The General Government, formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region, was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovakia and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west, and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east. The territory was expanded substantially in 1941, after the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, to include the new District of Galicia. The area of the Generalgouvernement roughly corresponded with the Austrian part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Nazi-occupied Poland was renamed as the General Government district. The annexation was part of the "fourth partition of Poland" by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, outlined months before the invasion, in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Ełk, also seen absent Polish diacritics as Elk, is a city in northeastern Poland with 61,677 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of Ełk County in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It lies on the shore of Ełk Lake, which was formed by a glacier, and is surrounded by extensive forests. It is the largest city and unofficial capital of historical Masuria. One of the principal attractions in the area is legal hunting.
The Blue Police, was the police during the Second World War in the General Government, semicolonial entity on a territory of German-occupied Poland. Its official German name was Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement.
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 202 was a failed collaborationist auxiliary police battalion in the General Government during World War II. It was made up of 360 conscripts with German leadership. The unit was created in Kraków on March 27, 1942 with recruitment beginning in May. Only two Polish men volunteered. As a result, the Germans resorted to conscription from the regular Polish city-police called Einheimische Polizei. Once in Volhynia, the battalion stationed in Łuck originally. Soon later, in around Kostopol, half the members deserted to Polish resistance 27th Home Army Infantry Division, in defence of ethnic Polish population against the UPA massacres, and also committed a number of crimes against the civilian population, participating in the pacification of Ukrainian villages. Additional 60 Poles were rounded up and executed by the Nazis for mutiny.
Kraków District was one of the original four administrative districts set up by Nazi Germany after the German occupation of Poland during the years of 1939–1945. This district, along with the other three districts, formed the General Government. It was established on October 12, 1939 by Adolf Hitler, with the capital in occupied Kraków – the historic residence of Polish royalty. The Nazi Gauleiter Hans Frank became the Governor-General of the entire territory of the General Government. He made his residence in Kraków at the heavily guarded Wawel castle. Frank was the former legal counsel to the Nazi Party.
Ludwik Solski, born Ludwik Napoleon Karol Sosnowski, was a Polish stage actor and theatre director. From his stage debut in 1876 until his death he played in nearly a thousand roles. He was married to the Polish actress and director Irena Solska nee Poświk.
The use of slave and forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds came from Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Many workers died as a result of their living conditions – extreme mistreatment, severe malnutrition and abuse were the main causes of death. Many more became civilian casualties from enemy (Allied) bombing and shelling of their workplaces throughout the war. At the peak of the program the forced labourers constituted 20% of the German work force. Counting deaths and turnover, about 15 million men and women were forced labourers at one point during the war.
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 107 was a failed unit of Nazi German auxiliary police in semi-colonial General Government during World War II. Created in late 1943 in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, the battalion did not take part in combat. It was made up of 450 local Poles from Volhynia under the German command, purposed to guard railway lines. In January 1944 the entire battalion deserted, and joined Armia Krajowa in defence of civilians against the wave of massacres of Poles in Volhynia.
Zivilarbeiter refers primarily to ethnic Polish residents from the General Government, used during World War II as forced laborers in the Third Reich.
Jan Piekałkiewicz was a Polish economist and statistician, politician and the Polish Underground State's Government Delegate.
The Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany during World War II was a massive operation consisting of the forced resettlement of over 1.7 million Poles from the territories of German-occupied Poland, with the aim of their Germanization between 1939 and 1944.
The General Government administration, a government and administration of the General Government set up on part of that area of the Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule, operated during World War II between 1939 and early 1945.
The occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II (1939–1945) began with the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, and it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of the occupation, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (USSR), both of which intended to eradicate Poland's culture and subjugate its people. In the summer-autumn of 1941, the lands which were annexed by the Soviets were overrun by Germany in the course of the initially successful German attack on the USSR. After a few years of fighting, the Red Army drove the German forces out of the USSR and crossed into Poland from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe.
During the German occupation of Poland, citizens of all its major ethnic groups collaborated with the Germans. Estimates of the number of collaborators vary. Collaboration in Poland was less institutionalized than in some other countries and has been described as marginal, a point of pride with the Polish people. During and after the war, the Polish government in exile and the Polish resistance movement punished collaborators and sentenced thousands of them to death.
Ostbahn in the General Government, were the Nazi German railways in occupied Poland during World War II, subordinated to the General Directorate of Eastern Railways in occupied Kraków; a branch of the Deutsche Reichsbahn National Railway of Germany in the newly created Generalgouvernement territory under Hans Frank. The trains were used to cleanse and resettle interwar Poland with the German-speaking colonists in the name of "Lebensraum", and played an essential role in the mass deportations of Jews to extermination camps during the Holocaust.
The Sochy massacre occurred on 1 June 1943 in the village of Sochy, Lublin Voivodeship in Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship during the German occupation of Poland when approximately 181–200 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by the German Ordnungspolizei and SS in retaliation for the village's support for the Polish resistance movement.
The Michniów massacre is a massacre that occurred on 12–13 July 1943 in the village of Michniów during German occupation of Poland when approximately 204 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by German Ordnungspolizei and Schutzstaffel.
The Lublin airfield camp was a Nazi forced labor concentration camp, primarily for Jews, at the airfield in Lublin, Poland during 1942–1943, with its prehistory starting from 1939. It also employed and detained (non-Jewish) Polish women. It is also referred to as "(Lublin) airstrip camp", "Flugplatz labor camp", "Alter Flugplatz lager", etc.
The Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów is a museum located in Michniów, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in Poland, constituting a branch of the Museum of the Kielce Village, commemorating the pacification actions in German-occupied Poland.
Nazi Germany 