A shocking discovery by renowned Polish historians Chodakiewicz, Gontarczyk and Zebrowski, deserving translations into English, German and Hebrew, reviewed by a top American-Polish reviewer on Amazon, Jan Peczkis:
“The victors write the history books, and the Communists were the victors. They got to paint the GL-AL as the champion of Jews, and its killings of Jews were buried and the blame shifted to the demonized AK and NSZ. (v.2, p. 34) This Communist line was quoted by many Polonophobic Jewish authors in the West: Kahanowitz, Ainsztein, Krakowski, Yisrael Gutman, etc. (v.2, p. 28-on). [Most if not all of the foregoing were either Communists or Communist-inclined.] In postwar Poland, Underground members were framed in Communist show trials. The “evidence” consisted of forged authentic-looking documents bearing the forced signatures of incarcerated Gestapo officials. (v.2, p. 10, 18).
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Here is Jan Peczkis’s review of 11 january 2010, first appearing about 3 weeks ago but now greatly expanded, on Amazon. It addresses the perennial accusation of the NSZ and AK killing fugitive Jews.
Review of Tajne Oblicze GL-AL I PPR: Dokumenty, edited by Marek J. Chodakiewicz, Piotr Gontarczyk, and Leszek Zebrowski. (1997). Warszawa. 3 volumes. Reviewer: Mr. Jan Peczkis
Jew-Killing Shocker Unmasks the Tactics of the GL-AL Communist Bands in German-Occupied Poland
THE SECRET FACE OF THE GL-AL AND PPR: DOCUMENTS is the title of this Polish language book, which includes an English-language abstract. (v.2, pp. 257-258). This groundbreaking work, opening long-secret Communist archives, is a needed corrective to the glorification of the GL-AL during the decades of the Soviet-imposed Communist puppet state in Poland, as pointed out by Leszek Zebrowski in rebuttal to Communist Ryszard Nazarewicz, who had accused this work of being tendentiously negative. (v.3, p. 10-on). It is also a myth-shattering work on Jew-killing.
The GL-AL documents are predictable. The Soviet Union could do no wrong, the prewar Polish regime was a fascist one in cahoots with Hitler, and the non-Communist Polish guerillas consisted of aristocrats and landowners (demonstrably false: v.1, p. 209). GL-AL criminal acts were covered by ostentatious doublespeak. (v.2, pp. 7-8, 97).
The Communist GL-AL was quite small–merely 5,000-6,000 members (Spring 1944). (v.1, p. 23, 64, 83). Most of its alleged exploits against the German occupants cannot be verified, while others are known to be fabrications. (e. g., v.2, pp. 7-8, 18). Still others were actually the work of the AK (A.K.) or NSZ (N.S.Z). (v.1, p. 128, 144). Having failed to stamp out the Warsaw Uprising from public consciousness, the postwar Communist authorities instead attempted to co-opt it by greatly exaggerating the role of the GL-AL in it. (v.2, p. 242-on).
In fact, the GL-AL prioritized the killing of patriotic Poles over Germans (v.3, p. 56), and the GL-AL murdered many Polish freedom fighters. (e. g., v.3, p. 8, 103, 106, 135; especially v.2, p. 85-on). The GL-AL also collaborated with the Nazis by exposing the Polish Underground to the Gestapo (v.2, p. 195-on), including that in an GL-AL/Gestapo/NKVD arrangement. (v.2, p. 223).
Unlike the AK and NSZ, the GL-AL engaged in acts that deliberately provoked German mass reprisals against the Polish population. This was designed to generate desperate, traumatized Poles who would join the GL-AL in order to get succor and revenge. (v.1, p. 26). Such was a common tactic of Communist movements worldwide (Chodakiewicz, personal communication). In some instances, Polish peasants killed GL-AL members, or denounced them to the Germans, in order to forestall these provocations. (v.1, p. 121, 166).
Another major GL-AL tactic was massive “revolutionary banditry”. (v.1, pp. 29-30, pp. 99-on, 181-on; v. 2, p. 90, etc.). This was done not only to secure provisions from a generally-unsupportive population, but also to terrorize it into submission to ANY regime that would restore “law and order”. The GL-AL bandits commonly dropped NSZ tracts to divert blame, and so the NSZ announced that it never makes forcible requisitions. (v.1, pp. 196-198).
There were many Jews in the GL-AL, as evident from Jewish sources. (v.1, p. 102). Charges of anti-Semitism in the AK and NSZ contrast with the silence about anti-Semitism in the GL-AL—the latter proved by its documents. (e. g., v.1, p. 230, 233; v.2, pp. 211-212). Likewise, selective complaints about some Polish peasants requiring payment to help fugitive Jews ignore the GL-AL doing the same. (v.1, p. 176).
Polish suspicions of the ZOB’s Communist leanings were confirmed when its remnants joined GL-AL bands. (v.2, p. 72-on). The ZOB engaged in mass banditry (v.2, pp. 78-79), and many ZOB members were killed by the GL-AL for impending desertion. (v. 2, p. 82).
Let’s expand on Jew-killing. Jewish memoirs misrepresent specific Jew-killing units (e. g., Leon Plichta “Wrona”’s Mickiewicz) as AK when they were actually AL. (v.1., p. 14, 221-222). The NSZ is accused of killing post-Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising ZOB fighters in the forests. Impossible! The NSZ didn’t even exist in the area. (v.2, pp. 75-76).
AK General Bor-Komorowski’s order to liquidate bandit bands has been misrepresented by certain Jewish scholars as a veiled order to kill fugitive Jews. (v. 3, p. 32, 35). Nonsense! Many AK documents addressed the need to combat the “revolutionary banditry” of the GL-AL without the slightest regard for the perpetrators’ nationality. (e. g., v.3, pp. 82-83, 40-41, 47-49, 82-83, 89-90, 230). One Bialystok-area AK document identifies the nationalities of local bandits liquidated: 4 Jews, 28 Poles, etc. (v.2, p. 35, 42). Of course, the many Jews in the GL-AL translated into many Jews killed in AK and NSZ anti-bandit, population-protecting actions, of which there were many. (e. g., v.3, p. 16, 207, 243-245).
A SHOCKER: It was the GL-AL that engaged in gratuitous Jew-killing. Tens to hundreds of Jews were killed by a GL-AL unit in the Lublin region alone. (v.1, pp. 10-11). A GL-AL commander in the Kielce-Radom region shot Jews who escaped from German camps. (v.1, p. 138). Far from being marginal, the GL-AL killing of Jews was quite common. (e. g., v.3, 13-15, 24-26; especially v.2, p. 44, 48-68).
One GL-AL Jew-killer was Wladyslaw Spychaj vel Sobczynski, a Soviet-trained NKVD official. (v.3, p. 14). He later became a U.B. (Bezpieka) leader who played a major role in the Kielce Pogrom.
The victors write the history books, and the Communists were the victors. They got to paint the GL-AL as the champion of Jews, and its killings of Jews were buried and the blame shifted to the demonized AK and NSZ. (v.2, p. 34) This Communist line was quoted by many Polonophobic Jewish authors in the West: Kahanowitz, Ainsztein, Krakowski, Yisrael Gutman, etc. (v.2, p. 28-on). [Most if not all of the foregoing were either Communists or Communist-inclined.] In postwar Poland, Underground members were framed in Communist show trials. The “evidence” consisted of forged authentic-looking documents bearing the forced signatures of incarcerated Gestapo officials. (v.2, p. 10, 18).
This fascinating scholarly work should be translated into English.