Needless to say, this is a pro-Poland publication and just as a side effect of that I’ve tried to think of the bias that may present itself just due to that fact. So I will qualify these first numbers I give as not readily confirmable and perhaps even bias against Germany. But that said there are still two major points that need to be focused on here. First, is that these numbers, from an historical perspective, do not appear to be outlandishly skewed, and second the point is that this was the information that Americans received at the time on the matter. Right or wrong, this was some of the information that they had to work with to form their opinions.
The toll of the German Campaign on Poland in these first 9 months has been costly in lives and materials in the Polish frontier with the following statistics on the carnage:
Some of these numbers are really hard to determine as solid statistics. I would imagine for example that separating 1,100,000 men and women as killed from those who are just unaccounted for because they are displaced as refugees would be hard to solidify. But none the less, there are some very important aspects that we can see in these figures that I will expand on shortly. After all, we see in these numbers 4 million civilians being deported. But deported to where, and who are they? This and subsequent articles in this magazine cast some light as to who is being relocated, why, and where. This is something that really has not been prevalent in the press with the exception of the reports of the Jews being sent to a reservation late last year that at the time we did not know if it really existed (and at the time it did not with many of these Jews just being force across the Bug river to the Soviet occupation zone).
A Letter from a Mother to her Son
As it can be imagined, any letters getting out of Poland at this point is a rare find. This letter was addressed from a mother still in Poland to her son who had gotten out and was not in France with the free Polish forces. This letter has a lot of varying detailed information. So much in fact that if almost makes me a bit suspicious that this is really just a compilation of tidbits that have leaked out of Poland being presented as a singular source. In this letter she describes seeing “transports filled with deportees from Pozan and the entire Pomorze”. These individuals were being displaced in the cold of December to barracks with no bedding, and then eventually to the “so-called General-Governorship”. She describes the numbers of these people saying “at least a million people have been shifted under such conditions” and I think that is not a unrealistic assessment, but this is one of those cases where I wonder how “Mom” came about that number. She describes those who are being displaced as those of affluence whom the Nazis ousted in order to give their more lavish dwellings to German citizens. She also goes on to tell of 12 college professors who died in a concentration camp after being tortured. The gist of this letter describes the efforts by the Nazis to destroy the Polish intelligencia and thus insure the Poland cannot rise again.
An American’s Escape from Poland
Unlike the last letter, that I really get the impression was an attempt to take the bits and pieces of information that has been leaked from Poland and present it in a singular format, this account by an American in Poland was pretty interesting since it not only accounts the problems with the German invasion of Poland, but also the Soviet occupation zone in which he was in after the collapse of the Polish government. In his account, some of the real horrors of war and the general cruelty of the Nazis and the Soviets can be seen by the incidents he witnessed. He tells of seeing thousands of refugees from western Poland roaming through the town he was in headed towards the Lithuanian border, and of men, women, and children dying because of saboteurs having poisoned wells, and starving children dying from poisoned candy that had been “dropped from the sky”. After the end of the German conquest, they relinquished the area he was in to the Soviets and he found that things were not any better. The Soviets were focused on ensuring the Poles could not organize a resistance. To accomplish this they would search for Polish army officers “who were being hunted down and shot like dogs on sight”. Others still were being gathered and shipped to concentration camps inside the Soviet Union. The Soviets were just a brutal to the Poles as the Germans and this American recalls an account where a Soviet officer on a typical search of his premises pointed his weapon at the American’s head and after a period of time lowered it and laughed at the joke which only he felt was funny.
But What of the Jews?
The scope of this magazine account is focused on the Polish people, but there is a small tidbit on the Jews in the occupied territory. Accompanying this short article is a picture of some Polish Jews who are being “compelled by the German Army to forced labor and the digging of their own graves before execution”. The picture shows three men digging and a man in the foreground with a rifle who can only be assumed to be a German soldier. Whatever the intent of the picture in real context, the certain fact is that these men are being forced to dig at the end of a rifle. The article does point out a very important aspect of German policy though in that Jews in the territories are considered to be outcasts and the “Volksdeutsche” may do with them as they see fit.
We Accuse
In this magazine is the oath taken by the Polish force in France which I felt was pretty interesting.
Quite the mouthful for an oath isn’t it?
Tribulations in Poland
The last letting in these articles struck me for some reason. There really is something about this letter that really captured the general plight of the average Pole in the occupation and I can’t really do it any justice by analyzing it. Instead I will just recount it as it is presented:
My dear Sister:I hope you will receive this letter. During the siege of Warsaw, the building which housed my office and my home was burned down. As a result, I lost all of my belongings and since Oct. 1st, 1939, have been held captive by Germans. Our brother, Kazik, is also here. Maryle and the children, fortunately, avoided death and continue to live in Warsay, Marszalkowska 10, of course, in bad circumstances. I am informed that our dear father is at the point of death. My brother-in-law from Lambor has been sentenced to a Bolshevist Camp at hard labor and has been taken away. You can imagine the tragic situation which now confronts our poor Ladzia. It is impossible to help her.
I am sorry that I cannot give you more favorable news but you know the fate of our Country. Despite all the troubles, we are looking forward to a new Poland in the near future. Some of your American food boxes would be desirable. Please forward according to the rules for a prisoner of war. More important even than food, is to receive an answer from you.
Hearty greeting for you, dear Sister, and for brother-in-law, from your loving brothers.
If you want a copy of the entire document, please freemail me and I can arrange to send it to you.
I always remember the scene in the movie "Europa, Europa" where a group of Jewish and Gentile Poles are crossing the river to escape the advancing Nazis, when they see some boats heading towards them alerting them that the Soviets have invaded and are headed towards them. The gentiles immediately turn around and head back towards the Germans, while the Jews continue Eastward. So at least it shows the Poles were more fearful of the Russians than the Germans, or as General Anders put it, "With the Nazis we lose our lives, with the Soviets, we lose our souls."
In the end, Germans paid a relatively small price for the tens of millions of deaths they caused.