German crimes committed against the Polish people during the first months of the Second World War 1939/1940 Cover Image

Zbrodnie Niemców na Polakach w pierwszych miesiącach II wojny światowej 1939/1940
German crimes committed against the Polish people during the first months of the Second World War 1939/1940

Author(s): Witold Stankowski
Subject(s): History, Military history, Recent History (1900 till today), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Second World War; German crimes; Polish intelligentsia; Polish victims; Polish elite; places of crime; Action Intelligentsia; extraordinary action of pacification

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to show the scale and extent of the extermination of Polish society, which was a component of the national policy of the Third Reich in the first months of the Second World War. It is a quantitative presentation of the phenomenon of a crime which included arrests, interrogations, the use of physical and mental coercion, shootings and executions. The extermination activities against the Polish nation continued throughout the entire period of the war. The Terror of the Third Reich covered the areas of Gdańsk Pomerania, Greater Poland, Upper Silesia, and central Poland. As part of the policy of exterminating the Polish nation, at the beginning of the war, the Third Reich began the so-called “Action Intelligentsia”(Intelligenzaktion) and AB (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion) which was formally named Extraordinary Pacification Action. In the occupied areas, various German formations (Selbstschutz, Einsatzgruppen SS) committed mass, planned crimes against the Polish elite, intelligentsia, teachers, clergy, local government officials and state officials.

  • Issue Year: 149/2022
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 267-289
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish
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