Blue Police - Assessment

Assessment

The role of the Blue Police in its collaboration and resistance towards the Germans is difficult to assess as a whole, and is often a matter of dispute. A historian Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert estimates that 10 to 20% of the policemen were murdered by the Germans for taking part in resistance ("Granatowi" ("Blue Police"), documentary film (1999)).

Scholars disagree about the degree of involvement of the Blue Police in the rounding up of Jews. Warsaw Ghetto historian Emmanuel Ringelblum and another eyewitness described Polish policemen carrying out extortions and beatings in the Ghetto.

A significant part of the police personnel belonged to the Polish underground resistance organization Armia Krajowa, mostly in the counter-intelligence of the Home Army and the National Security Corps. Some estimates are as high of 50%. Blue Police followed German orders reluctantly and that the officers disobeying their orders did so at the risk of death. The Blue Police often disobeyed German orders or even acted against them, and some of its officers were ultimately awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award: Wacław Nowiński), Bronislaw Marchlewicz (2004), Wladysław Ciesla (1988), Franciszek Banas (1980), Piotr Czechonski (1999), Jan Fakler (1974), Jan Kubicki (1976), Stanislaw Slizewski (2008) i Wladyslaw Szalek (1979) (see and compare: Bartoszewski and Lewin, "Righteous Among Nations" and list of awarded by Yad Vashem).

On the other hand the police did take part in street roundups as well as in numerous killings of Jews. Forceful draft among members of the police was needed to create the Polnisches Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 202.

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