Polish

One of the largest groups of victims was the Polish people. They were a small country, very agricultural, which resided close to Germany. The farmers were strong, healthy, and modest. Thus, Germany saw them as both a threat and a potential resource (1).

In 1939, Germany invaded Poland. After a bitter battle, Germany won and annexed much of Poland’s land to themselves and their allies. They ensured compliance from the Polish citizens by wiping out the Intelligentisa, or ruling class then deporting everyone else to ghettos or concentration camps, or by preventing others from leaving the country at all. Those who were Jews, and later those of Gypsy heritage, were treated more harshly, rounded-up, placed in ghettos, deported, shot, transported to concentration camp, forced into labor, used for scientific experiments and killed. Non-Jews were restricted, used for slave labor, and drafted into the German army (2).

One of the most heart-wrenching things which occurred was when the Nazis removed blond-haired, blue-eyed Polish children from their families and sent these children to Nazi parents to be ‘Germanized’. In many cases, the children never found their natural parents or siblings again (3).

Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish man, wrote a book about his experiences in the concentration camp Auschwitz. “Everyone will treat with respect the numbers from 30,000 to 80,000: there are only a few hundred left and they represented the few survivals from the Polish ghettos. It is as well to watch out in commercial dealings with a 116,000 or a 117,000: they now number only about forty, but they represent the Greeks of Salonica… (4)”

“I also have to mention here the Summary Court and the killing of hostages, since this affected only the Polish prisoners (5),” wrote Rudolph Hoss, Commandant of Auschwitz, in his memoirs.

In total, it is estimated that there were some six million Polish killed: three million Jews and three million Catholics (6).

Sources:

(1) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(2) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(3) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(4) Levi, Primo, and Philip Roth. Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi Assault on Humanity. Translated by Stuart Woolf. New York City: Touchstone: Simon & Schuster, 1996, page 28.

(5) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 129.

(6) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Newsletter.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).