Figure 1.--. |
|
The SS was given orders to kill Polish prominent civilians and indiviaduals such as government officials, the nobility, teachers, and priests throughout Poland, any would which could promote Polish nationalism or offer leadership. [Gilbert, p. 265.] Today their are countless memorial stones and plaques througout Poland where these executions took place. And it was not just men, women and children were also killed. The Army Chief of Staff, Genderal Halder discussed the Führer's orders with his senior officers. One a Colonel Eduard Wagner wrote in his diary, "It is the Führer's and Goering's intentions to destroy and exterminate the Polish nation. More than that cannot even be hinted at in writing." [Gilbert, p. 269.] The instructions were secret. Some SS men carrying these instructions were arrested by the Wehremacht accussed of brutality. [Gilbert, p. 278.] Admiral Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, visited the Polish front on September 10 and was horrified. He went to Hitler's headquarters planning to protest which he told General Keitel, the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command. Keitel advised him, "If I were you I would not get mixed up in this business. This 'thing' has been decided by the Führer himself." Keitel explained that that each army command would have a NAZI civilian chief attached to its military commander. He would have the responsibility for the "racial extermination" effort. [Gilbert, p. 271.] Hitler on October 4, even before the fighting was over, declared an amnesty for the arressted SS men. There were no further arressts of SS men by the Wehremact in Hitler's future campaigns.
The NAZI operation to liquidate the Polish intelligentsia between 1940 and 1943 was named Ausserordentlichen Befriedungsaktion (A-B Aktion). This meant Extraordinary Pacification Operation. This was the NAZI plan targeting Polish intellectuals as part of their plan to completely eliminate the Polish nation. The idea was nothing short of barbaric. The NAZIs set out not only to eliminate just current Polish leaders, but whole classes of people from whom any future leaders might rise.
The goal was to eradicate Polish higher learning. This would not only help destroy Polish national identity, but aid the Germans exploit the Poles without having to deal with any kind of organized resistance.
The SS was given orders to kill Polish prominent civilians and indiviaduals such as government officials, the nobility, lawyers, dictors, university professors, teachers, and priests throughout Poland. The idea was to eliminate anyone who could promote Polish nationalism or offer leadership. [Gilbert, p. 265.] Today their are countless memorial stones and plaques througout Poland where these executions took place. I am not sure precisely how many prominent Poles were killed. There are instances of university professors being invited to meetings suposedly to reopen the universities and then arrested and either immediately shot or sento concentration camps where most perished. One accounts suggests that about 10,000 civilian professionals were rounded up and killed in this manner. I'm not sure yet about the accuracy of this estimate.
After focusing on the annexed areas of Poland, the SS during the summer 1940 began rounding up members of the intelligentsia in the General Government as part of A-B Aktion. The NAZIs arrested university professors, teachers, priests, and others. Many had not idea about this NAZI plan. Several thousand targeted individuals were immediately shot. These mass murders occurred outside Warsaw, in the Kampinos forest near Palmiry as well as in Warsaw's Pawiak prison. [U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum] The Germans in making these arrests often had well prepared lists. We do not know, however, at this time just how these lists were prepared. Some were put in the new concentration camps springing up througout Poland. Otheres were simply executed on the spot. One professor at Krakow University, Mieczyslaw Brozek, writes that he anticipated that the German conquerors would restrit curriculum or possibly dismiss many professors at the University. Instead German soldiers rounded up the professors and savagely beat them with rifle butts before carting them away.
The assault on Polish intellectuals focused on doctors, lawyers, politicians, university professors, or anyone with an advanced education. They were identified and arested. .
And it was not just men, women and children were also killed. The Army Chief of Staff, Genderal Halder discussed the Führer's orders with his senior officers. One a Colonel Eduard Wagner wrote in his diary, "It is the Führer's and Goering's intentions to destroy and exterminate the Polish nation. More than that cannot even be hinted at in writing." [Gilbert, p. 269.] The precise instructions were secret.
Admiral Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, visited the Polish front on September 10 and was horrified. He went to Hitler's headquarters planning to protest which he told General Keitel, the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command. Keitel advised him, "If I were you I would not get mixed up in this business. This 'thing' has been decided by the Führer himself." [Gilbert, p. 271.]
Keitel explained that that each army command would have a NAZI civilian chief attached to its military commander. He would have the responsibility for the "racial extermination" effort. [Gilbert, p. 271.]
Some SS men carrying these instructions were arrested by the Wehremacht accussed of brutality. [Gilbert, p. 278.] Hitler on October 4, even before the fighting was over, declared an amnesty for the arressted SS men. There were no further arressts of SS men by the Wehremact in Hitler's future campaigns.
The elimination of the Polish inteligencia was not left to chance. Dr. Josef Bühler who had a law degree in May-June 1940 was put in charge of "special pacification" in the Government General. His assignment was to track down Polish journalists, university professors, philosophers, and writers. About 3,500 of these individuals were arrested by Bühler and murdered. [Gilbert, p. 318.] NAZI policy was to arrest the leaders in villages and towns all over Poland. Priests and school teachers were among those commonly arrested. The NAZIs saw little need for Polish schools or educating Polish children. They were to be the uneducated manual slave labor force for the German Reich.
A HBC reader is reseraching the subject and particularly interested in who were the Gestapo leaders in Danzig and Lodz. He tells us, "Dr. Manfred Schoeneseiffen was a Gestapo official in both cities at different times in that period. I have just located his son and am communicating with him. He knows little of what his father did during the war because his father was hiding in the underground between 1945 and 1960. He is interested in learning more about his father's activities. He knows his father was a sadist, but (at 62) wants to learn more than he knows already. Himmler was going to be his godfather but couldn't make the ceremony." [Downs]
After the initial arrests, many Poles went underground and tried to hide from the NAZIs.
Estimates suggest that as aresult of NAZI arrests and executiojs or slow death in the camps, Poland lost huge numbers of educated people: teachers (15 percent), clergy (18 percent), technicians (30 percent), university professors (40 percent), doctors (45 percent), and lawyers (57 percent). Notice the especially high portion of doctors, university profesors, and lawyers. Many lawyers were involved in politics
Downs, Jim. E-mail message, April 15, 2003.
Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.
Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main NAZI occupied Poland page]
[Return to Main lebensborn page]
[Return to Main World War II displaced children page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]