Bloody Sunday in Bydgoszcz and uncovered secrets of World War Two (part I)The Article in the daily, "
Gazeta Pomorska", Bydgoszcz, 04.09.2008,
Włodzimierz Kałdowski,
Włodzimierz Sobecki with cooperation of
Hanna Sowińska.
Hitler sentenced Bydgoszcz ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) to death
Bodies of ethnic Germans in Bydgoszcz, including 2 children. All were found with their hands tied, September 1939.To most contemporary Poles, the topic "
Bloody Sunday" in
Bydgoszcz means simply indifferent pages of history. To already few people, this is a fragment of their biographies, full of personal tragedy, scarred over with difficulty.
Is it necessary to open old wounds? Maybe yes; maybe this is necessary to achieve a similar historical standpoint of neighbours bound to live side by side. To strengthen the trust of nations co-operating with one another.
To give up suspicion and hate.
When we search
Internet websites, under the entry "
Bloody Sunday Bromberg" we can find both
neo-Nazi continuation of
perfidious lies of
historical propaganda and more and more often
anti-neo-Nazi voices (even from July 2008), close to historical truth. This truth is confirmed by statements of the still living eyewitnesses of events -
Włodzimierz Kałdowski,
Zbigniew Kaczmarek and others.
The provoking
Nazi sabotage did happen, it's hard to have one's doubts about that. The number of evidence and testimonies of witnesses is on the increase. A vast publication on this subject has been prepared by the
IPN Institute of National Remembrance. We are still waiting for it.
Particularly difficult to accept by
the contemporary German people, especially
the former Germans living in Bydgoszcz and the present readers of the
magazine Bromberg, is the fact that they had been deceived, betrayed and "
exposed" to
death. It's difficult to comprehend with contemporary imagination
the degree of perfidy,
with which Hitler and his closest associates Goebbels and Himmler, had planned
the death of their fellow countrymen -
the civilian German minority in
Bydgoszcz, the death of civilian saboteurs and paratroopers in plain clothes.
The Bydgoszcz German minority was
to loose their lives according to Hitler's will before the liberation of Bydgoszcz. Higher, Nazi-German objectives had been dominant. The world and the German society should be convinced about the humanitarian justification of
the invasion of Poland by German troops, to save
the Germans being killed.
Bodies of killed ethnic Germans in Poland, September 1939The pre-war Nazi propaganda was falsely spreading the news of crossing the internationally tolerated boundaries of Polish hatred. Corpses of German civilians were necessary to prove this.
Burnt German houses and churches were expected, from which the provoking firing was done. As anticipated by
Hitler, the
Polish blood spilt by treacherous covert gunshots caused the counterattack of
the Polish army,
lust for revenge,
lust for German blood, and created an opportunity for
private bloody settlements on both sides. The ruthless calculation of
the Gestapo leaders, done under supervision of its separate secret foreign department, was effective in its perfidy.
The Nazi masters of provocation, rich in experiences from the "Bloody Sunday of Altona" (June 1932), provocation towards Ernst Röhm resulting in mass murders during the "night of the long knives" (June 1934), provocation of burning down the Reichstag and further murders, achieved their goal also in Bydgoszcz. Poles were provoked. The civilian German blood was spilt, according to Hitler's will.
This provocation took place in a specific moment of wartime events, before the entrance of the Nazi army into the city, fully aware of the situation in the city, in the face of the radio communication of the developed German spy network in
Poland, with full knowledge about the colossal military dominance of
Polish troops over
the saboteurs, thus with anticipation of the obvious bloody defeat of the saboteurs.
The sabotage, consistent with
Hitler's anticipation, was
drowned in blood by Poles with the assistance of the army. The destruction range and the number of killed people were too small in comparison with Hitler's anticipation. Only one German house, in
11 Żmudzka Street, and
one Protestant church in
Szwederowo District in
42 Leszczyńskiego Street were burnt down.
Włodzimierz Kałdowski was an eyewitness of the events in
Szwederowo.
According to German municipal statistics from September -
546 Germans were killed, including:
-
local people - 286,
-
non-local people - 286,
- and
unknown -
94 (including
corpses of Poles brought from the vicinity, e.g. from
Nowa Wieś Wielka).
Objective assessments circle around
the number 300. After two months, in
November 1939, it was announced that during
the Bloody Sunday in
Bydgoszcz,
Poles murdered 5.400 Germans. In
February 1940, in the face of
the international condemnation of the Nazi wartime atrocities, by Hitler's personal order this number was multiplied to
58.000 killed Germans.
Selected provocations from the history of GermanyIn the 19th century, before unification, Germany consisted of many small independent states. It was not a politically significant power in Europe.
Germany was united thanks to the efforts of
the Prussian state with a significant influence of
Bismarck's political games. Under
Bismarck's rule,
Prussia united Germany in
the 19th century, after the war, provoked by
Bismarck, declared on
Germany by
France. In the face of the French danger, the German states gave up disputes and acted together. The war was provoked by Bismarck by an insult of the French diplomacy.
The provocation called "Blutsonntag" i.e. "Bloody Sunday" was conducted by Hitler as early as 1932. It was directed against Prussia and Prussian politicians controlling the "Weimar Republic of Germany" in Berlin. This was "Altonauer Blutsonntag" - the "Bloody Sunday of Altona" dated June 17, 1932.
Altona is a port city - a city of workers - dockers - with a developed communist movement in the area of Prussia of those days. The city witnessed the provocative march of SA armed groups [Sturmabteilungen - Eng. "Assault Detachments"] of the Nazi national-socialist party, in the workers' district of the city. The provoked workers attacked the marching Nazis from southern Germany, chanting anti-communist slogans, wearing brown shirts, armed and protected by the police. This provocation resulted in bloody riots as anticipated. 18 people were killed, and about 100 people were injured.
Hitler was looking for and found the way to get rid of his Prussian enemies. After the "Bloody Sunday of Altona", addressed the public with a loud, cynical propaganda that the Prussian government ruling in Berlin is not capable of managing law and order even in its own country, Prussia.
Prussian ministers in Berlin were replaced by the "Reich's commissioners". The republican system of Germany was replaced with Nazi dictatorship. This provocation brought results justifying the introduction of the fascist ideology into the country.
Literature"Gestapo - The History of German Secret Service", Robert Hale Ltd London, 1939
"Der Zweite Weltkrieg - Wendepunkt der deutschen Geschichte", München, 2005
Listy przechowywane są w Heinrich-Böhl-Archiv der Stadt Bibliothek Köln, Antwerpener Str. 19-29, D-50672 Köln,
www.stbib-koeln.de/boell"Krwawa Niedziela" w Bydgoszczy - the only fitting key to the events of September 3 and 4, 1939, Wiesław Trzeciakowski, Włodzimierz Sobecki, available at bookshops in Bydgoszcz
