NEIGHBOURS ON THE EVE OF THE HOLOCAUST

Mark Paul

Fifth Columnists and Armed Rebellions

Did Jews under the Soviet occupation actually kill or murder
any Polish soldiers or civilians?
I know of no single documented case of any Jews executing Poles
under Soviet rule.
Robert S. Wistrich (2003)

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.
Preparations were also underway in the countryside. As one Jewish source notes:

... With the publication of the news on the radio that the Russians crossed the Polish border, the communists of Grodno and its surroundings began to confiscate the weapons from the retreated Polish soldiers. The Poles looked at this behavior with a lot of anger and hate.

Perversely, that source then blames this state of events on the Poles:

... No wonder the Jews welcomed the Russians as their redeemers and saviors.

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:

... Suddenly some shots rang out on Brygidzka Street. We observe that on the balconies Jews with red armbands are shooting at people in the street.

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.
When the Soviet tanks rolled into Grodno early on September 20, they brought with them as guides Jewish communists from that town, among them: Lew Aleksandrowicz, Margolis, Lifszyc, and Abraszkin, who had fled to the Soviet Union before the war. Local Jews flocked to the ranks of the Soviet militia and NKVD and, along with many Jewish civilian supporters, took part in the fighting that again ensued. Grenades and machine gun-fire from Jewish homes were aimed at soldiers who were fighting for Poland's freedom.
Jews also took part in the subsequent round-up of Polish soldiers, police, activists and even high school students, who had rallied to the defence of the city. Roving, hysterical bands preyed on fleeing Poles. Jews fingered Poles to Soviet soldiers, apprehended them and even attacked them physically. There were scores of executions throughout Grodno; the bodies of Polish victims, often disfigured, littered the streets. Some 130 Polish students and officer-cadets were executed on Psia Gora (Dog's Mountain) and in Sekret forest. Rampages were the order of the day as brutal repressions ensued.

... After the Polish defence had broken down Soviet troops took over all of the important points in the town such as the administration buildings, police stations and jails, etc. Fully armed execution squads descended on the town. In the first days after the town was occupied those who were arrested were not sent to places of detention, jails or prisoner of war camps, but were shot on the spot.
One of these Soviet detachments, led to our home by a Jewish co-inhabitant wearing a red arm band, arrested my father. My father, Jan Kurczyk, was a 45-year-old school teacher. After being taken out of the home he was shot dead. ... My father had not taken part in the defence of Grodno, but it was enough that someone had fingered him because he was a Pole and educated in order to murder him without a trial in the Nazi fashion.
A cruel fate awaited Polish soldiers and hundreds of residents of Grodno, who were taken prisoner after being fingered by Jewish and Belorussian fighting squads. The men were cruelly disfigured: their noses, limbs, and ears were cut off, their eyes were gouged out. Groups of fifteen were then tied together by barbed wire. They were fastened to tanks and dragged for several hundred metres over stony roads. The bodies were then thrown into roadside ditches and bomb craters. The moans and cries of the murdered could be heard over a distance of a few kilometres. This grim situation was intensified by the fires. Polish homes were set ablaze after being ravaged by Jewish youths wearing red bandannas and bows.
What most sticks in my mind were the terrifying scenes which took place at that time on the streets and outskirts of Grodno. For example, at the corner of Orzeszkowa and Dominikanska Streets, when a vehicle carrying two [Polish] officers and a driver came to a momentary stop, a group of armed Jews ran out of some nearby houses, pulled out the soldiers and assaulted them. They then hacked their bodies up with axes and piled them up on the road.

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.
Months later, after the Soviet regime was firmly installed, show trials of "reactionary" Poles were conducted at which Jewish witnesses came forward in abundance to level charges against Poles accused of taking part in the fighting. A number of Poles were sentenced and some executed for opposing the communist rebellion in Grodno. Soviet propaganda labelled this, and other such occurrences, as "pogroms". However, among the alleged "pogromists" were not only etnic Poles, but also Polish citizens of other nationalities, including Belorussians and Jews.

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.

... At 7 o'clock in the evening [of September 17] a loud noise was heard and the first powerful Russian tanks appeared in Korelicze Street. They were met by the Jewish population with jubilation and flowers. ... People in the streets were in a festive mood. There were Jewish soldiers in the Soviet army, who made themselves known to the local community. At 10 o'clock in the evening the loudspeakers announced that the town was governed by a military administration. ... At 1 o'clock in the morning sounds of intensive shooting were heard. Everyone endeavoured to take cover. No one knew what caused the shooting. A rumour spread next morning that some bullets broke window panes. Some soldiers told us that they were fighting the Poles, who were shooting from cover. The strong fire was concentrated in Kowalska Street, where the Catholic Church was. The resistance was suppressed by the morning. During that night the first Jewish victim fell - the older son of Aba Zamkowy was shot by the Poles.

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:

... The following morning found the communist youth, Jews and Ukrainians, rejoicing in the streets. ... The communists set up a militia of local youth. They enthusiastically decided to form a guard of honour to welcome the Red Army, decorating the square with pictures of Stalin and the communist greats and bringing the fire brigade orchestra. But instead of the victorious Red Army, a train arrived bearing a load of Polish troops who apparently had not heard of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. The newly-formed militia enthusiastically set out to capture the Polish troops. Shooting and general chaos followed with all those in the vicinity taking cover, including those who had gathered to welcome the Reds.

A Polish eyewitness confirms the same general picture:

... Railway transports of Polish soldiers pass through town toward the east. The Polish authorities have left. Jews wearing red armbands and carrying rifles are on the streets. They praise the Red Army. They look askance at the Polish trains and, finally, decide to intervene.
They approached a group of Polish officers who came down onto the platform. One of them struck a Polish officer in the face and said: "You Polish mug. Hand over your weapons!" The Polish captain took out his gun and shot the assailant. He then yelled to the wagons: "Shoot, men". Polish soldiers then opened fire, poured out of the wagons and started a chase. Bullets flew in the streets. Nine assailants were hit. The fleeing Jews screamed: "The Polish army won!"

The stalwart Soviet allies remained undeterred, however, as another Jew recalls:

... Right after the Soviets entered Rozyszcze, a communist youth organization ... seized control of the town. ... these young communists marched on the streets of the town with guns. They wore red armbands to identify themselves and arrested people thought to be fascists or enemies of the communist cause. I was afraid just to walk from the train station to Ytzel's house. I was afraid even though some [likely many, if not most - M.P.] of the young men with armbands were Jews.

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:

... The relations between the Jews and the local Gentile population, which was mostly Polish, had been very good until the outbreak of the war.

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:

... I was at the Plac Mariacki in the centre of town, when the Bolsheviks entered. Jews from Lwow rode on horseback with the front ranks. As members of the Communist Party they had offered their services to the Soviet army and were employed as guides.

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
POLAND'S ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THE NAZI-SOVIET OCCUPATION OF POLAND

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