Read Online The German Fifth Column in Poland by Aleksandra Miesak Rohde - Free Book Online

was close to the gasworks, etc.
    “ We continually sent small mixed detachments of soldiers and police to the spots from which we had reports. One of these detachments brought back a machine-gun which they had captured from the Germans on Koscielecki Square. Germans encountered bearing arms were shot on the spot; suspects were sent mainly to the barracks of the 61st Regiment. With a detachment of ten to twelve men I myself tackled the Protestant cemetery. As we entered it a shot was fired. But we found nobody there. Only in the cemetery keeper’s house, where we found a revolver and cartridges, did we discover a German who could not establish his identity. This cemetery was searched a second time by detachments of National
    Defence Guards. I next went with my detachment to the gasworks. The German club was in ruins. It appears that a large number of German attackers fell at this spot. A strict search had been made of all the houses going from Tornow towards the station, and all the occupants of every house had to show their documents. I recall that in the third house from Tornow we found six Germans from neighbouring villages in hiding. Everywhere, in the course of these searches, other detachments arrested Germans who had come from Nakło, Świecie, and other localities in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz. They had been ordered to present themselves on September 3rd. Without doubt that was the date fixed for the beginning of the German diversionist activities.
    “ Early in the afternoon we mastered the situation in the centre of the town. Three detachments had shared among them the task of quelling the revolt: (1) the groups of the National Guards; (2) my detachment; (3) that of Second Lieutenant S. Altogether we had a thousand men at the most. But the situation was very different on the outskirts of the town, and in the neighbouring villages which our patrols did not reach and where generally speaking the Germans remained in command all the time.
    “ While this action was in progress I continually saw groups of German aggressors, consisting of eight, ten or fifteen men escorted by our men. Between 2.30 and 6.30 in the afternoon the chief of police took 92,000 złotys from the Germans, which sum he afterwards sent to the general command of the police at Włocławek. So large a sum sufficiently proved that those who had come from outside Bydgoszcz had been generously paid for their ‘patriotic’ labour.
    “ During the many searches which I made I was struck by one characteristic detail: we succeeded in getting hold of the culprits only in certain of the houses from which firing had come. It was only later, when I was at Warsaw, that I realized why. In almost every one of these houses hiding-places had been constructed in advance, and these were excellently camouflaged, so that they could not be seen from outside. Thus, in the Pfefferkorn house, from which firing came continually, there was a hiding-place on the second floor.
    “ During the retreat on September 5th I saw thirty groups of these Germans at Włocławek (each group numbered between 150 and 200 men). They were to be placed in a concentration camp. I learned later that the German troops had recaptured them all from us.”
    Another deposition: [12]
    “On September 3rd I rose as usual in the morning to go to the factory where I had been in charge for the past six months. In the street I saw mobilization posters and realized that I was called up. So I went back home to put on my uniform. The day was hot and I had the window open. At 9.30 I heard an aeroplane, and immediately afterwards a ragged fusillade of shots. I got into my car and drove to the factory. As I went I distinguished rapid firing which sounded like a machine-gun above the fusillade. In the street I came across small disorderly groups of soldiers moving and lines of vehicles which seemed to be in a panic, and a captain who was trying to stop them. I gave up the idea of going to the factory and, turning