Qualla: Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: Introduction

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit "Centralna Agencja Fotograficzna"[2], Public domain. On 22 August 1939, ten days before the invasion, Adolf Hitler stood in front of his commanders at the Berghof and gave them written permission to murder "without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language." The Wehrmacht crossed the border on the first of September. Within four months, ten thousand Polish civilians had been shot in and around Bydgoszcz alone. Within six years, roughly five million Polish citizens were dead — about three million Polish Jews, almost the entire community, and nearly two million ethnic Poles. No country in the Second World War lost a higher proportion of its population than Poland. This is the brief story of how that happened, and of a few of the people it happened to.

Image: "Centralna Agencja Fotograficzna"[2] | Public domain

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: The List That Came Before the War

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile, Public domain. Before the first soldier crossed the border, the Sicherheitsdienst had already printed a book. The Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen — the Special Prosecution Book Poland — listed more than 61,000 Polish citizens by name and birthdate. Politicians, scholars, actors, doctors, lawyers, pri...

Image: Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile | Public domain

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: The AB-Aktion and Palmiry

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In the spring of 1940 the Generalgouvernement under Hans Frank launched the Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion — the Extraordinary Pacification Operation, known to history as the AB-Aktion. Roughly 30,000 Poles deemed dangerous to German rule were arrested. About 7,000 were exec...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: The Destruction of Polish Jewry

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pipodesign Philipp P Egli, CC BY 3.0. Of the roughly 3.3 million Jews living in Poland in 1939, fewer than 300,000 were alive in 1945. The largest single concentration was crowded into the Warsaw Ghetto, where 400,000 people were sealed behind a wall less than a square mile in area — a density of 7.2 people per room....

Image: Pipodesign Philipp P Egli | CC BY 3.0

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: 1944: Warsaw Razed

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hubert Śmietanka, CC BY-SA 2.5. On the first of August 1944, with Soviet forces a few miles east of the Vistula, the Polish Home Army rose against the Germans in Warsaw. They held parts of the city for sixty-three days. The Soviets stopped on the eastern bank and watched. When the rising failed in early October...

Image: Hubert Śmietanka | CC BY-SA 2.5

Nazi War Crimes in Occupied Poland: What Adds Up

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Hofmann or Bernhard Walte, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The numbers compiled by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance: 2.7 to 3 million Polish Jews murdered, 1.8 to 2.77 million ethnic Poles killed. About 200,000 Polish children kidnapped for forced Germanisation. Roughly 1.5 million Poles deported as forced labourers to the Reic...

Image: Ernst Hofmann or Bernhard Walte | CC BY-SA 3.0 de