page_title: German retribution against Poles who helped Jews
section_title: Criminal penalties for helping Jews
hierarchical_section_title: German retribution against Poles who helped Jews / Retribution against Poles helping Jews / Criminal penalties for helping Jews
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Teren dawnego obozu zagłady w Treblince latem 1945 English: Former death camp at Treblinka in the summer of 1945
context_page_description: German retribution against Poles who helped Jews were repressive measures taken by the German occupation authorities against non-Jewish Polish citizens who helped Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust in Poland, 1939 to 1945.
  The orders of the occupation authorities, and in particular the ordinance of the general governor Hans Frank of October 15, 1941, provided for the death penalty for every Pole who would provide shelter for a Jew or help him in any other way. In practice, the range of penalties applied to those helping Jews was wide, including fines, confiscation of property, beatings, imprisonment, deportation to Nazi concentration camps and the death penalty. Due to the principle of collective responsibility applied by the Germans, families of those who helped Jews and sometimes entire local communities were subjects to retribution. The exact number of Poles executed by the Germans for helping Jews has not yet been precisely determined. The most cautious estimates give the number of around a few hundred people executed, and the high-end estimates, several thousand.
context_section_description: In 1941, the rapid spread of infectious diseases in overpopulated ghettos and the general radicalisation of German anti-Jewish policy resulted in tightening of the isolation restrictions imposed on Polish Jews. While the Second Restriction of Residence in the General Government on April 29, 1941 provided for prison sentences and fines for non-compliance with the "residence restrictions" regulations, since the middle of that year Jews captured outside the ghetto were usually executed on the spot – usually based on an alleged "attempt to escape". The third regulation on the restriction of residency in the General Government of October 15, 1941 provided for the death penalty for all Jews who "leave their designated district without authorisation", but its sentencing would be the responsibility of the German Special Courts. Finally, in November 1941, the German police authorities issued the so-called Schießbefehl order, which authorised police officers to shoot all Jews who were outside the ghetto (including women and children). After the start of "Aktion Reinhardt" the German gendarmerie supported by collaborative police forces systematically tracked, captured and murdered refugees from ghettos, transports and camps. This stage of the Holocaust, called Judenjagd by the Germans (the "hunt for Jews"), lasted until the last days of the occupation.
  Historians estimate that in occupied Poland from 100 thousand to 300 thousand Jews attempted to hide "on the Aryan side". The Germans undertook a number of actions aimed at discouraging Poles from providing any kind of assistance to the Jews. In order to achieve this goal, the occupation authorities skillfully managed to administer rewards and penalties. On one hand, the "Aryan" population was encouraged to denounce and track Jews in return for money or other goods. In Warsaw, denunciators were rewarded with 500 zlotys and officers of the "blue police" were promised to receive 1/3 of his cash for capturing a Jew hiding "on the Aryan side". In the rural areas of the Warsaw district, a prize in the form of 1 metre of grain was awarded. The award for the denunciation could also include several kilograms of sugar, a litre of spirit, a small quantity of wood or food or clothes belonging to the victim. It is known that in the vicinity of Ostrołęka rewards for denunciators amounted to 3 kilograms of sugar, in Western Małopolska – 500 PLN and 1 kilogram of sugar, in Kraśnik County – from 2 to 5 kg of sugar, in Konin County – property of the victims and 0.5 kg of sugar, in the vicinity of Sandomierz – litre of spirit and 0.5 kg of sugar, in Volhynia – three litres of vodka. These techniques did not go without results. In the Polish society there were individuals who, motivated by profit or anti-Semitism, were actively pursuing and then handing over, robbing or blackmailing Jews who were hiding. In Warsaw, the number of "szmalcownik people", blackmailers and denunciators, often associated in well-organized gangs, was calculated at 3-4 thousand. In rural areas there were gangs - usually made up of criminals, members of the social margin and declared anti-Semites - who tracked the fugitives and then gave them away to Germans or robbed them on their own, often committing murders and rape.
  The Germans used Polish Blue Police officers to participate in roundups and Judenjagd (search operations). Some police officers attended to these duties zealously, including participating directly in the murder of Jewish escapees. Polish foresters, members of voluntary fire brigades and members of rural guards also took part in the activities. Moreover, Polish village heads, mayors and civil servants were obliged to enforce German regulations concerning the capture of Jews and preventing them from receiving aid.
  At the same time, the occupation authorities imposed draconian penalties for hiding Jews or providing them with any assistance. According to Sebastian Piątkowski and Jacek A. Młynarczyk, "a milestone on the road to complete isolation of the Jewish community from the rest of the conquered population" was 
caption: The bones of those murdered at the Treblinka extermination camp. Photograph taken in summer 1945.
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