Polish Persecution

"Send to death mercilessly and without compassion men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space that we need."

~ Adolf Hitler

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Polish children awaiting deportation to Germany, from where they will never return

According to author and historian Richard Lukas in his book The Forgotten Holocaust, there were about as many Polish gentiles who perished in the Nazi Holocaust as there were Polish Jews who perished. Other scholars concur, believing that over 1.5 million Polish non-Jews were casualties of Hitler's Holocaust. They were executed, imprisoned, sentenced to forced labor, and sent to endure the atrocities practiced within the concentration camps, where they were identified by purple P's sewn on their uniforms.

In September of 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland in order to carry out his policy called "Lebensraum", literally "living space." Poland was believed by the Nazis to be rightfully occupied by the superior German Aryan race. Therefore, the Poles needed to be evacuated in order for Hitler to move his people into the living space they needed to flourish in. Therefore, Heinrich Himmler declared that not just Polish Jews, but all Poles were to be destroyed. Mass executions followed, and continued even after Poland surrendered to Germany. A minimum of 300 villages in Poland were destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War. In order to be sure the Polish "sub-humans" could not rise up against the Germans, political and religious leaders were quickly murdered. This, it was thought, would leave a leaderless nation of peasants and laborers who could be exploited, working as factory and farm laborers for the Nazi Party. Many Poles suffered inside Polish Ghettos. One of the most famous ghettos was in the capital of Poland, the city of Warsaw. Public hangings and shootings of Poles were a daily occurrence. Also, families were torn apart and imprisoned in concentration camps, where they suffered inhumane treatment with other prisoners.

Polish Jews arrive at the Warsaw ghetto.                                   Hundreds of Jews walk the streets of the Warsaw ghetto.

(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)                             (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

A great blow to the Polish people came in August of 1944 when a Polish resistance army staged an attack against the German soldiers occupying Warsaw. They hoped that the approaching Soviet army would assist them in defeating the Germans. The assistance did not come, and after two months of brutal battle, almost 250,000 Poles, mostly civilians, had been killed. Hitler's army responded by deporting hundreds of thousands of Poles to concentration camps or to Germany for forced labor. Warsaw was devastated.

Hitler's "negative demographic policy" was issued to prepare the expansive East for settlement by the superior German race. Catherine Leach explains that Poland was the first country affected by that policy. To satisfy his need for "lebensraum", Hitler basically condemned the entire nation of Poland. Of all the German-occupied countries, Poland sustained the greatest loss of life. Two hundred and twenty out of every one thousand inhabitants of Poland perished under Hitler's Nazi regime.

For Further Reading:

The Forgotten Holocaust - by Richard C. Lucas (grades 9-12)

Values and Violence in Auschwitz - by Anna Pawelczynska (translated by Catherine Leach) (grades 9-12)

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