Figure 1.--This photograph was taken by a German in occupied Poland, meaning the Government General during World war II. It looks to have been taken in 1942 or 43. The image is not real clear, but I believe the Germans are not soldiers, but probably members of a security force. It is not clear if they are buying a paper or checking the boy's documents. News papers may have been published in German, we are unsure about that. The NAZIs deported Jews and Poles from the annexed areas of western Poland to the Government General where they were killed as pasrt of Operation Reinhard (1941-42).

Hitler was insistent that Poland should be wiped off the map. After seizing Poland (September 1939), the Nazis created the so-called Generalgouvernement (General Government). This was NAZI occupied Poland. The term Generalgouvernement was selected as it was the term the Germans used for the administration they set up in the Polish territory seized from the Russians during World War I (1915). The General Government was divided into four districts: Krakow, Warsaw, Radom, and Lublin. The Governor-General, Frank, was located in Krakow. It was an autonomous part of "Greater Germany", similar to the status of occupied Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia). The NAZI General Government was central Poland. Western Poland (the Polish Corridor, Lodz and Polish Silesia were annexed into the German Reich. Eastern Poland was seized by the Soviets. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler by decree ordered the Polish voivodeships of Eastern Galicia (with a largely Ukrainian population) were added to the Government General as Galicia District. The NAZIs administed the Government General differently than other areas, in part because they could not find ny suitable Polish Quislings. It was not administered as a pupper state like Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia. The NAZIs were not really interested in finding Poles to collaborate with. The NAZIs avoided even using the term Poland. The purpose of the occupation was to destroy Poland and much of the population that could not be aranized. There were no Polish puppet offucials. The Government was administered by Germans. Hitler appointed Hans Frank Governor-General (October 26, 1939). Frank served in that post until the Red Army approached Krakow in early 1945. He was known for his brutality. As Govenor General he oversaw one of the most brutal occupation regimes in history. An estimated 6.5 million Poles perished during the War, about a quarter of the population.

World War I

The term Generalgouvernement was selected as it was the term the Germans used for the administration they set up in the Polish territory seized from the Russians during World War I (1915). The purpose was, however very different. The World War I General Government was the nucleus of a Polish state the Ksaiser's Germans planned to create to win the Poles over to supporting the German war effort. Hitler planned just the opposite. The NAZI Generral Government was to replace the Polish state as was a temprary entity to be used during the War until Poland could be fully Germanized.

Eliminating Poland

Hitler was insistent that Poland should be wiped off the map. After seizing Poland (September 1939), the Nazis created the so-called Generalgouvernement (General Government-GG). This was NAZI occupied Poland. It was an autonomous part of "Greater Germany", similar to the status of occupied Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia). The purpose of the General Government was to: 1) serve as atemprary repositary for Jews concentrated in ghettoes and 2) subdue the Polish population and exploit resources to support the German War effort. After the War, the General Government as part of Generalplanost would be Germanized. The Poles would be expelled and replaced with ethnic German settlers. The timing of this caused a rift between SS Reichführer Himmler and Governor-General Frank.

Administrative Divisions

The NAZI General Government was central Poland. The General Government (GG) was divided into four districts: Krakow, Warsaw, Radom, and Lublin. SS Reichführer Heinrich Himmler had a special interest in the Lublin area where despite's Frank's disaprpoval, he proceeded to expel Poles and move in German colonists. To assust in this peration he installed disgraced Vienna gauliter Odilo Globocnik as SS police chief. The capital and headquarters of the Governor-General, Frank, was located in Krakow. Western Poland (the Polish Corridor, Lodz and Polish Silesia were annexed into the German Reich. Eastern Poland was seized by the Soviets. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler by decree ordered the Polish voivodeships of Eastern Galicia (with a largely Ukrainian population) were added to the Government General as Galicia District. This was one of several signals to the Ukranians that the NAZIs were not liberators prepared to establish an independent Ukranian state.

Hans Frank

The GG Government was administered by Germans. Hitler appointed Hans Frank Governor-General (October 26, 1939). Frank was born in Karlsrule, Germany (1900). During World War I he joined the German Army when he reached conscription age (1917). After the War like other young men with right-wing politics, he joined the Freikorps. He thus participated in the suppression of the Communist uprising in Munich. Soon afterwads he joined te NAZI Party. He was with Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch (1924) Like Hitler he was not severely punished and studied law. He then became a legal adviser to Adolf Hitler and the NAZI Party. NAZI Party fortunes changed with the Depression (1929). Frank was one of the many NAZI deputies elected (1930). After Hitler was appointed Chancellor, he appointed Frank Minister of Justice in Bavaria (1933). Frank oversaw the brutal NAZI occupation of Poland. It is unclear why Hitler chose him for the job, but his virulent anti-Semitism is certainly one of the reasons. He considered himself as a kind of King of Poland. He was known for his brutality and corruption. As Govenor General he oversaw one of the most brutal occupation regimes in history. An estimated 6.5 million Poles perished during the War, about a quarter of the population. After the War He denied responsibility for the mass killings of Jews. It is true that he did not oversee the death camps. He was, however, part of the administraive machinery which set up the ghettos and benefitted from robbing the Jews. (His wife was known to "shop" in the ghettos.) And he helped organized the deportations to the death camps. Frank served in that post until the Red Army approached Krakow in early 1945. He did, unlike some other NAZI leaders express remorse for what he did in Poland. Many including his son Niklas doubt his sincerity.

Administration

The NAZIs administed the GG differently than other areas, in part because they could not find any suitable Polish Quislings. It was not administered as a pupper state like Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia. The NAZIs made somer tebntative steps, but were not really interested in finding Poles to collaborate with. The NAZIs avoided even using the term Poland. The purpose of the occupation was to destroy Poland and much of the population that could not be Aryanized. There were no Polish puppet officials. This was in part because of Polish nationalist opposdition to the NAZIs, but in fact the NAZIs made in very clear from the beginning thsat there would be no room for Poles in their New Order.

Views

The world press was excluded from the Government General. Even so we have have many views of the Government General. Poles managed to take some photographs. But we have many images taken by the German occupation forces. Poland had cities like Western Europe, but much of the rural area was very backword. To the German soldiers which came from modern cities or tidy rural villages, Poland was like visiting another world. They were like tourist able to step back in time. Many soldier took photographs of what they saw and created scrapbooks or sent them home to their parents. These are not propaganda images, but photographs German soldiers took of scenes that they found interesting. Many of these photographs come from 1939-41 before the Wehrmacht began their fateful drive east into the Soviet Union.

Security Services

I am not entirely sure what security services operated in the GG. The SS of course operated the concentration camps. I do not recognize the uniforms the men here are wearing (figure 1).

Himmler-Frank Rivalry

Deportations

The Holocaust

NAZI Newspapers

There were numerous newspapers and other material published within the borders of pre-War Poland during the NAZI occupation. There was no single mass publication, but rather smaller publications which targeted in accordance with NAZI policy, specificic ethnic groups. There was a German-language press for the Volksdeutsche in the western annexed areas and the GG. There was a Ukranian-language press for the Ukranian minority. In contrast to NAZI policies in the Ukraine intself, the NAZIs were relatively favorable to the Ukranians in the GG as it was a way of wakening the Poles. There was some limited publishing in Polish within the GG. We do not have much information on these papers. The NAZIs permitted ghettos publications in Polish. After the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union. the NAZIs permitted newspapers in Byelorussian and Lithuanian in the eastern areas of pre-War Poland. The publications were either controlled or closely monitored by the NAZIs. The primary purpose was NAZI control, but there were differences depending on the specific target audience. [Dobroszycki] I think the boy here is selling a newspaper named Ruch which sound German more than Polish. In German the word means smell and also some sort of a crow (bird). We have been unable to find any information on the newspaper during the occupation. We note, however, that Ruch is in modern Poland a huge publishing house and disyributor of newspapers and magazines. Note the boy is selling newspapers from a leather satchel. I think perhaps this was his school satchell before the War and he no longer goes to school.

Clandestine Newspapers

Sources

Dobroszycki, Lucjan. Reptile Journalism: The Official Polish-Language Press under the NAZIs, 1939-45.

Created: 11:59 PM 8/7/2008
Last updated: 11:57 PM 7/10/2009