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

Narodowe Sily Zbrojne 1942-1947, by Michal Gniadek-Zielinski. 2017. Capital Book, Warszawa

NSZ Definitive Work: Polish Patriots That Fought Hitler and Stalin. A Comprehensive Book

This work is a one-volume encyclopedia on the NSZ. I tend to focus on matters that I had not elaborated in my earlier reviews of works on the NSZ.

BOLESLAW PIASECKI: A PROSPECTIVE POLISH QUISLING

Some try to steal Polish honor by arguing that there was no Polish Quisling because the Germans never wanted one. This is incorrect. It was because the Poles refused. Shortly after the defeat of Poland in 1939, the Germans began talks with the RNR “Falanga” and Boleslaw Piasecki. He was supposed to lead a Polish Quisling government. But, after a few talks, nothing became of it (p. 437), and the Germans instead formed the General Government, which they ruled directly with an iron hand.

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THE NSZ, THE JEWS, AND THE GERMAN-MADE HOLOCAUST

Early Nazi attempts to incite pogroms against Jews were condemned by NSZ publications (Szaniec nr 15, April 9, 1940). (p. 108). As the Shoah began, this was the NSZ reaction, “The German methods against Jews are so hideous that the Polish language lacks words to describe them. We assume no responsibility for these crimes, and–even if we wanted to–there is nothing that we can do about them.” (Wielka Polska, September 1942)(p. 108).

Ironic to the Goodbye Jews! lie promoted by the well-watched movie Schindler’s List, an NSZ publication, mindful of past and continuing antagonisms towards Jews, warned that any gloating over the Jewish tragedy is un-Christian, un-Polish, and uncivilized. (Szaniec 13(88). October 21, 1942). (p. 109).

Finally, another NSZ publication firmly repudiated the notion that Poles could be turned into participants in the Holocaust, and identifies the roots of the German-made Holocaust in Nazi racism and its earlier parallel, Talmudic racism. It states, “Murder is not our weapon…We find no murderous instincts in ourselves. We lack the racial fury that characterizes both Germans and Jews. Nobody is going to turn us against the Jews.” (Zaloga nr. 6, May 5, 1942). (p. 114).

NSZ ANTAGONISMS TOWARDS JEWS WERE NOT THE HOLOCAUST

The NSZ, inheriting earlier ONR ideas, proposed that Jews be enticed or forced to emigrate from Poland. This owed to chronic Jewish separatism, the Jewish proneness to Communism, and the Jewish dominance of handcrafts. The latter contributed to Polish poverty. The numerus clausus at universities was included: It had been necessary to create more opportunities for prospective Polish students, and it owed to the resentment which Polish taxpayers felt in supporting a large body of “foreign” Jewish students that moreover did not identify with Polish-ness.  (pp. 110-111).

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, note that these policies were completely different from the Nazi German extermination of the Jews! Yet many Jews tend to mix them together, as if trying to shift the blame for the Holocaust away from Germans and unto Poles.

MYTHS ABOUT THE NSZ KILLING FUGITIVE JEWS

It has long been a staple of Communist propaganda to accuse the NSZ of being Jew-killers, fascists, Nazi collaborators, etc. (pp. 460-461), and these lies are being repeated by modern lewaks (leftists). (pp. 14-15).  Specific accusations of NSZ Jew killing, such as those advanced by the Jewish Communist Shmuel Krakowski, were long ago debunked by the likes of historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. (pp. 114-115).

The facts are clear. The NSZ killed Jews that were bandits, and not because they were Jews. (p. 116). Finally, there were Jews in the NSZ itself (pp. 117-119), and some NSZ soldiers were later awarded for aiding fugitive Jews. (pp. 118-122).

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HOW THE NSZ SECURED PROVISIONS

Ironic to Communist propaganda charges that the NSZ consisted of bandits, it was the exact opposite. The Communist GL-AL bands are the ones that habitually engaged in banditry. The NSZ had a strict order, punishable even by death, forbidding the NSZ from ever confiscating any sort of Polish property. (p. 307). Instead, the NSZ seized its provisions from the Germans while fighting them. Of course, many Polish peasants gladly shared their meager belongings with the NSZ.

GUERRILLA COMBAT ACTION: A SAMPLE

Near Warsaw, an NSZ unit led by “Mazur” waylaid a German transport carrying money. The Polish guerrillas wore German uniforms, and the Germans were taken completely by surprise. (p. 312). In another action near Kurzelowa, NSZ guerrillas ambushed a German truck. This netted them around 300 rifles and 9,000 rounds of ammunition. (p. 352).

The freeing of captive NSZ members carried risks. If the effort failed, at least some of the attacking guerrillas perished, and the captives were put to death. If it succeeded, the Germans would retaliate against unrelated Polish civilians. (p. 312). In spite of this, the Lublin-area NSZ, led by Bohdan Szucki “Artur”, successfully freed Jozef Jagielski “Niebieski” from German captivity. (p. 313). This was in addition to other successful examples.

There were NSZ-sponsored assassinations of bandits (how many Jews?), Gestapo agents, German confidantes, and exceptionally brutal Germans. This was in addition to NSZ members that had stolen, deserted, or murdered. (p. 316). Permit some examples.

“Marta” was an intelligent, seductive woman and Gestapo agent that posed great dangers to the NSZ. A fake plumbing problem was arranged, and the unsuspected “repairmen” came to “Marta’s” house. They assassinated her. (p. 317). Wehrmacht General Kurt Renner was the highest-ranking German assassinated by the Polish Underground. This occurred in September 1943, and was conducted by an NSZ unit led by Tomasz Wojcik “Tarzan”. (pp. 318-319).

The NSZ had about 72,000 soldiers at the end of 1943. (p. 231). This grew to about 100,000. (p. 13, p. 602).

THE PEASANT BATTALIONS

Most of the Peasant Battalions (BATALIONY CHLOPSKIE, or BCh) later merged with the Polish Home Army (ARMIA KRAJOWA). In eastern Poland, however, upon entry of the Red Army, some BCh units cooperated with the GL-AL. (p. 408). Nevertheless, accusations of the NSZ fighting against the BCh are products of Communist propaganda. (p. 410).

LOW-LEVEL NSZ-GERMAN CONTACTS

In later years, there were efforts by certain individual German leaders (e. g, Captain Hauste) to establish lines of communication with individual NSZ Leaders (e. g., Kolacinski “Zbik”)(pp. 446-on). The Germans, evidently taking advantage of the Poles’ anti-Communism, hoped to transform these talks into a joint effort against the Communist bands. The NSZ leadership came out strongly against such meetings, and warned that any such meeting would be treated, by the Underground Courts, as an act of treason. (pp. 454-455).

THE BRYGADA SWIETOKRZYSKA AND THE NATURE OF ITS TRUCE WITH THE GERMANS

Some discussions with the Germans were unavoidable. The Brygada Swietokrzyska, fleeing the Soviets, instead of being forced to fight the Germans immediately, was apparently allowed to slip past the Germans into German-occupied Czechoslovakia, thanks to such negotiations. (p. 456). Note, contrary to what Communist propaganda later made of it, that establishing a truce and collaborating with the enemy are two different things!

The truce was precarious, to say the least, While in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, the Brygada was under constant German duress to form a frontline unit and fight the Soviets alongside the Germans. (pp. 359-362). At one point, the Germans threatened to break the truce, and destroy the Brygada, for failure to comply. The Germans also ordered some of the Brygada soldiers to become paratroopers, and become dropped behind Soviet lines. The Brygada Commander, Bohun, felt that he had no choice. So the paratroopers were trained, in cursory fashion, and German planes air-dropped Brygada soldiers into Soviet-held Poland in February and March of 1945. But the Brygada paratroopers, which were never under any German command, simply rejoined the NSZ units still in Poland.

In the final days of the European part of WWII, the Brygada stormed the German concentration camp at Holysov (Holyszow). The “anti-Semitic” NSZ saved 250 Jewish women from being burned to death by the Germans. (p. 363).

THE COMMUNIST GL-AL BANDS

Author Gniadek-Zielinski states that the GL-AL consisted largely of degenerates that preferred to rob Poles instead of fighting the Germans. (p. 416). The GL-AL especially recruited escaped Soviet POWs, deserters from Vlasov’s Russian collaborationist army, ordinary bandits, and Jewish escapees from the ghettos. (p. 416). The GL-AL denounced NSZ members to the Gestapo, and at other times murdered them. (p. 418). Jewish Communist leader Izrael Ajzenman (“Julek”) played a major role in these GL-AL crimes. (p. 420).

It was not until spring 1943 that the NSZ began defending itself from the GL-AL. (p. 420). It then took military actions against the GL-AL, which are described in some detail. (p. 424-on).

THE SOVIET-IMPOSED COMMUNIST PUPPET GOVERNMENT

The NSZ remained true to its patriotic convictions. It conducted some successful attacks against U. B. (Bezpieka) outposts. (pp. 482-486). There were some assassination attempts against Soviet stooge Boleslaw Bierut. (p. 491). However, popular support for continued guerrilla warfare was subdued by the fact that people were tired of war and the many earlier years of German occupation. (p. 477).

NSZ guerillas that fell into Communist hands faced dreadful tortures. These were worse than those of the Gestapo. (p. 493). Former NSZ members faced harassment and discrimination from the Communist government until about 1985–which was forty years after the end of the war! (p. 495).