The German Fifth Column in Poland (3 page)

Speaking on March 3, 1937, in the Polish Senate, Senator Hasbach
declared: “At its last congress in Warsaw the German National Council in Poland, inasmuch as it represents the minority organizations in all parts of the country, defined its position with regard to the latest political events.”

Of the great economic organizations the
Westpolnische Landwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft
—in abbreviation:
Welage
(the Western Poland Agricultural Society) was under influence of the “German Council in Poland,” while the
Landbund Weichselgau
(the Agricultural Alliance of the Vistula area) was under the influence of the
Jungdeutsche Partei
. The leader of the
Landbund
was Senator Wambeck, who was also a leader of the “Young Germans.”

The German Catholics had a separate organization,
the
Verband deutscher Katholiken
, whose leader was Senator Pant. There were also a Social Democratic organization and a number of other political and social associations.

The leaders of the German minority always had an effective voice in Parliament, and were granted senatorial mandates. At the
last elections held in Poland, in 1938, no representative of the German minority was elected to the Polish Sejm (the Lower Chamber). But the President of Poland nominated two Germans, Hasbach and Wambeck, as Senators. Their anti-State activities were greatly facilitated by the fact that they enjoyed Parliamentary immunity. On the other hand, even in pre-Hitler days the Polish minority in Germany was robbed by fraud of a number of its votes, and later, when the National Socialist one-party organization came into power, the Poles were disfranchised so far as electoral rights were concerned.

The declarations made again and again in the Sejm and the Senate by the leaders of the German minority reveal the extent of the cynicism of these conspiratorial enemies of the State. Speaking in the
Senate on March 9, 1936, “as a representative of the National Socialist German group,” Senator Wiesner solemnly declared:

“Consistently
with our philosophy we take the attitude today that the Polish Nation, as master of the country, must decide regarding the forms of the State, the legislature, and the Constitution, as she alone knows the forms which are adaptable to the national character and to the historic role which the Divine Providence has assigned to Poland in the world. As a German national group, we do not wish to influence the form or the direction taken by the State, and leave these exclusively to the Polish nation. As Germans we seek to preserve our nationality, culture, and conditions of life. We take account of the fact that we can accomplish this work and realize this aim only by acknowledging without reservation the existing legal order, by sincerely cooperating in the building up of a powerful State, and by closely identifying our destiny with that of the country.

“…
We desire no privileges, but as a German group in a free country we wish to be respected and appreciated as free citizens. On this condition the State will find us sincere and faithful citizens, ready to collaborate for the future of the State.”

On June 24 of the same year, standing at the bar of the Senate, the same Senator Wiesner expressed the view of the German minority on the question of the country's
defence:

“As
to the arming of the State, we share, as members of this House, the idea that the armed strength of the State must be increased to the maximum effectiveness. The security of the citizens and their possessions depends above all else on the ability of the army to present an effective resistance against all danger. We shall therefore support all motions aiming at increasing the defensive powers of the State.”

On March 8, 1937, he attempted to justify the creation of an organization of
Hitler-Jugend
in Poland similar to that which existed in the Reich, and insisted that the Polish State also would benefit by this proposal:

“Our
efforts will be directed towards gathering our youth of both sexes into one great organization, which will enable us to make them honest Germans, simultaneously conscious of their obligations as citizens of the Polish Republic.”

When in response to these ultra-loyal declarations, the Polish side gave expression to doubts and even accusations of irredentism, the German leaders protested most indignantly.
In the Senate on March 12, 1936, Senator Hasbach, who, like Wiesner, was afterwards rewarded by Hitler for his treachery to Poland, exclaimed with emotion:

“
In the name of the German population I resolutely repudiate all assertions of German irredentism.”

On another occasion, indignant that the Germans in Poland were harassed for using the Hitler salute in greeting, although
“the Polish courts had decided that this form of greeting was not a punishable misdemeanour,” this same Senator Hasbach declared in the Senate”

“I
wish to state emphatically that so long as Polish citizens of German nationality use this form of greeting nothing threatens the State or the Government…We must distrust the clenched fist salute of Communism and Bolshevism. The enemy, gentlemen, is on the left!”

It goes without saying that such declarations did not pass unchallenged from the Polish side. On March 12, 1936, one of the Polish senators from Upper Silesia
replied:

“I
wish to state that, thanks to Polish tolerance and to concessions unknown, in point of fact, in other countries, and particularly in Germany, the German minority in Poland enjoys the same liberties as its brothers in the Third Reich. Such are the facts of the alleged wrongs done to the Germans in Poland and especially in Upper Silesia. I appeal to the honourable Senator Wiesner to try to obtain from Berlin the same national, religious, and cultural freedom for the Polish minority living in Germany as is granted to the German minority in Poland.”

As might be imagined, these appeals remained without effect. None the less, the leaders of the German minority continued their anti-State activities with impunity
.  Almost to the end they proclaimed their loyalty to the Polish State, even while they were preparing down to the smallest detail the conspiracy which was revealed in all its amazing extent in September, 1939. 

In a memorandum presented to the President of the Polish Republic on May 12, 1939, in the name of the German minority, Senator Hasbach and the former Senator Wiesner
wrote:

“
Permeated with the feeling of responsibility incumbent upon us all as much towards the Polish Republic as towards our own German nationality…”

The leaders of the German minority had created yet another organization which escaped the direct everyday control of the State. This was the German
Association in Poland of Citizens of the Reich. This organization was in permanent contact with all the Reich diplomatic and consular posts in Poland, and also linked in one organization all the camouflaged emissaries of the National Socialist Party, the spies and the actual directing staff of the German espionage system in Poland.  It was an undisguised outpost of the National Socialist Party, the N.S.D.A.P. The very name of this organization left no doubt as to its true nature, and even its initial letters had a familiar ring. It was called
the National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Bewegung
(N.S.D.A.B.). 

In contrast to the foregoing picture was the situation of the 1
.5 million of Polish population in Germany, who, from the day the Polish-German frontiers were adjusted, were exposed incessantly, first to the persecution and chicanery of the leaders of the Weimar Republic, and then to the ruthless Hitler regime. Their plight is epitomized in the fact that although there was this Polish minority numbering 1.5 million in Germany, only some 2,000 children attended Polish elementary schools.

In such circumstances, the Polish-German reciprocal
agreements intended to regulate the position of the minorities on both sides of the frontier brought genuine benefit only to the Germans in Poland, who were residing in a State which constitutionally guaranteed full rights of citizenship to all nationalities. On the other hand, so far as the Poles in Germany were concerned these agreements were regarded by the Germans as only scraps of paper.

CHAPTER TWO - THE MINORITY GERMANS AS THE REICH'S SPIES AND DIVERSIONIST AGENTS

THE unhampered freedom with which the German minority in Poland was allowed to develop activities in the fields of culture, economics, and politics was exploited by them for organizing anti-Polish espionage, from which Berlin was to profit during the coming war with Poland.

These activities began in the years immediately following the war of 1914-18. Their danger to the State was revealed by the
Deutschtumsbund
trial. The
Deutschtumsbund
was a German minority organization existing mainly in Posnania and Pomorze. The trial established beyond all doubt that its activities were entirely directed by Berlin. Its tasks included the financing of the Germans in Poland from funds contributed by the Reich, the collection of information concerning German-owned property in Poland, a strict control of minority activities, and most of all the fostering among the German minority of the idea of a Great Germany (
Grossdeutschland
) embracing also the lands of her neighbours, and in particular territory which had been “wrested away” from Germany in 1919. The circumstance that this territory had previously been stolen from Poland and that the Versailles Treaty returned it to its true owners had no effect whatever on the German predatory mentality.

The Berlin orders were that the
Deutschtumsbund's
activities were to be developed along constitutional lines, with emphasis upon pseudo-loyalty to the Polish State. The trial completely compromised the organization and its leaders, among others M. Hermann Rauschning and M. Graebe, a Polish citizen who on going to the Reich was promoted to the rank of major in the
Reichswehr
. Moved by a spirit of tolerance, the Polish authorities did not draw the requisite lessons from this incident.

Their attitude was no less lenient in regard to the activities of another organization of the same type, which was working in Upper Silesia. The
Volksbund
trial, which involved a minority leader named Ulitz, who is still active, revealed the methods the Germans were adopting to capture the minds of the Polish children, whom they were attempting to transform into “good Germans.” The evidence collected in regard to the
Volksbund
indicated,
inter alia
, that the German teaching staff in the schools was receiving a regular and substantial financial subsidy from the Reich. The trial ended with prison sentences of several years for the school inspector Dudek and his companions. This, however, did not prevent the Germans developing open irredentist Germanizing activity in Upper Silesia, activity which received considerable assistance from German heavy industry working in agreement with Berlin.

The distribution of funds from the Reich was effected through the
Westpolnische Landwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft
, which received finance from Berlin through the intermediary of a Dutch bank. The subsidies thus obtained went to maintain various organizations in the spheres of culture, education, and economics. The local minority organizations could never have carried on their extensive anti-State activities without this financial support from outside. 

The tasks assigned to the
Deutschtumsbund
and
Volksbund
, which had been dissolved, were also allotted to the
Deutsche Vereinigung
, formed in 1926, and to other above-mentioned organizations of similar character, which acted in other parts of Poland. These organizations maintained a special office for the German deputies and senators in the Polish Parliament. Its headquarters were at Bydgoszcz, but it had branches in most districts. Behind the cloak of immunity conferred on senators and deputies it was able to carry on very effective work.

When
Hitler came to power a new organization, the
Jungdeutsche Partei
, came into being. The head of this young, active, and militant party, founded as an agency of the N.S.D.A.P. in Poland, was Wiesner. Its programme threatened the vital interests of Poland. Its activities quickly covered all the life of the German minority, and the restless spirit of its members brought it into conflict with the
Deutsche Vereinigung
and with other similar organizations, appealing to the older men. But these conflicts were the result more of a difference in temperament than in programme, and, in fact, both organizations were getting ready to play the same role. In March, 1931, the head of the
Deutsche Vereinigung
in Bydgoszcz went to Berlin for the celebration of Hitler's birthday, and made his homage to the Führer, which sufficiently illustrates this minority leader's attitude.

Needless to say, the pro-Reich activities were not confined to the three western provinces of Poland. They developed everywhere where there were members of the German minority.
In the southeastern part of Poland, for instance, Pastor Zöckler of Stanisławów was in charge of activities. He was mainly concerned with charitable and religious activities, and devoted himself to higher education. He was regarded with special consideration by Berlin. Some years ago the Institute at Stuttgart published a pamphlet by one Dr. Seeliger dealing with the German element in the southeastern provinces of Poland, in which, the author sought to prove that this element must be maintained at all costs, as it would be of great service in connection with the Ukrainian issue as well as in checkmating the plans of the Polish Government in that area. The Germans of the eastern provinces also were permeated with a spirit of hostility towards Poland. The arrest some time prior to the war of a certain Fräulein Faatz, while she was acting as liaison between the German Consulate in Cracow and the German elements in the Lwów and Stanisławów regions, led to the capture of extensive compromising material. In the Wolhynia area it was the German bank at Luck which held the threads of subversive activities. Even in this region, so far removed from the frontiers of the Reich, the Polish authorities caught Germans in possession of
Arbeitsdienst
(Labour Front) membership cards, issued in Germany. And that organization is only one stage removed from German army service.