Agrarian Policy of the Nazi Authorities in the Warta Country during the Second World War

Abstract

The agriculture of the Warta Country (Reichsgau Wartheland), formed in 1939 from the territories of Poznań Voivodeship and neighboring areas, was assigned by the Nazi authorities to serve as the 'granary of the Reich'. The agrarian policy decisions taken to realize this program were, however, in internal contradiction with the policy of total Germanization of the land.
This article analyzes the agrarian policy of the Nazi authorities in the Warta Country during the Second World War, examining: the Germanization of agriculture (confiscation of Polish farms, the role of Ostland and Reichsland), the consolidation of farm holdings, agricultural investment, livestock farming, and the export of foodstuffs to the Reich.
The analysis draws on the funds of the Deutsches Zentralarchiv in Potsdam (Reichsfinanzministerium, Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft), the State Archives of Poznań (Reichsstatthalter files, Haupttreuhandstelle), and the Library of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
The analysis shows that the Nazi authorities had confiscated by the end of 1940 all large and medium peasant farms – 2.55 million out of 3.3 million ha in total. Ostland and Reichsland administered the farms transferred to settlers displaced from other European countries. These settlers, unaccustomed to local conditions, often achieved lower output than before the war and sometimes clandestinely sublet their farms to Poles. The consolidation of holdings under 5 ha produced insufficient results. Despite these difficulties, the Warta Country supplied more agricultural products to the Reich than any other administrative province – but at the cost of famine rations for the Polish population who formed the actual labor force.