In the name of the loftiest divine and human slogans, we urge you fellow countrymen not to humiliate yourselves to the role of jackals - appealed on September 18, 1942, by the editors of the "Information Bulletin", the press body of the Home Army. Few listened to her. The inhabitants of the towns and villages made the best of the opportunity. They robbed the corpses of everything that was left of those deported from the ghettos and murdered Jews.
In his latest book, a historian from the University of Warsaw, Dr. Marcin Zaremba discovers the shameful and underestimated card of the history of Poland during the occupation. What were ordinary Poles doing when the Germans ruthlessly deported Jews to the slaughter? Of course, some tried to help neighbors of other faiths. They even risked their own lives. However, there were many more who saw in the Holocaust an excellent opportunity to get rich. There is no doubt that the plunder of Jewish property was in Opole Poland, it passed like a wave through the territory of the General Government, it also took place in Eastern Lesser Poland - emphasizes Zaremba in "Great fear". There are many examples. 
The Home Army "Biuletyn Informacyjny" described the situation in Otwock, Rembertów and Miedzeszyn in the summer of 1942:
On the memorable day of the liquidation of the Otwock ghetto, a few hours after this barbaric fact, [the population] ran carts at night and began plundering the remaining Jewish property. Everything that fell under the arm was taken away , doors and windows, shelves, floorboards were broken, not to mention furniture, clothes and underwear, which were the first victims of robbery.
Varsovians robbed whatever they could from the ruins of the ghetto ... It was similar in the provinces
The situation in the Warsaw ghetto was similar. It was described in another periodical of the Polish Underground State - "Press Agency" (issue of October 7, 1942):
As soon as the tenement houses in the Warsaw ghetto were deserted, they set off behind those ghastly walls - clusters of jackals to steal without memory a bloody, with a smell of corpse, steeped in possessions. (...) [The policemen] are followed by social scum, plundering and stealing whatever they can. (...) Groups of teenagers, even 12-14-year-old boys, who without embarrassment trade in stolen items are now roaming the streets of Warsaw. Particularly disturbing is the fact that the general public doesn't react to this abomination (...). It is a shame to say that property plunder is stained not only by the little ones, people of low mental level, but also by individuals with birthmarks, or at least with the aspirations of intelligence (...). About similar cases of collective lack or decay of honesty and sense of humanity we are told from different parts of the country.
Szaber square in Wrocław. Any looted goods could be liquidated in such places immediately after the war.
Indeed, the same thing happened in the provinces, as confirmed by private diaries from the time of the occupation. Zbigniew Klukowski, the author of memoirs entitled "Zamojszczyzna", wrote about the incidents in Szczebrzeszyn in the fall of 1942, immediately after the extermination of the Jewish population:
October 22, 1942. Jewish apartments are partially sealed, yet the robbery goes full blast.
October 24th. Many townspeople robbed whatever they could without any shame.
October 26th. In the evening, many residents rushed to the robbery with even greater passion .
In other villages, robbery began even before the bodies of the murdered Jews had cooled down. Sometimes - even before the few survivors were taken to camps. Hence the information also in Jewish diaries. A certain Golda Fish from Sokołów remembered the image of Poles carrying the remains from deserted and destroyed Jewish houses where murdered people lay. Elsewhere, Polish peasants tried to earn money from their Jewish neighbors immediately before the deportation. For a song and under duress, they bought all their belongings from them. In "Great Fear" you can find examples of acquiring almost free beds, wardrobes, clothes, leftover valuables.
Marcin Zaremba emphasizes that the cases of looting and exploitation were not isolated at all:
Similar scenes took place in many other places, especially in the provinces, where ghettos were liquidated. The houses from which their Jewish owners were driven out were plundered almost immediately, destroyed, and sometimes demolished for fuel by the local Polish population .
The Germans mistreat the Jews in Szczebrzeszyn. Once they had murdered them, Polish neighbors plundered their abandoned houses
Was this szaber fever about anti-Semitism? For hatred of Jews? Probably to some extent. But a completely different factor decided:the desire to get rich easily in difficult and uncertain times. During the occupation, szaber became a way of life for many people. Everything and everyone was robbed, not only Jews.
Even when a plane with a Polish crew (British Liberator) crashed near Bochnia, local peasants desecrated the bodies and robbed everything they could. From watches, through wedding rings, to money, uniforms and underwear. Nationality didn't matter.
Source:
Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Marcin Zaremba, Great fear. Poland 1944-1947 , Wydawnictwo Znak, 2012.