The Deportation of Polish Population by the Occupation Nazi Authorities in the Years 1939-1945

Abstract

The deportation of the Polish population by Nazi occupation authorities constitutes one of the most systematic crimes of World War II. Nazi long-term plans for the germanization of Eastern Europe, including Generalplan Ost requiring the deportation of 80 to 85 per cent of Poles, as well as short-term plans for the incorporated territories have been discussed in Polish historiography, but a concise synthesis of the actual deportation actions in 1939-1944 has been lacking.

This article presents the deportation of the Polish population from the incorporated territories and from the Generalgouvernement in 1939-1945, distinguishing between unorganized individual deportations and mass organized deportations, analyzing the institutional apparatus of deportation, the successive deportation actions by region, and the forms of Polish resistance to evictions.

The study draws on archival materials from the State Archive of Poznań (APMP i WP), the Archives of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes (GKBZHwP), the Instytut Zachodni in Poznań, and Polish Government-in-Exile archives (ISL), complemented by published studies of Madajczyk, Datner, Gumkowski, Sziling, and Klukowski.

The analysis shows that mass organized deportations lasted from October 1939 to October 1944, coordinated by Himmler as Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums through the Umwandererzentralstelle (UWZ). Deportees underwent racial selection in transitory camps: those eligible for germanization and those fit for slave labour were sent to Germany, while those unfit for work were imprisoned in concentration camps including Majdanek and Auschwitz. The deportation of the Zamość region in 1942-1943, intended to create a German bridgehead in Eastern Europe, was among the most brutal actions, affecting over 100,000 persons from nearly 300 villages. Polish resistance included individual evasion and armed guerrilla activity, which substantially disrupted German settlement plans.