Victims of the Holocaust: Poles

During World War II Poland suffered greatly under five years of German Occupation. Nazi ideology viewed “Poles” – the predominately roman Catholic ethnic majority- as “subhumans” occupying lands vital to Germany. As part of the policy to destroy Polish resistance, the Germans killed many of the nations political, religious, and intellectual leaders. They also kidnapped children judged racially suitable for adoption by Germans and confined Poles in dozens of prisons and concentration and forced labor camps, where many died.

Invasion and Occupation of Poland

German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Hitler’s pre-text for military expansion was the need for more “living space” for the German nation. The night before the invasion Hitler stated: “I have issued the command- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by firing squad- that our war aim does not consist of reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have place my death-head formations in readiness…with orders to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only this shall we gain the living space we need.

While the Nazi’s determined to commit genocide and target all of the 3.3 Million Jews in Poland for destruction, they had different plans for the Polish Catholic majority. They determined to kill or suppress the political, religious, and intellectual leaders of the Polish Catholic population. This way, the Nazi’s could manipulate the leaderless population into laborers in agriculture an industry.

Germanizing Occupied Land

As the Germans invaded Poland the Einsatzgruppen (special SS killing squads) followed closely behind. They arrested or killed those caught resisting the Germans or who were deemed capable of doing so. Tens of thousands of wealthy landowners, clergy, government officials, teachers, doctors, journalists were either murdered in mass executions or sent to concentration camps. The Germans wanted to destroy education and culture in Poland. They closed or destroyed Universities, schools, museums, and libraries. They destroyed monuments. An order came from Himmler that Polish school children should only have a few years of education: “The sole goal of this schooling is to teach them simple arithmetic, nothing above the number 500; writing ones name; and the doctrine that it is divine law to obey the Germans…I do not think that reading is desirable.” Poland was to become “Germanized”. The streets were renamed with German names. Polish businesses became German businesses. Catholic Churches were closed and most priests were either killed or imprisoned. An estimated 3,000 clergy were killed. Germans were brought from the Baltic region to resettle on farms or in businesses formerly owned by Poles and Jews who had been expelled. Towards the end of 1940 an estimated 325,000 people were expelled without warning, losing all of their belongings. Many children and elderly did not survive transit. This program was scaled back only when the war with the Soviet Union demanded that the trains carry supplies for troops instead of people for resettlement. In 1942 and 1943 the SS expelled about 110,000 people. Families were torn apart. Able bodied teens and adults were sent to work camps while the elderly, young and the disabled were sent to death camps. An estimated 50,000 children were kidnapped in Poland. Some 4,500 children were screened and deemed suitable to be taken away from their parents an adopted by German couples. They were given German names, forbidden to speak Polish and educated by the SS. The others were sent to children’s homes or killed. Actions such as this caused a great deal of resistance in Poland. The resistance was crushed and Germany made sure to apply a ruthless policy of retaliation in order to discourage further resistance.

Forced Labor and The Camps

Between 1939 and 1945 at least 1.5 Million Polish citizens were sent to Germany to work against their will. They were kept in specific areas of a city behind guards and barbed wire. How they were treated was strictly up to their employer. Resistance was punishable by being sent to a concentration camp or killed immediately. Poles were prisoners in nearly every camp in the extensive camp system. A major camp at Stutthof existed from September 1939 to the war end. An estimated 20,000 Poles died there as a result of executions, hard labor, and harsh conditions. Auschwitz became the main concentration camp for the poles as of 1940. It is estimated that 140,000 to 150,000 Poles were brought to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, and that 70,000 to 75,000 died there as victims of executions, cruel medical experiments, and of starvation and disease. This same kind of destruction was true for the Poles at almost every camp within the Germans camp system. Actual numbers of how many were killed are difficult to determine as the destruction of the Polish population was so vast. It is estimated that around 3 Million Polish Jews and 1.9 Million of other Poles were killed in the Nazi Concentration Camp system.