Special Report No. 4 of the WUBP in Wroclaw (Poland), Noting the Spread of Rumors about East Germany

The Voivodship Office
of State Security in Wroclaw

Wroclaw, June 23, 1953

STRICTLY SECRET

To
The Director of Cabinet of the Minister of
State Security Section of Information in Warsaw

Special Report No. 4
of the Voivodship Office of State Security in Wroclaw

Interest in provocative developments in the GDR continues to exist in the Wroclaw voivodship. Apart from commentaries obtained from hostile foreign broadcasts, there have been no hostile acts from the revisionist elements.
Hostile pronouncements and propaganda are being spread in the German environment mostly by suspected elements frequently under investigation.

In the German circles in Dzierzoniów, a rumor is circulating that [GDR] President W. Pieck had departed for Moscow and that he may have been arrested.

A draftsman of the Machine Factory for Linen Industry in Kamienna Góra--formerly owner of that plant--Walter Fuchs, a suspected spy, was telling about oppression of the population in the GDR, saying also that “every day about 250 refugees are escaping from the GDR to West Germany.”

In Boleslawiec county, an employee of the “Wizów” plant, Gerhard Fuchs, is making exceedingly hostile and anti-Soviet comments from news heard from the imperialist radio broadcasts. He is also suspected of deliberately causing the engine failure at the “Wizów” plant.

In Nowa Ruda in Klodzko county, there is gossip spreading that, starting 1 July, prices for basic foodstuffs such as fats and meat are going to be raised, and this has caused an intensive buying up of these goods.
Among the workers of the Nowa Ruda mine, and particularly among German miners, one can notice dissatisfaction caused by extended working hours in some fields. Hostile propaganda in that mine is still going on. We have set up an informer network to detect the instigators.

Completely hostile pronouncements and comments are coming also from the Polish population, e.g.:
A woman employee of the Dairy Plant in Wolów-Kedzierska, the wife of a former security officer doing a 4 year prison term, is spreading hostile propaganda heard from “[Radio] Free Europe” arguing that “these broadcasts do not lie, they are just calling on people to understand the situation and not to let themselves be trod on by the communist boot.” We are going to hold either a precautionary conversation or a hearing with her.

A woman employee of a trade cooperative in Zabkowice Slaskie-Kozikowa reporting on foreign broadcasts added that “there are courageous people, not like here where they agree to everything,” and for this reason, she said, people here in Zabkowice are drinking a great deal.

An employee of a military construction plant in Wroclaw, Heinrich Gumkowski, a former member of AK and son of a kulak, is widely commenting on broadcasts from English radio.

In the Zabkowice county, place Henryków, secretary of the local party organization, Blaznik, speaking on the [German] events, is making a supposition that “maybe something will come out of it” and adds that his wife is persuading him to leave these territories fearing that “afterwards it may be too late.” The Commission on Party Control has been notified about it.

For conformity with the original Chief of the Voivodship Office
Head of the Administrative Division /-/ of State Security
of WUBP in Wroclaw /-/ Daniel Kubajewski, major
M. Ostaszewski, captain