Looting Treblinka Site Facts Bechta

Narodowy Sily Zbrojny na Podlasiu, by Mariusz Bechta i Leszek Zebrowski (eds.) 1997

Insights into NSZ Guerrilla Warfare, the NSZ and Polish-Jewish Relations, Treblinka-Looting Punishments, etc

THE NATIONAL ARMED FORCES IN THE PODLASIE REGION is the title of this Polish-language book. The geographic area in question is in the extreme eastern-central part of Poland as defined by her post-WWII boundaries.

The stiff-armed Roman salute was once widely used by non-Nazi organizations, including the pre-WWII SN (Stronnictwo Narodowe). (vol. 1, p. 27). Only later did it acquire the connotation of the “Heil Hitler!” salute.

During the WWII German occupation, the NSZ guerillas fought Germans and disarmed them (e. g., vol. 1, p. 56), stole German weaponry through railway employees (vol. 1, p. 106), and gathered firearms dropped by the fleeing Soviets in mid-1941 (vol. 1, p. 153). Its units assassinated a Ukrainian collaborationist village mayor (vol. 1, pp. 115-116), some Blue Policemen (vol. 1, p. 109), and would-be or actual Soviet-Communist assassins of Polish guerilla leaders (vol. 1, p. 86, 92). Perhaps the most spectacular NSZ guerilla action was a daring prison raid at Siedlce. The NSZ guerillas, some dressed as Germans, fooled the Germans further by “acting German” (barking orders in anger), overcame them, and freed a number of captured NSZ guerillas. (vol. 2, pp. 38-61).

The small Underground organization Miecz i Plug (SWORD AND PLOW) has commonly been misunderstood as a German-collaborationist unit. While some of its leaders were German (and Soviet) agents, the organization itself was not collaborationist, and continued fighting long after the end of the German occupation. (vol. 1, p. 134).

Soon after the Soviet “liberation” of Poland, the NKVD engaged in massive arrests and murder of Poles. The uncovering of a mass grave in 1990 is described. The NSZ (N.S.Z.) guerrillas continued fighting for Poland’s freedom for many years after the 1944 second Soviet occupation and the Teheran-Yalta betrayal of Poland. This work details the horrible Communist persecutions of these men, some of which continued decades after the end of resistance. NSZ guerilla resistance against the Soviets and their Polish Communist stooges was not eliminated in this part of Poland until, at earliest, mid 1952. (vol. 2, pp. 304-305).

UNDEMONIZING DMOWSKI: THE FACTS

Now consider Poles and Jews. The reader may be surprised to learn that Roman Dmowski aided a Jewish student in a rabbinical school. (vol. 1, p. 18). The boycotts of Jewish merchants were deemed a necessity for breaking the Jewish economic monopoly. The problem went back to the tsarist-Russian rule of eastern Poland. The tsar had dumped large numbers of Russified Jews (the Litvaks) into the area as an anti-Polish weapon. The high concentration of Jews in the towns had imposed economic strangulation on the Poles. (vol. 1, p. 18, pp. 30-on).

The ranks of the NSZ included Polonized Jews (vol. 1, p. 33), quite unlike the racial anti-Semitism of the Nazis. NSZ members are on record for aiding Jews during the German occupation (e. g., vol. 2, p. 267), as did members of the ONR, as noted by Jewish historian Ringelblum. (vol. 2, p. 83).

JEWISH GESTAPO AGENTS IN ACTION

A set of armored vehicles containing SS, other Germans, and two Jewish informers (including Kelman, a locally-known Jew) drove into the manorial farm of Paulinow on February 23, 1943. The informers pointed out the helpers of Jews, and the Germans murdered 47 Poles for this reason. It is not known if the Jewish informers had earlier been broken by Gestapo tortures. (vol. 2, p. 22).

THE NSZ ON THE JEWS’ HOLOCAUST

Accusations of NSZ complicity and delighting in the German murders of Jews are baseless and scurrilous. In fact, NSZ publications condemned these acts. (vol. 2, p. 79). However, these condemnations were not extensive because the first NSZ publications came out in 1943, which was after most Polish Jews had already been exterminated and because the scale of this action was not generally appreciated at the time. “Jewish passivity” was scorned, and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was considered “too late”. (vol. 2, p. 82).

The NSZ and other Poles did kill Jews, but for justified reasons, notably self-defense. Jews who had fled from the ghettos, and become de-moralized by their experiences, had formed large bands that engaged in banditry—alone or as part of the deliberate “revolutionary banditry” (vol. 1, p. 68-on) of the Communist GL-AL bands. They savagely plundered, destroyed the properties of, and often murdered Poles. (vol. 2, p. 21-on). One of the best-known of these was the 80-man Jewish-Communist band led by “Serafim”. Editor Bechta commented: “From the very beginning Jewish partisans had become an integral part of the Communists’ strategy.” (vol. 2, p. 25). Sometimes the Germans armed the local Polish farmers for self-defense. (vol. 2, p. 32). The AK (A.K.)(vol 2., p. 36) and NSZ (N.S.Z.)(e. g., vol. 1, pp. 61-62, vol. 2, p. 77) also liquidated the bands.

After the Soviet “liberation” of Poland, Jews played a disproportionate role in the Communist security forces. For instance, sub-author Mikolajczuk lists 10 known Jews, two of whom were in the top leadership positions, in the UB (Bezpieka) of the local town of Siedlce. (vol. 2. p. 192).

WARTIME LOOTING IN PROPER PERSPECTIVE

Recently, Jan T. Gross, in his ZLOTE ZNIWA (GOLDEN HARVEST) has called attention to Poles looting potential Jewish belongings at the Treblinka site, leading the reader to believe that this was typical Polish behavior. It was not. The NSZ punished those who engaged in such conduct, imposing fines on “the people who profaned the Treblinka graves.” (February 26-27, 1946)(vol. 2, p. 201), just as it did the same to Communist-serving Poles. [Earlier, the Red Army, having driven out the Germans, continued to linger in the area, and conducted the initial (and major!) looting operation at the Treblinka site, even detonating explosives to gouge large holes in the surface.]