Publishing history
The first volume of the White Book publication series, released in the spring of 1940, was titled Official Documents Concerning Polish-German and Polish-Soviet Relations 1933–1939 – Polish White Book. [2] The book described and documented the Polish-German negotiations in the lead-up to World War II. [3] The second volume of the White Book – sometimes considered to be the first volume of The Black Book of Poland – was titled German Invasion of Poland (L'Invasion Allemande en Pologne, Paris: Flammarion, 1940). [4] [5] [6]
The third volume of The Polish White Book was titled German Occupation of Poland. Extract of Note Addressed to The Allied and Neutral Powers. It is a 240-page report, published in 1941 during World War II by the Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile, describing atrocities committed by Germany in occupied Poland. It contains 180 appendixes with lists, names, dates, and the circumstances of Nazi brutality toward Polish civilians, including men, women and children. Most of the book consists of appendixes, documenting the locations of Nazi ghettos where thousands of Jews perished, and the shift in extermination methods from shooting to poisoning by gas. The affidavits confirm Heinrich Himmler’s personal involvement in the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto and the final transports to death camps. The Polish White Book was written as a plea for help to the world community. At the time of its compilation, there were two million Polish Jews still alive in occupied Poland, hoping for an international rescue effort. [7]
Contents
As the reports of Nazi war crimes in occupied Poland increased dramatically, new volumes of The Polish White Book series were released. The German Occupation of Poland (1941) – also known as the second volume of The German Invasion of Poland (1940) – is sometimes considered a preamble to The Black Book of Poland (1942) by the Polish government-in-exile. [1] The White Books by the Polish Ministry were released over the course of two years. [7] The original Polish White Book, along with its subsequent volumes were published in both Paris by Flammarion and in London by Hutchinson & Co. [7] [p.13 of 253 in PDF]
The final White Book, titled German Occupation of Poland. Extract of Note Addressed to the Allied and Neutral Powers was released by Greystone Press of New York in 1941. The book contained a 55-page overview, signed by Auguste Zaleski in London on May 3, 1941, and 180 appendices with evidence of forced expulsions and deportations of Jews to overcrowded ghettos, where starvation and disease were commonplace, along with evidence of deliberate destruction of the Polish nationhood, in a total of 243 printed pages. [7] [8] [9]
The White Book was followed by The Black Book of Poland printed by G.P. Putnam's Sons of New York in 1942. It was a collection of authenticated documents, depositions, eye-witness accounts, and Ministerial summaries, describing and illustrating with photographs, the Nazi crimes against the Polish nation and War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II, committed in a mere two years, including massacres, tortures, expulsions, forced colonization, persecution, destruction of culture, and humiliation of a nation. [1]
German Occupation of Poland (1941). Sections
- Note
- Outrages Against Persons
- Outrages Against Religion
- Outrages Against Polish Culture
- Outrages Against Property
- Appendices
- The Law and Customs of War on Land-ivth Hague Convention
- German Documents
- Polish Documents
In World War II, the Polish armed forces were the fourth largest Allied forces in Europe, after those of the Soviet Union, United States, and Britain. Poles made substantial contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on land, sea, and in the air.
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.
The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses primarily the period from the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to the end of World War II. Following the German–Soviet non-aggression pact, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on 1 September 1939 and by the Soviet Union on 17 September. The campaigns ended in early October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland. After the Axis attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the entirety of Poland was occupied by Germany, which proceeded to advance its racial and genocidal policies across Poland.
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile, was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, which brought to an end the Second Polish Republic.
This is a selected bibliography and other resources for The Holocaust, including prominent primary sources, historical studies, notable survivor accounts and autobiographies, as well as other documentation and further hypotheses.
Almost every country in the world participated in World War II. Most were neutral at the beginning, but only a relative few nations remained neutral to the end. The Second World War pitted two alliances against each other, the Axis powers and the Allied powers. It is generally estimated that a total of 74 million people died, with the lowest estimate being 40 million dead and the highest estimate being 90 million dead. The leading Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Italy; while the British Empire, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers.
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the "Big Four" – United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.
During World War II, resistance movements operated in German-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to as The Underground.
In the decades since the Holocaust, some national governments, international bodies and world leaders have been criticized for their failure to take appropriate action to save the millions of European Jews, Roma, and other victims of the Holocaust. Critics say that such intervention, particularly by the Allied governments, might have saved substantial numbers of people and could have been accomplished without the diversion of significant resources from the war effort.
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
The Holocaust in Poland was the ghettoization, robbery, deportation, and murder of Jews in occupied Poland, organized by Nazi Germany. Three million Polish Jews were murdered, primarily at the Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz II–Birkenau extermination camps, representing half of all Jews murdered during the Europe-wide Holocaust.
The issue of why the Allies did not act on early reports of atrocities in the Auschwitz concentration camp by destroying it or its railways by air during World War II has been a subject of controversy since the late 1970s. Brought to public attention by a 1978 article from historian David Wyman, it has been described by Michael Berenbaum as "a moral question emblematic of the Allied response to the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust", and whether or not the Allies had the requisite knowledge and the technical capability to act continues to be explored by historians. The U.S. government followed the military's strong advice to always keep the defeat of Germany the paramount objective, and refused to tolerate outside civilian advice regarding alternative military operations. No major American Jewish organizations recommended bombing.
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet governments, by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 and 1945, during World War II, administered by the Nazi regime under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
Polish Jews were the primary victims of the Nazi Germany-organized Holocaust in Poland. Throughout the German occupation of Poland, Jews were rescued from the Holocaust by Polish people, at risk to their lives and the lives of their families. According to Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, Poles were, by nationality, the most numerous persons identified as rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. By January 2022, 7,232 people in Poland have been recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations.
Leon Feiner was a Polish lawyer and activist. He was an activist of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland and between November 1944 and January 1945 the director (prezes) and vice-chairman of the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota".
The Commission for Polish Relief (CPR), also known unofficially as Comporel or the Hoover Commission, was initiated in late 1939 by former US President Herbert Hoover, following the German and Soviet occupation of Poland. The Commission provided relief to Nazi occupied territories of Poland until December 1941.
The Black Book of Poland is a 750-page report published in 1942 by the Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile, describing atrocities committed by Germany in occupied Poland in the 22 months between the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and the end of June 1941.
Raczyński's Note, dated December 10, 1942, and signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Raczyński, was the official diplomatic note from the government of Poland in exile regarding the extermination of the Jews in German-occupied Poland. Sent to the foreign ministers of the Allies, it was the first official report on the Holocaust to inform the Western public about these crimes. It identified Treblinka, Bełżec and Sobibór by name as extermination camps. It was also the first official speech of one of the governments of Nazi-occupied Europe in defense of all Jews persecuted by Germany – not only citizens of their country.
Story of a Secret State is a 1944 book by Polish resistance Home Army courier Jan Karski. First published in the United States in 1944, it narrates Karski's experiences with the Polish Resistance, and it is also one of the first book accounts of the German occupation of Poland, including the Holocaust in Poland.
This is a select bibliography of English language books and journal articles about the history of Poland during World War II. A brief selection of English translations of primary sources is included. Book entries have references to journal articles and reviews about them when helpful. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below; see Further Reading for several book and chapter-length bibliographies. The External Links section contains entries for publicly available select bibliographies from universities. This bibliography specifically excludes non-history related works and self-published books.
