Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Polska Karzaca 1939-1945, by Leszek Gondek. 1988

The Psychology of Collaboration (Like Poles Like Jews): Seeking Power in the Face of Powerlessness. Doesn’t Forget That Polish Blackmailers of Jews Also Blackmailed Poles.

PUNITIVE POLAND 1939-1945 is the title of this Polish-language book. This work is yet another refutation of the silly notion that Poles are so imbued with their “heroic narrative” of fighting the Nazis that they are unwilling to discuss “dark chapters” of Polish history, specifically Polish collaboration with the Nazis.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLLABORATION: DEALING WITH POWERLESSNESS BY SERVING THE ENEMY TO GAIN A SENSE OF POWER

Author Gondek cites Zygmunt Janke-Walter, a leading member of the Polish Underground in the areas of Lodz and Silesia. (pp. 107-108). Many years after WWII, Janke-Walter wondered how some Poles could so willingly serve the German enemy. He suggested that financial reward was not the only motive, and suspected that it was a sense of power in the face of otherwise powerlessness under the German occupation. Thus, the collaborator had the power of life and death over people.

EXTENTION: JEWISH COLLABORATORS ALSO SOUGHT POWER

The foregoing psychological insight also applies to collaborators of all nationalities. Thus, variously consider the self-serving Judenrat official, the devious Jewish Gestapo agent, the cruel Jewish ghetto policeman, the savage Jewish kapo, etc. Like their Polish counterparts, they were seeking a sense of power in what otherwise would be their virtual powerlessness.

THE POLICJA GRANATOWA

Polish heroic behaviors and cowardly behaviors were mirror images of each other under the brutalities of the German occupation. (p. 107). The Polish Blue Police (POLICJA GRANATOWA) exemplified this divide. A significant fraction (perhaps over 10%) were involved in the Polish Underground, while another fraction collaborated with the enemy or engaged in exploitive or bandit conduct. (e. g, p. 99, 111).

POLISH BLACKMAILERS HARMED POLES AS MUCH AS THEY HARMED FUGITIVE JEWS

Gondek places Polish misconduct, during WWII, outside its usually portrayed Judeocentric formulations. Consider the SZMALCOWNIKI. It turns out that blackmail and denunciation of Poles, and not only of fugitive Jews, by other Poles, was a common problem (e. g, p. 101, 106-107). Banditry was also a common all-around problem (e. g, pp. 68-69, 104), and not only of Poles looting Jews. For more on Polish collaborators harming Poles as much as they harmed Jews, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2025/11/04/interesting-first-commonalities-in-collaboration/

THE SCALE OF POLISH COLLABORATION

This work includes details of specifically named Poles who were liquidated for collaboration. How many were there? The ARMIA KRAJOWA (A. K.) estimated that, as of 1943, some 2,000 citizens served the Germans in the city of Krakow. (p. 114). At Nowy Sacz, captured Gestapo documents point to 400 Gestapo confidantes in the area of that town. (p. 114). It is unclear if the foregoing estimates include Volksdeutsche.

The best evidence indicates that Polish collaboration was very rare–on the order of 1 in 1,000. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2020/03/25/polish-collaboration-very-rare-less-than-0-1-of-the-ethnic-polish-population-jew-killing-wwii-by-poles-induced-by-german-terror-brechtken/

PASSIVE FORMS OF SERVICE TO THE GERMAN ENEMY

An Underground source, in 1942, estimated that about 5% of Warsaw consisted of well-to-do Poles that served as a source of propaganda about how well the Germans were treating the Poles. Another 70% of Warsaw’s population was passive in the face of the enemy. Finally, about 25% of Warsaw’ s citizens were actively patriotic. (pp. 94-95). Note the irony of the complaint that “most Poles did nothing” in the rescue of fugitive Jews: “Most Poles did nothing” also in terms of Underground activity!