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Revision as of 14:22, 9 April 2006 by Molobo (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Selbstschutz (Self-protection). A paramilitary organisation created out of ethnic Germans, Selbstschutz was created both after World War I in territories inhabited by Poles and at the beginning of World War I in Poland and Czechoslovakia from Germans that possessed the citizenship of those countries. The organisation is known for its widespread involvement in atrocities.
Post World War I
In the Silesia region Selbstschutz militia engaged in attacks against Polish activists and newspapers, and harassed the local Polish population. Its organised units fought against the Polish national liberation movement in the Third Silesian Uprising aimed at abolishing German rule over Poles.
World War II
Selbstschutz was reintroduced during late 1930s in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Selbschutz activists terrorised the Czech population in the Sudetes region,.
In the interwar period German minority organisations in Poland such as Jungdeutsche Partei, Deutsche Vereinigung, Deutscher Volksbund, Deutscher Volksverband actively cooperated with Nazi Germany, through espionage, sabotage, provocations and political indoctrination. They maintained close contact and were directed by NSDAP, Auslandsorganisation, Gestapo, SD and Abwehr. It is estimated they gathered together 25% of the German minority in Poland.
In October 1938 SD agents were already organising Selbstschutz in Poland. Ethnic Germans with Polish citizenship were trained in the Third Reich in sabotage operations and guerilla tactics.
Even before the war Selbstschutz activists from Poland helped to organise lists of Poles targeted for execution in Operation Tannenberg. With the aggression of the German Reich against Poland on 1st September 1939 Selbstschutz units engaged in hostility towards the Polish population and military, and performed sabotage operations helping the German advance against the Polish state. In mid-September the chaotic and autonomous activities of this organisation were coordinated by SS officers. Gustav Berger was placed in charge of the organisation and district commanders in occupation zones made by German Army were put in place - West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Warthegau.
While the SS leadership was limited to overseeing the operations, local units remained under the control of ethnic Germans who proved their commitment at the beginning of the war.
Selbstschutz also organised concentration camps for Poles. Occasionally they were founded on places were Wehrmacht or German Police units established camps. There were 19 such camps in following places: Bydgoszcz, Brodnica, Chełmno, Dorposz Szlachecki, Kamień Krajeński, Karolewo, Lipno, Łobżenica, Nakło, Nowy Wiec near Skarszew, Nowe over Vistula, Piastoszyn, Płutowo, Sępolno Krajeńskie, Solec Kujawski, Tuchola, Wąbrzeźno, Wolental near Skórcza, Wyrzysk. Poles imprisoned in those camps (consisting of men, women and youth) in the majority were murdered in cruel ways. Polish intelligentsia, nationalists, Catholic priests, Jews, Roma, and even Catholic Germans, ethnic Germans married to Poles, and everybody who had been denounced by at least two Volksdeutsche, were gathered in camps either for execution or deportation. Additionally the organisation worked together with Einsatzgruppen.
Polish historians estimate that the majority of 50,000 or so Poles murdered during the early days of German occupation are victims of Selbschutz,. By 5th October 1939 in West Prussia alone Selbstschutz under the command of Ludolf von Alvensleben reached 17,667 men and had already executed 4,247 Poles, while Alvensleben complained to Selbstschutz officers that too few Poles have been shot. (German officers report that only a fraction of Poles have been destroyed in the region-claiming the total number of those executed in West Prussia during this action as 20.000). One Selbstschutz commander Wilhelm Richardt said in Karolewo (Karlhof) camp that he did not want to build big camps for Poles and feed them, and that it was an honor for Poles to fertilize the German soil with their corpses. There was little opposition or lack of enthusiasm for activities of Selbstschutz among those involved in the action. There was even a case, where a Selbstschutz commander was relieved after he failed to account all the Poles that were required, and it was found that he executed only 300 Poles.
The total number of Selbstschutz members in Poland is estimated at 82,000.
The organisation was ordered to be dissolved on 26 November 1939, however this process continued until spring 1940. Among the reasons for this order were cases of heavy corruption, disorderly behaviour and conflicts with other organisations as well as excessive use of force.
The existence of a large paramilitary organisation made from ethnic Germans with Polish citizenship that helped in the German war against Poland and engaged in widespread massacres of Poles served as one of the reasons for population transfer of Germans after the end the world war.
Quotes
People executed by shooting were finished by blows from shovels, or by beating with rifles, sometimes they were even buried alive. Mothers were forced to place their children in mass graves where they were shot together afterwards. Before executions women and girls were raped.(..) evoked horror even in Germans, including some soldiers who were terrified at what they saw in the camps. A short description of Selbstschutz operations from Polish State Museum of Stutthof
See also
External links
- Hitler's preparations for aggression and extermination against Poles in Pomorze, Gdańsk and Free City of Gdańsk((in Polish) from Polish State Museum of Stutthof.
- Selbstschutz entry in Polish PWN encyclopedia
- Selbstschutz, Deutsche und Polen(in German)
Sources
- "The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942" Christopher R Browning. University of Nebraska Press
- "Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences by Keith Bullivant, Geoffrey Giles, Walter Pap