Nazis’ method of occupation
Western part of POL taken by Nazis placed under General Government, staffed exclusively by GER officials
Occupation of POL involved:
Rounding up + executing potential enemies
Eviction to make way for GER settlers
Eradication of POL culture
Treatment of Jewish people
Treatment of disabled, Romany and LGBTQ people
Food rations
Forced labour
Rounding up + executing potential enemies during Nazi occupation of Poland
Einsatzgruppen hunted down + executed those thought to pose threat to occupation govt
Armed with list of 61,000 names inc doctors, intellectuals, political activists, WW1 vets, Einsatzgruppen rounded up + murdered over 16,000 people in first few months after invasion
Eviction to make way for settlers during Nazi occupation of Poland
Oct 1939: Germans started to expel Poles from lands they’d captured
Those who weren’t executed faced eviction from homes
Over 2m Poles forced from homes + relocated into slums/ghettos while homes were occupied by GER settlers, encouraged by right to resettle in new Lebensraum
Eradication of Polish culture during Nazi occupation of Poland
Attempt by Germans to strip away any sense of national/cultural identity from POL people to break their will to resist:
All cultural institutions: schools, museums, libraries, theatres, shut down
Radio receivers confiscated
Books burned
Monuments taken down
Treatment of Jewish people during Nazi occupation of Poland
3.5m Jewish in POL immediately forced to wear Star of David in public to isolate + make them visible
April 1940: Warsaw Jewish community forced to begin construction of walled ghetto within ruins of city where they’d be forced to live
Jewish community of Warsaw made up 30% of population, but area covered by ghetto was only 5% of whole city
Conditions in ghetto: cramped + unsanitary
→ Outbreaks of typhus + other diseases
Along with starvation, caused thousands of deaths
Many concentration camps created by Nazis located in POL, most famously Auschwitz
Ghetto inhabitants, starved and living in appalling conditions, were taken on transportations to camps
Labourers were worked to death
Auschwitz received first group of Poles on 14 June 1940 - within a year, population was thousands
140,000-150,000 Poles went through Auschwitz
Around half died due to executions, medical experiments, starvation and rest were sent to gas chambers
Treatment of disabled, Romany and LGBTQ people during Nazi occupation of Poland
Regarded by Nazis as socially undesirable, treated in same way as Jews
Forced to live in ghettoes and put on transportations to concentration camps where few survived
Food rations during Nazi occupation of Poland
Food strictly rationed for all Poles
Led to desperate struggle for food + malnutrition, worst in urban areas
Forced labour during Nazi occupation of Poland
General Govt operated forced labour service known as Baudienst
Initially, anyone over 18yo could be pressed into service at any time
Age was lowered to 14yo; 12yo for Jews
Many Poles sent to work in factories, farms, construction sites within POL
Forced to wear purple P on clothing
Subject to curfew
Banned from public transport + leisure facilities
Around 2.3m Poles deported to work for GER war effort in GER / other occupied territories
As GER labour demands increased, evading forced labour conscription became punishable by death
Whole village communities which failed to provide enough workers would be surrounded by GER troops and burned to the ground, massacring everyone
Ruins would be left as message to surrounding villages
Resistance to German occupation in Poland
AK (Home Army) was one group who resisted GER occupation of POL
Loyal to POL govt in exile in London
Formed in Feb 1942, AK had support from 100,000 members at start
By summer 1944, membership reached 400,000
In Aug 1944, AK launched failed uprising in POL Capital Warsaw, which cost lives of 200,000 civilians
Final Solution
After GER invaded USSR in June 1941, they came across increasing numbers of Jews
Einsatzgruppen murdered many, but numbers still increasing
20 Jan 1942: Wansee Conference held near Berlin
At meeting, plans were outlined for genocide of European Jews
‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’
Known as Holocaust
Key points about Holocaust
Both USSR and GER divided POL in 1939
Nazis treated Poles badly + thousands killed / kept in inhumane conditions in ghettos
Plan to exterminate Europe’s Jews was developed over time as H’s conquests confronted Nazis with more and more Jews
Extermination camps built with sole purpose of murdering as many Jews + minorities as possible
Gas + crematoria were main methods of murder in camps - 6m died
Conclusion and aftermath of Nazi rule in Poland
Total: 3m POL citizens killed + 3m POL Jews as part of Final Solution
22% of country’s population lost in WW2