Summary

This paper aims to provide a panoramic picture of German papers appearing in Polish between September 1939 and March 1945. The overall number of these periodicals was 99 (with a few doubtful titles - up to 104) in the Generalgouvernement (where these publications were most abundant and had many titles - from 75 to 78). The next area were the lands annexed to the Third Reich (16 titles known and some 17 hypothetical ones), then the East Lands (Ostlands) followed with two titles, and the so-called Old Reich (6 or 7 titles). These "creepy" papers were usually issued weekly, biweekly or monthly. The largest (about 300,000 issues) was a daily "Nowy Kurier Warszawski" (New Warsaw Courier). The Germans controlled all papers and the Polish collaborators had only a menial assisting function. The political line of these derogatory papers was entirely unified, as was the entirety of all papers in the Reich by the directives in bulletins of the Deutsche Nachrichtenbüro. Some minimal independence might be seen only in the cultural reviews if such a column was a part of the paper. A specially significant characteristic of these Polish language papers was a separation of the areas they appeared in, sectors and categories of periodicals and above all a hermetically sealed isolation of the papers appearing in the Generalgou-vernment areas, areas annexed to the Third Reich. Eastern Lands and the Old Reich.