Read Online The German Fifth Column in Poland by Aleksandra Miesak Rohde - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Aleksandra Miesak Rohde
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to good account the fact that I was already in uniform, I reassembled the fleeing soldiers and went with them to the town command. There I found two officers attempting to make contact with the administrative authorities and the police.
“ Meantime information was coming in which enabled us more or less to understand what was happening. It was clear that the Germans were carrying out diversionist activities. We set to work to organize patrols which we sent in various directions in accordance with the news which came in.
“ We made contact with an infantry company of one of the Bydgoszcz regiments, the 61st or 69th, which reached the town command at 11.30. With its aid we gradually began to master the situation, making searches in those houses from which firing was reported, or which had given shelter to the aggressors. We arrested German suspects, who were afterwards escorted to the town command. At one o’clock there were 150 of these. The search resulted in the discovery of a hand-grenade, two military maps, and several cuttings from German papers published in the Reich. I took part in five house searches, but without result.
“ As I drove around the town in my car I came to the conclusion that the diversionist operations attempted by the Germans were intended inter alia to spread confusion and panic in the rear of the Polish troops. They fired from the attic windows and lofts, that is, when they were able to do so in safety, and well concealed, but firing must have been difficult in view of the spots where they were probably hidden. It is also certain that a large number of Germans had taken part in the affair. There can be no suggestion that there was any question whatever of provocation on the part of the Polish authorities or army. The civil authorities had left Bydgoszcz before the affair began. The attempt was spontaneously crushed by us, that is, by the two commanders of the town command, myself and several officers of the infantry company. I saw only two Polish dead lying in front of the church, on the other hand, I saw not one German killed or wounded. Some of the Germans escorted to the town command had light grazes, a fact which I must underline. They were not even worth dressing.
“ The captured Germans were to have been transported out of the town and into the interior of the country. But I don't know whether this was done, for, before three in the afternoon I left via Inowroclaw in the direction of Warsaw, where my regiment was stationed. On the way, outside Bydgoszcz, I met a detachment of police hastening towards the town. Much later, at Wilno, I met the engineer Z., who told me he had remained in Bydgoszcz until the early hours of September 4th. According to his story absolute calm prevailed until the night. At two o'clock, just before dawn, he heard shots. At daybreak he learned that a large band of German agents on bicycles had attempted to get to the centre of the town from the direction of the station, but they had been repulsed by the army and had left their bicycles and materials behind.”
Here is a priest's deposition: [13]
“The Germans talk a great deal about ‘Bloody Sunday’ at Bydgoszcz, and pretend that there were some 2000 German victims of the massacre. But they ignore the fact that they had themselves provoked the Poles to execute 150 Germans who fired from ambush upon Polish troops.
“ On Sunday, September 3rd, at ten in the morning the Germans opened fire from the tops of the towers of the Protestant churches, from hiding-places, and from the roofs of their houses at retreating Polish troops. Not at all numerous at Bydgoszcz, they none the less ventured upon this rising because they believed the Polish Army was being closely followed by the German Army, which was already at Nakło (some thirty kilometres from Bydgoszcz) on Friday, September 1st. Now, the German troops did not penetrate into Bydgoszcz until September 5th. The obvious provocation committed by the Bydgoszcz
“ Meantime information was coming in which enabled us more or less to understand what was happening. It was clear that the Germans were carrying out diversionist activities. We set to work to organize patrols which we sent in various directions in accordance with the news which came in.
“ We made contact with an infantry company of one of the Bydgoszcz regiments, the 61st or 69th, which reached the town command at 11.30. With its aid we gradually began to master the situation, making searches in those houses from which firing was reported, or which had given shelter to the aggressors. We arrested German suspects, who were afterwards escorted to the town command. At one o’clock there were 150 of these. The search resulted in the discovery of a hand-grenade, two military maps, and several cuttings from German papers published in the Reich. I took part in five house searches, but without result.
“ As I drove around the town in my car I came to the conclusion that the diversionist operations attempted by the Germans were intended inter alia to spread confusion and panic in the rear of the Polish troops. They fired from the attic windows and lofts, that is, when they were able to do so in safety, and well concealed, but firing must have been difficult in view of the spots where they were probably hidden. It is also certain that a large number of Germans had taken part in the affair. There can be no suggestion that there was any question whatever of provocation on the part of the Polish authorities or army. The civil authorities had left Bydgoszcz before the affair began. The attempt was spontaneously crushed by us, that is, by the two commanders of the town command, myself and several officers of the infantry company. I saw only two Polish dead lying in front of the church, on the other hand, I saw not one German killed or wounded. Some of the Germans escorted to the town command had light grazes, a fact which I must underline. They were not even worth dressing.
“ The captured Germans were to have been transported out of the town and into the interior of the country. But I don't know whether this was done, for, before three in the afternoon I left via Inowroclaw in the direction of Warsaw, where my regiment was stationed. On the way, outside Bydgoszcz, I met a detachment of police hastening towards the town. Much later, at Wilno, I met the engineer Z., who told me he had remained in Bydgoszcz until the early hours of September 4th. According to his story absolute calm prevailed until the night. At two o'clock, just before dawn, he heard shots. At daybreak he learned that a large band of German agents on bicycles had attempted to get to the centre of the town from the direction of the station, but they had been repulsed by the army and had left their bicycles and materials behind.”
Here is a priest's deposition: [13]
“The Germans talk a great deal about ‘Bloody Sunday’ at Bydgoszcz, and pretend that there were some 2000 German victims of the massacre. But they ignore the fact that they had themselves provoked the Poles to execute 150 Germans who fired from ambush upon Polish troops.
“ On Sunday, September 3rd, at ten in the morning the Germans opened fire from the tops of the towers of the Protestant churches, from hiding-places, and from the roofs of their houses at retreating Polish troops. Not at all numerous at Bydgoszcz, they none the less ventured upon this rising because they believed the Polish Army was being closely followed by the German Army, which was already at Nakło (some thirty kilometres from Bydgoszcz) on Friday, September 1st. Now, the German troops did not penetrate into Bydgoszcz until September 5th. The obvious provocation committed by the Bydgoszcz
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