The “Polenaktion”

With two so-called „Polenaktionen“ the Nazis got rid of part of the hated “Ostjuden” – the Jews of Polish nationality living in the German Reich. The actions were meticulously planned at the top of the SS and politically flanked by the Foreign Ministry. Among the victims of the mass deportations of up to 27,000 people at the end of October 1938 and in June 1939 were the parents and brothers of Ida Dehn, née Flieder, from Hanover.
This is not the only reason why an overview and background information on the “Polenaktionen” should be provided here. The first mass deportation had special and unforgettable consequences.
This article does not want to and cannot repeat historical research and certainly cannot replace it. However, if the “deportations” of 1938 and 1939 trigger associations with debates of our own day, it is in the nature of the verified facts. At that time, and even more so today, given the role of the media, no one could claim to know nothing.

Peter Dehn January 2024.

When two anti-Semites argue …

In autumn 1938, a dispute[1] Cf. Wikipedia about the „Polenaktion“ (German), retrieved July 25, 2023. broke out between the governments of the Nazi Reich and its neighbour Poland. Poland had tightened up a 1933 law on March 31, 1938. Now Polish citizens could have their citizenship revoked if they lived abroad continuously for more than five years. A further Polish decree of October 9, 1938 stipulated that, from October 30, 1938, passports issued abroad only entitled the holder to return to Poland with the endorsement of a Polish consulate. Poland wanted to prevent the mass return of its up to 72,000 Jewish citizens from Nazi Germany. They were to be left to the Nazis’ anti-Semitic persecution so that they would not get their own fingers dirty.

According to the 1933 census, 502,799 of the 65 million inhabitants of the German Reich were Jews. “About 100,000 Jews in Germany had no German citizenship, 60% of them were Polish citizens, about 20,000 were considered stateless, mostly of Polish origin. Of the 60,000 Polish citizens, about half had already been born in Germany. However, they were not considered German citizens because German citizenship does not follow the territorial principle, i.e. citizenship[2] Cf. Bothe/Pickhan "Ausgewiesen! Berlin, 28.10.1938. Die Geschichte der Polenaktion"(German). Accompanying book to the exhibition of the same name, Berlin 2018, page 53. was determined by descent and not place of birth.” Poland had also taken this into account. By including wives and children in the revocation of the head of the family’s citizenship, the intention was to get rid of entire families.

Pursued by the Nazis, a “destructive element” in Poland

The anti-Semitic objective of this Polish measure is proven. Among others, the director of the consular department[3] Bothe/Pickhan loc.cit. quote the minute via Ciechanowski, Podwójna gra, page 574., where the draft law was written, is quoted in the minutes of a meeting thus: One did not want “the dangerous element (minorities, especially Jews as a destructive element)” in the country. “The law is mainly directed against the Jews, although here and there, for example in France, it will also be applied against the communists …”

That is clear enough. After all, the Polish consulates[4] Hans-Dieter Schmid „Die Abschiebung der Juden polnischer Staatsangehörigkeit aus Hannover 1938/39“ (German - The Deportation of Jews of Polish nationality from Hanover in 1938/39) 2011, page 182. in Germany knew

“that the return emigrants would arrive completely impoverished, firstly because the small Polish shopkeepers and craftsmen had been a preferred target of the ‘creeping Aryanisation’ through boycott actions in the years 1933 to 1938, and secondly because it was known that – if there were nevertheless still assets – the Jewish emigrants would be robbed of all their assets in Germany by the foreign exchange legislation before leaving the country”.

But the Polish law was probably aimed precisely at poor Jewish families who, for example, could not afford trips to the nearest consulate or whose provider was threatened with the loss of his job if they were absent. Because of the short time available, many of them hardly had a chance to get their stamp in time anyway.

Weizsäcker threatens, Heydrich has already planned

The notoriously no less anti-Semitic German fascists – not only in view of the Polish measures – also wanted to get rid of these “East Jews” as quickly as possible. Ernst von Weizsäcker[5] Wikipedia about E.v.Weizsäcker (German), retrieved July 20, 2023., then State Secretary in the Nazi Foreign Ministry, later convicted as a war criminal, reproached Poland’s ambassador that “by way of expatriation[6] Notice of v.Weizsäcker from Nov 8, 1938. Quoted from „Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden ..." Vol. 2, page 52 loc.cit and  and via Wikipedia about „Polenaktion“ loc. cit. a lump of 40-50,000 stateless former Polish Jews would fall into our laps”. On October 26, the Nazi Reich made the ultimate threat to deport Polish Jews[7] Hans-Jürgen Döscher „Reichskristallnacht – die Novemberpogrome 1938“, München 2000, page 57. Via Wikipedia loc. cit. if it remained in the settlement.

Obviously, the planning of the Nazis under the command of Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich was already well advanced at that point. A Jewish index created in 1935 served to prepare the deportation lists. It should also be noted that the special trains on the necessary scale could not be procured and entered into the timetables in a few days.

The “Polenaktion” in Hanover

Polish Jews were mainly concentrated in the cities. In Hanover there were 1,118 of the 4,839 Jews counted in the city in mid-1933. At a good 23%, their proportion here was twice as high as in Lower Saxony[8] Census 1933. Quoted from Schmid, loc cit. page 180. as a whole, where the rate was about 11%. Although they were born in Hanover, not only Ida Flieder and her brothers Simon and Isaak were thus considered foreigners under German law and were thus threatened by both German and Polish authorities.

Beile Grynszpan[9] Cf. Schmid loc.cit. page 184. reports by card to her brother Herschel in Paris how the deportation took place in the Flieder family’s hometown: “Thursday evening at 9 o’clock a Sipo [security police officer, pd] came to us and said we had to go to the police and bring our passports. As we stood we all went to the police together with the Sipo.” They were then taken to a collection point where they were handed their deportation orders. “They didn’t let us go home again.” Beile, accompanied by a Sipo, was able to get some clothes from the nearby flat after all. “And that’s all I saved. We are without [any] penny of money.”

Between 5 and 6 p.m., the Jews were brought to Hanover main station in police cars and open trucks. They had to walk through a line of Hitler Youth and policemen until they reached the special train on platform 5. When they arrived at the German border station Bentschen (Zbaszyn), they were taken to the border by SS, reports the witness Chaim Yechieli[10] Cf. Schmid loc.cit. page 187.. SS men took away their suitcases and cash over 10 Reichsmarks. “We stood for a few hours between the black-white-red German barrier and the red-white Polish barrier. The SS men shouted a few times’: ‘Whoever enters German soil again will be shot!’ The Polish soldiers cursed us in Polish (…) We stood for a few hours between the borders in no man’s land … After a few hours we were let into Poland.”

Zbaszyn – synonymous with the first mass deportations

On 29 October, the Polish government gave in. By then, 17,000 Jews[11] Wikipedia about „Polenaktion“ loc.cit. had been arrested throughout Germany and taken under guard to the Polish border on Reichsbahn trains. They were only allowed to take food for two days. They had to leave their property behind. Some men were later allowed to sell property. However, the proceeds had to be paid into blocked accounts. These were later expropriated by the Nazis to finance the war.

Near the villages of Zbaszyn (Poznan Voivodeship), Chojnice (Pomeranian Voivodeship) and Bytom (Silesian Voivodeship), the Jews were abandoned and pushed into no man’s land[12] CF. Jewish Museum of Berlin about „Polenaktion“, retrieved July 20, 2023.. The largest group of Jews was abandoned near Zbaszyn[13] Wikipedia about Zbaszyn (Polish), retrievend July 25, 2023., a place with a population of about 5,000 at the time. Those who could not travel on to relatives in Poland were interned. In the winter of 1938/1939, up to 8,000 Jews are said to have lived in the small border town under catastrophic hygienic conditions.

Among the deportees from Hanover were Abraham Flieder and his youngest son Isaak[14] Ordnungsamt Hannover to Ida Dehn Feb 15, 1958, Dehn family archive.. Abraham, already in poor health, died in the Zbaszyn camp on January 29 1939[15] Zbaszyn camp, list of death includes Abraham Flieder under no. 9/39. Source: Dehn family archive, Museum Zbaszyn, retrieved July 10, 2023.. Isaak was lucky: the Belgian government issued a visa for him after his half brother Izrael, who had lived there for more than ten years, vouched for him.

This page of the Zbaszyn death list reports the death of Adam Flieder on 29 January 1939. Source: Archive Tres/Family Archive Dehn.

Zbaszyn: Queuing at the food counter. Photos: Yad Vashem.

Temporary accommodation for the deported Jews in a stable building in Zbaszyn.

Pretext for a pogrom against Jews

Among the deportees were most of the members of the Grynszpan family from Hanover, as well. Their 17 year old son Herschel[16] Wikipedia about Herschel Grynszpan, retrieved Sep 25, 2023., who lived in Paris, learned what had been done to his family and the other Jews from the postcard of his sister Beile already quoted. On 7 November 1938, he shot the 3rd Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, Ernst Eduard vom Rath[17] Wikipedia about Ernst Eduard vom Rath (German), retrieved July 23, 2023.. Even before the French police interrogated the young man, Goebbels ordered a media campaign that exploited this as an alleged conspiracy of world Jewry.

Although the assassination was not reported in the press until the following day, the first acts of violence against Jews occurred in Kassel and elsewhere as early as 7 November. Vom Rath died on 9 November. The Nazis had prepared themselves for this. The “people’s anger” was already mobilised for the night of 10 November. Mass violent attacks against Jewish people and destruction of their property were organised on a large scale by the state.

Do not damage „Aryan property“!

On November 10, 1938, Heydrich orders the torching of synagogiues, but demanded that collateral damage to “Aryan” property be prevented[18] Heydrich to Gestapo- and SD-departements from Nov 10, 1938, quoted from „Die Nacht als die Synagogen brannten“, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg 1998, page 31, retrieved July 15, 2023.: “Only those measures may be taken that do not endanger German life or property (e.g. synagogue fires only if there is no fire risk to the surrounding area).”

This went down in history as the “Reich Pogrom Night[19] Wikipedia about the pogrom night, retrieved July 20, 2023.“. Within hours, several hundred Jews were murdered, 1,400 synagogues and meeting places, thousands of shops and homes were destroyed. Later, the fascists also exploited the state funeral of the Raths in the presence of Hitler for their anti-Semitic propaganda.

Forced to flee

The very next day, the mass arrest of 27,000 Jewish men was organised and they were locked up in concentration camps. 6,300 Jews from Berlin alone were taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp[20] Astrid Ley (Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum), mail to Peter Dehn, July 23, 2023.. The short-term release of this group of people was linked to the condition that they leave Germany at short notice. Leo Nussbaum, Ida Flieder’s employer, also belonged to this group. He was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp until November 14, 1938 with prisoner number 23772[21] Buchenwald concentration camp, change report , evening of Nov 14, 1938, Arolsen archive. However, the kosher butcher from Nordmannstraße 15 in Hanover had already developed emigration plans for his family and Ida.

A second mass deportation took place on June 23, 1939. It says about Hanover: “Apart from Polish Jews without a valid passport, it seems that mainly wives and children of Jews who had already been deported were registered: There were 15 wives[22] Cf. State Archive Lower Saxony, files  NLA-HStAH, Nds. 720 Hann., Acc. 2009/126, 31 WgA 590/59, additional file page 334ff., quoted from Schmid ibid., page 188. alone on the list, twelve of them with children, who were deported without husbands.” These 136 Jews had allegedly “voluntarily” handed over a total of 3,682 Reichsmark in cash[23] Ibid. during a check, which was supposed to have been paid into a “Special Account II for Polish Affairs” of the Commerzbank Hannover. Ida’s mother Ruchla[24] Ordnungsamt Hannover loc.cit. and Ida’s older brother Simon fit the profile of this group of victims. The traces of the two disappear in the Warsaw ghetto.

The terror  – quite legally

The Reich-wide violent Nazi terror against the Jews now leads into a kind of “legalistic” phase. For the next steps against the Jews in Germany are based on decrees and laws[25] See the „1938 Project“ , of the Leo Baeck-Institute New York, retrieved July 25, 2023.. For example, the “Ordinance for the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life” prohibits Jews from operating manufacturing and trading companies. On 3 December 1938 Jews are forced to sell their real estate. The disposal of the proceeds and their savings is taken away from them. Jewish children are only allowed to attend Jewish schools and day-care centres, but their livelihood is taken away. Everything completely “legal”.

For the Nazis, the “Polenaktion” were a rehearsal for the organisation of the mass deportations to the extermination camps that began around 1941. The Reichsbahn bears a large share of the responsibility for this.

Numerous documents and reports prove that many Germans (and not only the railwaymen, SS men and policemen involved) observed the deportations as eyewitnesses or even participated in them as cheering spaliers. This was not concealed in the media either. A newspaper[26] Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung (Essen), Oct 29, 1938, quoted from Gelsenzentrum, retrieved july 25, 2023. in the Ruhr area confirms this explicitly and cynically: “The population of Essen watched the marching out of the Jews with smiles.”

Didn’t know about Nazi crimes? It was in the newspaper! (Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung, 29 October 1938.

Footnotes