Warsaw Uprising: The Polish Police


Figure 1.--This wire service photograph was dated September 14, 1944. The caption read, "Passed by Polish and British censors. Warsaw police leadig a boy blinded after a German air raid. through the debris strewn streets of the beleagered Polish capital." Note that the police seem to be older men.

When the NAZIs and Soviets invaded Poland they interned the Polish Army as POWs (1939). We are not entirely sure what happened to the Polish police (Policja). We know that the police were among the individuals (intelectuals, college professors, teachers, government officials, doctors, lawyers, and others) targeted for arrest and execution in the A-B Aktion. Some were shot immediatedly. Others suffered slower deaths in the concentration camps the NAZIs established in Poland. The NKVD had a similar program. Among the NKVD victims found at Katyn were Polish police. The goal of both the NAZIs and Soviets was to destroy the Polish nation by eliminating national leaders and prominent individuals. We are not sure to what extent the pre-War Polish police were eliminated. Some Polish police seem to have been retined and operated under German direction in the General overnmernt--Granatowa Policja. This was the general approsach in the West (Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway). We are not entirely sure about NAZI policy in Poland or the numbers of individuals involved. There are reports of the Polish police cooperating with the SS in persecuting Jews while also working wiuth the resistancet. We know of noinstances in which the Polish police worked in the concentration camps. We would be interested in any information that readers may have. We note Polish police involved in the Warsaw uprising (1944). What we do not know if these were individuals that worked under German control or individuals who put on their pre-War uniforms after the uprising began.







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Created: 12:50 AM 9/10/2009
Last updated: 12:50 AM 9/10/2009