Polish complicity during the Holocaust.pdf
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Theses and Dissertations
1-1-2011
Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators: Polish
complicity during the Holocaust
Jacob Flaws
Iowa State University
Recommended Citation
Flaws, Jacob, "Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators: Polish complicity during the Holocaust" (2011).
Theses and Dissertations.
Paper 11917.
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11917
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Repository @ Iowa State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and
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Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators:
Polish complicity during the Holocaust
by
Jacob A. Flaws
A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Major: History
Program of Study Committee:
John Monroe, Major Professor
Kevin Amidon
Charles Dobbs
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
2011
Copyright © Jacob Allen Flaws, 2011. All rights reserved.
ii
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
1
Chapter 2: Pre-War Polish Anti-Semitism
12
Chapter 3: The Silent Masses
26
Chapter 4: Scavengers, Blackmailers, & Extortionists
44
Chapter 5: Carrying Out the Holocaust
59
Chapter 6: Conclusion
81
List of Works Cited
86
1
Chapter 1: Introduction
“For every noble Pole who risked all to rescue a fellow human being, there were ten
scoundrels who hunted Jews for a livelihood.”
1
Why would a Holocaust survivor make this
statement? In a scholarly field where a substantial fraction of the literature claims that Polish
hostility was minimal, survivor statements like this one cast a negative light on certain Poles.
Examining these negative connotations helps reveal the true nature of Polish-Jewish
interactions during the Holocaust.
While it is clear that the Nazis carried out the Holocaust spurred on by Hitler‟s racial
antagonism, the question of Polish involvement is significantly less clear. What is known is
that Poland was the site of many of the concentration camps, and all of the extermination or
“death camps.” In the death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno, and Treblinka, there was no
work for the inmates. Instead, these were centers of extermination. In these four camps alone,
some 2,000,000 Jews are estimated to have been murdered.
2
There were also 200,000 Jews
killed in the Majdanek concentration camp and 1,100,000 killed in the camp at Auschwitz-
Birkenau.
3
All told, the figures from these six camps alone amount to 3.3 million, or over
half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust. The fact that these deadly camps were on Polish soil
almost certainly derives from the fact that the prewar Jewish population was higher in Poland
than any other country. In fact, with a prewar population of 3.3 million Jews, Poland
1
Miriam Kuperhand and Saul Kuperhand,
Shadows of Treblinka
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1998), 51.
2
Bella Gutterman and Avner Shalev, eds.,
To Bear Witness: Holocaust Remembrance at Yad Vashem
(Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2008), 145; 147.
3
Tomasz Kranz,
Extermination of Jews at the Majdanek Concentration Camp
(Lublin: Panstwowe
Muzeum na Majdanku, 2007), 71; Gutterman and Shalev, 198.
2
contained over half of the entire Jewish population in prewar Europe.
4
Thus, it made sense
that the Nazis chose to erect their extermination centers there.
However, in examining the mass destruction of such a large percentage of one
country‟s population, the role played by the local population becomes important.
Furthermore, the study of anti-Semitism in Poland both before and during the war raises key
concerns over that country‟s involvement in the Holocaust. It would be wrong to blame Poles
for their involvement in the genocide based merely on the high numbers of Jews
exterminated there. Instead, this work aims to define the varying levels of Polish complicity
during the Holocaust and the motivations behind their actions.
Through studying survivor testimonies and memoirs, a pattern emerges regarding
Polish involvement in the Holocaust. While there were indeed those righteous Poles who
commendably helped hide and ultimately saved Jews, there were also those who went the
opposite way. As survivor evidence often clearly corroborates, there were three main levels
of Polish complicity during the Holocaust. The first and most widely practiced level was the
bystander phenomenon. Many Poles were silent witnesses to the murder of the Jews and
some even had opportunities to intervene. The second level was taking advantage of the
situation. Sometimes Poles rationalized their actions as essential for survival, and yet
sometimes Poles utilized criminal means of blackmail and extortion to gain from the Jews‟
situation. The third and most morally troublesome level was the perpetration of the
Holocaust. Although the number of perpetrators was comparatively small in relation to
bystanders, their actions reflect underlying animosity and also speak to why the Holocaust
was so efficiently carried out.
4
Gutterman and Shaley, 283.
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