General Government
On the 8th of October 1939, Adolf Hitler issued a decree that claimed the Polish government had completely collapsed. This document served as the legal basis for creating the General Government zone in central Poland. The Reichsgericht used this rationale to strip all Polish nationals of their citizenship status. Only ethnic Germans were recognized as rightful citizens of Nazi Germany under these new rules. The territory covered an area roughly matching the Austrian part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1795. By late 1944, four million people within this region had lost their lives before Soviet forces entered the area.
Dr. Hans Frank held the position of Governor-General throughout the entire existence of the administration. He appointed district governors like Ludwig Fischer for Warsaw and Wilhelm Koppe for Galicia. No Polish representatives held power above the local administrative level during his tenure. The official state language remained German while Polish continued in limited use by local officials. Frank moved his headquarters to Kraków on security grounds rather than keeping it in Warsaw. His office issued decrees that banned any mention of the name Poland in legal correspondence except for one specific bank.
Josef Bühler encouraged Reinhard Heydrich to implement the Final Solution at the Wannsee conference on the 20th of January 1942. Three top-secret camps including Treblinka were built with stationary gas chambers disguised as shower rooms. These facilities operated solely to kill thousands of people each day starting in spring 1942. Four of the seven extermination camps of World War II existed within the General Government borders. Majdanek concentration camp and Sobibor extermination camp also stood nearby. The genocide of millions of Jews from Poland and other countries was carried out by gassing between 1942 and 1944.
Jews over age twelve and Poles over age fourteen became subject to forced labor after the invasion of 1939. In December 1941, the administration recognized that starving Jewish people to death was an inexpensive solution. By August 1942, food shipments to the Reich increased while 1.2 million Jews not completing important jobs received no rations. Daily food energy intake varied drastically across groups ranging from Germans down to Jews. A diet for inmates included watery turnip soup supplemented by sawdust bread and putrid sausage. Farmers were required to provide large food contingents for German forces while their own families starved.
Major Henryk Dobrzański led small army troops fighting until Spring 1940 before German executions stopped them. The Home Army estimated between 200,000 and 600,000 men loyal to the Polish government in London. Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski launched the Warsaw Rising on the 1st of August 1944 as Soviet forces approached within eighteen miles. After sixty-three days of fighting, fifteen thousand remaining Home Army soldiers surrendered with POW status. The civilian population of one hundred eighty thousand was expelled following the uprising. Resistance began almost immediately despite limited terrain suitable for guerrilla operations.
American troops captured Hans Frank in May 1945 after he had governed the region for six years. He became one of the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials where he resumed his childhood Catholic practice. Frank surrendered forty volumes of his diaries to the Tribunal providing much evidence against him and others. On the 1st of October 1946, he received a death sentence by hanging which was carried out on October 16. Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Josef Bühler were also executed in Nuremberg and Poland respectively. Ludwig Fischer was sentenced and hanged in Warsaw while Ernst Kundt faced execution in Czechoslovakia.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When was the General Government zone established in Poland?
Adolf Hitler issued a decree on the 8th of October 1939 that claimed the Polish government had completely collapsed. This document served as the legal basis for creating the General Government zone in central Poland.
Who governed the General Government throughout its existence?
Dr. Hans Frank held the position of Governor-General throughout the entire existence of the administration. He moved his headquarters to Kraków on security grounds rather than keeping it in Warsaw.
Where were the extermination camps located within the General Government borders?
Four of the seven extermination camps of World War II existed within the General Government borders including Treblinka and Sobibor. Majdanek concentration camp also stood nearby while three top-secret camps operated solely to kill thousands of people each day starting in spring 1942.
What happened to Jews over age twelve and Poles over age fourteen after the invasion of 1939?
Jews over age twelve and Poles over age fourteen became subject to forced labor after the invasion of 1939. By August 1942, food shipments to the Reich increased while 1.2 million Jews not completing important jobs received no rations.
When did Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski launch the Warsaw Rising during World War II?
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski launched the Warsaw Rising on the 1st of August 1944 as Soviet forces approached within eighteen miles. After sixty-three days of fighting, fifteen thousand remaining Home Army soldiers surrendered with POW status.
On what date was Hans Frank executed following the Nuremberg Trials?
On the 1st of October 1946, he received a death sentence by hanging which was carried out on October 16. American troops captured Hans Frank in May 1945 after he had governed the region for six years.
All sources
50 references cited across the entry
- 1inlineDiemut 2003, page 268.
- 3bookEthnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, AnalysisPiotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski — M.E. Sharpe — 2003
- 4bookGermany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural DifferencesKeith Bullivant et al. — Rodopi — 1999
- 5bookWhite spots–black spots: difficult issues in Polish–Russian relations 1918–2008Adam D. Rotfeld et al. — Polsko-Rosyjska Grupa do Spraw Trudnych, Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych — 2010
- 6webHans Frank's DiaryStanisław Piotrowski — Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe — October 23, 1961
- 7bookWar Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, Identity, and German Occupation in World War IVejas G. Liulevicius — Cambridge University Press — 2000
- 9webHitler's War; Hitler's Plans for Eastern EuropeMay 27, 2012
- 10newsGermany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third ReichMichael Burleigh — Cambridge University Press — 1988
- 11bookŁódź 1939-1945. Kronika okupacjiAndrzej Rukowiecki — Księży Młyn Dom Wydawniczy — 2011
- 13journal"Krakivs'ki visti": An OverviewJohn-Paul Himka — 1998
- 14thesisThe Ukrainian Legal Press of the General Government: The Case of Krakivski Visti, 1940-1944Ernest Gyidel — 2019
- 15bookThe Origins of the Final SolutionChristopher R. Browning — U of Nebraska Press — 1 May 2007
- 17journalYad Vashem StudiesThe Erwin and Riva Baker Memorial Collection — Wallstein Verlag — 2001
- 18webArrival in PolandChristopher R. Browning — Penguin Books — 1998
- 19bookPolice Auxiliaries for Operation Reinhard by Peter R. BlackEnigma Books — 2006
- 20bookEnzyklopädie des NationalsozialismusWolfgang Benz — Klett-Cotta — 1997
- 21bookPerpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and DynamicsTomasz Frydel — Routledge — 2018
- 25webPolish National CinemaMarek Haltof
- 26webKino i teatr pod okupacją. Polskie środowisko filmowe i teatralne w czasie II wojny światowejBartosz Januszewski — 13 September 2017
- 28web"GADZINÓWKI" I "SZCZEKACZKI"Anna Czocher — IPN Krakow
- 29webExecution Sites
- 30web1944: Twenty-two or more Poles | Executed TodayFebruary 11, 2009
- 31webHans Frank przebudowuje Wawel2019-04-17
- 33webWyborcza.pl
- 34webNiemieckie osiedle mieszkaniowe koło Parku Krakowskiego2017-04-13
- 38journalThe Supply and Distribution of Food to the Łódź Ghetto- A Case Study in Nazi Jewish Policy, 1939 -1945Helene Julia Sinnreich — May 2004
- 39bookPolish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement: 1939-1944Jan Tomasz Gross — Princeton University Press — 1979
- 40journal"Absolute Organizational Deficiency": The 1.Nahplan of December 1939 (Logistics, Limitations, and Lessons)Phillip Rutherford — 2003
- 41bookHitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled EuropeMark Mazower — The Penguin Press — 2008
- 42bookThe Destruction of the European JewsRaul Hilberg — Yale University Press — 2003
- 44bookPro memoria: Warszawskie biblioteki naukowe w latach okupacji 1939-1945various authors et al. — Biblioteka Narodowa — 2004
- 45webPolsko-niemiecka historia piłki, czyli powrót do przeszłości2015-12-27
- 46webThe Wannsee Conference ProtocolAdolf Eichmann — University of Pennsylvania
- 47web25 września. Wcielenie kolei polskich na Śląsku, w Wielkopolsce i na Pomorzu do niemieckich kolei państwowych Deutsche Reichsbahn.Jerzy Wasilewski — Polskie Koleje Państwowe PKP — 2014
- 48bookBelzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death CampsYitzhak Arad — Indiana University Press — 1999