fbpx
Wikipedia

General Government

March 17, 2023

This article is about the German administration of occupied Poland during World War II. For the German administration of Belgium during World War I, see General Governorate of Belgium. For the national-accounting practice, see Central government. For the German General Government of Warsaw during World War I, see Government General of Warsaw.

The General Government (German: Generalgouvernement, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo, Ukrainian: Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (German: Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovakia and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west, and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east. The territory was expanded substantially in 1941, after the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, to include the new District of Galicia.[2] The area of the Generalgouvernement roughly corresponded with the Austrian part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.

General Government
Generalgouvernement (German)
1939–1945
The General Government in 1942
StatusAdministratively
autonomous component
of Germany[1]
CapitalLitzmannstadt
(12 Oct – 4 Nov 1939)
Krakau
(4 Nov 1939 – 19 Jan 1945)
Common languagesGerman (official)
Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish
GovernmentCivil administration
Governor-General 
• 1939–1945
Hans Frank
Secretary for State 
• 1939–1940
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
• 1940–1945
Josef Bühler
Historical eraOccupation of Poland
in World War II
1 September 1939
• Establishment
26 October 1939
• Galicia added
1 August 1941
22 July 1944
17 January 1945
• Disintegration
19 January 1945
CurrencyZloty
Reichsmark
Today part ofPoland
Slovakia
Ukraine

The basis for the formation of the General Government was the "Annexation Decree on the Administration of the Occupied Polish Territories". Announced by Hitler on October 8, 1939, it claimed that the Polish government had totally collapsed. This rationale was utilized by the German Supreme Court to reassign the identity of all Polish nationals as stateless subjects, with the exception of the ethnic Germans of interwar Poland—who, disregarding international law, were named the only rightful citizens of Nazi Germany.[2]

The General Government was run by Germany as a separate administrative unit for logistical purposes. When the Wehrmacht forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the area of the General Government was enlarged by the inclusion of the Polish regions previously annexed to the USSR.[3] Within days East Galicia was overrun and incorporated into the District of Galicia. Until 1945, the General Government comprised much of central, southern, and southeastern Poland within its prewar borders (and of modern-day Western Ukraine), including the major Polish cities of Warsaw, Kraków, Lwów (now Lviv, renamed Lemberg), Lublin (see Lublin Reservation), Tarnopol (see history of Tarnopol Ghetto), Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, renamed Stanislau; see Stanisławów Ghetto), Drohobycz, and Sambor (see Drohobycz and Sambor Ghettos) and others. Geographical locations were renamed in German.[2]

The administration of the General Government was composed entirely of German officials, with the intent that the area was to be colonized by Germanic settlers who would reduce the local Polish population to the level of serfs before their eventual genocide.[4] The Nazi German rulers of the Generalgouvernement had no intention of sharing power with the locals throughout the war, regardless of their ethnicity and political orientation. The authorities rarely mentioned the name Poland in legal correspondence. The only exception to this was the General Government's Bank of Issue in Poland (Polish: Bank Emisyjny w Polsce, German: Emissionbank in Polen).[5][6]

Name

The full title of the regime in Germany until July 1940 was the Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete, a name that is usually translated as "General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories". Governor Hans Frank, on Hitler's authority, shortened the name on 31 July 1940 to just Generalgouvernement.[7]

An accurate English translation of Generalgouvernement, which is a borrowing from French, is "General Governorate", as the correct translation of the term gouvernement is not "government", but "governorate", which is a type of administrative division or territory.

The German designation of Generalgouvernement was chosen in reference to Generalgouvernement Warschau, a civil entity created in the area by the German Empire during World War I. This district existed from 1914 to 1918 together with an Austro-Hungarian-controlled Military Government of Lublin alongside the short-lived Kingdom of Poland of 1916–1918, a similar rump state formed out of the then-Russian-controlled parts of Poland.[8]

The area was also known colloquially as the Restpolen ("Remainder of Poland").

History

 
Hans Frank, head of the General Government, at a police parade in Kraków during the German occupation of Poland

After Germany's attack on Poland, all areas occupied by the German army including the Free City of Danzig initially came under military rule. This area extended from the 1939 eastern border of Germany proper and of East Prussia up to the Bug River where the German armies had halted their advance and linked up with the Soviet Red Army in accordance with their secret pact against Poland.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939 had promised the vast territory between the Vistula and Bug rivers to the Soviet "sphere of influence" in divided Poland, while the two powers would have jointly ruled Warsaw. To settle the deviation from the original agreement, the German and Soviet representatives met again on September 28 to delineate a permanent border between the two countries. Under this revised version of the pact the territory concerned was exchanged for the inclusion in the Soviet sphere of Lithuania, which had originally fallen within the ambit of Germany. With the new agreement the entire central part of Poland, including the core ethnic area of the Poles, came under exclusively German control.

 
German-Soviet border drawn in the aftermath of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, signed in Moscow by Stalin and Ribbentrop during the Second Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact known as the Frontier Treaty of September 28, 1939

Hitler decreed the direct annexation to the German Reich of large parts of the occupied Polish territory in the western half of the German zone, in order to increase the Reich's Lebensraum.[9] Germany organized most of these areas as two new Reichsgaue: Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland. The remaining three regions, the so-called areas of Zichenau, Eastern Upper Silesia and the Suwałki triangle, became attached to adjacent Gaue of Germany. Draconian measures were introduced by both RKF and HTO,[a] to facilitate the immediate Germanization of the annexed territory, typically resulting in mass expulsions, especially in the Warthegau. The remaining parts of the former Poland were to become a German Nebenland (March, borderland) as a frontier post of German rule in the east. A Führer's decree of October 12, 1939 established the General Government; the decree came into force on October 26, 1939.[2]

Hans Frank was appointed as the Governor-General of the General Government. German authorities made a sharp contrast between the new Reich territory and a supposedly occupied rump state that could serve as a bargaining chip with the Western powers. The Germans established a closed border between the two German zones to heighten the difficulty of cross-frontier communication between the different segments of the Polish population.

The official name chosen for the new entity was the Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories), then changed to the Generalgouvernement (General Government) by Frank's decree of July 31, 1940. However, this name did not imply anything about the actual nature of the administration. The German authorities never regarded these Polish lands (apart from the short period of military administration during the actual invasion of Poland) as an occupied territory.[10] The Nazis considered the Polish state to have effectively ceased to exist with its defeat in the September campaign.

Overall, 4 million of the 1939 population of the General Government area had lost their lives by the time the Soviet armed forces entered the area in late 1944. If the Polish underground killed a German, 50–100 Poles were executed by German police as a punishment and as a warning to other Poles.[11] Most of the Jews, perhaps as many as two million, had also been rounded up and murdered. Germans destroyed Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising. As the Soviets advanced through Poland in late 1944 the General Government collapsed. American troops captured Hans Frank, who had governed the region, in May 1945; he became one of the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials. During his trial he resumed his childhood practice of Catholicism and expressed repentance. Frank surrendered forty volumes of his diaries to the Tribunal; much evidence against him and others was gathered from them. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On October 1, 1946, he was sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on October 16.

German intentions regarding the region

Further information: Generalplan Ost, Lebensraum, and Wehrbauer
 
Map of Generalgouvernement (yellow) in comparison to Second Polish Republic (dark grey), today's borders (white), 1918 German-Polish border (black), and areas annexed by Nazi Germany (blue)
 
Orange and yellow areas of former Austrian part after Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Union in 1795 roughly correspond with Generalgouvernement

The conversion of Warsaw into a "model city" was planned in 1940 and later, in similar ways like the conversion of Berlin was planned. In March 1941 Hans Frank informed his subordinates that Hitler had made the decision to "turn this region into a purely German area within 15–20 years". He explained: "Where 12 million Poles now live, is to be populated by 4 to 5 million Germans. The Generalgouvernement must become as German as the Rhineland."[5] By 1942 Hitler and Frank had agreed that the Kraków ("with its purely German capital") and Lublin districts would be the first areas for German colonists to re-populate.[12] Hitler stated: "When these two weak points have been strengthened, it should be possible to slowly drive back the Poles."[12] Peculiar about these statements is the circumstance that there were not enough German settlers to even make the Wartheland "as German as the Rhineland". According to notes from Martin Bormann German policy envisaged reducing lower-class Poles to the status of serfs, while deporting or otherwise eliminating the middle and upper classes and eventually replacing them with German colonists of the "master race".

The General Gouvernment is our work force reservoir for lowgrade work (brick plants, road building, etc.) ... Unconditionally, attention should be paid to the fact that there can be no "Polish masters"; where there are Polish masters, and I do not care how hard this sounds, they must be killed. (...) The Führer must emphasize once again that for Poles there is only one master and he is a German, there can be no two masters beside each other and there is no consent to such, hence all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be killed ... The General Gouvernment is a Polish reservation, a great Polish labor camp. — Note of Martin Bormann from the meeting of Dr. Hans Frank with Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 2 October 1940.[13]

German bureaucrats drew up various plans regarding the future of the original population. One called for the deportation of about 20 million Poles to western Siberia, and the Germanisation of 4 to 5 million; although deportation in reality meant many Poles were to be put to death, a small number would be "Germanized", and young Poles of desirable qualities would be kidnapped and raised in Germany.[14] In the General Government, all secondary education was abolished and all Polish cultural institutions closed.[citation needed]

In 1943, the government selected the Zamojskie area for further Germanization on account of its fertile black soil, and German colonial settlements were planned. Zamość was initially renamed by the government to Himmlerstadt (Himmler City), which was later changed to Pflugstadt (Plough City), both names were not implemented. Most of the Polish population was expelled by the Nazi occupation authorities with documented brutality. Himmler intended the city of Lublin to have a German population of 20% to 25% by the beginning of 1944, and of 30% to 40% by the following year, at which time Lublin was to be declared a German city and given a German mayor.[15]

Territorial dissection

 
Official proclamation of the General-Government in Poland by Germany, October 1939

Nazi planners never definitively resolved the question of the exact territorial reorganization of the Polish provinces in the event of German victory in the east. Germany had already annexed large parts of western pre-war Poland (8 October 1939) before the establishment of the General Government (26 October 1939), and the remaining region was also intended to be directly incorporated into the German Reich at some future date. The Nazi leadership discussed numerous initiatives with this aim.

The earliest such proposal (October/November 1939) called for the establishment of a separate Reichsgau Beskidenland which would encompass several southern sections of the Polish territories conquered in 1939 (around 18,000 km2), stretching from the area to the west of Kraków to the San river in the east.[16][17] At this time Germany had not yet directly annexed the Łódź area, and Łódź (rather than Kraków) served as the capital of the General Government.

In November 1940, Gauleiter Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland argued that the counties of Tomaschow Mazowiecki and Petrikau should be transferred from the General Government's Radom district to his Gau. Hitler agreed, but since Frank refused to surrender the counties, the resolution of the border question was postponed until after the final victory.[18]

Upon hearing of the German plans to create a "Gau of the Goths" (Gotengau) in the Crimea and the Southern Ukraine after the start (June 1941) of Operation Barbarossa, Frank himself expressed his intention to turn the district under his control into a German province called the Vandalengau (Gau of the Vandals) in a speech he gave on 16 December 1941.[19][20]

When Frank unsuccessfully attempted to resign his position on 24 August 1942, Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann tried to advance a project to dissolve the General Government altogether and to partition its territory into a number of Reichsgaue, arguing that only this method could guarantee the territory's Germanization, while also claiming that Germany could economically exploit the area more effectively, particularly as a source of food.[21] He suggested separating the "more restful" population of the formerly Austrian territories (because this part of Poland had been under German-Austrian rule for a long period of time it was deemed more racially acceptable) from the rest of the Poles, and cordoning off the city of Warsaw as the center of "criminality" and underground resistance activity.[21]

 
Hans Frank with district administrators in 1942 – from left: Ernst Kundt, Ludwig Fischer, Hans Frank, Otto Wächter, Ernst Zörner, Richard Wendler

Ludwig Fischer (governor of Warsaw from 1939 to 1945) opposed the proposed administrative streamlining resulting from these discussions. Fischer prepared his own project in his Main Office for Spatial Ordering (Hauptamt für Raumordnung) located in Warsaw.[21] He suggested[when?] the establishment of the three provinces Beskiden, Weichselland ("Vistula Land"), and Galizien (Galicia and Chełm) by dividing the Radom and Lublin districts between them. Weichselland was to have a "Polish character", Galizien a "Ukrainian" one, and the Beskiden-province to provide a German "admixture" (i.e. colonial settlement).[21] Further territorial planning carried out by this Warsaw-based organization under Major Dr. Ernst Zvanetti in a May 1943 study to demarcate the eastern border of "Central Europe" (i.e. the Greater German Reich) with the "Eastern European landmass" proposed an eastern German border along the "line Memel-Odessa".[22]

In this context Zvanetti's study proposed a re-ordering of the "Eastern Gaue" into three geopolitical blocs:[22]

Administration

Main article: General Government administration

The General Government was administered by a General-Governor (German: Generalgouverneur) aided by the Office of the General-Governor (German: Amt des Generalgouverneurs; changed on December 9, 1940 to the Government of the General Government, German: Regierung des Generalgouvernements). For the entire period of the General Government's existence there was only one General-Governor: Dr. Hans Frank. The NSDAP structure in General Gouvernment was Arbeitsbereich Generalgouvernement led by Frank.

The Office was headed by Chief of the Government (German: Regierung, lit. 'government'), also known as the State Secretary (German: Staatssekretär) (or Deputy Governor) Josef Bühler. Several other individuals had powers to issue legislative decrees in addition to the General Governor, most notably the Higher SS and Police Leader of General Government (Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger; from October 1943: Wilhelm Koppe).

 
Announcement of the execution of 60 Polish hostages and a list of 40 new hostages taken by Nazi authorities in Poland, 1943

No government protectorate is anticipated for Poland, but a complete German administration. (...) Leadership layer of the population in Poland should be as far as possible, disposed of. The other lower layers of the population will receive no special schools, but are to be oppressed in some form. — Excerpt from the minutes of the first conference of Heads of the main police officers and commanders of operational groups led by Heydrich's deputy, SS-Brigadefuhrer Dr. Werner Best, Berlin 7 September 1939[23]

The General Government had no international recognition. The territories it administered were never either in whole or part intended as any future Polish state within a German-dominated Europe. According to the Nazi government the Polish state had effectively ceased to exist, in spite of the existence of a Polish government-in-exile.[24] The General Government had the character of a type of colonial state. It was not a Polish puppet government, as there were no Polish representatives above the local administration.

The government seat of the General Government was located in Kraków (German: Krakau; English: Cracow) rather than in Warsaw for security reasons. The official state language was German, although Polish continued in use by local government. Useful institutions of the old Polish state were retained for ease of administration. The Polish police, with no high-ranking Polish officers (they were arrested or demoted), was reorganised as the Blue Police and became subordinated to the Ordnungspolizei. The Polish educational system was similarly retained, but most higher institutions were closed. The Polish local administration was kept, subordinated to new German bosses. The Polish fiscal system, including the zloty currency, remained in use but with revenues going to the German state. A new bank was created; it issued new banknotes.

The Germans sought to play Ukrainians and Poles off against each other. Within ethnic Ukrainian areas annexed by Germany, beginning in October 1939, Ukrainian Committees were established with the purpose of representing the Ukrainian community to the German authorities and assisting the approximately 30,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled from Soviet-controlled territories. These committees also undertook cultural and economic activities that had been banned by the previous Polish government. Schools, choirs, reading societies and theaters were opened, and twenty Ukrainian churches that had been closed by the Polish government reopened. By March 1941, there were 808 Ukrainian educational societies with 46,000 members.

A Ukrainian publishing house and periodical press was set up in Cracow,[25] which – despite having to struggle with German censors and paper shortages – succeeded in publishing school textbooks, classics of Ukrainian literature, and the works of dissident Ukrainian writers from the Soviet Union. Krakivs'ki Visti was headed by Frank until the end of World War II and had as editor Michael Chomiak. It was "the leading legal newspaper" of the General Government and "attracted more (and better) contributors among whom were the most prominent Ukrainian cultural figures of the (early) 20th century."[26]

Ukrainian organizations within the General Government were able to negotiate the release of 85,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war from the German-Polish conflict (although they were unable to help Soviet POWs of Ukrainian ethnicity).[27]

After the war, the Polish Supreme National Tribunal declared that the government of the General Government was a criminal institution.

Judicial system

 
Part of Hans Frank's ordinance from 31 October 1939 on "counteracting the acts of violence in the General Government"

Other than summary German military tribunals, no courts operated in Poland between the German invasion and early 1940. At that time, the Polish court system was reinstated and made decisions in cases not concerning German interests, for which a parallel German court-system was established. The German system was given priority in cases of overlapping jurisdiction.

New laws were passed, discriminating against ethnic Poles and, in particular, the Jews. In 1941 a new criminal law was introduced, introducing many new crimes, and making the death penalty very common. The death penalty was introduced for, among other things:

  • on October 31, 1939, for any acts against the German government
  • on January 21, 1940, for economic speculation
  • on February 20, 1940, for spreading sexually-transmitted diseases
  • on July 31, 1940, for any Polish officers who did not register immediately with the German administration (to be taken to prisoner of war camps)
  • on November 10, 1941, for giving any assistance to Jews
  • on July 11, 1942, for farmers who failed to provide requested crops
  • on July 24, 1943, for not joining the forced labor battalions (Baudienst) when requested
  • on October 2, 1943, for impeding the German Reconstruction Plan

Policing

The police in the General Government was divided into:

The most numerous OrPo battalions focused on traditional security roles as an occupying force. Some of them were directly involved in the pacification operations.[28] In the immediate aftermath of World War II, this latter role was obscured both by the lack of court evidence and by deliberate obfuscation, while most of the focus was on the better-known Einsatzgruppen ("Operational groups") who reported to RSHA led by Reinhard Heydrich.[29] On 6 May 1940 Gauleiter Hans Frank, stationed in occupied Kraków, established the Sonderdienst, based on similar SS formations called Selbstschutz operating in the Warthegau district of German-annexed western part of Poland since 1939.[30] Sonderdienst were made up of ethnic German Volksdeutsche who lived in Poland before the attack and joined the invading force thereafter. However, after the 1941 Operation Barbarossa they included also the Soviet prisoners of war who volunteered for special training, such as the "Trawniki men" (German: Trawnikimänner) deployed at all major killing sites of the "Final Solution". A lot of those men did not know German and required translation by their native commanders.[31][32]: 366  Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was formed in Distrikt Galizien in 1941, many policemen deserted in 1943 joining UPA.

The former Polish policemen, with no high-ranking Polish officers (who were arrested or demoted), were drafted to the Blue Police and became subordinated to the local Ordnungspolizei.

Some 3,000 men served with the Sonderdienst in the General Government, formally assigned to the head of the civil administration.[31] The existence of Sonderdienst constituted a grave danger for the non-Jewish Poles who attempted to help ghettoised Jews in the cities, as in the Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto among numerous others, because Christian Poles were executed under the charge of aiding Jews.[30]

A Forest Protection Service also existed, responsible for policing wooded areas in the General Government.[33]

A Bahnpolizei policed railroads.

The Germans used pre-war Polish prisons and organised new ones, like in Jan Chrystian Schuch Avenue police quarter in Warsaw and Under the Clock torture centre in Lublin.

German administration constructed a terror system to control Polish people enforcing reports of any illegal activities, e.g. hiding Roma, POWs, guerilla fighters, Jews. Germans designated hostages, terrorised local leaders, applied collective responsibility. German police used sting operations to find and kill rescuers of the Germans' quarries.[34]

Military occupation forces

Through the occupation Germany diverted a significant number of its military forces to keep control over Polish territories.

Number of Wehrmacht and police formations stationed in General government[35]
Time period Wehrmacht army Police and SS

(includes German forces only)

Total
October 1939 550,000 80,000 630,000
April 1940 400,000 70,000 470,000
June 1941 2,000,000 (high number due to imminent attack on Soviet positions) 50,000 2,050,000
February 1942 300,000 50,000 350,000
April 1943 450,000 60,000 510,000
November 1943 550,000 70,000 620,000
April 1944 500,000 70,000 570,000
September 1944 1,000,000 (A small percentage took part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising) 80,000 1,080,000

Nazi propaganda

The propaganda was directed by the Fachabteilung für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (FAVuP), since Spring 1941 Hauptabteilung Propaganda (HAP). Prasą kierował Dienststelle der Pressechef der Regierung des Generalgouvernements, a w Berlinie Der Bevollmächtige des Generalgouverneurs in Berlin.

Anti-semitic propaganda

 
Nazi anti-semitic propaganda poster

Thousands of anti-Semitic posters were distributed in Warsaw.[36][37]

Political propaganda

 
German Polish-language recruitment poster: "'Let's do farm work in Germany!' See your wójt at once."

Germans wanted Poles to obey orders.[38]

Polish language newspapers

  • Nowy Kurier Warszawski
  • Kurier Częstochowski
  • Goniec Krakowski
  • Dziennik Radomski
  • Goniec Codzienny
  • Ilustrowany Kurier Polski
  • Gazeta Lwowska
  • Fala

Cinemas

Propaganda newsreels of Die Deutsche Wochenschau (The German Weekly Review) preceded feature-film showings. Some feature films likewise contained Nazi propaganda. The Polish underground discouraged Poles from attending movies, advising them, in the words of the rhymed couplet, "Tylko świnie / siedzą w kinie" ("Only swine go to the movies").[39]

In occupied Poland, there was no Polish film industry. However, a few Poles collaborated with the Germans in making films such as the 1941 anti-Polish propaganda film Heimkehr (Homecoming). In that film, casting for minor parts played by Jewish and Polish actors was done by Igo Sym, who during the filming was shot in his Warsaw apartment by the Polish Union of Armed Struggle resistance movement; after the war, the Polish performers were sentenced for collaboration in an anti-Polish propaganda undertaking, with punishments ranging from official reprimand to imprisonment.[40]

Theaters

All Polish theaters were disbanded. A German theater Theater der Stadt Warschau was formed in Warsaw together with a German controlled Polish one Teatr Miasta Warszawy. There existed also one comedy theater Teatr Komedia and 14 small ones. The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow was used by Germans.

Audio propaganda

Poles were not allowed to use radio sets. Any set was to be handed over to local administration by 25 January 1940. Ethnic Germans were obliged to register their sets.[41]

German authorities installed megaphones for propaganda purposes, called by Poles szczekaczki (from pol. szczekać "to bark").[42]

Public executions

 
Ujazdów Avenue Public execution memorial table, Warsaw

Germans killed thousands of Poles, many of them civilian hostages, in Warsaw streets and locations around Warsaw (Warsaw ring), to terrorize the population – they shot or hanged them.[43][44] The executions were ordered mainly by Austrian Nazi Franz Kutschera, SS and Police Leader, from September 1943 until January 1944.

Urban planning and transportation network

Warsaw was to be reconstructed according to Pabst Plan. The governmental quarter was situated around the Piłsudski Square.

The capital of GG Kraków was reconstructed according to Generalbebauungsplan von Krakau by Hubert Ritter. Hans Frank rebuild his residence Wawel Castle. <[45] Dębniki (Kraków) was the planned Nazi administrative quarter.[46][47] German-only residential area was constructed near Park Krakowski.[48]

Germans constructed railroad line Łódź-Radom (partially in GG) and engine house in Radom.[49]

Administrative districts

See also: Administrative division of Polish territories during World War II

For administrative purposes the General Government was subdivided into four districts (Distrikte). These were the Distrikt Warschau, the Distrikt Lublin, the Distrikt Radom, and the Distrikt Krakau. After the Operation Barbarossa against the Soviets in June 1941, East Galicia (part of Poland, annexed by the Ukrainian SSR on the basis of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact), was incorporated into the General Government and became its fifth district: Distrikt Galizien. The new German administrative units were much larger than those organized by the Polish government, reflecting the German lack of sufficient administrative personnel to staff smaller units.[50]

The five districts were further sub-divided into urban counties (Stadtkreise) and rural counties (Kreishauptmannschaften). Following a decree on September 15, 1941, the names of most of the major cities (and their respective counties) were renamed based on historical German data or given germanified versions of their Polish and Soviet names if none existed. At times the previous names remained the same as well (i.e. Radom). The districts and counties were as follows:

 
Administrative map of the General Government, July 1940 (before Barbarossa)
 
Administrative map of the General Government, July 1941 – January 1944 following Barbarossa
Distrikt Warschau
Stadtkreise Warschau (Warsaw)
Kreishauptmannschaften Garwolin, Grojec (Grójec), Lowitsch (Lowicz), Minsk (Mińsk Mazowiecki), Ostrau (Ostrów Mazowiecka), Siedlce, Skierniewice2, Sochaczew, Sokolow-Wengrow (Sokołów Podlaski-Węgrów), Warschau-Land
Distrikt Krakau
Stadtkreis/
kreisfreie Stadt (since 1940) 		Krakau (Kraków)
Kreishauptmannschaften    Dembitz (Dębica), Jaroslau (Jarosław), Jassel (Jaslo), Krakau-Land, Krosno1, Meekow (Miechów), Neumarkt (Nowy Targ), Neu-Sandez (Nowy Sącz), Przemyśl1, Reichshof (Rzeszow), Sanok, Tarnau (Tarnów)
Distrikt Lublin
Stadtkreise Lublin
Kreishauptmannschaften Biala-Podlaska (Biała Podlaska), Bilgoraj, Cholm (Chelm), Grubeschow (Hrubieszow), Janow Lubelski, Krasnystaw, Lublin-Land, Pulawy, Rehden (Radzyn), Zamosch/Himmlerstadt/Pflugstadt (Zamość)
Distrikt Radom
Stadtkreise Kielce, Radom, Tschenstochau (Częstochowa)
Kreishauptmannschaften Busko (Busko-Zdrój), Jedrzejow, Kielce-Land, Konskie (Końskie), Opatau (Opatów), Petrikau (Piotrków Trybunalski), Radom-Land, Radomsko, Starachowitz (Starachowice), Tomaschow Mazowiecki (Tomaszów Mazowiecki)
Distrikt Galizien
Stadtkreise Lemberg (Lviv/Lwów)
Kreishauptmannschaften Breschan (Brzeżany), Tschortkau (Czortków), Drohobycz, Kamionka-Strumilowa (Kamianka-Buzka), Kolomea (Kolomyia), Lemberg-Land, Rawa-Ruska (Rava-Ruska), Stanislau (Ivano-Frankivsk), Sambor (Sambir) Stryj, Tarnopol, Solotschiw (Zolochiv), Kallusch (Kalush)
1, added after 1941. 2, removed after 1941.

A change in the administrative structure was desired by Finance Minister Lutz von Krosigk, who for financial reasons wanted to see the five existing districts (Warsaw, Kraków, Radom, Lublin, and Galicia) reduced to three.[21] In March 1943 he announced the merger of the Kraków and Galicia districts, and the split of the Warsaw district between the Radom district and the Lublin district.[21] (The latter acquired a special status of "Germandom district", Deutschtumsdistrikt, as a "test run" of the Germanization according to the Generalplan Ost.[51]) The restructuring further involved the changing of Warsaw and Kraków into separate city-districts (Stadtdistrikte), with Warsaw under the direct control of the General Government. This decree was to go into effect on 1 April 1943 and was nominally accepted by Heinrich Himmler, but Martin Bormann opposed the move, as he simply wanted to see the region turned into Reichsgaue (Germany proper). Wilhelm Frick and Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger were also skeptic about the usefulness of this reorganization, resulting in its abolition after subsequent discussions between Himmler and Frank.[21]

Demographics

The General Government was inhabited by 11.4 million people in December 1939. A year later the population increased to 12.1 million. In December 1940, 83.3% of the population were Poles, 11.2% Jews, 4.4% Ukrainians and Belarusians, 0.9% Germans, and 0.2% others.[52] About 860,000 Poles and Jews were resettled into the General Government after they were expelled from the territories 'annexed' by Nazi Germany. Offsetting this was the German genocidal campaign of liquidation of the Polish intelligentsia and other elements considered likely to resist. From 1941 disease and hunger also began to reduce the population.

Poles were also deported in large numbers to work as forced labor in Germany: eventually about a million were deported, of whom many died in Germany. In 1940 the population was segregated into different groups. Each group had different rights, food rations, allowed strips in the cities, public transportation and restricted restaurants. They were divided from the most privileged, to the least.[citation needed]

Distribution of food in General Government as of December, 1941 [53]
Nationality Daily food energy intake
Germans 2,310 Cal (9,700 kJ)
Foreigners 1,790 Cal (7,500 kJ)
Ukrainians 930 Cal (3,900 kJ)
Poles 654 Cal (2,740 kJ)
Jews 184 Cal (770 kJ)
  1. Germans from Germany (Reichdeutsche),
  2. Germans from outside, active ethnic Germans, Volksliste category 1 and 2 (see Volksdeutsche).
  3. Germans from outside, passive Germans and members of families (this group also included some ethnic Poles), Volksliste category 3 and 4,
  4. Ukrainians,
  5. Highlanders (Goralenvolk) – an attempt to split the Polish nation by using local collaborators
  6. Poles (partially exterminated),[citation needed]
  7. Romani people (eventually largely exterminated as a category),
  8. Jews (eventually largely exterminated as a category).

Economics

Further information: Baudienst and Forced labor in Germany during World War II

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Jews over the age of 12 and Poles over the age of 14 living in the General Government were subject to forced labor.[24] Many Poles from other regions of Poland conquered by Germany were expelled to the General Government and the area was used as a slave labour pool from which men and women taken by force to work as laborers in factories and farms in Germany.[5] In 1942, all non-Germans living in the General Government were subject to forced labor.[54]

Parts of Warsaw and several towns (Wieluń, Sulejów, Frampol) were destroyed during the Polish-German war in September 1939. Poles weren't able to buy any construction materials to reconstruct their houses or businesses. They lost their savings and GG currency, nicknamed "Młynarki", was managed by German-controlled Bank Emisyjny w Polsce.

 
So-called "Góral"- 500 złoty banknote used in the territories of the GG

Former Polish state property was confiscated by the General Government (or by Nazi Germany in the annexed territories). Notable property of Polish individuals (ex. factories and large land estates) was often confiscated as well and managed by German "trusts" (German: Treuhänder). Jewish population was deported to the Ghettos, their dwelling and businesses were confiscated by the Germans, small businesses were sometimes passed to the Poles.[55] Farmers were required to provide large food contingents for the Germans, and there were plans for nationalization of all but the smallest estates.

German administration implemented a system of exploitation of Jewish and Polish people, which included high taxes.[56]

Food supply

While scholars debate whether from September 1939 to June 1941 the mass-starvation of the Jewish people of Europe was an attempt to conduct mass murder, it is agreed upon that this starvation did kill a large amount of this population.[57] There was a shift in the amount of resources that were being used by the Generalgouvernement from 1939 to 1940. For example, in 1939, seven million tons of coal were used but in 1940 this was reduced to four million tons of coal used by the Generalgouvernement. This shift was emblematic of the shortages in supplies, depriving the Jews and Poles of their only heating source. Although before the war, Poland exported mass quantities of food, in 1940 the Generalgouvernement was unable to supply enough food for the country, nonetheless exporting food supplies.[58] In December 1939, the Polish and Jewish reception committees, as well as the native local officials, all within the Generalgouvernement, were responsible for providing food and shelter to the Poles and Jews that evacuated. In the expulsion process, the help provided to the evacuated Poles and Jews by the Generalgouvernement was considered a weak branch of the overall process.[59] Throughout 1939, the Reichsbahn was responsible for many of the other important tasks including the deportations of Poles and Jews to concentration camps as well as the delivery of food and raw materials to different places.[60] In December 1940, 87,833 Poles and Jews were deported which added stress to different administrations which were now responsible for these deportees. During the deportations, people were forced to reside on the trains for days until a place was found for them to stay. Between the cold and lack of food, masses of deportees died due to transport deaths caused by malnutrition, cold, and moreover unlivable transportation conditions.[59]

The prices for food outside of ghettos and concentration camps had to be set at a reasonable price in order for them to align with the black market; setting prices at a reasonable rate would ensure that farmers did not sell their crops illegally. If the prices were set too high in cities there was a concern that workers would not be able to afford the food and protest the prices. Due to the price inflation which was occurring in the Generalgouvernement, many places relied on the barter system (exchanging goods for other goods instead of money). "Introducing rationing in September 1940, Marshal Petain insisted that ‘everyone must assume their share of common hardship.’"[61] There was clearly food instability not only in the ghettos, but also in cities, which caused everyone to be conscious about food rationing, and caused conditions for Jewish people to worsen. While workers in Norway and France protested the new rationing of food, Germany and the UK, where the citizens supported war efforts were more supportive of the rationing therefore it was more effective. Cases, where a country was being occupied, caused the citizens to be more hesitant about the rationing of food and it was overall not as effective.[62] In December, 1941 it was recognized by the Generalgouvernement that starving the Jewish people to death was an inexpensive and expedient solution. In August 1942, the required food shipments from the General Government to the Reich were increased and decided that the 1.2 million Jews that were not completing jobs that were "important to Germany" would no longer be given food.[63] The Nazis knew the effects of depriving the Jewish people of food, yet it continued; the ultimate revolt against the Jewish race was mass murder due to starvation. The Food and Agriculture Ministry administered the rations of food in concentration camps.[64] Each camp's administration got food from the open market and depots of the Waffen-SS (Standartenführer Tschentscher). Once the food arrived at a camp, it was up to the administration how to distribute it. The diet for the Jews in these camps was "watery turnip soup drunk from pots; it was supplemented by an evening meal of sawdust bread with some margarine, ‘smelly marmalade,’ or ‘putrid sausage.’ Between the two meals inmates attempted to lap a few drops of polluted water from the faucet in a wash barracks."[65]

Black market

During this environment of food scarcity Jews turned to the black market for any source of sustenance. The black market was important both in and outside of the ghettos from 1940 to 1944. Outside of the ghettos, the black market existed because rations were not high enough for the citizens to remain healthy. In the ghettos of eastern Europe in August 1941 the Jewish population recognized that if they were forced to remain in these ghettos they would eventually die of hunger. Many people that were in ghettos made trades with the outside world in order to stay alive.[61] Jewish people were forced to reside in ghettos, where the economy was isolated and there were large food shortages, which caused them to be seen as a source for cheap labor; many were given food that was purchased on the Aryan side of the wall in exchange for their labor. The isolation of the people forced into ghettos caused there to be a disconnect between the buyer and seller, which added in another player: the black market middleman. The black market middleman would make a profit by creating connections between sellers and buyers. While supply and demand was inelastic in these ghettos, the selling of this food on the blackmarket was extremely competitive, and beyond the reach of most Jews in ghettos.[66]

Resistance

Main article: Polish resistance movement in World War II

Resistance to the German occupation began almost at once, although there is little terrain in Poland suitable for guerrilla operations. Several small army troops supported by volunteers fought till Spring 1940, e.g. under major Henryk Dobrzański, after which they ceased due to German executions of civilians as reprisals.

 
Flag of the Home Army

The main resistance force was the Home Army (in Polish: Armia Krajowa or AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. It was formed mainly of the surviving remnants of the pre-War Polish Army, together with many volunteers. Other forces existed side-by-side, such as the communist People's Army (Armia Ludowa or AL) parallel to the PPR, organized and controlled by the Soviet Union. The AK was estimated between 200,000 and 600,000 men, while the AL was estimated between 14,000 and 60,000.

1942-1943 German repressions caused Zamość uprising.

 
German announcement of the execution of 9 Polish peasants for unfurnished contingents (quotas). Signed by the governor of Lublin district on 25 November 1941

In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 19 to May. 16 That was the first armed uprising against the Germans in Poland, and prefigured the larger and longer Warsaw Uprising of 1944.[citation needed]

In July 1944, as the Soviet armed forces approached Warsaw, the government in exile called for an uprising in the city, so that they could return to a liberated Warsaw and try to prevent a Communist take-over. The AK, led by Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, launched the Warsaw Rising on August 1 in response both to their government and to Soviet and Allied promises of help. However Soviet help was never forthcoming, despite the Soviet army being only 18 miles (30 km) away, and Soviet denial of their airbases to British and American planes prevented any effective resupply or air support of the insurgents by the Western allies. They used distant Italian bases in their Warsaw airlift instead. After 63 days of fighting the leaders of the rising agreed a conditional surrender with the Wehrmacht. The 15,000 remaining Home Army soldiers were granted POW status (prior to the agreement, captured rebels were shot), and the remaining civilian population of 180,000 expelled.

Education

Main articles: Education in Poland during World War II and Secret Teaching Organization

All universities in GG were disbanded, many Kraków professors imprisoned during the Sonderaktion Krakau.

Culture of Poland

Germans plundered Polish museums. Many of the pieces of art perished.[67] Germans burned a number of Warsaw libraries, including National Library of Poland, destroying about 3.6 million volumes.[68]

German sport

Hans Frank was an avid chess player, so he organized General Government chess tournaments. Only Germans were allowed to perform in sporting events. About 80 football clubs played in four district divisions.[69]

Holocaust

Main article: The Holocaust in Poland
 
Nazi extermination camps in occupied Poland, marked with black and white skulls. General Government in beige. Death camp at Auschwitz (lower left) in the neighbouring new German Provinz Oberschlesien

During the Wannsee conference on January 20, 1942, the State Secretary of the General Government, SS-Brigadeführer Josef Bühler encouraged Heydrich to implement the "Final Solution". From his own point of view, as an administrative official, the problems in his district included an overdeveloped black market. He endorsed a remedy in solving the "Jewish question" as fast as possible. An additional point in favor of setting up the extermination facilities in his governorate was that there were no transportation problems there,[70] since all assets of the disbanded Polish State Railways (PKP) were being managed by Ostbahn, the Kraków-based Deutsche Reichsbahn branch of the Generaldirektion der Ostbahn ("General Directorate of Eastern Railways", Gedob). This made a network of death trains readily available to the SS-Totenkopfverbände.[71]

Main article: Operation Reinhard

The newly drafted Operation Reinhard would be a major step in the systematic liquidation of the Jews in occupied Europe, beginning with those in the General Government. Within months, three top-secret camps were built and equipped with stationary gas chambers disguised as shower rooms, based on Action T4, solely to efficiently kill thousands of people each day. The Germans began the elimination of the Jewish population under the guise of "resettlement" in spring of 1942. The three Reinhard camps including Treblinka (the deadliest of them all) had transferable SS staff and almost identical design. The General Government was the location of four of the seven extermination camps of World War II in which the most extreme measures of the Holocaust were carried out, including closely located Majdanek concentration camp, Sobibor extermination camp and Belzec extermination camp. The genocide of undesired "races", chiefly millions of Jews from Poland and other countries, was carried out by gassing between 1942 and 1944.[72]

Punishments

Gallery

  •  

    The wall of the Warsaw Ghetto being built under the orders of Dr. Ludwig

  •  

    The Warsaw Ghetto (1940-1943)

  •  

    Announcement by the Chief of SS and Police 5.09.1942—Death penalty for Poles offering any help to Jews

  •  

    Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 1943: Jews being held at gunpoint by SS troops (from a report written by Jürgen Stroop for Heinrich Himmler)

  •  

    Polish inmates of Pawiak prison hanged by Germans in Leszno Street, Warsaw, February 11, 1944 (photo taken secretly from tram by a member of the Polish Home Army)

  •  

    Warsaw Uprising: Polish soldiers in action, August 1, 1944

  •  

    Polish civilians murdered by SS troops during the Warsaw Uprising, August 1944

  •  

    Aerial view of the city of Warsaw, January 1945

  •  

    Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael, stolen at the behest of Hans Frank in 1939 and never returned; one of over 40,000 works of art robbed from Polish collections

  •  

    Polish hostages being blindfolded during preparations for their mass execution in Palmiry, 1940

  •  

    A mass execution of Poles in Bochnia, December 18, 1939

  •  

    The Warsaw Uprising, 1944

See also

Notes

a. ^ The RKF (also RKFDV) stands for the Reichskommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums, or the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, an office in Nazi Germany held by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Meanwhile, the HTO stands for Haupttreuhandstelle Ost, or the Main Trustee Office for the East, a Nazi German predatory institution responsible for liquidating Polish and Jewish businesses across occupied Poland; and selling them off for profit mainly to the SS, or the German Volksdeutsche and war-profiteers if interested. The HTO was created and headed by Nazi potentate Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.[74]

Citations

  1. ^ Diemut 2003, page 268.
  2. ^ a b c d Diemut Majer (2003). "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939–1945. With contribution from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. JHU Press. pp. 236–246. ISBN 0801864933.
  3. ^ Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski (2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. p. 216. ISBN 9780765606655.
  4. ^ Ewelina Żebrowaka-Żolinas Polityka eksterminacyjna okupanta hitlerowskiego na Zamojszczyźnie Studia Iuridica Lublinensia 17, 213-229
  5. ^ a b c Keith Bullivant; Geoffrey J. Giles; Walter Pape (1999). Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences. Rodopi. p. 32.
  6. ^ Adam D. Rotfeld; Anatolij W. Torkunow (2010). White spots–black spots: difficult issues in Polish–Russian relations 1918–2008 [Białe plamy–czarne plamy: sprawy trudne w polsko-rosyjskich stosunkach 1918–2008] (in Polish). Polsko-Rosyjska Grupa do Spraw Trudnych, Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych. p. 378. ISBN 9788362453009..
  7. ^ Hans Frank's Diary
  8. ^ Liulevicius, Vejas G. (2000). War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, Identity, and German Occupation in World War I. Cambridge University Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781139426640.
  9. ^ "Erlaß des Führers und Reichskanzlers über die Gliederung und Verwaltung der Ostgebiete"
  10. ^ Majer (2003), p. 265.
  11. ^ Generalgouvernement Shoah Resource Center
  12. ^ a b Hitler, Adolf (2000). Bormann, Martin. ed. Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944, 5 April 1942. trans. Cameron, Norman; Stevens, R.H. (3rd ed.). Enigma Books. ISBN 1-929631-05-7.
  13. ^ "Man to man...", Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa, Warsaw 2011, p. 11. English version.
  14. ^ Hitler's plans for Eastern Europe
  15. ^ Rich, Norman (1974). Hitler's War Aims: the Establishment of the New Order, p. 99. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York.
  16. ^ Burleigh, Michael (1988). "Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich". Cambridge University Press. p. 142. ISBN 9780521351201.
  17. ^ Madajczyk, Czesław (1988). Die okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939-1945, p. 31 (in German). Akademie-Verlag Berlin.
  18. ^ Catherine Epstein (2012), Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199646538, p. 139
  19. ^ Rich, p. 89.
  20. ^ NS-Archiv: Dokumente zum Nationalsozialismus. Diensttagebuch Hans Frank: 16.12.1941 - Regierungssitzung (in German). Retrieved 12 May 2011. [1]
  21. ^ a b c d e f g Madajczyk, pp. 102-103.
  22. ^ a b Wasser, Bruno (1993). Himmler's Raumplanung im Osten, pp. 82-83. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel.
  23. ^ "Man to man...", Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa, Warsaw 2011, English version
  24. ^ a b Majer (2003), p.302
  25. ^ Himka, John-Paul (1998). ""Krakivs'ki visti": An Overview". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 22: 251–261. JSTOR 41036740.
  26. ^ Gyidel, Ernest (2019). "The Ukrainian Legal Press of the General Government: The Case of Krakivski Visti, 1940-1944". doi:10.7939/r3-7x8g-9w02. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  27. ^ Myroslav Yurkevich. (1986). Galician Ukrainians in German Military Formations and in the German Administration. In: Ukraine during World War II: history and its aftermath : a symposium (Yuri Boshyk, Roman Waschuk, Andriy Wynnyckyj, Eds.). Edmonton: University of Alberta, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press pp. 73-74
  28. ^ Christopher R. Browning (1 May 2007). The Origins of the Final Solution. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 349, 361. ISBN 978-0803203921. Google eBook. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  29. ^ Hillberg, Raul, The Destruction of the European Jews, Holmes & Meir: NY, NY, 1985, pp 100–106.
  30. ^ a b The Erwin and Riva Baker Memorial Collection (2001). "Yad Vashem Studies". Yad Washem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance. Wallstein Verlag: 57–58. ISSN 0084-3296. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  31. ^ a b Browning, Christopher R. (1998) [1992]. "Arrival in Poland" (PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Penguin Books. pp. 51, 98, 109, 124. Retrieved May 1, 2013. Also: {{cite web}}: External link in |quote= (help)
  32. ^ David Bankir, ed. (2006). Police Auxiliaries for Operation Reinhard by Peter R. Black (Google Books). Secret Intelligence and the Holocaust. Enigma Books. pp. 331–348. ISBN 192963160X. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  33. ^ Benz, Wolfgang (1997). Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus. Klett-Cotta. ISBN 3423330074.
  34. ^ Frydel, Tomasz (2018). "Judenjagd: Reassessing the Role of Ordinary Poles as Perpetrators in the Holocaust". In Williams, Timothy; Buckley-Zistel, Susanne (eds.). Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and Dynamics. London: Routledge. pp. 187–203.
  35. ^ Czesław Madajczyk. Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce p.242 volume 1, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1970
  36. ^ Defining Enemy, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  37. ^ . Archived from the original on 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  38. ^ . Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  39. ^ Marek Haltof. . Archived from the original on 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  40. ^ Januszewski, Bartosz (13 September 2017). "Kino i teatr pod okupacją. Polskie środowisko filmowe i teatralne w czasie II wojny światowej" (PDF) (in Polish). Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  41. ^ http://www.historiaradia.neostrada.pl/Okupacja%201939-44.html 2018-08-03 at the Wayback Machine[bare URL]
  42. ^ http://www.polska1918-89.pl/pdf/gadzinowki-i-szczekaczki.-,5383.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  43. ^ Execution Sites
  44. ^ http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/02/11/1944-twenty-two-or-more-poles/[bare URL]
  45. ^ "Hans Frank przebudowuje Wawel". 2019-04-17.
  46. ^ "Hitlerowskie wizje Krakowa".
  47. ^ "Wyborcza.pl".
  48. ^ "Niemieckie osiedle mieszkaniowe koło Parku Krakowskiego". 2017-04-13.
  49. ^ "Poniemiecka parowozownia na sprzedaż. Jednak jeszcze nie teraz :: Radom24.pl :: Portal Radomia i regionu".
  50. ^ Rich (1974), p. 86.
  51. ^ Frank Uekötter, "The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany", 2006, ISBN 0521612772, pp. 158-159
  52. ^ Włodzimierz Bonusiak. Polska podczas II wojny światowej (Poland during II World War). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego. 2003. p.68.
  53. ^ Madajczyk 1970, p.226, volume 2.
  54. ^ Majer (2003), p.303
  55. ^ . Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  56. ^ Götz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State
  57. ^ Sinnreich, Helene Julia (May 2004). "The Supply and Distribution of Food to the Łódź Ghetto- A Case Study in Nazi Jewish Policy, 1939 -1945". ProQuest: 56. ProQuest 305208240.
  58. ^ Gross, Jan Tomasz (1979). Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernment: 1939-1944. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 92. ISBN 0691093814.
  59. ^ a b Rutherford, Phillip (2003). ""Absolute Organizational Deficiency": The 1.Nahplan of December 1939 (Logistics, Limitations, and Lessons)". Central European History. 36 (2): 254. doi:10.1163/156916103770866130. JSTOR 4547300. S2CID 145343274.
  60. ^ Rutherford, Phillip (2003). ""Absolute Organizational Deficiency": The 1.Nahplan of December 1939 (Logistics, Limitations, and Lessons)". Central European History. 36 (2): 248. doi:10.1163/156916103770866130. JSTOR 4547300. S2CID 145343274.
  61. ^ a b Mazower, Mark (2008). Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. London, UK: The Penguin Press. p. 279. ISBN 9780713996814.
  62. ^ Mazower, Mark (2008). Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. London, UK: The Penguin Press. pp. 277–279. ISBN 9780713996814.
  63. ^ Gross, Jan Tomasz (1979). Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernment: 1939-1944. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 102. ISBN 0691093814.
  64. ^ Sinnreich, Helene Julia (May 2004). "The Supply and Distribution of Food to the Łódź Ghetto- A Case Study in Nazi Jewish Policy, 1939 -1945". ProQuest: vii. ProQuest 305208240.
  65. ^ Hilberg, Raul (2003). The Destruction of the European Jews. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. pp. 581–582.
  66. ^ Gross, Jan Tomasz (1979). Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernment: 1939-1944. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN 0691093814.
  67. ^ 22 Precious Works of Art That Vanished During World War II
  68. ^ various authors; Tomasz Balcerzak; Lech Kaczyński (2004). Tomasz Balcerzak (ed.). Pro memoria: Warszawskie biblioteki naukowe w latach okupacji 1939-1945. transl. Philip Earl Steele. Warsaw: Biblioteka Narodowa. p. 4.
  69. ^ "Polsko-niemiecka historia piłki, czyli powrót do przeszłości". 2015-12-27.
  70. ^ Adolf Eichmann. "The Wannsee Conference Protocol". Dan Rogers (translator). University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  71. ^ Jerzy Wasilewski (2014). "25 września. Wcielenie kolei polskich na Śląsku, w Wielkopolsce i na Pomorzu do niemieckich kolei państwowych Deutsche Reichsbahn". Polskie Koleje Państwowe PKP. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  72. ^ Arad, Yitzhak (1999) [1987]. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press. p. 37. ISBN 0253213053. ASIN 0253213053 – via Internet Archive. Belzec.
  73. ^ "Holocaust Encyclopedia: Hans Frank". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  74. ^ Mirosław Sikora (16 September 2009), "Aktion Saybusch" na Żywiecczyźnie. Regional branch of the Institute of National Remembrance IPN Katowice. Reprint. Retrieved 24 August 2015.

References

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Government.
  • Kochanski, Halik. The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War (2012)
  • Mędykowski, Witold Wojciech. Macht Arbeit Frei?: German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939-1943 (2018)
  • Generalgouvernement on the Yad Vashem website
  • , examined by his defense attorney, Dr. Alfred Seidl, 4/18/1946.
  • General Government NAZI occupied Poland, the CIH World War II Pages. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  • Collections of civilian testimonies from Nazi-occupied Poland in testimony database "Chronicles of Terror"

Further reading

Coordinates: 50°03′17″N 19°56′12″E / 50.05472°N 19.93667°E / 50.05472; 19.93667

March 17, 2023
general, government, this, article, about, german, administration, occupied, poland, during, world, german, administration, belgium, during, world, general, governorate, belgium, national, accounting, practice, central, government, german, warsaw, during, worl. This article is about the German administration of occupied Poland during World War II For the German administration of Belgium during World War I see General Governorate of Belgium For the national accounting practice see Central government For the German General Government of Warsaw during World War I see Government General of Warsaw The General Government German Generalgouvernement Polish Generalne Gubernatorstwo Ukrainian Generalna guberniya also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region German Generalgouvernement fur die besetzten polnischen Gebiete was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany Slovakia and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones the General Government in its centre Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east The territory was expanded substantially in 1941 after the German Invasion of the Soviet Union to include the new District of Galicia 2 The area of the Generalgouvernement roughly corresponded with the Austrian part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 General GovernmentGeneralgouvernement German 1939 1945Flag EmblemThe General Government in 1942StatusAdministrativelyautonomous componentof Germany 1 CapitalLitzmannstadt 12 Oct 4 Nov 1939 Krakau 4 Nov 1939 19 Jan 1945 Common languagesGerman official Polish Ukrainian YiddishGovernmentCivil administrationGovernor General 1939 1945Hans FrankSecretary for State 1939 1940Arthur Seyss Inquart 1940 1945Josef BuhlerHistorical eraOccupation of Poland in World War II Invasion of Poland1 September 1939 Establishment26 October 1939 Galicia added1 August 1941 Poland declared restored22 July 1944 USSR captures Warsaw17 January 1945 Disintegration19 January 1945CurrencyZlotyReichsmarkPreceded by Succeeded by1939 Military Administration in Poland1941 Ukrainian SSR Provisional Government of PolandUkrainian SSRToday part ofPolandSlovakiaUkraineThe basis for the formation of the General Government was the Annexation Decree on the Administration of the Occupied Polish Territories Announced by Hitler on October 8 1939 it claimed that the Polish government had totally collapsed This rationale was utilized by the German Supreme Court to reassign the identity of all Polish nationals as stateless subjects with the exception of the ethnic Germans of interwar Poland who disregarding international law were named the only rightful citizens of Nazi Germany 2 The General Government was run by Germany as a separate administrative unit for logistical purposes When the Wehrmacht forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 Operation Barbarossa the area of the General Government was enlarged by the inclusion of the Polish regions previously annexed to the USSR 3 Within days East Galicia was overrun and incorporated into the District of Galicia Until 1945 the General Government comprised much of central southern and southeastern Poland within its prewar borders and of modern day Western Ukraine including the major Polish cities of Warsaw Krakow Lwow now Lviv renamed Lemberg Lublin see Lublin Reservation Tarnopol see history of Tarnopol Ghetto Stanislawow now Ivano Frankivsk renamed Stanislau see Stanislawow Ghetto Drohobycz and Sambor see Drohobycz and Sambor Ghettos and others Geographical locations were renamed in German 2 The administration of the General Government was composed entirely of German officials with the intent that the area was to be colonized by Germanic settlers who would reduce the local Polish population to the level of serfs before their eventual genocide 4 The Nazi German rulers of the Generalgouvernement had no intention of sharing power with the locals throughout the war regardless of their ethnicity and political orientation The authorities rarely mentioned the name Poland in legal correspondence The only exception to this was the General Government s Bank of Issue in Poland Polish Bank Emisyjny w Polsce German Emissionbank in Polen 5 6 Contents 1 Name 2 History 3 German intentions regarding the region 3 1 Territorial dissection 4 Administration 4 1 Judicial system 4 2 Policing 4 3 Military occupation forces 4 4 Nazi propaganda 4 4 1 Anti semitic propaganda 4 4 2 Political propaganda 4 4 3 Polish language newspapers 4 4 4 Cinemas 4 4 5 Theaters 4 4 6 Audio propaganda 4 5 Public executions 4 6 Urban planning and transportation network 5 Administrative districts 6 Demographics 7 Economics 8 Food supply 8 1 Black market 9 Resistance 10 Education 11 Culture of Poland 12 German sport 13 Holocaust 14 Punishments 15 Gallery 16 See also 17 Notes 18 Citations 19 References 20 Further readingNameThe full title of the regime in Germany until July 1940 was the Generalgouvernement fur die besetzten polnischen Gebiete a name that is usually translated as General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories Governor Hans Frank on Hitler s authority shortened the name on 31 July 1940 to just Generalgouvernement 7 An accurate English translation of Generalgouvernement which is a borrowing from French is General Governorate as the correct translation of the term gouvernement is not government but governorate which is a type of administrative division or territory The German designation of Generalgouvernement was chosen in reference to Generalgouvernement Warschau a civil entity created in the area by the German Empire during World War I This district existed from 1914 to 1918 together with an Austro Hungarian controlled Military Government of Lublin alongside the short lived Kingdom of Poland of 1916 1918 a similar rump state formed out of the then Russian controlled parts of Poland 8 The area was also known colloquially as the Restpolen Remainder of Poland History Hans Frank head of the General Government at a police parade in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland After Germany s attack on Poland all areas occupied by the German army including the Free City of Danzig initially came under military rule This area extended from the 1939 eastern border of Germany proper and of East Prussia up to the Bug River where the German armies had halted their advance and linked up with the Soviet Red Army in accordance with their secret pact against Poland The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939 had promised the vast territory between the Vistula and Bug rivers to the Soviet sphere of influence in divided Poland while the two powers would have jointly ruled Warsaw To settle the deviation from the original agreement the German and Soviet representatives met again on September 28 to delineate a permanent border between the two countries Under this revised version of the pact the territory concerned was exchanged for the inclusion in the Soviet sphere of Lithuania which had originally fallen within the ambit of Germany With the new agreement the entire central part of Poland including the core ethnic area of the Poles came under exclusively German control German Soviet border drawn in the aftermath of the Nazi Soviet invasion of Poland signed in Moscow by Stalin and Ribbentrop during the Second Ribbentrop Molotov Pact known as the Frontier Treaty of September 28 1939 Hitler decreed the direct annexation to the German Reich of large parts of the occupied Polish territory in the western half of the German zone in order to increase the Reich s Lebensraum 9 Germany organized most of these areas as two new Reichsgaue Danzig West Prussia and Wartheland The remaining three regions the so called areas of Zichenau Eastern Upper Silesia and the Suwalki triangle became attached to adjacent Gaue of Germany Draconian measures were introduced by both RKF and HTO a to facilitate the immediate Germanization of the annexed territory typically resulting in mass expulsions especially in the Warthegau The remaining parts of the former Poland were to become a German Nebenland March borderland as a frontier post of German rule in the east A Fuhrer s decree of October 12 1939 established the General Government the decree came into force on October 26 1939 2 Hans Frank was appointed as the Governor General of the General Government German authorities made a sharp contrast between the new Reich territory and a supposedly occupied rump state that could serve as a bargaining chip with the Western powers The Germans established a closed border between the two German zones to heighten the difficulty of cross frontier communication between the different segments of the Polish population The official name chosen for the new entity was the Generalgouvernement fur die besetzten polnischen Gebiete General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories then changed to the Generalgouvernement General Government by Frank s decree of July 31 1940 However this name did not imply anything about the actual nature of the administration The German authorities never regarded these Polish lands apart from the short period of military administration during the actual invasion of Poland as an occupied territory 10 The Nazis considered the Polish state to have effectively ceased to exist with its defeat in the September campaign Overall 4 million of the 1939 population of the General Government area had lost their lives by the time the Soviet armed forces entered the area in late 1944 If the Polish underground killed a German 50 100 Poles were executed by German police as a punishment and as a warning to other Poles 11 Most of the Jews perhaps as many as two million had also been rounded up and murdered Germans destroyed Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising As the Soviets advanced through Poland in late 1944 the General Government collapsed American troops captured Hans Frank who had governed the region in May 1945 he became one of the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials During his trial he resumed his childhood practice of Catholicism and expressed repentance Frank surrendered forty volumes of his diaries to the Tribunal much evidence against him and others was gathered from them He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity On October 1 1946 he was sentenced to death by hanging The sentence was carried out on October 16 German intentions regarding the regionFurther information Generalplan Ost Lebensraum and Wehrbauer Map of Generalgouvernement yellow in comparison to Second Polish Republic dark grey today s borders white 1918 German Polish border black and areas annexed by Nazi Germany blue Orange and yellow areas of former Austrian part after Third Partition of the Polish Lithuanian Union in 1795 roughly correspond with Generalgouvernement The conversion of Warsaw into a model city was planned in 1940 and later in similar ways like the conversion of Berlin was planned In March 1941 Hans Frank informed his subordinates that Hitler had made the decision to turn this region into a purely German area within 15 20 years He explained Where 12 million Poles now live is to be populated by 4 to 5 million Germans The Generalgouvernement must become as German as the Rhineland 5 By 1942 Hitler and Frank had agreed that the Krakow with its purely German capital and Lublin districts would be the first areas for German colonists to re populate 12 Hitler stated When these two weak points have been strengthened it should be possible to slowly drive back the Poles 12 Peculiar about these statements is the circumstance that there were not enough German settlers to even make the Wartheland as German as the Rhineland According to notes from Martin Bormann German policy envisaged reducing lower class Poles to the status of serfs while deporting or otherwise eliminating the middle and upper classes and eventually replacing them with German colonists of the master race The General Gouvernment is our work force reservoir for lowgrade work brick plants road building etc Unconditionally attention should be paid to the fact that there can be no Polish masters where there are Polish masters and I do not care how hard this sounds they must be killed The Fuhrer must emphasize once again that for Poles there is only one master and he is a German there can be no two masters beside each other and there is no consent to such hence all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be killed The General Gouvernment is a Polish reservation a great Polish labor camp Note of Martin Bormann from the meeting of Dr Hans Frank with Adolf Hitler Berlin 2 October 1940 13 German bureaucrats drew up various plans regarding the future of the original population One called for the deportation of about 20 million Poles to western Siberia and the Germanisation of 4 to 5 million although deportation in reality meant many Poles were to be put to death a small number would be Germanized and young Poles of desirable qualities would be kidnapped and raised in Germany 14 In the General Government all secondary education was abolished and all Polish cultural institutions closed citation needed In 1943 the government selected the Zamojskie area for further Germanization on account of its fertile black soil and German colonial settlements were planned Zamosc was initially renamed by the government to Himmlerstadt Himmler City which was later changed to Pflugstadt Plough City both names were not implemented Most of the Polish population was expelled by the Nazi occupation authorities with documented brutality Himmler intended the city of Lublin to have a German population of 20 to 25 by the beginning of 1944 and of 30 to 40 by the following year at which time Lublin was to be declared a German city and given a German mayor 15 Territorial dissection Official proclamation of the General Government in Poland by Germany October 1939 Nazi planners never definitively resolved the question of the exact territorial reorganization of the Polish provinces in the event of German victory in the east Germany had already annexed large parts of western pre war Poland 8 October 1939 before the establishment of the General Government 26 October 1939 and the remaining region was also intended to be directly incorporated into the German Reich at some future date The Nazi leadership discussed numerous initiatives with this aim The earliest such proposal October November 1939 called for the establishment of a separate Reichsgau Beskidenland which would encompass several southern sections of the Polish territories conquered in 1939 around 18 000 km2 stretching from the area to the west of Krakow to the San river in the east 16 17 At this time Germany had not yet directly annexed the Lodz area and Lodz rather than Krakow served as the capital of the General Government In November 1940 Gauleiter Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland argued that the counties of Tomaschow Mazowiecki and Petrikau should be transferred from the General Government s Radom district to his Gau Hitler agreed but since Frank refused to surrender the counties the resolution of the border question was postponed until after the final victory 18 Upon hearing of the German plans to create a Gau of the Goths Gotengau in the Crimea and the Southern Ukraine after the start June 1941 of Operation Barbarossa Frank himself expressed his intention to turn the district under his control into a German province called the Vandalengau Gau of the Vandals in a speech he gave on 16 December 1941 19 20 When Frank unsuccessfully attempted to resign his position on 24 August 1942 Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann tried to advance a project to dissolve the General Government altogether and to partition its territory into a number of Reichsgaue arguing that only this method could guarantee the territory s Germanization while also claiming that Germany could economically exploit the area more effectively particularly as a source of food 21 He suggested separating the more restful population of the formerly Austrian territories because this part of Poland had been under German Austrian rule for a long period of time it was deemed more racially acceptable from the rest of the Poles and cordoning off the city of Warsaw as the center of criminality and underground resistance activity 21 Hans Frank with district administrators in 1942 from left Ernst Kundt Ludwig Fischer Hans Frank Otto Wachter Ernst Zorner Richard Wendler Ludwig Fischer governor of Warsaw from 1939 to 1945 opposed the proposed administrative streamlining resulting from these discussions Fischer prepared his own project in his Main Office for Spatial Ordering Hauptamt fur Raumordnung located in Warsaw 21 He suggested when the establishment of the three provinces Beskiden Weichselland Vistula Land and Galizien Galicia and Chelm by dividing the Radom and Lublin districts between them Weichselland was to have a Polish character Galizien a Ukrainian one and the Beskiden province to provide a German admixture i e colonial settlement 21 Further territorial planning carried out by this Warsaw based organization under Major Dr Ernst Zvanetti in a May 1943 study to demarcate the eastern border of Central Europe i e the Greater German Reich with the Eastern European landmass proposed an eastern German border along the line Memel Odessa 22 In this context Zvanetti s study proposed a re ordering of the Eastern Gaue into three geopolitical blocs 22 a western group comprising the Gaue Danzig Westpreussen Wartheland and Schlesien Silesia a central group with the Gaue Ostpreussen East Prussia Sudpreussen South Prussia Litzmannstadt Lodz and Beskidenland the eastern group with the Gau Sudostpreussen South East Prussia and including Wolhynien Volhynia and the Lublin district Galizien and Podolien Podolia AdministrationMain article General Government administration The General Government was administered by a General Governor German Generalgouverneur aided by the Office of the General Governor German Amt des Generalgouverneurs changed on December 9 1940 to the Government of the General Government German Regierung des Generalgouvernements For the entire period of the General Government s existence there was only one General Governor Dr Hans Frank The NSDAP structure in General Gouvernment was Arbeitsbereich Generalgouvernement led by Frank The Office was headed by Chief of the Government German Regierung lit government also known as the State Secretary German Staatssekretar or Deputy Governor Josef Buhler Several other individuals had powers to issue legislative decrees in addition to the General Governor most notably the Higher SS and Police Leader of General Government Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger from October 1943 Wilhelm Koppe Announcement of the execution of 60 Polish hostages and a list of 40 new hostages taken by Nazi authorities in Poland 1943 No government protectorate is anticipated for Poland but a complete German administration Leadership layer of the population in Poland should be as far as possible disposed of The other lower layers of the population will receive no special schools but are to be oppressed in some form Excerpt from the minutes of the first conference of Heads of the main police officers and commanders of operational groups led by Heydrich s deputy SS Brigadefuhrer Dr Werner Best Berlin 7 September 1939 23 The General Government had no international recognition The territories it administered were never either in whole or part intended as any future Polish state within a German dominated Europe According to the Nazi government the Polish state had effectively ceased to exist in spite of the existence of a Polish government in exile 24 The General Government had the character of a type of colonial state It was not a Polish puppet government as there were no Polish representatives above the local administration The government seat of the General Government was located in Krakow German Krakau English Cracow rather than in Warsaw for security reasons The official state language was German although Polish continued in use by local government Useful institutions of the old Polish state were retained for ease of administration The Polish police with no high ranking Polish officers they were arrested or demoted was reorganised as the Blue Police and became subordinated to the Ordnungspolizei The Polish educational system was similarly retained but most higher institutions were closed The Polish local administration was kept subordinated to new German bosses The Polish fiscal system including the zloty currency remained in use but with revenues going to the German state A new bank was created it issued new banknotes The Germans sought to play Ukrainians and Poles off against each other Within ethnic Ukrainian areas annexed by Germany beginning in October 1939 Ukrainian Committees were established with the purpose of representing the Ukrainian community to the German authorities and assisting the approximately 30 000 Ukrainian refugees who fled from Soviet controlled territories These committees also undertook cultural and economic activities that had been banned by the previous Polish government Schools choirs reading societies and theaters were opened and twenty Ukrainian churches that had been closed by the Polish government reopened By March 1941 there were 808 Ukrainian educational societies with 46 000 members A Ukrainian publishing house and periodical press was set up in Cracow 25 which despite having to struggle with German censors and paper shortages succeeded in publishing school textbooks classics of Ukrainian literature and the works of dissident Ukrainian writers from the Soviet Union Krakivs ki Visti was headed by Frank until the end of World War II and had as editor Michael Chomiak It was the leading legal newspaper of the General Government and attracted more and better contributors among whom were the most prominent Ukrainian cultural figures of the early 20th century 26 Ukrainian organizations within the General Government were able to negotiate the release of 85 000 Ukrainian prisoners of war from the German Polish conflict although they were unable to help Soviet POWs of Ukrainian ethnicity 27 After the war the Polish Supreme National Tribunal declared that the government of the General Government was a criminal institution Judicial system Part of Hans Frank s ordinance from 31 October 1939 on counteracting the acts of violence in the General Government Other than summary German military tribunals no courts operated in Poland between the German invasion and early 1940 At that time the Polish court system was reinstated and made decisions in cases not concerning German interests for which a parallel German court system was established The German system was given priority in cases of overlapping jurisdiction New laws were passed discriminating against ethnic Poles and in particular the Jews In 1941 a new criminal law was introduced introducing many new crimes and making the death penalty very common The death penalty was introduced for among other things on October 31 1939 for any acts against the German government on January 21 1940 for economic speculation on February 20 1940 for spreading sexually transmitted diseases on July 31 1940 for any Polish officers who did not register immediately with the German administration to be taken to prisoner of war camps on November 10 1941 for giving any assistance to Jews on July 11 1942 for farmers who failed to provide requested crops on July 24 1943 for not joining the forced labor battalions Baudienst when requested on October 2 1943 for impeding the German Reconstruction PlanPolicing The police in the General Government was divided into Ordnungspolizei OrPo native German the Blue Police Polish under German control Sicherheitspolizei native German composed of Kriminalpolizei German Gestapo German The most numerous OrPo battalions focused on traditional security roles as an occupying force Some of them were directly involved in the pacification operations 28 In the immediate aftermath of World War II this latter role was obscured both by the lack of court evidence and by deliberate obfuscation while most of the focus was on the better known Einsatzgruppen Operational groups who reported to RSHA led by Reinhard Heydrich 29 On 6 May 1940 Gauleiter Hans Frank stationed in occupied Krakow established the Sonderdienst based on similar SS formations called Selbstschutz operating in the Warthegau district of German annexed western part of Poland since 1939 30 Sonderdienst were made up of ethnic German Volksdeutsche who lived in Poland before the attack and joined the invading force thereafter However after the 1941 Operation Barbarossa they included also the Soviet prisoners of war who volunteered for special training such as the Trawniki men German Trawnikimanner deployed at all major killing sites of the Final Solution A lot of those men did not know German and required translation by their native commanders 31 32 366 Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was formed in Distrikt Galizien in 1941 many policemen deserted in 1943 joining UPA The former Polish policemen with no high ranking Polish officers who were arrested or demoted were drafted to the Blue Police and became subordinated to the local Ordnungspolizei Some 3 000 men served with the Sonderdienst in the General Government formally assigned to the head of the civil administration 31 The existence of Sonderdienst constituted a grave danger for the non Jewish Poles who attempted to help ghettoised Jews in the cities as in the Minsk Mazowiecki Ghetto among numerous others because Christian Poles were executed under the charge of aiding Jews 30 A Forest Protection Service also existed responsible for policing wooded areas in the General Government 33 A Bahnpolizei policed railroads The Germans used pre war Polish prisons and organised new ones like in Jan Chrystian Schuch Avenue police quarter in Warsaw and Under the Clock torture centre in Lublin German administration constructed a terror system to control Polish people enforcing reports of any illegal activities e g hiding Roma POWs guerilla fighters Jews Germans designated hostages terrorised local leaders applied collective responsibility German police used sting operations to find and kill rescuers of the Germans quarries 34 Military occupation forces Through the occupation Germany diverted a significant number of its military forces to keep control over Polish territories Number of Wehrmacht and police formations stationed in General government 35 Time period Wehrmacht army Police and SS includes German forces only TotalOctober 1939 550 000 80 000 630 000April 1940 400 000 70 000 470 000June 1941 2 000 000 high number due to imminent attack on Soviet positions 50 000 2 050 000February 1942 300 000 50 000 350 000April 1943 450 000 60 000 510 000November 1943 550 000 70 000 620 000April 1944 500 000 70 000 570 000September 1944 1 000 000 A small percentage took part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising 80 000 1 080 000Nazi propaganda The propaganda was directed by the Fachabteilung fur Volksaufklarung und Propaganda FAVuP since Spring 1941 Hauptabteilung Propaganda HAP Prasa kierowal Dienststelle der Pressechef der Regierung des Generalgouvernements a w Berlinie Der Bevollmachtige des Generalgouverneurs in Berlin Anti semitic propaganda Nazi anti semitic propaganda poster Thousands of anti Semitic posters were distributed in Warsaw 36 37 Political propaganda German Polish language recruitment poster Let s do farm work in Germany See your wojt at once Germans wanted Poles to obey orders 38 Polish language newspapers Nowy Kurier Warszawski Kurier Czestochowski Goniec Krakowski Dziennik Radomski Goniec Codzienny Ilustrowany Kurier Polski Gazeta Lwowska FalaCinemas Propaganda newsreels of Die Deutsche Wochenschau The German Weekly Review preceded feature film showings Some feature films likewise contained Nazi propaganda The Polish underground discouraged Poles from attending movies advising them in the words of the rhymed couplet Tylko swinie siedza w kinie Only swine go to the movies 39 In occupied Poland there was no Polish film industry However a few Poles collaborated with the Germans in making films such as the 1941 anti Polish propaganda film Heimkehr Homecoming In that film casting for minor parts played by Jewish and Polish actors was done by Igo Sym who during the filming was shot in his Warsaw apartment by the Polish Union of Armed Struggle resistance movement after the war the Polish performers were sentenced for collaboration in an anti Polish propaganda undertaking with punishments ranging from official reprimand to imprisonment 40 Theaters All Polish theaters were disbanded A German theater Theater der Stadt Warschau was formed in Warsaw together with a German controlled Polish one Teatr Miasta Warszawy There existed also one comedy theater Teatr Komedia and 14 small ones The Juliusz Slowacki Theatre in Cracow was used by Germans Audio propaganda Poles were not allowed to use radio sets Any set was to be handed over to local administration by 25 January 1940 Ethnic Germans were obliged to register their sets 41 German authorities installed megaphones for propaganda purposes called by Poles szczekaczki from pol szczekac to bark 42 Public executions Ujazdow Avenue Public execution memorial table Warsaw Germans killed thousands of Poles many of them civilian hostages in Warsaw streets and locations around Warsaw Warsaw ring to terrorize the population they shot or hanged them 43 44 The executions were ordered mainly by Austrian Nazi Franz Kutschera SS and Police Leader from September 1943 until January 1944 Urban planning and transportation network Warsaw was to be reconstructed according to Pabst Plan The governmental quarter was situated around the Pilsudski Square The capital of GG Krakow was reconstructed according to Generalbebauungsplan von Krakau by Hubert Ritter Hans Frank rebuild his residence Wawel Castle lt 45 Debniki Krakow was the planned Nazi administrative quarter 46 47 German only residential area was constructed near Park Krakowski 48 Germans constructed railroad line Lodz Radom partially in GG and engine house in Radom 49 Administrative districtsSee also Administrative division of Polish territories during World War II For administrative purposes the General Government was subdivided into four districts Distrikte These were the Distrikt Warschau the Distrikt Lublin the Distrikt Radom and the Distrikt Krakau After the Operation Barbarossa against the Soviets in June 1941 East Galicia part of Poland annexed by the Ukrainian SSR on the basis of the Ribbentrop Molotov Pact was incorporated into the General Government and became its fifth district Distrikt Galizien The new German administrative units were much larger than those organized by the Polish government reflecting the German lack of sufficient administrative personnel to staff smaller units 50 The five districts were further sub divided into urban counties Stadtkreise and rural counties Kreishauptmannschaften Following a decree on September 15 1941 the names of most of the major cities and their respective counties were renamed based on historical German data or given germanified versions of their Polish and Soviet names if none existed At times the previous names remained the same as well i e Radom The districts and counties were as follows Administrative map of the General Government July 1940 before Barbarossa Administrative map of the General Government July 1941 January 1944 following Barbarossa Distrikt WarschauStadtkreise Warschau Warsaw Kreishauptmannschaften Garwolin Grojec Grojec Lowitsch Lowicz Minsk Minsk Mazowiecki Ostrau Ostrow Mazowiecka Siedlce Skierniewice2 Sochaczew Sokolow Wengrow Sokolow Podlaski Wegrow Warschau LandDistrikt KrakauStadtkreis kreisfreie Stadt since 1940 Krakau Krakow Kreishauptmannschaften Dembitz Debica Jaroslau Jaroslaw Jassel Jaslo Krakau Land Krosno1 Meekow Miechow Neumarkt Nowy Targ Neu Sandez Nowy Sacz Przemysl1 Reichshof Rzeszow Sanok Tarnau Tarnow Distrikt LublinStadtkreise LublinKreishauptmannschaften Biala Podlaska Biala Podlaska Bilgoraj Cholm Chelm Grubeschow Hrubieszow Janow Lubelski Krasnystaw Lublin Land Pulawy Rehden Radzyn Zamosch Himmlerstadt Pflugstadt Zamosc Distrikt RadomStadtkreise Kielce Radom Tschenstochau Czestochowa Kreishauptmannschaften Busko Busko Zdroj Jedrzejow Kielce Land Konskie Konskie Opatau Opatow Petrikau Piotrkow Trybunalski Radom Land Radomsko Starachowitz Starachowice Tomaschow Mazowiecki Tomaszow Mazowiecki Distrikt GalizienStadtkreise Lemberg Lviv Lwow Kreishauptmannschaften Breschan Brzezany Tschortkau Czortkow Drohobycz Kamionka Strumilowa Kamianka Buzka Kolomea Kolomyia Lemberg Land Rawa Ruska Rava Ruska Stanislau Ivano Frankivsk Sambor Sambir Stryj Tarnopol Solotschiw Zolochiv Kallusch Kalush 1 added after 1941 2 removed after 1941 A change in the administrative structure was desired by Finance Minister Lutz von Krosigk who for financial reasons wanted to see the five existing districts Warsaw Krakow Radom Lublin and Galicia reduced to three 21 In March 1943 he announced the merger of the Krakow and Galicia districts and the split of the Warsaw district between the Radom district and the Lublin district 21 The latter acquired a special status of Germandom district Deutschtumsdistrikt as a test run of the Germanization according to the Generalplan Ost 51 The restructuring further involved the changing of Warsaw and Krakow into separate city districts Stadtdistrikte with Warsaw under the direct control of the General Government This decree was to go into effect on 1 April 1943 and was nominally accepted by Heinrich Himmler but Martin Bormann opposed the move as he simply wanted to see the region turned into Reichsgaue Germany proper Wilhelm Frick and Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger were also skeptic about the usefulness of this reorganization resulting in its abolition after subsequent discussions between Himmler and Frank 21 DemographicsThe General Government was inhabited by 11 4 million people in December 1939 A year later the population increased to 12 1 million In December 1940 83 3 of the population were Poles 11 2 Jews 4 4 Ukrainians and Belarusians 0 9 Germans and 0 2 others 52 About 860 000 Poles and Jews were resettled into the General Government after they were expelled from the territories annexed by Nazi Germany Offsetting this was the German genocidal campaign of liquidation of the Polish intelligentsia and other elements considered likely to resist From 1941 disease and hunger also began to reduce the population Poles were also deported in large numbers to work as forced labor in Germany eventually about a million were deported of whom many died in Germany In 1940 the population was segregated into different groups Each group had different rights food rations allowed strips in the cities public transportation and restricted restaurants They were divided from the most privileged to the least citation needed Distribution of food in General Government as of December 1941 53 Nationality Daily food energy intakeGermans 2 310 Cal 9 700 kJ Foreigners 1 790 Cal 7 500 kJ Ukrainians 930 Cal 3 900 kJ Poles 654 Cal 2 740 kJ Jews 184 Cal 770 kJ Germans from Germany Reichdeutsche Germans from outside active ethnic Germans Volksliste category 1 and 2 see Volksdeutsche Germans from outside passive Germans and members of families this group also included some ethnic Poles Volksliste category 3 and 4 Ukrainians Highlanders Goralenvolk an attempt to split the Polish nation by using local collaborators Poles partially exterminated citation needed Romani people eventually largely exterminated as a category Jews eventually largely exterminated as a category EconomicsFurther information Baudienst and Forced labor in Germany during World War II After the invasion of Poland in 1939 Jews over the age of 12 and Poles over the age of 14 living in the General Government were subject to forced labor 24 Many Poles from other regions of Poland conquered by Germany were expelled to the General Government and the area was used as a slave labour pool from which men and women taken by force to work as laborers in factories and farms in Germany 5 In 1942 all non Germans living in the General Government were subject to forced labor 54 Parts of Warsaw and several towns Wielun Sulejow Frampol were destroyed during the Polish German war in September 1939 Poles weren t able to buy any construction materials to reconstruct their houses or businesses They lost their savings and GG currency nicknamed Mlynarki was managed by German controlled Bank Emisyjny w Polsce So called Goral 500 zloty banknote used in the territories of the GG Former Polish state property was confiscated by the General Government or by Nazi Germany in the annexed territories Notable property of Polish individuals ex factories and large land estates was often confiscated as well and managed by German trusts German Treuhander Jewish population was deported to the Ghettos their dwelling and businesses were confiscated by the Germans small businesses were sometimes passed to the Poles 55 Farmers were required to provide large food contingents for the Germans and there were plans for nationalization of all but the smallest estates German administration implemented a system of exploitation of Jewish and Polish people which included high taxes 56 Food supplyWhile scholars debate whether from September 1939 to June 1941 the mass starvation of the Jewish people of Europe was an attempt to conduct mass murder it is agreed upon that this starvation did kill a large amount of this population 57 There was a shift in the amount of resources that were being used by the Generalgouvernement from 1939 to 1940 For example in 1939 seven million tons of coal were used but in 1940 this was reduced to four million tons of coal used by the Generalgouvernement This shift was emblematic of the shortages in supplies depriving the Jews and Poles of their only heating source Although before the war Poland exported mass quantities of food in 1940 the Generalgouvernement was unable to supply enough food for the country nonetheless exporting food supplies 58 In December 1939 the Polish and Jewish reception committees as well as the native local officials all within the Generalgouvernement were responsible for providing food and shelter to the Poles and Jews that evacuated In the expulsion process the help provided to the evacuated Poles and Jews by the Generalgouvernement was considered a weak branch of the overall process 59 Throughout 1939 the Reichsbahn was responsible for many of the other important tasks including the deportations of Poles and Jews to concentration camps as well as the delivery of food and raw materials to different places 60 In December 1940 87 833 Poles and Jews were deported which added stress to different administrations which were now responsible for these deportees During the deportations people were forced to reside on the trains for days until a place was found for them to stay Between the cold and lack of food masses of deportees died due to transport deaths caused by malnutrition cold and moreover unlivable transportation conditions 59 The prices for food outside of ghettos and concentration camps had to be set at a reasonable price in order for them to align with the black market setting prices at a reasonable rate would ensure that farmers did not sell their crops illegally If the prices were set too high in cities there was a concern that workers would not be able to afford the food and protest the prices Due to the price inflation which was occurring in the Generalgouvernement many places relied on the barter system exchanging goods for other goods instead of money Introducing rationing in September 1940 Marshal Petain insisted that everyone must assume their share of common hardship 61 There was clearly food instability not only in the ghettos but also in cities which caused everyone to be conscious about food rationing and caused conditions for Jewish people to worsen While workers in Norway and France protested the new rationing of food Germany and the UK where the citizens supported war efforts were more supportive of the rationing therefore it was more effective Cases where a country was being occupied caused the citizens to be more hesitant about the rationing of food and it was overall not as effective 62 In December 1941 it was recognized by the Generalgouvernement that starving the Jewish people to death was an inexpensive and expedient solution In August 1942 the required food shipments from the General Government to the Reich were increased and decided that the 1 2 million Jews that were not completing jobs that were important to Germany would no longer be given food 63 The Nazis knew the effects of depriving the Jewish people of food yet it continued the ultimate revolt against the Jewish race was mass murder due to starvation The Food and Agriculture Ministry administered the rations of food in concentration camps 64 Each camp s administration got food from the open market and depots of the Waffen SS Standartenfuhrer Tschentscher Once the food arrived at a camp it was up to the administration how to distribute it The diet for the Jews in these camps was watery turnip soup drunk from pots it was supplemented by an evening meal of sawdust bread with some margarine smelly marmalade or putrid sausage Between the two meals inmates attempted to lap a few drops of polluted water from the faucet in a wash barracks 65 Black market During this environment of food scarcity Jews turned to the black market for any source of sustenance The black market was important both in and outside of the ghettos from 1940 to 1944 Outside of the ghettos the black market existed because rations were not high enough for the citizens to remain healthy In the ghettos of eastern Europe in August 1941 the Jewish population recognized that if they were forced to remain in these ghettos they would eventually die of hunger Many people that were in ghettos made trades with the outside world in order to stay alive 61 Jewish people were forced to reside in ghettos where the economy was isolated and there were large food shortages which caused them to be seen as a source for cheap labor many were given food that was purchased on the Aryan side of the wall in exchange for their labor The isolation of the people forced into ghettos caused there to be a disconnect between the buyer and seller which added in another player the black market middleman The black market middleman would make a profit by creating connections between sellers and buyers While supply and demand was inelastic in these ghettos the selling of this food on the blackmarket was extremely competitive and beyond the reach of most Jews in ghettos 66 ResistanceThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed May 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Main article Polish resistance movement in World War II Resistance to the German occupation began almost at once although there is little terrain in Poland suitable for guerrilla operations Several small army troops supported by volunteers fought till Spring 1940 e g under major Henryk Dobrzanski after which they ceased due to German executions of civilians as reprisals Flag of the Home Army The main resistance force was the Home Army in Polish Armia Krajowa or AK loyal to the Polish government in exile in London It was formed mainly of the surviving remnants of the pre War Polish Army together with many volunteers Other forces existed side by side such as the communist People s Army Armia Ludowa or AL parallel to the PPR organized and controlled by the Soviet Union The AK was estimated between 200 000 and 600 000 men while the AL was estimated between 14 000 and 60 000 1942 1943 German repressions caused Zamosc uprising German announcement of the execution of 9 Polish peasants for unfurnished contingents quotas Signed by the governor of Lublin district on 25 November 1941 In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising April 19 to May 16 That was the first armed uprising against the Germans in Poland and prefigured the larger and longer Warsaw Uprising of 1944 citation needed In July 1944 as the Soviet armed forces approached Warsaw the government in exile called for an uprising in the city so that they could return to a liberated Warsaw and try to prevent a Communist take over The AK led by Tadeusz Bor Komorowski launched the Warsaw Rising on August 1 in response both to their government and to Soviet and Allied promises of help However Soviet help was never forthcoming despite the Soviet army being only 18 miles 30 km away and Soviet denial of their airbases to British and American planes prevented any effective resupply or air support of the insurgents by the Western allies They used distant Italian bases in their Warsaw airlift instead After 63 days of fighting the leaders of the rising agreed a conditional surrender with the Wehrmacht The 15 000 remaining Home Army soldiers were granted POW status prior to the agreement captured rebels were shot and the remaining civilian population of 180 000 expelled EducationMain articles Education in Poland during World War II and Secret Teaching Organization All universities in GG were disbanded many Krakow professors imprisoned during the Sonderaktion Krakau Culture of PolandGermans plundered Polish museums Many of the pieces of art perished 67 Germans burned a number of Warsaw libraries including National Library of Poland destroying about 3 6 million volumes 68 German sportHans Frank was an avid chess player so he organized General Government chess tournaments Only Germans were allowed to perform in sporting events About 80 football clubs played in four district divisions 69 HolocaustMain article The Holocaust in Poland Nazi extermination camps in occupied Poland marked with black and white skulls General Government in beige Death camp at Auschwitz lower left in the neighbouring new German Provinz OberschlesienDuring the Wannsee conference on January 20 1942 the State Secretary of the General Government SS Brigadefuhrer Josef Buhler encouraged Heydrich to implement the Final Solution From his own point of view as an administrative official the problems in his district included an overdeveloped black market He endorsed a remedy in solving the Jewish question as fast as possible An additional point in favor of setting up the extermination facilities in his governorate was that there were no transportation problems there 70 since all assets of the disbanded Polish State Railways PKP were being managed by Ostbahn the Krakow based Deutsche Reichsbahn branch of the Generaldirektion der Ostbahn General Directorate of Eastern Railways Gedob This made a network of death trains readily available to the SS Totenkopfverbande 71 Main article Operation Reinhard The newly drafted Operation Reinhard would be a major step in the systematic liquidation of the Jews in occupied Europe beginning with those in the General Government Within months three top secret camps were built and equipped with stationary gas chambers disguised as shower rooms based on Action T4 solely to efficiently kill thousands of people each day The Germans began the elimination of the Jewish population under the guise of resettlement in spring of 1942 The three Reinhard camps including Treblinka the deadliest of them all had transferable SS staff and almost identical design The General Government was the location of four of the seven extermination camps of World War II in which the most extreme measures of the Holocaust were carried out including closely located Majdanek concentration camp Sobibor extermination camp and Belzec extermination camp The genocide of undesired races chiefly millions of Jews from Poland and other countries was carried out by gassing between 1942 and 1944 72 PunishmentsHans Frank instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population 73 and became directly involved in the mass murder of Jews At the Nuremberg trials he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and was executed His secretaries Arthur Seyss Inquart and Josef Buhler were executed in Nuremberg and Poland respectively Ludwig Fischer was a governor of the Warsaw District He was sentenced and hanged in Warsaw Ernst Kundt was a governor of the Radom District He was sentenced and hanged in Czechoslovakia Gallery The wall of the Warsaw Ghetto being built under the orders of Dr Ludwig The Warsaw Ghetto 1940 1943 Announcement by the Chief of SS and Police 5 09 1942 Death penalty for Poles offering any help to Jews Warsaw Ghetto Uprising April 1943 Jews being held at gunpoint by SS troops from a report written by Jurgen Stroop for Heinrich Himmler Polish inmates of Pawiak prison hanged by Germans in Leszno Street Warsaw February 11 1944 photo taken secretly from tram by a member of the Polish Home Army Warsaw Uprising Polish soldiers in action August 1 1944 Polish civilians murdered by SS troops during the Warsaw Uprising August 1944 Aerial view of the city of Warsaw January 1945 Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael stolen at the behest of Hans Frank in 1939 and never returned one of over 40 000 works of art robbed from Polish collections Polish hostages being blindfolded during preparations for their mass execution in Palmiry 1940 A mass execution of Poles in Bochnia December 18 1939 The Warsaw Uprising 1944See alsoAreas annexed by Nazi Germany Chronicles of Terror Ernst Lerch German camps in occupied Poland during World War II Gestapo NKVD Conferences Money transfers in the Generalgouvernement Postal communication in the General Government World War II evacuation and expulsion West GaliciaNotesa The RKF also RKFDV stands for the Reichskommissar fur die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums or the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood an office in Nazi Germany held by Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler Meanwhile the HTO stands for Haupttreuhandstelle Ost or the Main Trustee Office for the East a Nazi German predatory institution responsible for liquidating Polish and Jewish businesses across occupied Poland and selling them off for profit mainly to the SS or the German Volksdeutsche and war profiteers if interested The HTO was created and headed by Nazi potentate Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring 74 Citations Diemut 2003 page 268 a b c d Diemut Majer 2003 Non Germans Under the Third Reich The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland 1939 1945 With contribution from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum JHU Press pp 236 246 ISBN 0801864933 Piotr Eberhardt Jan Owsinski 2003 Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth century Central Eastern Europe History Data Analysis M E Sharpe p 216 ISBN 9780765606655 Ewelina Zebrowaka Zolinas Polityka eksterminacyjna okupanta hitlerowskiego na Zamojszczyznie Studia Iuridica Lublinensia 17 213 229 a b c Keith Bullivant Geoffrey J Giles Walter Pape 1999 Germany and Eastern Europe Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences Rodopi p 32 Adam D Rotfeld Anatolij W Torkunow 2010 White spots black spots difficult issues in Polish Russian relations 1918 2008 Biale plamy czarne plamy sprawy trudne w polsko rosyjskich stosunkach 1918 2008 in Polish Polsko Rosyjska Grupa do Spraw Trudnych Polski Instytut Spraw Miedzynarodowych p 378 ISBN 9788362453009 Hans Frank s Diary Liulevicius Vejas G 2000 War Land on the Eastern Front Culture Identity and German Occupation in World War I Cambridge University Press p 54 ISBN 9781139426640 Erlass des Fuhrers und Reichskanzlers uber die Gliederung und Verwaltung der Ostgebiete Majer 2003 p 265 Generalgouvernement Shoah Resource Center a b Hitler Adolf 2000 Bormann Martin ed Hitler s Table Talk 1941 1944 5 April 1942 trans Cameron Norman Stevens R H 3rd ed Enigma Books ISBN 1 929631 05 7 Man to man Rada Ochrony Pamieci Walk i Meczenstwa Warsaw 2011 p 11 English version Hitler s plans for Eastern Europe Rich Norman 1974 Hitler s War Aims the Establishment of the New Order p 99 W W Norton amp Company Inc New York Burleigh Michael 1988 Germany Turns Eastwards A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich Cambridge University Press p 142 ISBN 9780521351201 Madajczyk Czeslaw 1988 Die okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939 1945 p 31 in German Akademie Verlag Berlin Catherine Epstein 2012 Model Nazi Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland Oxford University Press ISBN 0199646538 p 139 Rich p 89 NS Archiv Dokumente zum Nationalsozialismus Diensttagebuch Hans Frank 16 12 1941 Regierungssitzung in German Retrieved 12 May 2011 1 a b c d e f g Madajczyk pp 102 103 a b Wasser Bruno 1993 Himmler s Raumplanung im Osten pp 82 83 Birkhauser Verlag Basel Man to man Rada Ochrony Pamieci Walk i Meczenstwa Warsaw 2011 English version a b Majer 2003 p 302 Himka John Paul 1998 Krakivs ki visti An Overview Harvard Ukrainian Studies 22 251 261 JSTOR 41036740 Gyidel Ernest 2019 The Ukrainian Legal Press of the General Government The Case of Krakivski Visti 1940 1944 doi 10 7939 r3 7x8g 9w02 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Myroslav Yurkevich 1986 Galician Ukrainians in German Military Formations and in the German Administration In Ukraine during World War II history and its aftermath a symposium Yuri Boshyk Roman Waschuk Andriy Wynnyckyj Eds Edmonton University of Alberta Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press pp 73 74 Christopher R Browning 1 May 2007 The Origins of the Final Solution U of Nebraska Press pp 349 361 ISBN 978 0803203921 Google eBook Retrieved 4 December 2014 Hillberg Raul The Destruction of the European Jews Holmes amp Meir NY NY 1985 pp 100 106 a b The Erwin and Riva Baker Memorial Collection 2001 Yad Vashem Studies Yad Washem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance Wallstein Verlag 57 58 ISSN 0084 3296 Retrieved 12 May 2014 a b Browning Christopher R 1998 1992 Arrival in Poland PDF file direct download 7 91 MB complete Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Penguin Books pp 51 98 109 124 Retrieved May 1 2013 Also PDF cache archived by WebCite a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a External link in code class cs1 code quote code help David Bankir ed 2006 Police Auxiliaries for Operation ReinhardbyPeter R Black Google Books Secret Intelligence and the Holocaust Enigma Books pp 331 348 ISBN 192963160X Retrieved 2013 06 02 Benz Wolfgang 1997 Enzyklopadie des Nationalsozialismus Klett Cotta ISBN 3423330074 Frydel Tomasz 2018 Judenjagd Reassessing the Role of Ordinary Poles as Perpetrators in the Holocaust In Williams Timothy Buckley Zistel Susanne eds Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence Action Motivations and Dynamics London Routledge pp 187 203 Czeslaw Madajczyk Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce p 242 volume 1 Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe Warszawa 1970 Defining Enemy Holocaust Encyclopedia Grabowski Antisemitic propaganda Archived from the original on 2018 05 24 Retrieved 2018 05 24 Eksploatacja wsi 1939 1945 fotogaleria Fotogaleria Martyrologia Wsi Polskich Archived from the original on 2018 06 18 Retrieved 2018 06 18 Marek Haltof Polish National Cinema Archived from the original on 2018 05 24 Retrieved 2018 05 24 Januszewski Bartosz 13 September 2017 Kino i teatr pod okupacja Polskie srodowisko filmowe i teatralne w czasie II wojny swiatowej PDF in Polish Retrieved 14 March 2022 http www historiaradia neostrada pl Okupacja 201939 44 html Archived 2018 08 03 at the Wayback Machine bare URL http www polska1918 89 pl pdf gadzinowki i szczekaczki 5383 pdf bare URL PDF Execution Sites http www executedtoday com 2009 02 11 1944 twenty two or more poles bare URL Hans Frank przebudowuje Wawel 2019 04 17 Hitlerowskie wizje Krakowa Wyborcza pl Niemieckie osiedle mieszkaniowe kolo Parku Krakowskiego 2017 04 13 Poniemiecka parowozownia na sprzedaz Jednak jeszcze nie teraz Radom24 pl Portal Radomia i regionu Rich 1974 p 86 Frank Uekotter The Green and the Brown A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany 2006 ISBN 0521612772 pp 158 159 Wlodzimierz Bonusiak Polska podczas II wojny swiatowej Poland during II World War Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego 2003 p 68 Madajczyk 1970 p 226 volume 2 Majer 2003 p 303 Treuhander Glossary Virtual Shtetl Archived from the original on 2016 08 06 Retrieved 2016 06 10 Gotz Aly Hitler s Beneficiaries Plunder Racial War and the Nazi Welfare State Sinnreich Helene Julia May 2004 The Supply and Distribution of Food to the Lodz Ghetto A Case Study in Nazi Jewish Policy 1939 1945 ProQuest 56 ProQuest 305208240 Gross Jan Tomasz 1979 Polish Society Under German Occupation The Generalgouvernment 1939 1944 Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press p 92 ISBN 0691093814 a b Rutherford Phillip 2003 Absolute Organizational Deficiency The 1 Nahplan of December 1939 Logistics Limitations and Lessons Central European History 36 2 254 doi 10 1163 156916103770866130 JSTOR 4547300 S2CID 145343274 Rutherford Phillip 2003 Absolute Organizational Deficiency The 1 Nahplan of December 1939 Logistics Limitations and Lessons Central European History 36 2 248 doi 10 1163 156916103770866130 JSTOR 4547300 S2CID 145343274 a b Mazower Mark 2008 Hitler s Empire How the Nazis Ruled Europe London UK The Penguin Press p 279 ISBN 9780713996814 Mazower Mark 2008 Hitler s Empire How the Nazis Ruled Europe London UK The Penguin Press pp 277 279 ISBN 9780713996814 Gross Jan Tomasz 1979 Polish Society Under German Occupation The Generalgouvernment 1939 1944 Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press p 102 ISBN 0691093814 Sinnreich Helene Julia May 2004 The Supply and Distribution of Food to the Lodz Ghetto A Case Study in Nazi Jewish Policy 1939 1945 ProQuest vii ProQuest 305208240 Hilberg Raul 2003 The Destruction of the European Jews New Haven Connecticut Yale University Press pp 581 582 Gross Jan Tomasz 1979 Polish Society Under German Occupation The Generalgouvernment 1939 1944 Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press pp 111 112 ISBN 0691093814 22 Precious Works of Art That Vanished During World War II various authors Tomasz Balcerzak Lech Kaczynski 2004 Tomasz Balcerzak ed Pro memoria Warszawskie biblioteki naukowe w latach okupacji 1939 1945 transl Philip Earl Steele Warsaw Biblioteka Narodowa p 4 Polsko niemiecka historia pilki czyli powrot do przeszlosci 2015 12 27 Adolf Eichmann The Wannsee Conference Protocol Dan Rogers translator University of Pennsylvania Retrieved 2009 01 05 Jerzy Wasilewski 2014 25 wrzesnia Wcielenie kolei polskich na Slasku w Wielkopolsce i na Pomorzu do niemieckich kolei panstwowych Deutsche Reichsbahn Polskie Koleje Panstwowe PKP Archived from the original on 8 February 2014 Retrieved 8 February 2014 Arad Yitzhak 1999 1987 Belzec Sobibor Treblinka The Operation Reinhard Death Camps Indiana University Press p 37 ISBN 0253213053 ASIN 0253213053 via Internet Archive Belzec Holocaust Encyclopedia Hans Frank United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Retrieved 18 April 2016 Miroslaw Sikora 16 September 2009 Aktion Saybusch na Zywiecczyznie Regional branch of the Institute of National Remembrance IPN Katowice Reprint Retrieved 24 August 2015 References Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Government Kochanski Halik The Eagle Unbowed Poland and the Poles in the Second World War 2012 Medykowski Witold Wojciech Macht Arbeit Frei German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government 1939 1943 2018 Generalgouvernement on the Yad Vashem website Testimony of Frank at Nuremberg examined by his defense attorney Dr Alfred Seidl 4 18 1946 General Government NAZI occupied Poland the CIH World War II Pages Retrieved 24 August 2015 Collections of civilian testimonies from Nazi occupied Poland in testimony database Chronicles of Terror Further readingMedykowski Witold W 2018 Macht Arbeit Frei German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government 1939 1943 Jews of Poland Boston Academic Studies Press ISBN 9781618119568 Archived from the original pdf on 2019 02 01 Retrieved 2019 02 01 Coordinates 50 03 17 N 19 56 12 E 50 05472 N 19 93667 E 50 05472 19 93667 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title General Government amp oldid 1145095778, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.