potentially motivated by ideological conformity to German Nazism, as opposed to servile obedience. (See p. 61, 105). The denunciation letters tended to revolve around personal matters, such as wanting to get to get rid of an unwanted spouse, lover, rival, etc. (p. 17). The denunciations addressed various offenses, such as possessing weaponry, concealing escaped Soviet POWs and Jews, and Poles conducting surreptitious commerce, as with Jews, etc. (p. 20, 30). They also included trivial statements, by someone, against Germans. (p. 35). Engelking elaborates on these categories in some detail.

Bogus denunciations were apparently common enough to hamper the Gestapo. (p. 25). [Could at least some of the bogus letters have been written by the Underground as decoys in order to tie-up or mislead the Gestapo?]

Some figures on denunciation letters are instructive. Of the collection available to the author, 107 revolved around political matters, 57 were property-related ones, and 86 involved Jews. The latter was not only for Jews living beyond the ghetto, but also for Jews failing to wear the Star, and for Jews engaged in illegal speculation or smuggling. (p. 29. For comparable figures, showing that only a minority of the denounced were Jews, see p. 100).

The foregoing figures, if representative, demonstrate that Poles did not exhibit any tendency to target Jews preferentially for denunciation. In fact, few denunciatory letters show obvious anti-Semitic sentiments (p. 100-on), as Barbara Engelking defines the term, and anti-Semites were not the only ones denouncing Jews. Furthermore, as candidly pointed out Engelking, some of the denouncers of Jews (and of Poles) were themselves Jews. (pp. 48-51).

DENUNCIATIONS AN UNREMARKABLE PRODUCT OF POLISH DEMORALIZATION AND HOPELESSNESS

The date of the entries in this book, ending in mid-1941, is important for at least two reasons. To begin with, the Poles ratting on their neighbors to the Gestapo were functioning just when Polish morale was at its lowest. Poland’s rapid 1939 defeat was already a distant memory. The war would have no quick end. Germany had rolled over Europe. Poland’s “ally” France had fallen, and Poland’s “ally” Britain seemed on the verge of being knocked out of the war. The German-Soviet alliance appeared to be permanent. Germany victory in the war seemed inevitable, and a resurrected Poland looked all but impossible. There was no hope for an improvement in the Poles’ horrible conditions under German occupation in the near future, if ever. The Poles were simply acting like an oppressed people stripped of their dignity (as were Jews, who were acted in similar fashion in the ghettos).