NEIGHBOURS ON THE EVE OF THE HOLOCAUSTMark Paul is a contributing author of: Kielce - July
4, 1946 - Background, Context and Events [1996] and The Story of Two
Shtetls - Bransk and Ejszyszki [1998]; he compiled: Wartime Rescue
of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy - The Testimony of Survivors [forthcoming; the internet version is posted at www.savingjews.org];
his most recent (in progress) works are: Neighbours on the Eve of the
Holocaust - Polish-Jewish Relations in Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland,
1939-1941 [the internet edition posted here is an abridged version
of a forthcoming publication under the same title. The copious annotations
to the printed edition have not been included in the internet version]
and A Tangled Web - Polish-Jewish Relations in Wartime Northeastern
Poland and the Aftermath Mark Paul |
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Fifth Columnists and Armed RebellionsDid Jews under the Soviet occupation actually
kill or murder any Polish soldiers or civilians? While throngs of Jews came out to greet the Soviet invaders in the towns and villages of Eastern Poland, the country continued to fight for its very existence. The most reprehensible actions were the armed rebellions, such as those in Grodno and Skidel, staged by local "fifth columnists" in anticipation of the Soviet takeover. They surely rank among the most despicable chapters of wartime collaboration. Recent research by historian Marek Wierzbicki has brought to light many more cases - all of them in localities, where no German soldier had set foot: Jeziory, Lunin, Wiercieliszki, Brzostowica Wielka, Ostryna, Dubno, Dereczyn, Zelwa, Motol, Wolpa, Janow Poleski, Wolkowysk, Horodec and Drohiczyn Poleski. As the evidence shows, these rebellions directed against Polish rule had little, if anything, to do with anti-Nazi sentiments. In all likelihood, they would have taken place even, if the Soviet Union had invaded Poland alone. There are also numerous recorded cases of Jewish saboteurs shooting at or ambushing Polish troops - the only army that was fighting the Nazis at the time. Jews also acted as guides for the Soviets and spontaneously pointed out the location of remnants of the Polish army. Having armed themselves and formed self-styled militias, "workers' guards" and "revolutionary committees" in many localities, Jews also played a significant role in the apprehension, round-up, mistreatment and even murder of Polish officers, soldiers, police and officials. In Grodno, where after the departure of the Polish army its
inhabitants formed spontaneously local defence, the atmosphere had already become
charged on September 17, when sporadic shooting erupted in that city. Armed Jews
held clandestine meetings in various places in town. Jadwiga Dabrowska saw her
neighbour's son, a Polish soldier, ambushed and shot dead by a young Jew, who
emerged from such a meeting in a nearby home.
Perversely, that source then blames this state of events on the Poles:
On September 19, the evening before the Soviets entered Grodno, local communist supporters, consisting mainly of Jews, staged an armed rebellion against Polish rule. One eyewitness described the activities of the city's "fifth column" as follows:
Another eyewitness noted that Jews had mounted a light machine gun
on the roof of a house on Dominikanska Street and threw hand grenades out of windows.
Similar reports came from Orzeszkowa Street. Naturally, the Polish civil authorities,
police and military, responded to this rebellion.
Once the townspeople were subdued, Jews from Grodno forayed into the
countryside as scouts to identify villagers who had taken part in defending the city
during the Soviet onslaught. They appeared as militiamen and members of the NKVD
and accosted young Polish men they encountered with threats of reprisals: ... You went
to fight for the "Pans". I'll give you your Poland, you mother-fucker ("Pan",
in this context, alludes to the pre-Partition Poland of the landed gentry; it was
used pejoratively by communists to refer to the "bourgeois" Poles of the interwar
years). Polish soldiers in the vicinity were also savagely attacked. A similar scene was witnessed in Skidel, a small town near Grodno. On September 17, Jewish and some Belorussian communists, strengthened by local Jews and (a few) Belorussians, set up a "revolutionary committee" which seized power in the town, arrested members of the Polish administration, and took the Polish garrison. They captured a large group of Polish officers from the Regional Reinforcement Command in Bialystok, whom they subjected to show trials and beatings, killing at least one of the officers. Understandably, this state of affairs prompted Polish retaliation the following day and some of the communist rebels were killed. In Wolkowysk, an armed group of diversionaries, for the most part Jews, attacked Polish army barracks, burned part of it down, and looted its contents. Captured rifles were distributed among local pro-communist elements, who formed a militia. Polish forces retaliated. In Berdowka, near Lida, a "red militia" consisting of Jews and Belorussians set upon and murdered a number of officers and soldiers of the Frontier Defence Corps (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza - KOP), who were preparing their defence against the Soviet invaders. Local communists, consisting of Jews and Belorussians also attempted to disarm the civil defence in Baranowicze on September 17, before the arrival of the Soviet forces. In Nowogrodek, some Jews took up arms in support of Soviet invaders and one of the "fifth columnists" - an alleged "victim" of the Poles - lost his life in the fighting.
In Byten, a small town to the north, Jewish communists seized control of the town and organized a warm reception for the Soviet army. Guns were seized from the Polish police and delivered to the newly formed "red militia". A Polish officer, who had passed through the area on September 17 fleeing bombardment by German forces, encountered a barricade set up by local communists, who opened fire and critically wounded him. As could be expected, the Polish authorities in the county seat of Slonim dispatched forces to break up the Soviet collaborators. In Trzcianne, near Lomza, the newly formed Jewish militia ventured out to meet the Red Army, but unexpectedly encountered a group of Polish soldiers. When the latter arrived in the village, they found a gate erected in honour of the Soviets with a rabbi standing at the head of the welcoming committee. The soldiers destroyed the gate and threatened to burn down the village. Already on the 18 of September, armed groups of Jews in Iwaniki (Polesia), were joined by Jewish deserters from the Polish army and formed a local militia. In Motol and near Telechany, the local Jewish militia engaged the Polish police and soldiers in battle. Daniel Golombka, a Jew from Rozyszcze, a small Volhynian town near the prewar Soviet border, painted a grim picture of what, by the pen of others, might well have been portrayed as another anti-Semitic "pogrom", staged by Polish soldiers:
A Polish eyewitness confirms the same general picture:
The stalwart Soviet allies remained undeterred, however, as another Jew recalls:
It was not as if there had been a history of marked animosity between Poles and Jews in that area which could have precipitated this state of affairs. A Jew from the nearby village of Kopaczowka, typical of many small localities, makes this very point in the Rozyszcze Memorial Book:
A Polish prisoner of war, who had been released by the Germans and was making his way home was offered some food by a Jewish woman, when he passed through the outskirts of Rozyszcze toward the end of September. In advance of the Soviet entry, a group of armed Ukrainians and Jews seized control of the town of Stepan and arrested more than a dozen Polish functionaries - civil servants, policemen, teachers and refugees from Central Poland. They were detained in the police station located in the municipal building, where some of them were beaten. On their retreat westward, the night of September 19 and the following morning, squadrons of the Frontier Defence Corps and Machine Gun Battalion stormed the town in order to cross over the bridge on the River Horyn. In the ensuing skirmish, there were losses on both sides. Polish soldiers were ambushed and fired on in Kolki, also in Volhynia, by groups of saboteurs comprised of Jews and Ukrainians. The Polish troops were able to encircle the "fifth columnists" in a mill and shot at them. Buildings in the area were set on fire. Some Polish policemen had also been captured and murdered by local diversionaries. In retaliation, some members of the "selsovet" (village "soviet") were executed. Near Zborow, in the Tarnopol region, the local Jewish militia and Ukrainian nationalists shot at retreating Polish soldiers. Previously, they had already seized control of the town of Zborow and slaughtered some Polish policemen. In the town of Luboml, just east of the Bug River in Volhynia, local Jews took turns collaborating first with the Germans, who originally occupied the town for two days on September 20, and then with the Soviets, who took control of the town only on September 24. Pro-Soviet Jews and Ukrainians had formed a "revolutionary committee" and seized power on September 18, after the departure of the Polish army. The "people's guard", composed of up to 150 Jews and Ukrainians, arrested the county supervisor (starosta), public prosecutor and members of the town administration. When the Germans arrived, these militias apprehended and disarmed Polish soldiers, tearing the Polish emblems off their coats and uniforms, and handed them over to the Germans. As could be expected, when the Germans departed and Polish soldiers in the vicinity learned of what was happening, they struck back at the collaborators during the hiatus. Some of the captured insurgents were executed in town, others were taken to the Polish garrison in Chelm. A similar situation took place in Kobryn (Polesia), where the Germans armed local Jewish communists, who then carried out diversionary assaults on Polish soldiers. Two flags - a German swastika and a Soviet star - flew over the town simultaneously and in harmony. As the cases of Grodno and Skidel illustrate, the stories of anti-Jewish "pogroms" perpetrated by Poles in September 1939 must be dismissed as baseless. In fact, these stories serve as a smokescreen for Jewish misconduct directed at Poles. Moreover, the hallmark of the numerous Jewish militias that sprung up, as will be further substantiated, was not their anti-Nazi but rather their anti-Polish animus. Furthermore, it should not be assumed that pro-Soviet conduct on the part of Jews was simply a response to an overriding fear of a German takeover. Jewish cooperation with the Germans, when the opportunity presented itself, as in the cases of Luboml and Kobryn, was also a factor to be reckoned. In several localities in Central Poland, Jews even greeted the German invaders. One such display occurred in Radom, where a Jewish delegation, headed by a rabbi and other leaders of the community, marched down the flower-strewn Mikolaj Rej Street on September 8, 1939 to welcome the German army. As mentioned earlier, Jews often surfaced as guides for the invading Soviet troops. An eyewitness from Lwow recalled:
In Dzisna, a Jew by the name of Szulman, the son of the owner of a large textile store, also acted as a guide for the Soviet army. Later he would draw up lists of Poles who, as "enemies of the state" were arrested and deported for "crimes" such as having fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. The stage was being set for the unfolding tragedy that would befall the Poles of the Eastern Borderlands.
POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS UNDER SOVIET
OCCUPATION, 1939-1941 |