A roundup (in Polish, łapanka, [waˈpanka] ( listen); in French, rafle, razzia or rezzou) was a World War II practice in German-occupied Poland, whereby the German SS, Wehrmacht and Gestapo 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.[1]
Those caught in a łapanka were either taken hostage, arrested, sent to labor camps or concentration camps, or summarily executed.
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Such roundups were carried out by the Germans in other occupied countries as well, particularly in northern France, but not as extensively as in Poland. The French 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 Poles in the part of Poland that they occupied following the 1939 invasion of Poland. Men, women, and children were transported to labor camps in remote regions of the Soviet Union.[2]
"With military demands draining its industrial labour force, where better had Germany to procure replacements, than from the defeated and occupied countries. Round ups, or lapankas, the Polish name they were known under, became an essential feature of life in Warsaw and precipitated much wider ferocity on both sides. (...) Whole streets were sealed off by police and soldiers and most trapped men and women were carted off to concentration camps or sent as slave labour to the Reich. Tram and trainloads of people, regardless of work documents, were herded like cattle into trucks, many never to see home or family again. Being Polish was sufficient to qualify for such treatment." - Ron Jeffery memories 1943[3]
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 "tag".
Most people who were rounded up were transported to labor camps (Arbeitslager), including Auschwitz. Many Polish women were selected for sexual slavery. Many Polish children were kidnapped for adoption by German families. Some − those without proper documents or carrying contraband − were transported to concentration and death camps. Others, particularly Jews in hiding and the Poles wanted for harbouring them, 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 on 5 December 1940 were subsequently released after their documents had been checked.[4]
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.[5]
In 1940, a roundup was used by Home Army secret agent Witold Pilecki to gain entry into Auschwitz, gather first-hand intelligence on the camp, and organize inmate resistance.[6] 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 (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.[7][8]
In retribution for roundups as acts of Nazi terror, the Polish resistance carried out attacks on German forces and prepared lists of Nazi leaders to be eliminated for their crimes against civilians.[9] 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 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.[10] In an underground operation known as Operacja Główki (Operation Heads), Polish underground combat units from Kedyw eliminated roundup organizers such as
Criticism of the German practice of roundups was the theme of the most popular song of occupied Warsaw, Siekiera, motyka (Polish for Axe, Hoe).[12] 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 (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, directed by Leonard Buczkowski.