Published: 2025-12-15

Anatomy of a mystification, or on duty: The Role of the Polish Blue and Criminal Police in the Holocaust by Jan Grabowski (Wołowiec 2020)

Piotr Gontarczyk
Echa Przeszłości
Section: REVIEW ARTICLES
https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.12161

Abstract

This book was intended as a monograph on the attitudes of the Polish police and police officers during various phases of the German extermination policy against the Jewish population. Be­sides providing truthful accounts of the zeal of some officers in carrying out German orders, as well as instances of blackmail and the murder of Jews, its narrative contains much false information. This falsehood stems from ideological distortions, fabrication, and the unacceptable manipulation of sources, including altering the content of quoted material. As a result, the image of police officers and the police force was systematically distorted. The claim of ‘hundreds of thousands’ of victims of the ‘blue police’ and criminal police has no scientific basis. The scope of methodological abuses in the book renders it a scientific hoax.

Keywords:

World War II, Holocaust, Polish police, „blue police”, criminal police, Jan Grabowski

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Citation rules

Gontarczyk, P. (2025). Anatomy of a mystification, or on duty: The Role of the Polish Blue and Criminal Police in the Holocaust by Jan Grabowski (Wołowiec 2020). Echa Przeszłości, (XXVI/2), 343–358. https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.12161

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