| Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany | |
|---|---|
| Part ofGerman occupation of Poland,Expulsion of Poles by Germany,Generalplan Ost, andGenocide of Poles by Nazi Germany | |
 Poles expelled in 1939 fromReichsgau Wartheland | |
| Location | German-occupiedPoland |
| Date | 1939–1944 |
| Target | Poles |
Attack type | population transfer,ethnic cleansing,massacre,kidnapping of children |
| Victims | 1.7 million expelled |
| Perpetrators | Nazi Germany |
| Motive | Anti-Polish sentiment,Germanisation,German irredentism,Lebensraum,Nazi racial ideology,Anti-Slavic sentiment |
DuringWorld War II, over 1.7 millionPoles wereforcibly resettled from the territories ofGerman-occupied Poland, with the aim of theirGermanization (seeLebensraum) between 1939 and 1944.
The German Government had plans for the extensivecolonisation of territories of occupied Poland, which were annexed directly into Nazi Germany in 1939. Eventually these plans grew bigger to include parts of theGeneral Government. The region was to become a "purely German area" within 15–20 years, as explained byAdolf Hitler in March 1941. By that time the General Government was to be cleared of 15 million Polish nationals, and resettled by 4–5 million ethnicGermans.[1]
The operation was the culmination of theexpulsion of Poles by Germany carried out since the 19th century, when Poland waspartitioned among foreign powers including Germany.
Following theGerman invasion of the country, Naziexpansionist policies were enacted upon its Polish population on an unprecedented scale. In accordance with Nazi ideology the Poles were consideredUntermenschen, deemed forslavery[citation needed] and their further extermination, in order to make room for the Germans re-settled from across Europe. Furthermore, Hitler intended to extensively colonize all territories lying to the east of theThird Reich. These were worked out by theRSHA department of theSS inGeneralplan Ost (GPO, "[the] General Plan for the East"), which foresaw the deportation of 45 million "non-Germanizable" people fromCentral & Eastern Europe to WestSiberia; of whom 31 million were "racially undesirable": including 100% ofJews, Poles (85%),Belarusians (75%) andUkrainians (65%). Poland itself would have been cleared of all Polish people eventually, as 20 million or so were going to be expelled further east. The remaining 3 to 4 million Polish peasants believed to be thePolonized "descendants" of German colonists and migrants (Walddeutsche,Prussian settlers, etc.) – and therefore considered "racially valuable" – would be Germanized and dispersed among the ethnic German population living on formerly Polish soil.[1] The Nazi leadership hoped that through expulsions toSiberia,famine, massexecutions andslave labour, the Polish nation would eventually be completely destroyed.[2] Experiments in mass sterilization inconcentration camps may also have been intended for use on the populations.[3]
The World War II expulsions took place within two specific political entities established by the Nazis, divided from each other by a closed border:one area outright annexed to the Reich in 1939–1941, and another called theGeneral Government, a precursor to the further expansion of the German administrative settlement area. Eventually, as Adolf Hitler explained in March 1941, the General Government would be cleared of all Poles and the region turned into a "purely German area" within 15–20 years, and in place of 15 million Poles, 4–5 million Germans would live there. The area was to become "as German as theRhineland".[4]
There was a special institution set up in November 1939 in German-occupiedPoznań to coordinate the expulsion.[5] Initially named the Special Staff for the Resettlement of Poles and Jews (Sonderstab für die Aussiedlung von Polen und Juden), it was soon renamed to Office for the Resettlement of Poles and Jews (Amt für Umsiedlung der Polen und Juden), and eventually renamed to Central Bureau for Resettlement (UWZ,Umwandererzentralstelle) in 1940.[5] The main seats of the UWZ were located in Poznań andGdynia, with an additional major branch located inŁódź and minor branches located in various other towns, includingKępno,Wieluń,Sieradz andZamość.[6] The UWZ also supervised the network of resettlement camps for Poles.[7] In the resettlement camps, Poles were subjected to brutal searches and racial selection, families were often broken up andchildren were taken from their parents.[8] Poor conditions, low food rations, lack of medical care and brutal treatment resulted in high mortality in the resettlement camps for Poles, which was in contrast to the conditions in the camps for German colonists, managed byVolksdeutsche Mittelstelle, the main agency responsible for coordinating German settlement in occupied Poland.[9] Poles were then deported to new destinations in overcrowded freight trains that lacked any sanitary facilities.[8]
By 1945 one million GermanVolksdeutsche from several Eastern European countries and regions such as theSoviet Union,Bessarabia,Romania and theBaltic States had been successfully resettled into Poland during the action called "Heim ins Reich". The deportation orders specifically required that enough Poles be removed to provide for every settler—that, for instance, if twenty German "master bakers" were sent, twenty Polish bakeries had to have their owners removed.[10] The expulsions of Poles were conducted by two German organisations: theHauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the Resettlement Department of the "Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germandom" (RKFDV,Reichskomissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums), a title held byHeinrich Himmler. The new Germans were put in villages and towns already cleared of their native Polish inhabitants under the banner ofLebensraum.
The first lands that were subject to mass expulsions, Germanization and extermination (seeIntelligenzaktion) were theregions annexed directly to Germany in 1939, i.e.Greater Poland,Kuyavia,Pomerania, western and northernMazovia,Silesia andDąbrowa Basin.[11] The expulsions were accompanied by economic exploitation,looting, and confiscation of Polish enterprises and farms covering millions of hectares.[12] The houses and property were handed over to ethnic Germans, especially future members of the occupation administration, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, formerWehrmacht soldiers and colonists from Central and Eastern Europe, while Poles were mostly deported either to the General Government or toforced labour.[13]
Germanization began with the classification of which people were "racially suitable", as defined by the NaziVolksliste.[14] About 1.7 million Poles were deemed Germanizable, including between one and two hundred thousand Polish childrenwho were taken away from their parents.[15] For the remainder expulsion was carried out, often in cattle cars in freezing weather, causing the deaths of many, especially children.[16] They were carried out on short notice, often at night, and the people were allowed only a few belongings.[16] Ethnic Germans being resettled there were often given Polish homes with half-eaten meals on tables, and unmade beds, where small children had been sleeping at the time of their evictions.[17] Members of theHitler Youth and theLeague of German Girls were assigned the task of overseeing the evictions to ensure that the Poles left behind most of their belongings for the use of the settlers.[18] This could also mean the separation of entire families, with able-bodied adults being sent towork in Germany while the rest were sent to the General Government.[16] The expulsion also affected tens of thousands ofPolish Jews andRomani people.[19]
Some villages were destroyed to make place forproving grounds of the German military and theWaffen-SS.[20] Poles expelled from those villages had nothing to return to after the war and had to settle in new locations.[19]
Together with so-called "wild expulsions", in four years of Nazi occupation 923,000 Poles were ethnically cleansed from the territories annexed by Germany into the Reich.[21] According to research conducted byCzesław Łuczak, the Germans expelled the following numbers of Poles from areas annexed into the Reich as well as all others in the period of 1939–1944:[22]
| Name of territory | Number of displaced Poles |
|---|---|
| Warthegau region (includingGreater Poland andŁódź) | 280,606[23] |
| Silesia | 81,000 |
| Pomerelia | 124,000 |
| Białystok | 28,000 |
| Ciechanów (NorthernMazovia) | 25,000 |
| "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 (proving grounds) | 171,000 |
| Warsaw (after theWarsaw uprising) | 500,000 |
| Grand total on all occupied Polish territories | 1,689,000 – 1,709,000 |
Between 1939 and 1940, Nazi expulsions from German-occupiedGreater Poland (Wielkopolska) affected 680,000 Poles.[24] From the city ofPoznań in Reichsgau Wartheland alone, the Germans expelled 70,000 Poles to the General Government.[25] The deportations conducted under the leadership ofSS-ObergruppenführerWilhelm Koppe, were supervised bySS-StandartenführerErnst Damzog, who was also in charge of the daily operation of theChełmno extermination camp.[26] By 1945, half a million GermanVolksdeutsche from Eastern Europe, including theSoviet Union,Volhynia,[25]Bessarabia,Romania as well as theBaltic Germans, had been resettled into this area during the action called "Heim ins Reich".
From 1939 to 1940 in German-occupiedPomerelia (namedDanzig-West Prussia by the Germans), the expulsions affected 121,765 Poles.[27] A total of 130,000Volksdeutsche were resettled there including 57,000 Germans from Eastern Europe, includingSoviet Union,Bessarabia,Romania and theBaltic states.
InSilesia, the Germans operated a network offorced labour camps for expelled Poles from the region, which were known asPolenlager.
In 1940 and 1941 the Germans evicted 17,000 Polish and Jewish residents from the western districts of the city ofOświęcim; from all places located directly adjacent to theAuschwitz concentration camp and also from the villages ofBroszkowice,Babice,Brzezinka,Rajsko,Pławy,Harmęże, Bór, and Budy.[28] The expulsion of Polish civilians was a step towards establishing the "Camp Interest Zone" meant to isolate the camp from the outside world, and to expand economic activity designed to meet the needs of the SS. Ethnic German and Volksdeutsche settlers were being shipped in instead.
The years 1940 to 1944 marked the expulsion of 50,000 Poles from theŻywiec area including 18,000–20,000 Poles during theAction Saybusch operation conducted by theWehrmacht andOrdnungspolizei in late 1940.[29] The first of these actions took place on 22 September 1940.[30]Aktion Saybusch lasted from September to December 1940, with some 3,200Volksdeutsche brought inHeim ins Reich (Home into the Empire) from RomanianBukovina. Until the end of the Second World War a third of the Polish population was expelled from this region out of a total of 50,000 inhabitants. Poles were forcibly removed from the region and replaced with about 4,000Volksdeutsche settlers from Eastern Galicia and Volhynia who were given newlatifundia.
The Łódź area was attached by the Germans to occupiedGreater Poland (Wielkopolska), renamed Reichsgau Wartheland. The first expulsions from the city ofŁódź (renamedLitzmannstadt) took place in 1939. The Nazis, helped by the localVolksdeutsche, expelled Polish families from theosiedle "Montwiłła" Mireckiego first.[31] Until 1940, all 5,000 residents of this subdivision were expelled. Between 1939 and 1945, from the entire Łódź area ("Regierungsbezirk Litzmannstadt") including Łódź itself,Sieradz,Pabianice and other settlements,[32] 444,000 persons of Polish ethnicity were expelled – almost 25% of its population.
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The territory of the German district called theGeneral Government was the second main area of expulsions after the German-annexed more western provinces of Poland. The entity itself was seen only as a temporary measure by the Germans, and served as a large concentration area for Poles to perform hard labour to further Germany's industry andwar effort. Eventually it was to be cleared of Poles as well.
116,000 Poles were expelled from the region ofZamość, as part of the Nazi plan to establish German colonies further east in the conquered territories. Zamość itself was to be renamedHimmlerstadt ("Himmler City"), later changed toPflugstadt (Plough City), that was to symbolise the German "Plough" that was to "plough" the East. Additionally, almost30,000 children were kidnapped by the German authorities from their parents in that area for their further Germanization.[21] The action led to a massive operation by thePolish underground resistance movement led primarily by theArmia Krajowa andBataliony Chłopskie, known as theZamość Uprising.
Among the expulsions from the metropolitan centres of Poland, the largest took place in its capital. In October 1940, 115,000 Poles were expelled from their homes in centralWarsaw to make room for theJewish Ghetto constructed by the authorities. After the failure of theWarsaw Uprising, half a million people were expelled from the city as punishment, with 35% of the buildingssystematically leveled block by block.[21]
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