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

The Polish Countryside as a Gray Zone, by Tomasz Frydel. 2023. EAST EUROPEAN POLITICS AND SOCIETIES AND CULTURES 37(1)202-228

Polish Holocaust Hostages Guaranteed German-Induced Polish Killings of Fugitive Jews

In this work, historian Tomasz Frydel expounds his extensive research. I focus on some of the German methods used to guarantee that Poles denounced or killed fugitive Jews.

POLISH HOLOCAUST HOSTAGES ENFORCE GERMAN JEW-KILLING POLICIES

Just because Germans were not around does not mean in any way that Poles were free to act. Far from it. Frydel writes, “…what was known as a ‘hostage’ (zakladnik), assigned by the village head to ensure, on pain of death, that a given area of jurisdiction was free of fugitives from German law…Hostage service could also be given official imprimatur when the German police designated specific individuals in writing. For instance, in 26 September 1942, the gendarmerie post of Dabrowa Tarnowska designated three hostages from the village of Wolka Gradzka in Medrzechow commune for around-the-clock guard duty of grain gathered in quota collections. The hostages were under the direct authority of the gendarmerie. In the event of an act of ‘sabotage’ against the grain, ‘the hostages would be shot.’ The ever-present prospect of the death penalty (threatened on a collective basis) for failure to enforce German regulations set in motion patterns of anticipatory obedience, or the process of adapting to German demands in light of the repressive potential of the occupation, EVEN IN THE ABSENCE OF THE GERMAN POLICE.” (p. 210. Emphasis added).

The situation facing Polish Holocaust hostages extended to fugitive Jews. Frydel comments, “In the words of a former hostage: ‘It was the duty of a hostage to bring a bound Jew to the police station under the threat of the burning down of ten houses and the death penalty meted out to the entire family of the hostage…'” (p. 225).

AGGRESSIVE, PRO-ACTIVE GERMAN POLICIES FORCE POLES TO HARM FUGITIVE JEWS

Frydel makes the issue very clear, “With the commencement of Operation Reinhard in spring and summer of 1942, the occupation authorities required village heads to capture Jews escaping ghettos and trains and deliver them to the local gendarmerie or Polish Police post. By the end of the war, virtually every category of outsider without proper identification (Kennkarte) was drawn into the net that village heads were to maintain around their collectives, including partisans and Roma.” (p. 209).

He adds that, “In this regard, the Germans co-opted prewar institutions of the village head, guards, and firemen, turning them into forms of indirect rule of the newly occupied country.” (p. 209).

“Importantly, punishment was possible for FAILURE to report and apprehend various fugitives. The sense of collective responsibility was therefore quite acute in the village collective (gromada). In some instances, members of the village guard were issued identity cards that obligated them to participate in searches and roundups. In terms of Jewish fugitives, village heads were made to sign official monthly statements, in which they declared full responsibility for the presence of any Jews in the area under their jurisdiction.” (p. 211. Emphasis in original). For more on the draconian German rule over the Polish countryside, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/03/18/tomasz-frydel-jew-killing-wwii-by-poles-a-german-run-village-jew-hunting-machine-polish-choiceless-choices-recognized-august-decree-manipulations-de-germanized-nazis-repudiated-bystander-holocau/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/12/14/polish-blue-police-not-collaborationist-frydel/

RELOCATING FUGITIVE JEWS

The author describes one seldom-mentioned way that Polish villagers dealt with the danger from the Germans arising from the presence of fugitive Jews, “One way to solve this problem and evade responsibility was to simply push wanted fugitives beyond the boundaries of the village or commune.” (p. 214).