Poland Was a Living Hell

"We are living in hell." This was the incessant refrain of the letters which have been smuggled out of German occupied Poland. The photographs here, which reached Britain, went to prove that such words are no exaggeration. It was stated on good authority that during the first four months of the German occupation an average of 12 to 14 Poles were executed every day in Warsaw alone, while the executions in the rest of Poland during the same period had been estimated at 25,000. Moreover, many hundreds of thousands of Poles who had not been shot or imprisoned had been enslaved. As the Polish Minister of Justice said, "Poland's sacrifice is in the nature of a holocaust."

Typical of German methods in the occupied countries was the scene below. A number of male Polish civilians had been rounded up by the military police and are being marched off, perhaps to internment, perhaps to be put to forced labour; while possibly an even worse fate awaited them. They had apparently been forced to Wave their caps as a mark of respect to their captors; or maybe they were waving farewell to the friends they are leaving probably for ever.

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The photograph above (top) was not unusual, for above (bottom) is another similar scene this time in a town in Silesia. Again the brutal methods of the Germans were noticeable, for the prisoners were compelled to march with their hands clasped behind their heads in order that any movement, save marching on to an unknown fate, was made impossible. What would have happened had they made, the least show of resistance is indicated by the way the guards carried their rifles with bayonets fixed.

Three men who were offenders in the sight of their German masters had been lined up at a lonely spot to face a firing party of German military police armed with Czech Mauser rifles.

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Above is the last tragic scene in this tale of horror. Polish civilians who had incurred the Germans wrath was lined up and shot with their hands tied behind their backs. A touch of brutality is added to this act by the fact that other Polish prisoners were being forced to dig a common grave for their martyred compatriots under the eyes of an armed German guard.

 

Polish women are led through woods to their executions by German soldiers sometime in 1941.

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Polish tragedy

This was so sad.I never understood why Hitler was so careless and didnt care about what he had to do
to take over a terrioty are the control of a country.