Metadata language
Kasiarze w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej
Subtitle:Safecrackers in the Second Polish Republic
Creator: Publisher:
Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Place of publishing: Date issued/created: Description:Wydanie I. ; 327 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm ; Bibliography (pages 295-306). Indexes ; Summary in English.
Subject and Keywords:criminals - Poland - 1900-1945 ; crime - Poland - history - 20th century ; burglary - Poland - history - 20th century
Abstract:
In the nineteenth century, strongboxes became an increasingly popular form of securing money and valuables in the Polish lands. Towards the end of the century, local thieves began to master the complex art of opening strongboxes in response to this new fashion. In the first place, they did this by force, using all possible methods, but over time they became more and more skilled and used sophisticated tools (e.g. acetylene torches) to open the safe. At the turn of the twentieth century, some of the burglars operating in the big cities began to specialise in strongbox or safe burglaries. The press, using police jargon, referred to them as safecrackers. Their activity particularly intensified between the second and fourth decade of the twentieth century (with a break for the Great War). The turn of the 1930s is sometimes referred to as the ‘golden age’ of safecracking. The police were interested in around five hundred people throughout the country who were referred to as safecrackers in the records. The most numerous group was made up of safecrackers from Warsaw. During the interwar period, this community comprised around two hundred people. There are many myths surrounding safe burglars, the most important of which claims that this criminal group is exceptional compared to the criminal masses. Safecrackers have been referred to as the criminal ‘aristocracy’ (‘kings’) because of the profits they allegedly made from safe thefts and the complexity of breaking into strongboxes. The book, apart from describing the phenomenon and characterising the milieu, attempts to verify these myths, many of which remain the product of the interwar press, as well as cultural traces closer to us (dating from the late 1970s and early 1980s), in the form of extremely popular films about safecrackers.
IH PAN, call no. II.15678 ; IH PAN, call no. II.15677 Podr. ; click here to follow the link
Language: Language of abstract: Rights:Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license
Terms of use:Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -
Digitizing institution:Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Original in:Library of the Institute of History PAS
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