Nazis and Hitler

Before the invasion on Poland by the Nazis in September 1939, there were approximately 3.3 million Jews in Poland. As a country, Poland had dealt with harsh economic and social problems since its independence in 1918. As a result, hatred for the stranger (the Jews) and virulent antisemitism spread and grew throughout the nation. Unemployment and fierce competition for work lead to increased violence which included boycotts and severe pogroms. However Jewish activities such as politics, intellectuals, and art still flourished. Antisemitism was apparent in Poland for some time; Poles followed Germanys lead and practiced many of their policies. Poles did not accept Jews as Polish, similar to Germany; they were considered as a separate race.

The War against the Jews in Poland started when Hitler took power; he implemented his New Order which he used exploitation, terror, and extermination to fulfill his goals. Nazi ideology saw non-Aryans as inferior; they wanted lebensraum and Poles were robbed of their property, removed from their homes, and deported in huge numbers. The Nazis wanted to eliminate Polish culture and killed thousands of Polish intellectuals (professors, politicians, artists, writers, church leaders), code named A-B Aktion. When Poland was conquered, it was divided up by the Nazis and Soviets. The central section of Germanys land became a German colony, the General Government; the Nazi governor of this new colony was Hans Frank.

Nazis believed that Poland was the most probable area for lebensraum; there was one problem, removing the Jews and Poles from the area. Nazis solution was to gather them in the General Government cities. Heinrich Himmler was in charge of strengthening Germany to create lebensraum and created a special task force, the Einsatzgruppen to deal with Poland’s Jews. The Finsatzgruppen were killing units which carried out murders against the Reich’s political enemies; they killed over a million Jews within 18 months by mobile gas vans or firing squads.

The Jews in Poland were forced into labor as soon as Hitler took control; the main purpose for forced labor was to dehumanize them. On September 21, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich issued a degree which set forth a policy of the detention of Polish Jews in ghettos. In this degree it explained the policy on the treatment of Jews; it was ordered by Heydrich that Jews be identified, their property seized, and forced to live in ghettos. On October 26, 1939 a law imposed by the General Government for compulsory labor was introduced; it applied to Jewish men that were between the ages of 14 and 60. Over time more of the areas in Poland introduced forced labor which now also applied to women and children; special labor camps and factories were set up for the Jews. Since the start of forced labor, it was administered by the SS. The man in charge of the deportations of the Jews was Adolf Eichmann. The Reich law of November 23, 1939 required that Jews wear an armband with the Star of David on it to make them easier to identify; it applied to Jews 10 and older.

The new ghetto was Nazis version from the first ghettos of medieval times. Nazi ghettos are similar but they did not want to just isolate Jews from Christians; they were confined only until they were ready to send them to death camps for their extermination. Heinrich Himmler established leadership councils for the Jews, the Judenrate; they were appointed