Language:
Polish
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
Zeszyty Historyczne
Angaben zur Quelle:
143 (2003) 85-117
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
World War, 1939-1945 Collaborationists
;
Warsaw (Poland)
Abstract:
Discusses various forms of "szmalcownictwo" (blackmailing and/or denouncing Jews) in the first years of the war in Warsaw and its environs. This term was invented at the time for these particular cases. Based on 330 files concerning Jews from the Nazi court in occupied Warsaw (Staatsanwaltsschaft bei dem Sondergericht Warschau), describes "actions" by blackmailers organized in gangs and by individuals. Such cases reached the court if the blackmailers had represented themselves as the Gestapo, if Poles suspected of being Jews were blackmailed, and if it involved corruption on the part of Germans or others. In the files that were studied, 114 people were accused of blackmail, among them 73 Poles, 28 Germans, and 13 of other nationalities, including some Jews. These files do not confirm the general view in Poland that the "szmalcownicy" were people who were criminals before the war; only a minority of those in the files had criminal records.
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