The German Fifth Column in Poland (12 page)

“
Some definite instances:

“
At Bydgoszcz on September 2nd/3rd.

“
At Solec Kujawski, September 5th and 7th. The agents took possession of the local Protestant church, and from its tower machine-gunned the road from Bydgoszcz to Toruń.

“
At Inowroclaw, September 7th (firing from windows at the 16th Infantry Division as it passed through the town).”

From a Polish Major:
[105]

“German agents in Polish soldiers’ uniforms mingled with Polish regiments, passing themselves off as belonging to regiments broken up by the enemy. They spread demoralization among our soldiers, and informed the enemy of their movements.

“
The I56th Infantry Regiment, which was in the Niepołomice Forest, was attacked at night by Germans who had been led there by agents. In the course of the fight a group of German agents disguised as Polish soldiers opened fire on the true Polish soldiers. One of the agents shot the commander, Kubasiewicz, at point-blank range, as he stood surrounded by his men. The agent was killed at once; all he had on him was German money; he had no documents.”

From a Polish engineer:
[106]

“Owing to the fact that the agents were equipped with wireless transmitting and receiving sets, rocket-pistols, electric lamps, etc., they were able to place themselves quickly in contact with the German air force and motorized units, and a very dense network of espionage was organized. Captain M. noted a case of espionage in which the agents were a man in Polish officer's uniform, and a woman.

“
On September 6th, 1939, the 8th Infantry Regiment left its barracks, which had been bombed by German aeroplanes, and fell back upon a neighbouring place named Slawinek. The German aeroplanes appeared again, but did not bomb the barracks this time, but only the place at which the Regiment had arrived.”

From a commander in the Polish Infantry:
[107]

“On September 19th, I939, close to Rzęsna Ruska, a spy wearing Polish uniform signalled objectives to the enemy artillery by means of rockets.”

From a Polish officer attached to the Army General Staff:
[108]

“The headquarters of the army at Lwów were situated in the building of a high school in Piekarska Street. The headquarters were bombed six hours after they had been transferred to this school. The same evening a beggar roaming in the neighbourhood of the place was arrested on suspicion. On him was found an exact list of objectives which had been bombed previously.”

From a Polish Captain:
[109]

“It was definite and proved several times over that from the outbreak of hostilities telephonic and telegraphic conversations were often intercepted. In the neighbourhood of Sniadow, for instance, a wire was found connected at one end to the telephone cable, while the other end was in a house on the route of the cable.

“
The spot where the staff of our operative group was situated was regularly bombed, at the latest, twenty-four hours after we had taken up our quarters.”

From a Polish officer of the Divisional General Staff:
[110]

“The German armies had at their disposal a vast network of espionage in all the terrains in which operations went on. Our staff, which was established in a lonely house standing between a village and a forest in the neighbourhood of Piotrków, was surprised by enemy tanks on September 5th, 1939. A short time before a crimson rocket had been seen shooting up above the forest.”

From a Lieutenant of the Polish Sappers:
[111]

“A Protestant pastor in the vicinity of Modlin regularly intercepted telephonic communications and destroyed the telephone cables. A domiciliary visit to his house led to the discovery of a wireless transmitter.

“
In the neighbourhood of Modlin Germans living in the outskirts of this fortified place signalled the existence of an important army depot by setting fire to three houses close by. The depot was situated in the centre of the triangle thus marked out.”

One proof of the vast ramifications of the German subversive activity and of the employment of the German minority to this end is the
discovery in many parts of Poland of numerous fuel depots, established before the war and cleverly camouflaged.

From a Polish Lieutenant:
[112]

“In a works for the manufacture of rubber articles, at Sanok, a secret store of petrol was found. It had been set up by a man named Otto Schmidt, who was director of the works. It was used by a German motorized division which reached Sanok. The German officer in command of the division possessed detailed plans which enabled him to find the store easily.”

From an officer of the Polish Army General Staff:
[113]

“From statements obtained, it is established that the German colonists concealed a certain quantity of petrol fuels."

From another office
r of the General Staff:
[114]

“A battalion of motorized German infantry advanced in the direction of Lwów on September 13th or 14th. It was convoyed by several tanks, which halted in the vicinity of Kleparow. It was repulsed by a Polish counter-attack, and we captured a patrol led by a guide in civilian dress. The commander of this patrol stated that he had been searching for a store of petrol which was to be found in the neighbourhood of Kleparow. And, in fact, we discovered bidons of petrol buried in the ground close to the road.”

From a Reserve Second Lieutenant:
[115]

“On September 7th six German tanks halted on the highroad close to Wyszków. A German alighted from the leading tank and, after consulting a map, gave a signal with his horn. At this signal two men alighted and began to dig not far from a kilometre post and brought to light an iron barrel, which probably contained petrol.”

CHAPTER FIVE -GERMAN JUSTICE

THE depositions quoted in preceding chapters sufficiently demonstrate the role played by the German minority in the German-Polish military campaign. German propaganda will endeavour to deny the authenticity of these dispositions. It must therefore be emphasised that all these accounts have been supplied by reliable eye-witnesses, though, for obvious reasons, their names cannot be disclosed until the end of the German occupation of Poland. They all establish the very important part played during the military operations by the German diversionist agents in Poland. Furthermore, their evidence is corroborated by the German Press itself, which has been by no means reluctant to discuss the diversionist agents' activities.

Thanks to the prolixity of that Press, the reader is bound to lose his last doubt as to the justice of the charge that the German minority in Poland betrayed the State of which it was a part. That Press will inform him that even during the war, contrary to the lies spread by the Germans, the Poles maintained an amazingly tolerant attitude towards the members of the German minority. This fact was admitted by the head of the Germans in Stanisławów, Dr. Zöckler, in the periodical,
Deutsche Arbeit
. When the war broke out he was arrested by the Polish police and held in the prison at Stanisławów. Zöckler admitted that he was treated well there, and his statement to this effect in the
Deutsche Arbeit
was quoted by the official organ of the German occupation authorities in Silesia, the
Kattowitzer Zeitung
, in its issue for February 14, 1940.

To convey adequately the role which the Third Reich assigned to the German minority in Poland, it is
worthwhile quoting certain declarations made by particularly competent officials.

H
ere is what Dr. Goebbels himself said, when speaking, on December 2, 1939, to the local German population at Poznań:

“
The indescribable sacrifices which were made by all in this province at the beginning of the war, in order to bring the precious German Folk back to the Reich, testify to the heroism of which our people are capable in this war.”
[116]

Speaking in Cracow, December 21, I939, Dr. Frank
[117]
also declared that the alleged sacrifices made by the Germans in Poland were not made in vain, because they had been compensated for by the achievement of liberty.

T
he incredible cynicism of this statement is obvious when it is recalled that the lands to which this “liberty” has been brought are areas which have been Polish for a thousand years, areas in which the Polish population has always been over 90 percent of the total, while the Germans, even according to German sources, constituted only 5 to 6 percent. In the town of Bydgoszcz Poles were 91 percent of the total population, in Poznań they were 97 per cent, in Toruń 96 percent, in Gdynia 99 percent. The rural areas also were purely Polish.

T
he Germans do not spare public pronouncements which confirm the fact of the German minority's hostile activities against the Polish State. The following remarks concerning the Germans of Cieszyn Silesia, published in the
Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten
for November 2, I939, are decidedly revealing:

“
Behind the Viennese sentiment there are skulls as hard as iron, stand men like those of Egerland or Bohmerwald. They have not made any national compromise, they are not to be turned aside on this point. They were already having to fight for their German nationality at a time when the Germans in Eastern Upper Silesia still seemed completely secure in the great German Kaiser Reich. It is no accident that the Führer of the Silesian Germans in Poland, Wiesner, comes from Bielitz.”
[118]

The “Führers” of the German minority in Poland threw off their mask immediately after Germany had occupied Poland.

T
he former member of the Polish Senate, M. Wiesner, the ‘loyal’ leader of the German minority, is going the rounds in Germany, spitting out the worst of insults against Poland, and representing the Polish State as a centre of perpetual ‘terror.’
[119]
These leaders always participate in the days of liberation triumphantly organized in all the territories incorporated into the Reich.

“
A fanfare,”
says the description of one such celebration at Katowice,
“heralded the beginning of the announcement of freedom. To the strains of the military march and the jubilation of the people the Gauleiter and Governor of Silesia, Joseph Wagner, inspected all the membership. He was accompanied by Lieutenant-General Brandt, Major-General von Knobelsdorf, the Deputy Gauleiter Bracht, the head of the civil administration Fitzner, and the two leaders of the German group in Eastern Upper Silesia, Rudolf Wiesner (Bielitz), the leader of the Jungdeutsche Partei for Poland, and Dr. Ulitz (Katowice), the leader of the German Volksbund for Upper Silesia. Afterward the Gauleiter and those accompanying him took up their positions on the platform, and the Gauorganisationsleiter reported that 22 standards and banners and over 30,000 German comrades from all over Upper Silesia were present.”
[120]

The activity of all the varieties of German minority leaders is revealed not only in the various types of organization. It is clear from innumerable depositions which give the exact names that these allegedly loyal leaders of the German minority have displayed incredible bestiality in regard to the Poles since the German troops occupied the Polish territory. For what else could such individuals as Heinze Brandt and Gerhard Joschke (the latter being the brother of the
Kreisleiter
of Katowice) occupy themselves with, if not denouncing Poles? Both these men are Polish citizens parading about the streets of Katowice in uniform. How many human lives are on the consciences of these traitors to the Polish State, these traitors who, the day after the German occupation of Silesia, resumed the uniforms of the German field army? Here is a deposition made on January 29, 1940, by a Pole of Katowice, living at Orzegow:

“
I observed in my village that the former group of contrabandists collaborated actively with the Germans. Also several former officials in the local administration and in the briquette works. Thus Strączek, Gornik, Klinzer, and Krauze have been kept in their jobs by the Germans because they were members of the Volksbund.”

The same Pole goes on to say that it afterwards transpired that numerous police officials collaborated with the Germans. One police official who was out of work and without means of subsistence offered his services to the Germans. They answered that he could not be admitted as he had not formerly worked in a German organization.

All these police officials, Germans who had passed themselves off as Poles, assisted the occupation authorities in the work of “cleansing” the territory of undesirable elements by denouncing Poles living in the area. The hero of a notorious trial in pre-war days, the manufacturer, Beckmann, who was charged with injury to the Polish nation, now enjoys great regard among the Germans at Cracow. Beckmann has permission to visit the Montelupi prison from time to time, and on these visits he tortures the public prosecutor detained there who was responsible for charging him.

H
ere is another deposition which indicates the part played by the German minority after the occupation of Poznań, and especially in the town of Leszno:

“
At Leszno, those specially engaged in the extermination of the Polish population include first and foremost the detachment of the Gestapo with its head, the Polizeirat Grunt, then the Burgomaster of Baumbach, Dr. Schneider, Pastor Wolfgang Bickerich, Baron Losen of Drzeczkow, the wife of the head of the German high school (I do not remember the name), Leon Zabka, a butcher (he was responsible for the death of the schoolboy Hanca). In addition, with a few rare exceptions, all the German population in the district collaborated with the occupation authorities. A large number of them ostentatiously demanded further executions.”

Among the Germans who were particularly enraged against the Poles here were Malcherek, Pine, and Duda.

Another deposition mentions the names of Germans who were outstanding in this regard at Kościan.

“
Among the Germans of particular ‘merit’ must be mentioned the Gestapo detachment, the magistrate Lize, Burgomaster Schreiter, the former Burgomaster Heinze, who was afterwards appointed school inspector, the landowner Lorenty, the official Ischdonat.

“T
he German population of the district took an active part in all the persecutions. One person who particularly distinguished herself was Frau von Hofmannswaldau of Koszanowo, near Smigiel, who was continually importuning the Gestapo and the magistrate, with demands to proceed to further executions.”

Such examples could be added to without end. They testify to the fact that the German minority in Poland did not cease its treacherous activities when the German troops occupied Poland. Besides openly organizing themselves into the structure of the Third Reich, they proceeded to help in the extermination of the Polish population, exposing them to terrible atrocities and to the bestialities of the Gestapo.

This procedure is still going on. Though many months have passed since Germany's treacherous aggression against Poland, aided by the treachery of the German minority within Poland, not a day passes undisturbed by the groans of Poles martyred and condemned to terrible suffering by the Reich's spies and informers, citizens of the Polish State.

S
ince the German occupation of Poland the Reich authorities have been brutally deporting the Polish elements from their age-old homes in the “incorporated” Polish areas. At night the Gestapo agents drive thousands of Polish families from their houses and dwellings, allowing them to take only a small suitcase and fifty marks per person. Everything else: land, house, dwellings and all the furniture, clothing, linen, ready money, and even family keepsakes, are pillaged without compensation. The evicted people are carried in cattle trucks to the “General Gouvernement,” where they are turned out at a wayside station without food, without money, and with no roof over their heads. Frequently this journey lasted several days or more; during the hard winter of 1939-40 thousands of people, especially women and children, were frozen to death on such journeys.

P
oles still left in the “incorporated” areas also have their lands, houses, factories, shops, workshops, etc., confiscated without compensation.

T
hroughout all occupied Poland there have been terrible massacres of innocent people, while tens of thousands of people are being tortured in prisons and concentration camps.

A
ll Polish cultural life has been completely suppressed. The Polish universities and high schools have been closed; the Polish libraries, museums, art galleries and scientific laboratories have been stripped, and their more valuable possessions carried off to Germany.  Polish national and religious monuments have been destroyed. In the “incorporated” areas all Polish inscriptions have been removed. Both Catholic and Protestant churches have to endure terrible persecution. Hundreds of clergy have been shot or tortured to death in prisons and concentration camps.

T
hese monstrous crimes against the Polish nation, its civilization and culture, leave no room for doubt as to the purpose of the German allegations of Polish “maltreatment” of the German minority. It is obvious today that the Germans had long planned the systematic destruction of everything Polish, in order to wipe the very name of Poland from the earth. In order to justify such an iniquity to the world it was necessary to represent that the Polish nation was so barbarous, as demonstrated by its treatment of the German minority, that it deserved no less a fate. Thus, the lie about the alleged Polish atrocities (
polnische Greueltaten
) is intended to vindicate the terrible truth of the German occupation in Poland.