Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He rose to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland in September 1939, he was involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust. Hitler was raised near Linz, he moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda, he denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
By July 1932 the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France, his first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support.
Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe, his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In December 1941, shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, Hitler declared war on the United States, bringing it directly into the conflict. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. Less than two days on 30 April 1945, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims who he and his followers deemed Untermenschen or undesirable.
Hitler and the Nazi regime were responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history. Hitler's father Alois; the baptismal register did not show the name of his father, Alois bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father. Alois assumed the surname "Hitler" spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler; the name is based on "one who lives in a hut". Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois.
No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence, so historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish. Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire, he was christened as "Adolphus Hitler". He was the fourth of six children born to his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav and Otto—died in infancy. Living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. and Angela. When Hitler was three, the family moved to Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life; the family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned primary schoo
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established by the German authorities in November 1940. There were over 400,000 Jews imprisoned there, at an area of 3.4 km2, with an average of 9.2 persons per room subsisting on meager food rations. From the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to mass-killing centers. In the summer of 1942 at least 254,000 Ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp during Großaktion Warschau under the guise of "resettlement in the East" over the course of the summer; the ghetto was demolished by the Germans in May 1943 after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings which had temporarily halted the deportations. The total death toll among the Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto is estimated to be at least 300,000 killed by bullet or gas, combined with 92,000 victims of rampant hunger and hunger-related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the casualties of the final destruction of the Ghetto.
Before World War II, Warsaw was one of the most diverse cities in the Second Polish Republic. The majority of Polish Jews lived in the merchant districts of Muranów, Powązki, Stara Praga, while most ethnic Germans lived in Śródmieście. Over 90% of Catholics lived further away from the bustling commercial and vital centre of the capital; the Jewish community was the most prominent there, constituting over 88% of the inhabitants of Muranów. Many Jews left the city during the depression, more severe and longer-lasting in Poland than elsewhere in Europe. In 1938 the Jewish population of the Polish capital was estimated at 270,000 people; the Siege of Warsaw continued until September 29, 1939. On September 10 alone, the Luftwaffe conducted 17 bombing raids on the city. In total, some 30,000 people were killed, 10 percent of the city was destroyed. Along with the advancing Wehrmacht, the Einsatzgruppe EG IV and the Einsatzkommandos rolled into town. On November 7, 1939, the Reichsführer-SS reorganized them into local security service.
Meanwhile, the German fifth column members of Selbstschutz were released immediately. The commander of EG IV, SS-Standartenführer Josef Meisinger, was appointed chief of police for the newly formed Distrikt Warschau. After the takeover of Warsaw, the German authorities began the registration of the ethnic Germans who were issued the Kennkarte separate from the rest of the locals. By June 1940 there were 5,500 Volksdeutsche registered in Warsaw. In the next two years their number more than doubled, on top of over 50,000 German military personnel. By the end of the September campaign the number of Jews in and around the capital increased with thousands of refugees escaping the Polish-German front in any possible way on foot. In less than a year, the number of refugees in Warsaw exceeded 90,000. Once the partition of the country between Germany and the invading Soviet Union was complete, on October 12, 1939, the General Government was established by Adolf Hitler in the occupied area of central Poland.
The Jewish Council in Warsaw was formed by the Nazis on October 7. It was composed of 24 prominent individuals led by Adam Czerniaków responsible for carrying out German orders; the persecution of Jews began soon thereafter. On October 26, the imposition of Jewish forced labour was announced, to clear the rubble from bomb damage among similar tasks. One month on November 20, the bank accounts of Polish Jews and any deposits exceeding 2,000 zł were blocked. On November 23, all Jewish establishments were ordered to display a Jewish star on doors and windows. Beginning December 1, all Jews older than ten were compelled to wear a white armband, on December 11, they were forbidden from using public transit. On January 26, 1940, the Jews were banned from holding communal prayers ostensibly due to the risk of "spreading epidemics". Food stamps were being introduced by the German authorities, the liquidation of all smaller Jewish communities in the vicinity of Warsaw had intensified; the Jewish population of the capital reached 359,827 before the end of the year.
On the orders of Warsaw District Governor, Ludwig Fischer, the Ghetto wall construction started on April 1, 1940, circling the area of Warsaw inhabited predominantly by Jews. The work was supervised by the Warsaw Judenrat; the Nazi authorities expelled 113,000 ethnic Poles from the neighbourhood, ordered the relocation of 138,000 Warsaw Jews from the suburbs into the city centre. On October 16, 1940, the creation of the ghetto covering the area of 307 hectares was announced by the German Governor-General, Hans Frank; the population of the ghetto was 450,000 initially. Before the Holocaust began the number of Jews imprisoned there was between 375,000 and 400,000; the area of the ghetto constituted only about 2.4% of the overall metropolitan area. The Germans closed the Warsaw Ghetto to the outside world on November 15, 1940; the wall around it was 3 m high and topped with barbed wire. Escapees were shot on sight. German policemen from Battalion 61 used to hold victory parties on the days when a large number of desperate prisoners were shot at the
Auxiliary police
Auxiliary police called special police, are the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be unarmed, they may be paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated. In most jurisdictions, auxiliary police officers are empowered to make arrests for crimes that occur in their presence; the Australian Federal Police can appoint Special Members. Special Members are recruited locally to perform regulatory and administrative duties, but perform some community policing duties in location such as Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Jervis Bay Territory; the Western Australia Police has had auxiliary officers since 2009. The role of Police Auxiliary Officers was inserted into the Police Act 1892 by the Police Amendment Act 2009, they perform administrative and other duties which do not require full police powers. The Northern Territory Police has auxiliary officers who can perform administrative duties and communications, plus duties which may require some expertise but do not require police powers such as search and rescue.
The Victoria Police recruited 3,100 auxiliary police to the Victoria Police Auxiliary Force during World War II to assist regular police in the event of emergencies. The Auxiliary Force was disbanded in 1946. A number of retired police were temporarily formed into a Police Reserve to assist with traffic control during the 1956 Summer Olympics. A permanent Retired Police Reserve was established under the Police Regulation Act 1958, although today is small in number; the New South Wales Police Force formed a Police Reserve of around 500 special constables during World War I. The Police Reserve was formed again during World War II. In Canada, many police forces utilize the services of auxiliary constables. Under various provincial policing legislations and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, the role of auxiliary constable is to assist regular, or sworn, police constables in the execution of their duties, as well as to provide assistance in community policing. Auxiliary constables in Canada wear uniforms similar to regular force constables.
However, most wear the word "auxiliary" on a rocker panel under the force's crest on each arm, in some cases, wear a red and black checkered head band on their service caps to distinguish them from full-time police. Auxiliary constables are unarmed, but are trained in firearms, they may, depending on legislation and policies, carry a baton and handcuffs while on duty. Auxiliary officers are called upon to assist in such things as large-scale searches for missing persons, to provide crowd control at large-scale events, accompany regular force police officers on daily patrols; the Assistant Police Officer was created in Estonia by the Assistant Police Officer Act, adopted by the parliament on April 20, 1994. It provided the rights and activities of the Assistant Police Officer. Assistant police officer is defined by Estonian law as a person, not a member of the police but who voluntarily participates in police activities in the cases allowed by local laws. At the time of taking part in police activities, the assistant police officer is a government representative.
Each police officer was guided individually by a police officer to whom he was assigned. Nowadays they are guided by assistant policemen formations managers, who are appointed by the chief of police. In the Federal Republic of Germany, auxiliary police forces do exist in a few States: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony; the auxiliary police of Berlin was dissolved in 2002. Their jurisdiction varies between states. Founded in May 1963, the Baden-Württemberg auxiliary police today consists of 1,201 members; the officers are required to complete two weeks of training after which they are deployed on service with a regular police officer. In the eyes of law, they are authorized police officers, wear normal police uniforms with a certain patch and complete police gear, including pepper spray and Walther P5 pistol. Though, the coalition contract of 2011-2016 between the governing political parties Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and the SPD seeks the abolishment of the auxiliary police and the financial supply as well as the recruitment of new auxiliary officers was suspended.
The Bavarian auxiliary police was founded on 31 December 1996. Officers have limited legal powers: apart from a citizen's arrest detain and question a person and check their identification and can ask a dangerous person to leave the area. Equipped with a radio and pepper spray, they patrol on foot or by bicycle and do not wear a full uniform, but either plain clothes with a brassard or a marked shirt; the auxiliary police in Hessen was introduced in October 2000 and employs around 750 members of which 30% are women. The officers are given 50 hours, their patrol is limited to beats on foot and serves traffic control, assistance to major events and prevention of crime through mere police presence. Although they wear ordinary police uniform with "freiwilliger Polizeidienst" patches, their equipment is limited to pepper spray and a mobile phone. Apart from this, they have limited powers as they may only ask a person to wait with them interrogate them, ask them to reveal their identity or to leave the area if they appear to be dangerous.
The auxiliary police of Saxony (Säch
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany is the common English name for Germany between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party controlled the country through a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a totalitarian state that controlled nearly all aspects of life via the Gleichschaltung legal process; the official name of the state was Deutsches Reich until 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany is known as the Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", the first two being the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire; the Nazi regime ended. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, on 30 January 1933; the NSDAP began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934 and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany.
All power was centralised in Hitler's person and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen; the return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Racism antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime; the Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the master race, the purest branch of the Aryan race. Discrimination and persecution against Jews and Romani people began in earnest after the seizure of power; the first concentration camps were established in March 1933. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, liberals and communists were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed, many leaders imprisoned.
Education focused on racial biology, population policy, fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased Germany on the international stage. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, Hitler's hypnotic oratory to influence public opinion; the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. The Nazi regime dominated neighbours through military threats in the years leading up to war. Nazi Germany made aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if these were not met, it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the USSR, invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. By early 1941, Germany controlled much of Europe. Reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas and a German administration was established in the remainder of Poland.
Germany exploited labour of both its occupied territories and its allies. In the Holocaust, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, or shot. While the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was successful, the Soviet resurgence and entry of the US into the war meant the Wehrmacht lost the initiative on the Eastern Front in 1943 and by late 1944 had been pushed back to the pre-1939 border. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated in 1944 and the Axis powers were driven back in Eastern and Southern Europe. After the Allied invasion of France, Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allies from the west, capitulated in May 1945. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war; the victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.
The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945, while common English terms are "Nazi Germany" and "Third Reich". The latter, adopted by Nazi propaganda as Drittes Reich, was first used in Das Dritte Reich, a 1923 book by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck; the book counted the Holy Roman Empire as the German Empire as the second. Germany was known as the Weimar Republic during the years 1919 to 1933, it was a republic with a semi-presidential system. The Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, contentious relationships with the Allied victors of World War I, a series of failed attempts at coalition government by divided political parties. Severe setbacks to the German economy began after World War I ended because of reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles; the government printed money to make the payments and to repay the country's war debt, but the resulting hyperinflation led to inflated prices for consumer goods, economic chaos, food riots.
When the government defaulted on their reparations payments in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr and widespread civil unrest followed. The National Socialist German Workers' Party (National
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland and the second largest city of Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 349,103. Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River and is 170 kilometres to the southeast of Warsaw by road. One of the events that contributed to the city's development was the Polish-Lithuanian Union of Krewo in 1385. Lublin thrived as a centre of trade and commerce due to its strategic location on the route between Vilnius and Kraków; the Lublin Parliament session of 1569 led to the creation of a real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus creating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lublin witnessed the early stages of Reformation in the 16th century. A Calvinist congregation was founded and groups of radical Arians appeared in the city, making it an important global centre of Arianism. At the turn of the centuries, Lublin was recognized for hosting a number of outstanding poets and historians of the epoch.
Until the partitions at the end of the 18th century, Lublin was a royal city of the Crown Kingdom of Poland. Its delegates and nobles had the right to participate in the Royal Election. In 1578 Lublin was chosen as the seat of the Crown Tribunal, the highest appeal court in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, for centuries the city has been flourishing as a centre of culture and higher learning, with Kraków, Poznań and Lwów. Although Lublin was not spared from severe destruction during World War II, its picturesque and historical Old Town has been preserved; the district is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments, as designated May 16, 2007, tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland. The city is viewed as an attractive location for foreign investment and the analytical Financial Times Group has found Lublin to be one of the best cities for business in Poland; the Foreign Direct Investment ranking placed Lublin second among larger Polish cities in the cost-effectiveness category.
Lublin is noted for a high standard of living. Archaeological finds indicate a long presence of cultures in the area. A complex of settlements started to develop on the future site of Lublin and in its environs in the 6th-7th centuries. Remains of settlements dating back to the 6th century were discovered in the center of today's Lublin on Czwartek Hill; the period of the early Middle Ages was marked by intensification of habitation in the areas along river valleys. The settlements were centered around the stronghold on Old Town Hill, one of the main centers of Lendians tribe; when the tribal stronghold was destroyed in the 10th century, the center shifted to the northeast, to a new stronghold above Czechówka valley and, after the mid-12th century, to Castle Hill. At least two churches are presumed to have existed in Lublin in the early medieval period. One of them was most erected on Czwartek Hill during the rule of Casimir the Restorer in the 11th century; the castle became the seat of a Castellan, first mentioned in historical sources from 1224 but was quite present from the start of the 12th or 10th century.
The oldest historical document mentioning Lublin dates from 1198, so the name must have come into general use some time earlier. The location of Lublin at the eastern borders of the Polish lands gave it military significance. During the first half of the 13th century, Lublin was a target of attacks by Mongols and Lithuanians, which resulted in its destruction, it was ruled by Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia between 1289 and 1302. Lublin was founded as a town by Władysław I the Elbow-high or between 1258 and 1279 during the rule of prince Bolesław V the Chaste. Casimir III the Great, appreciating the site's strategic importance, built a masonry castle in 1341 and encircled the city with defensive walls. From 1326, if not earlier, the stronghold on Castle Hill included a chapel in honor of the Holy Trinity. A stone church dated to the years 1335-1370 exists to this day. In 1392, the city received an important trade privilege from king Władysław II Jagiełło. With the coming of peace between Poland and Lithuania, it developed into a trade centre, handling a large portion of commerce between the countries.
In 1474 the area around Lublin was carved out of Sandomierz Voivodeship and combined to form the Lublin Voivodeship, the third voivodeship of Lesser Poland. During the 15th century and 16th century the town grew rapidly; the largest trade fairs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were held in Lublin. During the 16th century the noble parliaments were held in Lublin several times. On 26 June 1569, one of the most important proclaimed the Union of Lublin, which united Poland and Lithuania; the Lithuanian name for the city is Liublinas. Lublin was one of the most influential cities of the state enjoyed voting rights during the royal elections in Poland; some of the artists and writers of the 16th century Polish renaissance lived and worked in Lublin, including Sebastian Klonowic and Jan Kochanowski, who died in the city in 1584. In 1578 the Crown Tribunal, the highest court of the Lesser Poland region, was established in Lublin. Since the second half of the 16th century, Protestant Reformation movements devolved in Lublin, a large congregation of Polish Brethren was present in the city.
One of Poland's most important Jewish communities was established in Lublin around this time. Jews established a respected yeshiva, Jewish hospital, synagogue and education centre and built the Grodzka Gate (known as the Jewish
Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)
The occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II began with the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of the foreign occupation, the territory of Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union with the intention of eradicating Polish culture and subjugating its people by occupying German and Soviet powers. In summer-autumn of 1941 the lands annexed by the Soviets were overrun by Germany in the course of the successful German attack on the USSR. After a few years of fighting, the Red Army drove the German forces out of the USSR and across Poland from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. Both occupying powers were hostile to the existence of sovereign Poland, Polish people, the Polish culture aiming at their destruction. Before Operation Barbarossa and the Soviet Union coordinated their Poland-related policies, most visibly in the four Gestapo–NKVD conferences, where the occupants discussed plans for dealing with the Polish resistance movement and future destruction of Poland.
About 6 million Polish citizens—nearly 21.4% of Poland's population—died between 1939 and 1945 as a result of the occupation, half of whom were Polish Jews. Over 90% of the death toll came through non-military losses, as most of the civilians were targeted by various deliberate actions by Germans and the Soviets. Overall, during German occupation of pre-war Polish territory, 1939–1945, the Germans murdered 5,470,000–5,670,000 Poles, including nearly 3,000,000 Jews. In September 1939 Poland was invaded and occupied by two powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, acting in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Germany acquired 48.4% of the former Polish territory. Under the terms of two decrees by Hitler, with Stalin's agreement, large areas of western Poland were annexed by Germany; the size of these annexed territories was 92,500 square kilometres with 10.5 million inhabitants. The remaining block of territory was placed under a German administration, of about the same size and inhabited by about 11.5 millions, were called the General Government, with its capital at Kraków.
A German lawyer and prominent Nazi, Hans Frank, was appointed Governor-General of this occupied area on 12 October 1939. Most of the administration outside local level was replaced by German officials. Non-German population on the occupied lands were subject to forced resettlement, economic exploitation, slow but progressive extermination. A small strip of land, about 700 square kilometres with 200,000 inhabitants, part of Czechoslovakia before 1938 was returned by Germany to its ally, Slovakia. After Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland in 1939, most of the ethnically Polish territory ended up under the control of Germany, while the areas annexed by the Soviet Union contained ethnically diverse peoples, with the territory split into bilingual provinces, some of which had large ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities. Many of them welcomed the Soviets due in part to communist agitation by Soviet emissaries. Nonetheless Poles comprised the largest single ethnic group in all territories annexed by the Soviet Union.
By the end of the invasion the Soviet Union had taken over 51.6% of the territory of Poland, with over 13,200,000 people. The ethnic composition of these areas were as follows: 38% Poles, 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. There were 336,000 refugees who fled from areas occupied by Germany, most of them Jews. All territory invaded by the Red Army was annexed to the Soviet Union, split between the Belarusian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, with the exception of the Wilno area taken from Poland, transferred to sovereign Lithuania for several months and subsequently annexed by the Soviet Union in the form of the Lithuanian SSR on August 3, 1940. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, most of the Polish territories annexed by the Soviets were attached to the enlarged General Government. Following the end of the war, the borders of Poland were shifted westwards. For months prior to the beginning of World War II in 1939, German newspapers and leaders had carried out a national and international propaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of organizing or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland.
British ambassador Sir H. Kennard sent four statements in August 1939 to Viscount Halifax regarding Hitler's claims about the treatment Germans were receiving in Poland. From the beginning, the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany was intended as fulfilment of the future plan of the German Reich described by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf as Lebensraum for the Germans in Central and Eastern Europe; the occupation goal was to turn former Poland into ethnically German "living space", by deporting and exterminating the non-German populace, or relegating it to the position of slave labour. The goal of the German state under Nazi leadership during the war was to destroy the Polish peoples and nation and their fate, as well as many other Slavs, was outlined in genocidal Generalplan Ost and a related Generalsiedlungsplan. Over 30 years 12.5 million Germans were to be resettled into the Slavic are
Kraków Ghetto
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish Ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation and persecution of local Polish Jews, as well as the staging area for separating the "able workers" from those who would be deemed unworthy of life; the Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to their deaths at Bełżec extermination camp as well as Płaszów slave-labor camp, Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres rail distance. Before the German-Soviet invasion of 1939, Kraków was an influential centre for the 60,000–80,000 Polish Jews who had lived there since the 13th century. Persecution of the Jewish population of Kraków began after the German troops entered the city on 6 September 1939 in the course of the invasion. Jews were ordered to report for forced labour beginning in September 1939. In November, all Jews twelve years or older were required to wear identifying armbands.
Throughout Kraków, synagogues were closed and all their relics and valuables confiscated by the Nazi authorities. By May 1940, the German occupation authority under Gauleiter Hans Frank announced that Kraków should become the “racially cleanest" city in the General Government. Massive deportations of Jews from the city were ordered. Of the more than 68,000 Jews in Kraków when the Germans invaded, only 15,000 workers and their families were permitted to remain. All other Jews were ordered out of the city, to be resettled into surrounding rural areas of the Generalgouvernement. In April 1940, Hans Frank proposed the removal of 50,000 Jews from the city of Kraków. Frank's reasoning for removing Jews from the Jewish quarter was that the area "...will be cleansed and it will be possible to establish pure German neighborhoods..." within Kraków. From May 1940 to 15 August 1940, a voluntary expulsion program was enacted. Jews that chose to leave Kraków were allowed to take all of their belongings and relocate throughout the General-Government.
By 15 August 1940, 23,000 Jews had left Kraków. After this date, mandatory expulsions were enforced. On 25 November 1940, the Order for the Deportation of Jews from the Municipal District of Kraków was announced; this order declared that no more Jews were allowed into the city of Kraków, Jews residing in Kraków required a special permit, locations outside of Kraków that Jews were forced to move to were chosen by authorities. Jews forced to leave were only allowed to bring along 25 kg of their belongings when they left. By 4 December 1940, 43,000 Jews were removed from Kraków, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Jews that were still residing in Kraków at this time were deemed "...economically useful..." and they had to obtain a residence permit that "...had to be renewed each month."The following year, on 3 March 1941, the establishment of the Kraków Ghetto was ordered by Otto Wächter. The ghetto was to be set up in the Podgórze District of Kraków. Podgórze was chosen as the site of the ghetto instead of the traditional Jewish quarter, because Hans Frank believed Kazimierz was more significant to the history of Kraków.
Podgórze was a suburb of Kraków at the time. Wächter claimed that formation of the ghetto was necessary for public order; the Kraków ghetto was established on 20 March 1941. When relocating to the ghetto, Jews were only allowed to bring 25 kg of their belongings; the rest of their possessions were taken by the German Trust Office. All non-Jewish residents of the area were required to relocate in other districts by 20 March 1941; the ghetto was guarded by the German police, the Polish police, the Jewish police, but the only police force inside the ghetto was the Jewish police. With the formation of the ghetto, the OD had an office established at Józefińska Street 37 in Podgórze. In April 1941, the ghetto was enclosed by a wall made of barbed stone. Jewish monuments and tombstones from the cemetery." The ghetto wall was constructed using Jewish forced labor. The ghetto was accessible by three entrances: one near the Podgórze Market, Limanowskiego Street, the Plac Zgody; the Kraków Ghetto was a closed ghetto meaning that it was physically closed off from the surrounding area and access was restricted.
Within other German-occupied areas, open ghettos and destruction ghettos existed. Movement in and out of the ghetto was restricted and Jews working outside of the ghetto had to have the proper documentation. Jews had to "...obtain the appropriate stamps for the Kennkarten..." from the Labor Office. The ghetto was populated by 16,000 Jews when it was first formed. Before the ghetto was cordoned off, it was home to around 3,500 residents; the ghetto consisted of 320 buildings. To accommodate the density, apartments within the ghetto were divided on a 2m² per person basis or by a standard of three people to one window; the Jewish Council was responsible for determining the new housing assignments. Within the Kraków ghetto, Yiddish was the official language, not Polish. On 1 December 1939, an order was announced mandating that all Jews within the General Government wear an armband identifying them as Jewish; the white armbands with the blue Star of David were still required once Jews were moved into the ghetto.
On 15 October 1941, the Third Decree of the General Governor's was enacted. This decree stated that Jews found outside "...their designated residential area will be punished with death." Th
