The Polish Criminal Police, the German Special Court in Lemberg, and the Prosecution of Poles for Giving Refuge to Jews, September 1943 to June 1944

Abstract

This source publication contains three categories of documents related to the Nazi German occupation of Poland, specifically the city of Lwów (Lemberg) in District Galicia of the General Government, which have been translated from German to English. The documents were selected for their relevance to ongoing debates and research questions evoked by the “third phase” of the Holocaust characterized by both widespread police searches for Jews and help offered by non-Jews to the fugitives, here set in the multi-ethnic context of Eastern Galicia between September 1943 and June 1944. Documents 1 to 4 are the German laws that formed the legal basis of decrees limiting Jewish residence and sanctioning punishment for their violation. Documents 5 to 7 are verdicts handed down by the Special Court in Lemberg (Sondergericht im Lemberg) on the basis of these decrees, in which the judges imposed the death penalty on the accused for giving refuge to Jews. Documents 8 to 11 are final reports regarding the arrests of Poles and Ukrainians, and the Jews whom they were sheltering, written by members of the Third Commissariat of the Lemberg Polish Criminal Police (PPK), which were sent to their supervisors in the German Criminal Police (Kripo).

Keywords

• holocaust
• general government
• special courts
• district galicia
• lviv
• nazi-occupied poland