Underground Court ('' pl, Sądy podziemne'') were

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

underground

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

s in occupied

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, organized by the

Polish Government-in-Exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

. The courts determined

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...

s for

citizens of Poland The Citizens of Poland ( pl, Obywatele RP, verbatim ''Citizens of the Republic of Poland'', ''ORP'') is an informal civic movement in Poland engaged in pro-democracy actions and anti-fascist movement, opposed to the actions of the government l ...

who were subject to Polish law before the war.

History

After the Polish Defense War of 1939, the German authorities of the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

mobilized all the pre-war Polish

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

men to the German service. The so-called Navy-Blue Police (''Policja granatowa'', nicknamed after the color of their uniforms) were used as an auxiliary unit of the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

, yet they had no means of executing law and order in the occupied country. At the same time, the German police forces and courts were more interested in persecution of Jews and members of the Polish

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

rather than common criminals. First underground, ad hoc courts were created alongside some of the first Polish resistance organizations as early as in 1939.Stanisław Salmonowicz, ''Polskie Państwo Podziemne'', Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Warszawa, 1994, At first, they were purely military, concerned only with the cases that would fall under military law (such as

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

). On April 16, 1940, the Polish Government in Exile in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

decided that the underground Polish courts be created for prosecution of criminals, traitors,

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

s and collaborators. The structure and law regulating those courts were mostly finalized around 1942. The Underground Courts tried only the pre-war citizens of Poland who were legally subjects of the Polish law. No citizens of other states (including members of the occupying forces of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

) were ever sentenced by the Underground Courts. However, at times such claims were made by the

Bureau of Information and Propaganda The Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Headquarters of Związek Walki Zbrojnej, later of Armia Krajowa ( pl, Biuro Informacji i Propagandy (Komendy Głównej Związku Walki Zbrojnej - Armii Krajowej) - in short: ''BIP''), a conspiracy dep ...

for

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

reasons; nevertheless, executions of members of the SS and ''

'' were treated as elements of partisan warfare. The reason for such a policy was a belief that the

Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

should act as if the occupation and dismemberment of Poland never happened. Polish special Underground Courts reviewed about 10,000 to 17,000 cases of collaboration, and sentenced over 3,500 individuals to death (2,500 executions were carried out; many others were sentenced to punishments like beatings or fines, or with a recommendation for review of the case after the war). Approximately 30% of the executions in Warsaw were of Poles found to blackmail or denounce the hiding Jews (

szmalcownik Szmalcownik (); in English, also sometimes spelled shmaltsovnik) is a pejorative Polish slang expression that originated during the Holocaust in Poland in World War II and refers to a person who blackmailed Jews who were in hiding, or who ...

s).

Notes

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History

See also

Notes

Further reading