Betrayers Poles Chose Collaboration Over Death Pattinson

War in a Twilight World: Partisan and Anti-partisan Warfare in Eastern Europe, 1939-45, by Juliette Pattinson. 2010

Poles Collaborating With the Germans Had Usually Been Broken By Gestapo Tortures, and Then Been Given the Choiceless Choice of Collaboration or Death

This book examines three areas of German-ruled Eastern Europe: the western Soviet Union, central Poland, and Yugoslavia. My review is limited to the first two.

ANTI-CIVILIAN PARTISAN ACTION IN WESTERN BELORUSSIA

The following refers to territories, part of which were part of pre-WWII Poland, and includes the Bananovichi (Baranowicze) area.

Instead of emphasizing the cruelties of the Gestapo, authors Alexander Brakel (pp. 87-88) and Erich Haberer (p. 120) focus on the savagery of Soviet partisans against the local population. This included systematic and large-scale requisitioning, pillaging, and looting of goods, as well as the murder of civilians.

Unfortunately, the authors do not carry their analyses far enough. They do not mention the massacre of the Polish village of Koniuchy, by Jewish-Soviet bands. This happened in retaliation for the earlier defense, by Koniuchy residents, against looting forays by Jews and Soviets. For details, please click on, and read my detailed review, of Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas.

SCOPE OF POLISH GUERRILLA ACTION AGAINST THE GERMAN OCCUPANTS

Author Paul Latawski reviews the policies and actions of the A. K. (ARMIA KRAJOWA). He comments, (quote) Given the large price to be paid by the civilian population in the form of reprisals for ARMIA KRAJOWA armed action, partisan warfare was something to be conducted by specialist formations and only where military gains could justify civilian losses. (unquote). (p. 139).

The foregoing, although elementary to anyone with a modicum of knowledge about WWII Polish guerrilla warfare, is topical in ways not mentioned by the author. The oft-quoted Jan T. Gross has recently asserted that Poles killed more Jews than Germans during WWII. This is grossly absurd at multiple levels. First of all, there are no reliable estimates on how many Germans and Jews were killed by Poles. Second, the two are not remotely comparable. When bands of fugitive Jews stole from Poles, the Poles could defend themselves by killing those Jews–usually without risking reprisals. But when groups of Germans stole from Poles, the Poles could usually do nothing more than submit, as fighting back would only mean that the Germans would turn around and kill more Poles. On this basis, it would hardly be remarkable if indeed Poles had killed fewer Germans than Jews. In addition, Gross’ argument can be turned around by pointing out that Jews killed more Poles than Germans!

THE GESTAPO SPY NETWORK IN THE RADOM AREA

This chapter focuses on German anti-partisan espionage in Tomaschow (Tomaszow) Mazowiecki. This is based on declassified German police files. The author builds upon some cited works of historians Richard Lucas and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. (e. g, p. 159, 174).

Unfortunately, author Hubbard-Hall uncritically cites some writers (p. 175) who have made the fallacious statement that there was no Polish Quisling because the Germans did not want one. They most certainly did, but all the Poles of prewar stature refused to collaborate. Please click on, and read my detailed review, of Hans Frank’s Diary.

CAPTURED POLES: CHOICELESS CHOICE: COLLABORATION OR DEATH

The Gestapo in the Tomaszow Mazowiecki area got some Poles to turn informant through often-considerable monetary payments. (p. 156, 165). However, the majority of those Poles who had betrayed Poland had been forced to do so. They had fallen in German hands, been broken by torture, and given the choice between collaboration and death. (pp. 162-162). This fact needs to be extended. How many Poles who denounced fugitive Jews to the Germans had also first been “processed” in this manner? In addition, the reader should be aware of the fact that, in Polish Underground lingo, a Polish guerrilla who fell into German hands, and resurfaced, was SPALONE (burned up), and suspected of having been turned into a confidante of the Gestapo.

The author comments, (quote) Those who were recruited were in most cases arrested members of partisan groups or local people who had links with such groups. The resolve of possible new recruits soon crumbled when they were subjected to the brutal interrogation methods of the Gestapo. Interrogation methods ranged from beatings.., sleep deprivation, a simple diet of bread and water, a pitch-black cell and exhausting exercises. Those who chose to defy the Gestapo by not collaborating ultimately signed their own death warrant. (unquote). (pp. 162-163).]

WHY THE GERMANS USED ETHNIC POLES

Author Claire M. Hubbard-Hall states that the Gestapo resorted to ethnic Poles as informers because Jewish informers commonly could not be trusted (p. 163; but see p. 165), and because Volksdeutsche often could not win the trust of Poles. (p. 163). This may indeed have been the Gestapo policy in the geographic area of her purview, but should not be generalized to all of German-occupied Poland. See the detailed, online book, PATTERNS OF COOPERATION, COLLABORATION AND BETRAYAL: JEWS, GERMANS AND POLES IN OCCUPIED POLAND DURING WORLD WAR II.

EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMERS

The author cites a document which indicates that over a third of the arrests of A. K. members, by the Gestapo at Tomaszow Mazowiecki, was because of tips supplied by informers. (p. 172). She does not indicate what led to the arrests of the remaining two-thirds.

THE POLISH UNDERGROUND FIGHTS BACK

During the German occupation, the Polish Underground pronounced thousands of death sentences upon collaborators. (p. 173). The Gestapo replaced Underground-executed collaborators with newly-recruited ones.

The Polish Underground, if anything, was even more undaunted. Whenever Underground leaders and members were lost to the Gestapo, there were many Poles waiting in the wings to replace them. (p. 169, 172).