Between 1934 and 1939, Western powers, including the United States, Britain, and
France had repeatedly shown that they would not engage in a military conflict with
Germany and Adolf Hitler. In January 1934, Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with
Poland. While he was already likely planning an invasion of Poland, he needed to
prevent the possibility of a Polish-French alliance. Hitler had, in 1938, annexed
Austria and gained control of the border lands between Germany and Czechoslovakia.
In March of 1939, Hitler entered Czechoslovakia and encountered no significant
resistance. In response to this invasion, Britain and France promised to defend Poland
in March 1939; however, both countries had made a similar promise to
Czechoslovakia.
In the summer of 1939, Hitler negotiated a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
The German-Soviet Pact laid out a plan to divide Poland between the two countries.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and the German army and air force
advanced on Warsaw. Within less than four weeks, Poland surrendered to Hitler’s
forces. On September 17, 1939, Soviet troops invaded Poland, moving in the opposite
direction. Western Poland had become part of a growing German empire and Eastern
Poland part of the Soviet Union with the Bug River marking the dividing line between
the two powers. Both Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3,
1939, in response to the invasion.
Politically, Germany divided Western Poland. Areas along the border with Germany
were directly annexed into the German state. More distant regions of Poland were
placed under the control of a civilian, Nazi-party government, led by Hans Frank. The
Polish people, much like the Jews, were viewed as sub-human and unimportant.
Under the command of Reinhard Heydrich, special squads of SS officers and police
forces, called Einsatzgruppen or Special Action groups, were created to deal with the
Polish population. The Einsatzgruppen were ordered to kill Polish politicians, wealthy
citizens, the educated, the clergy, and the aristocracy. The remainder of the population
would be enslaved to provide labor for the German war and people.
The Status of Jews in 1939
In October 1938, the German government expelled approximately 17,000 Polish Jews,
an act which triggered the violence of Kristallnacht. While Poland was not under
German control in 1938, the government refused to accept the Jewish refugees,
leaving a large number of people at the border who were not legal residents of either
country. Angered, a young Jewish man killed a Nazi official in Paris, and the response
from the Nazi party was brutal violence followed by increasing legal and economic
restrictions.
By the end of 1938, letters and transcripts from Hitler’s administration indicated that
he was already looking for long-term solutions to what he deemed the “Jewish
question.” The transcripts of the Reich Air Meeting of November 12, 1938, read
during Hermann Goering’s testimony at the Nuremberg Trials, included a clear record
of the Jewish question. Goering (speaking): Gentlemen, to-day’s meeting is of a
decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer’s orders by the Chief of
Staff of the Fuehrer’s Deputy, Bormann, requesting that the Jewish question be now,
once and for all, co-ordinated and solved in one way or another.
Scholars are divided as to when the plan to exterminate rather than deport the Jews
became Hitler’s and the Nazi party’s solution to the “Jewish question.” In 1938, the
official position remained one of deportation or forced emigration, rather than
extermination; however, that changed significantly between 1939 and 1941. By 1941,
the plan was in place and in effect to proceed with mass killings of Jewish people.
Restrictive legal measures made life progressively more difficult for German Jews.
Work, travel, and entertainment were all limited. The official policy continued to
encourage emigration out of Germany. German propaganda portrayed Jews as
criminal and sub-human and began to speak in decidedly more violent terms: a
November 1938 edition of the Nazi paper Das Schwarze Korps suggested that the
Jews in Germany must be banished by “fire and sword.” Hitler’s 1939 Reichstag
speech, marking the anniversary of his rise to power, was dedicated almost entirely to
the so-called “Jewish question.” Hitler’s speech also suggested, for the first time, an
understanding that world war was impending and the non-response of other world
powers to his actions was about to end.
The Jewish Ghettos
While the Jewish population of Germany was relatively small, the Jewish population
of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, was much larger. Some two million Jews
resided in Western Poland in 1939. The annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia
had added some 320,000 Jews. Not only did these additional lands increase the Jewish
population far beyond what could be managed with emigration, but it also brought
large numbers of Ostjuden, or Eastern Jews, under German control. The Ostjuden,
unlike the Jews of Germany, were largely uneducated and of a lower economic class.
Violence and humiliation directed at the Jews accompanied the German invasion. In
September 1939, as Germany gained control of Poland, Reinhard Heydrich, head of
the Reich Main Security Office, issued orders to move Polish Jews from the
countryside into the cities. Heydrich ordered that the chosen cities should be rail
junctions or on rail lines, thereby easily accessible. The Einsatzgruppen were
officially in charge of these forced deportations.
Restrictions on travel, commerce, and activity similar to those in Germany were
implemented at once. In November 1939, Jews over ten years old were ordered to
wear a white armband marked with a blue Star of David. This marked them as Jewish
and made it easier to identify them for deportation and other actions. The majority of
Jewish businesses, with the exception of small general stores in Jewish
neighborhoods, were confiscated and placed in the control of non-Jews, a process
called Aryanization. Jewish employees could, at this stage, be retained at the
discretion of the new owner. Jews were required to deposit their money in blocked
accounts and allowed only a small weekly allowance. While many had to liquidate
assets to continue to survive, conditions were manageable through much of 1940.
The word ghetto originated in medieval Venice. It referred to a Jewish quarter or
neighborhood. In many cities throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period,
Jews were expected or even required to live within their own district in the city. In
some cases, neighborhoods remained largely Jewish even after there were no
regulations regarding residence. Jewish populations often gathered in predominantly
Jewish communities, linked by religious rituals, customs, and diet. These early ghettos
ranged significantly in terms of economic class, but they were open, and residents
could come and go freely, work, and engage with society. By the middle of the 19th
century, however, the majority of these early ghettos had faded. The longest lasting
were in Poland, home to a large Jewish population. The tradition of the Jewish ghetto
provided one tool in the eventual implementation of the Final Solution and the death
camps.
The World War II-era ghettos were established in Poland beginning in 1940. These
Jewish neighborhoods, frequently situated in the poor section of town or on its
outskirts, were home to not only the urban residents of the region, but many from
rural areas and smaller cities who had been forced into these few Jewish communities.
Non-Jewish residents were relocated to allow the creation of the ghettos; however,
they frequently improved their standard of living when they moved, taking the former
homes of Jews. The ghettos were not closed neighborhoods during the first months
after their creation. Residents could continue to move in and out of the ghetto freely
and maintain some degree of normalcy. Eventually all ghettos were closed,
disallowing the majority of traffic. Each ghetto was independently administered and
conditions varied somewhat among the ghettos.
Ghettos were established in Lodz in early 1940; Bialystok, Kovno, Lvov, Lublin,
Vilna, Czestochowa, Minsk and Krakow in 1941. These were only a few of the
ghettos of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In total, the Nazis created
approximately 400 ghettos. The process of ghettoization continued until the end of the
war in some regions, including Hungary. The largest ghettos, like the Warsaw ghetto,
were home to as many as half a million people. Within months, these neighborhoods
were surrounded by high walls and barbed wire and were guarded by armed Nazis,
Polish police, and even Jews themselves. While trolleys continued to run through the
ghetto, they were surrounded by fences and guarded to keep Jews from using them as
a means of escape. The people of Lodz and Warsaw routinely travelled through the
ghetto to reach their workplaces and homes each day.
Each Jewish community was to establish a Jewish council of elders, called the
Judenrät, to implement Nazi rules and regulations. The members of the Judenrät
were typically educated, middle-class men, often well known and respected within
their community. In many cases, the Judenräte were chosen by the Nazis. Some
members of the Judenräte worked valiantly to save as many lives as they were able.
Often, working toward the good of the community resulted in death; those who were
killed were replaced with more cooperative leaders. Others actively cooperated with
the Nazis for personal gain. Refusal to serve on the Judenrät resulted in death.
The Judenräte and a Jewish welfare organization were the only two groups allowed to
continue to function under Nazi rule. The existence of the Judenräte enabled the Nazis
to claim that the ghettos were self-governing, autonomous communities. The
Judenräte were now required to manage food distribution, law enforcement, health
care, and all other aspects of everyday life. They were also charged with many tasks
essential to the evacuation of the Jews from the countryside, including the costs of
deportation. With limited resources and few skills, the Judenräte were largely unable
to manage these communities, some as large as major cities.
Conditions in the ghettos were horrifying. As many as one-quarter of the residents of
some ghettos died of starvation or preventable disease. Overcrowding, poor sanitation,
and a lack of basic necessities further reduced the conditions in the ghetto. Two to
three families were crammed into small two-room apartments. Epidemics of typhus
and typhoid fever resulted from the unhealthy conditions and lack of sanitation. The
Nazi administration used these epidemics as reason to seal the ghettos. Residents
could not leave, thereby eliminating their ability to acquire food and supplies.
Minimal food rations—fewer than 200 calories per day—were provided in exchange
for forced labor near the end of the time of the ghettos. In comparison, Poles were
allowed a ration of approximately 1,000 calories and Germans twice that. Those
unable to work were simply allowed, under Nazi regulation, to starve. More than
43,000 people starved to death the first year.
The prevalence of starvation and disease was not accidental. The Nazi administration
hoped that the conditions in the ghettos would significantly reduce the Jewish
population without any action being taken. In the Warsaw ghetto alone, more than
70,000 died from this inaction. Those who survived did so by violating the laws: they
had retained property that could be traded for food, or they relied upon their own
skills to make goods that could be traded for food. Approximately 80 percent of the
food in the ghetto arrived illegally. Nonetheless, the Nazis soon realized that the large
potential labor force in the ghettos could be a source of significant profit. Companies
and industry were situated in the ghettos, allowing non-Jewish business owners access
to nearly free labor. Jews were also placed on work crews to work on building
projects outside of the ghettos. Unsurprisingly, they worked under heavy guard.
Within the ghettos, an attempt was made to continue life with some normalcy even
under these horrific conditions. Religious services continued, though they were held
in secret. More than 600 prayer groups existed in the Warsaw ghetto; the Orthodox
Jewish community viewed prayer as a means of resistance against their oppressors.
Synagogues were allowed to reopen in 1941. While schools were banned, attempts
were made to educate children and provide childcare for orphans. Zionist youth
groups created schools within the ghettos and often acted as messengers from one
ghetto to another. Lending libraries and cultural events continued, often still allowed
by the Nazis. Musical performances, literary discussions, and even dances continued
among the starvation and disease. In some ghettos, including Kovno and Vilna, an
underground Jewish press provided news of the outside world. Within the ghetto,
individuals attempted to maintain their communities and their humanity.
Secret archives recording life in the ghetto provide a window into life behind barbed
wire. In Warsaw, Emmanuel Ringelblum collected documents, commissioned
surveys, and maintained records. This archive, called the Oneg Shabbaat, provides a
thorough picture of life in the Jewish ghetto. Similar archives were preserved in
Bialystok and Vilna. Diaries kept by those living in the ghettos often recorded the
conditions they and their neighbors experienced.
While only two official organizations were allowed to exist within the ghettos, a
number of underground political and social organizations began to work in opposition
to the Nazis shortly after the invasion of Poland, continuing through the ghettoization.
Some prominent Jews left Warsaw early in the Nazi invasion; however, both Zionist
Jewish groups and the socialist Bund party began to work against the Nazis.
Underground resistance forces smuggled goods and people in and out of the ghettos.
These smugglers provided access to essential supplies but took a great risk to do so.
Orphaned children or those whose parents could not work often snuck in and out of
small gaps in the ghetto fences to bring in food. If captured, they would be killed at
once.
Charity continued within the ghetto. International organizations, including the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, opened soup kitchens in some
ghettos, providing residents with a bowl of soup and slice of bread. Called simply the
Joint, this American organization remained officially neutral until the United States
entered the war; it then helped to found and fund Jewish relief organizations in the
ghettos. Relief organizations were often connected, secretly, to underground
resistance groups. House committees for each apartment house also worked to create
community and support within the building. Those that had enough to spare gave
generously to keep their neighbors alive. As an incentive, lists were posted of those
who refused to give.
Nazi propaganda defined the Jews of Eastern Europe as animals. They were not
demonized as financiers or masterminds, but treated as a symbol of disease and
pestilence. The Nazi propaganda minister, Hermann Goebbels, personally oversaw the
production of several intensely anti-Semitic films, including The Eternal Jew. These
propaganda films, created in the ghetto, portrayed a variety of negative images of
Jews, largely focused on an obsession with sex and money. The films were entirely
staged, as shops were filled with goods to create the image that wealthy Jewish
merchants allowed children to starve. An unfinished Nazi film reveals images of Jews
dining in restaurants opposite scenes of starvation, emaciated corpses, and other
evidence of cruelty and negligence. While the intention behind the film is not known,
it may have been intended for future use, to reveal the justification for their actions.
The ghetto at Thierenstadt, Czechoslovakia, was opened in 1941. The Thierenstadt
settlement was used as a deportation center to both concentration and extermination
camps, but it was also used as the public face of the Jewish ghetto. In preparation for a
1944 visit by the Red Cross, the majority of the inhabitants were deported to death
camps. The barracks were renovated, flowers were planted, and the camp was
improved to portray a very different image of reality. A variety of social and cultural
events, hosted by the Nazis, took place during this visit, and a Nazi film was made
portraying the clean and healthy living conditions in the renovated deportation center.
In reality, the death rates from starvation and disease, as well as deportations to
extermination camps further east, led to the deaths of most of the Jews who passed
through Thierenstadt.
While many involved in the resistance were Jewish, there were glimpses of kindness
and humanity from non-Jewish individuals. Irena Sendler, a Polish health care worker,
organized a network of people in the social welfare agency to remove Jewish children
from the ghetto. These children were placed with non-Jewish families, into Christian
orphanages and convents, and were sheltered throughout the war. Sendler recorded
the name of each child and their new identity, burying the information in jars in a
neighbor’s yard. Captured by the Nazis, Sendler refused to divulge information about
the children’s whereabouts or the resistance network, even under torture. Sendler’s
actions saved more than 2,500 Jewish children. Though she was tortured by the Nazis,
Sendler survived the war and attempted, after the end of the war, to reunite the
children she had saved and their families. Most of the families had not survived.
More organized resistance movements existed in approximately 100 of the 400
ghettos of World War II Europe. While smugglers and others had quietly resisted Nazi
activities, faced with the reality of death, these groups attempted violent uprisings
against the Nazis. Most of these revolts involved 1,000 or fewer people. Few escaped
and most were killed during the revolts. Similar uprisings took place in the
concentration and death camps on several occasions. Members of Jewish youth
groups, young enough to be free from family responsibilities, were often at the
forefront of rebellions.
Between 1940 and 1942, the Warsaw ghetto had remained largely peaceful with little
violent resistance. Resistance movements there did not act out against the Nazis and
remained focused on providing care and information within the ghetto. The largest
uprising among the ghettos of Eastern Europe, which did take place in the Warsaw
ghetto, occurred in the spring of 1943. Mass deportations from the ghetto had begun
the year before, and it was soon clear to the residents that the result of deportation was
death. Approximately 300,000 had already been removed from the ghetto and
deported to death camps. When the order came to board train cars, the residents of the
ghetto refused. Hundreds in the ghetto began an armed resistance against the Nazis,
using whatever they could find to arm themselves. Jewish resistance forces held off
the Nazis for 27 days. In response, the Nazis burned the entire Warsaw ghetto. The
remaining fighters, hidden in the sewers beneath the ghetto, knew and understood
their fate. In the words of resistance fighter and ghetto survivor Leon Weinstein, “If
we were going to die, we would do it on our own terms. We would die standing
proud, on our feet, making a statement to the world.” They would not survive the
rebellion, but they would provide a potent symbol of rebellion and spirit in the hardest
of times.
The Nazi party administration created the ghettos as a single step in the eventual final
solution, but the final solution had not yet been defined or fully envisioned at the time
of the invasion of Poland. The ghettos would allow the easy and convenient
transportation of large numbers of Jews, regardless of the final solution, and provided
an effective provisional measure.
Operation Barbarossa
Code named Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union began in
June 1941. Planned for some time, this was not just a military invasion. Hitler and the
Nazi administration deployed not only military troops, but also the Einsatzgruppen.
The Einsatzgruppen, first created in Poland and sometimes called mobile killing units,
were deployed behind the front lines. These groups, made up of both German SS and
police officers, were supported by the German army, but were not a part of it. They
were charged with locating and identifying groups of Nazi enemies, including racial
enemies. While Jews were a primary target, the Einsatzgruppen also exterminated
both the Roma and Communists. Divisions of Einsatzgruppen had trucks and machine
guns, enabling them to move groups of individuals to mass killing sites and efficiently
kill large numbers of Jews or political enemies.
Germany seized Lithuania on the first day of the invasion. The Soviet Union had
annexed Lithuania only the year before and many Lithuanians saw the German forces
as liberators. Lithuania had a population of approximately 220,000 to 250,000 Jews in
June 1941. Only 15,000 escaped to the Soviet Union before the Germans entered
Lithuania. Within days, one of Lithuania’s major cities, Kavno, was subjected to a
large-scale pogrom, perhaps resulting in as many as several thousand deaths.
However, the Germans did not need to rely upon the Einsatzgruppen alone in
Lithuania. Local citizens, with the support of occupying Nazi administrators,
perpetuated these acts independently or with the aid of Einsatzgruppen. The
Lithuanian Security Police, created by the Germans on June 24, 1941, was known for
their zeal and enthusiasm in the persecution of Jews. While the plans and orders for
the extermination of the Jews came from the SS, the Lithuanian authorities were
allowed to make decisions on when and how to implement the plans.
Between June and October 1941, approximately 175,000 Jews in Lithuania were
murdered, with around 43,000 Jews remaining in ghettos in Lithuania’s cities. During
the period of time between December 1941 and July 1943, the Jews remaining in the
ghettos were exploited as a labor force, particularly those who survived the initial
massacres because they had trade skills essential within the community.
Smaller-scale, localized massacres continued. The few who survived to the end of the
war were deported to concentration camps and death camps. The Germans were
remarkably pleased with the progress in Lithuania. Within only a few months, 80
percent of the Jewish population was dead and the remainder confined to a ghetto in
forced labor conditions. As in the ghettos of Poland, uprisings were common and
Jewish escapees and local Lithuanians worked to create a strong resistance movement.
While the Nazi party relied upon a policy of deportation in Poland, in the Soviet
Union, they did not. The Einsatzgruppen moved through the countryside, locating
Jewish rural or isolated communities. Local police often offered assistance in finding
and exterminating communities. Jews were gathered and transported by truck to a
single mass gravesite nearby. During the first days of the invasion, they simply killed
Jewish men, but by late summer 1941, their mission had expanded and they shot and
killed men, women, and children. Upon arriving at the site, the victims were forced to
undress, turn over any valuables, and stand, facing the pit. In some cases, they were
made to dig their own graves or lie in the grave before being shot. In several cities,
including Minsk, ghettos, like those in Poland, were established shortly after the
invasion. As in Poland, the majority of those in these ghettos did not survive.
By late summer, Nazi commanders, including Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander
in the Soviet Union, requested a new means of killing large groups of Jews. Members
of the Einsatzgruppen were, apparently, experiencing psychological distress
personally shooting large numbers of women and children. Mobile gas vans, using
carbon monoxide to kill, were developed and used, along with shooting, to
exterminate approximately one million Soviet Jews. The first tests of the mobile gas
vans took place in 1939 and 1940, with mentally ill patients used as test subjects. The
vans, which resembled furniture vans, were built in standard factories and transformed
into killing vans in secret. While used throughout Eastern Europe, the vans were
responsible for many deaths in the Ukraine. Hitler’s success with the Einsatzgruppen
in the Soviet Union led to the formulation of the Final Solution, including the
deportment of German Jews to Eastern Europe for annihilation.
In September 1941, the Einsatzgruppen reached Kiev, which was home to 175,000
Jews. Of those, approximately 100,000 fled as the Nazis advanced toward the city.
Over two days, September 29 and 30, some 34,000 Jews were brought to Babi Yar, a
ravine outside the city. They were ordered to undress, and many were beaten or
attacked by dogs before they reached the ravine. Men and women were separated and
shot in different areas of the ravine. There, layers of bodies accumulated, as the living
were forced to lie down on the row of corpses beneath. A few survived the shooting,
feigning death and digging their way out after being buried alive in the mass of
bodies. Only 29 people are known to have survived the massacre, which remains the
largest single massacre of Jews during the war.
Not long after, during the winter of 1944, the Germans brought a group of
international journalists to Kiev. The ground was snow covered and frozen over
completely, leaving no evidence of what had occurred at Babi Yar. The journalists
were told that there were no more Jews in Kiev, but they did not investigate these
claims, and there was no international response to the massacre at Babi Yar. Mass
killings continued at Babi Yar, with estimates ranging from 70,000 to 120,000 people.
Jews were not the only ones killed at Babi Yar: large numbers of political activists,
Communists, and members of other groups, including the Roma, were also victims of
the Nazi killing sprees at Babi Yar. In 1943, in an attempt to hide what had occurred,
Nazi forces used forced, chained labor to burn the bodies in large ovens. When the
Soviets regained control of Kiev, Soviet officials refused for many years to
acknowledge the Jewish deaths at the site.

Essay on How did the invasion of Poland impact the international community?​