The Nazi Culture in Poland - Written in Warsaw under the German Occupation and published for the Polish Ministry of Information by His Majesty's Stationery Office. London 1945 - First Edition. "This documentation was made with great difficulty, at the risk of life, not only of the writer, but all too often of the lives of his entire family. Nevertheless, it was created so that the world might know the methods of the enemy, and the nature of the things which the Allies intend to terminate..." (From the Introduction).
A detailed report on how the Nazis took over all the cultural assets of the Polish people with the occupation of Poland. The report explains through documents and testimonies received from underground operatives up until the final months of 1942, how the Nazi method of takeover and destruction operated, which included the stages: calming, betrayal, plunder, humiliation, murder, continued enslavement.
This report focuses on culture - the diabolical Nazi plan to corrupt Polish culture to its foundations and erase all trace of Poland's historical culture - plundering and suppression of colleges and schools; burning of public libraries, shuttering of the Polish press and printing houses, closure of concert halls, disbanding of orchestras, arresting and imprisoning musicians, banning the playing of music most cherished by the subjugated race. Elimination of buildings of the Roman Catholic Church as the body representing the national life of Poland, arresting priests and sending them to camps (the report details the names of priests arrested by the Nazis and exactly where they were sent), destruction of historical monuments hundreds of years old, takeover of schools - with the Nazi conquest of Poland, instruction in Polish history and geography was completely abolished, and teaching of the German language was made compulsory in schools for two hours each day - one page of the book shows a photograph of the high school in Przemyśl where Polish children previously studied, since 1939 the building served for the education of German children only, with large swastika flags placed at the entrance of the institution. Expulsion of young students from Krakow to the Dachau camp, destruction of the Polish archives, looting of museum collections in Poland, and destruction of centuries-old works of art, complete shutdown of the Polish book trade, closure of Polish cinema, and more. The report is structured such that each chapter surveys the proud history of a particular field in Poland, and the way in which the Nazis destroyed it to its foundations.
The report was written by a number of underground operatives residing in various parts of occupied Poland, who were tasked with getting out any relevant information about Nazi crimes aimed at annihilating Polish culture. Those underground operatives, operating under extremely high-risk conditions, transmitted countless documents and records to their dispatchers, knowing that if caught they would be executed.
This group of people working to expose Nazi crimes never had the opportunity for a gathering or joint discussion, they dared not use the mail or telephone in their work. Notes and other materials could not be safely left on the table for even a moment. During the shortest absence, every sheet of paper, every record, had to be hidden away, for who could know the hour when the Gestapo would arrive? The materials were deliberately written in English, at further risk to their writers, that if caught their intent would be immediately clear. The materials were transferred directly by small boat on the river, able to carry only one of them at a time. Moreover, the final materials were transferred in the winter months of 1941-42, when the electricity supply was severely limited in the "Generalgouvernement", so that long evenings had to be spent working by oil lamp, or often by the light of a single candle. Lack of fuel was as great a difficulty as lack of light. In many homes, the normal temperature for weeks on end was freezing. Writing had to be done in coat and gloves. Even something as simple in normal times as checking a quotation, a date, the spelling of a name, was no easy matter in a country where all the public libraries, with one exception, were inaccessible. And indeed, some of those people who supplied the information for this report were caught by the Gestapo, taken to camps, and murdered.
XII, 220 p. Minor tears to spine. Good condition.
