Jew World Order

The German-Polish Situation up to the Outbreak of War

Europe was relieved to hear of the German-Polish agreement on Jan. 26, 1934. The realistic peace determination of Adolf Hitler, together with the true sense of statesmanship of Marshal Pilsudski, had found common ground in the mutual desire to establish a new state of political relationship by direct contact between Germany and Poland, the basic idea being to ensure the maintenance and security of a lasting peace between the two countries. It was realised by all those who saw in the latent tension between Germany and Poland an immediate danger to the peace of Europe that such a constructive cooperation of the two statesmen must be of interest to the whole of Europe.

It was the most earnest desire of Germany and Poland to follow up the first declaration of a 10-years pact by the development of sincere friendly relations. Such a friendship based on peaceful development would have left the door open for a friendly and acceptable settlement of all outstanding questions between the two neighbouring countries. There was no doubt that problems, as yet unsettled, did exist between the two countries. It was quite clear that the conditions and boundaries imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were for any length of time impossible and unacceptable. It depended on the honesty of purpose of Poland as to how far an arrangement of a closer understanding between the two countries could fulfil the sincere hopes of Germany and all peace-loving friends.

At that time already, certain definite forces abroad were actively trying to disturb the work of conciliation between Germany and Poland. The opponents of the Third Reich were not in the least interested in a relaxation of the tension between Germany and Poland; in fact they were secretly and openly fanning the ever-glowing fires of propaganda in Poland and directed against Germany and everything German. The change of course in policy both in Berlin and Warsaw in no way suited their plans. Apart from this, a reconciliation of Poland with her neighbour did not represent the aims of the supporters of the Treaty of Versailles, who intended that Poland should remain in a state of permanent opposition to Germany, and that she should remain as an active instrument in the encirclement policy against the Reich.

As a result the enemies of friendly advances between Germany and Poland tried to stifle from the very beginning any reasonable political arrangement and any attempt at a reconciliation between Germany and Poland, by resuscitating the old differences and suspicions. With the help of extremist Polish societies and the Press, already controlled by jewish elements, the saboteurs of conciliatory measures very soon gained the upper-hand. The intensified campaign of anti-German propaganda had an increasing influence on public opinion and incited it against Germany and the German minority in Poland.

The anti-German activity found ready response amongst Polish officials and military circles. The continued efforts of the Government of the Reich, with a view to persuading those in Warsaw responsible for the creation of public opinion to act in accord with the German-Polish Press agreement of Feb. 24, 1934, and to arrive at an effective moral disarmament within the spirit and general lines of the agreement of understanding remained unsuccessful.

Even during Pilsudski’s lifetime it had been clearly shown that the authority of the Marshal himself was not sufficient to make the subordinate Polish officials adhere to a just treatment of the German minority. The exaggerated Polish patriotic feeling still appeared in a more moderate way, but it had not been eliminated. For the time being suppressive measures were not so brutal, but more cunning. The political system based on the old watchword of sworn principle to exterminate everything of German origin, continued unhampered; full responsibility for this must be ascribed to the Polish Government. After the death of Marshal Pilsudski the mask was completely dropped. A campaign of aggressive activity, based on the desire for annexation and such aims was very soon developed in speech and in print.

The continuous efforts of Germany to bring about tolerable relations between the German minority and the Polish population were of no avail. Her efforts were completely frustrated by the sterile attitude of the Polish Government. Poland’s absolutely negative attitude, marked by an unbroken chain of violations of the spirit of the German-Polish pact, and also by a continual breach of the fundamental principles governing the protection of minorities, agreed to and signed by Poland in the reciprocal minority agreement of Nov. 5, 1937 became manifestly clear when the respective representatives of the central administrative offices of both countries met in Berlin on Feb. 27, 1939, to discuss all outstanding questions, pertaining to minorities. These unsuccessful discussions showed that Poland had no intentions of carrying on Marshal Pilsudski’s clearly defined policy of peace and harmony with his German neighbour. The specific desire of the Führer for a definite settlement of the Danzig question, and that of a territorial link between East Prussia and the Reich were repeatedly placed before the Polish Government in the friendliest manner. The evasive attitude, however, of Colonel Beck, Minister for Foreign Affairs, made it clearer from month to month that the Polish authorities were methodically turning their backs on any intention of agreement [15] with Germany. Poland’s increased resistance to any kind of reparation or even alleviation of the injustice of Versailles as regards Germany’s Eastern boundary, corresponded with the stiffening of the Polish policy towards the members of the German minority and with an intensified Chauvinistic activity of the Polish press, tantamount to a direct challenge to the Reich.

The Polish Policy of Atrocity

During the twenty years of Polish domination, [the] Germans in Poland had become used to injury and want. Devoid of every right and protection, they were also prepared for their position to become more threatening and subject to more intolerable pressure as the German-Polish relations aggravated. During the last weeks before the outbreak of war, they were under such pressure and their private life so continually watched by Polish spies, that they already scented the danger that was being brought about by the work of agitation, emanating from secret and public Polish sources. [But] not even the worst pessimist had ever visualized that the wide-spread menaces, attacks, and acts of violence would increase and reach the point of the massacre of men, women, and children, or that these murders would ever reach the gruesome total of over 58,000.

One could feel the abysmal hatred that the Poles had for anything German; hatred that was being engendered by an anti-German press, radio and pulpit propaganda. The Warsaw rulers gave proofs daily of their hostile attitude towards any sincere understanding. This manifested itself even down to the subordinate official positions, where a white-hot fanaticism culminated in treating all Germans as spies and suspected enemies of the State. It was known that the Association of the West [Polski Związek Zachodni, or “Westverband”], rebels, and rifle corps were planning evil, and that Polish Youth organisations, above all the boy scouts, were being systematically trained under military supervision in the use of firearms.

Outbursts of racial propaganda could be read in the Polish press; in just the same way the poisoned atmosphere emanating from the excessive provocation of public agitators could be felt more and more every week as it spread and penetrated deeper and deeper amongst the Polish population. The result was that even the more reasonable Polish elements were dragged into the vortex, which swept away any sensible thought or moral feeling towards minority Germans already pursued and tortured. It was a political psychosis which enabled every Pole to feel that he might commit any kind of deed, even the most terrible, against minority Germans, and without the slightest restraint.

During the last days of August 1939, Germans were openly menaced in villages with the expressions: “Slaughter them off”.1 In the towns Germans were the victims of insane incitement, leading to a state of boycott, terror, and direct danger to life, which the Warsaw Government tolerated and encouraged. This outbreak of concentrated fury and Polish national passion directed against everything German and invoked by the Polish officials, seemed to be the unavoidable solution for putting an end to the intolerable tension between Germany and Poland.

When, therefore, on Sept. 1, 1939 the ever increasing avalanche of defence measures against the Polish provocations and attacks, which led to open raids by Polish soldiery into German territory, culminated in the entry of German troops into Poland, the last pillars of State discipline collapsed with the flight of the Polish authorities. A deluge of ghastly acts of bloodshed like an unparalleled storm burst over the heads of German men and women. These, although conscious of their defenceless state,2 were by no means faint-hearted, for they were comforted in their firm belief in their impending liberation. A few had indeed been able to save themselves in time by flight to safety3 over the frontiers of the Reich and to Danzig; in spite of repeated Polish statements to the effect that in case of war all Germans would be murdered and all German farms would be burnt down, most of the Germans stuck to their homes and possessions, part of which had been acquired or inherited from former settlements or by honest purchase hundreds of years ago, because they themselves could not believe that the menaces of murder would ever be carried out.

What was the reason for all classes of Poles participating in the excesses committed against Germans? Why did that portion of the Polish population which for years had lived in harmony with their German neighbours in town and country hardly lift a hand to protect Germans exposed to lawlessness? Why did Poles, without the slightest reason, attack the one or other German – known or unknown to them –, why were they willing to take part in these indescribable atrocities? The answer to all this is that all action against Germans had been carefully planned beforehand; it had been definitely ordered.

The hunt for minority Germans in the towns and villages was carried out more or less according to the following system; following the command Nr. 5913 repeatedly broadcast by the Warsaw Government on Sept. 1, a modus operandi which must have been agreed upon beforehand with provincial authorities, the provincial governments instructed the local police immediately to enforce the orders of arrest already drawn up and provided with consecutive numbers, against the minority Germans. These warrants did not include the new arrivals within the last few weeks, proof in itself that the orders had been prepared long before.14

In accordance with these orders, the minority Germans were arrested without reason being given, and carried off to the police-station in the shortest possible time. Some were questioned (others were not) with the intention of trying to force a confession to the effect that they had been actively engaged as spies or enemies of the State. They were either thrown into prison or sent home under the impression that they were free men. Often, all their papers of identification were taken away by the police; they were liberated without these papers being returned, with instructions to call for them later. This “later” was destined to become “never”. Either they never got so far, or, if they did, they never came back; they were murdered in the meantime.15

They were severely ill-treated on their way to or from the police station and in the prison cells. They were kicked, beaten with rifle butts, spat on, and subjected to the most awful words of abuse. Those who had not been arrested, interned or abducted, were, in accordance with exact lists, fetched out of their homes and either beaten to death or shot down by soldiers, police, or armed civilians, chiefly led by men of unsavoury reputation, wholly anti-German.16 Anyone asking what was the reason for such persecution, or why his arrest had been made, was answered with a shot in the neck, blows from the butt of a rifle, or stabs with a bayonet.

As a rule, when people were fetched by force and ill-treated, these acts were accompanied by house searches for weapons, secret wireless transmitters, wireless receiving sets and suspicious documents. No Germans had any weapons because for years conditions had rendered this impossible. It was sufficient to find a child’s percussion-cap pistol to justify a murder.17 It actually happened that an accusation was made that a weapon had been found; actually this weapon had been concealed by the Poles on the spot beforehand, or during the interrogation.

As regards the search for hidden ammunition, a cartridge was secretly laid on a cupboard during the search; the discovery of this cartridge was then brought forward as proof of guilt.18 [Or,] a minority German’s notebook was taken away, drawings of an incriminating nature were secretly made inside; this was then used as a corpus delicti. We have evidence of a case in which Polish infantry asserted that a hand-grenade had been found in a house. Finally, however, a Polish soldier intervened and honestly declared that he had seen another Polish soldier put it there. This saved the minority German’s life.19 In towns, a systematic signal for concerted action against Germans was usually the sudden explosion of a shot in the midst of the seething crowds;20 instantaneously cries echoed from the streets: “The Germans have started shooting! Catch them! Kill the Germans, the Huns, the Swine, the Spies!”

In spite of knowledge to the contrary and without the slightest justification, Germans were accused of shooting. This gave the Polish soldiers sufficient excuse for shooting Germans in pursuance of the object aimed at by the bandits and indicated by the agitators, namely, the complete extermination of all Germans.21 Thereupon the howling and enraged mob blindly attacked and overwhelmed civilians of both sexes. Often women in a frenzy of fanaticism indicated to soldiers, who were strangers to the locality, where Germans lived. The soldiers forced their way in and stabbed or shot the Germans.

For the most part, male Germans of every age, including children, down to infants of 2½ months, were murdered.22 Although mainly men of military age, especially between the ages of 16 and 25, were killed, later on even German women and girls were not spared, and for weeks after those sordid events, death notices in the Deutsche Rundschau in Bromberg as well as in the Posener Tageblatt give an appalling survey of how German men, women, old men, cripples, invalids and children were done to death at the murderous hands of the Poles, and how most of them were mutilated in a ghastly way and robbed.

The type of injury (shots in the neck, stabs in the eye-sockets, crushing of skulls with rifle butts and exposing the brain, shots in the head fired straight down, etc.) is singularly uniform in all the different localities where murder took place. A definite conclusion could be formed from the uniformity of time and method in which these outrages were committed against the German minority, that the organization of bloodshed among Germans was carried out in a uniform manner. In any case, the conclusion arrived at by the medico-legal experts, resulting from the examination of hundreds of murder cases, is that there is a remarkable similarity in the type of injury. Presence of mind saved the lives of some who either feigned death or were fortunate enough not to have suffered fatal wounds.23

Mass arrests, abductions, ill-treatment and murders of minority Germans have been proved to have taken place in all parts of Poland, wherever Germans had settled or become domiciled, among other places, besides Warsaw, in the district of Chelm, in Volhynia and in Vilna. They attained an exceptional degree of intensity where Germans were massed in comparatively large numbers and where, in consequence, arrangements for evacuation could not be carried out in an organised and methodical way, owing to the rapid advance of the German troops.

The murderous outrages of both soldiers and civilians were at their worst in those districts where years of agitation had completely poisoned the soul of the Pole, and where an analysis of the population showed a high percentage of minority Germans, and where the political frenzy of the Poles reached its climax. This explains the fact that those who were made to suffer more severely under the Polish lust for blood were in particular the German settlements in the Posen region, the preponderantly German villages, and those with a preponderance of German blood in the lowlands of the Vistula, as well as Bromberg, town and district, with its high percentage of German population. Here whole villages and families were completely exterminated.24

The worst persecutions of Germans took place between Aug. 31 and Sept. 6, 1939. They reached their climax on the “Blood Sunday”, Sept. 3, in Bromberg and terminated about Sept. 17/18 with the liberation of the abducted victims by the arrival of German troops near Lowitsch. The Germans were usually herded together, driven off and massacred in isolated spots, in numbers ranging from 39, 48, 53 to 104 at a time.25

Wherever [single, individual] Germans were found shot or beaten to death, they were discovered on the thresholds of their houses, in the courtyard or garden, along the road, unburied, sometimes merely covered with leaves and branches, often only hurriedly covered with a thin layer of earth. In nearly every case there were ghastly mutilations such as eyes gouged out, teeth smashed, brains oozing out of the skulls; tongues torn out, abdomens slit open, broken arms and legs, fingers hacked off, feet and lower portions of the legs chopped off.

Those who were massacred in this way lay bound together with ropes in twos or threes, or were placed in rows, hands tied to their backs with ropes and straps. [25] They lay in the ditch of a field, on the edge of a wood, or on the shore of a lake26 whither they had been driven, often only to be slaughtered by a shot in the neck. Many victims were only found six, seven or even eight weeks later, and at some distant spot. Many bodies were completely smeared with dirt and blood. In a number of cases the mutilations had taken place whilst the murdered person was still alive.

Wherever Germans had succeeded in fleeing from their homes and property in time, to hide in cellars, attics, plough furrows, hedges, woods, ditches or in fields of potatoes, beetroot [turnip] and sunflowers, they were often betrayed by Polish neighbours and hunted out by hordes of politically fanatical residents, Polish adolescents of from 17 to 20 years of age,27 ill-treated and then beaten to death. These hordes were armed with weapons of every possible description – fence stakes, cudgels, knives, iron bars, axes, choppers, daggers, spades, whips, hay forks, pickaxes, stanchions, lead-tipped sticks, and then again with sabres, pistols and rifles. Where did the civilians, especially these adolescents, get these weapons from? How did all these incited and immoral elements come into possession of such instruments of murder?

It was no mere chance that they were in possession of these weapons. They had either been distributed by the local Police offices or served out by the magistrates shortly before the administrative officials left, i.e. the Polish officials aided and abetted these acts of violence and murders of Germans.28 Sometimes it was one or more of the ringleaders who with their wild behaviour goaded the masses into the desire to kill their German-born fellow citizens. Working in close cooperation with the Polish soldiers, air-raid wardens were also outstanding in their cruelty.

Though the greater part of these murders were committed by soldiers belonging to scattered units, or by the rear-guard in flight and by parties of sappers, the participation of regulars and even Polish officers in these murders has been definitely established. It was not only the remarks of the Polish military: “We shall stamp out the Germans root and branch”,29 or the orders to shoot Germans, which prove the part taken by commissioned and non-commissioned officers in these acts of murder, but also the systematic use made of whips in rounding up Germans forcibly carried off, and the use of the pistol by Polish officers to kill them. These Polish officers have stated that they had orders to shoot Germans.

The sufferings of the German farmer were certainly even greater than those of the Germans in the towns, because each one was left entirely to his own resources on his own farm, and they were not able to assist one another to the same extent. The farmers were exterminated to such an extent that some villages had only a single survivor as eye-witness of the Polish atrocities. 20 victims lay in a meadow not far from the shooting-range at Hohensalza – “all big strong men”,46 “lying singly and each having been killed by numerous shots; many of the bodies were still warm. The execution was carried out by a lieutenant and ten men of the Polish army.”47

Another twenty-nine horribly mutilated farmers belonged to the purely German village of Slonsk, founded by German settlers: all of the male population of this 300-year-old purely German village on whom the Poles could lay their hands, whole families were cold-bloodedly shot and terribly mutilated by soldiers of the 63rd Infantry Regiment from Thorn.48 The property of the German farmers of Langenau and Otteraue are in blackened ruins, having been burnt down by Polish soldiers, and their inhabitants are almost all murdered.

A somewhat different picture presents itself in the Posen district. Here village elders and agricultural labourers, in league with soldiers, set the barns on fire, drove away the cattle, robbed and blackmailed [extorted money from] the Germans.49 And in all the towns the Germans were herded together into columns and marched away into the interior of Poland. A “class-war” spirit directed against the German estate owners combined here with the general anti-German agitation among the Polish masses.

The extent of the cruelty shown to the minority Germans in these columns of prisoners is shown by the fact that, whilst being driven through the little town of Schrimm, 25 Germans were beaten to death and the rest of the column mishandled in such a way that even resident Poles, amongst them a Prior, protested, without however being able to stop the atrocities.54 When a halt was made, the Germans were often “drilled” – forced, for instance, to kneel for an hour, those who fell over being struck dead, others, weak from exhaustion, “shot down like dogs”.55 Women and old people were not spared these “drills”.

In the Posen column, a war-invalid, Herr Schmolke, who had two artificial limbs, was shot, together with his wife, his 15-year-old daughter and his son aged 18 months, when their strength gave way.56 Two other disabled men, one called Jentsch of Rakwitz, and the other, the 65-year-old Kiok of Wongrowitz (both had wooden legs), suffered the same fate – no wonder that many soon became so utterly hopeless that they committed suicide.57 Some began to have the wildest hallucinations. One imagined that he saw splendid castles, another “saw a firework display.” A terrified cry from one of the prisoners, who was dreaming, brought a hail of bullets into the middle of the German group.

The lives of human beings were naturally of no importance when those human beings were Germans. It was worst of all when shots were fired wildly into the ranks of the marching prisoners from behind, by their rear guard, or when men saw their fathers or friends die by their side simply because they could not continue marching for mile after mile with their arms raised aloft. Torn from their homes, driven forward like cattle and threatened every minute with death, these Germans were marched on towards Kolo-Klodowa, towards Kutno, Lowitsch and Turek-Tulischkow. The column of unfortunates from Warsaw reached the hell of Bereza-Kartuska.58

Even weeks after being liberated many were still suffering terribly as a result of the mental and physical torture they had gone through, and many finally succumbed to the after-effects of their terrible experiences in these groups, completely broken in health by the superhuman exertions they had been subjected to by the brutality of their Polish oppressors.59 The atrocious cruelty of the Poles to the minority Germany in these marches of prisoners is one of the greatest blots on the already so sordid history of minorities in our time.60

Everything in the nature of atrocity which was inflicted by the Poles on the minority Germans, was done not out of an individual desire for revenge, nor for personal reasons; it was not the product of class-hatred or envy of the wealthier man, but simply of political mass-antagonism; it was nothing more nor less than organised massacre, not due to any sudden excess of fury amongst masses which had got out of hand, but to a systematic agitation which, playing upon that lust of murder and robbery which is an essential part of Polish mentality, resulted in cruelties of all kinds.

The motive for these atrocities lies deep in the soul of the Pole, it is politico-pathological. The hate-imbued will to exterminate everything German was the driving power behind the atrocity campaign, which was nurtured by press, wireless and Government,61 as well as from pulpits and barracks. It was probably only in the case of the robberies committed by Polish farm-hands in the Posen countryside that personal gain was the motive; all the rest was done merely to satisfy the feeling of revenge against the Germans with their higher standard of culture. The Pole has never lost his inferiority complex in regard to the Germans.

Report of the Medico-Legal [Forensic] Experts

 At present at Bromberg and Berlin, 20.11.1939

The medico-legal experts of

the Military High Command for Bromberg:

Dr. Panning, Senior Medical Officer

and Superintendent of the Medico-Legal Department

of the Army Medical Academy.

For Posen: Dr. Hallermann,

Assistant Medical Officer of the Reserve,

Lecturer at Berlin University.

Report

on the results, available up to the present, of the Investigation of the Medico-Legal Department of the Army Medical Academy, set up for the purpose of investigating the Polish acts of murder in the Posen and Bromberg districts.1

I. The task of the medico-legal experts

By order of the Health Inspection Department of the Military High Command, Medico-Legal Experts were appointed on Sept. 20, 1939 to investigate the Polish acts of murder in those districts which suffered most, particularly in Bromberg, but also in Posen. Subsequently numerous medico-legal autopsies were carried out, which at present are still being continued. The investigation of cases of murder took place in close co-operation with Special Commissions of the Reich Police Criminal Dept. i.e. with the officers, and in accordance with the methods of the [Berlin] Criminal Investigation Department.

In pursuance of the instructions received, detailed results of all autopsies were certified in records and filed for present and future use by the addition of a still increasing collection of photographic reproductions and preserved specimens. The opportunity was taken to inspect the proofs available on the spot, at Bromberg and Posen, by several commissions of medical and army officers, as well as German and foreign journalists.

II. Scope of Investigation

The investigations carried out so far cover 131 autopsies and 11 cases of post-mortems in and near Bromberg, and 51 autopsies and 53 post-mortems in Posen and its environments [environs]. Therefore, up to the present, about 250 bodies have been examined by medico-legal experts – this figure not representing even a mere fraction of the number of murders perpetrated, which is so great that it is impossible to estimate them from here. It is, however, impossible to carry out autopsies on all the persons murdered. In Bromberg alone, for example, the question would have arisen of examining no less than 1000 bodies. It is to be expected, therefore, that decomposition and the frozen soil of the graves will shortly terminate all post-mortem examinations.

[196] The results obtained by the investigations must thus be regarded purely as small random sections taken from an abundance of material. It has not been attempted to summarise statistically the data obtained, as no comparative figures could represent a true picture of the events investigated, in view of the enormous number of cases where it was not possible to hold a post-mortem examination. Only for a few sections, which cover a series of murders in which each or certainly almost every case has been examined by autopsy, will a statistical survey be feasible.

III. Results of investigations

Difficulties in analysing the results obtained:

Great difficulties were encountered in judging on merit the data obtained. In view of the large number of bodies heaped up in a restricted space, a provisional burial of 60 or even more bodies in one common grave had had to be arranged [at many locations]. The bodies were later exhumed and examined with the consent and knowledge of their sorely tried relatives, when transferring them to a place of rest in cemeteries especially designated for this purpose. It goes without saying that the findings were frequently influenced by the state of decomposition which, in the meantime, had set in.

In spite of this it was possible by following the exact and scientific methods of medico-legal examination to arrive at expert conclusions perfectly clear in their essential parts. It was also obvious that the results of the autopsies carried out could by no means show up all the injuries which the unfortunate victims had suffered. Particularly tissue haemorrhages as the result of bodily maltreatment were frequently almost impossible to trace during the autopsy on account of the advanced state of decomposition, and obviously various forms of brutal physical injuries, mutilations, etc., were only apparent by special and circumstantial evidence.

Injuries caused by blunt instruments, rifle butts, etc.:

It may serve as an example to point out that blows administered by rifle butts, bludgeons, staves, etc., as witnessed on innumerable occasions, were naturally only traceable at an autopsy when they were followed by injury to the bone. In this respect some very impressive and weighty findings were observed in such cases as:

• Sect. No. Br. 93, Albert Heise, aged 21 years – complete crushing of facial portion of skull by heavy blows of a bludgeon,
• Sect. No. Br. 116, Richard Kutzer, aged 46 years, parson, crushing of inferior maxilla (lower jaw) without injury to the skin – caused, according to police evidence, by a blow with a rifle butt,
• Sect. No. Br. 115, Otto Kutzer, 73 years of age – father of the above – multiple fracture of costal cartilage, weakened by senility, – due to a blow with the butt of a rifle (photo p. 279),
• Sect. No. Br. 107, Hans Schulz, 20 years of age – crushing of skull with rifle butt or other heavy instrument,

as also in a great number of other cases.

Frequently, as shown in the post-mortem records, the forcible use of blunt instruments could only be assumed, namely, in such cases when the victim received the injuries, such as shots, blows or cuts, while lying down and when it was necessary to explain how he came to be in a recumbent position.

Mutilations:

The findings of the experts were equally handicapped through post-mortem change in the case of extremely brutal mutilations of the victims. Whereas in a great many cases it was possible to obtain definite statements of witnesses – mostly relatives of the murdered persons – as to the mutilations inflicted upon the deceased, such as castration, severance of members of the body (ears, nose, etc.) or the piercing of the orbital cavity – these injuries could not be considered as findings in a strict medico-legal sense, because all traces had been naturally subject to decomposition, and destruction by vermin.

However, especially in a good many cases of punctured wounds of the eye in conjunction with injury to the lids, it has been possible to establish definite proof of such injuries on bodies exhumed shortly after burial. This statement is impressively corroborated by the photograph on page 285 in case Br. 17 of an unknown man, aged about 20 and murdered in Bromberg-Klein-Bartelsee, and also by the photograph on page 286 in the case of Sect. No. P. I. Grieger, Paul, 32 years of age, murdered in Posen. A case of piercing of the orbital cavity which, owing to destruction of the body by vermin, could not definitely be ascertained, is depicted on the photograph on page 288, post-mortem examination No. Br. 4 of an unknown man aged about 45 and murdered in the woods near Hopfengarten in the Bromberg district. Furthermore, it has also been proved by photographic records that all cases of bullet wounds in the eye have been carefully excluded in the findings of punctured injuries to the orbital cavity.

Similar references can be made to other forms of mutilation. In certain cases one is forced to accept as evidence the clear statement of witnesses as to pre-mortem castration or other mutilations and to assume that objective findings were impossible owing to the advanced stage of decomposition. The well-known fact should be borne in mind that the destruction by vermin, or any other post-mortem change, affects in the first instance and most readily all injured parts of the body. It is consequently not surprising that in this respect the findings of the experts fall short of the statements of witnesses.

Punctures:

A special group of additional injuries independent of those of a fatal nature, of a distinctly sadistic nature, were observed in very many cases, namely puncture wounds, as found by themselves or in addition to fatal bullet wounds. In the main, this refers to shallow and flat punctured injuries to the surface or the limbs and members of the body. In accordance with statements of witnesses, these injuries were frequently inflicted upon the victims, as it were “for encouragement”, by the guards or the mob en route to the place of murder.

Thus, amongst many others, the case Sect. No. Br. 56 of Eduard Schülemann, a 72-year-old man, may be quoted as an example; he was killed by a shot through the skull and a deep stab of a bayonet from behind in the back. Thrusts of the bayonet to the dying were inflicted repeatedly, as in the case Sect. No. Br. 27 of an unknown man, aged 30 to 40, with a stab in the abdomen, and also Sect. No. Br. 110 Herbert Gollnik, 38 years of age. A particularly bestial case of the application of a stabbing weapon and the murder of the wounded man by 33 stabs, inflicted by a Polish soldier within a military formation, will be referred to on another occasion [elsewhere].

Injuries involving long death agony:

The wholly unimaginable brutality of the perpetrat[ors] is evidenced by the consideration of the causes of death and consequently the length of the period of pre-lethal agonies. It has been proved beyond doubt that in numerous cases the injuries inflicted were by no means of a fatal character, but that the victims succumbed in the course of time from such uncomplicated injuries, as for example, a bullet wound through the lung.

Similar observations could be made in cases where only injuries to the limbs with lacerations of more or less insignificant arterial ramifications were detected. In this connection attention should be drawn to the photographic reproduction on p. 281, Sect. No. Br. 46: Artur Radler, aged 42; he had received a shot through the cervical portion of the neck, which was by no means dangerous to his life. Death actually supervened more than seven hours later through a shot through the head, after his relatives had been deliberately prevented from rendering any assistance to the wounded man.

We can see very similar conditions reproduced in the photographs on page 300-301, Sect. No. Br. 100, Kurt Beyer, aged 10, whose agonies lasted throughout the night, a period of at least 12 hours, during which he was lying in a field with two non-dangerous shots through the lung, and a smashed arm. A similar case is represented by Sect. No. Br. 100, Wilhelm Gollnik, aged 38, whose death agonies in the presence of his wife lasted over 9 hours.

Further reference will be made in due course to a group of victims who also were subject to more or less protracted agonies of death.

Weapons used:

By far the most important conclusions to be drawn from the medico-legal investigations appear to be after all not so much the inhuman mental and physical brutalities, which have been so clearly established in the post-mortem examinations; the greater significance should be attributed to the fact that in the overwhelming majority of cases subjected to an autopsy, the use of military weapons has been proved beyond any doubt. In most cases rifles were used, occasionally pistols, more rarely hand-grenades.

These facts are clearly corroborated by numerous bullets or splinters, such as were extracted in about 50 cases. In particular, the use of military firearms can, even without the surgical detection of the bullet, be proved by their highly destructive effect, especially on the osseous system, and in a remarkable measure by the hydro-dynamic phenomenon of the lifting of the skull in the case of a bullet tearing right through the brain.

The principal weapon of murder in the attempt to exterminate the German element in Poland and especially on the “Bloody Sunday” in Bromberg, has accordingly been the Polish Army rifle. The medico-legal officer is forced to draw particular attention to this fact, established by autopsies, as it may prove to be extremely valuable to the investigating authorities in ascertaining and proving the existence of organised massacres. Murders committed with makeshift weapons, bludgeons or knives appear to be exceptional. No casual weapons such as pieces of garden fencing, which might be used by a person overwhelmed by passion, were employed, but [rather,] highly efficient firearms.

In regard to the pistols used, it is not possible to draw in each separate case the same definite conclusions as in the case of rifles, even when the bullet was detected in the body. It was however possible to ascertain through examinations of the peculiar shape of the bullet extracted that in the following three cases the Nagan revolver was used: Sect. No. Br. 48, Fritz Radler, Sect. No. Br. 98 and Sect. No. Br. 99, Heinz and Friedrich Beyer. The Nagan revolver was, however, a weapon obtainable in the open market and therefore excludes the assumption of the existence of a definite group of miscreants or organisers.

One item, however, seems to be of conspicuous interest: all bullets fired from small-arms retrieved in the large number of Bromberg cases, altogether 10 in number, were encased, i.e. belong to modern highly effective small-arms, namely, in three cases, the Nagan revolver, and in the other cases automatic pistols. Lead bullets as fired from a revolver are completely absent here. The assumption that all lead bullets fired from revolvers generally pass through the body is erroneous: experience proves that such bullets almost invariably become lodged, one is therefore confronted with the fact that all portable firearms used were of a highly effective and modern type, and this in a country the population of which were hardly familiar with modern appliances in other fields even by name. The conclusions of these medico-legal investigations should prove to be of importance when questions of organisation come under review.

IV. Summary

The medico-legal findings in the post-mortems conducted on about 250 minority Germans, representing only a small proportion of the victims of the Polish massacre, have established the fact that persons of every age, from 4 months old infants to 82-year-old victims, were murdered quite indiscriminately and that even women in an advanced stage of pregnancy were not spared.

It has been demonstrated that the murders were carried out with the utmost brutality and that in numerous cases measures with distinctly sadistic tendencies were adopted. Particularly, punctures of the orbital cavity were found, as well as other mutilations which must be considered as wholly convincing evidence offered by witnesses.

The planning of the individual murders often shows a high degree of cunning in the devising of the mental and physical torture applied to the victims; several cases, especially where the actual process of killing lasted several hours and where the death agonies of the victims were deliberately protracted, cannot be sufficiently stressed.

Probably the most important finding is the proof that only quite exceptionally were makeshift weapons, such as bludgeons, knives, etc., used, and that, generally, modern and highly effective weapons, i.e. military rifles and pistols, were at the disposal of the murderers. It must be particularly noted that the consideration even of the smallest details leads to the exclusion of the idea of formal executions of victims.

Documents: Cases of Typical Atrocities

The “swaby” (huns) must all be shot!”

Murder of Giese – Parts of brain and blood adhered to the kitchen wall.

Witness Giese of Bromberg deposed on oath as follows:

Re. person: My name is Johanna Giese, nee Keusch. I am 51 years old, Protestant, a minority German, and domiciled in Bromberg, 9 Konopnickiej.

Re. matter: On Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939, between 11 and 12 o’clock we were in the cellar of our house. Polish soldiers and civilians entered our property. They insisted that we come out of the cellar. When we had emerged, one of the soldiers asserted that shots had been fired from our house. We in fact had no weapons in the house at all.

My son-in-law left the cellar first. At that moment a civilian shouted “The ‘szwaby’ (Huns) must all be shot!” My son-in-law was at once fired at by a soldier, and was shot through the artery; he also received three further shots in the chest and throat. In spite of this he did not die immediately, but was still alive on Sunday evening, when we had to flee. We could not take him with us and laid him on a sofa in the house.

After the German military marched into Bromberg on Tuesday, I took an N.C.O. with me to my farm, because I wished to see how things looked there. It was a frightful sight. My son-in-law had been taken off the sofa. They had dragged him into the kitchen up to and under the kitchen table. The head was split, the cranium was missing altogether and the brain was no longer in the head. Parts of the brain and blood adhered to the kitchen wall…

My son Reinhard Giese had also been with us in the cellar; he was 19 years old. When he saw that my son-in-law had been shot dead he tried to escape, and he succeeded in getting over the fence into the neighbour’s property. They ran after him, caught him and shot him dead. I brought the body of my son into the wash house [laundry room] in the evening. He had been shot in the chest.

Another son of mine, Friedrich Giese, 25 years old, is said to have been shot in Hopfengarten together with his whole family, to whom he had fled.

“That swine is still alive!”

Murder of Gollnick

Witness Christa Gollnick of Bromberg, 101 Kujawier Strasse, deposed on oath as follows:

We kept a greengrocer shop, and also sold flour and fodder. When the first Polish troops marched off I saw our Polish neighbour approaching a Polish major, telling him something and pointing to our house. Thereupon Polish soldiers stormed our shop after they had smashed in the door. We thought that a battle was going to take place and that the soldiers intended to barricade themselves in our house. We thereupon ran to our dug-out, which we had built by order of the authorities. We did not, however, get that far because the Polish soldiers opened fire on us. My husband was struck in the shoulder, and received a rifle butt blow in the face. He reeled but still endeavoured to escape. He tried to climb over the fence, but was held back by a civilian. He received a further butt blow from a Polish soldier so that he fell.

My children and myself were brought back into the house by a Polish lieutenant. I could see my husband lying on the ground, from the attic. He still lived for a long time. I saw him draw up his legs to the body and straighten them again, and now and then he raised his hand. It was impossible for us, however, to go out to him as Polish soldiers and civilians were standing about. A Polish policeman was continually stationed at the fence where my husband lay. Polish women screamed: “That swine is still alive!” Towards evening three shots were fired at my husband by Polish soldiers, after he had received a bayonet stab in the body earlier in the afternoon.

I observed my husband continually feeling for this place and trying to open his trousers, which were subsequently found to be open. My neighbour told me that my husband had still gasped the next day. My husband was tall and strong and only 38 years old, therefore he must have had a fearfully prolonged death. He had lain for about 18 hours before death delivered him from his agony.

“The brain was protruding – The eyes were missing”

“My husband was shockingly mutilated.” The murder of Boelitz and of Paul Berg, aged 15

The following statement was made on oath by the witness, Anna Boelitz, of Bromberg:

On Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939, at midday, considerable shooting broke out in Jägerhof. We went into the room occupied by an employee of ours, Paul Berg, in order to get out of the house. The Polish soldiers fired direct into the window. We lay flat on the ground until my husband suggested I should go out, as I could speak a little Polish. They demanded that my husband should come out, saying that he had been shooting.

I told them that we possessed no weapons at all. My husband had to put his hands above his head. They kicked him, and struck him with their rifle butts. They led him away and thereupon searched my house. Shortly afterwards they sent for the lad, Paul Berg, and took him off too. Paul Berg was 15 years old. On Wednesday evening I found my husband in the same spot on the bridge where the clergyman Kutzer lay. My husband’s body was horribly mutilated. The top of his head was completely gone, the brain was hanging out and the eyes were missing. Paul Berg lay in the same spot. I did not look at his wounds because he lay face downwards on the ground.

Whole families murdered

The witness, Anton Dombek, garden inspector, of Bromberg, 2c Goethestrasse, made the following statement on oath:

On Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1939, the Polish militia with some regular soldiers among them departed. About half an hour later the German troops entered the town. We began to restore order in the town on Wednesday morning. The sights that met our eyes were terrible. The elderly people had been shot, but were without any mutilation worth mentioning. On the other hand, we found in a large mass grave at 8 Bülowplatz some dead bodies, mutilated beyond recognition. The bodies were covered with straw and a had sand thrown over them. In some cases the back of the head was completely knocked off, the eyes gouged out, the arms and legs broken, and even some of the fingers.

Whole families have been murdered. For example: Kohn: father, mother and 3 children. Boldin: 3 persons. Böhlitz: father and 2 sons. Beyer: father and 2 sons (18 and 10 years old) – the younger had [been] torn from the broken-hearted mother’s arms.

Father shot – Daughter raped – Both robbed

The murder of Gannott

Bromberg, Sept. 14, 1939.

Staff Field Court of the Air Force,

Commander 3rd District.

Present:

Dr. Waltzog, Military Judge Advocate of the Air Force

acting as judge.

Hanschke, Senior Court Clerk of the Air Force

acting as secretary.

In the case of the inquiry into the International Law case Bromberg I, the witness, Frl. Vera Gannott of Bromberg, 125 Thorner Strasse, appeared, and after being cautioned to tell the truth and reminded of the significance of the oath made the following statement:

Re. person: I am 19 years old, Protestant, of no occupation.

Re. matter: When it was known in the town that German troops were marching in, the populace and the Polish soldiers began committing acts of violence against us, too. On Sunday at about 2 p.m. some Polish soldiers and civilians approached our house at 125 Thornerstrasse, situated 3 miles from the town. The civilians said: “There are Germans living here,” upon which the soldiers at once started shooting. We fled into a shed. In my opinion they also threw hand grenades. First of all they hauled my father out of the shed. He was asked by the Poles where he had the machine gun.

My father, however, did not understand the question, as he did not understand Polish. Then I came out of the shed as well. I wanted to stand by my father as I could speak Polish. I asked the Poles what we had done to them and pleaded for my father. The Poles, however, shouted: “Down with the German pigs!” My father received several blows from rifle butts in the face and on the body and was also stabbed with bayonets. He thereupon fell to the ground and, as he lay there, he received 6 bullets; he died. The mob of soldiers then withdrew, after telling the civilians they might plunder [loot] the house if they liked, otherwise they would set fire to it.

Then my mother too came out of her hiding place. We wanted to wash my father’s body which was covered with blood. We had just began to do this when another Polish horde appeared armed with staves and cudgels. My mother as well as my aunt were beaten with the cudgels; I myself was cuffed left and right. Then they went away again. After a time another horde of Polish soldiers and civilians appeared on the scene. On their approach I ran into the water of the Brahe, a river which flows behind our house, but I was pulled out by the hair. Ten or 15 civilians dragged me into the house. They said I would see that Poles were not at all such bad fellows and they would allow me to change my wet clothes.

As however none of them made any move to go out, I refused to change, whereupon the Poles tore the clothes off me and laid me out naked on the floor. About 10 men held me down by the head, hands and feet, while one of the Poles raped me during which I sustained several injuries. The first days I suffered considerable pain, but not now. No other Poles violated me. While this was going on, my mother was led to a room upstairs and kept there at the point of a rifle.

The Polish soldiers robbed my father and me of our money, handbag, watches and rings. Our house was completely wrecked. The furniture was smashed with axes. All the crockery as well as the linen was stolen.

We had no weapons in our house. We had already delivered them over to the police in accordance with the general order.

Read, approved and

signed Vera Gannott

The witness took the oath.

Concluded:

(signed) Dr. Waltzog       (signed) Hanschke

Apart from Willi Gannott, six other persons in the same house were murdered, namely: The son of Frau Emma Gannott, the minority German Karl Kohn, his wife and their 3 children, aged from 16 to 24. Willi Gannott and Karl Kohn were murdered on the “Blood Sunday” and the other five Germans on Monday, Sept. 4th.

Twenty-seven murdered Germans in the churchyard of Kaminieck

Hurriedly buried in a hole – Soles of feet cut away

The witness, Maria Richert, nee Richert, farmer’s widow, of Rybno, deposed on oath as follows:

… On Tuesday, September 12, 1939, or Wednesday, September 13, we found my son and the farmers Gatzke, Dreger and Tober in a small wood near Koneck, hurriedly buried in a hole. They had gouged out one of my son’s eyes, his back showed numerous bayonet wounds and on both arms were deep cuts, so that the flesh hung down. The whole of the left side of his face was also missing. Dreger’s stomach was hanging out of his left side, whilst the soles of Tober’s feet had been cut away and blood ran from his back. The [One] body had been thrown on top of another.

We found the Konrad brothers in a hole in a field near Chromowola; Agathe Konrad and Frau Tober were found in Koneck, both with half of their heads missing.

Peter Bitschke lay, as I heard, near Wilhelm Bölke, Bölke’s mother, Frau Konrad and another Bitschke in Kaminieck woods. In the churchyard of Kaminteck lie altogether 27 Germans from our village and its immediate surroundings.

The face split into three pieces

The witness Ida Albertini, wife of the Kaminieck teacher and precentor, deposed on oath as follows:

… In our churchyard 26 persons have been buried whose bodies were collected and carried there after having, in some cases, already been in the ground. I saw the bodies and am able to state the following:

Some of the persons had certainly been shot, but with others there is no doubt that they had been killed by blows and stabs. Of the dead, 3 were women and 23 men. Of the wounds which I saw I can give the following details:

One woman had lost half of her face, obviously as the result of a sabre-blow, a male body had three stabs in the chest, so that in one place the liver was protruding. The face of Emil Konrad had been split into three pieces, one cut directly above the forehead, the other at right angles to it, whilst Frau Luise Konrad’s hand had been so completely severed from the wrist that it hung only on a few tendons. The eyeballs of one man hung far out of their sockets, obviously gouged [pulled] out.

“Stand them all against the wall!”

The witness, Wiesner, farm manager in Posadowo, testified on oath to the following:

The testimony, given on oath, of the administrator Wiesner, Posadowo, on October 4, 1939, concerns a case of most revolting cruelty practised on innocent German civilians:2

More than one hundred minority Germans were brought before the company commander of the cycle company of the 58th Infantry Regiment stationed in Posen and here [the commander] received the report that four of their number had already been shot. He said to the 300 to 400 soldiers standing about on the parade ground: “Well, do you want to see any more of these German Hitler swine killed?” When they answered: “Yes, shoot the lot!” he first struck one of the Germans about 15 times across the head with his crop, so that the blood ran from his mouth, nose and ears, then had him placed against the wall and shot him with his Browning. Swelling with pride, he shouted to his soldiers: “Do you still want to see more of the German Hitler pigs killed?” As they howled their answer: “Stand them all against the wall!” he chose at random two further Germans from the group and let a man standing next to him choose a third, and shot these three unfortunate individuals down with his Browning. He then called for three cheers for Marshal Rydz-Smigly and had the Polish National Anthem sung.

The eyes gouged out

The witness, Adolf Düsterhöft, bricklayer of Schwersenz, near Posen, testified under oath to the following:

… On Sept. 4, 1939 the bodies were brought back to Schwersenz, and I was able to see the body of my son Arthur, born on Sept. 23, 1909 and also that of the labourer, Kelm. Both bodies had been mutilated in the same way:

The facial bones were battered in, the eyes were gouged out and bullet wounds were visible in both bodies. Moreover, my son’s stomach had been ripped open, so that the entrails were hanging out. I have heard that the bodies of other Germans had been mutilated in the same manner.

Jaws broken – castrated

The witness, Hermann Matthies, waggoner of Schwersenz, testified on oath to the following:

… The names of the two dead are Düsterhöft and Kelm, both of Schwersenz. They had been horribly mutilated. Düsterhöft’s jaw was broken as was also a rib. The heads and faces of both were swollen and covered with bruises. The scrotum of one of them was badly swollen, a state which must have been caused by a blow, possibly from a rifle butt.

… Altogether I transported twenty corpses to Schwersenz. All were terribly mutilated; nearly all had broken jaws, in nearly all cases the skulls were battered in and various bones broken. The bodies displayed wounds caused by stabs, the thumb of one of the bodies was torn off and eyes and tongue were bulging out of the heads. One of the bodies had been castrated.

A mutilated son

“… The fingers and toes of nearly all the bodies were missing.”

The witness, Bruno Siebert, labourer of Swierczewo near Posen, testified on oath to the following:

… I first saw my 16-year-old son Helmut again when he was lying in his coffin in Schwersenz. The sight was indescribable; there were 16 stabs in the body, obviously bayonet wounds. Almost the whole of the right side of the face was missing, as well as the left eye, and the nose was smashed. There was also a bullet wound in the middle of the forehead. I should not have been able to recognize my son in this condition if an injury to the right thumb nail, the yellow sports shirt, the pants and the colour of the socks had not enabled me to establish his identity beyond doubt. I should also like to mention that the places where my son had been struck were all covered with bruises.

I collapsed in anguish.

Besides the body of my son, I saw seven others which had been buried together with Helmut in Falkowo. They were all adult men, except for one other 16-year-old youth. The corpses were without exception horribly mutilated; the fingers and toes of nearly all were missing and almost all had the stomachs slit open, so that the entrails were bulging out. I remember that the eyes of one body had been torn out. The heads of all the corpses were shapeless and unnaturally large, for they were all badly battered.

Head completely smashed – right eye put out

The murder of Poschadel

The witness, David Poschadel, a workman of Slonsk, made the following statement on oath:

On Thursday, September 7, 1939, I was going to Ciechocinek, while my son was taking the cow into the field. As I was returning from the town, I met my son being led away by a soldier. My son was 36 years of age. I dared not speak to him. My son also said nothing, only looked at me and cried. I found him on Sunday, September 10, 1939, lying buried in a ditch on my neighbour Gläsmann’s land. The head was completely smashed, in addition there were many bayonet wounds; amongst other injuries, the right eye had been put out. He had received one shot in the chest.

Five corpses in a confused heap

The witness, Anna Trittel, nee Wolter, of Rojewo, District of Hohensalza, stated on oath as follows:

… I had remained behind, and then ran away because acquaintances from Bromberg told me that I really ought to go. For some time after that, I wandered about with my foster-child, and finally went back again to Rojewo, which was now full of German soldiers, and then on Wednesday I again drove to the place where my husband [121] and my children had been shot. The five bodies lay in a Polish trench, thrown together in a confused heap; the carcase of a cow was lying on the body of my son. My husband bad a bullet-wound in the chest, my daughter also. My son had two wounds, one in the right wrist and one in the right lower jaw. I was not able to find further wounds

Numerous dead bodies of abducted Germans on the road to Lowitsch

Witness Max Hofmann of Schokken, in the district of Wongrowitz, deposed on oath as follows:

… I myself, for example, saw how a woman of the Bromberg group, no longer able to walk and already mentally disturbed, was beaten to death by a guard with the butt of his rifle. Also the war invalid Ernst Kiok of Jaroschau near Wongrowitz, a man of about 70, who for long had not been able to walk and lay on a waggon, was dragged off the waggon by the escort, thrown into the ditch and there beaten to death by blows from rifle butts. On our way to Lowitsch there were numerous dead bodies of interned Germans lying to the right and left of the road as well as on the road itself, so that we almost stumbled over them. It was an incredible martyrdom on the road to Lowitsch. The military passing us on the road also participated in the maltreatment, etc.

80-year-old minority German brutally beaten by Polish police

The witness, Szczepan Siedlecki, grocer in Michelin, deposed the following on oath:

On the first Wednesday in September of this year, I saw about 150 minority Germans who, being marched off by Polish policemen, passed my shop window in the direction of Kutno. An old minority German of about 80 years of age could go no farther, and was struck with rifle butts by policemen, so that he broke down completely and was left lying in the street. Some civilians standing nearby were told by two Polish policemen to finish him off, and I saw two men, strangers to me, go through the old man’s pockets, after which they struck him with a stone and kicked him with their feet…

Murder of abducted persons on the march to Tulischkow / Turow

Shot down in pairs. Of 181 abducted persons only 5 returned!

Posen, November 18, 1939.

The Special Court

Present:

Junior Judge Bömmels

as Judge,

Court Official Miehe

as Records Officer of the Office.

In the investigation into the abduction of Walter Kabsch, a minority German of Parsko, the overseer Walter Kabsch appeared and declared:

Re. person: I am Walter Kabsch, aged 27, overseer in Parsko near Woinitz.

Re matter: I am overseer in the employ of Baron von Gersdorff, of Parsko. On September 1, 1939, Matuczak, the gardener on the estate, came to me and announced that I was arrested. I wanted to appeal to my employer. He, however, was already standing together with the administrator Golinski and the wheelwright Laubsch on the yard, and I saw that they too had already been arrested. I wanted to take flight, but Herr von Gersdorff told me that he was coming and that we were going together to a camp. I therefore remained and did not think any more of how Matuczak had presumed to arrest us. He drove us to the police-station at Schmiegel. There he was asked why he had brought us, but I did not hear whether he gave an answer, and, if so, what answer he gave.

The police transported us to Schacz and handed us over to the military. We found a large group of minority Germans already assembled there. Among them was also my brother Karl, from Woinitz, and my other brother Willi, from Alt-Boyen. When at 10 p.m. we were marched off in the direction of Kosten, we numbered about four hundred. From midnight until 3 a.m. we were housed in the gaol and were then led on to Schrimm, whence we proceeded to Schroda. Here the civilian population was engaged in digging trenches. As we were led past, the people flung themselves at our column and attacked us with spades. In this way a large number received wounds and bled very badly.

I saw one man whose nose and upper lip were completely severed. The escort did not allow the wounded to be attended to, but forced them to continue the march. We received just as little food on the first day as on the subsequent days. We had to share what some had brought with them, and eventually fed on swedes [turnips], which we gathered in the fields.

On the evening of this day we arrived at Paiser. Here we were accommodated in a hall and in groups of six were tied together by the wrists with thin cords. These were drawn together as tight as possible, with the result that our hands became blue and swollen from the stoppage of the flow of blood. People cried out in agony. Thus we were left bound all night. The next day, still bound, we were forced to march to Tulischkow, which the elder ones in the column said was about 45 miles distant. While marching I had succeeded in loosening my bonds a little. The others however were still bound so tightly that they were crying out in pain the whole way. In the villages the population reviled us and pelted us with sticks and stones, so that once more many of our number were injured. Many marched on with their faces covered with blood.

After passing Tulischkow, we were led on to a meadow. Herr von Gersdorff, who was 65 years of age and hardly capable of walking any further, stumbled as he was looking up at a German aeroplane. A soldier dealt him a blow with the butt of a rifle and he almost fell down. He regained his balance and shouted up to the aeroplane: “Heil Hitler!”, whereupon the soldier struck him in the chest with the [176] mouth of the rifle barrel, so that he fell into a ditch. The soldier then pulled the trigger. Nobody paid any heed to the dead man. We were not allowed to go near him.

On the meadow we were given very dirty water from the duckpond to drink, and allowed to rest for ten minutes. We then continued our march in the direction of Turek. During the night our column was divided at a well. The older men, who had been marching in front, had drunk first and were driven on. Our section, when we were numbered [counted], consisted of 181, mostly young men.

We did not meet the first group again. The soldiers told us, as we were marching onwards, that we were all to be shot in Turek. As I can speak Polish well, I asked the soldiers why we were to be shot, but received no reply. In the village the soldiers shouted to the civilian population that it was we who killed women and children. Thereupon the people naturally attacked the column and struck out blindly among us with whips, sticks or whatever else they could find handy. If any tried to ward off the blows or say anything, the guards themselves struck at us with their rifles. Some of us could no longer keep pace, being completely exhausted. The soldiers simply shot at these and then battered them to death with the butts of their rifles if they had not been mortally wounded. That night about twenty of us were murdered in that way.

Towards 11 or 12 midday we reached Turek, but marched straight on. Shortly after Turek we were passing a farm, when a German aeroplane appeared. Our escort left us standing in the road, but themselves took shelter in the roadside ditches or behind the willows. The airman must have concluded from this movement that he had to do with a convoy of minority Germans, for he immediately subjected the willows to fire. Of the soldiers forming our escort, which meanwhile, the nearer we approached to the front, had continued to increase in numbers until it now was between 80 and 90 strong, a large number was wounded.

At this the soldiers became so enraged that without even leaving their places of concealment, they blindly directed machine gun and rifle fire into the midst of our column. When we were driven forward again those who had been struck were left lying there. The soldiers did not trouble whether the people were dead or wounded. We now numbered only about a quarter of the 181 men of whom our group had originally consisted.

About one and a half or two hours’ march beyond Turek, the soldiers drove us on to a field. We were forced to line up in double file. The soldiers formed a rank on our left front and then began, without anybody having said a word to us, to shoot us down in pairs. My brother Willi was standing beside me and my brother Karl a little further forward. He suddenly shouted: “Every man for himself!” He took to his legs, and I and my brother Willi also.

The soldiers fired after us with machine guns and rifles. I stumbled and fell after about 200 yards. While I was still lying on the ground, I received a grazing shot in the head. My brother Willi immediately dragged me to my feet. We ran on and, as I ran, I discarded my coat which had been pierced by several bullets. As the meadows at this spot are here and there covered with bushes, we succeeded in escaping. We spent the night concealed in a potato field, and after two days arrived at Kolo. Here we were once more taken by the military and brought up for court martial. We were told that if we were Poles we should be released, but that if we were Germans we should be shot. Nevertheless we declared that we were Germans, but in order to escape from our unpleasant position we explained that we had been driving requisitioned cattle to Paiser and had lost our way on the return journey as a peasant had apparently directed us wrongly.

The officer shouted at us that we would do better to confess that we were spies and had murdered Polish women and children while their menfolk were at the front. When I replied that this was not true, he seized a rifle and struck me across the head just on the spot where the grazing shot had wounded me. The blow broke my skull. Later Dr. Theune, of Schmiegel, extracted from the wound a splinter, which I have myself seen. Dr. Henschke afterwards operated on me in Posen in the Deaconess Hospital and removed two fragments of bone.

I sank to the ground beneath the blow, but soon regained consciousness and was transferred to prison, without anybody taking any notice of the wound. After two hours, towards 10 p.m., we were driven out of the prison with blows from a knout and taken into the town. At that moment another column of minority Germans was being driven through the town. We jumped into the middle of the column, as they were marching in fours and in this manner we were able to evade some of the blows levelled at us by the population and to which we had been far more exposed when marching two abreast.

We marched with this column as far as Lowitsch and arrived there at about 10 in the morning. On this day the German troops had already advanced as far as Lowitsch. The escort wanted to drive us back, but we had not marched more than one and a half miles on the road back when German armoured cars suddenly appeared. I was at first taken by the German troops to the hospital in Lodsch where I spent five days. I was then transferred to the hospital in Strehlen, remaining there about eight days, after which I returned to Schmiegel. There I learned that my brother Karl had arrived home safely, and later that of our column the butcher Bogsch, of Schmiegel, and the farm manager Zabke, of Woinitz, had returned.

We five are the only ones of the group of 181 who escaped with our lives.

Read aloud, approved and signed

Walter Kabsch.

The witness thereupon formally took the oath.

(signed) Bömmels       (signed) Miehe

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