Polokaust Already in 1939 War Datner

Crimes Committed by the Wehrmacht During the September Campaign, by Szymon Datner. 1962.

The First Stages of the Polokaust: A Summary of German (Not “Nazi”) Crimes During Their 1939 Conquest of Poland

This small book represents a summary of detailed ongoing research on the German Army’s (not only SS and Gestapo’s) crimes against Polish and Jewish civilians and disarmed POWs. Coverage in this work begins with the initial German attacks on September 1, 1939, through the end of the period of military occupation (October 26, 1939: p. 47). Under the subsequent German civilian rule over Poland, the atrocities only intensified. They were the first stages of what now is sometimes called the Polokaust.

THE GERMANS SET THE PRECEDENT FOR TERROR BOMBING OF CIVILIANS

The Luftwaffe bombed at least 158 open towns and settlements in Poland (p. 28), dwarfing the much-publicized tragedies of Guernica, Rotterdam, and Coventry. In the town of Sulejow, which was devoid of military targets, the Luftwaffe killed 600-1,500 Polish civilians by strafing and bombing. (p. 29). Oddly enough Wielun and its 1,200 killed civilians are not mentioned by Datner.

HITLER’S DIRECT ORDER FOR GERMANS TO KILL POLES INDISCRIMINATELY

German propaganda had fabricated tales of Polish atrocities against Germans in order to induce Germans to “take revenge”. The Fuhrer gave a directive, dated October 4, 1939 and printed out in full (p. 44) in which he gave amnesty to any Germans who committed crimes against Poles owing to “the bitterness in connection with the atrocities committed the Poles.” (p. 44). Much earlier, however, before the start of hostilities, Hitler had given an order for the German forces “to kill all men, women, and children of the Polish race and language without mercy or pardon.” (p. 43). (Nuremberg Document 003-L).

Many of the German atrocities were conducted as reprisals against legitimate wartime armed Polish resistance, as if the Germans resented even the notion that anyone would have the audacity to oppose them! Datner tabulates over 60 different incidents (date, location, and number of victims: pp. 11-17) where the German Army murdered disarmed Polish POWs (totaling a bare-minimum of nearly 2,000 victims). He also provides a district–district list of murders of civilians, arriving at a total bare-minimum of nearly 12,000 Polish and Jewish civilians known murdered the Wehrmacht. (p. 41). However, his figures were no means complete even in terms of the data that was still coming in when he wrote this work-in-progress in 1962.

THE HIDEOUS CRUELTIES OF THE GERMANS

Many of the victims of German crimes suffered horrible deaths (see p. 9 for methods and locations). The Germans would often herd civilians into buildings, torch them, and then shoot anyone who got out. Sometimes the Germans would deliberately run over people with tanks. [I can relate. My 9 year-old self was present at what probably was a 25th-anniversary commemoration of the 1939 war. An eyewitness broke down and cried hysterically when he recounted seeing disarmed POWs being forced to lie down and get crushed under the treads of tanks. I remember most the hatred of the German that came over my little self, and the ghastly revenge that I would conduct were I able to do so.]

THE ESCALATING GERMAN DISREGARD FOR EVEN THE MOST ELEMENTARY CIVILIZED NORMS

The Geneva Convention continued to be flouted. Jewish POWs were “freed”, but sent to the ghettos to eventually perish with the other Jews. Those Polish POWs who were not murdered were often deprived of their POW status and made into forced laborers. Polish POWs who escaped were, upon recapture, sent to concentration camps and hung. Plans were made in 1944 to send all the remaining incarcerated Polish POWs to concentration camps, but the impending German defeat prevented implementation of these plans. (p. 46).

EARLY GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION: PASSING THE BUCK–THE GERMANS DODGE BLAME AND SHIFT BLAME

After the war, German generals–not surprisingly–claimed that they knew nothing about the atrocities being committed by their underlings. Datner points out the obvious–that this is impossible. The German soldier was extremely regimented, and could do nothing without the explicit permission of superior officers. In fact, orders to kill unarmed Polish civilians, under various pretexts, can be traced not only to Hitler (mentioned earlier), but also to the likes of Reichenau, von Bock, and Brauchitsch. (p. 43; see also p. 25).