Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany

• 1. The October Decree

  ›

  On the 8th of October 1939, Adolf Hitler issued a decree that annexed western Polish areas and the Free City of Danzig directly into Germany. This legal act created new administrative units called Reichsgaue Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia. The decree violated international law by declaring the war against Poland over before the annexation took place. Nazi officials used this declaration to claim the Hague Convention IV 1907 did not apply to them. Arthur Greiser became the civil administrator for the Posen military district, while Albert Forster took charge of West Prussia. These two men held absolute power over millions of people living in the newly conquered territories. The area annexed was twice as large as former Prussian conquests during the Partitions of Poland. It contained twice as many people as those earlier acquisitions had ever held. The border of the German Reich extended eastwards by some 150 to 200 kilometers on average compared to 1914 levels.

• 2. Racial Evaluation And Expulsion

  ›

  Heinrich Himmler arrived in October 1939 with orders to expel all Jews from the annexed territories immediately. He also ordered the removal of all Congress Poles from Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. A total of about 780,000 ethnic Poles lost their homes between 1939 and 1944 within these areas. At least 250,000 were deported to the General Government region. Another 310,000 were displaced or forced into Polenlager camps inside the respective Gaue. The remaining population faced forced labor either within the annexed territories or in the Altreich. People were sometimes arrested from the street in events known as łapanki. About 1.5 million people were expelled or deported overall including those sent for slave labor in Germany proper. Eberhardt estimates that a total of 1.053 million people were deported specifically for forced labor from the annexed territories. Between 918,000 and 928,000 individuals were deported or evicted from the annexed territories during the war years.

• 3. The German Colonization Drive

  ›

  By 1942, two million ethnic Germans had been settled in pre-war Poland according to official records. Anna Bramwell notes that 591,000 ethnic Germans moved into the annexed territories from various origins. Ninety-three thousand came from Bessarabia while 98,000 arrived from Bukovina. Sixty-eight thousand settlers originated in Volhynia and another 58,000 came from Galicia. One hundred thirty thousand colonists arrived from the Baltic states. A small Dutch artisan colony was already established in Poznań by 1941. In Warthegau where most Germans were settled the share of the German population increased from 6.6% in 1939 to 21.2% in 1943. The increase was most visible in towns like Łódź where the population rose from roughly 60,000 to 140,721. In Poznań the German population grew from about 6,000 in 1939 to 93,589 by 1944. Arthur Greiser welcomed the millionth Volksdeutscher resettled during Heim ins Reich action in March 1944.

• 4. Segregation And Slave Labor

  ›

  Access to cinemas theaters museums hotels cafes restaurants parks playgrounds public transport and beaches was granted only to Germans. Poles were forbidden from attending German-held masses or cultural activities for non-Germans. Four young Polish women who attended an opera in Poznań received four months of penal work camp sentences. All Poles had to bow down to Germans as a form of greeting on sidewalks. Children as young as nine years old had to perform slave labor for Germans in annexed territories. Rural children worked from age seven or eight while men faced forced labor until age seventy. Payment for overtime hours was abolished except after working sixty-one hours per week which yielded ten percent higher compensation. Germans received one hundred percent pay while employed Poles got the lowest possible wage for their work. The supply of dairy and fat products for Polish children amounted to just one-fifth of that available to German children. Winter heating supplies for Poles were limited to one-quarter of what Germans received.

• 5. The Destruction Of Culture

  ›

  All Polish schools and cultural institutions were closed immediately following the invasion. Teaching history literature and geography to Poles became strictly prohibited. In Łódź only one-tenth of children between ages nine and thirteen attended special schools where writing and reading were not taught. Millions of books were lost when Polish libraries were closed and possessions destroyed by police. Lending Polish books carried a sentence of imprisonment in concentration camps. In Poznań Germans collected all Polish books and burned them publicly. About 15% of Polish teachers died during the occupation period totaling roughly 8,000 individuals. Catholic priests faced three waves of arrests after initial massacres began. Up to 80% of Catholic Polish priests were expelled from Warthegau region. Out of 2,500 Catholic priests in Warthegau 752 perished and one-third survived the war in prisons and concentration camps. In Poznań out of 800 Catholic Polish priests in 1939 only 34 remained alive by 1943.

• 6. Volksdeutsche Collaboration

  ›

  Local Germans organized in Selbstschutz paramilitary units engaged in arresting Jews and Poles directly. One hundred eighty thousand Germans served in various organizations that provided assistance vital to Nazi plans against Poles and Jews within Warthegau alone. Only 529 cases of friendly contacts between Poles and Germans were reported by German police in 1941 out of 786,000 Germans located there. A case study conducted by Polish Home Army unit in Mława analyzed 1,100 Germans from start of war until spring 1942. Nine Germans engaged in friendly relationships with Poles or tried to help them including three craftsmen three policemen one camp guard one administration official. The group who supported Nazis and engaged in despicable acts was much larger than those few helpers. On farms Poles were treated as farm animals while some Germans treated their dogs more humanely than Polish slave laborers. Many Volksdeutsche settlers from Bessarabia were considered the worst among all colonist groups.