Nazi Germany’s constant tactic was to exploit the economic resources of the countries its troops had conquered. After the occupation of Poland was completed, in early October 1939, Germany annexed the territories of Poznańher Upper Silesia and his Polish Corridorextending its borders to Ukraine and Belarus. Many Germans, who lived in the neighboring territories of the Soviet Union, chose to settle in the conquered territories, wishing to come back under German rule.
The practices of the Germans in the conquered territories had all the characteristics of the behavior of the Nazis towards the peoples they themselves considered as “inferior”. After the fall of Warsaw, Adolf Hitler sent five special task forces to Poland with authority the extermination of the prominent personalities of the country. Hundreds of Polish citizens, mainly businessmen, politicians, intellectuals and professors, were summarily executed or sent to camps. In the conquered territories the inhabitants were subjected to merciless Germanization. After all, Hitler’s dislike for the Poles was well known. Territories of Poland had also been occupied by Red Armyas a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The inhabitants of these areas were in the process of joining a Soviet-style political regime.
On October 12, 1939, the General Government was established with Nazi party lawyer Hans Frank as its general commander, with central and southern Poland as its area of responsibility. Almost immediately they began to be implemented restrictive measures for the Jews of Poland. Initially the Jews were used as laborers to repair the damage caused by the military operations of the German invasion. Restrictions were then imposed on their trade, the “Star of David” was ordered to be placed on Jewish institutions, and by December it became compulsory for all Jews to wear a white armband. To the already large population of Warsaw Jews, were added tens of thousands of refugees from other areas of the country that had been occupied by the German army. By the end of 1939, the number of Jews in the Polish capital exceeded 350,000 souls.
Those who tried to escape were executed on the spot
In early April 1940, Warsaw District Commander Ludwig Fischer ordered the building a wallwhich would surround the districts where the Jews of the city lived. The German authorities evicted tens of thousands of ethnic Poles from the neighborhoods around which the wall was being built, housing approximately 140,000 Jews who lived in the city’s suburbs. On October 16, 1940 the head of the General Government, known for his anti-Jewish views, announced the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto covered an area of about 3 square kilometers. About 450,000 people gathered within its borders.
A month later, the German authorities sealed off the Ghetto from the rest of Poland. Gradually his limits were reduced. Those who tried to escape were executed on the spot. The phenomenon of mass executions by German soldiers was frequent, while there was no lack of infectious diseases, which reduced the Jewish population considerably.
The following years were followed by deportations of Warsaw’s Jews to extermination camps. In early 1943, German forces encountered resistance from the Jewish Fighter Organization (JOF). In May of the same year, the resistance of the Jews of Warsaw came to an inglorious end, when the Germans began to blow up one building after another in order to force them to come out of their hiding places. Those who had remained in the Ghetto were either sent to extermination camps or transferred to forced labor camps.
Column Editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
