The Imagined Ethno-Racial Border and the Expulsion of Jews from Western Poland, 1939-41*

Abstract

Abstract Although the ‘Jewish question’ had always figured prominently in Nazi ideology and long-term objectives, the population policy to which Nazi German leaders and officials gave priority in practice in 1939–1941 was the relocation of ethnic-German ‘resettlers’ to annexed western Poland. Christopher Browning and other historians have argued that while in autumn and winter 1939 the Nazi leadership appeared to view the comprehensive removal of Jews from Germany’s ‘incorporated eastern territories’ as a high priority, because they did not prioritize it in practice, it did not happen. This article shows that this interpretation does not fully reflect events. A detailed case study of the expulsion of Jewish residents from east to west within the province of Silesia’s incorporated territory in May–June 1940 demonstrates that for Nazi German elites an ethno-racial boundary ran down the middle of the incorporated territories, north to south, and west of that boundary the comprehensive removal of Jews was prioritized in practice and very nearly realized.