They knocked out their teeth, pulled out hair, raped, tormented them unconscious. Instead of dating in a cafe, cinema or theater, they invited them to the gas chambers with a mocking smile. Or was it different? Maybe the Germans gave a show of elegance and incredible charm in the era of lowering standards?
Were the Germans more polite towards women than the Poles? The answer to this question seems a foregone conclusion. How would the torturers, whose main task was to liquidate the Polish nation in the name of the superiority of the Aryan race, humanely treat their opponents? Hitler was clear: The higher race subjugates the lower race ... And there was no distinction between women, men, children and the elderly. Everyone, regardless of gender, went to the gas.
But what if the Second World War separated people I knew? Neighbors, colleagues? Halina Rajewska, decorated with the Order of Polonia Restituta and the title of Righteous Among the Nations, recalled:
I had a German friend, the brother of my friend Olka Behrendt. She went to Germany, he stayed in the army. In school, before the war, he loved me very much. I didn't pay attention to it, because for me all that mattered was skating and school. And he professed great love for me. And now he was working in the police force.
He had access to various secrets, he knew, for example, which street they would evict, who they would arrest ... He reported to me and said that he would help, that I should trust him that he loves me. I agreed, but also knew I was taking a risk trusting him.
The Germans were certainly the best-dressed soldiers of World War II. It could be confusing ... they often behaved very mean, also towards ladies (source:Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H12262, license:CC-BY-SA 3.0).
That's why I didn't give him a contact to any of my friends. I was afraid it might be a spy. He came in before evening, he could walk freely, and he brought messages.
Thanks to the love of a German colleague from the school bench, Halina Rajewska saved her uncle, an art historian, priest professor Szczęsny Detloff, and an economist, professor Edward Taylor from deportation.
Sometimes even the charm of the German soldiers was awakened.
The officer is barely standing and says to his orderly that he has a girl to escort here. I wonder who will escort whom - slippery, severe winter, frost, night. A Gestapo man is slipping, falling down. I'm in fear - God forbid, something will happen to him and I can get a bullet for innocence. Finally, he somehow escorted me home, elegantly kissing my hand. But I remember this fear until today - says Zenobia Klepacka, organizer of secret teaching during World War II, surveillance of informers, member of the NSZ, decorated with the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Thanks to the love of a German friend from the school bench, Halina Rajewska saved her uncle, an art historian, priest professor Szczęsny Detloff (source:public domain) from deportation.
These kinds of stories inspired the novel "Bezimienni" by Mirosława Kareta, who describes the fate of Pelagia Reidlich (modeled on Pelagia Bednarska, the owner of a photographic studio at ul. Lubicz 24 in Krakow, a soldier of the ZWZ-AK in the legalization and phototechnical works department, an actress of an underground theater, co-founder of the organization Aid to Concentration Camp Prisoners) and her family, associated with PPS-WRN.
Reichsdeutsch knew about her complicated life situation and sometimes made slight concessions. Of course, she was using his naivety ruthlessly - for the purposes of the Organization. A ruddy, well-fed German, until someone stepped on his print, was usually kind to the world.
Sometimes she wanted to laugh when she imagined how he could react to the news that in the round log she was running on the corner of St. Lawrence and Starowiślna, where they were very eager to buy railwaymen, there is a contact point of the PPS intelligence service for practically the entire Krakow District ...
The good Germans were like medicine. Polish women definitely remember those ruthless, cruel ones who had nothing to do with kindness.
The article was inspired by Mirosława Kareta's novel "Bezimienni" (WAM Publishing House 2016).
Halina Rajewska, who, thanks to the help of a German who was in love with her, saved her relatives, two years later met the Nazis from their showpiece. On my own wedding day. It was December 8, 1941.
My teeth were knocked out at home because they wanted to know who warned me, how I knew they were coming. They took me to the town hall in Szczebrzeszyn. How I was standing. I had such a nice georgette dress. They took me in this dress. When they later beat me and undressed me, this dress was all cut. They beat me with reeds.
In town hall they put me on two high stools and they just fucked me. I still have traces of a Gestapo man extinguishing a cigarette on my leg. (...) I was sure they would kill me, I wanted them to be killed as soon as possible. One of them hit me on the head with a belt with such a large buckle, it was the worst, because at one point he struck me in the cross with this buckle.
What was the fault of 20-year-old Halina Rajewska? Together with her husband (a few hours before her arrest, she managed to get married to Leszek Kozłowski), she was active in the underground.
Where did the Germans learn such beastly behavior? After all, they never lacked cultural experiences. Even during the war, when in occupied Paris, unlike Warsaw, they decided to create a cultural capital.
Soon after the Germans entered, bars, restaurants, dances, theaters, an opera and a philharmonic hall were reopened. The Germans cared that the cultural life of Paris would not cease, that the Parisians would not be dissatisfied, that they would not join the resistance movement and that the fun would last for the best - reports Alan Riding, the European war correspondent of "The New York Times" .
Culture flourished in Paris ... the occupation in Poland was completely different (source:Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1994-036-09A, license:CC-BY-SA).
When the Germans in Poland tortured Polish and Jewish women, the Nazis in Paris led a life full of fun. They paraded the streets of the city with impeccable hairdos, in "ironed" uniforms, sprinkled with perfumes from Guerlain or Jean Patou. During the war, Paris was supposed to be a city of recreation and entertainment. Theaters, operas, nightclubs, cinemas, brothels, cabarets, after decorating with swastikas, they immediately resumed their activities Writes Riding. They were often accompanied by French women during their entertainment.
Coco Chanel slept with the Germans, Edith Piaf sang for them (although one of the most famous French singers ensured the safety of the two Jewish pianists hiding in her house). Many Germans enjoyed the company of French women who felt it was better to join the conquerors of their nation than to resist them - says Riding.
The times of the "lascivious" occupation were recalled in her diary by Madame Fabienne Jamet, the owner of the war brothel Le One-One-Two: I have never had so much fun in my life. These intoxicating nights were fantastic! I remember the SS, everyone in black, so young, so beautiful, often with extraordinary intelligence - they spoke perfect French and English.
While the Germans used to be gallant in Paris, the behavior of the Nazis towards Polish women is definitely a different story.
Although the Red Army was primarily associated with the rape of Polish women and the scale of the crime is unquestionable, archives of the rape of Polish women by German soldiers have recently been discovered.
A German like an actor, but is he gallant? (Source:Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-213-0289-10A, License:CC-BY-SA 3.0).
The hitherto well-camouflaged information was first revealed in 2013 in Poland by prof. Maren Röger, German historian:
There is an opinion that since the Germans always do what they are told, they did not use sexual violence against Slavic and Jewish women, because it was forbidden. Falsehood. Some of them raped these women with a feeling of impunity. Rape occurs as early as September 1939. The Wehrmacht command then informs in its internal letters about actions against the civilian population in Poland, including rapes. (...) rape was common in the Warsaw Uprising.
They were made by, but not limited to, the notorious Oskar Dirlewanger brigade, convicted of child rape before the war. He headed the Waffen-SS unit, composed of Germans and collaborators. About 40,000 were raped in the uprising. women, including minors, many of them were then cruelly murdered . - said Röger during the scientific conference "The Structures of Crime" at the Institute of National Remembrance in Katowice.
As the researcher emphasized, finding information about rapes was very difficult:
After the war, women were not asked about such harms, no separate evidence was collected in cases of rape by Germans. Sometimes such materials became secret, inaccessible to science. Is it because the popular opinion is that rape also stigmatizes its victim? It was a taboo subject.
The article was inspired by Mirosława Kareta's novel "Bezimienni" (WAM Publishing House 2016).
Professor Röger draws attention, for example, to the testimony of Gustawa Winkowska, given to the Swedish Red Cross immediately after the war. A Polish woman was confronted by the Gestapo at the age of 36, she was interrogated about the arrested husband of a lawyer:
I was bullied by Gestapo investigators. He took off my clothes and, squatting, completely naked, I was forced to testify all night long. During that night the Gestapo, many of them drunk, walked across the room and molested me in a disgusting way.
This is how the Germans were polite towards Polish women. For the sake of comparison, it is worth quoting the memory of the Poles by Barbara Matys, participant of the Warsaw Uprising:
The boys were very protective of the girls, they made sure we followed them with them on the front. They protected us. There were two such brothers named Leon, nicknames "Bawół" and "Taurus". I never knew which is which. Once they went on leave, they had their mother somewhere in Chmielna Street. The younger one came with such a bundle, a tube made of gray paper, greasy. He had fried pancakes there, and my mother somehow got some flour. And he takes out the pie and says:Basia, take a bite ...
In short:Polish men, your honor saved! As for the Germans… to put it mildly, they were more polite in France.
Inspiration:
This article was inspired by a novel by Mirosława Kareta entitled Bezimienni, WAM Publishing House 2016.
Read an interesting novel and learn about life in occupied Krakow:
