/for the period: January to
April 1943/
I. The Attitude of the German Authorities
towards Poland
The German policy of extermination aimed against
Poles and Jews, has gradually become more
severe.
The German plan of action aims in
particular at:1. exploiting local manpower, to the greatest
possible degree, to satisfy the war needs of the
Reich, by means of:
a. mobilizing and forcing into the
German Army Poles Inhabiting the western parts of
the country. /including men of the class of
1900/;b. drafting labour in the remaining parts of
the country, and deporting it to the Reich and to
the east.
2. fighting and liquidating all signs of
organized underground resistance in Poland by
applying the most severe reprisals. The reprisals
are based on the principle of common responsibility
/mass executions, burning of villages
etc./:
3. germanizing Polish territories by a system
of mass deportations /and executions in case of
resistance/
During the first four months of 1943, the Germans,
capitalizing on the anti-Polish attitude of Soviet
Russia, began an intensive campaign aimed at turning
popular Polish feeling against Soviet Russia They hoped,
by this means, to achieve real collaboration,
particularly collaboration of a political
nature.
This campaign was backed by several acts of the
occupying Authorities, such as:
a. an effort to create a Polish
Protectorate - similar to the Chech Protectorate - and
organize a Polish legion.b. the promise of normalizing the situation in
the country.
c. the promise of treating Polish workers
deported to the Reich on an equal footing with German
workers /the same rations/.
The matter of the "graves of Katyn" was one of the
means which German propaganda intended to use in
furthering this plan.
As an answer to this measures, the people of
Poland endorsed completely the decisions of the Polish
government in London, and refused all offers of
collaboration.
II The German terror in
Poland. Statistical data.
1. Concentration camps in Poland.
a. Oswiecim
[Auschwitz]
- Over 640,000 people
have perished in this camp from the moment of its
creation until the end of 1942. According to the
latest reports, prisoners still living number about
40,000.b. Majdanek - About 27,000 people are interned
in this camp.
2. Deportations.
Mass deportations, combined in many cases with
executions, have lately taken place:
a. in the Province of Lublinb. In the Province of Bialystok (40,000 people
have been deported from the town of
Bialystok).
c. In the town of Radom, from which the whole
population has been deported, and, of late, in
Lithuania.
3. Jewish ghettos in Poland
The ghettos in Kobryn, Luniniec and Brzesc have
been completely liquidated.
The ghettos in Warsaw, Baranowicze, Molodeczno and
the towns of Galicia and Volhynia have been partly
liquidated.
B. Military work and methods of
organization.
I. Military organization.
One of the recent moves of the Polish Secret Army
was to develop the organization of the military network
especially in the eastern and western areas.
The organization H.Q. Staffs is being completed by
the addition of new personnel. At the same time secret
tactical exercises are being organised for junior
commanders
II. Military work of centralization.
A program of organization and centralization is
being carried out, for the purpose of incorporating into
the ranks of the Polish Secret Army all the semi-military
organizations, which have so far taken no part in the
activities of the army.
III. Military education.
The first course of an Infantry Officers'
Candidate School was completed in June, 1942. There were
150 groups of students. One group generally numbers 4 to
5 students.
In July new groups of Infantry Officers'
Candidates began on a new course. The first course of a
school for Non-Commissioned Officers started at the same
time.
Large-scale military training for youth of both
sexes was started. Girls learn nursing and liaison work
in special centers.
A second school for automobile drivers was opened
in the middle of 1942. The training received by students
of the first school proved satisfactory.
IV. Production of explosives.
Two types of hand grenades are produced in some
localities (hand grenades with delayed, and immediate
action fuse).
V. Publications of a military nature.
Instructions in the use of German infantry and
artillery equipment have been published. Other
publications contain the description and instructions in
the use of German panzer, engineering, and signal
equipments.
Several publications of a military nature are
appearing in Poland, such as:
"Information Bulletin" which appears
weekly in 24,000 copies, bi-weekly in 8,000 copies,
monthly in 11,000 and 6,000 copies."Press Agency", a weekly containg a review of
current events. It is distributed to all underground
publications, the number of which exceeds
100.
C. Sabotage, diversion and retaliation
activities in Poland. (for the period March,
1942 to April 1, 1943)
I. The above activities are carried out by
guerilla groups and sabotage detachments of the Polish
Secret Army. Regular army units destined for other tasks,
take no part in those activities
II. General aims and objects of the sabotage
activities.
1. Disorganizing German military
transports.2. Lowering the production of German war
material.
3. Sabotage and destruction of German
agricultural production.
4. Disorganizing German occupation
administration in Poland.
5. Lowering the morale of the German army and
the German population by means of:
a. subversive propaganda
b. acts of retaliation
III. Area of activity: Poland, the Third Reich,
and the western parts of the U.S.S.R. behind the German
lines.
IV. Results:
The reports and statistical data given below are
fragmentary and cannot constitute a complete picture of
the results of the activities described, for the
following reasons:
a. Limited technical means of communications at
the disposal of our organization within the country. Fear
of over-burdening the communications network inside
Poland, and between Poland and London.
b. Difficulties of transit to and from Eastern
Poland and strict control of all traffic between the
Third Reich, Western and Central Poland.
1. Sabotage activities
(for the
period: the year of 1942 to May, 1943).
a. Railways- Damaged locomotives 2,085
- Damaged cars 7,007
- Burned cars 167
- Railway transports set on fire
142
- Damaged armament transports 227
- Interruptions in the schedule of
- westbound rail traffic 152
- Interruptions in telephone and
telegraph
- communications in the railway system
144
b. Production of war material
- - In the "Avia" plant in Warsaw 1,532 sets
of bomb racks were defectively manufactured (not
fit for use).
- - In the powder plant "Pionki" the amount
of rejected defectively manufactured explosives
equaled a month's output.
- - In the Oberhütte Stahl Gliwice the
production of anti-tank shells was stopped, due to
inadequate penetration.
- - At the foundry "Pokoj" the production of
steel fell to 30% of the former output, as a result
of sabotage activities.
- - In the "Ostrowiec" plant in Warsaw the
production of locomotives fell to 30% of the former
output.
- Open hearth furnaces put out of action
2
- Oil well blocked 7
The following material was damaged in several
plants:
- lathes 362 0
- motors 76
- transmission belts 901
- miscellaneous machines 342
- trolleys 14
- textile raw materials ....
12,772kg.
- miscellaneous instruments 242
- automats 104
- The wear and tear of instruments was
increased and caused the loss of 17,568
man-hours
The following equipment was damaged in
mines:
- tubes 645 m.
- current conducting rails 25m
- trolleys 1 , 261
- pumps 11
- dynamos 2
The following miscellaneous material was
destroyed:
- rubber pontoons 25
- zinc alloy 18 tons
- iron 108 tons
- steel 102 tons
- special materials 897 kg.
- tools 344 kg.
- gasoline 4, 929 tons
- lubricants 21,135 kg.
- timber for production of aircraft
propellers 470 tons
- finished propellers 686
- rubber 40 tons
- mechanical tools 28tons
- parts of heavy machine guns defectively
manufactured 600
Between February and April 1943 the
following material was destroyed:
- gasoline 3,300 litres
- alcohol 40,000 litres
- oil 300 litres
- gas mixture 200 cu.meters
- substitute cotton 450,000 lbs.
c. Miscellaneous
The following have been burned
down:
- barracks 1
- aviation depots 1
- army garages 2
- army workshops 1
- quartermaster stores 3
- motor cars destroyed 301
- railway bridges destroyed 9
2. Self-defense activities
(for the period January to April 1943).
Nine armed attacks against German prisons have
been made with the aim of liberating soldiers of our
Secret Army or members of subversive
organizations.
- successful attacks 7
- unsuccessful attacks 2
In all about two hundred men have been set
free.
Besides the attacks mentioned above, the following
were carried out in April 1943:
- an attack against a German prison near
Cracow, in which 120 prisoners were set
free.
- an attack against a German police garrison
in the town of Wysokie Mazowieckie, in which
imprisoned soldiers of the Polish Secret Army were
liberated.
3. Activities of retaliation
(for the period January to April 1943)
a. the following were
liquidated:
| January | February | March | April |
Gestapo agents | 50 | 16 | 27 | |
Germans - in combat and by
hidden means | 100 | 20 | | |
members of the deportation
committee | | | 18 | |
b. poison has been administered | | in 189 cases | in 132 cases | in 132 cases |
Typhoid fever
microbes and typhoid fever lice
| in a few
hundred cases | |
poisoned parcels to Germany | | | 57 | 20 |
c. Besides the above-mentioned cases, the
following German officers were liquidated in April
1943:
Gen. Krüger - Chief of the Police Department
and of the S.S. and assistant of Governor Frank.
- On April 16, 1943 - Kurt, Head of National
Social Security.
- On April 8, 1943 - Hoffman, Head of
the Warsaw Labor Board.
- On April 13, 1943 - Dietz, Hoffman's
assistant.
- "
" "
" together with Dietz - 27
Gestapo agents.
d. A series of personal threats against Germans
has been started, and liquidation resorted to.
Results highly satisfactory.
e. As an answer to the deportations which took
place in the county of Zamosc (November 26 to November
28, 1942) acts of retaliation were carried out during
December and January 1943.
Results:
The village of Cieszyn, freshly settled
by German colonists, was burned down. (Sixty-four
families of German settlers and eight S.S. men
perished).Several other settlements, destined for German
colonists were also burned down.
As a result of our retaliation activities the
Germans began, on November 2, 1943, a mass man-hunt in
the above-mentioned localities with the intent of
trapping civilian population and our partisan
groups.
A special Polish detachment (300 soldiers) was
sent into action, engaged the Germans in the vicinity of
Lasowice and prevented the man-hunt.
On November 4, 1943 the following German
reinforcements left Lublin: 5 infantry companies, an S.S.
battalion and armored cars.
Our detachments stopped the fight and went into
hiding in the forests.
Our losses: 24 dead, a few wounded, 360
captured.
The enemy's losses: over 40 dead.
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to David Irving