During the Second World War, Polish underground organizations created a catalogue of behaviors that qualified as treason against the Polish nation. The rules covered everyday behaviors as well as boycotts of the press, cinema, theater, and the German language. These guidelines—appearing in both codified form and as articles and judgments printed in the underground press—constituted the discourse on treason in occupied Poland. The article presents this discourse, describing its main problems and modifications during the occupation period in an attempt to encompass all spheres of social, cultural, and economic life.
The State Archive of New Records (AAN), 203/VIII-1, p. 46.
3.
Here I use the term introduced by English historian Curtis Breight, used in Poland by Magdalena Micińska. Note that the semantic field of the Polish word zdrada differs from its English counterpart in the text (i.e., "treason"), because it comprises both "treason" (high treason, etc.) and "betrayal" (of trust, of one’s spouse, etc.).
4.
It mainly concerned the Volksdeutsche who "are taking advantage of the economic situation" and all others who "decorated with the sign of swastika [and] are demonstrating political unanimity with the invader" and who "are entering the service for the German agents," which was specified here as [German] publications or agitation or participation in anti-Jewish riots.
5.
The Collective Delegate Office (Delegatura Zbiorowa) was set up on 3 July 1940 by the Provisional Delegate of the Government in Exile, Colonel Jan Skorobohaty-Jakubowski. The other members of the office were General Stefan Rowecki, Stefan Korboński, Kazimierz Pużak, Aleksander Dębski, Tadeusz Kruk-Strzelecki, and Franciszek Kwieciński.
6.
Szaniec-the main underground press organ of the activists of the prewar National Radical Camp "ABC" (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, "ABC"), that is, the so-called Szaniec Group (Grupa Szańca).
7.
Kodeks Polaka, part II A, item III 7.
8.
Ibid., part II E, item 8.
9.
AAN 202/III-31, p. 7.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Quoted in Tomasz Szarota, Życie codzienne okupowanej Warszawy (Warsaw, 1978), 567.
13.
Kodeks moralności obywatelskiej, 2.
14.
Ibid.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Ibid., 3.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Ibid., 4.
19.
Ibid.
20.
"Sługusy i lizusy," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 5 December 1942.
21.
Supposedly he also "donated money to the German army."Biuletyn Informacyjny, 17 June 1943.
22.
At that time it was a village neighboring Płudy; currently, it is a district of Warsaw.
23.
"Precz z rękami od sztandaru Rzeczypospolitej!"Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 3 June 1943.
24.
Ibid.
25.
Polska Żyje! 3 August 1940.
26.
Ibid.
27.
It appeared in September 1941.
28.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 14 August 1941.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Polska Żyje! 20 December 1940.
32.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 20 November 1941.
33.
Polska Żyje! 1 May 1940; Biuletyn Informacyjny, 10 May 1940.
34.
Biuletyn Kujawski 20, 1941, n.d.
35.
Polska Żyje! 21 June 1940.
36.
Służba Kobiet, September 1943.
37.
Polska Żyje! 21 June 1940.
38.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 12 February 1942.
39.
Ibid., 3 June 1942.
40.
"Co robić i jak się zachowywać," ZFWP, Biuletyn Informacyjny’s supplement of 17 February 1944.
41.
Polski dzwon, 4 November 1940.
42.
Ibid.
43.
Ibid.
44.
"Organizacja opinii," Polska Żyje! 6 July 1940.
45.
Walka i Wolność, 7 February 1941.
46.
Ibid.
47.
Kobieta w walce, April 1944.
48.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 26 June 1941.
49.
Źródło, 10 March 1941.
50.
Even though Kodeks moralności obywatelskiej did not distinguish between the sexes when discussing sexual contacts with the enemy, analysis of the judgments and the underground press reveals that only women were punished for that crime.
51.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 16 April 1942.
52.
"Wzrost prostytucji," Biuletyn Informacyjny, 19 June 1941.
53.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 4 October 1940.
54.
"Organizacja opinii," Polska Żyje! 6 July 1940.
55.
"Około wychowania kobiet," Służba Kobiet, September 1943.
56.
Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 13 May 1943.
57.
"O honor wsi polskiej," ZWFP, 27 January 1944.
58.
Chłopka, 15 November 1944.
59.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 5 December 1940.
60.
Ibid., 3 April 1941.
61.
See Barbara Engelking, Szanowny panie gistapo.Donosy do władz niemieckich w Warszawie i okolicach w latach 1940-1941 (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN, 2003), 44.
62.
"Strach," Biuletyn Informacyjny, 6 July 1940.
63.
"Nie damy się zastraszyć," Biuletyn Informacyjny, 20 August 1942.
64.
"Wytrwamy!" Biuletyn Informacyjny, 29 October 1942.
65.
"Opór czynny," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 25 February 1943.
66.
"Czego wymaga od nas wojna totalna?" Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 24 November 1942.
67.
Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 4 March 1943.
68.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 17 February 1944.
69.
The term is the title of an essay published in 1945, in which Wyka described the socioeconomic aspects of Polish life under the occupation as a "morally excluded economy," i.e., irrational, based on fiction, one where work does not count, but rather cleverness, corruption, bribery, speculation, the cult of "getting things done," and the lack of respect for public good dominate. See Kazimierz Wyka, Życie na niby. Pamiętnik po klęsce (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1984).
70.
"Wojna-Młodzież-Handel," Praca i walka, pismo młodzieży Wielkiej Polski, December 1942.
71.
"Szmugiel do getta," Dziś i jutro, 15 August 1941.
72.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 6 March 1941.
73.
Ibid., 9 August 1940.
74.
Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 10 December 1942.
75.
"Łapówkarze," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 17 December 1942.
76.
Nowe Drogi, 20 March 1943.
77.
Interestingly the term "szmalcownictwo" was not used here, but it did appear in the article "O zgniliźnie moralnej Warszawy" (On the Moral Corruption of Warsaw) published in Dziś i jutro on 25 June 1943, which stated that on Sunday afternoons, when crowds of strollers can be seen in the streets, one can spot groups of "promising young men" strolling to and fro. On Aleje (Jerozolimskie?) Street, then along the Józef (Poniatowski) overpass, and then out of the blue they go slowly in a single file along Żelazna Street. These are simply the so-called finks or in other words szmolcowniks (blackmailers).
78.
"Szantażyści," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 18 January 1943.
79.
"Szał donosów i szantaży," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej.
80.
Kodeks moralności obywatelskiej.
81.
Polska Żyje!, 25 January 1940.
82.
Ibid., 1 May 1940, Biuletyn Informacyjny, 10 May 1940.
83.
That sentence might be read as the first guideline referring to not abusing alcohol.
84.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 16 October 1940.
85.
Ibid., 19 July 1940.
86.
Ibid., 19 December 1940.
87.
"Walka z kinomanią," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej, 6 May 1944. The underground press called for the boycott of not only cinemas and theaters but also of the other cultural events organized by the Germans. The most widely discussed case was the arrival of the Busch circus in Kraków and Warsaw in summer 1940.
88.
Kalendarzyk KOP.
89.
Polska Żyje! 10 January 1940.
90.
"Apel," Biuletyn Informacyjny, 7 May 1942.
91.
"Obżartuchy i pijacy," Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej-Biuletynu Informacyjny supplement of 24 December 1943.
92.
Polska Żyje! 20 December 1940.
93.
On 15 July 1943, Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski issued order number 123, which included the following command: "Each soldier who gets drunk or constantly intoxicates himself with alcohol, regardless of rank and function, must be immediately suspended and transferred to the reserve."
94.
One of the articles on that topic published in Biuletyn Informacyjny on 27 January 1944 bore the title "Sprzymierzeniec niemiecki" (German Ally).
95.
"Walka z pijaństwem, Służba kobiet, January 1944.
96.
Ibid.
97.
Z Frontu Walki Cywilnej-Biuletyn Informacyjny supplement of 6 April 1944.
98.
Incidentally, the remaining part of the sentence is quite surprising, as since it turns out that the holidays "are a time for one to read and think through the underground press one receives."
99.
Ibid.
100.
"Walczymy z nałogiem pijaństwa," Żołnierz Kresowy, 15 July 1944.
101.
"Nakazy chwili," Służba Kobiet, June 1944.
102.
Ibid.
103.
Ibid.
104.
Żołnierz Polski, 21 July 1944.
105.
Gambling as such was severely condemned by the press-especially frequenting the casino opened by the Germans on 19 October 1940, located in the building of the former Garrison Casino on Szucha Avenue; it was a branch of the Kraków Cassino Gesellschaft. Playing the lottery was condemned less severely but still categorically. It was called the "lowest form of gambling" and opened in September 1940. Betting on horses was also condemned: "Thousands of Poles still do not understand that gambling by betting on the horses cannot be reconciled today with the sense of national dignity and the civic stance."
106.
As late as June 1944 Służba Kobiet postulated: "Let us adjust our outfits with our experiences, let us dig a deep chasm between the Polish woman and the enemy."
107.
In fact the Civil Special Courts (Cywilne Sądy Specjalne).
108.
Biuletyn Informacyjny, 11 March 1943. The announcement of that judgment was also put up by the underground on the streets of Warsaw.
109.
Judgment of 3 August 1942, published on 18 February 1943.
110.
Sentence of 17 February 1943, published on 20 April 1943.
