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A Few Short Weeks Was All
that Was Needed to Leave a Mark
The original border, agreed to in the secret
protocol to the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of August 23,
1939, divided Poland along the Narew–Vistula–San rivers.
However, in the Nazi-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty
of September 28, 1939, the USSR exchanged the territory
between the Vistula and Bug rivers (Lublin Province and part
of Warsaw Province) for control over Lithuania, which was
added to the Soviet sphere of influence. The predominantly
Polish city of Wilno was given over to Lithuania, but that
country was eventually incorporated into the Soviet Union
the following year.
Thus in mid-September, large portions of the
Lublin region were occupied by the Red Army and remained under
Soviet rule until that territory was handed over to the
Germans in the early part of October 1939. In those few weeks
of Soviet rule local collaborators, eager to establish the
"new order", left an indelible mark that was to take its toll
on relations between Poles and Jews throughout the war.
According to historian Dov Levin:
... A Jewish communist, who had been
released from prison by the outbreak of the war and reached
the town of Chelm, which was under Soviet rule at the time
(it was subsequently handed over to the Germans), describes
the entire town as having been in Jewish hands; the mayor
was Jewish, and all the policemen and municipal office
holders were Jewish communists with the exception of "a few
Poles".
According to one Polish eyewitness, when a
Polish Army unit led by Lt. Janusz Pawelkiewicz entered
Chelm just before the arrival of the Soviet army, the soldiers
encountered the grisly sight of twelve Polish officers nailed
to the floor of a school, apparently the deed of local Jews.
Soon gates adorned with flowers were put up by Jews in honour
of the invading Soviet army. Masses of excited Jews, young and
old, converged on the streets of Chelm wearing red armbands.
Armed militia groups roamed the town looking for victims.
... It was late in the afternoon, about
six o'clock. On the street we were crossing we witnessed a
gang of about ten to fifteen Jewish youths assaulting a
young soldier with their knives, truncheons and bayonets.
Each of the Jews wanted to have his share in the murder. The
entire group attacked him as he was walking alone. This took
place just some fifty to a hundred metres in front of us. We
were walking in the same direction as that soldier. Seeing
what was happening and hearing the voices of the soldier and
the Jews who were killing him I felt weak and fainted. My
father dragged me to the entrance of a building.
... That picture remains with me to this day.
With the Soviet retreat from this area:
... An organized group of artisans reached
Luck from Chelm, which had fallen to the Germans, leaving
their wives and children behind. The members of this group,
carrying a faded red flag that they had saved from the 1905
revolution as a talisman, … formed a commune, found jobs,
and pooled their income.
According to Jewish sources, in the largely
Jewish town of Kosow Lacki, north of Sokolow Podlaski:
... The Russians were quick to organize a
local government, and a few young men who had been members of
the illegal Communist Party in Kosow, proudly helped them.
Volunteering for the militia and guiding the Soviet troops
around the region.
... But after a few days the Russians left.
... Many young people chose to leave with the Russians.
In Lomazy, near Biala Podlaska, the local
"workers'" or "revolutionary committee" was composed of local
Jews, who constituted about a third of the town's population:
Epelbaum, who was appointed chairman, Litman, who also headed
the "workers' militia", Moszko Polosecki, and Mejer Kuk. [as
mentioned earlier, group of Jews invaded the Catholic church
and rectory destroying liturgical robes, religious artifacts
and church records]
The entire administration of Miedzyrzec Podlaski
was, according to a Jewish source, also taken over by local
Jews:
... The communist Jews were glad to meet
their comrades. They all took over control of the municipal
offices and enjoyed the power tremendously. The festivities
didn't last long, since Germany and the Soviet Union signed
a treaty that determined the border between the USSR and the
Third Reich would be the Bug River. And so again, the Russians
left and the Germans came back. About 2000 Jews who belonged
to the Communist Party joined the Red Army, and fled to the
East.
A young Zionist, a committed member of the
Hashomer Hatzair, describes the adjustment of the Jewish
community of Radzyn Podlaski to the new order:
... In our town, unrest, tension and
excitement prevailed. There were heated discussions,
particularly among our Jewish boys, since our future was a
stake.
... we expected communism to be the complete liberation of
all working and peace-loving people. All the idealistic
slogans and phrases which were spoken and written about
communism would now become reality. Our Zionist dreams had
proved to be illusory and seemed to have been outdated by
historical events.
... Soon news arrived that outposts of the Red Army had
been seen in towns and villages nearby. The jubilation was
great, especially among us, Jews. The roads in and out of
the town were, however, still full of the rest of the Polish
Army: cavalry, infantry and artillery. There was constant
movement in the streets. In the nearby woods and villages
the rest of the Polish Army was regrouped and drawn together
finally. On the edge of the town some Russian trucks with
soldiers of the Red Army appeared.
... The local communists, with their red armbands welcomed
their Russian comrades. They received rifles from them and
proceeded to take over control of the town. All the dreams
of the Red Revolution, it seemed, would come true within
minutes. The great liberation had begun. The remaining
officers were stripped of their power and public offices
taken over. Enemies of communism and anti-Semites
[i.e., the Polish officials] were quickly prosecuted
and relieved of their duties. The majority of them, however,
had already gone into hiding out of fear.
... The joy of many older Jews of the upper class and that
of the Zionists was restrained. The majority, however,
were glad to have witnessed that day - the day on which the
promise of the Red Revolution would be fulfilled.
... The wearers of red armbands, most of them young and
Jewish, were conspicuous in the town as they raced back and
forth on confiscated bicycles or in coaches drawn by fine
horses.
... I observed all this with respect and perhaps with some
jealousy, too. I felt like someone who had been on the wrong
horse. After some consideration, I found an excuse in my
lack of experience at age seventeen. I also was consoled by
the recognition that I was pink, although it was clear that
only true red was acceptable at that moment. To play an
important part, I would have to have been older and redder,
I regretted that.
Among the new rulers with red armbands, I recognized Abraham
Pinkus who was their leader. I knew him very well, since he
worked at the town's power plant where I had recently found
a job.
... The day was hardly over when the Russians on the edge of
the town moved their trucks eastward and the world of Abraham
Pinkus and his comrades fell apart completely. Instantly,
the Polish cavalry appeared ... who took over the city ...
... With the Russians, the new communist leaders also left,
using any available means of transportation for their trek
eastward.
In Leczna, near Lublin, upon the Soviet entry
a group of Jews armed themselves and took control of the town
and paraded around in red armbands even though it was not still
apparent where the Soviet-German demarcation line would run.
They issued various demands to the local Polish officials and
threatened to hang them from a lamppost if they did not erect
a bridge across the River Wieprz by the following morning.
In Jozefow Bilgorajski, a small town of 3000
inhabitants, a local Jew known as Major organized a four-member
armed patrol of the "red militia", all of them Jews, who toured
the countryside on carriages confiscating from the villagers
supplies that had been abandoned by the Polish Army. When one
of the residents of the village of Majdan Nepryski turned to
the local commander of the NKVD for confirmation of this order,
he denied issuing it and ordered the return of the seized goods.
Previously, Major had organized rallies in the town denouncing
the Poles as oppressors of the Jews.
Jews with red armbands accompanied Soviet military
men on their inspections of hospitals and private homes in
Tomaszow searching for, and apprehending, Polish officers among
the wounded and hidden Polish soldiers. When the Soviets ceded
the town to the Germans, masses of Jews flocked to accompany them
on their retreat to the River Bug. Finding themselves sandwiched
between the Soviet and German forces near Belzec, shots were
fired at the Jews from both sides and many of them were killed.
In Krasnobrod near Zamosc, zealous young Jews
with red armbands, in their rush to organize the new order,
descended on the local monastery to announce to the prelate,
rather rudely, that the building would have to be evacuated. No
reason for the eviction was given. It is likely that this "local"
initiative had not been sanctioned by the Soviets.
According to Jewish reports from Zamosc:
... Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot of the year ...
the Germans left the town. We learned about the Russians
entering. The Jews were afraid of pogroms and assaults by Poles
during the entry of the Russians. They kept their shops closed,
the doors barred. All the men gathered in the gateways armed
with crowbars, axes, and other bits of iron to defend
themselves against assault by Poles, but there was no assault.
After three days Russian tanks with many soldiers on them
entered the town. Jews rejoiced and came to the market square.
The army went on, and a "city council" was established consisting
of formerly arrested communists of whom the majority were Jews.
The local Jewish communist Holcman was placed at the head of it.
... Each night there were meetings at the market place. Holcman
and others delivered communist speeches in Polish, Russian, and
Yiddish.
In Zamosc, so many Jews joined the local militia that they
accounted for a majority in its ranks. When the Soviets quit
the town (after the border between the Soviet and German areas
was drawn), scores of Jewish militiamen joined Red Army
formations that were retreating to the east.
... I remember the hours of exaltation, especially among those
Jews who had some connection with the Communist Party. With much
enthusiasm they joined the "People’s Militia". Among them were
also some individuals who helped the Russians to disarm the Polish
officers and soldiers who had found refuge in the surrounding
woods.
Acting on instructions from the Soviet military
commander, the militia went around arresting army officers, soldiers,
policemen, municipal employees, social activists, members of the
National Democratic Party, and clergymen. Hundreds of prisoners were
kept under the open sky near the prison on Okrzeja Street. They were
mistreated, particularly by Jewish militiamen, and robbed of their
belongings - boots, watches, bicycles, wagons, etc. Wounded prisoners
were forced to undress to their underwear. Some of those arrested
were executed, such as a group of policemen near the Rotunda. In the
New Town, young, armed Jews with red armbands marched columns of
Polish soldiers to the town square where a hysterical Jewish mob
whistled and jeered at them.
A Jewish woman by the name of Huberman, who was put
in charge of the hospital pharmacy in Zamosc, refused to issue medicine
to wounded Polish soldiers.
The daughter of a prosperous Jewish restaurateur, on
spotting a Polish officer in plainclothes, screamed at the top of her
lungs to Soviet soldiers nearby: ... Catch him! Catch him!
A Catholic priest managed to avoid being apprehended
by Jewish militiamen because of the intervention of local Poles.
After plundering the region, the Soviets retreated
several weeks after their arrival. They were accompanied by a sizable
retinue of Jews (up to several thousand from Zamosc alone), including
well-to-do ones, who loaded vast quantities of goods onto trains headed
east. On reaching the River Bug, the Soviets detached the carriages
carrying the passengers and unceremoniously dumped the Jews on the
German side of the redrawn border. The wagons carrying the confiscated
Jewish belongings proceeded into the Soviet zone. The stranded Jews
trickled home on foot.
Two Polish soldiers, still in uniform but unarmed, were
set upon by a group of armed Jews in the village of Wierzba, to the
north of Zamosc, and murdered.
Nearby, in Grabowiec, before the arrival of the Germans
in October 1939, twelve Polish officers dressed in civilian clothes, who
had been sheltered by the local Polish population were brutally murdered
in the bakery of a rich Jew called Pergamen. Another Jew, known as "Kuka",
took the bodies to the cemetery and dumped them in a ditch.
Polish soldiers, exhausted from battle with the Germans,
were rounded up by the Jewish "revolutionary committee" in Krasnystaw
(one of the Jews with a red armband rode on a mare brandishing a sword)
and were guarded in the market square by the Jewish militia. A Polish
Army unit happened to arrive in town and after firing a shot the Jewish
"fifth columnists" fled in panic.
In Izbica, near Krasnystaw, one of the Jewish residents
of that predominantly Jewish town recalled:
... It was a dreary, drizzly day when the Russians
approached Izbica. A "red militia" was organized by local communists,
whose leader was a former cobbler, a Jew named Abram Wajs.
... As some Polish soldiers and officers were still in the town, the
local communists, together with the Russian soldiers, set off
immediately to disarm them.
According to another Jew from that same town, the
Bolsheviks:
... were given a friendly welcome. Some of the young
people joined the militia and wore red armbands. The Bolsheviks took
the squires' cattle and carried it away on trucks. The militia helped
them search for weapons. The Bolsheviks were only there for eight days.
As they were leaving they advised the Jews to go with them.
... About a hundred families decided to go, including us.
Similar reports come from Jews from Krzeszow (many people
joined the "red militia") and Bilgoraj, as well as from Zolkiewka.
In the village of Narol:
... the local communists helped the Bolsheviks to search
for weapons. The Poles were outraged by that. When the Bolsheviks were
leaving, some Polish friends of ours warned that the Polish population felt
hostile toward the Jews because of the way the Jewish communists had behaved
and advised us to leave the town as there might be acts of revenge. We told
others about this, and almost all the Jews left in the direction of Rawa
Ruska.
When the Soviets entered Hrubieszow on September 21, Jews came
out in full force to greet them. Within a short while, dressed in red
armbands and carrying rifles, they stood guard outside all the important
public buildings. A young Pole recalled, how his Jewish friend, now a Soviet
guard with a rifle, threatened to arrest him for using the Polish word "Zyd"
for "Jew", rather than the Russian term "Evrei" (as it is known from other
accounts, the use of the Polish word "Zyd" could easily result in deportation
to a Soviet concentration camp for five years, whereas offensive references
to "Polish Pans" were the order of the day).
Local Jews - small peddlers and traders - donned red armbands,
obtained rifles, and helped the Soviets round up Polish soldiers. When, during
a brief interlude, some Poles brought the soldiers something to drink and a
few of them managed to escape, one of the servile Jews rushed to inform the
Soviets.
One Pole wrote:
... My God, you should have seen with what satisfaction
the Jews pushed around and jabbed [Polish soldiers] with the bayonets
on their rifles. What were our poor, tired and wounded Polish prisoners of
war to do?
Another Pole recalled:
... On September 23, we were encircled by Soviet tanks
and driven to a mill in Hrubieszow. We were surrounded by local militiamen -
Jews - who in a very crude manner pointed out who [among the Poles]
was in command.
... The bulk of the officers and noncommissioned officers, who did not seize
the chance to escape are on the list of those murdered in Katyn.
Many Jews, not only communists, filled positions in the Soviet administration
and helped the NKVD capture Polish officers and administrative personnel.
When the demarcation line moved eastward to the River Bug in
October 1939, German Nazis and Jews with red armbands (the latter in the
service of the Soviets) courted one another and exchanged pleasantries, when
the Germans came to collect wounded German soldiers from a hospital not far
from Hrubieszow. These congenial scenes were all the more surprising given
the ongoing German expulsions of Jews from the area, and their being driven
back by Soviet guards.
Such conduct on the part of Jews - their blatant displays of
hostility toward Poland and Poles, their overzealousness and utter servility
in serving their new master - cannot be explained away by the tenuous argument
that the Jews were simply glad to see that it was the Soviets, rather than the
Germans, who arrived there first. Moreover, the treatment of captured Polish
soldiers understandably incensed the local Polish population and created a
deep rift along ethnic lines.
Dr. Zygmunt Klukowski observed conditions in Szczebrzeszyn:
... Around 5 a.m. [on September 27, 1939] the first
Soviet soldiers entered Szczebrzeszyn. After a short stay at City Hall they
left again. A few hours later, I noticed several civilian communists wearing
red bands on their left arms. Around 4 p.m. I left the hospital to find out
any news. I saw Polish soldiers from whom the communists were taking belts,
haversacks, and map cases. The communists took the administration into their
own hands.
... Just before dark I noticed a large group of Polish soldiers coming into
the city. The communists tried to take their possessions, but the local
people standing on either side of the soldiers took so strong a position that
they retreated.
Many Jews left Szczebrzeszyn [on October 7] with the Soviet army,
especially those, who were part of the "red militia".
A Polish resident of that town recalled:
... It soon transpired that the main task of the "red
militia" was to disarm Polish soldiers and, at the same time, to seek out
Polish officers who, like Polish policemen, were handed over to the NKVD. They
were all deported to the USSR, where they perished.
The "red militia" was formed mostly by Jewish youth, who had full rights as
citizens of Poland. They now wreaked their rage on soldiers returning from the
war. I saw how they surrounded one of them and, putting the barrel of a rifle
to his back, took off his boots and belt and led him through the town. I knew
these Jews and I was terror-stricken.
Another time a few "red militiamen" attempted to lead a few soldiers, but some
people, who happened to pass by started to form a barrier around them so as to
allow them to escape. The militiamen became more and more aggressive and a
scuffle ensued. All of a sudden an older, important-looking military man sprang
away, took out his revolver and yelled out: Get away, you Jews, because I'll
shoot. The frightened militiamen fled.
During these street occurrences younger girl guides from a social assistance
troop started to patrol the roads leading to the town and warned military men
about the danger. They pointed out homes, where the soldiers could change into
civilian clothes.
Another eyewitness, a local priest, paints a similar picture:
... In Szczebrzeszyn and its environs communists surfaced, and
almost all of them were young Jews. They put on red armbands, started to assume
"power", and formed a "people's militia". Above all they started to disarm
individual Polish soldiers, robbing them, tearing off their uniforms, and
shooting officers as "bourgeois". They supported Soviet Russia and prophesied
revenge and death for Poland. They were overjoyed at the fall of Poland.
... They hung red flags around the town, and even on the bell tower of the
church near the town square. Until now I had believed that everyone thought of
Poland as I did, including Polish Jews. They, however, did not regard Poland
as their homeland, but just as their country of residence ...
On September 29, two Jews apprehended Wincenty Panasiuk, a Polish
platoon commander, and brought him to the makeshift headquarters of the "red
militia" in Frampol. During his interrogation by commander A.R. "Nuchym" and his
militiamen, the Pole refused to remove the Polish Eagle from his cap and his
military shoulder straps with insignia. When "Nuchym" attempted to remove these
by force, the Pole apparently struck him. The enraged militiamen stabbed the
Polish officer-cadet to death. His body was dragged out into a field and buried
secretly.
The fate in store for more than a dozen members of the Polish
community by the largely Jewish "revolutionary committee" was cut short by the
surprise Soviet withdrawal after a brief six-day occupation. Among those listed
for deportation were military officers, political figures, municipal officials,
the fire chief, the local Catholic pastor, the church organist, teachers - in
other words, virtually the entire leadership of the Polish community. Not one
Jew was targeted.
The local collaborators were steadfast in their loyalty to the
Soviet Union.
In Siedlce, which the Soviets occupied on September 29, 1939,
arrests of some 170 members of the local Polish elite (and a few Jewish community
leaders), among them the mayor and Catholic bishop, ensued immediately with the
help of the newly formed civil guard. Just before the Soviet retreat on October 9,
the prisoners were forced to march to the stronghold of Brzesc nad Bugiem, which
remained in Soviet hands, under the guard of the Soviet soldiers and Jewish
militiamen. Local communist supporters followed left the town before the Soviets
cordially handed it over to the Nazis in an official ceremony.
POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS UNDER SOVIET
OCCUPATION, 1939-1941
POLAND'S ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THE NAZI-SOVIET
OCCUPATION OF POLAND
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