The German Fifth Column in Poland (7 page)

“
M. Fiedler, President of the National Party, the solicitor Typrowicz, and a great number of members of the Association of Insurgents and Combatants were also killed, as well as several active members of the Association of the West. Among others, for instance, the well-known family of the publisher and editor, M. Teska, were deported with the clergy into the heart of Germany.

“It is not known who instigated the movement to assemble
the Polish boy scouts in the Square. When quite a number had been collected a machine-gun was set up to fire on them. The lads were not intimidated, and showed courage in the face of death; as they fell they cried ‘Long live Poland!’

“T
he Dean of Bydgoszcz, Father Stepczynski, an old man almost in his seventies, was also murdered.

“
It was not until after September 10
th
that there was a certain slackening in the tension.

“
A new period of terror set in on October l0th. The last representatives of the intelligentsia were arrested, also several solicitors, doctors, and women known for their social activities.

“
Many of these persons were murdered during the first fortnight of November.

“
On November 11
th
, the National Holiday in celebration of Poland's liberation, the Mayor of Bydgoszcz, M. Barciszewski, was shot. It is particularly worthy of note that he had not been at Bydgoszcz during the German rising, and returned to the town only after the German military campaign in Poland was closed.”

Here is another
account:
[10]

“Having heard in Bydgoszcz of the formation of volunteer detachments, I presented myself at No. 14 Jarnicki Street, and was accepted. We were supplied with weapons at the County Offices. Thence we were sent to the Police headquarters at Jagiellonska Street. As we
were going in we were fired on by machine-guns from the roofs of houses opposite. We were formed into small detachments which, with several soldiers, were sent to various parts of the town where German civilians were firing on Poles. On arrival we
proceeded to make a search, and German civilians taken with arms in hand were shot on the spot.”

A fifth
deposition:
[11]

“At Bydgoszcz the mutual relations between the German minority and the Poles were good. The situation began to change only about a fortnight before the war, as the rumour was spreading that in the event of war the local German population was preparing some step. In fact, the Bydgoszcz Germans began, as though by command, to spread the rumour that Poland would lose the war with Germany and that there was no other chance of salvation except to hand Danzig, part of Pomorze, and other Western provinces over to Germany. The Poles began to notice that the Germans were meeting more and more frequently among themselves, and that there were increasing numbers of German departures either for Germany, or for Danzig.

“
The incidents which occurred in Bydgoszcz during the early days of the war fully confirmed the Polish suspicions and fears. It was seen that German families who had protested their loyalty to Poland also took part in the conspiracy against the State. For instance, there were Germans originally settled at Łódź, who had made their home in Bydgoszcz, such as the Neumanns, the Hamans, and the Matzes. On the eve of the war one of the Hamans, a reservist who had been called up to the Polish Army, fled to Danzig. When the German troops entered Bydgoszcz Oswald Haman turned up in S.A. uniform. Shots were fired at Polish detachments from the Hamans’ and Matzes’ houses. Many of the people working in the Pfefferkorn furniture factory took part in the anti-Polish conspiracy.  There was also firing at Poles from the Pfefferkorn house.

“
September 1st passed quietly on the whole. Except for brief German air-raids on the Bydgoszcz aerodrome there was no incident worth mentioning. But the town was filled with rumours that the Germans were preparing
a rising.

“On
September 2
nd
, between 11 and 12 in the morning, there was an air raid which demolished part of the barracks of the 61st Regiment. During the afternoon the rumour spread that the Germans would be entering the town at any moment, and that the rising would begin immediately. There were hardly any Germans to be seen in the streets. During the afternoon groups of Germans, each numbering from 30 to 150 persons, who were to have started diversionist operations, began to arrive from the frontier, convoyed by police reservists. They were all brought from the direction of Inowroclaw. The people greeted them with hostile and menacing shouts, but the police allowed no excesses whatever. During the night of September 2nd /3rd Germans making light signals were arrested in Bydgoszcz. The people had no sleep that night, being excited by rumours that the enemy was approaching and by the acts committed by German diversionists.

“
The first shots were fired in Bydgoszcz on September 3rd between 4 and 5 in the morning. At 5 I learned that diversionist operations had begun. As commander of the local civilian defence, I sent men to the streets in the centre of the town. There could be no question of our gaining control of the outskirts. In Danzig Street and on Liberty Square two of my men were wounded. Shots were fired at the Poles from inside houses. It was now past six o'clock. Until seven o'clock there was comparative calm, broken
only by single shots from time to time. The population was in a state of panic, believing that the German rising, accompanied by diversionist acts, had already begun. In Jagiellonska Street one of the most prominent representatives of these German elements, the retired director of the municipal abattoirs, was killed.

“
A little detachment of Poles commanded by a Second Lieutenant entered the town at seven o'clock. Along the entire length of Danzig Street and from the side streets (from St. John's Street as far as the department store) a heavy fire was directed against the detachment. Fortunately none of them was wounded. Then I saw a group of Germans, some forty of them, armed with rifles and revolvers, running. Among them I noticed three Bydgoszcz Germans whom I knew by sight. They ran
along Sniadecki Street from the direction of Piastowski Square. Without doubt they were intending to attack the Lieutenant's detachment, as well as my men. They fired as they ran. Several Germans fell. The Second Lieutenant was also wounded. We captured twenty-two Germans and conducted them to the barracks of the 61st Regiment.

“
At eight o'clock I saw the representative of the chief of police. He gave me a letter from the administrative head of the county, Suski. Around the county office and indeed everywhere in the town there was confusion. Firing was going on on all sides, from Poles as well as from Germans. A German disguised as a Polish captain contributed to the panic in front of the county offices. He ran along the street, shouting: ‘The Germans are coming.’ He was killed, and on him was found an armlet with a swastika and a German First-Lieutenant’s document. The firing grew heavier. It was clear beyond doubt that numerous groups of organized assailants were taking part in the action throughout the town. At that moment I heard that they had killed engineer Grodzki.

“
From the county offices I went through Gymnasium Street and Liberty Square towards the headquarters of the State police. Bullets were flying from all directions. It was 9.30. I did not find anyone at the police headquarters. The building was under continuous fire from the Protestant church on Koscielecki Square. The Germans had got a machine-gun in this church. The headquarters telephone was ringing incessantly. I arranged for calls to be answered. It transpired that Poles were ringing from all parts of the town, reporting the houses from which firing was coming. I got forty sheets of addresses taken down, and thus we were able to organize a counter-attack. I destroyed these lists only when the Germans entered Warsaw. I recall inter alia that we were informed of firing directed against the station from a disused brewery opposite, in Station Street, and that one report stated that men were organizing diversionist activities in the Protestant cemetery, in the German sailing club which was close to the gasworks, etc.

“
We continually sent small mixed detachments of soldiers and police to the spots from which we had reports. One of these detachments brought back a machine-gun which they had captured from the Germans on Koscielecki Square. Germans encountered bearing arms were shot on
the spot; suspects were sent mainly to the barracks of the 61st Regiment. With a detachment of ten to twelve men I myself tackled the Protestant cemetery. As we entered it a shot was fired. But we found nobody there. Only in the cemetery keeper’s house, where we found a revolver and cartridges, did we discover a German who could not establish his identity. This cemetery was searched a second time by detachments of National

Defence Guards. I next went with my detachment to the gasworks. The German club was in ruins. It appears that a large number of German attackers fell at this spot. A strict search had been made of all the houses going from Tornow towards the station, and all the occupants of every house had to show their documents. I recall that in the third house from Tornow we found six Germans from neighbouring villages in hiding. Everywhere, in the course of these searches, other detachments arrested Germans who had come from
Nakło, Świecie, and other localities in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz. They had been ordered to present themselves on September 3rd. Without doubt that was the date fixed for the beginning of the German diversionist activities.

“
Early in the afternoon we mastered the situation in the centre of the town. Three detachments had shared among them the task of quelling the revolt: (1) the groups of the National Guards; (2) my detachment; (3) that of Second Lieutenant S. Altogether we had a thousand men at the most. But the situation was very different on the outskirts of the town, and in the neighbouring villages which our patrols did not reach and where generally speaking the Germans remained in command all the time.

“
While this action was in progress I continually saw groups of German aggressors, consisting of eight, ten or fifteen men escorted by our men. Between 2.30 and 6.30 in the afternoon the chief of police took 92,000 złotys from the Germans, which sum he afterwards sent to the general command of the police at Włocławek. So large a sum sufficiently proved that those who had come from outside Bydgoszcz had been generously paid for their ‘patriotic’ labour.

“
During the many searches which I made I was struck by one characteristic detail: we succeeded in getting hold of the culprits only in certain of the houses from which firing had come. It was only later, when I was at Warsaw, that I realized why. In almost every one of these houses
hiding-places had been constructed in advance, and these were excellently camouflaged, so that they could not be seen from outside. Thus, in the Pfefferkorn house, from which firing came continually, there was a hiding-place on the second floor.

“
During the retreat on September 5th I saw thirty groups of these Germans at Włocławek (each group numbered between 150 and 200 men). They were to be placed in a concentration camp. I learned later that the German troops had recaptured them all from us.”

Another deposition:
[12]

“On September 3rd I rose as usual in the morning to go to the factory where I had been in charge for the past six months. In the street I saw mobilization posters and realized that I was called up. So I went back home to put on my uniform. The day was hot and I had the window open. At 9.30 I heard an aeroplane, and immediately afterwards a ragged fusillade of shots. I got into my car and drove to the factory. As I went I distinguished rapid firing which sounded like a machine-gun above the fusillade. In the street I came across small disorderly groups of soldiers moving and lines of vehicles which seemed to be in a panic, and a captain who was trying to stop them. I gave up the idea of going to the factory and, turning to good account the fact that I was already in uniform, I reassembled the fleeing soldiers and went with them to the town command. There I found two officers attempting to make contact with the administrative authorities and the police.

“
Meantime information was coming in which enabled us more or less to understand what was happening. It was clear that the Germans were carrying out diversionist activities. We set to work to organize patrols which we sent in various directions in accordance with the news which came in.

“
We made contact with an infantry company of one of the Bydgoszcz regiments, the 61st or 69th, which reached the town command at 11.30. With its aid we gradually began to master the situation, making searches in those houses from which firing was
reported, or which had given
shelter to the aggressors.
We arrested German suspects, who were afterwards escorted to the town command. At one o’clock there were 150 of these. The search resulted in the discovery of a hand-grenade, two military maps, and several cuttings from German papers published in the Reich. I took part in five house searches, but without result.

“
As I drove around the town in my car I came to the conclusion that the diversionist operations attempted by the Germans were intended inter alia to spread confusion and panic in the rear of the Polish troops. They fired from the attic windows and lofts, that is, when they were able to do so in safety, and well concealed, but firing must have been difficult in view of the spots where they were probably hidden. It is also certain that a large number of Germans had taken part in the affair. There can be no suggestion that there was any question whatever of provocation on the part of the Polish authorities or army. The civil authorities had left Bydgoszcz before the affair began. The attempt was spontaneously crushed by us, that is, by the two commanders of the town command, myself and several officers of the infantry company. I saw
only two Polish dead lying in front of the church, on the other hand, I saw not one German killed or wounded. Some of the Germans escorted to the town command had light grazes, a fact which I must underline. They were not even worth dressing.