Polish POWs - 1939

[BuddaBell123]

Overall did the Germans treat captured Polish PoWs as bad as they treated Polish civilians? The Germans treated the Polish civilians terribly and in the occupied areas of the USSR the treatment of Soviet PoWs was worse than the brutal treatment met out to Soviet civilians. So surely if the Germans treated Poland's civilians brutally they would've treated Polish PoWs just as bad or even worse?

-Oliver

[gebhk]

For a scholarly review of the subject I can recommend AB Rossino. Hitler strikes Poland. Blitzkrieg, ideology and atrocity. University Press of Kansas; 2003.

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

There were plans to release Polish officers of Jewish origin (brigadier general Bernard Mond was the highest ranking Polish POW of Jewish origin, the defender of the Polish Corridor, he was practicing Jew) so they could have been exterminated. In the end they were separated from the rest of the Polish POWs. The Polish authorities protested the practice, sometimes successfully.

General Bernard Mond was not the defender of the Polish Corridor - he was commander of 6th Infantry Division of Army "Kraków", which fought in southern and then south-eastern Poland. Here are wartime photos showing gen. Mond as well as other officers of this division, most likely in Wielki Las forest (east of Cieszanów), on 20.09.1939 - probably photos were taken during the last briefing of divisional staff before capitulation of the division, which took place in the afternoon on the same day (20.09.1939):

General Mond is the fourth one on the left:





And here probably a photo taken earlier (but also in September) - gen. Mond is the first one sitting:



General Mond, pre-war photo:

he was practicing Jew

Are you sure about this? He was of Jewish descent but I'm not sure if he was a Judaism believer.

[wm]

It's my mistake, that should be the so called Pszczyna corridor, in front of Kraków, not the other - less important from the military point of view one.
There are a few internet sources that claim he was a practising Jew but unfortunately unreliable. So it's uncertain if he was a practitioner of the older or the newer Jewish religion. Or maybe none as some said he was a socialist - for example he defended from persecution communists, refused to take part in the annexation of the Cieszyn region, and to send the army against protesting workers. As a war hero and a friend of Piłsudski he could do that with impunity.
Maybe we should ask about that Alexandra Viatteau, she is his granddaughter...

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

Here the same photo as above taken on 20.09.1939 in worse quality but described:



And one more wartime photo:

HQ of 6 DP in Huta Deręgowska (Nisko County) on 11.09.1939 - cpt. Witold Kirchmayer, lt.col. Ludwik Zych, gen. Bernard Mond:

[Terese Fehlberg]

[quote="ww2ww3ww4"]List of polish POW's transfered from the Putivl camp (USSR) to Reich. November 1939.

http://depositfiles.com/files/xhh1dvjx7

Could you please make this list available?
Terese

[Terese Fehlberg]

"On January 7th , 1940 1,200 prisoners from Stalag IB, (Hohenstein in East Prussia), were brought by S.S. guards to the Sobibor forest. Most of them were executed on January 13 by the guards."
This makes my blood run cold. My father was interned in this stalag for a short time at the end of 1939 from whence he was variously held in VI B and VI H before labouring for Mr Theodor Conrads, a farmer of turnips in Stolberg, rural district of Aachen. My father was processed in Lambinowice in a processing centre which later became, I believe, Lamsdorf camp. The first stalag he was sent to was 1A Stablack.
My father was with the Polish border guard in the most northerly part of the Kresy region - around Braslaw. Obviously the unit was heading for Warsaw, but fell foul of circumstances around Siedlce. He was with 1st Company Telegraph, of which the CAW in Warsaw says there is no surviving record within the Wilno holdings. He was the only survivor of this annihilation and taken prisoner on 14.9.1939 (the event may have occurred on 13th). The unit was buried in a mass grave. I have been to Siedlce museum and found that mass graves which they located in their zone were at: Seroczyn on 13th September, Wola Wodynska and Domanice on the 14th September, 1939.
Anyone interesting in a viewing a photo of these souls can go to http://polishorigins.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1576#11576.
WHAT I'D LIKE HELP WITH ..... where can I enquire to find out which German group were the opposing force in these conflicts? My father owes his life to one German soldier who spared his life. This act of decency in war is commendable, in my view. Sincerely, Terese

[gebhk]

Dear Terese

I am not entirely clear what information you are after as the text seems to jump from the murder of POWs in 1940 to Seroczyn in 1939. Do I understand that your father was taken prisoner on or around Seroczyn on 13th or 14th September 1939? If my assumptions of what you have written are correct this seems likely. This area was the site of some of the most vicious fighting in 1939 campaign between gen Kowalski's 1 Dywizja Piechoty legionowej (1 DPLeg; 1st Legion Infantry Division) (from Wilno) and battlegoups from Panzerverbande Kempf. If the theoretical numbering system was followed (I need to check) 1 DPLEg's telephone company would have had the number 1. I can't believe CAW has no records.

Given that Seroczyn was attacked by two battalions of 5 Infantry regiment while the bulk of the Division including its divisional assets bypassed Seroczyn and moved along the axis Wodynie - Wola Wodynska - Socki it is along this route that you need to look. To be fair after the Wola Wodynska battle on the night of 13-14/9 there was some scattering of Polish units in a number of directions.

I'm afraid my main area of interest was the Seroczyn fighting on 13th so I probably can't help you much. However I do know a local historian with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the whole subject and the area. If you give me a contact privately I can try to hook you up.

Incidentally if your dad was on the Eastern Border I am guessing he was probably in the KOP and not the Border Guard (Straz Graniczna)?

Best wishes
K

[gebhk]

OK I've checked.

The unit your dad was probably in would have been called either kompania telefoniczna 1 DP or kompania lacznosci 1 DP.
Numbered telephone (and telegraph) companies were army and CinC level units. For some reason the numeration commenced from No 2 in any case so CAW is correct - there was no No1 Telegraph Company.

Best wishes
K

[kitas]

My uncle was part of the Polish Army. He was taken by the Germans and spent the war in their custody. I am looking for lists to verify what I have been told. Any ideas of where to look?

[kitas]

My uncle was part of the Polish Army. He was taken by the Germans and spent the war in their custody. I am looking for lists to verify what I have been told. Any ideas of where to look?

I just spent hours looking up my family name on JewishGen. My family is not Jewish they are Polish but I was shocked and saddened to discover that my Father In Law and his brother were not the only two in our family taken into custody, some were children. It seemed as I read that the Polish experience was very much like the Jewish one. My problem is that the story I know is by mouth and they didn't like to talk about it. I am wanting to find documentation to back it all up. My father in law was taken by the Soviets to Syberia where he was later liberated in a group called the 1500 to the UK where they were to be trained as soldiers and given back to Russia but it was a trick and they were never returned. The 1500 went to Scotland they were trained and became part of the Black Devils 1st Polish Division. From what my father in law told me the treatment by Russians was much worse then of Germans.

I read tonight that about 6 million Polish were killed in the concentration camps and about half of them were non Jews. As I read the lists tonight most of the people I saw were taken in on protective custody and then killed in various ways. My hubands uncle was in the Polish army and was captured by the Germans. The family says he was put in a prison camp. From what I understand they put the Polish Army POW's in Auschwitz. I assume this would have been done at the begining of the war unless he was in the resistance and not captured until later. But he survived, I know that a certain number of Polish Soldiers did survive Auschwitz is there a difinitive list somewhere that has all their names living or dead? Any ideas where I can go and look to see who was arrested and where they were arrested from or where they were from, which camp they went to and if they survived?

[henryk]

My uncle was part of the Polish Army. He was taken by the Germans and spent the war in their custody. I am looking for lists to verify what I have been told. Any ideas of where to look?

Try this site:
http://straty.pl/index.php/szukaj-w-bazie
In Polish. Use google translate.
"SEARCH Victims of (German) Oppression"

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

Let us know if your uncle is listed there, Kitas. The database is still not complete, so he might still not be there.

They added info about my grandfather only after I added basic info about him first on my own (later they added more info).

If your uncle is not there, send them his name, surname, date of birth, info that he fought in WW2, etc. They will find more.

My problem is that the story I know is by mouth and they didn't like to talk about it.

We share common problems. My grandfather fought against both the Germans and the Soviets in 1939, so he wasn't willing to talk about it during the Communist period (you know, according to Communist propaganda there was no Soviet invasion in 1939).

Thanks to that website I've discovered that my grandfather was captured on 02.10.1939 (already in October) near Zamość.

They also provide their primary sources (files of the Museum of POWs in Łambinowice-Opole, files of the Red Cross).

But as I wrote - my grandfather (Corporal) was initially not there. I added him in a questionnaire, later they found more info.

===========================================

Some other members of my family are also listed there (including civilian victims of German murders).

From what I understand they put the Polish Army POW's in Auschwitz.

Only some of them. And only after they were released from captivity. So they were in Auschwitz as civilians, not as POWs.

My grandfather after he was released from captivity (Stalag III A Luckenwalde), was then put to forced labour (at the outskirts of Hamburg). He witnessed the bombing of Hamburg in 1943 (Operation Gomorrah). He recalled that the ground was shaking.

There were over 15 million forced labourers from occupied territories working in Germany during WW2 (many of them died):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_lab ... rld_War_II

First wife of my grandfather was put in Auschwitz (and was killed there) when he was in Germany as a forced labourer.

My grandfather's brother - a merchant from the city of Gdynia - was killed during the Piasnica Wielka mass murders:



Some other relatives also fought in September Campaign in 1939, including another brother of paternal grandfather.

One of maternal great-uncles fought in the battle of the Bzura and Kampinos Forest. He died in 2001.

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

"On January 7th , 1940 1,200 prisoners from Stalag IB, (Hohenstein in East Prussia), were brought by S.S. guards to the Sobibor forest. Most of them were executed on January 13 by the guards."
This makes my blood run cold. My father was interned in this stalag for a short time at the end of 1939 from whence he was variously held in VI B and VI H before labouring for Mr Theodor Conrads, a farmer of turnips in Stolberg, rural district of Aachen. My father was processed in Lambinowice in a processing centre which later became, I believe, Lamsdorf camp. The first stalag he was sent to was 1A Stablack.
My father was with the Polish border guard in the most northerly part of the Kresy region - around Braslaw. Obviously the unit was heading for Warsaw, but fell foul of circumstances around Siedlce. He was with 1st Company Telegraph, of which the CAW in Warsaw says there is no surviving record within the Wilno holdings. He was the only survivor of this annihilation and taken prisoner on 14.9.1939 (the event may have occurred on 13th). The unit was buried in a mass grave. I have been to Siedlce museum and found that mass graves which they located in their zone were at: Seroczyn on 13th September, Wola Wodynska and Domanice on the 14th September, 1939.
Anyone interesting in a viewing a photo of these souls can go to http://polishorigins.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1576#11576.
WHAT I'D LIKE HELP WITH ..... where can I enquire to find out which German group were the opposing force in these conflicts? My father owes his life to one German soldier who spared his life. This act of decency in war is commendable, in my view. Sincerely, Terese

Seroczyn, Wola Wodynska and Domanice, you say.

So your father was fighting against Panzer Division "Kempf". That included SS "Deutschland" motorized infantry regiment.

Perhaps your father was extremely lucky, as it seems that his life could be spared by a decent SS-man (rare occurence).

[henryk]

http://www.stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=1

Information on Polish military personel. Search by military unit. Search by surname not available.
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Obrona Modlina i Warszawy 1939
Charków, Katyń, Miednoje, Twer
3 Dywizja Strz. Karpackich

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