POLISH KINGDOM see Congress Poland.
POLISH POLICE — in the General Government, called into being by the Germans
17 December 1939, charged with the functions of the prewar State Police; it reported to local commanders of the German Ordnungspolizei; responsible for many anti-Jewish Aktionen, at the same time largely cooperating with the Polish patriotic underground.
POLSKA KASA OSZCZĘDNOŚCI, PKO (Polish) Polish Savings Bank.
POLSKA PARTIA SOCJALISTYCZNA, PPS (Polish, Polish Socialist Party) — Polish political party whose main goals were the independence of Poland and workers’ rights; established in 1892, one of the most important political forces in Poland until 1948, when it merged with the communist Polish Workers Party.
POŻYCZKA OBRONY PRZECIWLOTNICZEJ (Polish, Air Defence Loan) — arranged by the Polish state shortly before the outbreak of WWII in order to improve Poland’s defensive capability. To collect that money, 20-zloty bonds were issued (the discount price was 17 zlotys).
PPS see Polska Partia Socjalistyczna.
PRIMARY SCHOOL, see schools.
PRZEPUSTKA (Polish, pl. przepustki) — pass.
P.T. (Latin, abbr. pleno titulo, lit. full title) — used in formal letters addressed to several/ many persons, if including everybody’s proper title is impossible.
RASSENSCHANDE (German, race defilement) — term introduced by the Nazis to refer to forbidden sexual relations between non-Jews and Jews; defined as a crime in the September 1935 Blood Protection Law, one of the Nuremberg Laws of that year.
REFUGEE centres — in the Warsaw Ghetto, shelters for the resettled and refugees. Due to the shortage of appropriate rooms, the centres were located in prayer rooms, cinema halls or private quarters. They were terribly overcrowded and usually devoid of any sanitary appliances, which all contributed to very high mortality rates.
REICHSDEUTSCHE (German, lit. Reich’s German) — ethnic German(s) living in the Reich, on its territory after 1871.
REICHSMARK, mark, RM — German currency.
REICHSPFENNIG, pfennig, rpf — German currency, 1/100 of a (Reichs)mark.
