Poles in the service of Hitler. Polish soldiers in the service of Hitler and the USSR

For the leadership of the Third Reich, the Poles were long-standing and irreconcilable enemies. At the same time, the Nazis identified various ethnic groups with certain cultural and linguistic characteristics. In particular, local groups of Poles (Kashubs in Pomerania, Masurians in Prussia, Gurals in the Polish Tatras, Silesians in Western Poland) were considered by the German authorities to be separate Slavic peoples, “friendly to Germany and the Germans.”

1. Poles in the Wehrmacht and SS

Wielkopolska policy 1918 - 1939 led to the fact that many Kashubians, Masurians, Silesians and Gurals, especially young people, saw loyalty to the German administration as an opportunity for national revival. It was they who made up the bulk of those Poles who joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht and the SS.

Polish volunteers in front of the Wehrmacht assembly point.

No separate Silesian, Kashubian or Masurian formations were created. Representatives of these local groups of Poles served on common grounds with the Germans. Among the prisoners of war captured by the Soviet army on the Eastern Front, there were 60,280 Poles. Indirectly, these data allow us to judge the number of Poles - soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht.

Polish Wehrmacht soldiers at the grave of their comrade. Eastern front.

Polish Wehrmacht soldiers at a shooting range. France. March 1944

In addition, several thousand Poles were captured by the Allies along with German soldiers on the Western Front during the Falaise Operation in August 1944. The British command allowed them to join the Polish II Corps, which fought with German troops in France and Belgium and the Netherlands in 1944 - 1945.

The presence of Poles in the SS troops is also known. During the fighting on the Eastern Front, Polish volunteers were noted in the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf; in the 4th SS Police Grenadier Division; in the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Bohmen und Mahren and the 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division 30. Januar.

Polish volunteers in the Wehrmacht.

At the same time, it should be noted that the remaining Poles who lived on the territory of the Generalgouvernement were not drafted into the German Armed Forces.

At the final stage of World War II, the SS troops included the so-called Świętokrzyzka Brigade, or the Holy Cross Brigade (Brygada Swietokrzyska), formed from members of pre-war Polish fascist organizations who held radical anti-communist and anti-Semitic views. It was part of the Polish National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne). It was led by Colonel of the Polish cavalry Antoni Szacki.

In 1944, a brigade (820 people) in southern Poland fought against the German army and the Polish Ludowa Army. In January 1945, near Krakow, it entered into battle with the Soviet army and soon entered into an allied relationship with the 59th Army Corps of the Wehrmacht.

Together with the German army, the Holy Cross Brigade retreated to the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, where its soldiers and officers received the status of SS volunteers (SS-Polnisch-Freiwillingen). They were partially dressed in SS uniforms, but with Polish insignia. Groups were formed from the brigade's fighters and sent to the rear of the Soviet army to carry out sabotage activities. The brigade was replenished with Polish refugees.

In April 1945, the brigade (4000 people) went to the front. Operationally, it was subordinated to the Feldhernhalle tank corps, which was holding back the advance of the Soviet army. The brigade's tasks included fighting in the front-line zone with Czech partisans and Soviet reconnaissance groups.

On May 5, 1945, Polish SS men (1,417 people) abandoned their positions and retreated to the west, towards the advancing US Army. During their march, they liberated the prisoners (about 700 prisoners, including 167 Poles) of the Golyszów concentration camp. 200 guards were taken prisoner.

The American command took the brigade under its protection, entrusted it with guarding German prisoner of war camps and then allowed its soldiers and officers to take refuge in the American occupation zone.

Soldiers of the Polish Brigade of the Holy Cross. May 1945

In post-war Poland, soldiers and officers of the Holy Cross Brigade were convicted in absentia.

2. Polish police

In October 1939, the German occupation authorities began to form the Polish Auxiliary Police (Polnische Hilfspolizei or Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement). Former police officers of the Polish Republic were recruited into its ranks. By February 1940 it numbered 8,700 people, and in 1943 - already 16,000 people. Based on the color of the uniform, it was called Granatowa policja - “blue police”. Its functions included primarily the fight against criminal crime and smuggling.

Polish police arrest Jews at a market in Warsaw. October 1939

German authorities often involved Polish police in raids, passport control, and guarding the perimeters of Jewish ghettos. The Blue Police also participated in the arrests and deportations of Jews to concentration camps.

Checking documents by German and Polish police. Warsaw, 1941

After the war, 2,000 former Blue Police officers were found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to prison, and about 600 were sentenced to death.

3. Polish police battalions

In March 1943, with the beginning of the extermination of the Polish population of Volyn by militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the German authorities created Polish police battalions. They replaced Ukrainian police battalions in Volyn, which was part of the General Government, which went over to the UPA side. The Poles were included in the 102nd, 103rd, 104th mixed police battalions, as well as in the police battalion of the 27th Volyn Infantry Division.

2 Polish police battalions were also formed - the 107th (450 people) and the 202nd (600 people), which were used to jointly fight the UPA detachments with German troops and police. They were subordinate to the SS command in Volhynia and Belarusian Polesie. In hostilities with UPA detachments, Polish police battalions interacted with Polish self-defense units and took part in punitive actions against the Ukrainian population.

At first, the Poles were armed with Soviet captured weapons, but then they were provided with carbines, submachine guns and light machine guns made in Germany.

German and Polish police

The police of these battalions were dressed in the uniform of the German military police.

In January 1944, soldiers of the 107th Polish police battalion, having disarmed German officers, went over to the side of the Home Army partisans.

The policemen of the 202nd Polish SS battalion were included in the SS troops in May 1944 and were scattered in August 1944 during the battles with the Soviet army near Warsaw on the right bank of the Vistula.

4. Jewish police in Poland

Since 1939, the entire Jewish population of Poland was forcibly concentrated in protected residential areas - ghettos. Internal self-government (Judenrat) and its own law enforcement service - Judischer Ordnungsdienst - were introduced into the ghetto.

Jewish policeman and German soldier. Warsaw, 1942

The ghetto police were recruited from Jews - former employees of the Polish police, former soldiers and officers of the Polish army. Jewish police officers ensured internal law and order in Jewish ghettos, participated in raids, provided escort during the resettlement and deportation of Jews, ensured the implementation of orders from German authorities, etc. Ordinary police officers did not receive firearms - only wooden or rubber batons and brass knuckles. The officers were armed with pistols.

Jewish police in the Warsaw ghetto. 1941

In the largest Warsaw ghetto, the Jewish police numbered about 2,500 people, in the Lodz ghetto - 1,200, in Krakow - 150.

Jewish policemen on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto

During raids, arrests, and deportations, most of the Jewish police consistently and harshly carried out the orders of the German command - for example, the chief of the Jewish police of the Warsaw ghetto, Józef Szeryński-Szenkman. Some of the most active Jewish police collaborators were sentenced to death and killed by Jewish Resistance fighters.

Jewish police in the ghetto of Krakow. 1942

A minority of Jewish police tried to help the ghetto prisoners doomed to death. With the liquidation of the ghetto, the Nazis exterminated most of the Jewish police officers.

In addition to the Jewish police, Jewish paramilitary collaborationist formations include the Żagiew organization (Żagiew, about 1000 people), which collaborated with the Gestapo and was supposed to identify Poles hiding Jews outside the ghetto. The German authorities allowed members of this organization to use firearms.

During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, many of Zagew's members were killed by members of the Jewish Resistance.

After the war, the surviving members of the Jewish police and members of the Zhagev organization were wanted by the Israeli intelligence services and brought into judicial investigation.

1. Mazurkiewiz S. Antologia zdrady narodowej I polskiej kolaboracji 1939 - 1945. Krakow, 1999.

2. Alekseev V.M. The Warsaw ghetto no longer exists. M., 1998.

Handshake between Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigła and German attache Colonel Bogislaw von Studnitz at the Independence Day parade in Warsaw on November 11, 1938.

It would be interesting to understand on which side of the front line of World War II more Poles fought. Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek, director of the Institute of History of the University of Silesia, author of the book “Poles in the Wehrmacht”, for example, stated on this occasion the Polish “Gazeta Wyborcza”: “We can assume that 2-3 million people in Poland have a relative who served in the Wehrmacht. How many of them know what happened to them? Probably not many. Students constantly come to me and ask how to establish what happened to their uncle, to their grandfather. Their relatives were silent about this, they got off with the phrase that their grandfather died in the war. But this is no longer enough for the third post-war generation.”

2-3 million Poles had a grandfather or uncle who served with the Germans. How many of them died “in the war,” that is, on the side of Adolf Hitler, and how many survived? “There is no exact data. The Germans counted Poles conscripted into the Wehrmacht only until the fall of 1943. Then 200 thousand soldiers came from Polish Upper Silesia and Pomerania annexed to the Reich. However, recruitment into the Wehrmacht continued for another year and on a much larger scale.

From the reports of the representative office of the Polish government in occupied Poland, it follows that by the end of 1944, about 450 thousand citizens of pre-war Poland were drafted into the Wehrmacht. In general, we can assume that about half a million of them passed through the German army during the war,” the professor believes. That is, the conscription was carried out from the territories (mentioned above Upper Silesia and Pomerania) annexed to Germany.

The Germans divided the local population into several categories according to national and political principles. Polish origins did not prevent people from joining Hitler’s army with enthusiasm: “During the departure of recruits, which was initially carried out at train stations with great pomp, Polish songs were often sung. Mainly in Pomerania, especially in Gdynia, Poland. In Silesia, in areas with traditionally strong ties to the Polish language: in the area of Pszczyna, Rybnik or Tarnowskie Góra. The recruits began to sing, then their relatives joined in, and soon it turned out that the entire station was singing during the Nazi event. Therefore, the Germans refused a ceremonial send-off, because it compromised them. True, they sang mostly religious songs. Situations where someone fled from mobilization happened extremely rarely.”

In the first years, the Poles had a good time serving under Hitler: “At first it seemed that everything was not so bad. The first recruitment took place in the spring and summer of 1940. By the time the recruits were trained and assigned to their units, the war on the Western Front had already ended. The Germans captured Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Holland and defeated France. Military operations continued only in Africa. At the junction of 1941 and 1942, the service was reminiscent of peacetime. I was in the army, so I can imagine that after some time a person gets used to new conditions and becomes convinced that it is possible to live, that no tragedy has occurred. Silesians wrote about how well they lived in occupied France. They sent home pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background, drank French wine, and spent their free time in the company of French women. They served in garrisons on the Atlantic Wall, which was rebuilt at that time.

I picked up the trail of a Silesian who spent the entire war in the Greek Cyclades. In complete peace, as if I were on vacation. Even his album in which he painted landscapes has survived.” But, alas, this serene Polish existence in German service with French women and landscapes was cruelly “broken off” by the evil Muscovites in Stalingrad. After this battle, Poles began to be sent in large numbers to the Eastern Front: “Stalingrad changed everything... that at one point it turned out that conscription meant certain death. Most often, recruits died, sometimes after only two months of service... People were not afraid that someone would pay them back for serving the Germans, they were afraid of sudden death. The German soldier was also afraid, but in the center of the Reich people believed in the meaning of the war, in Hitler, and in the fact that the Germans would be saved by some miracle weapon. In Silesia, with a few exceptions, no one shared this faith. But the Silesians were terribly afraid of the Russians... It is clear that the greatest losses were on the Eastern Front... if you consider that every second Wehrmacht soldier died, then we can accept that up to 250 thousand Poles could have died at the front.”

According to the director of the Institute of History of the University of Silesia, the Poles fought for Hitler: “on the Western and Eastern fronts, with Rommel in Africa and in the Balkans. In the cemetery in Crete, where the dead participants of the German landing of 1941 lie, I also found Silesian surnames. I found the same surnames in military cemeteries in Finland, where Wehrmacht soldiers who supported the Finns in the war with the USSR were buried.” Professor Kaczmarek has not yet provided data on how many Red Army soldiers, US and British soldiers, partisans of Yugoslavia, Greece and civilians were killed by Hitler’s Poles. Probably haven't calculated it yet...

According to military intelligence of the Red Army, in 1942 the Poles made up 40-45% of the personnel of the 96th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, about 30% of the 11th Infantry Division (together with the Czechs), about 30% of the 57th Infantry Division, about 12 % 110th Infantry Division. Earlier in November 1941, reconnaissance discovered a large number of Poles in the 267th Infantry Division.

By the end of the war, 60,280 Poles who fought on Hitler's side were in Soviet captivity. And this is far from a complete figure. About 600,000 prisoners from the armies of Germany and its allies, after appropriate verification, were released directly at the fronts. “For the most part, these were persons of non-German nationality, forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht and the armies of Germany’s allies (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Bulgarians, Moldovans, etc.), as well as non-transportable disabled people,” the official documents say.

Poles as allies of the USSR

On August 14, a military agreement was signed in Moscow, which provided for the formation of a Polish army on the territory of the USSR for subsequent participation in the war against Germany on the Soviet-German front.

Already by August 31, 1941, the strength of the Polish army exceeded 20,000, and by October 25 - 40,000 people. Despite the difficult situation in which the USSR was at that time, it was generously supplied with everything necessary. The Polish ambassador in Moscow, Kot, in his reports to London, where the Polish emigrant government had settled since 1940, reported: “The Soviet military authorities greatly facilitate the organization of the Polish Army; in practice, they fully meet Polish demands, giving the Army soldiers who had already been mobilized into the Red Army on the lands of Eastern Poland."

However, the Poles were by no means eager to fight the Germans. On December 3, Sikorsky, who arrived in Moscow together with the commander of the Polish army in the USSR, General Wladyslaw Anders, and Kot, was received by Stalin. The Germans stood near Moscow, and Anders and Sikorsky argued that Polish units should be sent to Iran (in August 1941, Soviet and British troops were sent to Iran to fight the pro-German regime of Reza Shah. - Ed.). An indignant Stalin replied: “We can do without you. We can handle it ourselves. We will recapture Poland and then we will give it to you.”

Colonel Sigmund Berling, one of the Polish officers committed to honest cooperation with the Soviet side, later said: Anders and his officers “did everything to delay the period of training and arming their divisions” so that they would not have to act against Germany, terrorized the Polish officers and soldiers who wanted to accept the help of the Soviet government and go with arms in hand against the invaders of their homeland. Their names were entered in a special index called “card file B” as Soviet sympathizers.

T.n. “Dvoyka” (Anders’ army intelligence department) collected information about Soviet military factories, railways, field warehouses, and the location of Red Army troops. Having such “allies” in your rear was simply becoming dangerous. As a result, in the summer of 1942, Anders’ army was nevertheless withdrawn to Iran under the auspices of the British. In total, about 80,000 military personnel and more than 37,000 members of their families left the USSR.

However, thousands of Polish soldiers under the command of Berling chose to remain in the USSR. From them the division was formed. Tadeusha Kosciuszko, who became the basis of the 1st Army of the Polish Army, fought on the Soviet side and reached Berlin.

Meanwhile, the Polish émigré government continued to do its best to spoil the USSR: in March 1943, it actively supported the propaganda campaign about the “Katyn massacre,” raised by Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels.

On December 23, 1943, Soviet intelligence provided the country's leadership with a secret report from the Minister of the Polish Exile Government in London and the Chairman of the Polish Commission for Post-War Reconstruction Seyda, sent to the President of Czechoslovakia Benes as an official document of the Polish government on post-war settlement issues. It was entitled: “Poland and Germany and the post-war reconstruction of Europe.”

Its meaning boiled down to the following: Germany should be occupied in the west by England and the USA, in the east by Poland and Czechoslovakia. Poland should receive land along the Oder and Neisse. The border with the Soviet Union should be restored according to the 1921 treaty.

Although Churchill agreed with the plans of the Poles, he understood their unreality. Roosevelt called them “harmful and stupid” and spoke in favor of establishing the Polish-Soviet border along the Curzon line, with which the state border of the USSR, established in 1939, generally coincided.

The Yalta agreements of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill on the creation of a new democratic government of Poland, of course, did not suit the Polish émigré government. In the spring of 1945, the Home Army, under the leadership of General Okulicki, the former chief of staff of Anders' army, was intensively engaged in terrorist acts, sabotage, espionage and armed raids behind Soviet lines.

On March 22, 1945, Okulicki informed the commander of the western district of the Home Army, designated by the pseudonym “Slavbor”: “Considering their interests in Europe, the British will have to begin mobilizing the forces of Europe against the USSR. It is clear that we will be in the forefront of this European anti-Soviet bloc; and it is also impossible to imagine this bloc without the participation of Germany, which will be controlled by the British.”

These plans of the Polish emigrants turned out to be unrealistic. By the summer of 1945, 16 arrested Polish spies, including Okulitsky, appeared before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and received varying prison sentences. However, the Home Army, formally dissolved, but actually transformed into the organization “Liberty and Freedom,” waged a terrorist war against the Soviet military and the new Polish authorities for several more years.

The longer you defend your rights, the more unpleasant the aftertaste.

Poles in the service of the Third Reich

The question of the participation of the Polish nation in the construction of New Europe in 1939-1945 has not been sufficiently studied to this day. The Polish theme is tightly shrouded in anti-fascist stereotypes. Behind them it is impossible to fully investigate such an ambiguous and complex fact as Polish collaboration. In many ways, this is a “forbidden topic” that is not welcomed in “enlightened” circles (just like our Lokot Rus').

Nevertheless, like all Aryan nations, the Poles also took part in the sacred cause of war for the White Race against the criminal Jewish-Bolshevik regime. But the situation in Poland there was much more complicated than in other countries of Western and Eastern Europe, which undoubtedly complicated German-Polish cooperation. But all this does not negate the indisputable fact of the joint struggle of Germans and Poles against the Soviet of Deputies.
The very first myth we encounter is a cliche about the contemptuous attitude of the National Socialists towards the Eastern European peoples. They say that Nazi propaganda ranked “Polish subhumans” even lower than Russians and Ukrainians (according to the Jewish propaganda they were also considered “subhumans”). However, apologists for such a misconception have still not bothered to look into authentic documents of the Third Reich, such as "Law on Reich Citizenship and the Protection of German Blood and German Honor". And there it is written in black and white: “Blood akin to German is considered equal to it in all respects. Therefore, representatives of minorities living in Germany, for example, Poles, Danes, etc., can become citizens of the Empire (Reich).”

Thus the question is settled. The Poles had the status of a blood-related people in the German National Assembly (along with the Nordic Danes and other Aryans) and a government-protected minority. By the way, this also explains the creation of the General Government instead of a separate Polish National Assembly of the state. If the Poles are completely equal in rights with other citizens of the Reich (and this, by the way, means military and labor duties), then they are guaranteed the protection and preservation of national traditions. We observe the same situation with the Czech Republic, where the protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia was created and ethnic Czechs felt themselves to be a people inextricably linked with their German neighbor and a full part of the pan-European Reich, and local NS organizations had complete freedom of action.
Of course, the Versailles “peace” with the cutting off of its ancestral lands from Germany left its mark on the misunderstanding between the Germans and the Poles. Separatist unrest in Silesia, successfully suppressed by the valiant Freikorps, did not improve interethnic relations. Before the war, severe repressions fell on the Polish Volksdeutsche (as they had previously fallen on the Ukrainians, who were generally deprived of their own state), and it was these brutal oppressions that became the cause of the war that began on September 1, 1939.

What was the reaction of the Polish population of Western Belarus to the arrival of the German liberators? Let us turn to Bolshevik sources. As you know, before their flight, the Jewish-Bolsheviks carried out “evacuations” of political prisoners. Everything was carried out in extreme haste, so instead of evacuating the Reds, they shot them en masse (or carried out “1st category”, in the language of the documents). The deputy head of the prison department of the BSSR, State Security Lieutenant M.P. Opalev, reported on the evacuation of Belarusian prisons on September 3, 1941 to State Security Major M.I. Nikolsky. Please note that the Poles shouted when the Reds led them to be shot.
“... During the evacuation of the prisoners from the prison in Glubokoe (they moved on foot), the Poles raised shouts: “Long live Hitler!” Beginning Priemyshev, having led them to the forest, according to his statement, shot up to 600 people. By order of the military prosecutor of the NKVD troops, Priemyshev was arrested in Vitebsk. An investigation was carried out in the case, the materials of which were transferred to a member of the Military Council of the Central Front - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Communist Party of Belarus Comrade. Ponomarenko. T. Ponomarenko recognized Priemyshev’s actions as correct and released him from custody on the day of the occupation of Vitebsk by the Germans. Where Priemyshev is at this time is unknown, no one has seen him.”.
If we take into account the execution of Polish patriotic officers by Soviet punitive forces in Katyn, then it is not surprising why the Polish population in Western Ukraine (in particular in Lvov, where the Jews had to brutally pay for the atrocities of their KGB cousins) and Belarus, together with the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians, welcomed the accession German army. In addition, the first who opened the world’s eyes to the Katyn tragedy of the Polish officers were the Nazis, who conducted investigations at the site and proved that the mass executions were the work of the Bolsheviks. By the way, this gave Stalin a reason to break off relations with the Polish émigré government in London, since its representatives collaborated with the Germans during excavations in Katyn.

The history of Polish formations in the Wehrmacht and the SS has not been sufficiently studied, but despite the lack of strictly factual material, it is in principle possible to create a general picture of German-Polish cooperation. Quite interesting are the memories of an eyewitness, a young man at that time, about his meeting with a Polish Wehrmacht volunteer. This excerpt was published in the Polish military history magazine "Oblicza Historii" (Numer 13 - 02-03/2007) and gives us an idea of the mood of the volunteers.
“The twenty-third of November 1944. The last quarter of the existence of the General Government. The Soviet army stood on the Vistula. That day I saw on the street in Radom a young man in a gray Wehrmacht uniform. A small white and red flag was visible on his sleeve. I stood rooted to the spot... He, noticing my shock, stopped and looked intently. I approached him and asked in a voice trembling with excitement:
- Pole?
- Yes!
- In the German army?
- I want to fight against the Bolsheviks, and you?
- I am 17 years old…
- You will be accepted too. Volunteer! Go! To the pre-war barracks!

How did the formation of Polish units take place? What were the plans? Immediately after the end of the German-Polish war, the Polish nationalist-Germanophile Wladyslaw Gisbert-Studnicki came up with the idea of creating a Polish army fighting on the side of Germany. In March 1943, he again (the first was in 1939) put forward a project about a Polish 12-15 million pro-German state and sending Polish troops to the eastern front. Later, the idea of a Polish-German alliance and a 35,000-strong Polish army was proposed by the Sword and Plow organization, associated with the Home Army.

On October 24, 1944, Hitler gave special permission for Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht, not only as voluntary assistants (up to this point, Poles served only in the “grenade police”, designed to maintain order on the territory of the General Government, and in police units involved in the fight with the red bandits. I do not set them as the goal of research for objective reasons, just like the Polish Volksdeutsche who fought en masse in the Wehrmacht and SS). On December 4, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler approved a similar permit for the Waffen-SS. On October 24, two days before the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the General Government, the High Command announced Recruitment began in November and as of December 31, 1944, there were about 12 thousand Poles in the two armies defending Poland from the Soviets (or 6 thousand according to clearly underestimated data) . Some volunteered even in the last months of the war. In relation to the Poles, it was categorically forbidden to use the word “voluntary assistant” (HiWi), they were specially treated as full-fledged soldiers. Anyone between the ages of 16 and 50 could become a volunteer; they only had to undergo a preliminary medical examination. The Poles were called upon, along with other European nations, to stand up for the defense of Western civilization from Soviet barbarism (in addition, the Soviet of Deputies has always been the historical enemy of the Polish people): “The German armed forces are leading the decisive struggle to defend Europe from Bolshevism to the last soldier. Any honest helper in this fight will be greeted as an ally.".
The text of the oath of Polish soldiers read: “I swear before God this sacred oath that in the fight for the future of Europe in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht I will be absolutely obedient to the Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I am ready at any time to devote my strength to this oath.”
On November 18, 30 Polish men and 15 women marched through the streets of Krakow in German uniforms, singing Polish war songs.
I would like to emphasize that Polish comrades in arms were not limited in any way in their soldierly needs. They were even guaranteed freedom of religious needs, not to mention the purchase of food at low prices. Volunteers received insurance in case of bodily injury, and their relatives were promised cash payments in the event of the loss of a loved one on the battlefield (!). Widows and orphans enjoyed benefits. The pay for service was not high but quite sufficient: private - 90, corporal - 108, higher ranks - 150-210 zlotys.

A document from the 532nd SS Grenadier Regiment dated January 15, 1945 indicates the recruitment of Polish workers from the Todt organization into the ranks of the German armed forces: “ Over the course of some time, complete a regiment of Polish volunteers, transferring them from the Todt Organization to a training camp in Falkensee with an offer to become Wehrmacht soldiers. We are talking about young men aged 18-23 who know a little German and who are ready to join the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS after retraining.”.

The Polish SS Legion began to be formed by Abwehrgruppe 209 in mid-July 1944. In a camp near Skierniewice, 1,500 volunteers of Polish nationality were recruited, from whom the Polish Legion was created. In October the legion was based in Rzechow, in December near Tomaszow. In January 1945, in Bygdosh, the legion was transformed into Abwehrkommando 204. It was planned that the volunteers would take part in anti-partisan operations in the Tuchola forests, and for this purpose the Legion was divided into two groups: 1st Lieutenant Machnik, 2nd Lieutenant Errling. In February, both groups were destroyed by the enemy.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the Góralski Legion Waffen SS, a part originally designed to become elite. The Gorals are not just a separate nation, but most likely a separate ethnic group within the Polish nation (just as the Hutsuls are part of the Ukrainian nation). These mountain people, who lived on the mountainous Polish-Slovak-Ukrainian border, have a separate dialect (along with Masurian, Kashubian and other dialects of the Polish provinces). Before the war, the fashion for “mountainism,” that is, emphasizing one’s ethnic roots and traditions (in particular mountaineering), began to gain momentum. The German authorities supported these aspirations of the Gorals. In 1942, with the support of the authorities, the Goral Committee was convened in Zakopane (Zakopanem). The national traditions of the Goral people (Goralenvolk) are finally supported. Even the position of “Goralenfhrer” appeared, it became Waclaw Krzeptowski. He and his inner circle made a series of trips to the cities and villages that were inhabited by the Gorals, urging them to fight the worst enemy of civilization - Judeo-Bolshevism. It was decided to create the Goral Volunteer Legion of the Waffen-SS, adapted for operations in mountainous terrain. The creation was planned for the end of 1942. Future soldiers were told that they would act in the interests of their country (Poland!) and people (Poles and Gorals in particular). Their relatives were promised increased food aid. 60 gorals were released from a prisoner of war camp specifically to recruit the Legion. In the end, they managed to gather 410 highlanders. After the SS medical examination, some dropped out and the final number became 300 people.
A song of the Goral SS soldiers has been preserved, from which we can conclude that the Gorals considered themselves some kind of local Cossacks:

"Wir sind ja solche welche, solche welche,
Buben Krakowiaken,
Huculen, Goralen, Schlonsaken,
Das sind alle echteste deutsche Kosaken."

“Jest to po prostu krakowiaczek:
Abomy to jacy tacy, jacy tacy, jacy tacy,
Chopcy krakowiacy,
Huculi, Gorale, Slązacy,
wszyscy prawdziwie sprawdzeni niemieccy Kozacy"

We will not dwell in detail on the “People's Defense Forces” (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne) - the Polish analogue of the UPA, which was distinguished only by more pronounced anti-Semitism (the fighters of this organization are accused of “atrocities” against the Jewish population hiding from the Germans in the forests.) They acted as if against German troops, and against the Red partisans and Stalin’s mercenaries from the “Army of the People” (many of whom were of Jewish origin). The number, by the way, was quite large - about 70,000 armed fighters! The official ideology is Polish nationalism. But this is a separate conversation, unworthy of this short article.

It would be interesting to understand on which side of the front line of World War II more Poles fought. Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek, director of the Institute of History of the University of Silesia, author of the book “Poles in the Wehrmacht”, for example, stated about this to the Polish “Gazeta Wyborcza”: “We can estimate that 2-3 million people in Poland have a relative who served in the Wehrmacht. How many of them know what happened to them? Probably not many. Students constantly come to me and ask how to establish what happened to their uncle, to their grandfather. Their relatives were silent about this, they got off with the phrase that their grandfather died in the war. But this is no longer enough for the third post-war generation.”

The Germans divided the local population into several categories according to national and political principles. Polish origin did not prevent him from joining Hitler’s army with enthusiasm: “During the departure of recruits, which was initially carried out at train stations with great pomp, Polish songs were often sung. Mainly in Pomerania, especially in Gdynia, Poland. In Silesia, in areas with traditionally strong ties to the Polish language: in the area of Pszczyna, Rybnik or Tarnowskie Góra. The recruits began to sing, then their relatives joined in, and soon it turned out that the entire station was singing during the Nazi event. Therefore, the Germans refused a ceremonial send-off, because it compromised them. True, they sang mostly religious songs. Situations where someone fled from mobilization happened extremely rarely.”

In the early years, Hitler served the Poles well: “At first it seemed like everything wasn’t so bad. The first recruitment took place in the spring and summer of 1940. By the time the recruits were trained and assigned to their units, the war on the Western Front had already ended. The Germans captured Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Holland and defeated France. Military operations continued only in Africa. At the junction of 1941 and 1942, the service was reminiscent of peacetime. I was in the army, so I can imagine that after some time a person gets used to new conditions and becomes convinced that it is possible to live, that no tragedy has occurred. Silesians wrote about how well they lived in occupied France. They sent home pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background, drank French wine, and spent their free time in the company of French women. They served in garrisons on the Atlantic Wall, which was rebuilt at that time.

According to the director of the Institute of History of the University of Silesia, the Poles fought for Hitler: “on the Western and Eastern fronts, with Rommel in Africa and the Balkans. In the cemetery in Crete, where the dead participants of the German landing of 1941 lie, I also found Silesian surnames. I found the same surnames in military cemeteries in Finland, where Wehrmacht soldiers who supported the Finns in the war with the USSR were buried.” Professor Kaczmarek has not yet provided data on how many Red Army soldiers, US and British soldiers, partisans of Yugoslavia, Greece and civilians were killed by Hitler’s Poles. Probably haven't calculated it yet...

By the end of the war, they were in Soviet captivity 60 280 Poles who fought on Hitler's side. And this is far from a complete figure. About 600,000 prisoners from the armies of Germany and its allies, after appropriate verification, were released directly at the fronts. “For the most part, these were persons of non-German nationality, forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht and the armies of Germany’s allies (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Bulgarians, Moldovans, etc.), as well as non-transportable disabled people,” the official documents say.

Poles as allies of the USSR

On March 22, 1945, Okulicki reported to the commander of the western district of the Home Army, designated by the pseudonym “Slavbor”: “Taking into account their interests in Europe, the British will have to begin mobilizing the forces of Europe against the USSR. It is clear that we will be in the forefront of this European anti-Soviet bloc; and it is also impossible to imagine this bloc without the participation of Germany, which will be controlled by the British.”

Interview with Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek, director of the Institute of History of the University of Silesia, author of the book “Poles in the Wehrmacht”.

I remember this scene from the film “Five” by Pavel Komorowski. At Monte Cassino, a Silesian fighting in Anders' army shoots at the Germans. One of them, falling, turns to face him. And then he realizes that it is his housemate.

This really happened. It was 1944. The Third Reich staggered, and Polish recruits from Silesia and Pomerania entered the Wehrmacht in a wide stream. They knew that their fellow countrymen were on the other side of the front. But they shot at each other. I know cases of brothers who both died at Monte Cassino, but are in different cemeteries because they wore the uniforms of warring armies. This happened on all fronts. And since September 1939. Then Polish Upper Silesia was attacked by divisions recruited from the German side of the border. And they fought with the Silesians from the Polish army. It happened the same with my relatives.

How many former citizens of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth put on Hitler's uniforms?

There are no exact data. The Germans counted Poles conscripted into the Wehrmacht only until the fall of 1943. Then 200 thousand soldiers came from Polish Upper Silesia and Pomerania annexed to the Reich. However, recruitment into the Wehrmacht continued for another year and on a much larger scale. From the reports of the representative office of the Polish government in occupied Poland, it follows that by the end of 1944, about 450 thousand citizens of pre-war Poland were drafted into the Wehrmacht. In general, we can assume that about half a million of them passed through the German army during the war. This means that every fourth man from Silesia or Pomerania fought in a German uniform.

In Poland to this day there is a belief that the Silesians and Kashubians, serving in the Wehrmacht, became traitors.

For most residents of Silesia or Pomerania, the situation was clearly defined: either they would join the army, or their families would face severe repression, they would be sent to the General Government or to concentration camps. After 1943, after the defeat at Stalingrad, the Germans launched full-scale mobilization to make up for the losses in units on the Eastern Front. The threat of reprisals against the families of mobilized soldiers was supposed to prevent desertion.
Of course, there were those who joined the Wehrmacht for ideological reasons. They believed in Nazism, that together with Hitler they would be able to build a new, Aryan Europe. But in the annexed Upper Silesia, only 8 thousand members were accepted into the NSDAP, mainly leaders of the pre-war German national minority. This is not so much for a region in which there were one and a half million people. There were situations when fathers came to the draft commission along with their sons and asked to be drafted into the same units in which they had served for the Kaiser.

But it was possible to escape even before mobilization.

Where? It was not so easy to get from Silesia to the General Government. And how can one exist there without documents, without work, in a foreign environment? In addition, the question of the future fate of the relatives always remained. Today it is easy to make accusations, but then not everyone was capable of heroism.
This also follows from the traditional law-abiding nature in Silesia and Pomerania. People are accustomed to the fact that authority must be obeyed. Moreover, they previously lived in the German state, and Polish statehood became for them only a 20-year episode. The authorities ordered them to take up arms - and they went.

Without the slightest resistance?

If there was resistance, it was rather passive. During the departure of recruits, which was initially carried out at train stations with great pomp, Polish songs were often sung. Mainly in Pomerania, especially in Gdynia, Poland. In Silesia, in areas with traditionally strong ties to the Polish language: in the area of Pszczyna, Rybnik or Tarnowskie Góra. The recruits began to sing, then their relatives joined in, and soon it turned out that the entire station was singing during the Nazi event. Therefore, the Germans refused a ceremonial send-off, because it compromised them. True, they sang mostly religious songs. Situations when someone fled from mobilization happened extremely rarely.

But it would be possible not to sign folklists. Just like they did in Krakow or Warsaw.

This is also not true. Even the communist officials who rehabilitated the Silesians or Kashubians after 1945 understood that in the territories annexed to the Reich, folklist was forced. In addition, the very talk about “signing the folklist” is a misunderstanding. The sheets were not signed; everything was written on them by a German official. Previously, residents had to fill out a questionnaire. Refusal meant arrest, deportation, and in extreme cases, a concentration camp. The several-page questionnaire did not ask about nationality, but only about ancestors three generations ago (whether they lived in Silesia or were visitors), what school the children went to (Polish or German), about the organizations in which they were members, about military duties, about awards. Based on it, according to very precise calculations, officials assigned a given Silesian or Kashubian to a specific category.

The first and second fell to ethnic Germans. “One” was given to those who were politically active before the war, and “two” to those who were passive. The first and second were considered citizens of the Reich, but with a “two” it was impossible to advance through the hierarchy of the NSDAP. “Troika” was given to people “with German blood” who were Polonized but could be Germanized. Initially they were not given German citizenship, only over time the authorities had to determine their position. “Four” were given to those who were associated with Polish organizations. The Germans called them renegades. But it is worth remembering that folklists were introduced in 1941, when recruitment into the army was already in full swing.

When did the Germans decide to recruit Poles?

Straightaway. In the fall of 1939, the so-called police census was carried out. Everyone had to decide who he was: a Pole or a German. A few months later, those who identified themselves as Germans were summoned to the draft board.
That's when people realized what a trap they were in. During the census they were called Germans to avoid reprisals - for example, the eviction of which people were terribly afraid of. No one assumed that this meant service in the Wehrmacht. And the authorities said that those who declared themselves to be Germans were subject to the 1935 law on universal conscription.
Volklist, in accordance with Nazi racial policies, created a bureaucratic chaos in this system, from which the Germans were unable to escape until the end of the war. In 1941, it was decided that only those with “ones” and “twos” could join the army, since only they were citizens of the Reich. But in the army units there were already many people with “C” and even “B” grades. According to Nazi law, they had to be released from service. But the army did not want to do this and, together with the Upper Silesian Gauleiter Fritz Bracht, in 1942 achieved a change in the rules so that people from the “third category” could obtain citizenship with a probationary period that was supposed to last 10 years.
Things even got to the point of absurd situations, when the son received a “D” and immediately went into the army, and parents with a “B”, as renegades, were threatened with eviction to the lands of the General Government. Or they were generally refused entry into the folk list. The Wehrmacht command reported that soldiers from Silesia were complaining that they were fighting for the Fuhrer, but their parents were being deprived of all rights, and even their ration cards were being taken away. Therefore, revisions of categories and requests for recommission were a very common practice. A special commission, which included the most important functionaries of the German administration, carefully considered such statements until the end of 1944. Then it was already clear that the Third Reich was falling apart, but in Silesia they hastily prepared for defense against the Red Army.

And where did the Poles serve in German uniforms?

Everywhere. On the western and eastern fronts, with Rommel in Africa and the Balkans. In the cemetery in Crete, where the dead participants of the German landing of 1941 lie, I also found Silesian surnames. I found the same surnames in military cemeteries in Finland, where Wehrmacht soldiers who supported the Finns in the war with the USSR were buried.
At first it seemed that everything was not so bad. The first recruitment took place in the spring and summer of 1940. By the time the recruits were trained and assigned to their units, the war on the Western Front had already ended. The Germans captured Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Holland and defeated France. Military operations continued only in Africa. At the junction of 1941 and 1942, the service was reminiscent of peacetime. I was in the army, so I can imagine that after some time a person gets used to new conditions and becomes convinced that it is possible to live, that no tragedy has occurred.
Silesians wrote about how well they lived in occupied France. They sent home pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background, drank French wine, and spent their free time in the company of French women. They served in garrisons on the Atlantic Wall, which was rebuilt at that time. I picked up the trail of a Silesian who spent the entire war in the Greek Cyclades. In complete peace, as if I were on vacation. Even his album in which he painted landscapes has been preserved.
When Hitler attacked the USSR in 1941, people from the third category of folklists were not immediately sent to the front. It was feared that they would desert. Stalingrad changed everything.

Old Silesian men who were sent to the eastern front in Wehrmacht uniform said that the day they were drafted into the army was the worst day of their lives.

Because at one point it turned out that being drafted into the army meant certain death. Recruits died most often, sometimes after only two months of service. People saw how their neighbors went to the front, and how soon after that the head of the local NSDAP organization visited their families. It was he who handed over death notices to fathers and husbands. He circled around the outskirts like an angel of death.
People were not afraid that someone would pay them back for serving the Germans, they were afraid of sudden death. The German soldier was also afraid, but in the center of the Reich people believed in the meaning of the war, in Hitler, and in the fact that the Germans would be saved by some miracle weapon. In Silesia, with a few exceptions, no one shared this faith. But the Silesians were terribly afraid of the Russians.

Were they also in the SS troops?

Of course, although we don’t have many documents on this issue. At first, only volunteers were accepted there, usually members of the Hitler Youth who had passed racial background checks. But since 1943, the SS began to intercept recruits from the Wehrmacht. Racial criteria no longer play a big role. The recruits did not even immediately understand which unit they were in. But we don’t know exactly where and how they fought.

Nazi dignitaries emphasized that the soldiers from Silesia were skilled and brave.

This is also evident from the command reports. They say that the Silesians are truly good soldiers, and they called on the officers to surround them with guardianship and not discriminate against them. And there were no special disciplinary problems with them, unlike the Alsatians who served in the Wehrmacht. Almost 5 thousand Silesians awarded the Iron Cross belonged to the third category of folklist, which means they had Polish citizenship before the war. Several hundred received the Knight's Cross, the highest German military award.
But at the same time, it is worth remembering what life looked like at the front. Does a soldier wake up thinking about politics? He wakes up wondering how to survive until the next day. And he respects his colleagues, no matter what part of Germany he comes from and how he feels about Hitler. In addition, people from Silesia were accustomed to work. They joined the army straight from a blast furnace or from a mine, where they were engaged in hard physical labor in difficult conditions. Good “material” for deadly service in the infantry.

And yet, there were no special Silesian or Pomeranian divisions.

There was a ban on the creation of this type of units. The number of people with the third category of folklist could not initially be higher than 5 percent of the total number. The Germans simply did not trust the Silesians and Kashubians. They were skilled soldiers, but unreliable, which was confirmed when they began to move over to Anders. In addition, they could not be promoted to non-commissioned officer ranks; officer ranks could not even be remembered. And without officers and non-commissioned officers you cannot create a military unit.

The scale of this mistrust was great. Silesians were not allowed to serve in the Air Force, tank forces, navy, intelligence, coast guard...

This was also compounded by ignorance of the language. You cannot be a member of an airplane crew without knowing German. The Germans regretted that this was a waste of human resources, because the Silesians, who dealt with sophisticated technology every day in their mines or factories, were ideal candidates for tank crews or pilots. But in 1944 there was no time to teach them the language. Then they were taught only basic expressions, commands and words of the oath. It got to the point that the Germans eventually allowed people to speak Polish.

How many Poles died in Polish uniforms?

There is no exact data here either. It is clear that the greatest losses were on the eastern front, but we are not able to say how many Silesians or Kashubians fought there, not to mention the fact that we do not know the number of dead or captured. But if we take into account that every second Wehrmacht soldier died, then we can accept that up to 250 thousand Poles could have died at the front.

Some, however, managed to join Anders' army.

We know the exact figure - 89 thousand. Some deserted, some came from prisoner of war camps. Back in 1941, when a separate brigade of Carpathian riflemen fought in Africa, they developed a special system for getting Poles out of the camps. This was done by officers who looked through Red Cross questionnaires for prisoners. Those who were of Polish origin were taken to separate camps and offered military service. The Poles themselves did not apply because they were afraid of lynching.

Did the Silesians join Berling's army fighting on the side of the USSR?

There were few deserters here. The Soviets often killed prisoners, and those who managed to survive were treated as traitors. Stalin also had this point of view, who initially did not want to agree to the arrival of prisoners of war into the Polish Army. But, despite this, we know about 3 thousand soldiers who were captured on the eastern front, who were taken into the 3rd Infantry Division. Romuald Traugutt. They also fought on the Pomeranian Val.
Those who returned to Poland after the war had to undergo a rehabilitation procedure. Usually they didn't have any problems. Still, we were talking about peasants, workers, miners, people who were not involved in politics and did not cause problems for the communist authorities.

For many years, historians viewed the topic of Poles in the Wehrmacht as taboo. Why?

A big role here was played by communist ideology and the historical paradigm, from which it followed that the Poles were exclusively victims of the Wehrmacht. Combatants wrote memoirs about partisan warfare or battles in Anders' army, only occasionally admitting that they had previously served in the Wehrmacht. However, historians began writing serious articles about this back in the 80s. Paradoxically, five years ago the “grandfather from the Wehrmacht” scam helped in this regard. Since then, the topic has ceased to be taboo.
Another thing is that people were ashamed of their service in the Wehrmacht. Mariusz Malinowski made a film about the fate of Silesians who ended up in the German army. I attended screenings of this film in several Silesian localities. After the screening of “Children of the Wehrmacht,” the veterans who spoke in front of the camera were presented with flowers and congratulated by local politicians. And real surprise was visible on their faces. What were they congratulated on? With service in the Wehrmacht? For them it was a terrible drama, made even stronger by the fact that after the war they learned about countless crimes committed by the Germans, not only by the Gestapo or SS, but also by their army. When they were taken into the Wehrmacht, they may have known about the concentration camps, but no one thought that the army was also involved in the genocide. In the early 40s, the Wehrmacht enjoyed an unblemished reputation.