‘Live Weapon’ – Undercover Agents in Prison Cells: Secret Collaborators in Prisons and Investigative Jails in the Years 1944–1956
Remembrance and Justice, Vol. 16 No. 2 (2010), pages: 295-337
Publication date: 2010-12-30
Abstract
Having had Polish society under systematic observation, the security apparatus was able to carry out its basic operational activity which was maintaining control over people. Among those under surveillance, there were not only ordinary people but also those being imprisoned in detention centres/ custodies and in jails. They were deeply infiltrated by a group of informers, the so-called cell agent network (prisoners-stoolies) recruited among detainees. That special category of the TW (TW – tajny współpracownik, secret collaborator) was considered to be one of
the most important elements of the operational activity. All pieces of information they managed to gather provided investigation functionaries with the solid base for further investigations, interrogations, arrestments, new trials and litigations. Those prison secret collaborators, operating within particular cells, were simultaneously fulfilling two categories of tasks: while they were acting like informants supplying investigation officers with information gained from observation and chats conducted with detainees, they also – by playing psychological game – incited
them to particular behaviours. For instance, they made selected inmates accept all the accusations brought against them by imputing the acts never committed.
What is more, cell agents reported to the SB not only their “friends” from jail but also the prison staff.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, Dieter Pohl, Bogdan Musiał, [Recenzja] Dieter Pohl, Von der „Judenpolitik” zum Judenmord. Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements 1939–1944, Verlag Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt am Main–Berlin–Bern–New York-Paris–Wien 1993, ss. 208 i Bogdan Musial, Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement. Eine Fallstudie zum Distrikt Lublin 1939–1944, Verlag Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ss. 435 , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 6 No. 2 (2004)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, Youth conspiracy on Polish territories, 1944–1956 , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2011)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, Members of the Union of Polish Youth (ZMP) in the Lublin province in relation to the Catholic Church – a contribution to young people’s outlooks , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 7 No. 1 (2005)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, Participation of Security Apparatus in University Enrolment in Lublin Province in 1947–1956 , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 11 No. 1 (2007)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, The Collaboration of the Association of the Polish Youth (ZMP) with the Polish Office of Security (UB) on the Implementation of the ‘Ideological Offensive’ Plans in Youth Communities in Lublin Province , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 12 No. 1 (2008)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, Reakcja prasy konspiracyjnej na wydarzenia w Zamojskiem z lat 1942–1943 , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 2 No. 2 (2002)
- Jacek Wołoszyn, The Propaganda Role of the Trials against the Members of Youth Underground Organisations, 1948–1956 , Remembrance and Justice: Vol. 43 No. 1 (2024)