 Prussian deportations of 1885–1890 as shown on a contemporary painting byKonstanty Górski | |
 Expulsion of Poles fromReichsgau Wartheland following theInvasion of Poland (1939). Families led to the trains under German escort, as part ofNazi German ethnic cleansing of annexed Poland. | |
| Duration | Partitions of Poland,[1]World War II |
|---|---|
| Location | German-controlled territories |
| Type | Ethnic cleansing,forced migration, MassExpulsion |
| Cause | Lebensraum,anti-Polish sentiment,Germanisation |
| Patron(s) | Frederick the Great,Otto von Bismarck,Adolf Hitler,Nazi Party,Wehrmacht |
| Outcome | Expulsion of 325,000 Poles[2] |
Theexpulsion of Poles by Germany refers to a series of forced displacements, deportations, and ethnic cleansing campaigns targeting Polish populations by German authorities, particularly during the 20th century. These actions occurred primarily during two key periods: under Nazi Germany during World War II, and earlier during the German Empire’s nationalist policies.
Thepartitions of Poland had ended the existence of a sovereign Polish state in the 18th century. With the rise ofGerman nationalism in the mid-19th century,Poles facedincreasing discrimination on formerly Polish lands. While the German Empire had refrained from expelling the Polish population that had German citizenship, it deported 30.000 Poles that had immigrated to Germany from the Russian Empire.[3]
During the Nazi occupation (1939–1945), hundreds of thousands of Poles were forcibly removed from annexed territories as part of Generalplan Ost, a Nazi strategy for the colonization and Germanization of Central and Eastern Europe.[4]
Poles had constituted one of the largest minorities in theGerman Empire since its creation in 1871. This was a result of earlier acquisitions of Polish inhabited regions made byPrussia, thestate that initiated theUnification of Germany.
The idea ofpan-Germanism, demanding the unification of all Germans in one state, including the German diaspora east of the imperial border, grew out ofRomantic nationalism. Some pan-Germanists believed that Germans were ethnically superior to other peoples — includingSlavs, whom they viewed as inferior to the German "race" and culture. TheNazi concept ofLebensraum in turn demanded "living space" for German people, claiming overpopulation of Germany and alleged negative traits of heavy urbanisation in contrast to agricultural settlement. The desired territories were to be taken particularly from Poland. Both pan-Germanism andLebensraum theory viewed Poles as an obstacle to German hegemony and prosperity as well as future expansion of the German state.[5]
In the territories annexed during the Partitions of Poland, German authorities sought to limit the number of ethnic Poles by their forcedGermanisation and by a wave ofsettlement by German colonists.[5] Beginning with theKulturkampf, laws were enacted to restrict Polish culture, religion, language, and rights to property. Bismarck initiated thePrussian deportations of 1885–1890, which affected some 30,000 immigrant Poles andJews living in Germany who did not have German citizenship and were force to return to their country of origin. This is described by E.J. Feuchtwanger as one of the precedents to modern policies ofethnic cleansing.[6] In 1887Bernhard von Bülow, the futureChancellor of the German Empire, advocated expelling Poles by force from territories which were Polish-inhabited and slated to become part of Germany.[7]
In 1908, Germany legalized the eviction of Poles from their properties under pressure from pan-German nationalist groups who hoped this law would be used to reduce the number of Poles in the East. This law however was only used once, due to its controversial nature.[5]
In August 1914 the German imperial armybombed and burned down the city ofKalisz, chasing out tens of thousands of its Polish citizens. However, during World War I, Germany had a frantic need for extra manpower in the East and hoped to tap into the reservoir of military volunteers among the Poles bymaking promises of a future independent Polish state. This initiative (led by Bethmann) failed, producing only "a dribble of volunteers" in 1916, but it was a commitment very hard to retract. There were numerous mistakes made, such as theOath Crisis, caused by poor wording of the oath of the Polish soldiers, which caused consternation among many Polish volunteers. In general, opinions of the German occupiers were mixed, between those who hoped that the Germans would set up a new Polish state, and those who feared German domination. In any case, successful attacks by the Russian army, such as the 'Brusilov offensive', forced Germany to consider a quasi independent buffer state between the two empires, hopefully set up only in the former Russian Poland and linked to Germany by its own military means.[8] The idea of reconstituting Congress Poland for the Poles after the war, was a cynical ploy which stemmed from a desire to push Russia's frontiers further East with the least amount of German effort.[9] In reality,Germany planned to annex about 30,000 km2 from formerCongress Poland for German colonisation.[5] Most of the Polish and Jewish populations of those territories (about 3,000,000 people) was to be expelled into a small Polish puppet state.[5] The remaining population was to be used as agricultural labour for new German colonists.[5]
With the occupation of Poland following the German invasion of the country, Nazi policies were enacted upon its Polish population on an unprecedented scale. According to Nazi ideology Poles, asUntermenschen, were seen as fit only forslavery and for further elimination in order to make room for the Germans.Adolf Hitler had plans for extensive colonisation of territories in the east of theThird Reich. Poland, itself, would – according to well documented German plans – have been cleared of Polish people altogether, as 20 million or so would have been expelled eventually. Up to 3 or 4 million Polish citizens (all peasants) believed to be descendants of German colonists and migrants and therefore considered "racially valuable" would be Germanised and dispersed among the German population.[10] Nazi leadership hoped that through expulsions toSiberia,famine, massexecutions, and slave labour of any survivors, the Polish nation would be eventually completely destroyed.[11]
World War II expulsions took place within two specific territories: one area annexed to Reich in 1939 and 1941, and another, theGeneral Government, precursor to further expansion of German administrative settlement area. Eventually, asAdolf Hitler explained in March 1941, the General Government would be cleared of Poles, the region would be turned into a "purely German area" within 15–20 years and in place of 15 million Poles, 4–5 million Germans would live there, and the area would become "as German as theRhineland.[12]
The Nazi plan to ethnically cleanse the territories occupied by Germany in Eastern Europe during World War II, was called theGeneralplan Ost (GPO).Germanisation began with the classification of people suitable as defined on the NaziVolksliste.[13] About 1.7 million Poles were deemed Germanizable, including between one and two hundred thousand children who were taken from their parents.[14] For the rest, expulsion was carried out.
These expulsions were carried out so abruptly that ethnic Germans being resettled there were given homes with half-eaten meals on tables and unmade beds where small children had been sleeping at the time of expulsion.[15] Members ofHitler Youth and theLeague of German Girls were assigned the task of overseeing such evictions to ensure that the Poles left behind most of their belongings for the use of the settlers.[16] According toCzesław Łuczak, Germans expelled the following numbers of Poles from territories annexed to the Reich in the period of 1939–1944:
| Name of territory | Number of displaced Poles |
|---|---|
| Warthegau region | 630,000 |
| Silesia | 81,000 |
| Pomerelia | 124,000 |
| Białystok | 28,000 |
| Ciechanów | 25,000 |
| So called "Wild expulsions" of 1939 (Pomerelia mostly) | 30,000 – 40,000 |
| Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany (total) | 918,000 – 928,000 |
| Zamość region | 100,000 – 110,000 |
| General Government | 171,000 |
| Warsaw (afterWarsaw uprising) | 500,000 |
| Grand total, on all occupied Polish territories | 1,689,000 – 1,709,000 |
Combined with "wild expulsions", in four years 923,000 Poles were ethnically cleansed from territories Germany annexed into the Reich.[18]
Within the territories of the German protectorate called General Government there were two main areas of expulsions committed by the German state. The protectorate itself was seen as temporary measure, and served as aconcentration camp for Poles to perform hard labour furthering German industry and war effort. Eventually it was to be cleared of Poles also.
Some 116,000 Poles were expelled from theZamość region as part of Nazi plans for establishment of German colonies in the conquered territories. Zamość itself was to be renamed Himmlerstadt, later changed to Pflugstadt (Plough City), which was to symbolise the German "Plow" that was to "plough" the East. Additionally, almost 30,000 children were kidnapped by German authorities from their parents for potential Germanisation.[18] This led to massive resistance (seeZamość Uprising).
In October 1940, 115,000 Poles were expelled from their homes in central Warsaw to make room for the Jewish Ghetto, constructed there by German authorities. (Jews were then expelled from their homes elsewhere and forced to move into the Ghetto.) When theWarsaw Uprising failed, 500,000 people were expelled from the city alone as punishment by German authorities.[18]
It is estimated that between 1.6 and 2 million people[19] were expelled from their homes during the German occupation of Poland. The Nazi German organized expulsions—by themselves—affected 1,710,000 Poles directly.[18] New estimates by Polish historians give the number of 2.478 million people expelled.[2] Additionally, 2.5 to 3 million Poles were taken from Poland to Germany as slave labourers to support the Nazi war effort.[11] These numbers do not include people arrested by the Germans and sent to Nazi concentration camps.[19]
In many instances, Poles were given between 15 minutes and 1 hour to collect their personal belongings (usually no more than 15 kilograms per person) before they were removed from their homes and transported east (see:deportations) On top of that about 5 million Poles were sent toGerman labor and concentration camps.[20] A total of about 6 million Polish citizens were killed during the war, of which approximately half were Jews or of Jewish descent.[21][22] All these actions resulted in significant changes in Polish demographics at the end of the war.[21]
Według ustaleń Czesława Łuczaka, do wszelkiego rodzaju obozów odosobnienia deportowano ponad 5 mln obywateli polskich (łącznie z Żydami i Cyganami). Z liczby tej zginęło ponad 3 miliony.