INTRODUCTION
From
their experiences during the hostilities, the Polish people
realized that occupation by the Nazis would be grim. But no
one ever imagined that it would be an uninterrupted
succession of crimes, committed not only in cold blood and
with premeditation but with the utmost viciousness and
ingenuity. True, the very first days of the war had shown
that the Nazi invader was devoid of any humanitarian
feelings and had no respect for international conventions or
rules for the conduct of war. In its first raids on Polish
towns, the Luftwaffe had bombed residential areas without
any delusion that they were military objectives. Any idea
that perhaps these were mistakes was dispelled by the
dropping of fragmentation and incendiary bombs on small
suburban settlements and on hospitals and hospital trains
clearly marked with red crosses on their roofs. There was
also the strafing of defenseless civilians escaping along
the roads and fields from the burning villages and towns
before the rapid advance of the Germans. Every day brought
reports of atrocities being committed by the Wehrmacht
in the territories they had overrun. There was news of the
shooting of soldiers who had been taken prisoner and of the
ill-treatment and slaughter, on any excuse or even
completely without any justification, of innocent civilians,
particularly Jews.
The
occupation authorities proved themselves as brutal and
vicious, as devoid of all human feelings and careless of law
as the military. This was something that all the countries
occupied by the Third Reich were to experience to a greater
or lesser degree. It sprang from the very core of the
political programme of Nazism which planned the triumphant
conclusion of the war to be followed by a complete
transformation of Europe, particularly the East.
THE
"NEW ORDER" IN
EUROPE TOP
For
many centuries the urge to expand eastwards has been a part
of German history. To start with, the main aim of this Drang
Nach Osten was the extension of the German frontiers at
the expense of the Slav territories lying in the East. With
the rise of modern German imperialism, which
accompanied the rapid economic development in the 19th
century, the field of ambition was considerably widened.
A relatively insignificant conquest of territory around its
eastern borders was not enough for Imperial Germany; it was
aiming at economic and political expansion far to the East.
These imperialist objectives were taken over and
considerably enlarged by Nazi Germany.
Drawing on the pseudo-scientific
theory of racism, Nazism created its own version according
to which the German people presented the highest virtues of
mankind in the world and formed a race of supermen (Übermensch).
In the context of this theory it was not difficult to build
up a myth about the historical mission of the German nation
and its sacred task to impose its authority on the whole of
Europe and eventually on the whole world. TOP
Almost from the
first moment that Hitler came to power, the leaders
of the Third Reich and National Socialist Party began to
make preparations
for the conquest of Europe and the creation of a "Thousand-Year
Reich." In addition to the economic,
military and strategic preparations, the expansion of the
war industry, the
storing of supplies, the training of the future troops,
and the drafting of plans for aggression on individual
countries, a blueprint
was also drawn up for a new order in Europe to follow
the successful conclusion of a war that was still to be
launched. The rulers
of the Third Reich never for a second doubted that
this was a war that they could not and would not lose.
TOP
In
these plans for the future political shape of Europe, the
foremost place was
occupied by the East, since the western part of the territories
lying to the east of Germany were to increase the Lebensraum
of the Nazi Herrenvolk [the living space of the Nazi
master race]. The vast areas lying further to
the East were to
become an enormous German sphere of influence reaching
deep into the heart of Asia. All these plans for the future
organization of Europe
were frequently discussed by Hitler and his closest
colleagues. TOP
[The Slavic territories
lying to the east of Germany were particularly enticing as
the Nazis considered their primarily Slavic inhabitants to
be subhuman (Untermensch). The Nazis rationalized
that the Germans, being a super human (Übermenschlich)
race, had a biological right to displace, eliminate and
enslave inferiors. Untermensch
]
As
far as Eastern Europe was concerned, the details had already
been worked out before
the aggression on Poland. However, they were modified
and revised until finally, at the beginning of 1940, there
emerged the "The
General Plan for the East" (Generalplan Ost).
No
all-embracing document of this sort was ever drawn up for
Western Europe.
Nevertheless there are several recorded pronouncements
by Hitler and leading representatives of the Nazi regime
which show only too clearly that Western Europe was also
destined to be
radically transformed. TOP
To illustrate this, it is worth quoting the directives of
Hitler dealing
with the future policy of the Reich towards the West
European powers,
released to a narrow group of his colleagues at a conference
on June 19, 1940.
Among the things he said was: "Luxembourg
is to be incorporated
into the German Reich, Norway annexed. Alsace and Lorraine
will once more become parts of Germany. An independent state
will be set up in
Brittany. Under consideration is the question of Belgium,
particularly the
problem of treating the Flemish in a special way and of
forming a state
of Burgundy." 1 TOP
Thus
the whole of Europe was to be the victim of the Nazi imperialist
plans; there can be little doubt that the whole world was
included in their
further schemes.
"GENERALPLAN
OST
"
TOP
As has already been
mentioned, the future of the East had been decided in what
was known as Generalplan Ost. It is interesting, and
not without
significance, that the body responsible for the drafting
of this plan was the
Reich Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt -
RSHA), that is,
an agency whose task was to combat all enemies of Nazism
and Nazi Germany. It was a strictly confidential document,
and its contents were known only to those in the topmost
level of the Nazi hierarchy.
Unfortunately not a single copy could be found after the
war among the
documents in German archives. Nevertheless, that such a
document existed is
beyond doubt. It was confirmed by one of the witnesses
in Case VIII before the American Military Tribunal in
Nuremberg, SS-Standartenführer,
Dr. Hans Ehlich, who as a high official
in the RSHA was the man responsible for the drafting of
Generalplan Ost.
Apart from this, there are several documents which refer
to this plan or are supplements to it. TOP
The principal document which makes it possible to recreate
with a great
deal of accuracy just what was contained in Generalplan
Ost is a memorandum
of April 27, 1942 entitled: Stellungnahme und Gedanken
zum Generalplan
Ost des Reichsführers SS (Opinion and ideas Regarding
the General
Plan for the
East of the Reichsführer SS).2 Its author
was Dr. Erich Wetzel, the
director of the Central Advisory Office on Questions of
Racial Policy
at the National Socialist Party (Leiter der Hauptstelle
Beratungsstelle
des Rassenpolitischen Amtes der NSDAP). This memorandum
is in a way an elaboration of Generalplan Ost - a
detailed description
of Nazi policy in Eastern
Europe. TOP
The
evidence of Hans Ehlich showed that the final version of the
Plan came into being
in 1940. It was preceded by a number of studies and
research projects carried out over several years by various
academic centres to
provide the necessary facts and figures. The preliminary
versions were discussed by Himmler and his most trusted
colleagues even before
the outbreak of war. This was mentioned by SS
Obergruppenführer
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski during his evidence as a prosecution
witness in the trial of officials of the SS Main Office
for Race and
Settlement.
The final version of Generalplan
Ost was made up of two basic parts.
The first, known as Kleine
Planung, covered the immediate
future.
It was to be put into practice gradually as the Germans
conquered the areas to
the east of their pre-war borders. The individual
stages of this "Little Plan" would then be worked
out in greater
detail. In this way the plan for Poland was drawn up at the
end of November,
1939. TOP
The second part of
the Plan, known as Grosse
Planung, dealt with objectives
to be realized after the war was won.
They were to be carried
into effect gradually and relatively slowly over a period of
25-30
years.
TOP
Generalplan Ost
presented the Nazi Reich and the German people with
gigantic tasks. It called for the
gradual preparation of a vast
area of Eastern Europe
for settlement by Germans and eventual
absorption into the great Thousand-Year Reich. This area
covered territory
stretching from the eastern borders of Germany more or
less to a line running from Lake Ladoga in the north to the
Black Sea in
the region of the Crimea in the south. The Thousand-Year
Reich was thus
to absorb the whole of Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic
countries excepting
Finland, (for the moment) and a huge chunk of the Soviet
Union - most of Russia, Byelorussia, the Ukraine and the
whole of the
Crimea. According to the Plan, these areas were to be
"germanized"
before being incorporated into the Reich.
The Nazi document uses the term "Germanization of
Eastern Territories"
(Eindeutschung der Ostgebiete). The phrase might
suggest that
the author of the Plan had in mind the Germanization of the
native populace of
these areas. However, it is clear from the further wording
of the plan that any attempt to Germanize the Slav nations
of Eastern
Europe was never in the reckoning. On the contrary, the plan
stipulated that these
Slav territories would be settled by Germans while
the vast majority of the native populace would be gradually
pushed out. Only an
insignificant number was to be Germanized. In short,
Generalplan Ost provided for the expulsion of
millions of people,
primarily Slav nations, from their homes and the settlement
of Germans in
their place. This would have been an enormous task requiring
a fairly long period of time and a formidable effort. For
it would be easier to
expel the people living in these areas than to find
a sufficient number of Germans to repopulate them. The Plan,
drawing on the
material collected in the preliminary stages, concluded
that
31 million people would have been deported in the
course of 25 years.
However, in his 1942 memorandum, Dr. Wetzel revised this
figure (taking into
account certain territorial changes, natural increases,
etc.) and arrived at a total of 51 million.
At the time
when Wetzel
was writing his comments, Generalplan Ost
had ceased to be
merely a blueprint. Its first part, the KleinePlanung,
was already being put into practice. The western areas
of Poland had been incorporated into the Reich, hundreds of
thousands of Poles had
been expelled from them, and further deportations
were in progress. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were
dying in various
concentration camps, while millions of Jews, herded into
ghettos and still ignorant of their fate, were awaiting
"the final solution of the Jewish problem." The
rulers of the Third Reich were
in a hurry to carry out their criminal plans while there was
still a war to divert
the attention of the world from what was going on
in Eastern Europe.
PLANS
FOR THE BALTIC NATIONS
TOP
According to Nazi
intentions, attempts at Germanization were to be
undertaken only in the case of those foreign nationals in
Eastern Europe
who could be considered a desirable element for the future
Reich from the point
of view of its racist theories. The Plan stipulated
that there were to be different methods of treating particular
nations and even particular groups within them. Attempts
were even made to
establish the basic criteria to be used in determining
whether a given group lent itself to Germanization. These
criteria were to be
applied more liberally in the case of nations whose
racial material (rassische Substanz) and level of
cultural development
made them more suitable than others for Germanization.
The Plan considered
that there were a large number of such elements among
the Baltic nations. Dr. Wetzel felt
that thought should be given
to a possible Germanization of the whole of the Estonian
nation and a
sizable proportion of the Latvians. On the other hand, the
Lithuanians seemed
less desirable since they contained too great an admixture
of Slav blood. Himmler's view was that almost the whole of
the Lithuanian nation
would have to be deported to the East.
Whatever happened, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were to be
deprived of their
statehood, while their territories were to be included
in the eastern area of German settlement. This meant
that Latvia and especially Lithuania would be covered by the
deportation plans,
though in a somewhat milder form than the Slav - "voluntary"
emigration to western Siberia.
SLAV
NATIONS
TOP
Under Generalplan
Ost, all Slavs unfit for Germanization were to be
expelled from the areas marked out for German settlement. In
considering the fate of the individual nations, the
architects of the Plan decided that it would be possible to
Germanize about 50 per cent of the Czechs, 35 per cent of
the Ukrainians and 25 per cent of the Byelorussians.
The remainder would have to be deported to western Siberia.
It
was planned to remove the Czech intelligentsia not only from
the areas marked for
German settlement but from Europe in general, since
their attitude to the Third Reich was hostile and they would
be a threat to
it even in Siberia. Apparently they were considered capable
of organizing resistance to German rule. The best solution,
thought the Plan's
authors, would be to enable the Czech intelligentsia
to emigrate overseas.
As
for the Ukrainians, the original idea was to leave about
one-third in the future German settlement area. Naturally,
this group was to
undergo gradual Germanization. The remaining two-thirds were
to be deported
to Siberia. A Reichskommissariat Ukraine was to be
set up in the
area not marked for German colonization. Later these ideas
were revised,
and the intention was rather to deport the Ukrainians not
suitable for
Germanization to the area of this Reichskommissariat.
However, the details
of these plans had not been finalized. The Byelorussians
were to be treated similarly to the Ukrainians, with this
difference that only about a quarter were to be Germanized
and the rest
deported to Siberia.
The plans for Poles and Russians were different. These two
nations presented the
Germans with greater difficulties. At first glance
this seems somewhat puzzling, since, in Wetzel's opinion,
the Polish and
Russian nations possessed many of the Nordic characteristics,
proper to the German nation. It is only from his later
remarks that it transpires that both the leading circles of
the NSDAP and
the Reich Security Main Office held the view that, though
the Polish nation lent
itself to Germanization as far as racial characteristics
were concerned, political considerations made it necessary
to abandon any plans for full-scale Germanization. This
held out no hope of
success because of the Poles' highly developed sense
of patriotism, their hostile attitude to Germany and their
natural bent for
underground activity. The attribution of these qualities
to the Poles and the conclusion, completely justified as it
happens, that
voluntary Germanization of even a fraction of the poles
was doomed to failure,
goes a long way to explain the methods used against
the Polish people from the very outset of the occupation,
methods designed to
wipe out the greatest possible number of Poles.
The
provisions of the Plan were that 80-85 per cent of the Poles
would have to
be deported from the German settlement area - to regions in
the East. This,
according to German calculations, would involve about
20 million people.
About 3-4 million - all of them peasants - suitable
for Germanization as far as "racial values" were
concerned - would
be allowed to remain. They would be distributed among German
majorities and
Germanized within a single generation.
The 20 million Poles not
suitable for Germanization TOP
presented greater
difficulties. Obviously they would have to be expelled from
their native land; but
the problem was what to do with them. Wetzel stated
in his comments that the Polish question could not be
settled in the
same way as the Jewish. In his opinion, this might discredit
the German nation in
the eyes of the world for years to come. It might
seem strange that this anxiety about world public opinion
was not felt
concerning "the final solution of the Jewish
problem." Presumably
the Nazi leaders thought that the extermination of the Jews
would pass almost
unnoticed in a world absorbed, as it then was, by a war
effort on an unprecedented scale. In the Nazi plans, the
final solution
of the Jewish problem - that is the annihilation of European
Jewry, was to be
completed before the end of the war. The other argument
used against mass extermination of the Poles was the fear
that other nations in
the East would feel themselves threatened by the same
fate. There is, of course, no need to delude ourselves that
humanitarian
motives would have led the Nazis to shrink from mass
annihilation of the
Polish people or any other nation. If they rejected
the methods tried out on the Jews, it was purely because of
practical
considerations - the fear that this threat to their existence
might unite the Slav peoples in common opposition to Nazi
rule. The Hitlerites
reckoned that Germany, though master of vast areas
after the triumphant conclusion of the war, would be considerably
weakened in numbers.
The
only solution, therefore, to the Polish question, according
to Geralplan- Ost,
was the deportation of 80-85 per cent of the Poles to
western Siberia. They were to be scattered over as wide an
area as possible
and intermixed with the local populace. The Germans were
afraid that if the
Poles were settled as a compact group they would in time
Polonize the Siberians (Sibiriakentum) and a
"Greater Poland" would
evolve in that region. Fragmentation was to lead to an
opposite development
- assimilation and absorption by the local population.
As
in the case of the Czechs, Wetzel recommended that the
Polish intelligentsia
be allowed to emigrate overseas; he considered that this
social group with its great organizing talents and
propensity for underground
activity was a grave threat to the future Thousand-Year
Reich. [Emigration, as
it turned out, did not work very well. By Hitler's order,
most were put to death.]
Generalplan Ost devoted relatively little space to
the Russian question,
though in his memorandum Wetzel stressed that its proper
solution was of great
importance to Nazi policy in Eastern Europe. The
Russian nation, he said, was a young one, hence biologically
strong. Apart from
this it possessed a considerable admixture
of Nordic blood; though this might raise the racial value
of a particular nation
in the eyes of the theoreticians and politicians
of this philosophy, it also made it a dangerous opponent.
For this reason, in
the Nazi thinking, the Russians, like the Poles, constituted
a serious danger to the future great Reich.
Of course, there could be no question of
"liquidating" the Russian
nation. Apart from all considerations of a political and
economic nature, this
would have involved enormous technical problems, as
Wetzel clearly emphasized. Other measures had to be sought
to insure
Germany against the danger threatening it from this area.
For this
purpose it was intended to split the whole territory of the
Soviet Union - both in
Europe and in Asia - into a number of administrative
areas - Generalkommissariats - under German rule. In
the demarcation of
these areas, national factors would be taken into account
with the aim of encouraging separatist tendencies. Essentially
Russian territories, that is central Russia (Reichskommissariat
Russland) would also be split up into Generalkommissariats,
very loosely tied to each other. The object was to
splinter as far as possible the national cohesion of the
Russians. Wetzel
stated that a situation should be aimed at in which a
Russian from
the Gorki Generalkommissariat would feel that he was
different from
a Russian in the Tula Generalkommissariat.3
The first task, then,
was to break down the unity of the nations of the Soviet
Union, and then
to split the Russian nation from the inside. To make certain
of this objective
Wetzel considered imperative "a racial sifting of
the Russians." by
this phrase he meant the removal of the most valuable
element "from a racial point of view" and their
Germanization. This
led him to imagine, in accordance with the theory of
racism, that the Nordic elements in each nation determine
its value and
ability, and that the elimination of a few million
"Nordic types" from
among the Russian people would reduce it, from loss of
"Nordic blood," to a lower racial category within
a couple of generations. He thought that as a result of this
process the Russians
would become stupid and apathetic, lose all their initiative
and readily accept the guiding role of the Germans.
Apart from these two methods of protecting the Nazi Reich
against the
Russian danger, Generalplan Ost also suggested the
necessity of using
another preventive measure - destruction or at least considerable
reduction of the biological vitality of the Russian nation.
This was a proposal that, in fact, concerned all the Slav
peoples.
The object of this biological campaign was to curb the
natural increase.
Under the Nazi plan, a deliberate and calculated policy was
to be conducted in the
eastern part of Europe to cut down the natural increase
by the double device of trying to reduce the birth rate and
taking no steps to
combat mortality.
Generalplan Ost, having distributed enormous areas of
Eastern Europe
as Lebensraum for the Germans, devoted a great deal
of space to the
methods to be used in riding these areas of the people who
had been living
there for centuries. But very little - and that superficially
- was said about how these areas were to be re-populated
by Germans. This, of
course, sprang from the difficulties involved in solving
this problem not only in practice but even in theory.
It is simple to
plan the expulsion of whole nations from their age-old
territories and the
deportation, over a longer or shorter period
of time, of millions of men and women.
This was a lesson learned only too well by the Poles during
the whirlwind
deportations from western Poland after its incorporation
into the Reich, or during the expulsion of the Polish
population from the
Zamosc region. It is, however, much more difficult to fill
depopulated areas,
even in theory, with settlers who just do not exist.
Generalplan
Ost stipulated, after Wetzel's revisions, that 50
million people, mainly
Slavs, were to be deported from Eastern
Europe. Their place could be taken, over a period of 30
years - allowing for
natural increase and immigration from other Germanic
countries - at most by 10 million, though probably not more
than 8 million,
settlers. Dr. Wetzel realized the difficulties that would
arise in the settlement of the eastern regions, but he
consoled himself
with the thought that a similar situation once faced North
America. The use of
this analogy suggests a further train of thought, admittedly
not pursued by Wetzel, but which can hardly be ignored.
The Americans were
incapable of exploiting the vast territories they had
acquired through extermination of the Indians and had to
resort to Negro
slave-labour. The Nazi scheme to
detail manpower from among the
native population to
work on the farms of German settlers strongly recalls
the buying of slaves by American farmers and plantation
owners in the
first half of the 19th century. This scheme did not talk
about the
"hiring" of farm labourers but expressly used the
word "detailing,"
in other words, the willingness, or at the very least the
wishes, of the people
concerned was to be completely disregarded. In addition,
the labourers assigned to each farm would have belonged to
different
nationalities unable to speak each other's language. It was
supposed that this
would force the labourers to use German, the only language
that all of them would out of necessity know, and thus
hasten the
process by which they would lose their sense of nationality
and even bring
about their Germanization. It seems, however, that the
main object was to
hinder any opportunities for collusion which might lead
to passive resistance or even organized revolt against the
Germans.
This
has been a very general description of the provisions
contained in Generalplan
Ost, and particularly in Wetzel's memorandum which,
as was said before, was an elaboration of it. That this plan
was to have been put
into effect, and would have been, had Nazism triumphed,
is shown by the fact that a number of its provisions were
actually carried out,
especially in Poland.
PLANS
FOR THE POLISH NATION TOP
There can be no
doubt that Nazi plans for Poland had been outlined long
before the aggression of 1939, at a time when the Reich
Government was still assuring Poland of its friendship and
had signed a non-aggression pact. When Generalplan Ost was
being drawn up, Poland was included in the "Little
Plan" (Kleine Planung) which meant that part of
the projects were to be carried out before the conclusion of
the war.
Almost immediately after the conclusion of military
operations in Poland, Hitler issued a
decree on October 8,
19391 anexing the western part of Poland:
the whole of Pomorze (Pomerania), the provinces of Poznan
and Upper Silesia and parts of Lódz, Cracow, Warsaw and
Bialystok Provinces. These territories were to become an
integral part of the Nazi Reich (the so-called New Reich)
"for all time." Both in area and population they
amounted to almost half the territory of the Polish state
occupied by the Reich in 1939.
The remaining territory became the "Government
General," a sort of reservation for Poles under the
absolute rule of Dr. Hans Frank, appointed by Hitler to the
post of "Governor General of the Occupied Polish
Territories."
Though the rulers of the Third Reich had wasted no time in
partitioning and seizing the territories the Nazis had
overrun, they
were still far from having finally solved the problem of Lebensraum.
One obstacle was the Polish people living in this easily
acquired area. They had to take into account the fact that
these territories were inhabited by a nation of 29 million
that possessed a thousand years' history, rich traditions
and their own advanced culture. This nation could not just
suddenly disappear from the face of the earth to suit the
wishes of the Nazi Reich. This, however, was precisely what
the Nazi plans called for: the Polish nation was to cease to
exist just as in the minds of the rulers of the Reich the
Polish state had ceased to exist. This is why the Nazis
launched a merciless campaign against the Poles.
Though Generalplan Ost included plans for dealing
with Poland in its first part, these were formulated only in
general terms; the details had still to be filled in and
concretized for practical application. Among
the many confidential documents discovered in Nazi archives
after the fall of the Reich, there were a number discussing
in detail Nazi plans for Poland. It is worth giving the
contents of some of them, even if only in general outline.
The lengthiest of
these documents is a memorandum drawn up by the
aforementioned Dr. Erich Wetzel and Dr. G. Hecht on the
orders of the NSDAP Office for Questions of Racial Policy.
It is dated November 25, 1939. 2
Like Wetzel's memorandum concerning Generalplan Ost it
has all the appearance of a scholarly work, but it exposes
in full all the charlatanism and preposterousness of the
pseudo-scientific arguments used by the makers of racial
policy. There is not the slightest attempt on their part to
conceal the criminal immorality of these plans. Whatever
modifications the directives contained in this memorandum
underwent in the course of application, they were
nevertheless in
principle the guiding line of Nazi policy in Poland
throughout the occupation. TOP
The memorandum contains 36 pages of
typescript and is divided into three sections. A short
introduction announces that section 1 deals with the
structure of Poland from the national and racial point of
view and gives a demographic description of the country.
Section 2 discusses the problem of the Poles in the new
territories of the Reich (annexed Polish territory) and the
problelm of colonization and resettlement. Finally section 3
covers special problems.
The first section begins with a historical falsehood:
"The Poles, an offshoot of the Western Slav group of
nations, owe the birth of their nation and state to Germanic
tribes. Hundreds, even thousands of years before the arrival
of the Slav tribes, the major portion of the area of the
Polish state was inhabited by Germans and other nations of
the Nordic race." The authors further claim in their
historical survey that it was not till several
hundred years after these German tribes had withdrawn that
the Western Slav tribes began slowly to assume the form of a
nation. "This transformation into
a nation of Poles owe to the Germans left in this area and
the Norman overlords who had come here and formed the
nobility. It is typical that the first ruler to unite the
Polish tribes (about 960 A.D.) was the Norman Prince Dago.
The Poles later called him Mieszko."
Wetzel and Hecht carefully omit to quote any historical
sources for these claims. In any case they were not
concerned with truth. Some more or less believable
justification had to be found in history for the
"invincible right" of the Nazi Reich to Polish
lands in the west. Although the memorandum makes it plain
that the Slav tribes only began to form a nation several
hundred years after the Germans had left and that this
preceeded the birth of the Polish state by further hundreds
of years, the Nazi historians argued that the German nation,
as the successor and heir of the ancient Germanic tribes,
still possessed rights to the land occupied by them 1500
years ago.
This historical justification is followed by a discussion of
the racial make-up of the Polish nation. It leads Wetzel and
Hecht to the easily foreseeable conclusion that its racial
features confirm the historical theory laboriously
propounded at the beginning, since part of the population
bears a clear admixture of Nordic blood.
The object of all these arguments is to justify in advance
Nazi policy in the western territories seized from Poland, a
policy formulated in the second section. "The object of
German policy in the new Reich areas, must be the creation
of a German populace homogeneous from the point of view of
race, hence also from the viewpoint of mentality as well as
national and political consciousness. From
this it is clear that all the elements which do not lend
themselves to Germanization must be removed unconditionally.
This objective involves three related tasks:
"First,
the total and final Germanization of those groups
which seem suitable;
"Second,
the expulsion of all foreign nationals not suitable for
Germanization;
"Third,
resettlement with Germans." TOP
The plan of action, it can be seen, though laconic, was very
explicit.
First place was given to the concept
about the necessity of Germanizing part of the population.
However, this concept had to be reconciled somehow to the
racist theory of purity of Germanic blood. The Germanization
of Poles would contravene the principles of this theory.
This was the point to the historical argument quoted above
-- to show that the ancestors of the inhabitants of these
lands were Germanic. The authors stated flatly: "A
German is someone who lives like a German in the sense of
nationality, customs and family community, provided he is of
German or related blood." It would be hard to imagine a
more vague definition; the only tangible criterion, which
could be used to determine a person's nationality --
the language he uses in his home and with his family -- has
been omitted. The criterion of Germanic extraction is
equally vague; no clue is given to what is meant by
"related" German blood. This
vagueness was, of course, deliberate, since it left a very
wide field of choice in selecting those people who either
compulsorily or voluntarily were to be registered in these
areas on the "German national list."
The racist principle of purity of blood was also upheld by
removing the term "Germanization" (Eindeutschung)
from the Nazi vocabulary and replacing it with "re-Germanization"
(Wiedereindeutschung). As this item of the political
programme went into effect, the german national lists began
to contain, apart from a relatively small group of real
Germans, the names of thousands of Poles in the annexed
territories that were put there either compulsorily or under
the threat of terror.
People unfit for germanization were to be expelled. The
memorandum stated that the territory of the "New
Reich" contained about 5,363,000 Poles who would have
to be eliminated by resettling them in the Government
General. This was not, however, so simple. The deportation
of such vast numbers would present enormous technical
problems, above all, of transport. So it proved in practice
during the "resettlement" carried out in the
severe winter of 1939 which violated the most
elementary humanitarian principles. It had to be taken into
account, therefore, that deportations, particularly in
wartime, would take a great deal of time -- a few years at
the least. It also had to be remembered that the Government
General would be required to find room for over 5 million
new inhabitants in a comparatively short period.
Since it was unavoidable
that there would be a great number of Poles still living in
the annexed territories for a number of years, the
memorandum provided for an intense system of discrimination
against them. This was to cover all fields of political
social, economic and cultural life.
The
Poles would be unable to become citizens of the Reich or
enjoy any political rights. They would be expropriated of
all rural and urban property without compensation.
They could not carry on any independent trade; they could
only work as hired labour for German employers. Their wages
would be fixed at much lower scales than those of Germans. TOP
All Polish schools and colleges would be closed down --
universities, secondary, vocational and primary schools.
Poles would not be allowed to attend German schools, except
the very lowest grades.
All Polish periodicals and newspapers would be prohibited.
It would be forbidden to publish any Polish books.
All Polish theatres and cinemas, restaurants and cafés
would be closed. The Poles would be forbidden to go to
German theatres or cinemas. They would also be forbidden to
have radio sets or gramophones.
These bans even affected religious worship. Services in
Polish were to be forbidden and Polish religious holidays
abolished. The only holidays that could be observed were the
Catholic and Evangelical ones recognized in the Reich.
Catholic and Evangelical services could only be conducted by
clergy with the proper political qualifications approved by
the authorities. Marriage between Germans and Poles was to
be forbidden.
Further on the memorandum contains the following:" In
order to destroy all forms of Polish cultural and economic
life, there can be no Polish associations, unions or
federations; church associations are also banned."
The object of these discriminations was to deprive the Poles
of all hope for the future, to crush in them all national
consciousness and relegate them to the role of serfs or even
slaves carrying out the lightest whim of the German
"superman."
The ultimate purpose of Nazi policy was to destroy the
Polish nation on the whole of Polish soil whether that
annexed by the Reich or that of the Government General.
Eloquent proof of this is provided by the directives on the
treatment of Poles in the Government General -- Restpolen,
as they were described in the third section of the
memorandum.
Although discrimination in some fields of life, mainly
economic, was not to go as far as in the annexed
territories, the fundamental aim, according to the authors,
was to be arrived at by a different road. The influx of
refugees from the west would result in over-population and
this, in turn would create economic misery and a drop in the
natural increase. This was strongly desirable, since it was
not in the interests of the Reich to uphold nationally,
economically or culturally the populace of the Government
General which was of no value to the Reich from a racial
viewpoint.
The inhabitants of the Government General, continued the
memorandum, should be given special national status,
but they should not possess any independent political
rights. The conditions created for the Poles should be such
that it would become next to impossible for them to organize
and expand any national liberation movement. For this reason
there should be a ban on the formation not only of
political organizations but also cultural associations --
for instance singing groups, tourist clubs and especially
sports and gymnastic associations. To raise the physical
fitness and efficiency of the Poles was far from being in
the German interest.
The authors
then discussed the problem of how to treat the Jewish and
Polish population; they saw two possible solutions. It is
best to give them in their own words:
"One
way is provided by the plan to keep both Poles and Jews
alike at the same low level of living and deprive them of
all political, national and cultural rights. In this case
the Poles and Jews would be left in the same
position. TOP
"As
for the second way, here the opportunities for the Poles to
develop nationally and culturally would be no less
restricted than under the first plan. The Jews, however,
would be given slightly more freedom, particularly in the
cultural and economic field, so that some decisions on
administrative and economic matters would be taken in
consultation with them. As far as domestic policy is
concerned this solution would lead to still greater economic
encroachment by the Jews, but it would still leave the Jews
grounds for serious complaints and with constant
difficulties."
The mentality and ethical and moral standards of the
theoreticians of National Socialism are vividly illustrated
by this plan to create a situation which would inevitably
lead to bitter hatred between Poles and Jews. Undoubtedly,
the purpose was to turn the Polish and Jewish community,
united in theory by their common servitude, one against the
other by rousing in them the basest human instincts in the
struggle for the miserable crumbs of an illusory freedom, or
rather for the means of existence.
As is known, the Jewish problem
was eventually solved in a completely different way. The
Nazis came to the conclusion that total extinction of Jewry
would be the most radical and indeed "final"
solution. TOP
The memorandum stressed that reduction of the birth rate in
the Government General was desirable. In this connection
abortion and sexual perversion should be tolerated. The
health of the Poles, the sort of medical attention provided
for them and the training of young doctors should be of no
interest to the Germans. Their own medical service should
confine itself merely to preventing the spread of infectious
diseases from Restpolen to the Reich.
As in the case of the annexed territories, the plan called
for lowering the level of education and culture. The
reduction of theatres and cinemas was recommended; in those
remaining open, the programmes offered should be of the
lowest possible standard. The same was recommended for
newspapers, journals and all forms of publications. There
was to be a ban on the formation of educational and cultural
associations, even singing groups, and of course sports and
gymnastics clubs.
All institutions of higher education as well as secondary
and vocational schools were to be closed. It is worth
quoting the directives concerning the curriculum for primary
schools.
"Only
general primary schools are permitted and they will teach
only the most rudimentary subjects such as reading, writing
and arithmetic. The teaching of such subjects as geography,
history and history of literature, which are important from
a national point of view, as well as physical training is
forbidden. However, the schools should give training in
agriculture, forestry and simple industrial trades and
handicrafts."
After this any further evidence of
the Nazi intent to deprive the Polish nation of its
intelligentsia, considered dangerous because of their
organizing abilities and natural leadership, seems
supererogatory.
The memorandum contained some interesting advice on the
selection of teachers. Wetzel and Hecht emphasized that the
Polish teaching profession, particularly the
schoolmistresses, were "prominent apostles of Polish
chauvinism." By chauvinism they, of course, meant
patriotism, and it is true that the polish teacher has
always been a promoter of patriotism, even in the darkest
days of the partitions. The conclusion was drawn that
professional Polish teachers, therefore, should in time be
removed from all schools in the Government General as a
harmful and dangerous influence. But another source of
excellent teaching staff has been found:
"It seems that it would suit our purposes if retired
officers of the Polish police were later appointed as
teachers in these primitive schools. In this way the
establishment of teachers' training colleges would become
unnecessary."
The purpose behind this undoubtedly visionary project is so
obvious that it seems pointless to add any comment.
These, in a nutshell, were the directives of Nazi policy
towards the Poles, based on apparently scholarly principles
and contained in an official document. The document was
neither secret nor even classified. Apparently the NSDAP and
government leaders did not think it necessary to conceal
their intentions.
Nazi plans were outlined with even
greater cynicism in another document; its author was none
other than Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, Reich
Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood (Reichskommisar
für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums). The
six-page typescript was entitled "Some Comments on the
Treatment of Foreign Nationals in the East." This
document, dated May 5, 1940, was signed by Himmler
himself and was highly confidential.3 To
it was added a note from Himmler that the contents had been
shown to Hitler
who had found them "very good and appropriate." TOP
It is worth quoting a few excerpts from this work. It must
be remembered that the term "East" was used by
Himmler to mean the occupied Polish territories and
"foreign nationals," the populace of this area,
that is primarily Poles.
Himmler started by saying that they must recognize and
uphold the existence of the greatest number of individual
national groups in Polish regions, in other words, apart
from the Poles and Jews also the Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Górale
(highlanders), Lemki and Kashubians.
"By this I mean that it is very much in our interest
not only not to unite the people of the East but the reverse
-- to splinter them into as many parts and subdividions as
possible. We should also aim for a situation in which, after
a longer period of time has passed, the concept of
nationality disappears among the Ukrainians, Górale,
and Lemki." The object was to fragmentize the Polish
nation from the inside by the creation of previously
non-existent nationalities such as the Górale, Lemki
and Kashubians, and so make it easier to deprive it of its
nationality afterwards.
Later in the "Comments" comes this passage:
"The
basic question in the solution of all these problems is the
question of schooling, hence the question of reviewing and
sifting the youth.
"For
the non-German population of the East there can be no
type of school above the four-grade rudimentary school. The
job of these schools should be confined to the teaching of
counting (no higher than up to 500), the writing of one's
name, and the teaching that God's commandment means
obedience to the Germans, honesty, industry and politeness.
Reading I do not consider essential."
It seems almost incredible that ideas of this sort could
arise in the minds of men who in the middle of the 20th
century occupied the highest positions in the government of
one of the biggest and oldest states in Central Europe.
Their object was to reduce Poles not so much to the status
of slaves but rather soulless robots endowed with only the
most primitive intelligence.
Further on Himmler wrote about
children "valuable from the racial point of view,"
who should be taken from their parents and sent to Germany
where they would be educated and Germanized.
"Useless" children were to be left alone. This
scheme is the best proof of the hypocrisy of the theory of
racism; even the Nazi leaders could hardly have believed it
if they had no qualms about introducing "valuable
racial elements" into the German nation even if these
elements descended in a direct line from the
"defective" Slavs. True, they could always fall
back on the mythical German or at least Norman ancestors
from a thousand years back, "If these orders are
carried out consistently," concluded Himmler, "the
population of the Government General in ten years' time will
be made up of the remaining useless populace, deportees from
the eastern provinces and from all parts of the Reich,
people belonging to the same racial and ethnic group (for
instance, Serbians and Lusatians). This populace, deprived
of its leaders, will be at the disposal (of Nazi Germany) as
manpower and every year will provide seasonal labour for the
Reich as well as labour for special jobs (road construction,
quarrying, building); they will have better food and be able
to live better than under Polish rule; at the same time,
deprived of its culture under the strict, consistent and
just guidance of the German nation, they will be called on
to help in the building of its enduring culture and
monuments, and -- as far as the tremendous amount of
ordinary work done is concerned -- perhaps even make them
possible."
Any skepticism about Himmler's
boast that his ideas met with the approval of Hitler is
dispelled by a third document containing a pronoucement
[sic] made by the Führer himself. This is a confidential
note, dated October 2, 1940, drawn up in Berlin on the
orders of Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, later chief of staff
of the NSDAP and Hitler's deputy.4
TOP
"On
October 2, 1940," it begins, "a conversation was
started after lunch in the Führer's apartment about the
nature of the Government General, the treatment of the Poles
and the inclusion of the Piotrków and Tomaszów areas in
the "Warta Region" (Warthegau) that had
been ordered by the Führer." During this discussion
the floor was taken by Baldur von Shirach, Hans Frank and
Erich Koch. Finally Hitler spoke, taking a fundamental
attitude to the problem in general. He said:
"Under
no circumstances should the Government General become
a self-contained and uniform economic area producing all or
some of the industrial articles needed by it; it must be a
reservoir of manpower for us to perform the most menial jobs
(brickmaking, road construction, etc.)."
"It
is therefore completely in order for a large surplus of
manpower to exist in the Government General so that every
year there would be a supply of labour for the Reich. We
must be ruthlessly on our guard to prevent the emergence of
any 'Polish masters;' wherever they are found, they must,
however harsh this may sound, be eliminated."
A little later Hitler made it clear what he meant by
"Polish masters."
"Once
more the Führer must point out that the Poles can only have
one master, and that is the German; two masters cannot and
muct not exist side by side; therefore all representatives
of the Polish intelligentsia should be eliminated (umbringen).
This sounds harsh, but such are the laws of life.
"The
Government General is a reservation for Poles, a hugh Polish
work camp. This is good for the Poles because we look after
their health and make sure they do not die of hunger, etc.
However, we must never allow them to climb to a higher level
because then they would become anarchists and
Communists."
These remarks by Hitler epitomize the directives issued by
Himmler and the detailed project embodied in the memorandum
of Wetzel and Hecht of November 1939. This programme was
pursued with only minor variations throughout the
occupation....
GERMANIZATION
OF POLISH CHILDREN TOP
The
Nazi plans, discussed in the preceding chapters, envisaged
various methods and
stages in the campaign to wipe out the Polish nation.
One of the forms this campaign took was the compulsory
removal of Polish
children to be Germanized; sometimes this was described
as the "special treatment of racially valuable
children."
Germanization of these children was intended on the one hand
to help reduce
and so eventually destroy the Polish nation and, on the
other, to strengthen
German blood and reinforce the German nation.
This was a deliberate measure worked out and elaborated in
all its details
in Berlin. In charge of it stood Himmler in his capacity as
Reich Commissioner for
the Consolidation of German Nationhood. From him
came the crucial instructions to be executed by the SS and
police departments
under him. The NSDAP authorities at
various levels also took part in this action as did some of
the highest organs of the
national
administration (The Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of
Justice) and local
offices under them.
The following offices and
organizations coming under Himmler were involved
in this campaign:
An
office later known as the General Staff Headquarters of the
Reich Commissioner for
the Consolidation of German Nationhood (Reichskommissar
für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums-Stabshauptamt)
set up by Himmler and
one of the 12
Main Departments of the SS; this was Himmler's executive
organ as Reich
Commissioner;
TOP
the Main Department for Race and Settlement (SS Rasse-und-Siedlungs-Hauptamt,
abb. RuSHA) with local agencies in Lódz (RuSHA
Aussenstelle Litzmannstadt)
and representatives (Führer in Rasse und Siedlungswesen)
at the offices of Higher SS and Police Leaders in the
annexed territories,
East Prussia and the Government General;
the Central Resettlement Office (Umwandererzentralstelle
abb. UWZ) with
branches, in Poznan, Lódz (sub-branch in Zamosc), Gdansk
and Katowice
coming under the chiefs of the Security Police and Security
Service;
the Office for Resettlement of "ethnic" Germans (Volksdeutsche
Mittelstelle,
abb. VOMI), set up before the war;
The "Lebensborn" Association, formed in
1935 by Himmler, which later
became one of agencies of the Personal Staff of the
Reichsfuhrer SS
(Persönlicher Stab RF-SS Amt "L");
The institution of the "German Native Schools" (Deutsche
Heimschulen),
educational establishments created on Himmler's instructions
in 1942.
Among
the party agencies were the National
Socialist Society of Social
Welfare (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, abb.
NSV), set up by
Hitler in 1933 as one of the organs of the NSDAP.
Each of these bodies had its particular part to play in the
campaign for
Germanization of Polish children. A vital role was also
entrusted to such
departments as youth (Jugendamt), health (Gesundheitsamt),
Labour (Arbeitsamt), social welfare (Fürsorgeamt),
the courts, etc.
The Reich authorities
had no delusions that the abduction
and Germanization of Polish children could be justified by
any lawful principles.
They tried to conceal this crime not only from public
opinion in other countries but even from the Germans
themselves. For
this reason they did everything possible to prevent
information about
this action leaking out. The orders,
instructions, etc., put out in this matter were not released
and
the majority of them were top secret or confidential.
Nowhere did they use the term "Germanization of Polish
children." The most frequent
wording was "Re-Germanization" TOP
(Wiedereindeutschung). Polish children
were often referred to as "children from the East"
(Ostkinder),
"children suitable for Germanization" (Eindeutschungsfähige
Kinder), "racially valuable children" (gutrassige
Kinder). Occasionally they were called "children of
Polish families"
(Kinder polnischer Familien) or "children of
Poles" (Polenkinder).
Sometimes, to improve the appearance of the whole action,
such phrases as "Polonized German children" (Polonisierte
deutsche Kinder),
"children of German descent" (Kinder deutscher
Abstammung)
or "German orphans" (deutsche Waisenkinder)
were used.
The Germanizing action
consisted of illegally abducting children from
parents, guardians and orphanages or adopting children of
parents who had
been arrested or shot and handing them over to German
parents or institutions in Germany and the annexed
territories. Another method was to take adolescents of
either sex to forced labour in the Reich
and there subject them to a Germanization process.
Whether
one of these kidnapped children was to be Germanized or not
depended, on the
results of a selection test to determine his racial value,
character, ability and psychological qualities. TOP
The course and scope of the abductions varied, as did the
method used, in
the annexed territories, the Government General, and the
Reich. There were even
local differences in the annexed territories - between
the districts of Silesia, Poznan Pomerania and Ciechanów.
In principle
these disparities stemmed from the varying attitude of the
authorities to the
local population. For instance, in Silesia the people
were regarded as German and so their children were not taken
away and sent to the
Reich, except at the end of the war; the action was
confined to taking over Polish orphanages and the removal
only of
children whose parents had refused to be entered on the
Volkliste.
In the Poznan and Pomeranian districts children were removed
and sent to the Reich. The same practice was followed in the
Government General,
except that the abductions were part of the mass deportations
and pacification actions, the evacuation of children as
the army pulled back
on the eastern front, or the removal of children from
schools towards the end of the war. In the Reich itself any
children born to
parents who had been deported for forced labour were taken
away if they were regarded as racially valuable.
The
taking over of Polish
orphanages was not started right after the
annexation of the western territories and the taking over of
the general
administrative functions; this step only followed some time
later. However, it had
been prepared well in advance - in some localities
(Bydgoszcz and Lódz, for example) as early as 1939. All
that was done at the
beginning was to register the children in these homes.
It was not till 1940 that the individual orphanages were
taken over.
Time and method varied from area to area. Some orphanages
were dissolved
and the children transferred to an institution in the Reich;
for example, the
Bydgoszcz children were taken to a Lebensborn institution
in Polczyn near Szczecinek. TOP
Children
living with adopted parents were to start with, generally
left alone and the
Germans confined themselves to checking that they were
not coming under the "influence" of their Polish
guardians. It was
not till the issuance of an order on February 19, 1942 by SS
Gruppenführer
Greifelt, chief of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner
for the Consolidation of German Nationhood,1
that the question
of the removal and Germanization of children in orphanages
or living with
adopted parents was regulated.
This
order stated that "there are a great number of children
in Polish
orphanages and living with adopted parents who, judging
by their racial appearance, should be regarded as descended
from Nordic
parents." All these children should undergo racial and
psychological tests;
if these proved that the children had blood that was
of value to Germanhood they should be Germanized. The order
went on to
specify how these tests should be conducted and where
pure-bred children
should be taken to be Germanized: between the ages of two
and six they should be
sent to Lebensborn institutions or to German families
recommended by these institutions; between the ages of six
and twelve they should
be put in Native Schools after the completion of
which they should be found homes with German families as
fully- German
children. Children whose parents lent themselves to Germanization
should not be taken. The order did not omit to stress
the need for
camouflaging this whole business: "Special precautions
must be taken to
prevent the phrase `Polish children suitable for Germanization'
becoming publicly known; these children should be described
as German orphans from the regained eastern
territories." The
reason given was that it might harm the child.
The
order was put into effect; racial tests were begun and where
indicated, children
were removed from their adopted homes or from orphanages.
There were even incidents of children being taken from
their parents or from
relatives who were bringing them up. In the cases
of adopted children the tests were carried out by doctors
from the Health Department with every precaution taken that
neither the child
nor the adopted parents realized the object of these tests.
Appeals made after the
removal of the child were either ignored or answered
evasively. The guardians did not discover what had happened
to the child and where
it was until some time had elapsed and the child,
by now in the Reich, found an opportunity to inform them
secretly of its
whereabouts.
At the beginning of 1945, as a result of the westward shift
of the front
and the consequent evacuation orders, a certain number
of children from orphanages were shipped deep into the
Reich.
As far as the Government General was concerned this action
was never
undertaken on the same scale nor as systematically and
thoroughly carried out
as in the annexed territories. But there were cases of
children being taken from orphanages or from their adopted
homes. For example,
the orphans in the Evangelical home on Karolkowa Street
in Warsaw were sent to Piaseczno and in 1944 moved to
Karlsbad.
Youth offices and party social welfare centres (NSV) drew up
comprehensive lists of
semi-orphaned and illegitimate children and children
living with Polish guardians in the annexed territories. On
the basis of these
lists frequent checks were made to see if these children
were not succumbing
to the influences of their Polish environment. If it was
discovered, for
example, that a mother or guardian spoke Polish with the
child, either the guardian was replaced by a German,
sometimes by a
court order, or the child was taken away and placed in a
German institution
or given to a German family. Illegitimate and semi-orphaned
children, if racial tests proved positive, were placed in
German institutions. In Poznan Province this action was
carefully planned, with
mothers as well as children undergoing racial tests; if the
child was
recognized as racially sound it was removed and sent to a
Lebensborn centre
in Austria via an institution in Kalisz. TOP
Already during the
early days of the occupation deportations were undertaken
of Polish families from the annexed territories, particularly
those who had settled there after the First World War, to
the Government
General. Only those people were left whom the Germans
imagined would be
suitable for Germanization. In their case the process
of Germanization was facilitated by registering them on the
German National Lists
(Volksliste) with particular attention being paid
to the children. Children recognized as racially valuable
were subjected
to Germanization usually by way of the Volksliste. If
one of the
parents refused
to be entered on the Volksliste, the children and the
other parent
were registered to enable the Germanization to be carried
out. However,
there were many cases when children were compulsorily
removed from
their parents. Even before the Volksliste was
formally introduced,
Himmler, in a decree of September 12, 1940, on examination
and selection of
people in the annexed territories, had given orders to
remove children from parents who rejected "re-Germanization."
Later (Feb. 16, 1942)
these orders were extended to include parents who
were considered "especially compromised
politically." Even in cases
where the parents had been put down in the fourth group of
the Volksliste,
this latter order of Himmler's called for the removal of
their children if it
turned out that the parents were exerting an "unfavourable
influence" on their children's Germanization. They were
then placed with
German families and institutions. This order was later
made to apply to persons in the third group as well. Thus,
in some cases,
even registration on the Volksliste did not protect
parents from the
abduction of their children. TOP
In
the Government General the procedure was similar in cases
where parents,
who had been recognized by the authorities as being of
German descent,
"refused to join the German national community."
The children
were then forcibly removed and placed with a German family
in the
Government General or sent to the Reich.
In the case of mixed marriages - that is where one of the
parents was a
German or Kusubian, Mazurian or Silesian - the parent of
Polish origin
was compelled to register on the Volksliste; if he
refused, the other
parent was forced to seek a divorce. As a rule the courts
granted divorces in these cases or annulled the marriage
with custody of
the children invariably awarded to the German party. The
principle was
that the good of the child depended on a German upbringing.
Judgments handed down
by Polish courts up to September 1939 were even rescinded
with custody of the child being transferred to the parent of
German descent or
family. If this parent was dead the child was given either
to a German family or a youth office.
A
child could also be forcibly removed if his parents had been
arrested, or deported
to a concentration camp or for forced labour in the
Reich, in such cases children were taken away even if they
were living
with relatives. The same thing happened with children whose
parents had been
executed.
This
abduction of children reached massive proportions with the
wholesale deportations
of Poles from the Zamosc area, the pacifications
in that region and other parts of the Government
General, and the
evacuation actions as the German army retreated.
During the mass deportations from the Zamosc area, described
in the previous
chapter, families were separated and the children forcibly
removed. In the
transit camps in Zamosc, Lublin and Zwierzyniec "racial
experts" from the RuSHA took the opportunity presented
by the examinations
of deportees to conduct selection tests on the children.
The children who
passed these tests were segregated and sent to the annexed
territories or the Reich to be Germanized; there they were
handed over to German
families or placed in institutions. It is difficult
to calculate how many of the 30,000 children deported from
the Zamosc area were
removed for Germanization and how many were placed
together with the aged and the sick in the Rentendörfer.
Some idea can
be had from a schedule of rail and road transports of
children from the Zamosc area drawn up by the Lublin Branch
of the Main
Guardianship Council. This only covered the period from July
7th to August 25th,
1943. During this period there were 29 transports of
4,454 Polish children between the ages of two and fourteen.
They were sent
to Swinoujscie, Halle, Poznan, Strassholf (near Vienna),
Lehrte, Wroclaw,
Bramsdorf, Stargard, Soest, Kelsterbach, Neumark, Wesel,
Kartnen near Graz, Parchim, Breitigheim, and Brandenburg.
Accounts given by the
transport officers showed that these children
were either
handed over to German families or placed in
German institutions. The same procedure was followed with
children whose parents
had either been killed or sent to concentration camps
during the pacification campaigns. Similarly, when the areas
behind the retreating
German army were being evacuated many children and
juveniles were shipped deep into the Reich, except that the
situation was so
uncertain that there was not time to carry out racial
tests, which were
postponed until the children were in Germany. This action
was known as Heu-Aktion.
[See illustration: Polish Children]
In
1944 the Germans also began abducting children from
schools in the
Government General. Often as many as several dozen children
would be taken
from a single school. They were usually not even allowed to
say goodbye to their
parents or families; a trainload would be collected
from the haul of several localities and after racial tests
taken to the Reich. TOP
Another method, used with older children, was to separate
them from their
families and send them off for forced labour in the Reich.
It was mainly
girls between the ages of fourteen to twenty who fell
within the scope of
this action; they were usually sent to the Reich as
domestic help and there subjected to a process of
Germanization. The
areas round Poznan and Lódz were the main source. The girls
had most often
been picked up in street round-ups or supplied by labour
and social welfare
offices or the Central Resettlement Office. In this way the
Nazis managed to combine exploitation of slave labour
with Germanization.
All
the aforementioned actions had been planned in Berlin and
were carried
out according to strictly prescribed directives. However, a
large number of
children were also taken away as the result of arbitrary
police actions, raids, street round-ups, etc., which were
not part of the
Germanization plans. Nevertheless, these children too
were sent to the Reich
or subjected to Germanization or became Germanized
as a result of the conditions in which they were forced to
live. This
for instance, is what happened to a number of children
deported during the
Warsaw Uprising.
All the actions so far described were carried out on Polish
territory. But in the
Reich itself Polish children were also removed for
Germanization. This primarily concerned children born in
Germany to Polish woman who had been deported for forced
labour. At first no special
steps were taken with regard to pregnant "eastern
workers" - who
included Poles - and their offspring. There were even cases
where pregnant women were sent back to their native country
for the period of
birth. However, since these pregnancies temporarily deprived
the Germans of
the full value of the women's labour and, moreover, seeing
that the children born
to them increased the biological strength of nations
who did not belong to the Herrenvolk, measures began
to be taken to
stop this "unwelcome" fertility. This natural
increase could be
checked either by abortion or by removal of the offspring.
But there were
laws against abortion in force in the Reich. The Reich
Minister of Justice,
therefore, issued an order on March 9, 1943, waiving
the penalties for abortion in the case of eastern workers
who requested such an operation. If a woman refused to
undergo this operation
voluntarily it was simply forced on her. However, before the
abortion was carried out the identity of the father had to
be established
and also whether the child would be "of good
blood." Orders
issued by Himmler on June 9, 1943, forbade abortion in cases
where the father was
of German descent and the child might be racially valuable.
On July 27, 1943, further orders came from Himmler which
extended this
provision to fathers of blood close to German (artsverwandten
Blutes), pointing out that the price paid in German
blood for the war
required that children produced by female workers of other
nationalities be preserved for the German nation. These
orders specified
precisely the procedure to be followed in this type of case.
The employer was to
inform a youth office of pregnancies among his female
workers; the office would then establish the identity of the
parent and
experts from the RuSHA and health department would carry out
racial tests on the
parents. Children of parents who passed these tests
would be put in the hands of the NSV which was then to hand
them over to
German families or to homes for racially valuable children
(Kinderheime für
gutrassige Kinder). Particularly good mothers from
the racial point of
view would be put in under the care of Lebensborn
institutions and
forbidden to take their children back to their own country.
At the same time it was forbidden to tell the mothers what
the object of these orders was. Mothers incapable of work
and their racially
worthless children were to be removed (abgeschoben);
most probably
this simply meant liquidation. It needs hardly be said that
the mothers were not
asked for their approval when their children were taken
away.
A
decree issued on June 5, 1944, by the Reich Minister of the
Interior made the
youth offices the official guardians of "racially
sound" children
born by female workers.
As far as abortion was concerned, no distinction was drawn
between married
and unmarried mothers.
In
the Reich it was not only the children born there who were
removed but also those
who had arrived together with parents sent for forced
labour (the children of parents deported from Volhynia for
example).
What has been described so far was the abduction or adoption
of Polish
children as part of the Germanization campaign. However,
the
mere fact of abduction
or adoption did not mean that the child would be
necessarily Germanized. The touchstone was always result of
the selection
tests except in the case of children whose parents had
refused to be
registered on the Volksliste.
These
selection tests consisted
primarily of racial and medical examinations.
These were followed by analyses of the child's character,
ability and psychological qualities. The racial tests were
conducted by
specialists (Eignungsprüfer) from the Main Office
for Race and
Settlement of the SS or sometimes, as in Lódz, by doctors
from the health
department. There were special forms for the tests which
contained 62 points concerning the child's physique, shape
and colour of
the eyes, type of hair, etc. This detailed physical description
of the child was used to establish its racial type. There
were 11 racial types
and two additional ones: negative and positive. The
racial type having been established, the child was put into
one of three
categories:
1.
"Desirable natural increase" (erwünschter
Bevölkerungszuwachs)
2. "Tolerable natural increase" (tragbarer Bevölkerungszuwachs)
3."Undesirable
natural increase" (unerwünschter Bevölkerungszuwachs).
TOP
[See
Illustration; Racial Examinations]
Children placed in the third category were not subjected to
Germanization. This
could have spelled a death sentence as a result of
the bad conditions in the segregated places in which they
had to live,
for example, in concentration camps (the children of
"bandits," children
from the Zamosc area put in category IV of the deportations
from that region); or
it could have meant sterilization if one of the parents
was Jewish.
The racial classification was followed by psychological
examinations and tests
for character and intelligence. If it transpired
from these that the child had "bad character or psychological
propensities" it would be barred from the Germanizing
process despite its
good racial qualities. These tests continued even after
the child had been handed over to a German family. It can be
seen that the object
was not to establish the German descent of the child
but to choose children with good physical and mental qualities.
After the test but before they
were sent off to the Reich the children
underwent a preliminary Germanization in institutions
specially set up for
this purpose or in Polish homes taken over by the NSV.
For the area of the Warta Region for example,
childrens' homes of
this sort were organized in Poznan, Ludwikowo, Puszczykowo
and Bruczkowo.
This latter home was moved
later to Kalisz where it went on functioning up to January
1945. TOP
After a relatively short stay in these
homes the children were sent
to the Reich - to the
"Native Schools" or to institutions run by the
Lebensborn, SS
and NSV, or to other establishments; here they underwent
Germanization proper. First and foremost they were forbidden
to speak Polish. If they were caught talking Polish they
suffered severe
punishments such as beating, starvation, etc. They were
not allowed to have any contact with their parents.
In fact, the children
were told that their parents and families were dead. Every
means was used to
persuade the children that they were Germans. To this
end they were drafted into youth organizations such as the
Hitlerjugend or
the Bund Deutscher Madel. All traces of the children's
Polish origin were removed; their names were replaced by
German ones. Following
an order issued by the head of the Race Office in
the RuSHA the principle was to make the new name as close as
possible to the old
one in derivation and sound; if this was impossible
the child was given one of the more common German names.
It was the usual
practice to keep the first two or three letters of the old
name; for instance Kawczynski became Kancmann, Sosnowska -
Sosemann, or it would
be translated: Mlynarczyk into Müller, Ogrodowczyk
into Gärtner, etc. Birth certificates and descent were
changed and forged
documents drawn up, particularly in the case of children
taken during the pacification actions when neither the date
nor the place of birth
were known. The Germanization institutions also
had special registration offices so as to prevent parents
from being able to trace their children.
After staying in the Germanization
institution the children were
handed over to German
families of confirmed National Socialist sympathies
who were told that the youngsters were of German origin.
TOP
There was a great deal of reluctance to have these children
legally adopted
since the Germans were afraid that certain details might be
revealed in court
which would show that the children were of Polish origin.
The treatment of these children by the German families
varied. Normally
they told the child to call them "mother"
and "father" and in many
cases, their relations with these children whom they
imagined to be
German left nothing to be desired. But there were cases when
the children
were exploited at work and even beaten. It was worse if the
parents learned that
the child was of Polish origin; then it would be humiliated
and mistreated on every occasion.
It
is difficult to calculate exactly or even approximately
the number of
children who were Germanized, both those deported from
Poland to the Reich
and those actually born there. All that can be done
is to give a few fragmentary figures which can serve to
convey some
idea of the scale on which this action was conducted in a
particular
period or in a particular area.
As already mentioned, the list drawn up by the Lublin Branch
of the Chief
Guardianship Council concerning children involved in the
mass deportations
from the Zamosc area showed that between July 7 and August
25, 1943,
4,454 children were sent off to be
Germanized. TOP
The investigation of the case of Albert Forster, the ex-Gauleiter
of Gdansk and West
Prussia, discovered that about 1,600 children were deported
from this province for Germanization. However, these figures
are not complete,
since they do not cover the whole of the region.
What has survived of the records of the NSDAP organization
for Silesia
includes the figure of 3,000 children subjected to Germanization.
TOP
The records and files of the Occupation Youth Office in
Lódz list about 12,000 children put under its legal
custody. Of these
at least 1,200 were deported to Germany, not counting
children put in
homes or handed over to German families.
The number of
children living in Polish homes in the provinces of Poznan
and Lódz (known as the Warta Region) amounted in 1939 to
5,226. These
children underwent selection tests and it has been
established that
over 50 per cent (sic) were found racially sound and so
Germanized.
In the Reich itself in November 1942 there were 6,818 Polish
girls "suitable
for Germanization" who had been deported there for
forced labour
and were working as domestic help in German families.
After
the war, in connection with attempts being made to secure
the return of
Polish children from occupied Germany, German officials
handed over to the
American and British authorities about 40,000 birth certificates
of children born to Polish women in the former Reich. TOP
In
the trial of officials of the Main Office for Race and
Settlement of the SS
before the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg
(Case VIII) it was found that there had been about 92,000
children in the Lebensborn institutions. As already
mentioned from Nazi documents it is known that Polish
children who were to be Germanized were also sent to these
institutions.
The Sub-human (RuSHA,
1942)
The
category of sub-human (Untermensch)
included Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, Serbs, etc.)
Gypsies and Jews.
TOP
"To
avoid mistakes which might subsequently occur in the
selection of subjects suitable for 'Germanization,' the RuSHA
[The Race and Settlement Head Office] in 1942
distributed a pamphlet, The Sub-Human, to those
responsible for that selection. 3,860,995 copies were
printed in German alone and it was translated into Greek,
French, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Czech and
seven other languages. It
stated:
The sub-human, that
biologically seemingly complete similar creation of nature
with hands, feet and a kind of brain, with eyes and a mouth,
is nevertheless a completely different, dreadful creature.
He is only a rough copy of a human being, with human-like
facial traits but nonetheless morally and mentally lower
than any animal. Within this creature there is a fearful
chaos of wild, uninhibited passions, nameless
destructiveness, the most primitive desires, the nakedest
vulgarity. Sub-human, otherwise nothing. For all that bear a
human face are not equal. Woe to him who forgets it."
1 The
Nazis acknowledged that among the sub-humans, (especially
among their leaders) there were those few who had obvious
traces of Aryan-Nordic ancestry; however, it was decided
that most of these people would have to be destroyed in
order to leave the inferior races without leadership. It was
possible that some of these superior people could be "germanized"
-- but if not, one should at least preserve the good blood
in their children. By this logic, many thousands of Polish
children were subjected to a racial test. Those who had what
Nazis defined as "Aryan" characteristics -- such
as blue eyes, blond hair, a properly proportioned head, good
behavior and above average intelligence -- were kidnapped
from their parents and shipped to Germany for ultimate
adoption by appropriate German families.
NOTES:
Janusz
Gumkowkski and Kazimierz Leszczynski, Poland Under Nazi
Occupation, (Warsaw, Polonia Publishing House, 1961) pp.
7-33,
164-178.
TOP
THE "NEW ORDER" IN EUROPE
1. Confidential note drawn up in Göring's Headquarters on
june 20, 1940 (Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi
War Crimes in Poland -- 600/40 x/VIII).
2. This memorandum was used in case VIII of the American
Military Tribunal -- the trial of an official in the SS Main
Office for Race and Settlement (SS-Rasse und
Siedlungshauptamt); it was signed NG 2325.
3. Stellungnahme und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost
des Reichsführers SS p.29.
PLANS FOR THE POLISH NATION
1. Reichsgesetzblatt 1939, p. 2,042
2. A photostatof this document is in the files of the Main
Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland;
it was published in Polish translation in vol. IV of the
Commission's Bulletin in 1948.
3. Einige Gedanken über die Behandlung der
Fremdvölkishen im Osten. Records of the trial of Joseph
Bühler before the Supreme National Tribunal, vol.VI p. 65
ff.
4. This document marked USSR-172, was included in the
evidence submitted at the Nuremberg Trial against the
principal war criminals.
GERMANIZATION OF POLISH CHILDREN
1. Order No. 67/I; Main Commission Records, DC 153/7x.
"The
Sub-Human (RuSHA, 1942)"
1. Mark Hillel and
Clarissa Henry Of Pure Blood, (New York,
Pocket Books, 1976) p.26.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
1. The rear side of a gas chamber after 1944 at Majdanek, [Lublin]
Poland.
Source: National Museum in Majdanek, courtesy of USHMM
Photo Archives.
2. A characteristic public display of Nazi ideas about race.
It reads: "The Biology of Growth" -- "Stages
of Growth for Members of the Nordic Race." Source:
National Archives and Records Administration, courtesy
of USHMM.
3. Anti-Semitic photomontage (The Scourge of God, Polish
Jews) issued by Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer. It
was used as evidence at the Nuremberg war crime trials.
Source: : National Archives, courtesy of USHMM.
4. Auschwitz, July, 1944. Approximately 40,000 Polish
children were imprisoned in Auschwitz before being
transferred to Germany during the "Heu-Aktion"
(Hay Action). "The blond boy at the lower right
may be Kalman Cylberszac (b.1934), the son of Rachel and
Nachum Cylberszac from Lask, Poland." Source: Main
Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes,
courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.
5. The facial
features of a young German woman are measured during a*
racial examination in Berlin Germany; circa 1933-39. Source:
National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.
6. Measuring facial features during a racial examination at
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Berlin; circa 1933-39. Source:
National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.
7. Nazi ideal: the face of a young german who
exemplifies the "nordic racial heritage." Source:
The Reichsführer SS, SS Hauptamt, Rassenpolitik
(SS Hauptamt, Berlin, 1941) p., 73.
...............................TO
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