LAST DAYS IN DANZIG

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 8

LAST DAYS IN DANZIG

Polish Diplomat’s Experiences

BARBAROUS TREATMENT BY GESTAPQ

[By MARIAN CHODACKI, Minister Plenipotentiary and Polish Commissioner General of Danzig.]

M. Chodacki, who has lately arrived in Paris, tells in this article of his experiences in Danzig in the few days immediately fol-

lowing the outbreak of war,

The last days before the outbreak of war were marked by constantly increasing 'tension in Danzig. The arrivalof huge transports of war materials, of Hitler’s Black Guards, and of further detachments of Storm Troops from East Prussia were among the main events to be noted. During this time many Poles were arrested and relations between the Senate of the once Free City of Danzig and the General Commissioner were almost completely broken off.

told. The guard ordered me to tak* my bag and follow him. He took e» down into a Cellar, where an attempt was made to rob me of my personal belongings and to incarcerate me in a tiny, evil-smellimg prison cell. AQ protests were met by ironical wise* cracks. Only when I pointed out that there were German diplomatic officials in Poland did these persons changa their tactics. They telephoned for instructions. But nonetheless I had 1o remain for a further two hours before the grating of this prison cell or rather torture chamber. Finally I was cooducted back to the small room which I had previously inhabited. I remained there until Sunday afternoon. Septan, ber 3. guarded by Gestapo. On that date Dr. Wesenmeyer, from the Foreign Office in Berlin, entered my room and informed me that in the course of a day or two I would be transferred te a hotel where I would find estate other officials of the Polish, Camn% sion and that we were to be CO* ducted to Tilsit the day after, Frc® {hat moment onwards we were pn> perly treated. Sufferings of Colleagues In the evening I was taken to tti small Wanseloow Hotel, where 11 c I my colleagues were already house! At, first I did not recognise Councflkr of the Legation Glogowski, who had befen brutally beaten up. His fitt was terribly swollen and showed trace of blood—scalp wounds had bee* made with some sharp instrument. Iff deputy, Councillor Zawadowski, had red scars on his neck which he bat for a fortnight—Black Guards had at* tempted to strangle him in his ce! Councillor Arlet was completely entered with bruises and had two slight bayonet wounds. What my colleagUß told me of the treatment inflicted up® them during those three days was absolutely and utterly indescribable. They had been tortured with refined cruelty. They had been kept up tte whole night, naked, in cells so smaS that they had to remain standing. Then had been beaten with truncheons. Thej had heard the whole time groant from other victims martyrised in adjoining cells. They had heard fh«a the courtyard the volleys of the firingsquads—and this, notwithstanding tht fact that all these men were diplomats. . -1 “Humane Warfare” On September 5 we were conducted to the Lithuanian frontier, near Tilsit I arrived at Brzesc via Kaunas, ’WUne*; and Branowicze. Only there did I rtfr lise that what we had passed through in Danzig was as nothing compand with the horrors of Hitler’s “human! warfare.” I saw shells falling in fie centre of the town, the mutilated corpses of women and children, housa in flames and then the bombing of refugee trains, machine-gunning, from at altitude of 180 feet, of men and was® fleeing along the roads, the shelling d hospitals flying the Red Cross. At Krzemienec, a little opt-n ton ; where no troops but only the dipb* matic corps was stationed, Gena# aeroplanes waged a war of extendi nation against civilians. Two before the German official news ageoS broadcast the position of this hew sat of the diplomatic corps. Ambassadtd and Ministers of foreign Powers cS bear witness to these horrors. It* true that in the light of what W since happened, the events which I have just related may forfeit some d their interest, but I feel that it * my duty to bring them to the knote ledge of the worlg, for they constittf the initial phase in this war of Tit*fl> between two regimes; of Justice Liberty and of violence and barbarls*

Then, on the evening of August 31, the Berlin wireless broadcast the famous “16 points,” while at the same time, in the principal canal of Danzig harbour, the crew of the Nazi warship Schleswig Holstein were preparing for the bombardment of the Westerplatte by loading the 10-inch guns of their armoured turrets. We listened-in to Warsaw until late at night and everyone expected an ultimatum or the declaration of war—but nothing came. War Begins At 5.45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, we were awakened by the thunder of broadsides from the Schleswig Holstein, directed almost certainly against the Westerplatte—war had begun. 1 leaned out of the window. The house was surrounded, both from the garden and street, by plain-clothes Gestapo agents armed with automatics. Some of them forced an entrance and beat up the porter. I gave orders to inform them that the door would be opened only to uniformed police. The hours dragged on, each one more sinister than the last. The window panes rattled to the sound of gunfire. Some of the Gestapo agents brought a light ma-chine-gun into my garden, probably in order to prove that action against the Free City had been prepared at the headquarters of the Polish Commissioner. About 10 a.m. there was a violent knocking at the door. As uniformed police had arrived I gave orders to open. A group of Gestapo agents burst into the hall and held us up with revolvers. X informed them that it was not necessary to menace us with arms, since we were ourselves, unarmed.

The Police Commissioner addressed me by name and carried me off to police headquarters. I asked him if this brutal attack upon my house amounted to an arrest. He replied that it did not and that the point was to guarantee my personal security. At police headquarters I was received by the Assistant .(Director of Police, Dr. Truger, who confirmed the statements .of his subalterns, adding that I had the right to order meals from outside, to smoke, and even to read. I drew his attention to the fact that I and also my officials were protected by diplomatic immunity. He agreed with me on this point, but when I told him that I was interested to learn the fate reserved for my officials he replied that “All questions have not been settled, for instance the Kalthof affair and the Grubenau killing.” He was therefore unable to give me any satisfaction. Protective Detention I was transferred to a small, dirty room in the Judicial Police Building where I remained until the evening under the “protection” of Gestapo agents. The window gave on to the street, and I could see long processions of Danzig Poles, many of whom I knew personally, driven forward with bayonets and clubbed. I was transferred to another “place of safety” at 9 o’clock in the evening. I was lodged in a grimy office where a mattress and blanket had been put down on the floor. A similar bed had been prepared alongside, for the agent appointed to watch me. At 1 o’clock there was an alarm, the nineteenth during the last few days, I was

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