German occupation · Poland · 1939–1945
Nazi Germany dismantled Jewish life through ghettos, deportation and mass murder.
Explore PolandPublished by WTJPublication updated
1939–1945
German occupation · The occupier turns exclusion into genocide
Nazi Germany dismantled Jewish life through ghettos, deportation and mass murder.
An occupied country
Germany invaded Poland in September 1939; the Soviet Union occupied the east. German authorities imposed racial persecution in the territories they controlled. The killing centres later established in occupied Poland were Nazi German institutions. Their location does not make them institutions of the Polish state.
Ghettos isolate communities
German authorities forced Jews into ghettos, where hunger, disease and coercion caused enormous suffering. Deportations then sent people toward killing centres. Isolation helped perpetrators dismantle protection and access to help. It was part of an imposed process, not the voluntary withdrawal of Jewish communities.
Resistance under impossible conditions
Jews organized mutual aid, documented persecution and resisted, including through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Some non-Jews helped; others betrayed or exploited their neighbours. These choices occurred under occupation and terror. They matter without transferring responsibility for Germany’s genocidal project away from its organizers.