7. Impact of the War Against Poland

Question 1

What Pact involved Germany and the USSR agreeing to invade Poland and how to divide it?

Answer 1

The Nazi-Soviet Pact

Question 2

Following the invasion of Poland, how many Jews were in Nazi occupied territory?

Answer 2

1.9 million

Question 3

Key things that Nazis learned about the treatment of Jews from the invasion of Poland

Answer 3

Learnt it was much easier to murder undesirables and Jews than find them a home

Question 4

Where were Jews sent in the early occupation of Poland?

Answer 4

Ghettos

Question 5

Life of Jews inside the ghettos

Answer 5

Jews had to buy food at largely inflated prices from people on the other side who wanted to make money
Overcrowding (80,000 per square mile)
People on the outside used ghettos as opportunity to exploit the Jews
When Jews ran out of money for food they would use jewellery, then their clothes and after this they would starve

Question 6

Hitler’s order regarding the Polish population

Answer 6

Ordered that the new land acquired from Poland had to be ethnically cleansed and he would ask no questions of the methods used

Question 7

How was the Polish population regarded by the Nazis?

Answer 7

Regarded as being dirty and without any culture of its own
Nazis believed that Germans were more racially superior than Poles

Question 8

Nazi leaders appointed to German districts in Poland

Answer 8

Greiser appointed to one district
Albert Forster appointed to the other

Question 9

Greiser’s approach to control in Poland

Answer 9

Strove to make as many Poles as possible suffer

Question 10

Albert Forster’s approach to control in Poland

Answer 10

He registered Poles as German without asking for any evidence so they would avoid prosecution
Himmler complained to Forster about the lack of evidence acquired, but Forster rejected the complaint and continued

Question 11

What German district of Poland was deemed as a ‘testing ground’ for Jewish prosecution?

Answer 11

The General Governemtn

Question 12

Nazi treatment of Polish individuals and businesses

Answer 12

Any business owned by a Pole was stolen by the Nazis and given to a German
Poles were forcefully evicted from their homes so that German re-settlers could move in

Question 13

How many Poles were evicted from their homes by Greiser and where were they sent?

Answer 13

Over 700,000 Poles evicted
Sent to the General Government