Lapanka
Encyclopedia
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
practice in German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
-occupied Poland, whereby the German SS, Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
rounded up civilians on the streets of Polish cities. The civilians were arrested at random from among passers-by or inhabitants of city quarters that had been surrounded by German forces.
Those caught in a łapanka were either taken hostage, arrested, sent to labor camps or concentration camps, or summarily executed.
Venues
Such roundups were carried out by the GermansNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in other occupied countries as well, particularly in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but not as extensively as in Poland. The French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
term for this practice was rafle, applied primarily to the rounding-up of Jews. In Denmark, łapanka was called Razzia. The word razzia was used in French colonial context particularly for Muslim raids to plunder and capture slaves from African peoples of Western and Central Africa, also known as rezzou when practiced by the Tuareg. The word was adopted from ġaziya of Algerian Arabic vernacular and later became a figurative name for any act of pillage, with its verb form razzier. The Soviets used similar tactics to round up middle-class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
Poles in the part of Poland that they occupied following the 1939 invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
. Men, women, and children were transported to labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
s in remote regions of the Soviet Union.
History
The term łapanka comes from the Polish verb łapać ("to catch") and, used in this context, carried a sardonic connotation from its prior use as the name for the children's game that is known in English as "tagTag (game)
Tag is a playground game played worldwide that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to tag or touch them, usually with their fingers. There are many variations...
".
Most people who were rounded up were transported to labor camps (Arbeitslager
Arbeitslager
Arbeitslager is a German language word which means labor camp.The German government under Nazism used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially during World War II....
), including Auschwitz. Many Polish women were selected for sexual slavery
German military brothels in World War II
In World War II, the German military brothels were set up by the Third Reich throughout most of occupied Europe, for the use by their soldiers in the Wehrmacht and for the SS officers. These establishments were sometimes set up via existing brothels which they took over in the West, but generally...
. Many Polish children were kidnapped
Kidnapping of Polish children by Nazi Germany
Kidnapping of Eastern European children by Nazi Germany , part of the Generalplan Ost , involved taking children from Eastern Europe and moving them to Nazi Germany for the purpose of Germanization, or conversion into Germans....
for adoption by German families. Some − those without proper documents or carrying contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
− were transported to concentration and death camps. Others, particularly Jews in hiding and the Poles wanted for harbouring them
Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
Polish Jews were the primary victims of the German Nazi-organized Holocaust. Throughout the German occupation of Poland, many Polish Gentiles risked their own lives—and the lives of their families—to rescue Jews from the Nazis. Grouped by nationality, Poles represent the biggest number of people...
, were shot dead on the spot.
The term was also used for the cordoning-off of streets at night and the systematic searching of buildings. Possession of an identity card (Ausweis) certifying that the holder was employed by a German company or government agency (for example, city utilities or the railways) was the only reliable defense for young men in their 20s and 30s against being taken. Thus, many of those who were taken from cafes and restaurants in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
on 5 December 1940 were subsequently released after their documents had been checked.
According to estimates, between 1942 and 1944 there were some 400 victims of this practice daily in Warsaw alone, with numbers on some days reaching several thousand. On 19 September 1942, nearly 3,000 men and women who had been caught in massive round-ups all over Warsaw during the previous two days were transported by train to Germany.
Polish resistance
In 1940, a roundup was used by Home Army secret agent Witold PileckiWitold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
to gain entry into Auschwitz, gather first-hand intelligence on the camp, and organize inmate resistance. On September 19, 1940, Pilecki deliberately went out during a street roundup in Warsaw and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. There he organized Związek Organizacji Wojskowej
Zwiazek Organizacji Wojskowej
Związek Organizacji Wojskowej was an underground resistance organization formed by Witold Pilecki at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940.-Beginning:...
(ZOW, the Military Organization Association) and in November 1940 sent its first report about the camp and the genocide being committed there, to Home Army headquarters in Warsaw.
In retribution for roundups as acts of Nazi terror, the Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
carried out attacks on German forces and prepared lists of Nazi leaders to be eliminated for their crimes against civilians. Nazi personnel responsible for organizing roundups, such as members of local unemployment offices, the SS, SD, and German police, were sentenced to death by the Special Courts
Special Courts
Special Courts were the underground courts organized by the Polish Government in Exile during World War II in occupied Poland. The courts determined punishments for the citizens of Poland who were subject to the Polish law before the war.-History:After the Polish Defense War of 1939...
of the Polish Underground for crimes against Polish citizens during the Occupation of Poland. Because of the particular brutality of the police, the AK killed 361 gendarmes in 1943, and 584 in 1944. In Warsaw alone, ten Germans were killed daily. From August to December 1942, the AK launched 87 attacks on the German administration and members of the apparatus of terror. In 1943 this number rose radically − the AK carried out 514 attacks during the first four months. In an underground operation known as Operacja Główki
Operacja Główki
Operation Heads was the code name of a series of assassinations of Nazi officials by the Polish Resistance during World War II. Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by the Special Courts of the Polish Underground for crimes against Polish citizens during the World War II...
(Operation Heads), Polish underground combat units from Kedyw
Kedyw
Kedyw , was an underground movement - Armia Krajowa organization during World War II, which specialized in active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed action against Nazi German forces and collaborators.-Operations:...
eliminated roundup organizers such as
- Kurt Hoffman - chief of the unemployment office in Warsaw responsible for organizing roundups of Poles. Executed by the AK on 9 April 1943.
- Hugo Dietz - his assistant. Executed on 13 April 1943.
- Fritz Geist - chief of the unemployment office department. Killed on 10 May.
- Willi Lübbert - worked at the unemployment office and organized roundups of Poles to be sent to Nazi labor camps. Executed on July 1, 1944.
- Eugen Bollodino - worked at the unemployment office and organized roundups of Poles to be sent to Nazi labor camps. Executed by combat patrol unit DB-17 on 8 June 1944.
In culture
Criticism of the German practice of roundups was the theme of the most popular song of occupied Warsaw, Siekiera, motykaSiekiera, motyka
Siekiera, motyka is a famous Polish military songs from the period of World War II. It became the most popular song of occupied Warsaw, and then, of entire occupied Poland.-Creation:...
(Polish for Axe, Hoe). In 1943 it was published by the Polish resistance's underground presses in the book Posłuchajcie ludzie... (Listen, folks), one of the bibuła publications of the Komisja Propagandy (Propaganda Commission) of the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
(Home Army). The song was also reproduced in several books and records after the German occupation ended. In 1946 the song was featured in the first Polish movie created after the war, Zakazane piosenki
Zakazane piosenki
Zakazane piosenki is a 1946 Polish musical film directed by Leonard Buczkowski. It was the first feature film to be created in Poland following the six years of World War II....
, directed by Leonard Buczkowski.
See also
- ImpressmentImpressmentImpressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
- Nazi crimes against ethnic PolesNazi crimes against ethnic PolesIn addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
- Forced labor in Germany during World War IIForced labor in Germany during World War IIThe use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied...
- German camps in occupied Poland during World War IIGerman camps in occupied Poland during World War IIThe German camps in occupied Poland during World War II were built by Nazi Germany in the course of its Occupation of Poland both in areas annexed by Germany and in General Gouvernment...
- Treatment of Polish citizens by occupiersTreatment of Polish citizens by occupiersThe occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War began with invasion of Poland in September 1939, and formally concluded with the defeat of Nazism by the Four Powers in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of foreign occupation the territory of Poland was...
- World War II atrocities in PolandWorld War II atrocities in PolandApproximately six million Polish citizens, divided nearly equally between non-Jewish and Jewish, perished during World War II. Most were civilians killed by the actions of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and their allies. At the Nuremberg Tribunal, three categories were established. These categories...
- Dev%C5%9Firme