bullet (e.g. Constable Kapłański and others). The rest continued to do
their “duties” but in the auxiliary capacity.
It seems that version (a), which was chosen as the basis for publication,
was the final version intended for the Polish underground government and
the government in exile; this would explain the change of the tone of the passage
on Jewish collaborators.
Finally, it is necessary to discuss the earlier editions of the Oyneg Shabes
reports. “Wypadki chełmińskie” and “Gehenna Żydów polskich pod okupacją
niemiecką” were both published with Ruta Sakowska’s editing in Dwa etapy.⁹²
The main problem connected with the publication of “Wypadki chełmińskie”
is to understand the appropriate basis for it. Five different versions of
the document survived in the ARG, not to mention the text incorporated
into “Gehenna Żydów polskich”. Each version was produced at a different
time, as is seen on page 4 of the original, where the author presents an estimated
chronology of the extermination and estimates the number of victims
of the death camp in Chełmno. In the earlier versions, including the
one sent to the BIP, the aforementioned passage ended on 16 January 1942,
indicating all that Hersh Wasser knew in March 1942, when he sent the
report. Ruta Sakowska selected the version that was included in “Gehenna
Żydów polskich” in June 1942 as the basis for her publication. The information
in that version was updated by Hersh Wasser to as late as April
1942, thus explaining why Sakowska mistakenly dated the “Wypadki
chełmińskie” report as April.⁹³ It is certain, however, that Henryk Woliński
had that report in his hands as early as on 23 March. Consequently, it must
have been written before that date. Nonetheless, in her later publications
Sakowska gave the correct date.⁹⁴ In the edited document’s footer the author
of Dwa Etapy provided the catalogue number Ring. I/473 (now ARG I 25).
Unfortunately, neither the introduction, which contains a letter to a person
of Polish origin with a request to spread the news, nor the text of the document
itself can be found under that catalogue number: the introduction’s
92 Dwa etapy, pp. 133–136, 140–160.
93 Dwa etapy, p. 133.
94 Ruta Sakowska, “Jak to było w rzeczywistości (na podstawie Archiwum Ringelbluma)”,
Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego 2 (194) (2000): 249.
