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''Special Prosecution Book-Poland'' (german: Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, pl, Specjalna księga Polaków ściganych listem gończym) was the proscription list prepared by the Germans immediately before the onset of war, that identified more than 61,000 members of Polish elites: activists, intelligentsia, scholars, actors, former officers, and prominent others, who were to be interned or shot on the spot upon their identification following the invasion.


History

For nearly two years before the
invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing ...
of the
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, between 1937 and 1939, the ''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' was being secretly prepared in Germany. It was compiled by the "Zentralstelle IIP Polen" (Central Unit IIP-Poland) unit of the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' or
Gestapo The (), 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 Prussia into one organis ...
("Secret State Police") with the help from some members of the
German minority in Poland The registered German minority in Poland at the 2011 national census consisted of 148,000 people, of whom 64,000 declared both German and Polish ethnicities and 45,000 solely German ethnicity.Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyn ...
. The Central Unit IIP-Poland was created by
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
to co-ordinate the ethnic cleansing of all Poles in "
Operation Tannenberg Operation Tannenberg (german: Unternehmen Tannenberg) was a codename for one of the anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany that were directed at the Poles during the opening stages of World War II in Europe, as part of the ''Generalplan ...
" and the ''
Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...
'', two codenames for the extermination actions directed at the
Polish people Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
during the opening stages of World War II. 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 ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be und ...
''. In Pomerania alone, 36,000–42,000 Poles, including children, had been killed by the end of 1939. The list identified more than 61,000 members of Polish elite: activists, intelligentsia, scholars, actors, former officers,
Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...
, Catholic priests, university professors, teachers, doctors, lawyers and even a prominent sportsman who had represented Poland in the
Berlin Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics ( German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad ( German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi- ...
in 1936. People in the Special Prosecution Book were either killed 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 ''
Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz The ''Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz'' was an ethnic German self-protection militia, a paramilitary organization consisting of ethnic German ('' Volksdeutsche'') mobilized from among the German minority in Poland. The ''Volksdeutscher Selbstsch ...
'' or sent to concentration camps and killed 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 intellec ...
'' 16 and EK-''Einmann'', fell under direct command of SS-''Sturmbannführer'' Rudolf Tröger, with overall command by
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
. The second and last edition of ''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' in was published German and Polish in 1940 in occupied
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
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.


See also

* Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. ("Special Search List Great Britain"), " The Black Book" of prominent residents of Britain.


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 Historiography of World War II Cultural history of World War II Holocaust historical documents Anti-Polish sentiment in Europe Reinhard Heydrich Reich Security Main Office 1939 documents Persecution by Nazi Germany Persecution of Poles Persecution of Jews Persecution of intellectuals