The text of this web page was originally published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a pamphlet titled "POLES".It is used here with permission.
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In response to the German occupation, Poles organized one of the largest underground movements in Europe with more than 300 widely supported political and military groups and subgroups. Despite military defeat, the
Polish government itself never surrendered. In 1940 a Polish government-in-exile became based in London. Resistance groups inside Poland set up underground courts for trying collaborators and others and clandestine schools in response to the Germans' closing of many educational institutions. The universities of Warsaw, Cracow, and Lvov all operated clandestinely. Officers of the regular Polish army headed an underground armed force, the "Home Army" (Armia Krajowa
The Nazi terror was, in scholar Norman Davies's words, "much fiercer and more protracted in Poland than anywhere in Europe." Reliable statistics for the total number of Poles who died as a result of Nazi German policies do not exist. Many others were victims of the 1939-1941 Soviet occupation of eastern Poland and of deportations to Central Asia and Siberia. Records are incomplete, and the Soviet control of Poland for 50 years after the war impeded independent scholarship.
The changing borders and ethnic composition of Poland as well as vast population movements during and after the war also complicated the task of calculating losses.
In the past, many estimates of losses were based on a Polish report of 1947 requesting reparations from the Germans; this often cited document tallied population losses of 6 million for all Polish "nationals" (Poles, Jews, and other minorities). Subtracting 3 million Polish Jewish victims, the report claimed 3 million non-Jewish victims of the Nazi terror, including civilian and military casualties of war.
Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German Occupation policies and the war. This approximate total includes Poles killed in executions or who died in prisons, forced labor, and concentration camps. It also includes an estimated 225,000 civilian victims of the 1944 Warsaw uprising, more than 50,000 civilians who died during the 1939 invasion and siege of Warsaw, and a relatively small but unknown number of civilians killed during the Allies' military campaign of 194445 to liberate Poland.
Violated Border (4th floor): An enamel shield bearing the Polish national insignia that at one time may have been affixed to a customs house along the Polish border.
The War Begins (4th floor): Film footage of the German invasion of Poland.
Terror in Poland (4th floor): Photos and a tree stump that marked a mass grave near the village of palmiry, Poland.
Prisoners of the Camps (3rd floor): Includes mug shots of many Polish victims.
Slave Labor (3rd floor): A purple "P" on a yellow patch indicating that the wearer was a Polish forced laborer.
Resistance (2nd floor): Poster announcing the execution of Poles for anti-German activities.
The Courage to Rescue (2nd floor): Segment on Zegota, including narrative and photographs of leadership; poster warning Poles against aiding Jews; wall including Polish rescuers recognized as "Righteous Among Nations" by Yad Vashem.
VISIT THE WEXNER LEARNING CENTER(2nd floor)
From the MENU choose TOPIC LIST. From the alphabetical list of topics choose "THE FATE OF THE POLES: Repression and Murder in Occupied Poland."
From the MENU choose ID CARD. Type in the following numbers to read about the experience of Polish people who were persecuted during the Holocaust: 6233; 4274; 2361; 6793; 4554; 5974; 4902; 2514; 6255; 6241; 1741; 4464, 6864; 6852; 6826; 6814; 2004; 5986; 1106.