Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

Discussions on the foreigners (volunteers as well as conscripts) fighting in the German Wehrmacht, those collaborating with the Axis and other period Far Right organizations. Hosted by George Lepre.
Post Reply
CNOCK
Member
Posts: 1205
Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:06
Location: BELGIUM

Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#1

Post by CNOCK » 07 May 2016, 17:53

Hi,

I would like to know if former Polish POW (officers and men), where forced to join the Wehrmacht after Poland was defeated, they were sent to the Atlantikwall.

regards,

Cnock

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#2

Post by wm » 09 May 2016, 16:18

They were if they lived in Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany. As far as I know officers had no chance to become former POWs. And almost all soldiers and NCOs were stripped of their POW status sent to work in Germany.


CNOCK
Member
Posts: 1205
Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:06
Location: BELGIUM

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#3

Post by CNOCK » 09 May 2016, 17:36

Hello WM,

thank You for the info!
If I understand well former officers Polish army had no chance to serve in the Wehrmacht.
Former Polish soldiers serving in the Wehrmacht where at the Belgian coast in september 1944, probably coming from Northern France, and some deserted and joined the Resistance.

greteings,

Cnock

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#4

Post by wm » 09 May 2016, 21:33

The officers were never released from captivity.

Are you sure they weren't Poles drafted from the annexed territories or Volksdeutsche?

Almost certainly they didn't go straight from a POW camp to the Army. They were released and after a few years drafted, - at the time when the Germans, in desperation, drafted anybody who could fire a gun.
The Poles from the occupied territories were never drafted.

CNOCK
Member
Posts: 1205
Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:06
Location: BELGIUM

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#5

Post by CNOCK » 09 May 2016, 21:41

Hi,

I have the specific case of a Polish officer who became officer in the Wehrmacht. During the retreat from France in 1944, he and other deserters joined the Resistance in Belgium. I was already told that if the Polish officer became an officer in the Wehrmacht, he must have joined voluntary. He later stated he was forced to go in the Wehrmacht and later joined the free Polish army.

Regards,

Cnock

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#6

Post by wm » 09 May 2016, 22:28

But do you know as a fact he was a former Polish officer? Or did he become an officer in the German Army?
The Germans never released any Polish officer from captivity unless he was seriously ill or wanted to become a German.

I can imagine he was a person (maybe released from captivity a few years earlier) from the annexed territories who preempted the draft by volunteering in hope to gain some benefits. But volunteering was illusion - in the end everybody was to be drafted and they knew it.

And I would be very careful not to talk about my volunteering - for treason the death penalty was certain. That he deserted from the German Army wouldn't help at all.

history1
Banned
Posts: 4095
Joined: 31 Oct 2005, 10:12
Location: Austria

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#7

Post by history1 » 10 May 2016, 08:19

wm wrote:[...] And almost all soldiers and NCOs were stripped of their POW status sent to work in Germany.
Wm, it´s not against the Geneve convention to use POW, esp. rankers for work, right contrary:
Art. 27. Belligerents may employ as workmen prisoners of war who are physically fit, other than officers and persons of equivalent statue, according to their rink and their ability.
Nevertheless, if officers or persons of equivalent status ask for suitable work, this shall be found for them as far as possible.
Non-commissioned officers who are prisoners of war may be compelled to undertake only supervisory work, unless they expressly request remunerative occupation.[...]

Source: https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf ... CD00518EF0

CNOCK
Member
Posts: 1205
Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:06
Location: BELGIUM

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#8

Post by CNOCK » 10 May 2016, 10:27

Gentlemen,

thanks for the interesting info!

regards,

Cnock

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#9

Post by wm » 11 May 2016, 02:30

history1 wrote:Wm, it´s not against the Geneve convention to use POW, esp. rankers for work, right contrary:
They frequently sent them to armament factories and this was strictly forbidden.
Work done by prisoners of war shall have no direct connection with the operations of the war. In particular, it is forbidden to employ prisoners in the manufacture or transport of arms or munitions of any kind, or on the transport of material destined for combatant units.
But no worries, they pressured them to accept civilian status first, or released from captivity and then re-arrested as civilians. And no law was harmed in the process :)

history1
Banned
Posts: 4095
Joined: 31 Oct 2005, 10:12
Location: Austria

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#10

Post by history1 » 11 May 2016, 07:18

That´s a different story then, wm, but you didn´t mention work in ammunition factories in your original post.

User avatar
K.Kocjancic
Member
Posts: 6788
Joined: 27 Mar 2003, 20:57
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#11

Post by K.Kocjancic » 11 May 2016, 16:03

Here is a thread of an ex-Polish officer, who joined W-SS.

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#12

Post by wm » 11 May 2016, 19:38

To be quite correct he was a cinema manager who, in the last months of the war joined his own people trying to save them from certain death. :)

He was a Polish Ukrainian, a Czarist officer, later an Ukrainian general and in the end a Polish officer, a war hero of the 1939 campaign. He was severely wounded, became a POW, and was sent home as they thought he was not going to make it.

In 1945 he was asked to save the remaining Ukrainian soldiers from the Soviets, who most likely would execute them all. Thanks to his skillful maneuvering and politics he and his people were able to reach Italy. Which of course wouldn't save them - the Allies would hand them over to the Soviets anyway.
So he asked the Poles for help and they declared them Polish citizens (most of them were anyway) and that was the end of the story.

So he wasn't some pos who joined the SS. He was a Polish and Ukrainian war hero, who deserves a monument as not that many people do.

User avatar
K.Kocjancic
Member
Posts: 6788
Joined: 27 Mar 2003, 20:57
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#13

Post by K.Kocjancic » 14 May 2016, 13:07

According to an article in "Karawanken Bote" (12 June 1943), Germans found several letters in the archive of the Smolensk's GPU from Polish officers in POW camp Kozielsk, who wrote to the German embassy in Moscow and requested to be recognized as German citizens. The letter were never sent but attached to files.

Regards,
Klemen

User avatar
wm
Member
Posts: 8753
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:11
Location: Poland

Re: Former Polish POW in the Wehrmacht

#14

Post by wm » 15 May 2016, 19:06

There was a POWs exchange at the end of the conflict, it was done according to their place of residence. In the end Germany handed over 13,000 Polish soldiers to the Soviets, and the Soviets 42,000 to the Germans.

But the officers weren't automatically exchanged. Their families (sometimes the prisoners did it themselves) had to prove to both the Germans and to Soviets they were born in territories annexed or occupied by the Germans, sometimes they claimed they were connected in some manner with German culture for a greater effect - for example they studied in Germany or spoke German. There were about 500 such applications.
People were desperate to leave the USSR for obvious reasons, nobody was keen to move the other way.

It is known 71, maybe more officers were released, some of them were Polish Germans who simply accepted German citizenship.

Post Reply

Return to “Foreign Volunteers & Collaboration”