Life in the Second Polish Republic was neither easy nor safe. Even if you were one of the rich few, you still needed to have eyes around your head. Death or mutilation may have happened to you not only at the hands of common robbers, but also by an organized mafia, policemen, soldiers, and even ... your own fiancée.
As always, all TOP10 items are based on the articles we publish. This time, these are texts about crime in the Second Polish Republic. You can find even more interesting facts on similar topics in the articles devoted to World War I and the interwar period.
This is why the Second Polish Republic was an era of crime:
 | 10. | Did your fiancé cheat on you? Put acid on it. At least that's what women in the twenties had thought. According to press reports, tar and sulfuric acid were common tools of female revenge. After it was made, the fiancé could, for example, be dismembered (read more on this topic). |
 | 9. | You would never want to be in Hieronim Cybulski's kiosk in Lviv. Several fingers were found on its floor. There was a water box under the counter, and inside the intestines, pieces of meat and bones, and the skin of the scalp. On the shelf in the briefcase there was a head massacred so that no facial features could be recognized (read more on this). |
 | 8. | Infanticide was so widespread that it was considered a nasty part of everyday life. The guilty ones often avoided any punishment or received low sentences, and the media was only interested in those cases that were distinguished by their cruelty (read more on this topic). |
 | 7. | Pre-war criminals had an incredible fantasy. News reports about their exploits often leave you dumbfounded or cause you to laugh uncontrollably. False recruitment of Volyn peasants into the Japanese army is just one of many ideas for illegal enrichment (read more on this topic). |
 | 6. | State Police were often inept and incompetent. One of the high-profile cases in Krakow not only did not end with the capture of the murderer, but also during the investigation an innocent man arrested by mistake (read more on this topic) was tortured. |
 | 5. | Child crime was widespread. The vast majority of the most dangerous recidivists started their criminal "careers" when they were still underage. The newspapers happily reported on the most atrocious murders committed by teenagers (read more on that). |
 | 4. | There were also criminals in the Polish Army. In addition to common killers, there was also an organized gang of frauds, who, to cover up their traces, did not hesitate to set fire to the historic castle with their own comrades in arms (read more on this topic). |
 | 3. | The forester was a deadly profession in the Second Polish Republic. How law enforcement officers had to fight poachers, timber thieves and other criminals. They often paid for it with their health and even with their lives (read more on this). |
 | 2. | There was a real mafia in interwar Vilnius. In its heyday, it gathered all the criminals in the city. The organization paid lawyers and policemen and eliminated inconvenient witnesses. The internal court (read more about this) was responsible for order in the ranks. |
 | 1. | Poland in twenty years is the true Wild East. Robberies on trains and cashiers escorted by the police, robbery car accidents, burglars murdering household members, revenge against law enforcement officers - these are just some of the faces of pre-war reality (read more on this topic). |