Deportations in Poland under dual occupation

Chaos after double invasion

The two invasions plunged Poland into complete chaos. The German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe in particular acted with extreme brutality. “Germany used the attack to test new weapon systems and subjected cities, but also columns of refugees, to mass bombardment. Thirty percent of Warsaw was destroyed,” says Pulvermacher. “When the Red Army then attacked from the east, everything spiraled completely out of control. Initially, the Red Army soldiers did not present themselves as invaders, but as defenders against the Germans. But at the same time, they imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers.”

In the end, it took only a few weeks for the Polish army to surrender. While the Soviet Union annexed the entire eastern part of Poland, Germany only incorporated northern and western Poland. Central and southern Poland was declared the Generalgouvernement (General Government). It served as a source of economic exploitation, a destination for undesirable segments of the population, and an area for the Wehrmacht to assemble for the planned campaign against the Soviet Union.

The deportation machineries on both sides are relatively well documented: for the West by the records of the Umwandererzentralstelle (UWZ), the German authority that coordinated the displacements; in the East by documents of the NKVD, whose many sub-organizations not only acted as police, secret service, judges and henchmen, but were also responsible for the mass deportations. In the research project, this data was compiled and analyzed together with reports from eyewitnesses, victims and other sources.

Deportations to the General Government and the interior of the Soviet Union

“Both occupying powers carried out the deportations with great brutality. However, they differed both in their motivation and in the strategies they employed,” explains Pulvermacher. The German occupiers sought to “Germanize” the territories they incorporated into the Reich. All Jews and large parts of the ethnic Polish population were to be resettled into the General Government. “These early deportations were far less deadly than the transports that sent the Jewish population to the extermination camps, where up to 50 percent of those deported died during the journey. The early forced resettlements were aimed at removing undesirable sections of the population, but not at systematically murdering them,” notes Pulvermacher.

“In overall terms, the Soviet regime was more inclusive – everyone living in their territory was recognized as a Soviet citizen. At the same time, the newly annexed territories were preventively 'cleansed' of social groups that were considered 'unreliable elements',” explains Pulvermacher. More than 90,000 Jews were deported to the interior of the Soviet Union. They and hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens were taken to special settlements or, if suspected of “anti-Soviet agitation”, to one of the many gulag camps. For those deported, this meant hunger, cold, and often death.

Comparatively well-organized Soviet authorities

“The NKVD's efficiency lay in its rapid and concerted implementation. It enjoyed enormous staff reserves, and its measures were more focused, faster, and more elaborate than those of the Gestapo and other Nazi organizations. In particular this was true of the Soviet surveillance apparatus. On the Stalinist side it was operational on a broad basis within a very short time thanks to involvement of the population in an informer network,” explains Pulvermacher. “Humanitarian aspects were not deemed a priority on either side.”

At that time, Germany had little experience with mass deportations. “Incompetence, staff shortages, organizational chaos, and completely unrealistic planning wreaked havoc, especially in the first months of the occupation, and resulted in a great many casualties. The NKVD, on the other hand, benefitted from decades of experience in organizing large-scale resettlement campaigns,” says Pulvermacher. Her take on the situation contradicts widespread perceptions about the German and Soviet deportation machineries.

While the Stalinist occupiers implemented standard methods, the German side changed their measures constantly. It is true that the early German resettlements and the associated ghettoization were not initially aimed at murdering the Jewish population, but Pulvermacher believes that they cannot be viewed as entirely unrelated to the Holocaust. “These deportations can certainly be considered an important step on the road to Auschwitz,” she notes, “because they gave the Germans a great deal of experience with the process. As their radicalization increased, it ultimately led to the systematic deportation and murder of European Jews.”