Łapanka

Łapanka

(Victims of a Łapanka in the Zoloborz District of Warsaw, Poland in 1941.)

Łapanka (or Round-Up) is the Polish name of the German Capture/Round-Up of Civilians in Poland to be used as Forced Labor inside Germany, sent to a Work Camp (German: Arbeitslager), sent to a Concertation Camp (German: Konzentrationslager) or executed as Hostages from 1939-1945.

Łapanka takes its name from the Polish Word łapać ("to catch") and in Pre-War Poland the word Łapanka was used for the Children’s Game “Tag.”

The Germans (the SS, the Gestapo and the Wehrmacht- Military) would regularly go into Towns and Cities across Poland and block whole Streets on all sides trapping Men, Women and Children.

It didn’t matter if you had the correct Identity Documents (German: Ausweis) or were an important Person.

Everyone caught in the Łapanka was taken into custody.

Polish Women and Girls as young as 14 years old were regularly selected by the Germans to be Forced Sex Slaves either for the German Military at Military Brothels (German: Militärbordelle) or in Concentration Camps for the Non-Jewish Prisoners.

There were over 500 German Military Brothels across German-Occupied Europe and every single German Concentration Camp had a Brothel (all 15,000 of them.)

At the German Military Brothels the Women were often raped by up to 32 Men per day; the visiting German Soldiers were allocated 15 minutes each at a nominal cost of 3 Reichsmarks (or $0.72 American Cents) per "session" between the hours of 2 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.

In the German Concentration Camps the Germans gave the Non-Jewish Prisoners passes to the Camp Brothel for good work or beating their Quota.

If a Women became pregnant the Germans would kill the baby within hours of its birth (usually by smashing its body against a wall) and oftentimes shot the Mother too.

At least 34,140 Non-German Women were forced to be Sex Slaves by the Germans during World War 2.

Most of the Polish Children under 14 years old arrested during a Łapanka were killed by the Germans.

200,000 Polish Children who were arrested during a Łapanka and looked “Aryan” with Blond Hair and Blue Eyes were sent to Special Schools called “Children Education Camps" (German: Kindererziehungslager), in Nazi Germany or in Nazi-Occupied Poland (like the German: Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt, Polish: Prewencyjny Obóz Policji Bezpieczeństwa dla Młodzieży Polskiej w Łodzi, English: "Child Concentration Camp Łodź") where they were first studied to make sure they were “Aryan” and then given a German Name, forced to learn the German Language, German History, German Race Hierocracy etc. before they were adopted by German Parents.

Any Polish Child who didn’t meet the Secondary “Aryan” Checks or who spoke Polish instead of German was murdered.

Only 10% of the 200,000 Polish Children kidnapped by the Germans made it back home after the War.

Most were left in German Orphanages or in Adopted German Families after the War since the Germans worked hard to destroy their Original Names and Places of Birth.

Any Jews arrested during a Łapanka were immediately shot on the Street since it was forbidden to be outside the Ghetto.

There were Round-Ups of Jewish Men, Women and Children across every Ghetto (all 1,000 of them) in German-Occupied Poland.

They weren’t called Łapanka, but were called “Actions” (German: Aktion or Polish: Akcja.)

Aktions were different from Łapankas in that the Jewish Men, Women and Children were marked for death whereas the Non-Jewish Polish Men, Women and Children were marked for Forced Labor.

In Warsaw from 1942-1944 the German used the Łapanka to arrest 400 People every single day.

That is 292,000 Men, Women and Children arrested and deported or murdered from Warsaw in those 2 years alone.

On September 19, 1940 Polish Home Guard Member, Witold Pilecki, willingly allowed himself to be arrested during a Łapanka in Warsaw so that he could enter the Auschwitz Death Camp and make a report of what happened there for the Polish Underground.

Pilecki stayed in Auschwitz until April 1943 when he escaped and gave his Report of the Death Camp to the Polish Underground who sent it to the British and the Americans.

In total 2.8 Million Polish Men, Women and Children were arrested by the Germans during Łapankas across the General-Government (the term used by the Germans for the part of Poland they occupied which included Warsaw, Lodz and Krakow.)

700,000 Polish Men, Women and Children were arrested by the Germans during Łapankas in the Polish Territory that the Germans annexed into Nazi Germany including Posen, East Prussia, Danzig and Silesia.

That number doesn’t include the 780,000 Poles or the 110,000 Jews that were forcibly expelled from these Regions when they were first annexed to Nazi Germany in 1939.

Poles arrested and taken for Forced Labor inside Germany were called Zivilarbeiter (Civilian Worker) and had to wear a “P” for Polen (Poland) on their Clothes at all times.

Failure to wear the “P” meant immediate death.

The Forced Laborers worked in Agriculture, Forestry, Gardening, Fishing, Transport and Industry.

 Some were employed as Housekeepers.

The Forced Laborers also had strict Curfews.

They could not have Sexual Relations with a German (it was called Rassenschande or Race Defilement) but in reality Polish Men, Women and Children were regularly raped by the German Men and Women they were forced to work for.

If the Polish Woman or Girls became Pregnant after being raped by the German Man the Woman or Girl were shot and in a German Woman became pregnant by a Polish Man or Boy they had raped the Man or Boy was killed.

They also received Near-Starvation Rations in order to show them their place as “Sub-Human.”

When World War 2 ended in May 1945 the Millions of Polish Men, Women and Children working in Nazi Germany had to decide whether to return to Poland (which was now under Soviet Communist Occupation) or stay in western Europe.

The Communist Poles and the Communist Soviets viewed the Polish Men, Women and Children who were Forced Laborers inside Nazi Germany as threats until Communism fell in Poland in 1990 and in the Soviet Union in 1991.

They had “allowed” themselves to be taken by the Germans and helped with the German War Effort against the Communists.

Many of the Polish Men, Women and Children who spent years doing Forced Labor for the Germans during the War were sent to Communist Re-Education Camps in Poland (at Former German Concentration Camps) or to Soviet Gulags after the War.

Witold Pilecki, who went to the Auschwitz Death Camp to send back Reports was murdered by the Soviet Communists in Soviet-Occupied Warsaw, Poland in 1948.