"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (264 page)

46.
See, for example, the report of May 1941 by the inspector of the Security Police and the Security Service in Posen on the shooting of thirteen Polish hostages (and one alleged perpetrator) in Wiskitno (administrative district Łód
) at the order of Reich Governor Greiser for the killing of a German police officer by two Poles (archives of the Polish Interior Ministry [AMSW], Łód
Gestapo Archives, Mappe 234, quoted in Madajczyk,
Hitlerowski terror na wsi polskiej
[1965], 151). The report contains the passage,

For implementation of the execution, the help of the police president in Łód
was requested, who put a company of Security Police at our disposal, which … undertook to round up the Polish population of the neighboring villages around the scene of the crime and to keep them in check during the execution. In addition, the police president of Łód
prepared a firing squad that carried out the execution according to military principles…. [Before that] the district president … addressed the … Polish population, indicating to them the abominable nature of the act… After this speech, the head of the Gestapo gave the order for the execution to begin…. The Polish population present was at first impressed by the measure undertaken but later showed increased indifference to events. The execution had an unmistakably positive effect on the German population present, a large part of which … had also been brought there. The Germans spontaneously gave fervent expression to their approval (clapping and so on) after the salvo. There is no doubt that the measures taken gave them confidence that everything … would be done to protect them.

An example of an execution on direct order of the RFSS is the execution of twenty-five hostages in Kleinberg (see the preceding note), which was undertaken
without
a court-martial procedure (memorandum in the archives of Dept. 1 of the Wartheland Reich governor’s office, dated May 28, 1941, State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
1232, Bl. 103), and the execution of forty-eight hostages in Kalisch (Kalisz) in the spring of 1941 for “attacking and murdering police officers” (report of May 1941 by the inspector of the Security Police and the Security Service [see the beginning of this note]). See also note 91 below.

47.
See notes 45 and 46.

48.
See, for example, the lists of about one hundred “people suitable” as hostages, generally from intelligentsia circles, compiled by the Ostrowo (Ostrów Wielkopolski) Security Police in November–December 1939 (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
, doc. I-903).

49.
See the example in note 46.

50.
See the letter of September 24, 1940, from the district president of Posen to all
Landräte
of the district (State Archive Pozna
, Gendarmerie Schrimm 103, Bl. 76–79).

51.
Thus, pertinent instructions provided that communication of the execution to the family of the victims should not be in writing but only by word of mouth; death certificates were not sent to the registry office responsible for the victim’s residence but were issued by the registry office of the district in which the execution took place; see the letter of August 20, 1941, from the Posen Gestapo to the
Landrat
of Wollstein (Wolsztyn) (AZ B no. II D-[2], Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
). “Heart failure” was often given as cause of death, and sometimes, accurately, “strangulation” or “hanging” (see the death certificates for two Jews from the Annexed Eastern Territories, ZS, Polen Film 58, Bl. 87 ff.). The graves of Poles executed by court-martial were kept secret, “in order to ensure
for all time
that there are no investigations on any such corpses found” (see the letter of April 8, 1941, from the Wollstein Higher Municipal Court to the
Landrat
of Wollstein, State Archive Pozna
,
Landgericht
Posen 14, Bl. 107, my emphasis).

52.
Letter of April 20, 1941, from the chief public prosecutor, Posen, to the Reich Ministry of Justice (BA R 22/1463).

53.
Letter of May 5, 1941, from the Reich Ministry of Justice to the chief public prosecutor, Posen (ibid.).

54.
See note 46.

55.
Letter of May 24, 1941, from the chief of staff of the deputy Führer’s office to the RMuChdRkzlei (BA R 43 II/1549).

56.
Circular letter of July 26, 1941, from the Reich governor of Posen, according to which the courts-martial were composed of the “local Party authority” as president and one leader each of the Security Police and the regular police as jurors (BA R 22/850). This authorization in some measure anticipates the general authorization of the establishment of police courts-martial under clause 13 of the Decree on Penal Law for Poles; see section 3 of this excursus, below. See, for example, the circular letter of September 24, 1940, from the district president of Posen, according to which there was an “agreement” with the Gestapo to try as many Poles as possible in a single sitting by a rapid procedure (State Archive Pozna
, Gendarmerie Schrimm 103, Bl. 76–79).