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Main article: Collaboration in German-occupied Poland
Polish resistance poster announcing the execution of several Polish collaborators and blackmailers (szmalcowniks), September 1943Unlike the situation in other German-occupied European countries, where the Germans installed collaborationist authorities, in occupied Poland there was no puppet government.[74][75][76][77][78][79] Poland as a polity never surrendered to the Germans, instead evacuating its government and armed forces via Romania and Hungary and by sea to allied France and Great Britain,[80] while German-occupied Polish territory was either annexed outright by Nazi Germany or placed under German administration as the General Government.[81]
Shortly after the German invasion of Poland, the Nazi authorities ordered the mobilization of prewar Polish officials and the Polish police (the Blue Police), who were forced, under penalty of death, to work for the German occupation authorities.[82] The primary task of the officials was to run the day-to-day administration of the occupied territories; and of the Blue Police, to act as a regular policeforce dealing with criminal activities. The Germans also used the Blue Police to combat smuggling and resistance and to round up (łapanka) random civilians for forced labor and to apprehend Jews (in German, Judenjagd, "hunting Jews").[83] While many officials and police reluctantly followed German orders, some acted as agents for the Polish resistance.[84][85]
The Polish Underground State's wartime Special Courts investigated 17,000 Poles who collaborated with the Germans; about 3,500 were sentenced to death.[86][77] Some of the collaborators – szmalcowniks – blackmailed Jews and their Polish rescuers and assisted the Germans as informers, turning in Jews and Poles who hid them, and reporting on the Polish resistance.[87]
Many prewar Polish citizens of German descent voluntarily declared themselves Volksdeutsche ("ethnic Germans"), and some of them committed atrocities against the Polish population and organized large-scale looting of property.[88][89]
The Germans set up Jewish-run governing bodies in Jewish communities and ghettos – Judenräte (Jewish councils) that served as self-enforcing intermediaries for managing Jewish communities and ghettos; and Jewish ghetto police (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst), which functioned as auxiliary police forces tasked with maintaining order and combating crime.[90] The Germans used the Judenrats to register Jews for deportation to ghettos;[91] and the Jewish ghetto police, to disrupt Jewish resistance in the ghettos and to facilitate deportation of Jews to German concentration camps.[90]Additionally, Jewish collaborationist groups such as Żagiew and Group 13 worked directly for the German Gestapo, informing on Polish resistance efforts to save Jews.[92][93]
Unlike in most European countries occupied by Nazi Germany—where the Germans sought and found true collaborators among the locals—in occupied Poland there was no official collaboration either at the political or at the economic level.[53][54] Poland also never officially surrendered to the Germans.[55] Under German occupation, the Polish army continued to fight underground, as Armia Krajowa and forest partisans – Leśni. The Polish resistance movement in World War II in German-occupied Poland was the largest resistance movement in all of occupied Europe.[56] As a result, Polish citizens were unlikely to be given positions of any significant authority.[53][54] The vast majority of the pre-war citizenry collaborating with the Nazis was the German minority in Poland which was offered one of several possible grades of the German citizenship.[57] In 1939, before the German invasion of Poland, 800,000 people declared themselves as members of the German minority in Poland mostly in Pomerania and Western Silesia. During the war there were about 3 million former Polish citizens of German origin who signed the official list of Volksdeutsche.[54] People who became Volksdeutsche were treated by Poles with special contempt, and the fact of them having signed the Volksliste constituted high treason according to the Polish underground law.
There is a general consensus among historians that there was very little collaboration with the Nazis among the Polish nation as a whole, compared to other German-occupied countries.[53][54][58] Depending on a definition of collaboration (and of a Polish citizen, based on ethnicity and minority status), scholars estimate number of "Polish collaborators" at around several thousand in a population of about 35 million (that number is supported by the Israeli War Crimes Commission).[59] The estimate is based primarily on the number of death sentences for treason by the Special Courts of the Polish Underground State. Some estimates are higher, counting in all members of the German minority in Poland and any former Polish citizens declaring their German ethnicity (Volksdeutsche), as well as conscripted members of the Blue Police, low-ranking Polish bureaucrats employed in German occupational administration, and even workers in forced labor camps (ex. Zivilarbeiter and Baudienst). Most of the Blue Police were forcibly drafted into service; nevertheless, a significant number acted as spies for Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa.[58] John Connelly quoted a Polish historian (Leszek Gondek) calling the phenomenon of Polish collaboration "marginal" and wrote that "only relatively small percentage of Polish population engaged in activities that may be described as collaboration when seen against the backdrop of European and world history".[58]
The anti-Jewish actions of szmalcownicy were very harmful to the Polish Jews as well as the gentile Poles aiding them. Anti-Jewish collaboration of Poles was particularly widespread and effective in the rural areas.[citation needed] It is estimated that some 200 thousand hiding Jews died in 1942-1945 in direct result of this collaboration.[citation needed] The collaboration by some Polish Jews, who belonged to Żagiew, was also harmful to both Jewish and ethnic Polish Underground.
In October 1939, the Nazis ordered the mobilization of the pre-war Polish police to the service of the occupational authorities. The policemen were to report for duty or face death penalty.[60] Blue Police was formed. At its peak in 1943, it numbered around 16,000.[61] Its primary task was to act as a regular police force and to deal with criminal activities, but were also used by the Germans in combating smuggling, resistance, and in measures against the Polish (and Polish Jewish) population: for example, it was present in łapankas (rounding up random civilians for labor duties) and patrolling for Jewish escapees from the ghettos. Nonetheless many individuals in the Blue Police followed German orders reluctantly, often disobeyed German orders or even risked death acting against them.[62][63][64] Many members of the Blue Police were in fact double agents for the Polish resistance.[65][66] Some of its officers were ultimately awarded theRighteous among the Nations awards for saving Jews.[67][68]
Following Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, German forces quickly overran the territory of Poland controlled by the Soviets since their joint invasion of Poland in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. A number of people collaborating with the Soviets before Operation Barbarossa were killed by local people. Belief in the Żydokomuna stereotype, combined with the German Nazi encouragement for expression of anti-Semitic attitudes, was a principal cause of massacres of Jews by gentile Poles in Poland's northeastern Łomża province in the summer of 1941, including the massacre at Jedwabne.[69][70]
In 1944 Germans clandestinely armed a few regional Armia Krajowa (AK) units operating in the area of Vilnius in order to encourage them to act against the Soviet partisans in the region; in Nowogrodek district and to a lesser degree in Vilnius district (AK turned these weapons against the Nazis during Operation Ostra Brama).[40][71] Such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidence the type of ideological collaboration as shown by Vichy regime in France or Quisling regime in Norway.[62] The Poles main motivation was to gain intelligence on German morale and preparedness and to acquire much needed equipment.[72]There are no known joint Polish-German actions, and the Germans were unsuccessful in their attempt to turn the Poles toward fighting exclusively against Soviet partisans.[62] Further, most of such collaboration of local commanders with the Germans was condemned by AK headquarters.[62] Tadeusz Piotrowski quotesJoseph Rothschild saying "The Polish Home Army was by and large untainted by collaboration" and adds that "the honor of AK as a whole is beyond reproach".[62]
One partisan unit of Polish right-wing National Armed Forces, the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade, decided to tacitly cooperate with the Germans in late 1944. It ceased hostile actions against the Germans for a few months, accepted logistic help and withdrew from Poland into Czechoslovakia with German approval (where they resumed hostilities against the Germans) in late stages of the war in order to avoid capture by the Soviets.[73]
Polish resistance poster announcing the execution of several Polish collaborators and blackmailers (szmalcowniks), September 1943Unlike the situation in other German-occupied European countries, where the Germans installed collaborationist authorities, in occupied Poland there was no puppet government.[74][75][76][77][78][79] Poland as a polity never surrendered to the Germans, instead evacuating its government and armed forces via Romania and Hungary and by sea to allied France and Great Britain,[80] while German-occupied Polish territory was either annexed outright by Nazi Germany or placed under German administration as the General Government.[81]
Shortly after the German invasion of Poland, the Nazi authorities ordered the mobilization of prewar Polish officials and the Polish police (the Blue Police), who were forced, under penalty of death, to work for the German occupation authorities.[82] The primary task of the officials was to run the day-to-day administration of the occupied territories; and of the Blue Police, to act as a regular policeforce dealing with criminal activities. The Germans also used the Blue Police to combat smuggling and resistance and to round up (łapanka) random civilians for forced labor and to apprehend Jews (in German, Judenjagd, "hunting Jews").[83] While many officials and police reluctantly followed German orders, some acted as agents for the Polish resistance.[84][85]
The Polish Underground State's wartime Special Courts investigated 17,000 Poles who collaborated with the Germans; about 3,500 were sentenced to death.[86][77] Some of the collaborators – szmalcowniks – blackmailed Jews and their Polish rescuers and assisted the Germans as informers, turning in Jews and Poles who hid them, and reporting on the Polish resistance.[87]
Many prewar Polish citizens of German descent voluntarily declared themselves Volksdeutsche ("ethnic Germans"), and some of them committed atrocities against the Polish population and organized large-scale looting of property.[88][89]
The Germans set up Jewish-run governing bodies in Jewish communities and ghettos – Judenräte (Jewish councils) that served as self-enforcing intermediaries for managing Jewish communities and ghettos; and Jewish ghetto police (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst), which functioned as auxiliary police forces tasked with maintaining order and combating crime.[90] The Germans used the Judenrats to register Jews for deportation to ghettos;[91] and the Jewish ghetto police, to disrupt Jewish resistance in the ghettos and to facilitate deportation of Jews to German concentration camps.[90]Additionally, Jewish collaborationist groups such as Żagiew and Group 13 worked directly for the German Gestapo, informing on Polish resistance efforts to save Jews.[92][93]
Unlike in most European countries occupied by Nazi Germany—where the Germans sought and found true collaborators among the locals—in occupied Poland there was no official collaboration either at the political or at the economic level.[53][54] Poland also never officially surrendered to the Germans.[55] Under German occupation, the Polish army continued to fight underground, as Armia Krajowa and forest partisans – Leśni. The Polish resistance movement in World War II in German-occupied Poland was the largest resistance movement in all of occupied Europe.[56] As a result, Polish citizens were unlikely to be given positions of any significant authority.[53][54] The vast majority of the pre-war citizenry collaborating with the Nazis was the German minority in Poland which was offered one of several possible grades of the German citizenship.[57] In 1939, before the German invasion of Poland, 800,000 people declared themselves as members of the German minority in Poland mostly in Pomerania and Western Silesia. During the war there were about 3 million former Polish citizens of German origin who signed the official list of Volksdeutsche.[54] People who became Volksdeutsche were treated by Poles with special contempt, and the fact of them having signed the Volksliste constituted high treason according to the Polish underground law.
There is a general consensus among historians that there was very little collaboration with the Nazis among the Polish nation as a whole, compared to other German-occupied countries.[53][54][58] Depending on a definition of collaboration (and of a Polish citizen, based on ethnicity and minority status), scholars estimate number of "Polish collaborators" at around several thousand in a population of about 35 million (that number is supported by the Israeli War Crimes Commission).[59] The estimate is based primarily on the number of death sentences for treason by the Special Courts of the Polish Underground State. Some estimates are higher, counting in all members of the German minority in Poland and any former Polish citizens declaring their German ethnicity (Volksdeutsche), as well as conscripted members of the Blue Police, low-ranking Polish bureaucrats employed in German occupational administration, and even workers in forced labor camps (ex. Zivilarbeiter and Baudienst). Most of the Blue Police were forcibly drafted into service; nevertheless, a significant number acted as spies for Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa.[58] John Connelly quoted a Polish historian (Leszek Gondek) calling the phenomenon of Polish collaboration "marginal" and wrote that "only relatively small percentage of Polish population engaged in activities that may be described as collaboration when seen against the backdrop of European and world history".[58]
The anti-Jewish actions of szmalcownicy were very harmful to the Polish Jews as well as the gentile Poles aiding them. Anti-Jewish collaboration of Poles was particularly widespread and effective in the rural areas.[citation needed] It is estimated that some 200 thousand hiding Jews died in 1942-1945 in direct result of this collaboration.[citation needed] The collaboration by some Polish Jews, who belonged to Żagiew, was also harmful to both Jewish and ethnic Polish Underground.
In October 1939, the Nazis ordered the mobilization of the pre-war Polish police to the service of the occupational authorities. The policemen were to report for duty or face death penalty.[60] Blue Police was formed. At its peak in 1943, it numbered around 16,000.[61] Its primary task was to act as a regular police force and to deal with criminal activities, but were also used by the Germans in combating smuggling, resistance, and in measures against the Polish (and Polish Jewish) population: for example, it was present in łapankas (rounding up random civilians for labor duties) and patrolling for Jewish escapees from the ghettos. Nonetheless many individuals in the Blue Police followed German orders reluctantly, often disobeyed German orders or even risked death acting against them.[62][63][64] Many members of the Blue Police were in fact double agents for the Polish resistance.[65][66] Some of its officers were ultimately awarded theRighteous among the Nations awards for saving Jews.[67][68]
Following Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, German forces quickly overran the territory of Poland controlled by the Soviets since their joint invasion of Poland in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. A number of people collaborating with the Soviets before Operation Barbarossa were killed by local people. Belief in the Żydokomuna stereotype, combined with the German Nazi encouragement for expression of anti-Semitic attitudes, was a principal cause of massacres of Jews by gentile Poles in Poland's northeastern Łomża province in the summer of 1941, including the massacre at Jedwabne.[69][70]
In 1944 Germans clandestinely armed a few regional Armia Krajowa (AK) units operating in the area of Vilnius in order to encourage them to act against the Soviet partisans in the region; in Nowogrodek district and to a lesser degree in Vilnius district (AK turned these weapons against the Nazis during Operation Ostra Brama).[40][71] Such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidence the type of ideological collaboration as shown by Vichy regime in France or Quisling regime in Norway.[62] The Poles main motivation was to gain intelligence on German morale and preparedness and to acquire much needed equipment.[72]There are no known joint Polish-German actions, and the Germans were unsuccessful in their attempt to turn the Poles toward fighting exclusively against Soviet partisans.[62] Further, most of such collaboration of local commanders with the Germans was condemned by AK headquarters.[62] Tadeusz Piotrowski quotesJoseph Rothschild saying "The Polish Home Army was by and large untainted by collaboration" and adds that "the honor of AK as a whole is beyond reproach".[62]
One partisan unit of Polish right-wing National Armed Forces, the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade, decided to tacitly cooperate with the Germans in late 1944. It ceased hostile actions against the Germans for a few months, accepted logistic help and withdrew from Poland into Czechoslovakia with German approval (where they resumed hostilities against the Germans) in late stages of the war in order to avoid capture by the Soviets.[73]