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Imagine for a moment that you are polish farmer during WW2. One day you notice escaping Jew on your land. Punishment for helping him is death of your whole family, including kids and infants. Now you have the choices:
a) you can ignore him, but if german patrol or some volksdeutsch sees him on your land they may find you guilty of helping him. There will be no court, they will just shot your whole family or burn them alive together with your house.
b) you can help him escape or hide him, less chance that someone finds him on your land. But if Germans find about that your whole family will be killed for sure.
c) you can chase him of your land, your family should be relatively safe.
d) you can notify Germans. It means that Jew is as good as dead, but it's safest choice for your family.

So, what would you choose ?

No doubt the choices are tough, but a lot went with option D, even when there was no threat of discovery by the Germans. A lot. To give some additional perspective, consider the pogrom that took place in Kielce, Poland on 4 July 1946 by Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians[1] during which 42 Jews were killed and more than 40 were wounded.

No threat of German reprisal a year after the war.