German occupation of Poland

Nazi Germany’s rule over occupied Polish territory from 1939 to 1945. It involved annexation, forced labor, economic extraction, systematic persecution, and mass murder.

General Government: A German-administered occupation zone established in central Poland in 1939, outside territories annexed to the Reich. It governed much of occupied Poland through German civil administration and coercive rule.
Holocaust in Poland: The persecution and murder of Polish Jews during the Holocaust, largely under German occupation. German authorities and collaborators murdered the vast majority of Poland’s prewar Jewish population.
Invasion of Poland: Germany’s attack on Poland beginning 1 September 1939, which started the European phase of World War II. The invasion initiated German military rule over Polish territory.
Hans Frank: A Nazi lawyer who governed the General Government in occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. As governor general, he directed the civilian administration and its exploitation and repression.
Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia: German control over Czech lands from 1939 to 1945, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Its protectorate structure differed from Poland’s combination of annexation and the General Government.
Reichsgau Wartheland: A Nazi administrative region formed from annexed Polish territory in western Poland. Germanization, expulsions, and settlement policies were pursued there under direct incorporation into the Reich.
Operation Reinhard: The German operation that murdered most Jews in the General Government at extermination camps in 1942–1943. It made occupied Poland the site of the Holocaust’s deadliest killing operation.
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: A 1939 German–Soviet nonaggression treaty with a secret protocol dividing spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Its secret provisions anticipated the partition of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Arthur Greiser: A Nazi official who governed Reichsgau Wartheland, an annexed region of western Poland. His administration pursued Germanization and the removal of Polish and Jewish residents.
Nazi occupation of France: German military occupation of northern and western France from 1940 to 1944, alongside the Vichy regime. Comparing occupation regimes highlights the especially colonial and exterminatory policies imposed in Poland.

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