''Special Prosecution Book – Poland'' (, ) was a list prepared by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

immediately before the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

containing more than 61,000 members of Polish elites:

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

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 i ...

, scholars, actors, former officers, and prominent others. Upon identification, they were to be arrested and turned over to Nazi authorities following the invasion.

History

For nearly two years before the invasion of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, between 1937 and 1939, the ''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' was being secretly prepared in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was compiled by the "Zentralstelle IIP Polen" (Central Unit IIP-Poland) unit of the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' or

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

("Secret State Police") from

clandestine human intelligence Clandestine human intelligence is intelligence collected from human sources (HUMINT) using clandestine espionage methods. These sources consist of people working in a variety of roles within the intelligence community. Examples include the qui ...

supplied by members of the

German minority in Poland The registered German minority in Poland (; ) is a group of German people that inhabit Poland, being the largest minority of the country. As of 2021, it had a population of 144,177. The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voiv ...

involved in the ''

Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz The ''Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz'' was an Selbstschutz, ethnic-German self-protection militia, a paramilitary organization comprising ethnic Germans (''Volksdeutsche'') mobilized from among the German minority in Poland. The ''Volksdeutsche ...

'' who acted as

fifth column A fifth column is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize ...

. The Central Unit IIP-Poland was created by

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...

to co-ordinate the ethnic cleansing of all Poles in "

Operation Tannenberg Operation Tannenberg (, ) was one of the first Anti-Polish sentiment, anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940. The operation was conducted ...

" and the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

'', two codenames for the extermination actions directed at the

Polish people Polish people, or Poles, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation who share a common History of Poland, history, Culture of Poland, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble t ...

during the opening stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Formally, the ''Intelligenzaktion'' was a second phase of Operation Tannenberg (''Unternehmen Tannenberg''), conducted by Heydrich's ''Sonderreferat''. It lasted until January 1940 as the first part of the ''

Generalplan Ost The (; ), abbreviated GPO, was Nazi Germany's plan for the settlement and "Germanization" of captured territory in Eastern Europe, involving the genocide, extermination and large-scale ethnic cleansing of Slavs, Eastern European Jews, and o ...

''. In

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

alone, 36,000–42,000 Poles, including children, had been murdered by the end of 1939. The list identified more than 61,000 members of Polish elite:

, scholars, actors, former officers,

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

, Catholic priests, university professors, teachers, doctors, lawyers and even a prominent sportsman who had represented Poland in the

Berlin Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

in 1936. People in the Special Prosecution Book were either murdered outright by the ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'' or the ''

'' or sent to concentration camps and murdered there. The German death squads, including ''

Einsatzkommando During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellect ...

'' 16 and EK-''Einmann'', fell under direct command of SS-''Sturmbannführer'' Rudolf Tröger, with overall command by

. The second and last edition of ''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' was published in German and Polish in 1940 in occupied

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

after the end of ''AB-Aktion'' (in German ''Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion'').Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka, ''Hitlerowskie afisze śmierci'' (eng. "Nazi death posters"), KAW Warszawa 1983, p.92, (Polish),(German),(English) Later lists were published under the name of ''Fahndungsnachweis''. Only a small number of people on both lists managed to survive the German occupation.

References

Bibliography

*''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen. Ergänzungsnachtrag über entwichene oder vorzeitig entlassene Straf...'' 1. Juni 1940, Krakau, * Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak, ''Plan zagłady Słowian. Generalplan Ost'', Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne PWE, Radom, 2001 * Fritz Arlt: ''Polen- Ukrainer-Judenpolitik im Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete 1939 bis 1940 in Oberschlesien 1941 bis 1943 und im Freiheitskampf der unterdrückten Ostvölker'', Lindhorst, Wissenschaftlicher Buchdienst Taege, 1995 * Wacław Długoborski: ''Zweiter Weltkrieg und sozialer Wandel'', Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, S. 309

External links

Digital version of ''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' in Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa

Landkreis Rybnik/''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' 1937-1939
{{Einsatzgruppen Einsatzgruppen The Holocaust in Poland * Germany–Poland relations (1918–1939) Holocaust historical documents 1939 documents Reinhard Heydrich Persecution by Nazi Germany Persecution of Poles Persecution of Jews Persecution of intellectuals Reich Security Main Office Historiography of World War II Cultural history of Poland during World War II

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links