1.
Polish Underground State
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The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German invasion of Poland that began in September 1939. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recognized by the far left. Influence of the communists eventually declined amid military reversals and the hostility of the USSR. The Soviet Union had created an alternative, puppet government in 1944, during the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland at the end of the war, many Underground State members were prosecuted as alleged traitors and died in captivity. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people were involved with various agencies of the Underground State. The rationale behind the creation of the civilian authority drew on the fact that the German. Hence, all created by the occupying powers were considered illegal. During the Cold War era, research on the Underground State was curtailed by Polish communist officials, hence, until recently, the bulk of research done on this topic was carried out by Polish scholars living in exile. In many respects, the history of the Polish Underground State mirrors that of the Polish non-communist resistance in general, SZP founder General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski received orders from Polish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły to organize and carry out the struggle in occupied Poland. This government was recognized by France and the United Kingdom. Raczkiewicz, described as weak and indecisive, held little influence compared to charismatic Sikorski. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski supported that move, aiming to include parties marginalized by the Sanacja regime, Sikorski named General Kazimierz Sosnkowski the head of the ZWZ and Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed the commander of the ZWZ German occupation zone. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski became the commander of the ZWZ Soviet zone, but was arrested in March 1940 by the Soviets when attempting to cross the new German-Soviet border, in June Sikorski appointed Rowecki as the commander of both zones. Sikorskis government opted for a more democratic procedure then the less democratic prewar Sanacja regime. The National Council was formed by the government in exile in December 1939, the structures in occupied Poland maintained close communication with the government in exile, through radio communications and hundreds, if not thousands of couriers, such as Jan Karski. The post of the Delegate could be seen as equivalent to that of a Deputy Prime Minister, unlike the GRP and PKP, which operated alongside the military structures but had no influence over them, the Delegation had budgetary control over the military. The Delegation was to oversee the military, and recreate the civilian administration, as early as 1940, the Underground States civilian arm was actively supporting underground education, it then set out to develop social security, information and justice networks. By 1942, most of the differences between politicians in occupied Poland and those in exile had been positively settled, by 1943, the PKP had evolved into the Home Political Representation, which served as the basis of the Council of National Unity, created on 9 January 1944
2.
Reich Main Security Office
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The Reich Main Security Office was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS, the head of the Nazi Partys Schutzstaffel. The organizations stated duty was to all enemies of the Reich inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. The RSHA was created by Himmler on 27 September 1939, himmlers assumption of total control over all security and police forces in Germany was the crucial precondition for the establishment and growth of the SS state. He combined the Nazi Partys Sicherheitsdienst with the Sicherheitspolizei, which was nominally under the Interior Ministry, the SiPo was composed of two sub-departments, the Geheime Staatspolizei and the Kriminalpolizei. The RSHA was often abbreviated to RSi-H in correspondence to avoid confusion with the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, the creation of the RSHA represented the formalization, at the top level, of the relationship under which the SD served as the intelligence agency for the security police. A similar coordination existed in the local offices, within Germany and areas which were incorporated within the Reich for the purpose of civil administration, local offices of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD were formally separate. In the occupied territories, the relationship between local units of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD was slightly closer. Throughout the course of expansion, the RSHA continued to grow at an enormous rate and was repeatedly reorganized. Heydrich remained the RSHA chief until he was assassinated in 1942, in January 1943, Himmler delegated the office to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of Police Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who headed the RSHA until the end of World War II in Europe. The head of the RSHA was also known as the CSSD or Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, according to British author Gerald Reitlinger, the RSHA became a typical overblown bureaucracy. The complexity of RSHA was unequalled, with at least a hundred sub-sections. The organization at its simplest was divided into seven offices, Amt I, Administration and Legal, in 1940, he was succeeded by SS-Brigadeführer Bruno Streckenbach. In April 1944, Erich Ehrlinger took over as department chief, Amt II, Ideological Investigation, headed by Professor Franz Six. Amt III, Spheres of German Life or the Inland-SD, headed by SS-Gruppenführer Otto Ohlendorf, was the SS information gathering service for inside Germany and it also dealt with ethnic Germans outside of Germanys prewar borders, and matters of culture. Amt IV, Suppression of Opposition, formed from Abteilung II and III of the Gestapa, SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust, was head of the Amt IV sub-department called Referat IV B4. Amt V, Suppression of Crime Kriminalpolizei, originally led by SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe and this was the Criminal Police, which dealt with non-political serious crimes, such as rape, murder, and arson. Amt V was also known as the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, Amt VI, Foreign Intelligence Service or Ausland-SD, originally led by SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Jost and later by SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg. Amt VII, Ideological Research and Evaluation was a reconstitution of Amt II overseen by SS-Brigadeführer Professor Dr. Franz Six, later it was headed by SS-Obersturmbannführer Paul Dittel
3.
Palmiry massacre
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The Palmiry massacre was a series of mass executions carried out by Nazi German forces, during the Second World War, near the village of Palmiry in the Kampinos Forest, located northwest of Warsaw. Between December 1939 and July 1941 more than 1700 Poles and Jews – mostly the inmates of Pawiak prison – were executed by the SS and the Ordnungspolizei in the forest glade near Palmiry. The best documented of these took place on 20–21 June 1940. Palmiry is one of the most infamous sites of Nazi crimes in Poland, along with the Katyn massacre it has become a symbol of the martyrdom of Polish intelligentsia during the Second World War. Warsaw was perceived by Nazi leaders as one of the biggest obstacles to their plan to subjugate the Polish nation, after the Nazi invasion of Poland, Warsaw was reduced to a provincial city in the newly created General Government. However, it remained a center of Polish cultural life, Warsaw also headquartered the high command of the Polish Underground State and soon became a stronghold of armed and political resistance against the German occupation. On 14 December 1943 Governor-General Hans Frank noted in his diary, three days later members of Einsatzgruppe IV led by SS-Brigadeführer Lothar Beutel entered the city. They immediately conducted a search in public and private buildings, as well as mass arrests, many of the prisoners were deported to Nazi concentration camps. In the first months of German occupation political prisoners from Warsaw were secretly executed in the back of the Polish parliament building complex at Wiejska Street, between October 1939 and April 1940 several hundred people were murdered in this place. However Nazi German police authorities soon realized that they would not be able to keep executions secret if they were conducted in the center of a large city. Executions in Palmiry were carried out by the members of the Ordnungspolizei or by the SS-Reiterei regiment which was quartered in Warsaw and they were overseen by Gestapo officers led by the SD and Sicherheitspolizei Commander in Warsaw, SS-Standartenführer Josef Meisinger. In every case mass executions in Palmiry were prepared in a careful manner, mass graves were always dug a few days before the planned execution. Usually it was done by the Arbeitsdienst unit which was quartered in Łomna or by Hitlerjugend members who camped near Palmiry, in most cases the graves were shaped like a ditch and were more than 30 metres long and 2. 5–3 metres deep. Sometimes, for groups of convicts or for individual victims, irregularly shaped graves were prepared. The glade where executions took place was enlarged by tree-cutting. On the day of planned execution Polish forestry workers always received a day off, in the meantime German police undertook intensive patrolling near the glade and in the surrounding forest. Victims were transported to the place of execution by trucks, usually they were brought from Pawiak prison, rarely from Mokotów Prison. SS soldiers tried to convince their victims that they are going to them to another prison or to a concentration camp
4.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
5.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
6.
Palmiry
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Palmiry is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czosnów, within Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is located at the edge of the Kampinos Forest, approximately 4 kilometres south-east of Czosnów,11 km south-east of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, in 2000 the village had an approximate population of 220. Most of the victims were first arrested and tortured in the Pawiak prison in Warsaw, in total, about 1,700 Poles were murdered there in secret executions between December 7,1939 and July 17,1941. In 1946, the bodies were exhumed and reburied in a new cemetery, the reburial site has been a Polish national mausoleum since 1948. Jewish Community in Palmiry on Virtual Shtetl Media related to Palmiry Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons
7.
General Government
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The territory was expanded in 1941 to include the District of Galicia. The General Government was run by Nazi Germany as an administrative unit for logistical purposes. Within days, Eastern Galicia was overrun and renamed Distrikt Galizien, until 1945 the General Government comprised much of central and southern Poland, including the major Polish cities of Warsaw, Kraków, Lwów, Lublin, Tarnopol and Stanisławów, among others. The Nazi German rulers of the Generalgouvernement territory had no intention of sharing power with the Poles or Ukrainians throughout the war, the authorities rarely even mentioned the name Poland in government correspondence. The only exception to this was the General Governments Bank of Issue in Poland, on 31 July 1940 governor Hans Frank, on Hitlers authority, shortened the name to just Generalgouvernement. A more literal translation of Generalgouvernement, which is a borrowing from French, the correct translation of the term Gouvernement is not government but actually governorate, which is a type of administrative division or territory. The area was known colloquially as the Restpolen. The designation General Government was chosen in reference to the Government General of Warsaw, after Germanys attack on Poland, all areas occupied by the German army including the Free City of Danzig initially came under the military rule. To settle the deviation from the agreement, the German. Under this revised version of the pact the territory concerned was exchanged for the inclusion in the Soviet sphere of Lithuania, with the new agreement the entire central part of Poland, including the core ethnic area of the Poles, came under exclusively German control. Hitler decreed the annexation to the German Reich of large parts of the occupied Polish territory in the western half of the German zone. Germany organized most of areas as two new Reichsgaue, Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland. The remaining three regions, the areas of Zichenau, Eastern Upper Silesia and the Suwałki triangle. Draconian measures were introduced by both RKF and HTO, to facilitate the immediate Germanization of the territory, typically resulting in mass expulsions. The remaining parts of the former Poland were to become a German Nebenland as a frontier post of German rule in the east, a Führers decree of October 12,1939 established the General Government, the decree came into force on October 26,1939. Hans Frank was appointed as the Governor-General of the General Government, German authorities made a sharp contrast between the new Reich territory and a supposedly occupied rump state that could serve as a bargaining chip with the Western powers. The Germans established a border between the two German zones to heighten the difficulty of cross-frontier communication between the different segments of the Polish population. The official name chosen for the new entity was the Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete, however, this name did not imply anything about the actual nature of the administration
8.
Mass murder
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Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The FBI defines mass murder as murdering four or more persons during an event with no cooling-off period between the murders, a mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more people kill several others. Many acts of mass murder end with the perpetrator dying by suicide or suicide by cop, a mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations whereas a spree killing is committed by one or two individuals. Mass murder is the hypernym of genocide, which requires additional criteria, some of these mass murders have been found to be genocides and others to be crimes against humanity, but often such crimes have led to few or no convictions of any type. The concept of state-sponsored mass murder covers a range of potential killings and it is defined as the intentional and indiscriminate murder of a large number of people by government agents. Examples are shooting of unarmed protesters, lobbing of grenades into prison cells, actions in which the state caused the death of large numbers of people, which political scientist R. J. Many terrorist groups in recent times have used the tactic of killing many victims to fulfill their political aims, certain cults, especially religious cults, have committed a number of mass killings and mass murder-suicides. Mass murderers may fall into any of a number of categories, including killers of family, of coworkers, of students, a notable motivation for mass murder is revenge, but other motivations are possible, including the need for attention or fame. Average response time by law enforcement to a shooting is typically much longer than the time the shooter is engaged in killing. In many instances, immediate action by victims, bystanders, or law enforcement officers has saved lives, commentators have pointed out that there are a wide variety of ways that homicides with more than several victims might be classified. Such incidents can be, and have been even in recent decades, classified many different ways including as a shooting, as a school shooting, as mass murder. As a crime involving a rifle, as a case of a mentally ill person committing acts of violence. How such rarely occurring incidents of homicide are classified tends to change significantly with time and it was understood that the key feature of cases was a high body count. Place, Did the killings occur in a location, or in a variety of places. Method, How were the victims killed, in the late decades of the 20th century and early years of the 2000s, the most popular classifications moved to include method, time and place. Crimes against humanity List of mass murderers List of rampage killers Mass grave Massacre School shooting Suicide attack Terrorism War crime What makes a Mass Killer. Mass Murder, A Small Persons Way to Immortality Mass shootings interactive map Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence The real causes of mass murder by James Alan Fox
9.
Automatic firearm
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An automatic firearm continuously fires rounds as long as the trigger is pressed or held and there is ammunition in the magazine/chamber. In contrast, a semi-automatic firearm fires one round with each individual trigger-pull, use of this convention can avoid confusion. Firearms are further defined by the type of action used. Self-loading firearms are designed with varying rates of fire due to having different purposes, the speed with which a self-loading firearm can cycle through the functions of, Fire Eject Load Cock is called the cyclic rate. In fully automatic firearms the cyclic rate is tailored to the purpose that the gun is made to serve, anti-aircraft machine guns often have extremely high rates of fire to maximize the probably of a hit. In infantry support weapons these rates of fire are often much lower, the MG34 is a WWII era machinegun which today would be referred to as a General Purpose Machinegun. It came in variations with a cyclic rate as high as 1200 rounds per minute. Firing any firearm generates a high temperature in the firearms barrel. If fired too fast, the components of the firearm will suffer a structural failure and this means that all firearms, regardless of whether they are semi-automatic, fully automatic, or burst mode in their firing methods, will overheat and fail if fired too often. This is especially a problem with fully automatic fire, in actual use, a gun might be able to fire at 1200 rounds per minute, but in one minute it may also overheat and fail. So guns used in a firing mode must not be fired too often. The MG34 is fired manually in bursts of 5 to 7 rounds and it can fire at an effective rate of 150 rounds per minute. Semi-automatic firearms will also overheat if not allowed to cool, a semi-automatic rifle typically has an effective firing rate of 40 rounds per minute. A large part of the reason that this is so low, is that the recoil of firing a round pushes the guns aim off target, the time it takes to reacquire the target slows the effective firing rate. The Army Study Guide lists the rate of fire for an M4 Assault Rifle at 12 to 15 rounds per minute. Automatic firearms can be divided into six categories, Assault rifle The standard type of service rifles in most modern armies. Battle rifle A heavier-caliber type of rifle that some classify as an assault rifle while others see them as a class of their own. Automatic shotgun A type of combat shotgun that is capable of firing shotgun shells automatically, usually also semi-automatically, machine gun A large group of heavier firearms used for automatic fire of rifle ammunition, usually attached to a mount or supported by a bipod
10.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
Nazi Germany