GERMAN OPPRESSION OF POLAND

German invasion of Poland

• Invaded on September 1, 1939
• Germany annexed western and northern Poland
• In 1941 Germany seized eastern Poland

Nazi Oppression

• Civilians fighting back were executed on site
• Government officials, teachers, doctors, and other members of the intelligenisia were mass murdered or sent to concentration camps
• 3000 members of the Polish clergy were killed

Nazi Oppression COntinued

• Germans closed or destroyed schools, universities, museums, libraries, and scientific laboratories
• Germans also closed Polish churches, seminaries, and convents (persecuting the monks and nuns as well)

Exclusion and Concentration Camps

• 325,000 people were expelled without warning by the end of 1940
• Between 1939-1945 an estimate of 1.5 million Polish citizens were transported to the Reich for labor against their will
• Social or sexual relationships were forbidden and were punishible by death
• Major Polish camps were at Stutthof and Auschwitz

Resistance

• Polish government never surrendered
• Poles organized an underground movement, with their armed force called the "Home Army"
• The Army launched an uprising in Warsaw against Germnay on August 1, 1944
• They lost after 63 days of fighting