Swastika tattoo on Polish resistance fighter's chest?

You also should consider that Canada and the USA intentionally bought in thousands of people, that hated the communist, to spy on the unions. former sympathies did not matter.
 
MD said:
Not exactly about WWII firearms but sorta.

When I was a kid in Port Hardy there was a Polish guy who was a pretty tough nut. Had a .38 revolver and when he had people over for drinks he'd challenge them to play Russian roulette. There are a lot of other stories, some pretty cruel, but I won't repeat them.

He said he could never go back to Poland because the communists would kill him.

When he died his family had some of his momentos from WWII including a uniform cap and some medals from the Polish Home Army.

What I could never figure out was shortly before he died I happened to be back in Port Hardy on a hot summer day and bumped into him at the dock and he had his shirt open to the navel and a faded old tattoo on his chest. "What's that?" the guy I was with asked.

"Hakenkreuz" he answered.

I know enough German to recognize that word and looked closely at the tattoo and sure enough, his whole chest was covered with this swastika tattoo.

He never said anything else about it but since then I always wondered if he had been in the resistance why did he have that tattoo?
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About 500,000 poles served with Nazi troops. Just on the west front Brits and Americans captured 90,000 of them as POWs. On top of it, there were thousands who served on occupied ex-Poland. Number of them has been acting against local Polish Home Army.

So, uniform means absolutely nothing! In fact, it could be something used to assist running away from punishment.

In simple terms, given Swastika and being afraid to go back is likely a result of past war crimes. In communist Poland being a member of PHA in the past was not a crime. However, they would prosecute people who committed war crimes against Polish civilians as part of Nazi regime.
 
More likely he was Volks Duetches Pole who was a happy SS man til the war ended. Then having a name similar to another dead pole who was Home Army, he avoided a 10 year working vacation in Mother Russia but became hated as a Capitalist when the PoleComs formed the Polish government.
 
fraserdw said:
More likely he was Volks Duetches Pole who was a happy SS man til the war ended. Then having a name similar to another dead pole who was Home Army, he avoided a 10 year working vacation in Mother Russia but became hated as a Capitalist when the PoleComs formed the Polish government.
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That's my guess as well.
 
guess_kto said:
About 500,000 poles served with Nazi troops. Just on the west front Brits and Americans captured 90,000 of them as POWs. On top of it, there were thousands who served on occupied ex-Poland. Number of them has been acting against local Polish Home Army.

So, uniform means absolutely nothing! In fact, it could be something used to assist running away from punishment.

In simple terms, given Swastika and being afraid to go back is likely a result of past war crimes. In communist Poland being a member of PHA in the past was not a crime. However, they would prosecute people who committed war crimes against Polish civilians as part of Nazi regime.
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When you say 500,000 served it's a bit misleading, hundreds of thousands of Poles were taken into the Reich as forced labour, some were given options manning the Atlantic wall to escape POW camps or simply conscripted due to inhabiting Pomerania and Upper Silesia when they were annexed. Many of the Poles manning the Atlantic Wall surrendered without firing a shot such as those captured by the Fort Garry Horse (out of Winnipeg) on D-Day. Many in "collaborationist" positions like the Blue police were actually members of the resistance themselves, often in great numbers. If you're able to provide sources for the figures you have given I'd very much like to read more.
 
Steyn said:
That's my guess as well.
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There is an interesting story of a private in the Estonian border Patrol who was drafted in the Red Army in 1940. In 41 he was captured by the Germans and became security police in the German army. In 43 he was transferred to the SS Estonian division. In late 44 during the retreat he went home and was drafted into the Red Army Estonian Rifle Corps. In late 45 he took his weapons into the woods and fought as Forest Brother for a decade. After the death of Stalin he surrendered and did 10 years in a prison. He retired a gardener in Estonia in the 80s. That's an example of how it worked in the East.
 
There were quite few types of resistance around Europe, including Poland ...
Some killed more of Jews, Gypsies and their own people, including women, children and elderly, than they killed German, Italian, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Spanish, Soviet, etc soldiers
 
coming from europe and heard many stories there is no way you can recognize someone from his accent ... that accent thing can be worked especially if you do not want to be caught.

my dad was raised in an area where they spoke more german than slovene and his slovene accent was far from home while his german accent was more from innsbruck where it should have been from ferlach ... his italian one should have been from Venice or trieste while it was most from modena.
 
fraserdw said:
There is an interesting story of a private in the Estonian border Patrol who was drafted in the Red Army in 1940. In 41 he was captured by the Germans and became security police in the German army. In 43 he was transferred to the SS Estonian division. In late 44 during the retreat he went home and was drafted into the Red Army Estonian Rifle Corps. In late 45 he took his weapons into the woods and fought as Forest Brother for a decade. After the death of Stalin he surrendered and did 10 years in a prison. He retired a gardener in Estonia in the 80s. That's an example of how it worked in the East.
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Crazy, I know. I've read about some other people who flipped sides by chance during the war.
 
9.3mauser said:
If the communists wanted to kill him, there's a good chance it's because he was a Nazi collaborator, which might explain the tattoo.
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The communists also had it in for intellectuals, pre-war industrialists, teachers, former polish army officers and senior NCOs, nazi collaborators, and generally anyone who the politbureau thought would give the regime any difficulties in pushing their ideology.

This was an era where unfounded allegations made to the NKVD was enough for a late night knock on the door followed by someone dying or going to a gulag.

It's entirely possible the fellow was on the wrong side of things, but it would take more proof than a tattoo and communist persecution to prove anything at all.
 
Steyn said:
Crazy, I know. I've read about some other people who flipped sides by chance during the war.
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lots of countries experienced multiple occupations that had weird effects on their inhabitants. Latvia, for example, was occupied 3 times:

- Russian occupation in 1940
- German occupation in 1941
- Russian occupation in 1944 that lasted until 1991 or so.

There's an exhibit in the CWM right now about it. More people were killed under Stalin in Latvia than under German occupation. The difference is the german had it in for gypsies, jews and the infirm, while the Russians had it in for community leaders, intellectuals and people with ties to the pre-war government.

So basically everyone got the shaft.
 
I had a friend who's mother's uncle fought for many different armies...multiple times during the war. From what I recall it almost sounded like someone who worked for a company and that company kept getting bought by other companies! Same old same old, just change the letterhead on the stationary!! As long as he was fed and clothed he didn't seem to really care what flag he was under. He didn't see that much actual combat from what was told to me.
 
Reminds me of an old Italian movie I saw, maybe 50 years ago. A guy gets drafted into the Italian Army, then the German Army, then the British and finally by the Americans. At the end he finally goes Home and he meets a bunch of kids and opens up is duffle bag and give them each a different helmet. Whish I could see that one again!
 
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