Consumers’ Co-operative in Włodawa in the Years 1939–1944. Contribution to Research on Co-operative Movement Under German Occupation in the General Government

Abstract

The paper is a contribution to research on the history of consumers’ co-operatives in Poland during the Nazi occupation. The author is focused on activity of a consumers’ co-operative from Włodawa – a small town in the Lublin District of the General Government. This is an analysis of causes and effects of inclusion of the Polish consumers’ co-operatives from the interwar period in the economic structures of the Third Reich. Advantages and disadvantages of the new situation for the people of the Lublin province were analyzed. The issue of cooperation between Polish, Ucrainian and Jewish co-operatives in small towns of the borderland, on the example of Włodawa, was also raised. Author explained, how contruction of the Sobibor extermination camp, affected social and economic structures in Włodawa, in the context of the future development of consumers’ cooperatives. Additionally, the author mentioned a problem of supporting of the Polish Underground State by the Polish co-operatives during the Nazi occupation.