CHAPTER 2

The Rape of Poland

A GERMAN MOTORISED COLUMN RIPS THROUGH POLAND IN 1939. IT WAS TO TAKE HITLER’S SOLDIERS JUST ONE MONTH TO BRING POLAND TO HER KNEES. OVER THE NEXT SIX YEARS POLAND SUFFERED ONE OF THE MOST BRUTAL OCCUPATIONS IN HUMAN HISTORY.

Without a declaration of war, German planes and artillery opened fire on Polish positions before dawn on 1 September 1939. The Wehrmacht, the German Army, was about to realise Hitler’s dream of recapturing the once-German port of Danzig and the Polish corridor, both of which had been lost to Germany in 1919.

Everything was perfectly set for the Germans. With Stalin’s signature on the Nazi–Soviet pact, Hitler could be sure that the Soviet Union would not intervene and if everything went according to plan, new German military techniques would destroy the Polish Army before help could arrive from Britain and France.

But inside Germany, Hitler’s initiative in starting this war was not greeted with the enthusiastic crowds that had gathered to cheer Kaiser Wilhelm II when he joined hostilities 25 years earlier. The Germans had no choice but to follow their Führer Hitler into war, but they did so with feelings of foreboding and unease. Those who later remembered the German soldiers setting off for the front in 1939 described them as looking like gloom personified.

As the first artillery barrages opened up, the Luftwaffe began destroying the Polish Air Force on the ground. Poland was now to experience the devastating effects of an entirely new form of warfare: blitzkrieg, or ‘lightning war’, based on fast-moving armour and maximum firepower brutally applied.

The SS, under their leader Heinrich Himmler, soon extended their role to take on the responsibility for the annihilation of all enemies of the National Socialist movement found in the newly occupied areas of Europe

From its early role as an élite personal bodyguard of the Führer, the SS or Schutzstafeln (protection squads) grew to control the German police force, where it was given the task of destroying the internal enemies of the Reich. However, once war broke out, the SS, under their leader Heinrich Himmler, soon extended their role to take on the responsibility for the annihilation of all enemies of the National Socialist movement found in the newly occupied areas of Europe.

Himmler saw the men under his control as the cutting edge of the Nazi movement – racially pure, physically fit and utterly ruthless. Having already bloodied themselves on the rounding up of political prisoners inside Germany, the SS had few qualms about putting Nazi ideology into practice elsewhere. To secure the future of the German race, Himmler’s men killed without compunction. Jews, communists, Christians, homosexuals and anyone else who resisted the establishment of Germany’s New Order were on their hit lists.

Those who were not killed outright by the Einsatzgruppen or action squads of the SS were frequently worked to death. As Himmler said: ‘Whether or not 10,000 Russian women collapse from exhaustion while digging a tank ditch interests me only in so far as the tank ditch is completed for Germany.’

The German airborne assault was carried out with pinpoint accuracy. Fighting with the fascists in the Spanish Civil War had given the Luftwaffe the chance to perfect a deadly new technique: dive-bombing. It was used in Poland for the first time and on a very large scale.

In this context, the Junker Ju-87 Stukas proved themselves as weapons of terror. Their pilots began a steep dive as they approached their targets, and released their bombs just as they pulled up and soared skywards. The spectacle was terrifying to behold and to hear. The planes would plunge from the sky at breakneck speed, making a fearful whining sound known as the ‘trombones of Jericho’ before releasing bombs that fell on soldiers and civilians alike. This new technique proved three times more accurate than conventional, higher-level bombing.

The Poles had no means of resistance, and their antiquated air force was destroyed within days. Now, the Stukas – short for ‘sturzkampfflugzeug’ – turned their attention to bombarding railways, roads, bridges and, of course, civilian targets. It was hoped that the panic and death they caused would further confuse Polish attempts to organise resistance to the German onslaught.

GENERAL HEINZ GUDERIAN, THE BRILLIANT GERMAN PANZER COMMANDER WHOSE THEORIES ON ARMOURED WARFARE PAVED THE WAY FOR THE NAZI SUCCESS IN POLAND.

With the Stukas acting as their advance strike force, the Wehrmacht’s armoured columns thrust into Poland from the north, south and west. Although only about one-sixth of the German Army was made up of motorised and armoured ‘panzer’ divisions, it was these modern, mobile and well-armoured forces that made all the difference. When the tanks, supported by mobile artillery, motorised infantry and Stukas launched themselves across the Polish frontier, they hurled themselves at weak points in the Polish defences and, once victorious, quickly drove deeper and deeper into Polish territory, using their speed and firepower to crush and encircle opponents while the regular army followed behind, making good the advance.

CIVILIANS ERECT MAKESHIFT DEFENCES IN THE POLISH CAPITAL. THE DEFENCE OF THE POLISH CAPITAL WAS SPIRITED BUT ULTIMATELY DOOMED. THE POLES SIMPLY HAD NO REPLY TO THE DAZZLING NEW TACTICS OR THE FEROCIOUS MACHINES OF WAR UNDER HITLER’S CONTROL.

The Polish forces were quickly thrown into disarray. Their strategy for defending the 3500-mile border with Germany proved a dreadful mistake. Instead of retreating to solid defensive positions behind the Vistula, Narew and San rivers, the Polish commander, Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz, spread his forces thinly at the frontier, where the German blitzkrieg soon crashed straight through them and began to race headlong towards the Polish capital, Warsaw.

The British and French were badly shaken by the onslaught against Poland. Chamberlain was keen to attempt another negotiated settlement similar to that of Munich. But the House of Commons would not stand for it. Chamberlain was backed into a corner and had little option but to declare war. The French were even less keen than the British, but, as Chamberlain soon realised, his government would fall unless he acted, so he put pressure on his reluctant ally to honour their joint commitments.

At 9 a.m. on Sunday, 3 September 1939, the British Government delivered an ultimatum: unless an undertaking was received from the German Government within two hours that their troops now waging war in Poland would be withdrawn, Great Britain would be forced to enter into a state of war with Germany.

When no such undertaking was received, Chamberlain was obliged to make good his warning, and announced, in a radio broadcast to the British people, that Britain was once again at war. The ageing statesman, heartbroken at the failure of his hopes for enduring peace, spoke to the British people about the nature of the foe they faced: ‘It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution.’

As he spoke, Chamberlain had little idea how right his words would prove to be.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the President of the USA, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, declared America’s neutrality. France, however, declared war on the same day as Britain.

THE POLISH CAMPAIGN

Even as the blitzkrieg’s first advances pushed aside Polish resistance, another Nazi innovation was beginning to make its presence felt, not on the battlefield, but in the areas of Poland that had already fallen into Nazi hands. For the three SS regiments that followed behind the regular German Army, the war was not to be fought against the active

‘It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution’ Neville Chamberlain, in a broadcast to the British people, 3 September 1939

GERMAN SOLDIERS EXECUTE POLISH CIVILIANS WITHOUT TRIAL, DECEMBER 1939. SCENES LIKE THIS WERE TO BECOME ALL TO FAMILIAR DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF POLAND.

The Stuka dive-bomber was one of the most successful and feared warplanes in the early days of the war. It was a light two-man bomber powered by a 1200hp engine and was used to devastating effect in both the Polish campaign and later during the Battle of France. The Stuka was designed to carry out bombing raids with pinpoint accuracy, destroying enemy positions as a prelude to the main German advance. Its accuracy was such that its bombs routinely fell within 30 metres of its targets. This was in part due to its ability to dive in a near vertical position. The Stuka’s airbrakes enabled the plane to slow down during its dive to give the pilot sufficient time to aim carefully. The Stuka could carry one 1100lb bomb or one 550lb and four 110lb bombs. It was also armed with three 3.7mm machine-guns and had a top speed of 292mph. The notoriety of the Stuka was so great that it became the most prestigious plane to fly with the Luftwaffe, at least until Allied pilots discovered its great weakness: the Stuka was vulnerable as it commenced its dive. That was the moment when the dive-bomber could be shot down.

members of the Polish armed forces. Instead, their targets were civilians: men, women and children, as well as prisoners of war. It soon became clear that the Geneva Convention, an international agreement first outlined in 1864, which gave prisoners of war the right to medical treatment and other benefits, was not going to be applied to the Poles, whom the Nazis’ racist ideology classed as subhuman.

As the SS entered captured Polish towns and villages, the full extent of their malignant brutality quickly became apparent. Anyone suspected of being an enemy of the German Reich was summarily executed. Among these ‘enemies’ were Jews, intellectuals, homosexuals, teachers, lawyers, priests and Polish patriots. The murders were frequently preceded by humiliation and torture so horrific that many members of the Wehrmacht were shocked. Some took the dangerous step of complaining to their Führer. Hitler listened to their protests, but quickly overruled them, giving the SS, not the army, his backing and sanction.

Anyone suspected of being an enemy of the German Reich was summarily executed… The murders were frequently preceded by humiliation and torture so horrific that many members of the Wehrmacht were shocked. Some took the dangerous step of complaining to their Führer

By the time the Allies declared war on 3 September, German forces had already sealed off the Polish corridor. The Polish Army, which lacked the modern weapons that might have enabled it to compete on equal terms with the Germans, quickly found itself encircled. In contrast to the Wehrmacht, Poland’s forces were made up almost entirely of infantry and cavalry divisions. For mobility, they were dependent on the railway network, but that had already been destroyed by the Stukas. As communications broke down between the armies in the field and their commanders, the Poles had little choice but to stay put and wait for the German onslaught. Inevitably unsupported, cavalry divisions proved no match for Panzers. Nevertheless, Polish resistance was both valiant and fierce.

As the Polish republic collapsed, key members of the government attempted to escape into Romania to form what would be the first of many European governments-in-exile. Unfortunately, they were interned by the Romanians and it fell to former prime minister General Sikorski to head the new exiled government. The formation of a new Polish government in France was essential if the Polish nation was to survive the war. After all, both Hitler and Stalin had already begun to display their ruthless determination to ensure that the independent Poland created after the First World War would never re-emerge.

Sikorski and about 90,000 Polish troops under his command fought during the battle of France in 1940. The remnants of this force were ferried across the Channel to England, which Sikorski was forced to accept as his new home. The Polish leader was now in the familiar position of exiled leaders: he was entirely dependent upon the British for aid. But as long as he continued to put troops in the field against the Germans, it could never truly be claimed that Polish resistance had been totally extinguished.

MODERN WARFARE SPARED NEITHER SOLDIER NOR CIVILIAN. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF POLISH CIVILIANS DIED DURING THE POLISH CAMPAIGN. MILLIONS WERE TO DIE DURING THE NAZI OCCUPATION.

A counter-attack was launched on 9 September. The Polish Army around the River Bzura attacked the German 8th Army and succeeded in destroying one of its divisions. The action slowed the German advance on Warsaw, but the respite was short-lived. Within five days, the Polish Army was once again in retreat as the Germans now focused their attention on the Polish capital.

As bombs fell on the beautiful city, the Allies, despite their pledges, were entirely unequal to the task of aiding the beleaguered Poles. Instead, they began dropping leaflets urging the Germans to overthrow the Nazis. The mentality behind this was a cautious one: the British were wary of delivering anything more substantial in case it ‘provoked’ the Germans.

THE POLES WERE NOT READY FOR THE HIGHLY MOBILE WARFARE THE GERMANS UNLEASHED IN SEPTEMBER 1939. THE DAYS OF TRENCH WARFARE WERE OVER.

French efforts on the Western Front proved equally dismal. On 9 September, French forces advanced into the Saar, in western Germany. The Poles were relying on their allies in the West to make the Germans fight a war on two fronts, and thereby reduce the pressure on their own country. But the Germans failed to take the bait and withdrew as the French advanced towards the West Wall, or Siegfried Line. This was Germany’s answer to the Maginot Line, but a less elaborate one. Confronted by the German fortifications, the French paused, then retreated. Meanwhile, bombs continued to rain on Poland, but even worse was to come.

Of the many atrocities committed in Poland during the war, the Katyn Forest Massacre, perpetrated by the Russians, remains one of the most notorious. After Stalin’s successful defeat of Poland, nearly 200,000 prisoners of war fell into his hands. In order to proceed with incorporating his half of Poland into the Soviet Union, Stalin, like his German counterparts, was keen to destroy the Polish élite from which the main resistance to Soviet rule was likely to come. The Soviet dictator had his secret police, the NKVD, select 15,000 captured officers who were then sent to three special camps – Kozielsk, Ostaszkow and Starobielsk. After May 1940, they were never heard of again. Attempts to locate them by Polish leaders seeking to recreate the Polish Army met with no results until, in 1943, the Germans uncovered a mass grave in the Katyn forest containing 4400 bodies. Although the Russians denied responsibility at the time, they later admitted in 1989 that the massacre had been conducted by the NKVD. The remaining 10,000 officers have never been found.

With the Polish Army all but defeated, Stalin stepped in to seal their fate. On 17 September, Soviet troops stormed into Poland after the new Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, declared that the Polish state no longer existed. Within days, the Soviets had linked up with their Nazi allies. Polish resistance had by now shrunk to the area around Warsaw. The New York Times was blunt in its assessment of the Soviet Union: ‘Germany having seized the prey, Soviet Russia will seize that part of the carcass that Germany cannot use. It will play the noble role of hyena to the German lion.’

The German bombing of Warsaw began the same day as the Polish counter-attack. Warsaw, defended by over 100,000 troops, was able to hold out for 17 days, but indiscriminate bombing, fires and lack of food took their toll on the inhabitants. On 26 September, Warsaw surrendered. By the beginning of October, all organised resistance had ceased.

‘Germany having seized the prey, Soviet Russia will seize that part of the carcass that Germany cannot use. It will play the noble role of hyena to the German lion’ The New York Times, September 1939

Twenty-five thousand Poles had been killed by German bombers in barely a month. Sixty thousand troops had died fighting the Germans, who had now captured over half a million Polish soldiers. But in a gesture of defiance, General Wladyslaw Sikorski set up a Polish government-in-exile in France on 30 September. Sikorski was able to keep the flame of Polish resistance burning as 90,000 Polish troops began their escape to the West. These were to be joined by Polish sailors who managed to sneak two submarines and three destroyers through the German naval blockade. The Poles, who included a number of airmen, were gradually absorbed into the Allied war effort, to fight most prominently in the aerial Battle of Britain in 1940 and in Italy after 1943.

With the fighting over, the Germans and Russians divided Poland between them. The Nazis took the west of the country, which contained the bulk of the Polish population and industry, while the Soviets took the rural east. The two zones of occupation were divided by the River Bug.

GERMAN TROOPS ENTER GDANSK, 1939. WHILE HIS BLITZKRIEG STILL RAGED IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, HITLER HIMSELF ENTERED DANZIG ON 19 SEPTEMBER AND RECEIVED A WARM WELCOME FROM THE CITY’S LARGELY ETHNIC GERMAN INHABITANTS. WITH THE OCCUPATION OF THE FREE CITY OF DANZIG HITLER HAD RIPPED UP YET ANOTHER CLAUSE OF THE VERSAILLES TREATY.

Although the Nazis and Soviets remained ideological opponents of the most virulent kind, both set about the occupation with the same aim: the complete destruction of the Polish state and Polish culture. The German zone, containing over 20 million people, was divided into two new provinces: the Wartheland and the General Government. Over the next six years, German-occupied Poland was to become a living laboratory in which the Nazis tested their racial theories with utter ruthlessness and disposed of their ‘enemies’ in death camps.

SS TROOPS MOP UP THE LAST POCKETS OF POLISH RESISTANCE IN DANZIG.

The Wartheland was to be completely Germanised and was formally absorbed into the Third Reich, while the General Government was reduced to the status of a massive labour colony. The untold human cost of this decision was felt immediately, but grew in severity as the months passed. Well over two million Polish Jews were now in German hands. Nazi theorists wasted no time going to work on a solution for what they euphemistically termed the ‘Jewish problem’.

SS Chief Reinhard Heydrich took up the task with relish. Genocide was the only logical outcome of the fanatical Nazi hatred of the Jews and Heydrich set about organising its initial phases with chilling efficiency. From October, all Jews between the ages of 14 and 60 were expected to perform forced labour for the Nazis

SS Chief Reinhard Heydrich took up the task with relish. Genocide was the only logical outcome of the fanatical Nazi hatred of the Jews and Heydrich set about organising its initial phases with chilling efficiency. From October, all Jews between the ages of 14 and 60 were expected to perform forced labour for the Nazis. Their property rights were restricted, they were removed from the countryside and they were herded into ghettos in Polish cities.

BEHIND THE SCENES, THERE IS CLOSE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN GERMANY AND THE SOVIET UNION IN THE BUILD-UP TO WAR.

Life in the ghettos was harsh and squalid. Thousands were confined in a cramped area, and were refused sufficient food. There was little or no sanitation. These horrific conditions quickly took their toll on the old, the sick and the young, thousands of whom died. In these early stages, this campaign against the Jews was being carried out slowly. Within two years, though, it had accelerated, claiming the lives of millions.

CAPTURED POLISH WEAPONS IN WARSAW SQUARE, AFTER THE FALL OF THE CITY, 1 OCTOBER 1939.

To further the Germanisation of the Wartheland, those Poles considered ‘racially unfit’ to belong in the Reich were dumped in the General Government, their property having been confiscated. One and a half million people, including 300,000 Jews, were taken from their homes and put into cattle trucks. The Germans treated them worse than animals, offering them neither food nor sanitation. Many died before they reached their destination. Their homes, possessions and businesses were taken over by ethnic Germans, who were encouraged to leave the Baltic states for the Wartheland. Polish children considered to be of the appropriate racial stock were taken from their parents and shipped to Germany, to be raised as Nazis. The Polish language and culture were now fiercely suppressed. All occupants of the Wartheland were designated German.

Life in the General Government was even more appalling. With Hans Frank’s appointment as governor, the persecution of the Poles was stepped up. Frank made clear his intention to treat the Poles as slaves. Libraries and universities were closed and mass deportations began as thousands of Poles were taken to Germany, where they would be forced to spend the duration of the war toiling for the German war machine.

THE GERMAN WARSHIP THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN OPENS UP ON THE POLISH GARRISON AT WESTERPLATTE, 1939. THE GARRISON SURRENDERED AFTER INFLICTING HEAVY LOSSES ON THE GERMANS ON SEPTEMBER 7, AFTER A WEEK OF STUBBORN RESISTANCE.

The Soviets undertook the pacification of their portion of Poland with no less gusto. Stalin, like Hitler, had no intention of tolerating an independent Polish state and quickly set about absorbing Soviet-occupied Poland into the Soviet Union He was quick, too, to eliminate any potential ‘enemies’ of the working class, his principal target being the Polish officer corps.

‘Why should this war in the West be fought for the restoration of Poland? The Poland of the Versailles Treaty will never rise again’ Adolf Hitler, September 1939

It is estimated that Stalin had 15,000 of these officers executed. In April 1943, when the tide of war had washed the Soviets out of Poland and washed the Germans in, Nazi soldiers discovered 4400 bodies buried in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. Their hands were tied behind their backs with wire and there were bullet holes in the backs of their heads. The remaining 10,000 officers were missing. They were never found. In total, the Soviets deported one million Polish citizens to labour camps in Siberia and Central Asia before the Germans broke their pact with Stalin and attacked Russia, through Poland, in 1941.

GERMAN SOLDIERS STAND GUARD AT THE NAZI–SOVIET DEMARCATION LINE. THE DECISION OF THE TWO DICTATORS HITLER AND STALIN TO CARVE UP POLAND BETWEEN THEM EFFECTIVELY SEALED POLAND’S FATE.

With Poland absorbed, Hitler made the Allies a cursory peace offer. He attempted to ‘reason with them’. Their declaration of war on 3 September had, in fact, taken the Nazis by surprise and there was a certain amount of trepidation at the thought of facing the mighty French Army. But success in Poland bred a growing confidence and Hitler felt able to speak to the Allies as a victor.

‘Why should this war in the West be fought for the restoration of Poland?’ Hitler asked. ‘The Poland of the Versailles Treaty will never rise again.’

Hitler proposed a conference for the purpose of discussing the situation in the East. But the Allies had learned a hard and humiliating lesson. Hitler’s offer was rejected out of hand by both Chamberlain and the French Prime Minister, Daladier.

THE PEOPLE OF POLAND ARE ALERTED BY PUBLIC NOTICE TO THE INTRODUCTION OF LAWS TO RESTRICT MOVEMENT AS PART OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NAZI POLICE STATE.

Characteristically, Hitler had already been making other plans. He reasoned that if the Allies were to reject his peace offer, France and Britain would both have to be knocked out of the war. Hitler’s thirst for conquest and his ambitions soared as he now turned his attention towards an invasion of France.