General Government

Coordinates: 50°03′17″N 19°56′12″E / 50.05472°N 19.93667°E / 50.05472; 19.93667
Extended-protected article
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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
.

General Government
Generalgouvernement (German)
1939–1945
Civil administration
Governor-General 
• 1939–1945
Hans Frank
Secretary for State 
• 1939–1940
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
• 1940–1945
Josef Bühler
Historical era
USSR captures Warsaw
 		17 January 1945
• Disintegration
19 January 1945
Currency
Zloty
Reichsmark
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
1939:
Military Administration in Poland
1941:
Ukrainian SSR
Provisional Government of Poland
Ukrainian SSR
Today part ofPoland
Ukraine

The General Government (German: Generalgouvernement; Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo; Ukrainian: Генеральна губернія), formally 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.

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

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

Generaliteitslanden. A more accurate English translation of the French term gouvernement in this context is not 'government', but "governorate", which is a type of a territory that is administered centrally. In the French and Dutch original, the 'General' in the name is a reference to the Estates-General
, the central assembly which was given an authority to directly rule the territory.

The Nazi designation of Generalgouvernement also gave a nod to the once existing

Kingdom of Poland of 1916–1918, a similar rump state formed out of the then-Russian-controlled parts of Poland.[8]

The General Government 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

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

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.

Frontier Treaty
of September 28, 1939

Hitler decreed the direct annexation to the

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.

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

serfs, while deporting or otherwise eliminating the middle and upper classes and eventually replacing them with German colonists of the "master race
".

The General Government 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 Government 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

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,

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

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 (

NSDAP
structure in General Government was Arbeitsbereich Generalgouvernement led by Frank.

The Office was headed by Chief of the Government (

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

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

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

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

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

wójt
 at once."

Germans wanted Poles to obey orders.[38]

Polish language newspapers

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.

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

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

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
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 (
Rzeszow), Sanok, Tarnau (Tarnów
)
Distrikt Lublin
Stadtkreise Lublin
Kreishauptmannschaften Biala-Podlaska (
Pulawy, Rehden (Radzyn), Zamosch/Himmlerstadt/Pflugstadt (Zamość
)
Distrikt Radom
Stadtkreise Kielce, Radom, Tschenstochau (Częstochowa)
Kreishauptmannschaften Busko (
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 (
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. exterminated
    as a category),
  8. Jews (eventually largely
    exterminated
    as a category).

Economics

Further information:
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 (

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" (

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

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

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

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.

German repressions in 1942-43 caused the 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

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 the 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]

The Holocaust

Main article: The Holocaust in Poland
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

races", chiefly millions of Jews from Poland and other countries, was carried out by gassing between 1942 and 1944.[72]

Punishments

Gallery

See also

Notes

a.
SS, or the German Volksdeutsche and war-profiteers if interested. The HTO was created and headed by Nazi potentate Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.[74]

Citations

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References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Government.

Further reading

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