Misplaced Pages

#844155

101-881: Standing in the path of the German army's advance during the early days of the invasion, tensions quickly escalated in Bydgoszcz between the city's sizable German-speaking minority and its Polish majority. On 3 September, as the Wehrmacht was preparing to assault the city, members of the German minority working in conjunction with the German intelligence agency ( Abwehr ) attacked the Polish garrison . Polish soldiers and civilians reacted with violent reprisals against ethnic Germans, who in turn reacted with more violence. A Polish investigation concluded in 2004 that approximately 40–50 Poles and between 100 and 300 Germans were killed. The term "Bloody Sunday"

202-405: A mass execution in the aftermath of the fall of the city on 5 September. Additionally, fifty Polish prisoners of war from Bydgoszcz were accused by Nazi summary courts of taking part in "Bloody Sunday" and shot. The reprisals compounded violence stemming from the German attempts to pacify the city, and the premeditated murder of notable Poles as part of Operation Tannenberg . As part of the latter,

303-477: A German named Otto Meister was also formed in Bydgoszcz and received orders from Wroclaw local office of Abwehr. By the end of August just before the invasion took place Polish police conducted several arrests during which they found explosives, armbands and guns. During the night between 2 and 3 September a number of German saboteurs dressed up in Polish uniforms woke up inhabitants of two districts in Bydgoszcz telling them to run as Poland has been defeated, and as

404-603: A contingent of the Polish Army ( Army Pomorze 's 9th , 15th , and 27th Infantry Division ) was withdrawing through Bydgoszcz it was attacked by German irregulars from within the city. According to a British witness, a retreating Polish artillery unit was shot at by Germans from within a house; the Poles returned fire and were subsequently shot at from a Jesuit church. In the ensuing fight both sides suffered some casualties; captured German nonuniformed armed insurgents were executed on

505-535: A contrary intention". Because of this, many of them left the People's Republic of Poland due to its undemocratic political system and economic problems. Also, a great many of families, due to war, flight, and expulsion, had been torn apart by the border shift and now pressured the German authorities to support their relatives to leave Poland. During the 1950s, negotiations for family reunions were conducted between Poland and East Germany . However, anything that went beyond

606-469: A fictional fifth column that destroyed the European democracies from within in the tragic days that led up to the final blackout of European civilization. But this would not be a fifth column of traitors, but a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it would be to destroy the morale of invaders, make them afraid, unsure of themselves. In Foyle's War , series 2 episode 3, "War Games", one line reads: "It's

707-453: A la que parece que se había referido el general Mola" (the famous fifth column that General Mola seems to have referred to) Some authors consider it possible if not likely that the term has been invented by the Communist propaganda with the purpose of either raising morale or providing justification for terror and repression ; initially it might have been part of the whispering campaign , but

808-466: A national and international propaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of organizing or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland. After armed conflict erupted on 1 September 1939, ethnic Germans living in Poland were in many places subjected to attacks, and the Polish government arrested ten to fifteen thousand on suspicion of being loyal to Germany, marching them toward

909-503: A number of Polish civilians were executed by German military units of the Einsatzgruppen , Waffen SS , and Wehrmacht . According to German historian Christian Raitz von Frentz, 876 Poles were tried by German tribunal for involvement in the events of Bloody Sunday before the end of 1939. 87 men and 13 women were sentenced without the right to appeal. Polish historian Czesław Madajczyk notes 120 executions in relation to Bloody Sunday, and

1010-465: A part of the city that became known as the Valley of Death . More broadly, they were also related to the wider Operation Tannenberg , a large scale anti-Polish extermination actions. More than 20,000 Polish citizens of Bydgoszcz (14% of the population) were either shot or died in concentration camps during the occupation. The exact number of victims of Bloody Sunday is disputed. Peter Aurich (a pseudonym of

1111-503: A result a significant number of civilians panicked and started fleeing the city. The chaotic flight disrupted and restricted movements of the Polish military on the roads. By the morning of 3 September a certain few Germans who were in good relationship with their Polish neighbors started warning them to hide as "something bad will happen in the city", offering them shelter under the condition that they must hide by 10 AM, but stated they could not disclose details on what would take place. As

SECTION 10

#1733084965845

1212-556: A special verification process. Thus most of them were inhabitants of Polish descent of the pre-war border regions of Upper Silesia and Warmia - Masuria . Sometimes they were called Wasserpolnisch or Wasserpolak . These people were allowed to reclaim their former German citizenship on application, and under German Basic Law were "considered as not having been deprived of their German citizenship if they have established their domicile in Germany after May 8, 1945, and have not expressed

1313-536: A way to fuel Nazi propaganda. This argument has been criticized: Harry Gordon questions whether the Germans were willing to sacrifice their citizens for propaganda gains. The modern consensus among Polish historians is that the events constituted an attack on the Polish population and military by German militia. In 2004, historian Tomasz Chinciński in a publication of Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) summarized recent research related to Bloody Sunday, confirming that

1414-471: A week), hence de facto as a subject. There were no minority schools with German as the language of instruction, though there were three asymmetrically bilingual (Polish–German) schools, where most subjects were taught through the medium of Polish. Most members of the German minority are Roman Catholic , while some are Lutheran Protestants (the Evangelical-Augsburg Church ). According to

1515-606: A whole where German could be considered a language of everyday communication. The predominant home or family language of Poland's German minority in Upper Silesia used to be the Silesian German language (mainly Oberschlesisch (Upper Silesian dialect), but also Mundart des Brieg-Grottkauer Landes (dialect of the land of Brieg-Grottkau) was used west of Opole), but since 1945 Standard German replaced it as these Silesian German dialects went generally out of use except among

1616-658: Is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. The term is also applied to organized actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage , disinformation , espionage or terrorism executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force. The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally quinta columna ) during

1717-489: Is referred to as the fifth columnist of the Jupiter 2 expedition. In the first episode, he was a secret agent sent to sabotage the mission who got caught on board at liftoff. There is an American weekly news podcast called "The Fifth Column", hosted by Kmele Foster , Matt Welch , Michael C. Moynihan , and Anthony Fisher. Robert A. Heinlein 's 1941 story "The Day After Tomorrow", originally titled " Sixth Column ", refers to

1818-418: Is that 910,000 former German citizens were granted Polish citizenship by 1950. Higher estimates say that 1,043,550 or 1,165,000 were naturalized as Polish citizens by 1950. After the end of expulsions , Polish sources of 1948–49 report that 125,000 to 160,000 lived on what was now Polish territory, but according to West German information, the number was 430,000 or even 900,000. It can be assumed today that

1919-694: The Ostflucht , while a Prussian Settlement Commission established others in Central Poland. According to the 1931 census , around 740,000 German speakers lived in Poland (2.3% of the population). Their minority rights were protected by the Little Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The right to appeal to the League of Nations however was renounced by the League of Nations in 1934, officially due to Germany's withdrawal from

2020-461: The Cold War era, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens decided to emigrate to West Germany and, to a lesser extent, to East Germany. Despite that, hundreds or tens of thousands of former German citizens remained in Poland. Some of them created families with other Poles , who, in the vast majority, were settlers from central Poland or were resettled from the former eastern territories of Poland by

2121-667: The German Empire . It would remain a part of the German Empire until the end of World War I . In February 1920, the Treaty of Versailles awarded the city and the surrounding region to the Second Polish Republic (the administrative region of Pomeranian Voivodeship ). This resulted in a number of ethnic Germans leaving the region for Germany. Over the interwar period , the German population decreased even further. The emergence of

SECTION 20

#1733084965845

2222-513: The German-Polish border , distrust, and rising nationalist sentiment in Nazi Germany led to the complete deterioration of Polish-German relations . Hitler's demands for the Polish inhabited Polish Corridor and Polish resistance to Nazi annexation fueled ethnic tensions. For months prior to the 1939 German invasion of Poland , German newspapers and politicians like Adolf Hitler had carried out

2323-678: The House of Commons that same month, Winston Churchill reassured MPs that "Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand." In July 1940, Time magazine referred to talk of a fifth column as a "national phenomenon". In August 1940, The New York Times mentioned "the first spasm of fear engendered by the success of fifth columns in less fortunate countries". One report identified participants in Nazi "fifth columns" as "partisans of authoritarian government everywhere", citing Poland , Czechoslovakia , Norway , and

2424-572: The Nazi Party in Germany had an important impact on the city. Adolf Hitler revitalized the Völkisch movement , making an appeal to the German minority living outside of Germany's post-World War I borders and recruiting its members for Nazi intelligence. It was Hitler's explicit goal to create a Greater German State by annexing territories of other countries inhabited by German minorities. By March 1939, these ambitions, charges of atrocities on both sides of

2525-574: The Netherlands . During the Nazi invasion of Norway , the head of the Norwegian fascist party, Vidkun Quisling , proclaimed the formation of a new fascist government in control of Norway, with himself as Prime Minister, by the end of the first day of fighting. The word " quisling " soon became a byword for "collaborator" or "traitor". The New York Times on 11 August 1940, featured three editorial cartoons using

2626-699: The Slovincians ( Lebakaschuben ), the Masurians and the Silesians of Upper Silesia . While in the past these people have been claimed for both Polish and German ethnicity, it really depends on their self-perception which they choose to belong to. The term " German Poles " ( German : Deutsche Polen , Polish : Polacy pochodzenia niemieckiego ) may refer to either Poles of German descent or sometimes to Polish citizens whose ancestors held German citizenship before World War II, regardless of their ethnicity. After

2727-791: The Soviets to the Recovered Territories ( Former eastern territories of Germany ). Since the fall of communism in Poland , several socio-cultural organisations to promote German culture and language among the German minorities in Poland were created, including the German Socio-Cultural Organisation in Wrocław and other organisations in cities such as Opole . There is one German international school in Poland, Willy-Brandt-Schule in Warsaw . Fifth column A fifth column

2828-534: The Szwederowo neighborhood, which was predominantly inhabited by working-class individuals. The Citizen Watch in Bydgoszcz relinquished its weapons after receiving assurances from General Eccard von Gablenz, commander of the Kampgruppe "Netze" , that its members would be treated in accordance with international law as POWs. Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry heavily exploited the events to try to gain support in Germany for

2929-512: The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland , the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II, over 1 million former citizens of Germany were naturalized and granted Polish citizenship. Some of them were forced to stay in Poland, while others wanted to stay because these territories were inhabited by their families for hundreds of years. The lowest estimate by West German Schieder commission of 1953,

3030-510: The front line in Bydgoszcz suffered heavy losses. Their operations coordinated by Abwehr residents in Bydgoszcz-Grischner are documented in operational reports and plans in Abwehr archives. Among the tasks allocated to armed saboteur groups documented in German archives were: blowing up the main office of the German organization Deutsche Vereinigung , the passport office Deutsche Paßstelle,

3131-565: The 19th century, Germans became actively involved in developing the clothmaking industry in what is now central Poland. Over 3,000 villages and towns within Russian Poland are recorded as having German residents. Many of these Germans remained east of the Curzon line after World War I ended in 1918, including a significant number in Volhynia . In the late 19th century, some Germans moved westward during

Bloody Sunday (1939) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3232-642: The 2021 census, most of the Germans in Poland (67.2%) live in Silesia : 59,911 in the Opole Voivodeship , i.e. 41.6% of all Germans in Poland and a share of 6.57% of the local population; 27,923 in the Silesian Voivodeship , i.e. 19.4% of all Germans in Poland and 0.66% of the local population; plus 8,978 in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship , i.e. 6.2% of all Germans in Poland, though only 0.31% of

3333-619: The Abwehr also recorded in its documents paramilitary groups that were formed in the city. According to German records stored in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg they counted 150 members in Kampf-Organisation under leadership of a local German named Kleiss and were part of a larger military formation coordinated from Poznan which altogether had 2,077 members. In addition to this group a 10-member combat unit under command of

3434-550: The American war effort. The film was also released under the name Fifth Column in Dutch ( Die van de 5de kolom ), Finnish ( Viidennen kolonnan mies ) and French ( Cinquième colonne ). Soon the term was being used in popular entertainment. Several World War II–era animated shorts include the term. Cartoons of Porky Pig asked any "fifth columnists" in the audience to leave the theater immediately. In Looney Tunes ' Foney Fables ,

3535-474: The Bydgoszcz German minority or not), or whether—as critics among the German historiography argue—Polish troops (or panicking civilians) overreacted in the confusion and targeted innocent German civilians. This debate has been resolved by investigation of German archives, which confirmed existence of several diversion and saboteur groups in Bydgoszcz overseen by intelligence organizations by Nazi Germany. Among

3636-802: The Coast", he wrote of possible attacks that could be made along the West Coast of the United States that would amplify damage inflicted by a potential attack by Japanese naval and air forces. Suspicion about an active fifth column on the coast led eventually to the internment of Japanese Americans . During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines , an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in December 1941 said

3737-513: The GDR rather than to West Germany. In 1959/1960, as had been the case several times in the 1950s, family reunifications were declared complete by the Polish. In yet another phase of emigration negotiated in 1964, the number of applications to move to the GDR surprised both the Polish and the East German sides, and the Polish authorities now strove to limit the emigration. The European policy of détente at

3838-492: The German invasion. They did not remotely compare with, let alone provide any justification for, the calculated savagery of the treatment meted out by the German masters, directed at wiping out anything other than a slave existence for the Polish people. Hitler's secret decree of 4 October 1939 stated that all crimes committed by the Germans between 1 September 1939 and 4 October 1939 were not to be prosecuted. The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau investigation in 1939–1940 claimed that

3939-432: The German journalist Peter Nasarski) put the number of German civilian deaths in Bydgoszcz at 366, while Hugo Rasmus estimates it as at least 415. Two Polish historians, Włodzimierz Jastrzębski and Czesław Madajczyk , estimate ethnic German deaths at 103 (Jastrzębski), and about 300 (150 on September 3, the rest in the days after). The Polish historians point out that since these losses occurred during actual combat, most of

4040-430: The German minority was aiding the forces. This contributed to Polish misconceptions, as the Poles were expecting the German minority to be actively hostile. An even bigger debate in the scholarship concerned the question whether—as the Polish historiography suggests—there were indeed any members of a German fifth column in the city who opened fire on the Polish troops (and if so, whether they were composed of members of

4141-576: The German private school, and setting fire to the German theater and offices of the Jungdeutsche Partei . These operations are documented as coordinated and organized by Schutzstaffel SS. Additionally a special Abwehr sabotage group was located in Bydgoszcz according to German records from Abwehr Breslau department, called Sabotage-Organisationen Gruppe 12 whose task was to disable a local power-plant and cut phone communications between Inowrocław and Toruń . Besides these sabotage groups in Bydgoszcz,

Bloody Sunday (1939) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4242-594: The Germans killed in the fighting historians identified Otto Niefeldt who was an Abwehr agent from Szczecin . The account of Peter Nasarski alias Aurich has been called by Harry Gordon one of the most thorough German accounts; his work is however generally rejected in Poland, perhaps because he indiscriminately used witness statements collected by Nazi officials. According to Nasarski, after police forces retreated from Bydgoszcz, agitated Polish civilians accused many Germans of assaulting Polish soldiers and executed them and any Poles who stood up in their defence. Rasmus attributes

4343-588: The Germans murdered 1,200–3,000 Polish civilians in Bydgoszcz, in a part of the city that became known as the Valley of Death . Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland . As a part of Prussia, the city was affected by the unification of Germany in 1871 and became part of

4444-642: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , US Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox issued a statement that "the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the exception of Norway". In a column published in The Washington Post , dated 12 February 1942, the columnist Walter Lippmann wrote of imminent danger from actions that might be taken by Japanese Americans . Titled "The Fifth Column on

4545-745: The League (September 1933) after Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor in January 1933. After Nazi Germany's invasion of the Second Polish Republic in September 1939, many members of the German minority (around 25% ) joined the ethnic German paramilitary organisation Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz . When the German occupation of Poland began, the Selbstschutz took an active part in Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles . Due to their pre-war interactions with

4646-470: The Nazi party. As the Wehrmacht's Fourth Army prepared to storm the city of Bydgoszcz on 3 September, the violence intensified, resulting in the deaths of up to 300 ethnic Germans and 40 to 50 Poles. Sources differ on the circumstances of the killings, but it is apparent that at least some were killed in an anti-German pogrom. The killings were incited by fifth column attacks by ethnic German partisans against

4747-543: The Polish figures were vastly understated and the West German figures were probably exaggerated, but ultimately closer to reality. In order to understand the reported numbers it must be borne in mind that many former German citizens were "verified" as Polish, as they were alleged to be of Polish ancestry but subjected to centuries of Germanization. The Polish referred to these people using the propagandistic term “autochthonous”, as opposed to those Germans whose ancestors came to

4848-441: The Polish garrison. According to historian Jochen Böhler , recently unearthed German documents confirm that the violence was sparked when Polish soldiers were attacked by agents of the Nazi intelligence organization Abwehr recruited from among the city's German minority. Beginning in early September, the Abwehr reported in documents prepared by general Erwin von Lahousen that German armed saboteurs conducting operations behind

4949-534: The Polish majority, they were able to prepare lists of Polish intellectuals and civil servants whom the Nazis selected for extermination. The organisation actively participated in and was responsible for the deaths of about 50,000 Poles. Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Soviets annexed a massive portion of the eastern part of Poland (November 1939) in the wake of an August 1939 agreement between

5050-596: The Reich and the USSR. During the German occupation of Poland during the war (1939-1945), the Nazis forcibly resettled ethnic Germans from other areas of Central Europe (such as the Baltic states ) in the pre-war territory of Poland. At the same time the Nazi authorities expelled, enslaved and killed Poles and Jews . After the Nazis' defeat in 1945, Poland did not regain its Soviet-annexed territory; instead, Polish communists, directed by

5151-460: The Second salvage collection I've missed, they've got me down as a fifth columnist." In Fallout: London , a total conversion mod for the 2015 Bethesda Softworks action role-playing game Fallout 4 , there is a populist faction known as the "5th Column" whose declared aim is to tear down the existing government and rebuild it. Their propaganda style and black uniforms are a likely reference to

SECTION 50

#1733084965845

5252-488: The Soviets, expelled the remaining Germans who had not already been evacuated or fled from the areas of Lower Silesia , Upper Silesia , Farther Pomerania , East Brandenburg , and East Prussia and made Poles take their place, some of whom were expelled from Soviet-occupied areas that had previously formed part of Poland. About half of East Prussia became the newly created Soviet territory of Kaliningrad Oblast (officially established in 1946), where Soviet citizens replaced

5353-732: The ambiguity of the Polish-German minority position can be seen in the life and career of Waldemar Kraft , a minister without portfolio in the West German Bundestag during the 1950s. However, most of the German minority had not been as involved in the Nazi system as Kraft was. There is no clear-cut division in Poland between the Germans and some other minorities, whose heritage is similar in some respects due to centuries of assimilation, Germanisation and intermarriage, but differs in other respects due to either ancient regional West Slavic roots or Polonisation . Such minorities include

5454-474: The apolitical John Doe Clubs. Connell says to John: "Listen, pal, this fifth-column stuff is pretty rotten, isn't it?", identifying the businessman with anti-democratic interests in the United States. When Doe agrees, he adds: "And you'd feel like an awful sucker if you found yourself marching right in the middle of it, wouldn't you?" Alfred Hitchcock 's Saboteur (1942) features Robert Cummings asking for help against "fifth columnists" conspiring to sabotage

5555-600: The beginning of the 1970s, and in particular the signing of the Warsaw Treaty , ushered in the next phase of family reunions and departures of Germans, particularly the "autochthonous" population, from Poland, especially to the Federal Republic of Germany. Eventually, the Polish had to realize that their assimilation policy towards the German minority (both the German citizens and the so-called "autochthons" who insisted on their German ethnicity) had failed. In total, in

5656-464: The civilian losses should be attributed to accidents common in urban combat conditions; they argue that civilian losses might have occurred when the town was attacked by the German air force ( Luftwaffe ). Strafing of civilians in the town by the Luftwaffe is confirmed by German witnesses. Nazi propaganda reinforced Polish perceptions of the German minority as hostile, and during the invasion reported that

5757-537: The civilian victims and atrocities, later corroborated by a Red Cross commission that the Nazis invited to the scene. Von Frentz also noted that eyewitness accounts of atrocities committed against the German population are as unreliable as Polish accounts of the fifth columnists. While authors like Blanke write that no ethnic Germans are known to have spoken of participation in that event, by 2007 Nazi documents were uncovered confirming that assistance, supplies and aid were given to both German saboteurs and their families. In

5858-570: The early phase of the Spanish Civil War . It gained popularity in the Loyalist faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad. The exact origins of the term are not clear. Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated 30 September 1936, that was sent to Berlin by the German chargé d'affaires in Alicante , Hans Hermann Völckers  [ de ] . In

5959-449: The east of the country. Eventually, around 2000 ethnic Germans died in such actions. Nazi propagandists used these incidents to claim that the invasion was justified, and the events in Bydgoszcz became emblematic of this. Beginning with the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September, fighting broke out in Bydgoszcz between Polish troops and ethnic Germans in the city, many of whom were later revealed to belonged to clandestine groups organized by

6060-491: The events were a result of panic and confusion among the Polish troops. The Wehrmacht investigation included the interrogation of captive Polish soldiers, ethnic Germans from Bydgoszcz and surrounding villages, and Polish civilians. The bodies of the victims were exhumed and the cause of death and the possible involvement of military rifles was assessed. The events were followed by German reprisals and mass executions of Polish civilians. In an act of retaliation for Bloody Sunday,

6161-510: The execution of 20 hostages after a German soldier was allegedly attacked by a Polish sniper. The assurances issued to the Citizen Watch which surrendered after being promised that they were to be treated in accordance with international law as POWs were not upheld by the Germans. The captured Citizen Watch members were handed over by the Wehrmacht to members of Einsatzgruppe IV. Approximately 40 prisoners were subjected to fatal beatings by SS men using metal rods. The remaining POWs, which included

SECTION 60

#1733084965845

6262-423: The film The Spanish Earth . He returned to the US to publicize the film and wrote the play, in the Hotel Florida in Madrid, on his next visit to Spain later that year. In the US, an Australian radio play, The Enemy Within , proved to be very popular, though this popularity was due to the belief that the stories of fifth column activities were based on real events. In December 1940, the Australian censors had

6363-443: The former German residents. Claims to a border along the Oder-Neisse line were presented at the Potsdam Conference of August 1945 by a delegation of Polish politicians. However the conference eventually specified or endorsed the shifting of borders pending a later peace treaty. In the following years, the communists and activists inspired by the Myśl zachodnia ("Western thought") strove to "de-Germanize" and to "re- Polonize "

6464-587: The huge land, propagandistically termed " Recovered Territories ". Since the downfall of the Polish Communist regime in 1989, the German minorities' political situation in modern-day Poland has improved, and after Poland joined the European Union in the 2004 enlargement and was incorporated into the Schengen Area , German citizens are now allowed to buy land and property in the areas where they or their ancestors used to live, and can return there if they wish. However, none of their properties have been returned after being confiscated. A possible demonstration of

6565-448: The indigenous Moro Muslims were "capable of dealing with Japanese fifth columnists and invaders alike". Another in the Vancouver Sun the following month alleged that the large population of Japanese immigrants in Davao in the Philippines welcomed the invasion: "the first assault on Davao was aided by numbers of Fifth Columnists–residents of the town". However, postwar analysis of both Japanese and American military records, including

6666-414: The interrogation of surviving Japanese officers, fail to support the claims of a Japanese fifth column existing in the Philippines prior to the outbreak of hostilities. The title of Ernest Hemingway 's only play " The Fifth Column " (1938) is a translation of General Mola's phrase la quinta columna In early 1937, Hemingway had been in Madrid, reporting the war from the loyalist side, and helping make

6767-433: The invasion of Poland, published in 2006, wrote that new documents uncovered from the German archives proved that Polish soldiers were attacked by Abwehr agents and members of the German minority. German minority in Poland The registered German minority in Poland ( Polish : Mniejszość niemiecka w Polsce ; German : Deutsche Minderheit in Polen ) is a group of German people that inhabit Poland , being

6868-476: The invasion. As British historian Ian Kershaw wrote: For German propaganda, the attacks on ethnic Germans were exploited as an apparent justification for a policy of 'ethnic cleansing' that had surpassed in its first days anything that could be regarded as retaliation. The Germans claimed in November 1939 5,400 had been killed in the 'September Murders' (including what they dubbed the 'Bromberg Bloody Sunday'). Then, in February 1940, on Hitler's own instructions (it

6969-439: The killings were triggered when the ethnic Germans, dressed as civilians, opened fire on the Polish troops (Jastrzebski later changed his views after starting to work with German expellee organizations). The Poles retaliated, killing many and executing prisoners afterwards. Polish historians Pospieszalski and Janusz Kutta point to a Nazi top secret false flag Operation Himmler (which took place on August 31 – September 1) and

7070-417: The largest minority of the country. As of 2021, it had the population of 144,177. The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides, and in Silesian Voivodeship . German speakers first came to these regions (present-day Opole and Silesian Voivodeships) during the late Middle Ages. However, there are no localities in either Upper Silesia or Poland as

7171-548: The leaders of the Citizen Watch, Konrad Fiedler and Marian Maczuga, were executed by gunfire in the Bielawki neighborhood of Bydgoszcz. Additionally, in the Boryszew massacre  [ pl ] fifty Polish prisoners of war from Bydgoszcz were accused by Nazi summary courts for taking part in "Bloody Sunday" and shot. According to a German version, Polish snipers attacked German troops in Bydgoszcz for several days (Polish sources and witnesses do not confirm this). The German governor, General Walter Braemer , (the commander of

7272-584: The leading tradespeople and merchants of the town were shot, as well as many other leading citizens. Many Poles, particularly members of the intelligentsia and the Jews, were singled out for deportation, or killed outright. By December 1939 the Germans killed 5,000 Polish civilians from the Bydgoszcz County (about a third from Bydgoszcz itself). These victims included the mayor of Bydgoszcz, Leon Barciszewski  [ pl ] Many of those killings took place in

7373-434: The local population. Towns with particularly high concentrations of German speakers in Opole Voivodeship include: Strzelce Opolskie ; Dobrodzien ; Prudnik ; Głogówek ; and Gogolin . Poland was the third most frequent destination for migrant Germans in 2009, after the United States and Switzerland, dropping to 8th most frequent in 2015. German migration into areas that form part of present-day Poland began with

7474-632: The majority of historians agree that an "insurrection" by agents who had arrived from the Third Reich as well as some German inhabitants of Bydgoszcz took place. He has published a work detailing new evidence of German diversionary activity in September 1939 in Poland. There are numerous Polish eyewitness accounts of action of a German fifth column which included members of local minority; Pospieszalski cited multiple witnesses for at least 46 cases of German civilians opening fire on Polish troops. There are numerous Polish Army reports and German documents confirming

7575-595: The medieval Ostsiedlung (see also Walddeutsche in the Subcarpathian region). Regions which subsequently became part of the Kingdom of Prussia – Lower Silesia , East Brandenburg , Pomerania and East Prussia – were predominantly German speaking by the High Middle Ages . In other areas of modern-day Poland there were substantial German populations, most notably in the historical regions of Pomerelia , Upper Silesia , and Posen or Greater Poland . In

7676-496: The narrator of a comic fairy tale described a wolf in sheep's clothing as a "fifth columnist". There was a Merrie Melodies cartoon released in 1943 titled The Fifth-Column Mouse . Comic books also contained references to the fifth column. Graham Greene, in The Quiet American (1955), uses the phrase "Fifth Column, Third Force, Seventh Day" in the second chapter. In the 1959 British action film Operation Amsterdam ,

7777-508: The oldest generations which have by now completely died off. The German Minority electoral committee benefits from the provision in Polish election law which exempts national minorities from the 5% national threshold. In the school year of 2014/15 there were 387 elementary schools in Poland (all in Upper Silesia), with over 37,000 students, in which German was taught as a minority language (that is, at least for three periods of 45 minutes in

7878-547: The original statement referred to by Völckers, Ibárruri, Girón, de Jong, and others. The transcripts of Francisco Franco 's, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano 's, and Emilio Mola 's radio addresses have been published, but they do not contain the term, and no other original statement containing this phrase has ever surfaced. Australian journalist Noel Monks , who took part in Mola's press conference on 28 October 1936, claimed that Mola referred to quinta columna on that day, but by that time

7979-550: The post-war collaboration trials, no ethnic German was charged in relation to Bloody Sunday. Another counterargument that was made to the fifth column theory is that Polish troops were being targeted by advance units of the German regular army ( Heer ), or that the shots were fired by Polish soldiers in the confusion of the mass withdrawal. Von Frentz claims that Polish troops and civilians massacred German civilians due to confusion. Polish historians, such as Madajczyk, Jastrzębski, Karol Marian Pospieszalski and Ryszard Wojan claim that

8080-735: The problem on September 4, 2006, at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw . Chinciński discussed newly discovered documents of the Abwehr that show that there were indeed plans for fifth column and diversion activities in Bydgoszcz; several paramilitary groups were organized by Germany in the city, he discussed the bias of the Polish communist era historiography, which minimized cases of Polish mob lynching of ethnic Germans, which did occur in Bydgoszcz. German historian Hans-Erich Volkmann noted problems with German historiography, outlining some of

8181-402: The rear army area), ordered the execution of 80 Polish hostages over the next few days. By September 8, between 200 and 400 Polish civilians had been killed. According to Richard Rhodes , a number of Boy Scouts were set up in the marketplace against a wall and shot; a devoted priest who rushed to administer the last sacrament was shot too, receiving five wounds. Murders continued all week; 34 of

8282-570: The region in the Middle Ages. In West Germany, and, internally, also for East Germany , these "autochthons" counted as Germans. Also, in 1951 those "autochthons" who had emphatically resisted verification were compulsorily given Polish citizenship; but many “verified autochthons” resisted the Polish assimilation policy, which was often accompanied by discrimination. In 1951, Polish law restored equal rights to Germans in Poland in working life and in cultural and educational matters. However, this decision

8383-409: The reunification of separated spouses or minor children with their parents was rejected by the Polish authorities. From 1956 on, family reunions to both East Germany (GDR) and West Germany were handled more liberally, but the more generous exit policy for Germans from Poland was flanked by massive attempts by the Polish and GDR authorities to influence the German minority to stay in Poland or move to

8484-542: The saboteur actions of armed German Poles in other cities. According to German historians, any members of the fifth column, if present in the city, were infiltrators from Germany, not natives of Bydgoszcz. Eyewitness accounts have been criticised by Richard Blanke. In 2004, Chinciński discussed previously unpublished reports of Polish Army Pomorze, which reported "a large scale diversion" in Bydgoszcz on September 3 and numerous smaller incidents in surrounding area around that time. A number of Polish and German historians discussed

8585-491: The same day, the PCE activist Domingo Girón made a similar claim during a public rally. During the next few days, various Republican papers repeated the story, but with differing detail; some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano , while later some Soviet propagandists would claim it was coined by general Varela . By mid-October, the media was already warning of the "famous fifth column". Historians have never identified

8686-487: The series banned. British reviewers of Agatha Christie 's 1941 novel N or M? used the term to describe the plot's depiction of two British turncoats working on behalf the German government in Britain during World War II. In Frank Capra 's film Meet John Doe (1941), newspaper editor Henry Connell warns the politically naïve protagonist, John Doe, about a businessman's plans to promote his own political ambitions using

8787-488: The situation to confusion and the disorganised state of the Polish forces in the city. Von Frentz wrote that "In Bydgoszcz, the event was probably caused by confusion among the rapidly retreating soldiers, a general breakdown in public order and panic among the Polish majority after two German air raids and the discovery of a small reconnaissance group of the German Army on the previous day." He quotes Nazi German reports about

8888-436: The spot and some mob lynching was also reported. A Polish investigation concluded in 2004 that Polish troops had been shot at by members of the German minority and German military intelligence ( Abwehr ) agents; around 40–50 Poles and between 100 and 300 Germans were killed. The German forces which entered the city also encountered resistance from members of the paramilitary Citizen Watch ( Straż Obywatelska ), particularly in

8989-556: The telegram, he referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco " that "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone). This "supposed statement" held that Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid , and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside. The telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and

9090-456: The term "fifth column" was commonly used to warn of potential sedition and disloyalty within the borders of the United States. The fear of betrayal was heightened by the rapid fall of France in 1940, which some blamed on internal weakness and a pro-German "fifth column". A series of photos run in the June 1940 issue of Life magazine warned of "signs of Nazi Fifth Column Everywhere". In a speech to

9191-510: The term "fifth columnists" is used repeatedly to refer to Nazi-sympathizing members of the Dutch Army . The V franchise is a set of TV shows, novels and comics about an alien invasion of Earth . A group of aliens opposed to the invasion and assist the human Resistance Movement is called The Fifth Column. In the episode "Flight Into the Future" from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space , Dr. Smith

9292-399: The term during an impromptu press interview, and different—though detailed—versions of the exchange are offered. Probably the most popular version describes the theory of Mola's authorship with a grade of doubt, either noting that it is presumed but has never been proven, or that the phrase "is attributed" to Mola, who "apparently claimed" so, or else noting that "la famosa quinta columna

9393-471: The term had already been in use in the Republican press for more than three weeks. Historiographic works offer differing perspectives on authorship of the term. Many scholars have no doubt about Mola's role and refer to "fifth column" as "a term coined in 1936 by General Emilio Mola", though they acknowledge that his exact statement cannot be verified. In some sources, Mola is named as a person who had used

9494-685: The term. John Langdon-Davies , a British journalist who covered the Spanish Civil War, wrote an account called The Fifth Column which was published the same year. In November 1940, Ralph Thomson, reviewing Harold Lavine's Fifth Column in America , a study of Communist and fascist groups in the US, in The New York Times , questioned his choice of that title: "the phrase has been worked so hard that it no longer means much of anything". Immediately following

9595-521: The unreliability inherent in early post-war studies, which were still significantly affected by the Nazi era, and that the Bydgoszcz events were and still are used for political purposes. By 2007 after several years of studying German archives, documents were uncovered in which General Erwin Lahousen praised action of German saboteurs in Bydgoszcz and organized delivery of supplies and medical help to them. German historian Jochen Böhler , in his publication about

9696-505: Was applied to the events by Nazi propaganda officials, who highlighted and exaggerated German casualties. An instruction issued to the press said, "... must show news on the barbarism of Poles against Germans in Bromberg. The expression 'Bloody Sunday' must enter as a permanent term in the dictionary and circumnavigate the globe. For that reason, this term must be continuously underlined." Approximately 200–400 Polish hostages were shot in

9797-463: Was designed to create an illusion of Polish aggression against Germany. Thus it is argued that actions like the Gleiwitz incident and events in Bydgoszcz were all part of a larger Nazi plan to discredit the Poles. Pospieszalski and Wojan argue that the German fifth column agents (or their higher-ups) might have been deliberately aiming to produce a situation likely to result in German civilian casualties as

9898-473: Was discovered long after the civil war. The first identified public use of the term is in the 3 October 1936 issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero . In a front-page article, the party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri referred to a statement very similar (or identical) to the one that Völckers had referred to in his telegram, but attributed it to General Emilio Mola rather than to Franco. On

9999-403: Was later claimed) this was simply multiplied by around ten-fold and a figure of 58,000 German dead invented. The most reliable estimates put the total number of ethnic Germans killed in outrages, forced marches, bombing and shelling at around 4,000. Terrible though these atrocities were, they were more or less spontaneous outbursts of hatred that took place in the context of panic and fear following

10100-414: Was later openly floated by Communist propagandists. There are also other theories afloat. Some writers, mindful of the origin of the phrase, use it only in reference to military operations rather than the broader and less well-defined range of activities that sympathizers might engage in to support an anticipated attack. By the late 1930s, as American involvement in the war in Europe became more likely,

10201-527: Was not fully implemented until 1956. Germans of Poland at the time hence consisted of: At the end of the 1950s, regional concentrations of Germans in Poland existed in the new Polish western and northern areas and in the Silesian area, especially in the regions of Olsztyn, Wrocław, Gdansk and Katowice and Opole. However, the vast majority of Germans were the so-called "autochthons" who were allowed to stay in post-war Poland after declaring Polish ethnicity in

#844155