705 Poles were killed for hiding Jews. Germans killed 705 Poles for save Jews during German occupation Poland- World War II 1939-1945 during German Plan "Final Solution"(German: Die Endlösung), German Plan "Generalplan Ost", German Plan "Operation Reinhard", German Plan "AB-Aktion", German Plan "Operation Tannenberg", RSHA, Sicherheitspolizei, Sicherheitsdienst Reinhard Heydrich, Einsatzgruppen, Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland 1939-1945
Would you risk your own life and your family's to save another human being?
Germans selected occupied Poland as the only country where aiding a Jew, be it only to give him a slice of bread, was immediately punished by death. Failure to inform on a neighbor hiding Jews meant deportation to a GERMAN NAZI Concentration and Extermination Camp(1939-1945) AUSCHWITZ, BUCHENWALD, DACHAU, BERGEN BELSEN, Ravensbrück, SACHSENHAUSEN, MAUTHAUSEN, NEUENGAMME, GROSS-ROSEN, SZUCHA, PAWIAK, PALMIRY.
On August 22, 1939, a week before his attack on Poland, Hitler exhorted his nation: "Kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need." As many as 200,000 Polish children, deemed to have "Germanic" (Aryan) features, were forcibly taken to Germany to be raised as Germans, and had their birth records falsified. Very few of these children were reunited with their families after the war.
More than 500 towns and villages were burned, over 16 thousand persons, mostly Polish Christians, were killed in 714 mass executions of which 60% were carried out by the Wehrmacht (German army) and 40% by the SS and Gestapo. In Bydgoszcz the first victims were boy scouts from 12 to 16 years old, shot in the marketplace. All this happened in the first eight weeks of the war. See Richard C. Lucas, The Forgotten Holocaust; The Poles under German Occupation. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky [c1986].
According to the AB German Plan, Poles were to become a people without education, slaves for the German overlords. Secondary schools were closed; studying, keeping radios, or arms of any kind, or practicing any kind of trade were prohibited under the threat of death.
Out of its pre-war population of 36 million, Poland lost 22%, a higher percentage than any other country in Europe. The heaviest losses were sustained by educated classes, youth and democratic forces that could have challenged totalitarianism. See I. C. Pogonowski, Poland: A Historical Atlas. New York, Hippocrene Books, 1987.
Righteous Among the Nations:
POLAND- 6066 - more than from any other German Nazi-occupied country
Total Persons- 22,211
Zegota-Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland(1939-1945). ZEGOTA (in Polish: ŻEGOTA) was the only government-sponsored (London-based Polish Government-in-Exile) social welfare agency established to rescue Jews in German-occupied EUROPE.
The German occupying forces made concealing Jews a crime punishable by death for everyone living in a house where Jews were discovered. Although this penalty was rarely enforced in practice - it is estimated that some 705 Poles were killed for hiding Jews.
The stories of the rescuers are a shining example of the most selfless sacrifice, surpassing in its heroism that of all the soldiers on the battlefield, whom we commemorate each November. In fact the soldier must fight; he cannot refuse. He is sustained by the entire military organization and his efforts are mostly limited to battles that have a clear beginning and end. He is paid and given the food, supplies and weapons that he needs.
Rescuers of Jews in German-occupied Poland were alone, often deprived of their pre-war means of livelihood, expelled from their farms, factories, businesses, offices and even homes, most of them living in dire poverty. All found it virtually impossible to earn a living. They were under no legal obligation to risk their own lives and, even more, those of their families and neighbors. Their help most often lasted days and nights, weeks, months, even years, always in secret, and always risking discovery. To save one person sometimes several dozens of people risked their lives.
Who of us would do it today, especially in the above mentioned conditions?
