Germanization in the Warthegau: Germans, Jews and Poles and the Making of a ‘German’ Gau

Abstract

On 11 October 1939, Arthur Greiser, soon-to-be Nazi Gauleiter (regional party leader) and Reichsstatthalter (governor) of the Warthegau, declared that ‘our long term goal should be to become a model Gau of the Greater German empire, that in large measure guarantees the food supply for Greater Germany, that affords protection against Polish and Jewish invasion, and whose buildings correspond to the greatness of the Reich.’ He continued, ‘and the most important task before our eyes is the settlement of this land with people who will later know the term “Polish” as a historical memory’.1 The territory in question was a large chunk of western Poland that would be annexed to Germany on 26 October 1939. It was overwhelmingly non-German: 4.2 million inhabitants, or 85 per cent of the population, were Poles. There were also some 400,000 Jews, but only 325,000 ethnic Germans.2 How, then, was the Warthegau to become ‘German’? To accomplish his goal, Greiser undertook the most expansive Germanization programme in all of Nazi-occupied Europe: a massive influx of Germans and their material culture, along with the murder, expropriation, segregation and exploitation of Jews and Poles.