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PLEASE SEE STORELOT MORE --COMBINE SHIPPINGSAVE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$History of Poland (1939–1945)Part ofa serieson theHistory ofPolandshowTopicsshowPrehistory and protohistoryshowMiddle AgesshowEarly ModernshowModernshowContemporary

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Thehistory of Polandfrom 1939 to 1945 encompasses primarily the period from theinvasion of PolandbyNazi Germanyand theSoviet Unionto the end ofWorld War II. Following theGerman–Soviet non-aggression pact,Polandwas invaded by Nazi Germany on 1 September 1939 and by the Soviet Unionon 17 September. The campaigns ended in early October with Germany and the Soviet Uniondividing and annexing the whole of Poland. After theAxis attack on the Soviet Unionin the summer of 1941, the entirety ofPoland was occupied by Germany, which proceeded to advance itsracial and genocidal policiesacross Poland.

Under the two occupations, Polish citizens suffered enormous human and material losses. According to theInstitute of National Remembranceestimates, about 5.6million Polish citizens died due to the German occupation and about 150,000 due to the Soviet occupation.[1]TheJewswere singled out by the Germans for a quick and total annihilation and about 90 percent ofPolish Jews(nearly three million) were murdered as part of theHolocaust. Jews,Poles,Romani peopleand prisoners of many other ethnicities were killeden masseat Naziextermination camps, such asAuschwitz,TreblinkaandSobibór. Ethnic Poles were subjected to both Nazi German and Soviet persecution. The Germans killed an estimated two million ethnic Poles.Generalplan Ostcontemplated turning the remaining majority of Poles intoslave laborand annihilating those perceived as "undesirable".Ethnic cleansingandmassacres of Polesand to a lesser extentUkrainianswere perpetrated in westernUkraine(prewar PolishKresy) from 1943. TheUkrainian Insurgent Armyparticipated.

In September 1939, the Polish government officials sought refuge inRomania, but their subsequent internment there prevented the intended continuation abroad as the government of Poland. GeneralWładysław Sikorski, a former prime minister, arrived inFrance, where a replacementPolish Government-in-Exilewas soon formed. After thefall of France, the government was evacuated toBritain. ThePolish armed forceswere reconstituted and fought alongside theWestern Alliesin France, Britain and elsewhere. AResistance movementbegan organizing in Poland in 1939, soon after the invasions. Itslargest military componentwas a part of thePolish Underground Statenetwork and became known as theHome Army. The whole clandestine structure was formally directed by the Government-in-Exile through itsdelegationresident in Poland. There were organizations. Among the failed anti-German uprisings were theWarsaw Ghetto Uprisingand theWarsaw Uprising. The aim of the Warsaw Uprising was to prevent domination of Poland by the Soviet Union.

In order to cooperate with the Soviet Union afterOperation Barbarossa, Sikorski, an important war ally of the West, negotiated inMoscowwithJoseph Stalinand theyagreed to form a Polish army in the Soviet Union, intended to fight on theEastern Frontalongside the Soviets. The "Anders' Army" was instead taken to theMiddle Eastin 1942 and then toItaly. Further efforts to continue the Polish-Soviet cooperation had failed because of disagreements over borders, the discovery of theKatyn massacreof PolishPOWsperpetrated by the Soviets, and thedeath of General Sikorski. Afterwards, in a process seen by many Poles as aWestern betrayal, the Polish Government-in-Exile gradually ceased being a recognized partner in theAllied coalition.

Stalin pursued a strategy of facilitating the formation of a Polish government independent of (and in opposition to) the exile government inLondonby empowering thePolish communists. Among Polish communist organizations established during the war were thePolish Workers' Partyin occupied Poland and theUnion of Polish Patriotsin Moscow. In late 1943 a newPolish armywas formed in the Soviet Union to fight together with the Soviets. At the same time Stalin worked on co-opting the Western Allies (theUnited Statesled by PresidentFranklin D. Rooseveltand theUnited Kingdomled by Prime MinisterWinston Churchill), who, in terms of practical implementations, conformed to Stalin's views on Poland's borders and future government. The fate of Poland was determined in a series of negotiations that included the conferences inTehran,Yalta, andPotsdam. In 1944, the Polish Government-in-Exile approved and the underground in Poland undertook unilateralpoliticalandmilitary actionsaimed at establishing an independent Polish authority, but the efforts were thwarted by the Soviets. The Polish communists founded theState National Councilin 1943/44 in occupiedWarsawand thePolish Committee of National Liberationin July 1944 inLublin, after the arrival of theSoviet army. The Soviet Union kept the eastern half of prewar Poland, granting Poland instead the greater southern portion of the eliminated GermanEast Prussiaand shifting the country west to theOder–Neisse line, at the expense of Germany.

Before the warRearmament and first annexations

After the death ofJózef Piłsudskiin 1935, theSanationgovernment ofhis political followers, along with PresidentIgnacy Mościcki, embarked on a military reform and rearmament of the Polish Army in the face of the changing political climate in Europe. Thanks in part to a financial loan from France, Poland's newCentral Industrial Regionparticipated in the project from 1936 in an attempt to catch-up with the advanced weapons development by Poland's richer neighbors. Foreign MinisterJózef Beckcontinued to resist the growing pressure on Poland from the West to cooperate with the Soviet Union in order to contain Germany.[2][3][4]Against the rapidly growing German military force, Poland not only possessed no comparable quantity of technical resources, but also lacked the knowledge and concepts of developing modern warfare.[5]

Also in 1935,Adolf Hitlerannounced and expanded the hitherto secretGerman rearmamentcontrary to the provisions of theTreaty of Versailles– the foundation of the post-World War Iinternational order. Unable to prevent Hitler'sremilitarization of the Rhineland, the United Kingdom and France also pursued rearmament. Meanwhile, German territorial expansion into central Europe began in earnest with theAnschlussofAustriain March 1938. Poland dispatched special diversionary groups to thedisputed Zaolzie(CzechSilesia) area in hope of expediting the breakup ofCzechoslovakiaand regaining the territory. TheMunich Agreementof 30 September 1938 was followed by Germany's incorporation of theSudetenland. Faced with the threat of a total annexation of Czechoslovakia, the Western Powers endorsed the German partition of the country.[6][7]

Poland insistently sought a great power status but was not invited to participate in the Munich conference. Minister Beck, disappointed with the lack of recognition, issued an ultimatum on the day of the Munich Agreement to the government of Czechoslovakia, demanding an immediate return to Poland of the contested Zaolzie border region. The distressed Czechoslovak government complied, and Polish military unitstook over the area. The move was negatively received in both the West and the Soviet Union, and it contributed to the worsening of the geopolitical situation of Poland. In November, the Polish government also annexed a small border region in dispute with the newly autonomous state ofSlovakiaand gave its support toHungary's expansion intoCarpatho-Ukraine, located within the now federal Czechoslovakia.[7][8][9]

Aftermath of the Munich Agreement

The Munich Agreement of 1938 did not last for long. In March 1939 theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakiabegan with the invasion ofBohemiaandMoravia, leaving Slovakia as a German puppet state.Lithuaniawasforced to give upitsKlaipėda Region(Memelland). Formal demands were made for the return of theFree City of Danzigto Germany, even though its status was guaranteed by theLeague of Nations. In early 1939 Hitler proposed Poland an alliance on German terms, with an expectation of compliance. The Polish government would have to agree to Danzig's incorporation bythe Reichand to an extraterritorial highway passage connectingEast Prussiawith the rest of Germany through the so-calledPolish Corridor(an area linking the Polish mainland with theBaltic Sea). Poland would join ananti-Soviet allianceand coordinate its foreign policy with Germany, thus becoming a client state. The independence-minded Polish government was alarmed and a British guarantee of Poland's independence was issued on 31 March 1939. Reacting to this act and to Poland's effective rejection of the German demands, Hitler renounced the existingGerman–Polish Non-Aggression Pacton April 28.[4][10]

Soviet Prime MinisterVyacheslav Molotovsigns theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Behind him stand (left) Foreign MinisterJoachim von Ribbentropof Germany and (right)Joseph Stalin. Thenon-aggression pacthad a secret protocol attached in which arrangements were made for a partition of Poland's territory.

In August 1939 negotiations took place in Moscow, launched by the competing Allied-Soviet and Nazi-Soviet working groups, each attempting to enlist Stalin's powerful army on their side. By the evening of 23 August 1939, Germany's offer was accepted by default, because the Polish leaders' refusal to cooperate militarily with the Soviets prevented the possibility of the alternate outcome. TheMolotov–Ribbentrop Pactofnon-aggressionwas signed. In anticipation of an attack and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, the pact had secret provisions attached, which delineated carving up parts of Eastern Europe intospheres of influenceof the two signatories. The dividing line was running through the territory of east-central Poland. The "desirability of the maintenance of an independent Polish State" was left to mutually agreed "further political developments" read the text, which was discovered years later.[4][l]

Military alliances

The Soviet Union, having its own reasons to fear the German eastward expansionism, repeatedly negotiated with France and the United Kingdom, and through them made an offer to Poland of an anti-German alliance, similar to the earlier one made to Czechoslovakia. The British and the French sought the formation of a powerful political-military bloc, comprising the Soviet Union, Poland andRomaniain the east, and France and Britain in the west.[4]As of May 1939, the Soviet conditions for signing an agreement with Britain and France were as follows: the right of theRed Armytroops to pass through Polish territory, the termination of thePolish–Romanian alliance, and the limitation of the British guarantee to Poland to cover only Poland's western frontier with Germany. The Polish leaders believed that once on Polish territory the Soviet troops would not leave and throughout 1939 refused to agree to any arrangement which would allow Soviet troops to enter Poland.[11]

The Polish unwillingness to accept the Soviet dangerous offer of free entry is illustrated by the quote of MarshalEdward Rydz-Śmigły, commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces, who said: "With the Germans we run the risk of losing our liberty. With the Russians we will lose our soul".[12]The attitude of the Polish leadership was also reflected by Foreign Minister Józef Beck, who, apparently confident in the French and British declarations of support, asserted that the security of Poland was not going to be guaranteed by a "Soviet or any other Russia". The Soviets then turned to concluding the German offer of a treaty and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed. The Soviet-Nazi cooperation had been making progress since May 1939, whenVyacheslav Molotovbecame the Sovietminister of foreign affairs.[10]

The German military used a system of automated code for the secret transfer of messages based on theEnigma machine. The constantly generated and altered code scheme was broken by Polish mathematicians led byMarian Rejewskiand the discovery was shared with the French and the British before the outbreak of the war.Cryptanalysis of the Enigmawas an immensely important Polish contribution to the war effort, as it was continued throughout the war in Britain and deprived the unsuspecting Germans of secrecy in their crucial communications.[13]

At the end of August, thePolish-BritishandPolish-French allianceobligations were updated. Poland, surrounded by the Nazi-led coalition, was under partial military mobilization but poorly prepared for war.[4][p]Full (general) mobilization was prevented by the pressure from the British and French governments, who sought a last-minute peaceful solution to the imminent Polish-German conflict. On 1 September 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany. Britain and France, bound by military alliances with Poland, declared war on Germany two days later.[6][14][15]

German and Soviet invasions of PolandMain articles:Invasion of Poland,Soviet invasion of Poland, andSlovak invasion of PolandGerman invasionPolish infantry in action during theInvasion of Polandin September 1939Polish anti-aircraft artillery in September 1939"Poland: A Military Autopsy" American map

On 1 September 1939, without a formaldeclaration of war, Nazi Germanyinvaded Polandusing the pretext of theGleiwitz incident, a provocation (one of many)[16]staged by the Germans, who claimed that Polish troops attacked a post along theGerman–Polish border.[4][10]During the following days and weeks the technically, logistically and numerically superior German forces rapidly advanced into the Polish territory.[17]Secured by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet troops also invaded Poland on 17 September 1939. Before the end of the month, most of Poland was divided between the Germans and the Soviets.[18]

The Polish military did not anticipate the German attack. After 1926, Józef Piłsudski led the military to discontinue defense preparations of the western border. They were resumed in March 1939.[19]Afterwards thePolish Armed Forceswereorganized for the defense of the country. According to the historian Andrzej Leon Sowa, the technical and organizational level of the Polish forces corresponded to that of the World War I period.[20]The armed forces' strategic position was made more hopeless by the recentGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia. Poland was now surrounded on three sides by the German territories ofPomerania,Silesiaand East Prussia, and the German-controlled Czechoslovakia.[21]The newly formedSlovak stateassisted their German allies by attacking Poland from the south.[5]The Polish forces were blockaded on the Baltic Coast by the German navy. The Polish public, conditioned by government propaganda, was not aware of the gravity of the situation and expected a quick and easy victory of the Polish-French-British alliance.[22]

The German "concept of annihilation" (Vernichtungsgedanke) that later evolved into theBlitzkrieg("lightning war") provided for rapid advance ofPanzer(armoured) divisions, dive bombing (to break up troop concentrations and destroy airports, railways and stations, roads, and bridges, which resulted in the killing of large numbers of refugees crowding the transportation facilities), and aerial bombing of undefended cities to sap civilian morale.[21]Deliberate bombing of civilians took place on a massive scale from the first day of the war, also in areas far removed from any other military activity.[22]The German forces, ordered by Hitler to act with the harshest cruelty, massively engaged in murder of Polish civilians.[23]The Polish army, air force and navy had insufficient modern equipment to match the onslaught.[24]

Each of Germany's five armies involved in attacking Poland was accompanied by a special security group charged with terrorizing the Polish population; some of thePolish citizens of German nationalityhad been trained in Germany to help with the invasion, forming the so-calledfifth column.[21]Many German leaders in Poland and communist activists were interned by the Polish authorities after 1 September.[16][24]10–15,000 ethnic Germans were arrested and force marched towardKutnosoon after the beginning of the hostilities. Of them about 2,000 were killed by angry Poles, and other instances of killing ethnic Germans took place elsewhere. Many times greater numbers of Polish civilians had been killed by theWehrmachtthroughout the "September Campaign".[25]

Polish cavalry atBattle of the Bzura

58 German divisions, including 9 Panzer divisions, were deployed against Poland.[26]Germany commanded 1.5million men, 187,000 motor vehicles, 15,000 artillery pieces, 2,600 tanks, 1,300 armored vehicles, 52,000 machine guns and 363,000 horses. 1,390Luftwaffewarplanes were used to attack Polish targets. On 1 September the German navy positioned its oldbattleshipSchleswig-Holsteintoshell Westerplatte, a section of the Free City of Danzig, a defended enclave separate from the main city and awarded to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. 53 navy ships were designated for action against Poland.[16][27]

According toAntoni Czubiński, 1.2million Polish troops had been mobilized, but some did not even have rifles. There were 30 infantry divisions, 11 cavalry brigades, 31 light artillery regiments, 10 heavy artillery regiments and 6 aerial regiments. They possessed 3,600 artillery pieces (mostly regular, with only a few hundred of anti-armor or anti-aircraft units), and 600 tanks,[5]of which 120 were of the advanced7TP-type. The air force regiments included 422 aircraft,[5]including 160PZL P.11c, 31PZL P.7aand 20 P.11a fighters, 120PZL.23 Karaśreconnaissance-bombers, and 45PZL.37 Łośmedium bombers. The Polish-made P-series fighter planes were becoming obsolete; state-of-the art P-24s were built but sold abroad to generate currency. Łoś bombers were modern and fast.[28]The navy's participation was limited by the withdrawal of major ships to the United Kingdom to prevent their destruction, and their linking up with theRoyal Navy(known as thePeking Plan). The navy consisted of four destroyers (of which three had left for England),[5]one minelayer, five submarines, and some smaller vessels, including six new minesweepers.

Although the UK and France declared war on Germany on 3 September,little movement took place on the western front. The offensive in the West that the Poles understood they were promised was not materializing,[29]and, according toNorman Davies, it was not even immediately feasible or practical.[21]Because of the Western inaction, of the secret protocols of the German-Soviet treaty, and other factors including its own poor intelligence, the Polish government was initially not fully aware of the degree of the country's isolation and the hopelessness of its situation.[5]The combined British and French forces were strong in principle, but not ready for an offensive for a number of reasons. The few limited air raids attempted by the British were ineffective and caused losses of life and equipment. Dropping propaganda leaflets had henceforth become their preferred course of action, to the dismay of the Polish public, which was led to believe that a real war on two fronts and a defeat of theThird Reichwere coming.[30]

Survivor ofbombing of Warsaw

The several Polish armies were defending the country in three main concentrations of troops, which had no territorial command structure of their own and operated directly under orders from MarshalEdward Rydz-Śmigły; it turned out to be a serious logistical shortcoming.[31]The armies were positioned along the border in a semicircle, which provided for weak defense, because the Germans concentrated their forces in the chosen directions of attacks.[5]The German armored corps quickly thwarted all attempts of organized resistance and by 3–4 September the Polish border defenses were broken along all the axes of attack. Crowds of civilian refugees fleeing to the east blocked roads and bridges. The Germans were also able to circumvent other concentrations of the Polish military and arrive in the rear of Polish formations.[24]

As the Polish armies were being destroyed or in retreat, the Germans tookCzęstochowaon 4 September,KrakówandKielceon 6 September. The Polish government was evacuated toVolhyniaand the supreme military commander Rydz-Śmigły left Warsaw on the night of 6 September and moved in the eastern direction towardBrześć. GeneralWalerian Czumatook over and organized thedefense of the capital city.[17]According toHalik Kochanski, Rydz-Śmigły fled the capital and the Polish high command failed its army.[25]Rydz-Śmigły's departure had disastrous effects on both the morale of the Polish armed forces and on his ability to exercise effective overall command.[32]

The Germans began surrounding Warsaw on 9 September.[21]City presidentStefan Starzyńskiplayed an especially prominent role in its defense.[17]The campaign's greatestBattle of the Bzurawas fought west of the middleVistulaon 9–21 September. Heavy fighting took place also at a number of other locations, including the area ofTomaszów Lubelski(until 26 September), and a determineddefense of Lwówwas mounted (against the German forces until 22 September, when the defenders surrendered to the Soviets upon their arrival). On 13 September, Marshal Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish forces to withdraw toward the so-calledRomanian Bridgeheadin southeastern Poland, next to the Romanian and Soviet borders, the area he designated to be the final defense bastion.[17][18][21][27][33]

On 11 September, foreign ministerJózef Beckasked France to grant asylum to the Polish government and Romania to allow the transfer of the government members through its territory. On 12 September, theAnglo-French Supreme War Councildeliberating inAbbeville, France concluded that the Polish military campaign had already been resolved and that there was no point in launching an anti-German relief expedition. The Polish leaders were unaware of the decision and still expected a Western offensive.[17]

Soviet invasionSoviet invasion of Poland, September 1939

From 3 September Germany urged the Soviet Union to engage its troops against the Polish state,[34]but the Soviet command kept stalling,[21]waiting for the outcome of the German-Polish confrontation[34]and to see what the French and the British were going to do.[35]The Soviet Union assured Germany that the Red Army advance into Poland would follow later at an appropriate time.[34]

For the optimal "political motivation" (a collapse of Poland having taken place), Molotov wished to hold the Soviet intervention until the fall of Warsaw, but the city's capture by the Germans was being delayed due to its determineddefense effort(until September 27). The Soviet troops marched on 17 September into Poland, which the Soviet Union claimed to be by then non-existent anyway (according to the historianRichard Overy, Poland was defeated by Germany within two weeks from 1 September).[6][34]TheSoviet invasion of Polandwas justified by the Soviets by their own security concerns and by the need to protect the invasion was coordinated with the movement of the German army,[34]and met limited resistance from the Polish forces. The Polish military formations available in the eastern part of the country were ordered by the high command, who were then at the Romanian border,[18]to avoid engaging the Soviets,[35][c]but some fighting between Soviet and Polish units did take place (such as theBattle of Szackfought by theBorder Protection Corps).[37]The Soviet forces moved west (to theBug River) and south to fill the area allotted to them by the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. They took steps to block the potential Polish evacuation routes intoLithuania,Latvia, Romania andHungary.[18][21]

About 13.4million Polish citizens lived in the areas seized by the Soviet Union. Of those, about 8.7million were Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews. The minorities' relations with the Polish authorities were generally bad and many of their members greeted and supported the arriving Red Army troops as liberators.[38]The British and French responses to the "not unexpected" Soviet encroachment were muted.[33][35]

Had it not been for the Soviet-German treaty and the Soviet invasion, all of prewar Poland would have likely been captured by Nazi Germany already in 1939.[39]

End of campaign

The Nazi-Soviet treaty process was continued with theGerman–Soviet Frontier Treatysigned on 28 September. It adjusted and finalized the territorial division, placingLithuaniawithin the Soviet sphere and moving the Soviet-German agreed boundary east from the Vistula to the Bug River,[40]and authorized further joint action to control occupied Poland.[21]An idea of retaining a residual Polish state, considered earlier, was abandoned.[34][38]

The Polish government and military high command retreated to the southeastRomanian Bridgeheadterritory and crossed into neutral Romania on the night of 17 September. From Romania on 18 September PresidentIgnacy Mościckiand Marshal Rydz-Śmigły issued declarations and orders, which violated their status of persons passing through a neutral country. Germany pressured Romania not to allow the Polish authorities to depart (their intended destination was France) and the group was interned. The Polish ambassador in Romania helped GeneralWładysław Sikorski, a member of the Polish opposition who was refused a military assignment and also entered Romania, to acquire departure documents and the general left for France.[18]

Resistance continued in many places. Warsaw was eventually bombed into submission. The event that served as a trigger for its surrender on 27 September was the bombing damage to the water supply system caused by deliberate targeting of the waterworks.[32]Warsaw suffered the greatest damage and civilian losses (40,000 killed), already in September 1939.[41][s]TheModlin Fortresscapitulated on 29 September, theBattle of Helcontinued until 2 October, and theBattle of Kockwas fought until 4 October.[18]In the country's woodlands, army units began underground resistance almost at once.[21]Major "Hubal"and his regiment pioneered this movement. During the September Campaign, the Polish Army lost about 66,000 troops on the German front; about 400,000 became prisoners of Germany and about 230,000 of the Soviet Union.[e]80,000 managed to leave the country. 16,600 German soldiers were killed and 3,400 were missing. 1000 German tanks or armored vehicles and 600 planes were destroyed. The Soviet Army lost between 2,500 and 3,000 soldiers, while 6,000 to 7,000 Polish defenders were killed in the east. Over 12,000 Polish citizens executed by the Nazis were among the approximate 100,000 civilian victims of the campaign.[18][33]

Several Polish Navy ships reached the United Kingdom and tens of thousands of soldiers escaped through Hungary, Romania, Lithuania andSwedento continue the fight.[42]Many Poles took part in theBattle of France, theBattle of Britain, and, allied with the British forces, in other operations (seePolish contribution to World War II).[43]

Occupation of PolandPoland waspartitionedin 1939 as agreed by Germany and the Soviet Union intheir treaty; division of Polish territories in 1939–41Changes in administration of Polish territories following the 1941German invasion of the Soviet UnionMain articles:Occupation of Poland (1939–45),Administrative division of Polish territories during World War II,War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II, andPolish culture during World War IIGerman-occupied PolandSee also:Nazi crimes against the Polish nationandThe Holocaust in Poland

The greatest extent of depredations and terror inflicted on and suffered by the Poles resulted from the German occupation. The most catastrophic series of events was the extermination of the Jews known as theHolocaust.[44]

About one-sixth of Polish citizens lost their lives in the war,[45][46]and most of the civilian losses resulted from various targeted, deliberate actions. The German plan involved not only the annexation of Polish territory but also a total destruction of Polish culture and the Polish nation(Generalplan Ost).[47]

Under the terms of two decrees by Hitler (8 October and 12 October 1939), large areas of western Poland were annexed to Germany. These included all the territories which Germany had lost under the 1919Treaty of Versailles, such as thePolish Corridor,West PrussiaandUpper Silesia, but also a large, indisputably Polish area east of these territories, including the city ofŁódź.

The annexed areas of Poland were divided into the following administrative units:

    Reichsgau Wartheland(initially ReichsgauPosen), which included the entirePoznańVoivodeship, most of the Łódź Voivodeship, five counties of thePomeranianVoivodeship, and one county of the Warsaw Voivodeship;
  • the remaining area of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which was incorporated into theReichsgau Danzig-West Prussia(initially Reichsgau Westpreussen);
  • CiechanówDistrict (Regierungsbezirk Zichenau) consisting of five northern counties of the Warsaw Voivodeship (Płock,Płońsk,Sierpc, Ciechanów andMława), which became a part ofEast Prussia;
  • Katowice District(Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz) or, unofficially, EastUpper Silesia(Ost-Oberschlesien), which included theSilesian andZawierciecounties, and parts ofOlkuszandŻywieccounties, which became a part of theProvince of Upper Silesia.

The area of these annexed territories was 92,500 square kilometres and the population was about 10.6million,[42]a great majority of whom were Poles.

InPomeraniandistricts German summary courts sentenced to death 11,000 Poles in late 1939 and early 1940.[42]A total of 30,000 Poles were executed there already in 1939, with an additional 10,000 inGreater Polandand 1500 inSilesia.[48]Jews were expelled from the annexed areas and placed in ghettos such as theWarsaw Ghettoor theŁódź Ghetto.[49][50]Catholic priests became targets of campaigns of murder and deportation on a mass scale.[51]The population in the annexed territories was subjected to intenseracial screeningandGermanisation.[21]The Poles experienced property confiscations and severe discrimination; 100,000 were removed from the port city ofGdyniaalone already in October 1939.[49][50]In 1939–40, many Polish citizens were deported to other Nazi-controlled areas, especially theGeneral Government, or toconcentration camps.[42][50]With the clearing of some western Poland regions for German resettlement, the Nazis initiated the policies ofethnic cleansing.[52]About one million Poles were forcibly removed from their dwellings and replaced with over 386,000 ethnic Germans brought from distant places.[48]

(see also:Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany)

Under the terms of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pactand theGerman–Soviet Frontier Treaty, the Soviet Union annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the riversPisa,Narew,BugandSan, except for the area aroundVilnius(known in Polish as Wilno), which was given toLithuania, and theSuwałkiregion, which was annexed by Germany. These territories were largely inhabited byUkrainiansandBelarusians, with minorities ofPolesandJews(for numbers seeCurzon Line). The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,000 square kilometres, with a population of 13.2million.[42]A small strip of land that was a part ofHungarybefore 1914 was given toSlovakia.

Hans Frank

After theGerman attack on the Soviet Unionin June 1941, the Polish territories previously occupied by the Soviets were organized as follows:

    Bezirk Bialystok(District ofBiałystok), which included the Białystok,Bielsk andGrodnocounties, was "attached" to (but not incorporated into) East Prussia;
  • Bezirke Litauen und Weißrussland– the Polish part of White Russia (today westernBelarus) and the Vilnius province were incorporated into theReichskommissariat Ostland;
  • Bezirk Wolhynien-Podolien– the PolishProvince of Volhynia, was incorporated into theReichskommissariat Ukraine;
  • Distrikt Galizien, EastGalicia, was incorporated into the General Government and became its fifth district.[53]

The remaining block of territory was placed under a German administration called theGeneral Government(in GermanGeneralgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete), with its capital atKraków. It became a part ofGreater Germany(Grossdeutsches Reich).[54]The General Government was originally subdivided into four districts, Warsaw,Lublin,Radom, and Kraków, to which East Galicia and a part of Volhynia were added as a district in 1941.[55](For more detail on the territorial division of this area seeGeneral Government.) The General Government was the nearest to Germany proper part of the plannedLebensraumor German "living space" in the east, and constituted the beginning of the implementation of the Nazigrandiose and genocidal human engineering scheme.[49]

A German lawyer and prominent Nazi,Hans Frank, was appointed Governor-General of the General Government on 26 October 1939. Frank oversaw the segregation of the Jews intoghettosin the larger cities, including Warsaw, and the use of Polish civilians for compulsory labour in German war industries.

Some Polish institutions, including the police (the number of the so-calledBlue Policereached about 12,500 in 1943), were preserved in the General Government. Over 40,000 Poles worked in the General Government's administration, supervised by over 10,000 Germans.[48]Political activity was prohibited and only basic Polish education was allowed. University professors in Kraków were sent to a concentration camp and in Lviv were shot.[56][d]Ethnic Poles were to be gradually eliminated. The Jews, intended for amore immediate extermination, were herded into ghettos and severely repressed. TheJewish councilsin the ghettos had to follow the German policies. Many Jews escaped to the Soviet Union (they were among the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 refugees that arrived there from German-occupied Poland)[57]and some weresheltered by Polish families.[42]

Public execution of 54 Poles inRożkivillage, 1942Photos fromThe Black Book of Poland, published in London in 1942 by thePolish Government-in-Exile

The population in the General Government's territory was initially about 11.5million in an area of 95,500km2,[42]but this increased as about 860,000 Poles and Jews were expelled from the German-annexed areas and "resettled" in the General Government. AfterOperation Barbarossa, the General Government's area was 141,000km2, with 17.4million inhabitants.[55]

Tens of thousands were murdered in the German campaign of extermination of the Polishintelligentsiaand other elements thought likely to resist (e.g.Operation TannenbergandAktion AB). Catholic clergy were commonly imprisoned or otherwise persecuted; many were murdered in concentration camps.[58][59]Tens of thousands of members of the resistance and others were tortured and executed at thePawiakprison in Warsaw.[60]From 1941, disease and hunger also began to reduce the population, as the exploitation of resources and labor, terror and Germanisation reached greater intensity after the attack on the Soviet Union.[44]Poles were also deported in large numbers to work as forced labor in Germany, or taken to concentration camps.[42]About two million were transported to Germany to work as slaves and many died there.[55][i]Łapankaor random roundup, on streets or elsewhere, was one of the methods practiced by the Nazis to catch prisoners for labor.[61]Several hundred Wehrmacht brothels, for which local non-German women were forcibly recruited, operated throughout the Reich.[62]In contrast to Nazi policies in occupiedWestern Europe, the Germans treated the Poles with intense hostility and all Polish state property and private industrial concerns were taken over by the German state.[63][64]Poland was plundered and subjected to extreme economic exploitation throughout the war period.[65]

The future fate of Poland and Poles was stipulated inGeneralplan Ost, a Nazi plan to engage ingenocideand ethnic cleansing of the territories occupied by Germany inEastern Europein order to exterminate the Slavic peoples. Tens of millions were to be eliminated, others resettled inSiberiaor turned into slave populations.[55]The cleared territories were to be resettled by Germans.[66]A trial evacuation of all Poles was attempted in theZamośćregion in 1942 and 1943. 121,000 Poles were removed from their villages and replaced with 10,000 German settlers.[67]

Under theLebensbornprogram, about 200,000 Polish children were kidnapped by the Germans to be tested for racial characteristics that would make them suitable for Germanisation. Of that number (many were found unsuitable and killed), only between 15% and 20% were returned to Poland after the war.[67][68]

When German occupation extended to the eastern Kresy territories after they were taken from the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the Nazis unleashed there their genocidal anti-Jewish policies. They conducted terror campaigns directed against ethnic Poles, including especially such groups as intelligentsia or Catholic clergy. Ethnic Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians, while themselves subjected to brutal occupation, generally received more favorable treatment from the Nazis. Their nationalists and others were used by the occupant in actions against ethnic Poles or allowed to conduct anti-Polish activities themselves. Members of all four ethnicities were encouraged to act against the Jews and participated inpogromsand other instances of killing of Jews.[69][70]

Different segments of Polish society experienced different degrees of suffering under the German occupation. Residents of rural villages and small towns generally did better than big city dwellers, while theland-owning class(ziemiaństwoorszlachta), privileged inindependent Poland, prospered also during the war.[71]

In the postwarNuremberg trials, the International Military Tribunal stated: "The wholesale extermination of Jews and also of Poles had all the characteristics of genocide in the biological meaning of this term".[72]

According to a 2009 estimate by theInstitute of National Remembrance(IPN), between 5.62million and 5.82million Polish citizens (includingPolish Jews) died as a result of the German occupation.[45][46]

Soviet-occupied PolandSee also:Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–46)

By the end of the Soviet invasion, the Soviet Union took 50.1% of the territory of Poland (195,300km2), with 12,662,000 people.[42]Population estimates vary; one analysis gives the following numbers in regard to the ethnic composition of these areas at the time: 38% Poles, 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. There were also 336,000 refugees from the areas occupied by Germany, most of them Jews (198,000).[73]Areas occupied by the Soviet Union wereannexed to Soviet territory, with the exception of theWilno/Vilnius region, whichwas transferredto theRepublic of Lithuania. The majority of Polish-speaking inhabitants of the Vilnius region soon found themselves subjected to theLithuanizationpolicies of the Lithuanian authorities, which led to lasting ethnic conflicts in the area.[74]Lithuania, including the contested Vilnius area, was itselfincorporated by the Soviet Unionin the summer of 1940 and became theLithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Soviets considered theKresyterritories (prewar eastern Poland) to be colonized by the Poles and the Red Army was proclaimed a liberator of the conquered nationalities. Many Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians shared that point of view and cooperated with the new authorities in repressing the Poles.[42][57]The Soviet administrators used slogans aboutclass struggleanddictatorship of the proletariat,[75]as they applied the policies ofStalinismandSovietizationin occupied eastern Poland.[76][77]On 22 and 26 October 1939, the Sovietsstaged electionsto Moscow-controlledSupreme Soviets(legislative bodies) of the newly created provinces ofWestern UkraineandWestern Byelorussiato legitimize the Soviet rule.[78]The new assemblies subsequently called for the incorporation into the Soviet Union, and theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Unionannexed the two territories to the already existingSoviet republics(theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republicand theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) on 2 November.[42][57]

All institutions of the dismantled Polish state were closed down and reopened with new directors who were mostly Russian and in rare cases Ukrainian or Polish.[73]Lviv Universityand other schools restarted anew as Soviet institutions.[73]Some departments, such as law and humanities were abolished; new subjects, taught by the reorganized departments. Tuition was free and monetary stipends were offered to students.[59]

The Soviet authorities attempted to remove all signs of Polish existence and activity in the area.[73]On 21 December, thePolish currencywas withdrawn from circulation with limited exchange to the newly introducedruble.[79][80]In schools, Polish language books were burned.[73]

All the media became controlled by Moscow. Soviet occupation implemented apolice statetype political regime,[81][82][83][84]based on terror. All Polish parties and organisations were disbanded. Only thecommunist partyand subordinate organisations were allowed to exist. Soviet teachers in schools encouraged children to spy on their parents.[73]

Ukrainian and Belarusian social organizations, closed by the Polish government in the 1930s, were reopened. In schools, the language of instruction was changed to Ukrainian or Belarusian.[59]

TheRoman CatholicandGreek Catholicchurches were persecuted, lost many estates, seminaries and affiliated social organizations, but kept most of their primary facilities (houses of worship) open and were able to provide religious services and organize pilgrimages. Priests were discriminated against by the authorities and subjected to high taxes, drafts into military service, arrests and deportations.[73][80]

Many enterprises were taken over by the state or failed, small trade and production shops had to joincooperatives, but only a small proportion ofpeasantagriculture was madecollective(over ten percent of the arable area) by the start of thewar with Germany.[80]Among the industrial installations dismantled and sent east were most of theBiałystoktextile industry factories.[59]The results of the Soviet economic policies soon resulted in serious difficulties, as shops lacked goods, food was scarce and people were threatened byfamine.[73]Nevertheless, the conditions were better under the Soviets than in the German-runGeneral Government. The industry was developed in Lviv and elsewhere and unemployment was officially eliminated by the spring of 1940. The living standards, following the initial collapse, kept gradually improving, many services were free or inexpensive and the poor and people with technical education fared better than under the Polish rule. The cities, of which Lviv and Białystok were particularly well-maintained by the Soviet authorities, were in much better shape than the countryside. The situation was very difficult for the Polish retirees, deprived of their pensions, and for the tens of thousands of war refugees who fled German-occupied Poland and settled in the eastern cities.[80]

According to the Soviet law of 29 November 1939,[57]all residents of the annexed area, referred to as citizens offormer Poland,[85]automatically acquired the Soviet citizenship. Residents were still required and pressured to consent[86]and those who opted out (most Poles did not want to give up the Polish citizenship)[42]were threatened with repatriation to Nazi controlled territories of Poland.[36][87][88]

The Soviets exploited past ethnic tensions between Poles and other ethnic groups, inciting and encouraging violence against Poles by calling upon the minorities to "rectify the wrongs they had suffered during twenty years of Polish rule".[89]The hostile propaganda resulted in instances of bloody repression.[90]

One of the mass graves of theKatyn massacre(spring 1940), exhumed in 1943. The number of victims is estimated at 22,000, with a lower limit of confirmed dead of 21,768. Of them 4,421 were from Kozelsk, 3,820 from Starobelsk, 6,311 from Ostashkov, and 7,305 from Byelorussian and Ukrainian prisons.[91]

Parts of the Ukrainian population initially welcomed the end of Polish rule[92]and the phenomenon was strengthened by aland reform. The Soviet authorities also started a limited collectivisation campaign.[80]There were large groups of prewar Polish citizens, notably Jewish youth, and, to a lesser extent, Ukrainian peasants, who saw the Soviet power as an opportunity to start political or social activity outside of their traditional ethnic or cultural groups. Their enthusiasm faded with time as it became clear that the Soviet repressions affected everybody.[93]The organisation of Ukrainians desiring independent Ukraine (theOUN) was persecuted as "anti-Soviet".[57]

A rule of terror was started by theNKVDand other Soviet agencies. The first victims were the approximately 230,000 Polishprisoners of war.[18]The Soviet Union had not signed any international convention onrules of warand they were denied the status of prisoners of war. When the Soviets conducted recruitment activities among the Polish military, an overwhelming majority of the captured officers refused to cooperate; they were considered enemies of the Soviet Union and a decision was made by the SovietPolitburo(5 March 1940) to secretly execute them (22,000 officers and others).[94]The officers and a large number of ordinary soldiers[95]were then murdered (seeKatyn massacre) or sent toGulag.[96]Of the 10,000–12,000 Poles sent toKolymain 1940–41, mostly POWs, only 583 men survived, released in 1941–42 to join thePolish Armed Forces in the East.[97]

Terror policies were also applied to the civilian population. The Soviet authorities regarded service for the prewar Polish state as a "crime against revolution"[98]and "counter-revolutionary activity",[99]and subsequently started arresting large numbers of Polishintelligentsia, politicians, civil servants and scientists, but also ordinary people suspected of posing a threat to the Soviet rule. Schoolchildren as young as 10 or 12 years old who laughed at Soviet propaganda presented in schools were sent into prisons, sometimes for as long as 10 years.[73]

Wanda Wasilewska

The prisons soon became severely overcrowded with detainees suspected of anti-Soviet activities and the NKVD had to open dozens of ad hoc prison sites in almost all towns of the region.[78][93]The wave of arrests led to the forced resettlement of large categories of people (kulaks, Polish civil servants, forest workers, university professors orosadniks, for instance) to the Gulaglabor camps.[77]An estimated 30–40 thousand Polish citizens were held at the labor camps in 1939–1941.[80]The Polish and formerly Polish citizens, a large proportion of whom were ethnic minorities, were deported mostly in 1940, typically to northern to the NKVD data, of the 107,000 Polish citizens of different ethnicities arrested by June 1941, 39,000 were tried and sentenced for various transgressions, including 1200 given death sentences. At that time, 40,000 were imprisoned in NKVD prisons and about 10,000 of them were murdered by the Soviets during prison evacuation after the German attack.[80][101]

Among the Poles who decided to cooperate with the Soviet authorities wereWanda Wasilewska, who was allowed to publish a Polish language periodical inLviv, andZygmunt Berling, who from 1940 led a small group of Polish officers working on the concept of formation of a Polish division in the Soviet Union. Wasilewska, an informal leader of Polish communists, was received by Stalin at theKremlinon 28 June 1940. The event marked the beginning of the reorientation of Soviet policies with respect to Poles, which would have momentous consequences for the next half-century and beyond. The Soviets undertook a number of conciliatory measures, such as organizing celebrations of the 85th anniversary of the death of the poetAdam Mickiewiczin November 1940 in Moscow, Lviv, and at other concentrations of the Polish population, or expanding Polish language general and higher education activities in Soviet-controlled territories. Wasilewska and Berling pushed for the Polish division again in September 1942, but Soviet permission for building a Soviet-allied Polish armed force was granted only after the break in diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and thePolish Government-in-Exilein April 1943.[42][80][102]

Unlike in German-occupied Poland, where open cooperation with the occupier was rare among the Polish elites, many Polish intellectuals, artists, literary figures, and journalists cooperated with the Soviets and their activity often included participation inSoviet propagandaundertakings.[103]

Following theOperation Barbarossaand theSikorski–Mayski agreement, in the summer of 1941, the exiled Poles were released under the declared amnesty. Many thousands trekked south to join the newly formedPolish Army, but thousands were too weak to complete the journey or perished soon afterwards.[104]

According to a 2009 estimate by theIPN, around 150,000 Polish citizens died as a result of the Soviet occupation.[45][46]The number of deportees was estimated at around 320,000.[45][46]

Collaboration with the occupiersMain article:Collaboration in German-occupied PolandGerman recruitment poster: "Let's do agricultural work in Germany: report immediately to yourVogt"

Inoccupied Poland, there was no official collaboration at either the political or economic level.[105][106]The occupying powers intended permanent elimination of Polish governing structures and ruling elites and therefore did not seek this kind of cooperation.[65][107]The Poles were not given positions of significant authority.[105][106]The vast majority of the prewar citizenry collaborating with the Nazis came from theGerman minority in Poland, the members of which were offered several classes of the GermanVolksdeutscheID. During the war, there were about 3million former Polish citizens of German origin who signed the officialDeutsche Volksliste.[106]

Depending on a definition of collaboration (and of a Polish citizen, including the ethnicity and minority status considerations), scholars estimate the number of "Polish collaborators" at around several thousand in a population of about 35million.[105][106][108][109]The estimate is based primarily on the number of death sentences for treason by theUnderground courtof thePolish Underground State.[108]The underground courts sentenced 10,000 Poles, including 200 death sentences.[110]John Connelly quoted a Polish historian (Leszek Gondek) calling the phenomenon of Polish collaboration "marginal" and wrote that "only relatively small percentage of Polish population engaged in activities that may be described as collaboration when seen against the backdrop of European and world history".[108]Some researchers give much higher numbers of collaborators, especially when it comes to denouncing Jews.[111]

In October 1939, the Nazis ordered amobilizationof the prewarPolish policeto the service of the occupational authorities. The policemen were to report for duty or face the death penalty.[112]The so-calledBlue Policewas formed. At its peak in 1943, it numbered around 16,000.[110][113]Its primary task was to act as a regular police force and to deal with criminal activities, but they were also used by the Germans in combating smuggling and patrolling theJewish ghettos.[110]Many individuals in the Blue Police followed German orders reluctantly, often disobeyed them or even risked death acting against them.[36][114][115]Many members of the Blue Police weredouble agentsfor thePolish resistance;[116][117]a large percentage cooperated with theHome Army.[110]Some of its officers were ultimately awarded theRighteous Among the Nationsawards for saving Jews.[118]However, the moral position of Polish policemen were often compromised by a necessity for cooperation, or evencollaboration, with the occupier.[58]According toTimothy Snyder, acting in their capacity as a collaborationist force, the Blue Police may have killed more than 50,000 Jews.[119]The police assisted the Nazis at tasks such as rounding up Poles for forced labor in Germany.[61]

During Nazi Germany'sOperation Barbarossaagainst the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German forces quickly overran the eastern half of Poland controlled by the Red Army since 1939. NewReichskommissariatswere formed across theKresymacroregion. As the Soviet-German war progressed, the Home Army fought against both invaders, including theSoviet partisans, who often considered the Polish underground as enemies on a par with the Germans and from June 1943 were authorized by their command to denounce them to the Nazis. Due to the intensified, by the fall of 1943, warfare between the Home Army and theSoviet partisans in Poland, a few Polish commanders accepted weapons and ammunition from the Germans to fight the communist forces.[120]In 1944, the Germans clandestinely armed some regional AK units operating in the areas ofNavahrudakandVilnius. This AK-Nazi cooperation was condemned by GeneralKazimierz Sosnkowski, commander-in-chief in thePolish Government-in-Exile, who ordered the responsible officerscourt-martialed.[121]The AK turned these weapons against the Nazis during theOperation Ostra Brama.[122]Such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidence the type of ideological collaboration as shown by theVichy regimein France, theQuisling regimein Norway,[36]or theOUNleadership inDistrikt Galizien.[123]Tadeusz PiotrowskiquotesJoseph Rothschildas saying: "The Polish Home Army (AK) was by and large untainted by collaboration" and that "the honor of AK as a whole is beyond reproach".[36]

The former prime minister of PolandLeon Kozłowskiwas released from a Soviet prison and crossed into the German zone of occupation in October 1941. However, his reasons and the context of his action are not known.[124]HistorianGunnar S. Paulssonestimates that in Warsaw the number of Polish citizens collaborating with the Nazis during the occupation might have been around "1 or 2 percent".[114]Fugitive Jews (and members of the resistance) were handed over to theGestapoby the so-called "szmalcowniks", who received financial rewards.[125]

Soon after the German takeover of the town ofJedwabnein July 1941, theJedwabne pogromtook place. The exact circumstances of what happened during the pogrom are not clear and vigorously debated. According to the investigation by theInstitute of National Remembrance, completed in 2002, at least 340 members of Jewish families were rounded up by or in the presence of the GermanOrdnungspolizei. They were locked in a barn which was then set on fire by Polish residents of Jedwabne.[126][127]By several accounts, this was done under German duress.[128]

Resistance in PolandFurther information:Polish resistance movement in World War IIArmed resistance and the Underground State

ThePolish resistance movement in World War IIwas the largest in all of occupied Europe.[129]Resistance to the German occupation began almost at once and includedguerrilla warfare. Centrally commanded military conspiratorial activity was started with theService for Poland's Victory(Służba Zwycięstwu Polski) organization, established on 27 September 1939. Poland's prewar political parties also resumed activity.[42]The Service was replaced by thePolish Government-in-ExileinPariswith theUnion of Armed Struggle(Związek Walki Zbrojnej), placed under the command of GeneralKazimierz Sosnkowski, a minister in that government.[130]

In June 1940Władysław Sikorski, prime minister in exile and chief military commander, appointed GeneralStefan Rowecki, resident in Poland, to head the Union.[131]Bataliony Chłopskie, a partisan force of the peasant movement, was active from August 1940 and reached 150,000 participants by June 1944.[132]TheHome Army(Armia Krajowaor AK), loyal to the Government-in-Exile then inLondonand a military arm of thePolish Underground State, was formed from the Union of Armed Struggle and other groups in February 1942. In July its forces approached 200,000 sworn soldiers, who undertook many successful anti-Nazi operations.[55]Gwardia Ludowaand its successorArmia Ludowawere the much smaller leftist formations, backed by the Soviet Union and controlled by thePolish Workers' Party. TheNational Military Organizationwas a military structure of theNational Party. Its forces split in 1942 and again in 1944, with most joining the Home Army and the rest forming the ultra-nationalistNational Armed Forcesthat operated separately.[132]By mid-1944, partial coalescing of several underground formations had taken place[133]and the AK membership may have reached some 400,000, but its supply of arms remained quite limited.[55][131][134][135]According to Czubiński, the AK counted 300,000 committed soldiers, who performed about 230,000 actions of sabotage and diversion throughout the war.[136]According to Zbigniew Mikołejko, 200,000 soldiers and civilians participated in AK activities during the war.[137]However, the Home Army's resources were so scarce that it could effectively equip only about 30,000 fighters in the spring of 1944.[133]Partisan attacks were also hampered by the Nazi policy of retaliation against the civilian population, including mass executions of randomly rounded up individuals.[58]The occupiers would typically kill one hundred Polish civilians for each German killed by the resistance.[138]The AK encountered difficulties establishing itself in the eastern provinces (Kresy) and in the western areas annexed to Germany. General Rowecki was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo in June 1943.[135]

The Underground State originated in April 1940, when the exile government planned to establish its three "delegates" in occupied Poland: for the General Government, the German-annexed areas and the Soviet-occupied zone. After the fall of France, the structure was revised to include only asingle delegate.[58]The Underground State was endorsed by Poland's main prewar political blocks, including and absorbed many supporters of theSanationrule, humbled by the 1939 defeat. The parties established clandestine cooperation in February 1940 and dedicated themselves to a future postwar parliamentary democracy in Poland. From autumn 1940, the "State" was led by a delegate (Cyryl Ratajski) appointed by the Polish government in London. The Underground State maintained the continuity of the Polish statehood in Poland and conducted a broad range of political, military, administrative, social, cultural, educational and other activities, within practical limits of the conspiratorial environment. In November 1942Jan Karski, a special emissary, was sent to London and later toWashington, to warn the Western Allies of the imminent extermination of the Jews in Poland. Karski was able to convey his personal observations to American Jewish leaders and he met with PresidentRoosevelt.[55][131]

After Operation Barbarossa

Leopold Trepper, a Polish-Jewish communist, worked as a master spy and was the chief of theRed Orchestranetwork in Western Europe. He became aware and informed Stalin of the Nazi-plannedOperation Barbarossa, but the Soviet leader did not take his– nor the similar alerts from his top intelligence officer in Japan,Richard Sorge– advance warnings seriously regarding the imminent Nazi invasion.[139]

In Poland, the communists, more active after the 1941Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and theright wing extremists, neither joined the broad coalition nor recognized the Government Delegate. The situation of thePolish armed resistancewas made more difficult by the fact that the Allies now assigned Poland to the Soviet sphere of operations, and Britain refrained from or limited directsupport of resistance movementsin central-eastern Europe.[55][131][135][140]

An announcement of fifty Poles tried and sentenced to death by aStandgerichtin retaliation for the assassination of one German policeman, 1944

After Operation Barbarossa, theSoviet partisansalso developed and became militarily active in the General Government. They were generally aligned with the Polish leftist Gwardia Ludowa and posed a significant threat to the authority of the AK, which had not adopted a policy of more direct and widespread confrontations with the Nazis until 1943. The Soviet partisans were especially prevalent inBelarusand elsewhere inKresy.[y]The presence of the various partisan formations, who often represented irreconcilable political orientations, followed contradictory military strategies and were mutually hostile, including also theJewish, National Armed Forces, Bataliony Chłopskie (some right-, some left-wing), and of criminal armed bands preying on local populations, led to armed clashes, assassinations, murder, and a climate of chaos and uncertainty, as the Soviet armies, having established their superiority on the Eastern Front, approached Poland's prewar eastern boundaries.[135][140][141][142]

With Stalin's encouragement, Polish communist institutions rival to the Government-in-Exile and the Underground State were established. They included the Polish Workers' Party (from January 1942) and theState National Councilin occupied Poland, as well as theUnion of Polish Patriotsin the Soviet Union.[131]

TheJewish Combat Organizationgroups undertook armed resistance activities in 1943. In April, the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from theWarsaw Ghetto, provoking theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising(19 April–16 May). The Polish-Jewish leaders knew that the rising would be crushed but they preferred to die fighting than wait to be murdered in theextermination camps.[55]

In August 1943 and March 1944, the Underground State announced its long-term plan, partially designed to counter the attractiveness of some of the communist proposals. It promisedparliamentary democracy,land reform,nationalizationof the industrial base, more powerfultrade unions, demands for territorial compensation from Germany, and re-establishment of the pre-1939 eastern border. Thus, the main difference between the Underground State and the communists, in terms of politics, amounted not to radical economic and social reforms, which were advocated by both sides, but to their attitudes towards national sovereignty, borders, and Polish-Soviet relations.[131][143]

Operation Tempest and the Warsaw UprisingBattalion Zośkasoldiers inWoladuring theWarsaw Uprising

In early 1943, the Home Army built up its forces in preparation for a national uprising.[131]The situation was soon complicated by the continuing strength of Germany and the threat presented by the advance of the Soviets, who promoted a territorial and political vision of a future Poland that was at odds with what the Polish leaders were striving for. TheCouncil of National Unity, a quasi-parliament, was instituted in occupied Poland on 9 January 1944; it was chaired byKazimierz Pużak, a socialist. The plan for the establishment of Polish state authority ahead of the arrival of the Soviets was code-namedOperation Tempestand began in late 1943. Its major implemented elements were the campaign of the27th Home Army Infantry DivisioninVolhynia(from February 1944),Operation Ostra BramainVilniusand theWarsaw Uprising. In most Polish-Soviet encounters, the Soviets and their allies ultimately opted not to cooperate with the Home Army and ruthlessly imposed their rule; in the case of the Warsaw Uprising, the Soviets waited for the Germans to defeat the insurgents. Theforces of the Polish right-wingcalled for stopping the war against Germany and concentrating on fighting the communists and the Soviet threat.[144][145]

As the Operation Tempest failed to achieve its goals in the disputedeastern provinces, the Soviets demanded that the Home Army be disbanded there and its underground soldiers enlist in the Soviet-alliedFirst Polish Army. TheAKcommanderTadeusz Bór-Komorowskicomplied, disbanding in late July 1944 his formations east of theBug Riverand ordering the fighters to join the army led byZygmunt Berling. Some partisans obeyed, others refused, and many were arrested and persecuted by the Soviets.[146]

In the summer of 1944, as the Soviet forces approached Warsaw, the AK prepared an uprising in the German-occupied capital city with the political intention of preempting an imposition of a communist government in Poland. The Polish supreme commander in London, General Sosnkowski, was opposed to the AK strategy of waging open warfare against the German forces on the eve of the arrival of the Soviet armies (the effective scope of those military undertakings was in any case limited because of insufficient resources and external pressures), as self-destructive for the AK. He dispatched GeneralLeopold Okulickito Poland in May 1944, instructing him not to allow such actions to proceed. Once in Poland, Okulicki pursued his own ideas instead and in Warsaw he became the most ardent proponent of an uprising there, pushing for a quick commencement of anti-German hostilities. Prime MinisterStanisław Mikołajczyk, who thought an uprising in Warsaw would improve his bargaining position in the upcoming negotiations with Stalin, cabled on 27 JulyJan Stanisław Jankowski, the government delegate, declaring thePolish Government-in-Exile's authorization for the issuance of an uprising proclamation by the Polish underground authorities in Warsaw, at a moment chosen by them. To some of the underground commanders, the German collapse and the entry of the Soviets appeared imminent, and the AK, led by Bór-Komorowski, launched the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August. The insurgents' equipment and supplies would suffice for only several days of fighting and the uprising was planned to last no longer than that. On 3 August Mikołajczyk, conferring with Stalin in Moscow, announced an upcoming "freeing of Warsaw any day now" and asked for military help.[136][144][145][146][147]Stalin promised help for the insurgents, but noted that the Soviet armies were still separated from Warsaw by powerful and thus far undefeated concentrations of enemy troops.[148]

Warsaw Uprising in theOld Town

In Warsaw, the Germans turned out to be still overwhelmingly strong and the Soviet leaders and their forces nearby, not consulted in advance, contrary to the insurgents' expectations gave little assistance. Stalin had no interest in the uprising's success and following the failure of the talks with Mikołajczyk, the SovietTASSinformation agency stated in the 13 August broadcast that "the responsibility for the events in Warsaw rests entirely with the Polish émigré circles in London".[148]The Poles appealed to the Western Allies for help. TheRoyal Air Forceand the Polish Air Force based in Italy dropped some arms but little could be accomplished without Soviet involvement. Urged by the communistPolish Committee of National Liberationand the Western leaders, Stalin eventually allowed airdrops for the Warsaw insurgents and provided limited military assistance. Soviet supply flights continued from 13 to 29 September and an American relief operation was allowed to land on Soviet-controlled territory, but by that time the area under insurgent control had been greatly reduced and much of the dropped material was lost. General Berling's failed but costly attempt to support the fighters on 15–23 September using his Polish forces (First Army units crossed theVistulabut were slaughtered in a battle over the bridgehead) derailed Berling's own career.[136][144][147][149][z]The Soviets halted their western push at the Vistula for several months,directing their attention southtoward the Balkans.[150][151]

In the Polish capital, the AK formations initially took over considerable portions of the city, but from 4 August they had to limit their efforts to defense and the territory under Polish control kept shrinking. The Warsaw AK district had 50,000 members, of whom perhaps 10% had firearms. They faced a reinforced German special corps of 22,000 largelySStroops and various regular army and auxiliary units, up to 50,000 soldiers total. The Polish command had planned to establish a provisional Polish administration to greet the arriving Soviets but came nowhere close to meeting this goal. The Germans and their allies engaged in the mass slaughter of the civilian population, including between 40,000 and 50,000massacred in the districts of Wola,OchotaandMokotów. The SS and auxiliary units were recruited from the Soviet Army deserters (theDirlewanger Brigadeand theR.O.N.A. Brigade) were particularly style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 0.5em;">After the uprising's surrender on 2 October, the AK fighters were given the status of prisoners-of-war by the Germans but the civilian population remained unprotected and the survivors were punished and evacuated. The Polish casualties are estimated to be at least 150,000 civilians killed, in addition to the fewer than 20,000 AK soldiers. The German forces lost over two thousand men.[154][155]Under three thousand of the First Polish Army soldiers died in the failed rescue attempt.[156]150,000 civilians were sent to labour camps in theReichor shipped to concentration camps such asRavensbrück,Auschwitz, andMauthausen.[149][151][157]The city wasalmost totally demolishedby the German punitive bombing raids, but only after being systematically looted of works of art and other property, which were then taken to Germany.[158]General Sosnkowski, who criticized the Allied inaction, was relieved of his command. Following the defeat of Operation Tempest and the Warsaw Uprising, the remaining resistance in Poland (theUnderground Stateand the AK) ended up greatly destabilized, weakened and with damaged reputation, at the moment when the international decision-making processes impacting Poland's future were about to enter their final phase. The Warsaw Uprising allowed the Germans to largely destroy the AK as a fighting force, but the main beneficiaries were the Soviets and the communists, who were able to impose a communist government on postwar Poland with reduced risk of armed resistance. The Soviets and the allied First Polish Army, having resumed their offensive, entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945. In January 1945, the Home Army was officially disbanded.[144][147][151][159][160]The AK, placed under General Okulicki after General Bór-Komorowski became a German prisoner, was in late 1944 extremely demoralized. Okulicki issued the order dissolving the AK on 19 January, having been authorized to do so by PresidentRaczkiewicz. The civilian Underground State structure remained in existence and hoped to participate in the future government of Poland.[161]

The Holocaust in PolandMain articles:The Holocaust in PolandandWar crimes in occupied Poland during World War IIJews in Poland

Despite the various forms of anti-Jewish harassment that took place in late prewar Poland, theJewish communitythere was the largest in Europe and thrived.[2]Jews constituted a large percentage and often the majority of the urbanbourgeoisieand urban poor in many towns.[162]

In 1938, the Polish government passed a law withdrawing Polish citizenship from Poles who had lived outside of Poland for over five years. The law was aimed at and used to prevent the tens of thousands of Polish Jews in Austria and Germany, threatened or expelled by the Nazi regime, from returning to Poland.[163]

In December 1939, the Polish diplomat and resistance fighterJan Karskiwrote that, in his opinion, some Poles felt contempt and dismay in observing the barbarian anti-Jewish deeds of the Nazis, while others watched these deeds with interest and admiration. He warned of the threat of demoralization of broad segments of Polish society because of the narrow common ground that the Nazis shared with many ethnic Poles on the Jewish issue.[164]Localantisemitism, encouraged by the Nazis and augmented by their propaganda, resulted during the war in many instances of violence directed against Jews.[48]According to Laurence Weinbaum, who quotes Aleksander Smolar, "in wartime Polish society ... there was no stigma of collaboration attached to acting against the Jews".[165]According to the writer and researcherAnna Bikont, most Jews who escaped theNazi ghettoscould not have survived the war even if they had been in possession of material resources and social connections because ethnic Poles diligently and persistently excluded them from Polish society.[166]

Nazi persecution and elimination of ghettosStarving Jewish children in theWarsaw Ghetto(1940–1943), during the German occupation of Poland

Persecution of the Jews by the Nazi occupation government, particularly in the urban areas, began immediately after the commencement of the occupation. In the first year and a half, the Germans confined themselves to stripping the Jews of their property, herding them into ghettos (approximately 400 were established beginning in October 1939) and putting them into forced labor in war-related industries.[167]Thousands of Jews survived by managing to stay outside the ghettos.[50]During this period, a Jewish so-called community leadership, theJudenrat, was required by the Germans in every town with a substantial Jewish population and was able to some extent to bargain with the Germans.[167]Already during this initial stage tens of thousands of Jews died because of factors such as overcrowding, disease and starvation.[168]Others survived, supported by the Jewish social self-help agency and the informal trading and smuggling of food and necessities into the ghettos.[169]

The ghettos were eliminated when their inhabitants were shipped to slave labor and extermination camps. TheŁódź Ghetto, one of the largest and most isolated, lasted also the longest (from April 1940 until August 1944), because goods were manufactured there for the Nazi war economy.[48][170]The deportations from theWarsaw Ghettobegan in July 1942. They were facilitated by collaborators, such as theJewish police, and opposed by the resistance, including theJewish Combat Organization(ŻOB).[171]An estimated 500,000 Jews died in the ghettos, and a further 250,000 were murdered during their elimination.[48]

While many Jews reacted to their fate with disbelief and passivity, revolts did take place, including at theTreblinkaandSobibórcamps and at a number of ghettos. The leftist ŻOB was established in the Warsaw Ghetto in July 1942 and was soon commanded byMordechai Anielewicz. As the final liquidation of the remaining ghetto population was commenced by the Nazis on 19 April 1943, hundreds of Jewish fighters revolted. TheWarsaw Ghetto Uprisinglasted until May 16 and resulted in thousands of Jews killed and tens of thousands transported to Treblinka. ThePolish undergroundand some Warsaw residents assisted the ghetto fighters.[172]

Extermination of JewsThe entrance to theAuschwitz I concentration camp, established by Nazi Germany in Poland

After theGerman attack on the Soviet Unionin June 1941, special extermination squads (theEinsatzgruppen) were organised to kill Jews in the areas of eastern Poland which had been annexed by the Soviets in 1939.[173]The Nazi anti-Jewish persecutions assumed the characteristics and proportions ofgenocide, and, from the fall of 1941, of the organizedFinal Solution.[168][70]TheChełmno extermination campnearŁódźwas put into operation first. Beginning on 8 December 1941, at least 150,000 Jews were murdered there.[174]

About two million Jews were killed after the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa, mostly by the Germans, in areas where Soviet presence was replaced with the Nazi occupation. Especially in the early weeks of the German offensive, many thousands of Jews were murdered by members of local communities in the western parts of the previous Soviet zone, such as theBaltic countries, eastern Poland, and westernUkraine. Thepogroms, encouraged by the Germans, were sometimes perpetrated primarily or exclusively by the locals, including Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Poles.[70][175]

In 1942, the Germans engaged in the systematic killing of the Jews, beginning with the Jewish population of the General Government. The General Government had the largest in Europe population of Jews and was designated to be the primary location of Nazi installations for the elimination of Jews.[49]Sixextermination were established in which the most extreme measure ofthe Holocaust, themass murder of millions of Jews from Poland and other countries, was carried out between 1942 and 1945.[173]Nearly three million Polish Jews were murdered, most in death camps during the so-calledOperation Reinhard.[170]

Prisoners of many nationalities were kept at Auschwitz and parts of the complex were used as a brutal and deadly labor camp, but about 80% of the arriving Jews were murdered upon arrival (some 900,000 people). Auschwitz, unlike Treblinka or Bełżec, was not solely a death camp, but it likely had the highest number of Jewish victims.[168][176][k]Of Poland's prewar Jewish population of about or above three million, about or above 10% survived the war.[174][177]Davies wrote of some 150,000 Jews surviving the war in Poland.[168]Between 50,000 and 100,000 survived in hiding helped by other Poles according to Kochanski, between 30,000 and 60,000 according to Sowa.Dawid Warszawskiwrote of estimated 50,000 Jews surviving in Poland, a majority of them incamps.[178]According to historianJan Grabowski, about 35,000 Polish Jews survived the war in Poland, but he counts the Jewish deaths caused directly or indirectly by ethnic Poles in hundreds of thousands (victims of theBlue Policeand of civilians). About 250,000 Jews escaped German-occupied Poland and went mostly to the Soviet Union. At Treblinka (a site that, together with Auschwitz, produced the highest number of Jewish victims) and other extermination locations,Heinrich Himmlerordered measures intended to conceal the Nazi crimes and prevent their future detection.[170][174][179]

TheRomani peoplewere also marked by the Nazis for immediate elimination. Of the 80,000 Romani living in Poland, 30,000 survived the German occupation.[174]

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