The German Fifth Column in Poland (15 page)

Translation of the document follows:

CONFIDENTIAL ORDER ISSUED BY THE WEHRMACHT

INSTRUCTIONS TO BE BROUGHT TO THE NOTICE OF TROOPS ENGAGED AGAINST POLAND

1.) In addition to inhabitants of pure Polish race, there are in various regions German minorities and other national groups speaking non-German languages, but who sympathize with the Germans.

2.
) The German and other groups wish to be freed from the Polish yoke and will support the German Army (
Wehrmacht
) in the struggle.

3.
) In particular, the inhabitants of German race who were torn from their country by the Treaty of Versailles will be disposed to aid the German Army to gain the victory in order to return to their former country. This will be accomplished probably in the following manner:

a)
    
The reservists of German race will attempt to avoid being mobilized in the Polish Army and to join the German Army. Many reservists belonging to other national groups will act similarly.

b)
    
Minority representatives who belong to active units of the Polish Army will to a large extent attempt to join the German Army, together with their equipment and weapons.

c)
     
On the other hand it is possible that the German minorities and those belonging to other national groups will support the German troops in their struggle: By clearing the roads for the passage of German troops; by preventing the Poles from blowing up the bridges and paved highways; by starting a minor war in the rear of the Poles as, for instance, by causing trouble to the Polish rear communications. These German nationals or elements belonging to other national groups actively struggling will in any case attempt to make themselves known to the German troops by employing special signs and passwords.

4.
) These signs for making themselves known are:

a)
    
A piece of red material usually the size of a handkerchief, with a large yellow spot in the centre.

b)
    
Light blue brassards with a yellow spot in the centre.

c)
     
A light grey-brown overall with a yellow grenade on the collar button and on the left sleeves.

d)
     
Other forces forming part of the German minorities and other national groups will support the German Army in the struggle. They will carry the following distinctive marks:

1)
      
Brassards with swastikas.

2)
    
For weapons, pistols of type Nos. 14 and 34, and also, in certain cases, hand-grenades of Czech pattern.

e)
     
The password for all participants (German, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, and Czech):

“
ECHO”

(as this word is everywhere written and pronounced in the same way).

5.) In conformity with the foregoing, it will be necessary to observe the opponent's attitude, in order to determine whether he is about to make the signs in question, or for other indications that we are confronted with minority representatives inclined to abandon the fight.

6.
) In all cases it must be borne in mind that not all the men of German race and not all those belonging to other national groups will be able to evade military obligations. Certain members of these groups will definitely remain in the Polish Army for special reasons.

7.
)

a)
    
Members of minority races who have deserted or have been taken prisoner during the struggle will be separated at once and as much as possible from soldiers of purely Polish nationality and treated at first as prisoners of war. Members of minority races who are not engaged on the side of the
Wehrmacht
, but actively sympathize with us, may present themselves in Polish uniform and with the regular Polish weapons (dressed as military, frontier guards, or members of other Polish organizations). This will apply mainly to deserters or to individuals who lay down their arms in the Polish fighting forces. These individuals will be provisionally treated as prisoners of war, but in assembly centres or prisoners’ camps they will be separated from prisoners of purely Polish nationality.  This applies to other members of minorities who report to the troops or are brought in by, for instance, the secret military police until the examination to which they will be submitted in the prisoners’ camps gives appreciable results. If the members of the minorities bring arms with them, these will be collected by the troops and transferred by degrees to the camps and munition parks.

b)
    
Minority representatives who are fighting for the Wehrmacht or are assigned tasks by them will report:

1)
      
In uniform and with the regular Polish equipment. They will abandon the Polish fighting units as a group, or will escape individually, and will make themselves known.

2)
    
As civilians.  Means of recognition (see paragraph 4 of instructions).

3)
     
As parachutists in greenish grey-brown coloured overalls with a grenade, or also in civilian clothing. They are armed and furnished with explosive materials.

The minority representatives who are fighting for us (see par. 4) must be handled separately and conducted before elements belonging to Ic/V.O. of the Grenz-Schutz, section Kdcs. The arms and other weapons of struggle
carried by these men will be taken and collected separately.

8.
) It must be borne in mind that the Poles, who are famous for their cruelty and astuteness, will trick the German troops by adopting measures which are applied by men of German race.

9.
) All those who form part of the army must be informed that in many places it will enter areas which are purely German or where the German population predominates. They should behave accordingly.

It will depend on the manner in which every man conducts himself whether the population of German race welcome joyfully the restoration of all the German areas to the Great German Reich.

Certified copy.

(Signed, PRINCE REUSS, Major.)

APPENDIX TWO
- NOTES MADE BY M. R. CHAULET, FRENCH CONSUL, ON THE GERMAN MINORITY'S ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES IN POLAND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR
[128]

IN the
light of the events which have occurred in Poland since September 1, certain facts which came to notice in Pomorze before that date deserve attention, since they quite clearly show that the German minority living in that province were thenceforth determined, if not thoroughly prepared, to play an active part in the event of an armed conflict between Poland and Germany.

T
he most salient of these facts would appear to be the following:

(a)
The numerical importance of the personnel of the German Consulate General at Toruń.

Well-informed Polish circles declared that this Consulate General had some fifty agents. Certain of them travelled about a great deal and maintained close relations with the minority circles in Pomorze.

(b)
The tendentious articles of the Deutsche Rundschau.

It was said that this daily, the organ of the German minority in Poland, and published at Bydgoszcz, was largely subsidized by the German Embassy. It participated in the life of the German minorities in Poland, and violently defended their cause. Certain of its articles
appeared to be so clearly provocative in character that one was justified in asking whether they did not emanate from the Press bureaux at Wilhelmstrasse or from the German Embassy at Warsaw. The
starosta
(county administrative head) of Bydgoszcz often called the paper’s director to order, and entire editions were confiscated. It may be of interest to note that the same articles were sometimes to be found in the Danzig dailies, after brief intervals and with small alterations.

(c)
The activity of certain minority groups.

Very varied groups and organizations (
Jungdeutsche Partei, Deutsche Vereinigung, Jugendherbergen,
agricultural co-operative societies, etc.) held frequent meetings, during which influential members (the Senator Hasbach was one) addressed the gathering. One may expect that not all the demonstrations of these societies were reported to the authorities, and that the members maintained secret relations among themselves.

(d)
A collation of varied but very characteristic incidents.

During the three months prior to hostilities there was talk of the arrest of two German spies, talking Polish
“like natives,” close to Wejherowo and Tczew; of the discovery of arms (rifles, grenades, and even, it was sometimes said, machine-guns) in farms and houses belonging to German minorities, especially at Grudziądz, Starogard, Tczew, Bydgoszcz, and in a locality near Toruń, probably Grębocin. A sensational discovery of this kind was also made at Gniezno, near Poznań. For various reasons the local Press gave very little publicity to the results of the searches, which, however, sometimes came to light, and occasionally it was possible to obtain official confirmation in the course of conversation.

O
n September 1 at 5.30 a.m. the town of Gdynia was warned of the opening of hostilities by three German aeroplanes, which about six o’clock dropped bombs on the military port and on certain semi-military objectives. After they had gone the sounds of a fusillade of shots and the rattle of machine-guns were distinctly heard. The Consulate porter, who had been called out the previous evening by the A.R.P. service for a practice test and had been in the street all night, told me that the sound of firing came from Orłowo (a place about three kilometres from Gdynia and almost the same distance from the Polish-Danzig frontier). As the Polish troops were on the spot (they had a barracks at Orłowo) it seemed improbable that the German elements could have advanced so rapidly. It was learnt a little later that a Protestant pastor belonging to the German minority and fifty men armed with rifles, grenades, and even a machine-gun, had engaged the Polish troops stationed at Orłowo in combat. They thus occupied the bulk of the forces while, profiting from the confusion caused by this unexpected attack, the Danzig troops attacked from their side, and reached the outskirts of Orłowo, after breaking through the lightly held line of troops covering the frontier zone. The truth of this story was confirmed by what followed. Before leaving, about five in the afternoon, I learned that the pastor had been taken prisoner, had been given a warm time by the colonel, and that he would certainly be shot, if he had not been shot already.

W
hen I tried to send a telegram about 8 a.m. the person to whom I entrusted it was informed that telegraphic communication with the rest of Poland was no longer possible. A little later there was a rumour that members of the German minority had been arrested for cutting the telegraph wires. One fact was certain: the French Embassy (at Warsaw) had been able to get the telephone number of the Consulate at Gdynia at 8.45 a.m., but it was not possible to make contact after that.

I
n the course of the day I learned that the first aeroplanes to bomb Gdynia had come from destroying the military hydroplane base at Puck. In this connection the rumour spread that in this locality an individual had been arrested making signals to the enemy airmen. Unfortunately I was not able to verify the truth of this statement.

D
uring the journey from Gdynia to Warsaw, which I made by car, leaving Gdynia at 5.30 p.m. on September and arriving at the Warsaw Embassy at 2 a.m. on September 4, a number of illegal activities were brought to my knowledge.

A
fter leaving the environs of Tuchola, which it was impossible to enter, I travelled on the road with the troops making a fighting retreat and coming from Chojnice. As there was a serious block of vehicles, I got out to find out what was happening, and so had an opportunity of exchanging some remarks with an officer. After telling me that a German armoured train had tried to penetrate into Chojnice and had been blown up, he made a reference to the attitude of certain minority Germans who had barricaded themselves in their farms and had fired on the Polish troops.

A
t Świecie in the morning of September 2, I heard from private persons that veritable battles had broken out the previous evening at Bydgoszcz and its environs between Polish troops and groups of minority Germans, and that at Grudziądz members of that minority had been arrested for “communicating with the enemy.” In the police headquarters of the same locality I saw three civilians brought in by two soldiers with fixed bayonets. I asked the reason for their arrest, and was told that they were minority Germans accused of furnishing information to the enemy. Under their arms they carried small document cases of black moleskin, both exactly alike. The chief of police told me indignantly that he had seen so many of them brought in since the previous evening that he was seriously beginning to ask himself whether everyone he spoke to was not a dangerous minority German in disguise who ought to be arrested.