In the book, “The Eagle Unbowed,” Halik Konchaski follows the events that affected Poland in the world war. During the World War II, Poland suffered significantly at the hands of Germany. Following the destruction of Poland’s armed forces in 1939, the country was partitioned between the Soviet and Nazi forces, and with the progression of the war millions of Poles suffered and died. From the Warsaw Rising to the Treblinka genocide, Polish Jews were to be murdered and Christians to be reduced to semiliterate slaves. The Holocaust in Poland is a vital event that enables us to understand the various issues that affected Poles and the demise of the Republic of Poland.
The period between 1941 and 1943 marked the height of the German occupation of the Republic of Poland. During this era, Poles were subjected to worse living conditions of miserable poverty as well as systematic terror policies. However, in comparison to the Christian Poles, the Polish Jews faced an unprecedented policy of deliberate and calculated extermination, which was referred to as the Holocaust. The event is very imperative in not only to the World War II history but also to humankind’s history. The event is helpful in acknowledging the ramifications and the roots of racism, prejudice, and stereotyping, and developing an awareness of diversity acceptance and pluralism.
Germany was indifferent to the suffering and the plight of the Poles as they abused power and violated civil rights. The Holocaust was the assault on the Jews by Nazis and between June 1941 and 1943, approximately 90 percent of Jews died. The techniques that Nazis used include mass shootings in the East of Poland, purpose-built camps, shootings, and starvations in ghettos. The sheer magnitude of the Holocaust was deeply shocking because thousands died by the day with Germanic efficiency, and its speed made any effective response by the Poles and the Jews impossible. The disbelief and inaction of the outside world and the Poles made the policies of the Germans effective. The year 1942 marked the principal stage of the Holocaust, which occurred during a time when there lacked any outside intervention opportunity. During the year, the German forces were driving deeper into the territory occupied by the Soviet Union, while the Western allies were in retreat in the Far East and the Western Desert and thus allowed the Nazis to execute their extermination plans with ease. This is important to understanding the theme better as in 1942; it became easier for the German forces to penetrate Soviet-occupied Poland. The Soviet-occupied regions had 1, 350, 000 Jews who had lived in the area before the war. The Jews concentrated in cities including Wilno, Lwow, and Bialystok. However, some of the Jews had fled to the east, while others were deported to the Soviet Union as the Soviets retreated. The exact number remains unknown, but sources argue that a significant of the majority were in their homes by the time the Germans arrived and thus became deeply affected.
The Nazis deliberately planned, organized pogroms that ensured the effective execution of the Jews. The Einsatzgruppen, paramilitary death squads, accompanied the Wehrmacht into the city of Kresy to encourage pogroms that were against local Jews. Consequently, it is essential to understand that the Ukrainians helped the Germans in the endeavor, as they needed little encouragement. Ukrainian mobs run amok as they slaughtered Jews in the streets in Lwow. The Germans let the Ukrainians kill people in Drohobyes as they started the first pogrom. Consequently, also the Poles helped in the Holocaust, especially the ethnic Poles murdered local Jews. For example, near Bialystok, Germans managed to kill 2000 individuals, while a marginal group of ethnic Poles turned on the neighbors and killed 300 Jews, although some sources demonstrate the number to be around 1000. A pogrom known as Jedwabne was not spontaneous as many thought because it was a deliberate massacre that did not involve Jewish neighbors, but the perpetrators came from nearby villages to help in executing the murders. According to Kochanski, a plausible motive for the ethnic Pole in taking part in the Holocaust is attributed to revenge and anger against the perceived eminence and status of the Jews in the Soviet administration.
The continued prominence and degree of the Holocaust incorporated a series of policies targeted towards the Jews. The policies played a significant part in ensuring an organized and deliberate attack on the subjects. The two most important systems that emerged by 1941 as Nazis stamped their influence over Kresy included a program of mass shootings and confinement of individuals into ghettos. These policies were very influential in swaying the authority of Germans during the Holocaust and thus are important in understanding the event. The policies operated together with no particular order and logic. The Germans began the shootings, and later the Lithuanian and Belorussian auxiliaries recruited for the execution purposes continued the program. Consequently, every town that had the presence of the Jews had a ghetto established. The ghettos incorporated a few buildings surrounded by barbed wires while local auxiliaries and Germans protected the establishments. The number of Jews in a town or city caused issues, as German officials in areas such as Slonim often reported that the 25000 Jews in the region were too many, and thus the force lacked the resources and workforce to build a ghetto. Hence, the Nazis incorporated the mass murders in such areas to reduce the numbers. For example, in Slonim, the number had been reduced to 7000 by November 1941. Mass shootings were prevalent throughout Kresy as 20000 Jews were murdered in Stanislawow in the month of October 1941. From 1941 to early 1942, the mass shootings continued, and Kochanski demonstrates that the estimated victims during this time were about 300, 000.
Life in the establishments was a long struggle for survival as rations targeted at the Christian Poles dropped to barely survival levels, while Jews were allocated negligible rations that resulted in slow deaths due to starvation. Estimates show that about 20 percent or 100000 Jews in the ghettos died, mostly from starvation before they were deported. Many survived through their welfare agency that operated under the endorsement of the German-sponsored RGO in Poland, which also distributed assistance and aid from abroad.
However desperate the events in the forced labor camps and ghettos were, many Jews were deposited in unmarked graves after being shot. In 1942, the Germans launched the Final Solution referred as the “Endlosung.” This unprecedented operation was meant to exterminate virtually all Jews in Poland. The origins of the Final Solution came from various conferences held with the aim of plotting the destruction of the European Jewry, with the most important meeting held in Wannsee in January 1942. The primary plan was to begin the extermination in Poland due to the significant concentration of Jews, which would ensure the Poles were the first victims of the Holocaust. At the conference, Jozef Buhler, a General Government representative argued that Jews must be removed from every aspect of the General Government because they pose a significant danger. This is because they carry epidemics and their black market activities result in constant disorder in the economy of Poland. Buhler also demonstrated that a bigger proportion of the 2.5 million Jews were incapable of work. The German forces had the experience of carrying out large-scale extermination methods such as gas van in executing deficient patients, industrial pesticide Zyklon-B, as well as rigged-up gas chambers.
The Holocaust was very effective in killing a significant proportion of Jews. Poland had a populace of 32 million people by 1939, whereby 22 million were Poles, 3 million Ukrainians, 1 million Belarusians, 3 million Jews, 0.75 “locals,” and 0.75 Germans. Approximately six million people were killed during WWII, and only ten percent perished in military actions, and the dead were ninety percent Jews. The Holocaust is an essential theme in World War history as the contemporary world and future generations need to know the extent of the war and its impact on the European society and its populace. The Holocaust incorporated two primary policies that include the mass shootings and ghettos. While the ghettos were established in 1939, mass shootings began in 1941 when the Germans invaded USSR. As this failed to reduce the Jewry populace quickly, the Nazis introduced death camps where Polish Jews died, mostly in the four purpose built establishment of Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, and Belzec. The extermination camps were useful as about 600000 Jews perished at Belzec while Sobibor accounted for approximately 250000 individuals. Therefore, these aspects of the Holocaust are vital in ensuring that the world understands the untold story of the Poles in WWII.
Bibliography
Kochanski, Halik. The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. London: Allen Lane, 2012.
