"A deadly absurdity hangs over the city" - recalled one of the inhabitants of Warsaw. The death penalty has become as common as before the war "street fines for incorrect sidewalk-to-sidewalk transition." What was the risk of being shot? And has the "master race" ever shown human reflexes?
One of the first victims of the Germans in occupied Warsaw was the driver Karol Leszniewski. He was shot on October 13, 1939, for failing to do so despite a publicly announced order to return his weapons. For the same reason, executions were carried out several times, among others, in the parliamentary gardens.
Naturally, the inhabitants of the village were also exposed to death for similar reasons. Doctor Zygmunt Klukowski, who was in charge of the hospital in Szczebrzeszyn near Zamość, regretted that the most common reason for discovering weapons among the convicts was denunciation by neighbors or friends. It should be noted, however, that the concept of a weapon does not necessarily mean melee or small arms.
Death for possessing a gun. Even one that wasn't a weapon
The occupiers were not going to play with subtle analyzes. Publicist and writer Rafał Marceli Blüth, father of the outstanding Polish historian Professor Tomasz Szarota, was among 15 people shot for possession of weapons on November 13, 1939 in Natolin. In his case, an ordinary gas mask turned out to be a "lethal" tool.
The Germans even shot for having a gas mask.
Another outstanding representative of Polish culture, the poet and prose writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, almost lost his life because of the revolver he had with him. The whole situation happened in Wyszków on October 11, 1939, when Iwaszkiewicz and his companions were stopped by a German patrol. The poet then kept his friend's weapons.
When asked by a German soldier if I had a gun, I almost said I didn't. But after a moment's hesitation, I answered the truth. They took my revolver, and the corporal who took it away from me, weighing the gun in his hand, said:"Do you know that I have the right to kill you now with this gun? Why were you taking her? But I won't do it.
I liked him for a moment, but then he started asking us where the best lands are, because he wants to settle down here. That the Führer would settle them in these lands after the war was over. He spoke with such insolence that my blood boiled through my veins. I didn't answer anything.
"The witty said they were afraid of sentences only higher than the death penalty"
Soon, Poles in the General Government became convinced that they could die not only for possessing weapons. On October 31, 1939, an ordinance initialed by Hans Frank came into force, introducing the death penalty for all offenses against the occupation authorities.
Here is how the writer Kazimierz Brandys recalled the restrictive German regulations and the reaction of Polish society to them:
Death threatened fat and gold, weapons and fake papers, hiding from registration, radio, and Jews. The witty said that they were afraid of sentences only higher than the death penalty; they considered this penalty to be a street fine, which one had to pay before the war for an incorrect transition from the sidewalk to the sidewalk.
A deadly absurdity hung over the city, the gloomy grotesque of prohibitions gave Warsaw a doomed humor full of mockery and contempt for the Nazis. The stewards of death aroused disgust and laughter. They were despised as a carcass. Their scream, rage and rudeness were considered to be the characteristics of a species lower than man, and their thick, heavy croups were pointed out with the finger .
Death for posters and for defense against rape
The fact that the occupant did require strict adherence to the rules he had introduced was discovered a few days later, when the announcement about the death sentence against Elżbieta Zahorska and Eugenia Włodarz was posted in Warsaw.
German announcement of February 1944 on the condemnation of 100 Poles to death for "an attempt on the work of the German reconstruction of the General Government.
Zahorska, a young 24-year-old girl, a heroic defender of the besieged Warsaw, was arrested when she torn off the famous German propaganda poster “England! Your work "(reminding that the British have not fulfilled their allied obligations towards Poland and suggesting that they are responsible for the Polish victims of the September campaign).
The widow Eugenia Włodarz slapped a German soldier who was attacking her, which was considered an attempt on his life. Both were shot on November 4, 1939, in the courtyard of the Mokotów fort.
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Destroyed villages and cities, millions of murdered and plunder on an unimaginable scale. The horror of the German occupation in the new book by Dariusz Kaliński "Balance of harms" .
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The article is an excerpt from the book "Balance of harms. What did the German occupation of Poland really look like "