Terror und Politik. Die deutsche Polizei und die polnische Widerstandsbewegung im Generalgouvernement, 1939-44 by Włodzimierz s> Borodziej (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 571 Not only a reconsiderationof Gombos's importanceis, however, at stakein this work.The author is also at pains to show that earliercharacterizationsof Gombos as a pompous proto-fascistarewide of the mark.Whilstseveraltimes denying that his is a revisionistapproach, the author neverthelessarguesthat Gombos was a skilfulpolitician who from the late I920S quietly abandoned his earlier radicalism,instead focusing on practical solutions to the very real problems that beset Hungary throughout the inter-war period. The author argues that Gombos's policies as prime minister were also shaped by a cautious assessmentof the damage that any radical changes might do to the constitutional and social fabric. Overall these points are well argued, and serve at the very least to focus the reader's attention on the complex and changing elements of Gombos'spolitical ideology. These argumentsdo, however, lose something due to the lack of context in which they are presented. This is a work that focuses almost exclusively on Gombos, and deals with wider events only so far as they had a direct impact on his own ideas and policies. Not only is there no comparativeconsideration of other (east) European politicians on the radical right, but even leading Hungarian politicians such as Istvan Bethlen and the regent Miklos Horthy are only mentioned when they have an immediate impact on Gomb6s's actions. This reader also feels that the work'snarrowfocus may also have led the authoroccasionallyto overstateGombos's importance. Further, the author has a tendency to substitute lengthy quotation for rigorous analysisof Gombos's policies. Also, although this is a broadly wellresearchedwork , for the 1920-1926 period it relies excessively on the Szozat newspaper and Gombos's parliamentaryspeeches. Furthermore,the author inexplicably fails to make use of the interior ministry archives when considering Gombos's achievements as prime minister, leaving the reader with little understandingof Gombos's use of thiskey ministryof state. These criticismsaside, this work has an undoubted importance to anyone interestedin inter-warHungary and perhaps the inter-warperiod as a whole. While this is by no means the definitive biography of Gombos, it at least providesa point of departurefora fullerhistoricalassessmentof thisimportant politician. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies THOMAS LORMAN University College London Borodziej, Wlodzimierz. Terror undPolitik.Die deutsche Polizeiunddiepolnische Widerstandsbewegung im Generalgouvernement, 1939-44. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 1999. viii + 302 pp. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. DM 58.oo. WIODZIMIERZ BORODzIEJ began his academic career with a doctorate presentedat the Universityof Warsawin I984. Now vice-presidentof his alma mater and co-chairman of the Polish-GermanSchoolbook Commission, he is one of the leading lights of modern Polish history. Terror undPolitikis the German translationof his firstbook, the fruitof that doctorate. 572 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 Terror undPolitikis an examination of the interdependency between the National Socialist'terror'regime in occupied Polandand the Polishresistance movement. It states that, though at firstsight that relationshipwas a simple causal one - where a repressive regime spawned an active resistance furtherexamination revealsa farmore complex scenario, where resistancein turnhad an effecton the occupation regime. It is thatinter-relationshipwhich Borodziejsetsout to chartby examining, for example, the extent to which the German securityorganizationswere able to change theirtacticsin Polandand the degree of success of their efforts to recruit collaborators and agents amongst the Polishpopulace. In his research,Borodziejconcentrateson the region of Radom, one of the five administrativedistrictsof the Generalgouvernement,and the only one for which a majority of the archive is still extant. His approach is analytical, detailingthe organizationof the securityapparatus,itsspheresof competence, its methods and its successesand failures.In the process he gives a fascinating outline of the natureof the Polish 'underground' a shadowyworld of spies, infiltrators,pseudonymsand intrigue. Borodziej's conclusions are convincing. He contends that the German security apparatus in occupied Poland was, on one level at least, relatively successful.Itsprimaryproblem was not a shortageof information,but rather a surfeit of it, and very few underground initiatives and operations escaped detection. But beyond that, he suggests that it suffered from a number of ideological and structural obstacles, which affected its ability to respond effectively. Firstly,it bore an outdated stereotype of the leadership cadre of the Polish underground, believing it to come primarily from religious and aristocratic circles, when in fact it was drawn from a...