THE WAR BEGINS

War!

Invasion of Poland- September 1,

1939.
Goals- Lebensraum and racial
policy
War freed regime from all restraints
and united people against enemies.
Polish military destroyed in weeks.
Warsaw destroyed in less than a
month. Britain and France declare
war to fulfill treaty obligations but
offer no military aid.
Germany and Soviet Union carve
up Poland. Two weeks before
signed Non-aggression Pact.

April 9, 1940 invaded

Denmark and Norway. May
10th swept through Belgium,
the Netherlands and France.
June 14th- Paris fell. Armistice
divided France. Germany took
the north, Italy got a small
section in the southeast and
the rest governed from Vichy
until the fall of 1942.
Summer of 1940 Luftwaffe
launched massive bombing
campaign against Britain in
preparation for invasion.
Resisted by the RAF (Royal Air
Force). Germany lost 1,722
planes to the RAFs 915.

April 6, 1941- invaded Greece and

Yugoslavia. Romania and Bulgaria had
already joined the Axis. Put up strong
resistance which set back Hitlers plan to
invade the Soviet Union. Had to battle
the Soviets in the deadly winter. Soviet
Union only power standing against
Germans on the continent. Nazis look
invincible.

Terror Against the Poles, 19391940

German High Command in Poland

took orders directly from Hitler.
Poles were considered
Untermenschen (subhuman) and
in the way of German expansion.
Policy different than before. Terror
increased after the country had
been subdued and people had
surrendered.
Territories east from Prussia to
Silesia they instituted policy of
colonization. German settlers
moved in and the Polish
population were forcibly
removed. Cities and towns
renamed. Hundreds of thousands
of people relocated.

In areas of central Poland members of the

intelligentsia and political leadership
were murdered. Goal was to harass a
leaderless, subservient population of
workers who would serve the Germans as
migrant workers. Terror was a key
instrument in this policy.
Executions were a daily occurrence in
Warsaws Pawiak Prison and Palmiry
Forest.

The Roman Catholic Church had been linked to the

Polish Nationalist Movement so a logical move was
to get rid of it so they could weaken the movement.
During the war 18% of all Polish priests were killed.
In Chelmno 47%, in Lodz 36% and in Poznan 31% of
the priests were killed.
Professors and teachers were taken to the camps.
Archives were plundered, art was stolen and
national treasures were taken to Germany
Polish children who could pass for German were
kidnapped and sent to German as part of the forced
Germanization program.

Murder of the
Handicapped
Began small, just a few individuals. October 1939
Hitler authorized his personal physician to put to
death those considered unsuited to live.
Euthanasia program: men, women and children who
were physically disabled, mentally retarded or
emotionally disturbed were systematically killed.
T-4 program: involved the entire
psychiatric community. Survey of
all institutions done. Three medical
experts reviewed the forms but did
not actually see the files or patients.
They decided who lived and died.

Patients chosen to die were

transported to six main killing
centers: Hartheim, Sonnenstein,
Grafeneck, Bernburg, Hadamar,
and Brandenburg. First killings done by starvation and
injections of lethal doses of sedatives.
Gassing quickly became the preferred method. 15-20
people killed in a room designed as a shower. Gas
provided by chemists. Bodies burned in adjacent
crematories.
Families told of transfers and told loved ones doing
well. Visits not allowed. Soon families received
condolences with falsified death certificates and ashes.

A few doctors protested. Some worked to inform

organizations not to turn in surveys. Very few
openly opposed the killings.
Do not become killers overnight. Killing had to
have some type of justification.
Justified by saying killings were almost like mercy
killings and totally ethical. Economic- could use
the money spent keeping them alive for better
things.
In a time of war it was not hard to lose sight of
the absolute value of human life.

Final Solution started with the euthanasia

program. Trail run for the Holocaust. Killing
centers were practice arenas for death camps.
Organized transportations mirrored deportations.
Some personnel who worked this program later
staffed death camps.
Gas chambers developed. Death camps took technology
to a new level killing thousands at one time and burning
bodies within hours.
August 24, 1941 killings seemed to stop. Total number
killed in program between 200,000 and 250,000. Majority
German but included Poles and Soviet citizens.
Killing did not end, simply beginning of mass murder.
Irmfried Eberl, doctor who began with T-4 Project,
became commander at Treblinka, where mass killing took
on a whole new meaning.