World War II crimes in occupied Poland Approximately six million Polish citizens , divided nearly equally between non - Jewish and Jewish Poles , perished during World War II . Most were civilians killed by the actions of Nazi Germany , the Soviet Union , as well as their allies . At the Nuremberg Tribunal , three categories of wartime criminality were established : waging war of aggression , war crimes , and crimes against humanity . These three core crimes of international law were set apart from other crimes , and for the first time since the end of war categorized as violations of fundamental human values and norms . They were committed in occupied Poland on a tremendous scale . Civilian atrocities during the invasion of Poland ( September 1939 ) . From the start , the war against Poland was intended as a fulfilment of the plan described by Adolf Hitler in his book " Mein Kampf " . The main assumption of the plan was that all of Eastern Europe should become part of the greater Germany , the so - called German " Lebensraum " ( " living space " ) . The German Army was sent out , as stated by Adolf Hitler in his Armenian quote : " " with orders to kill without mercy and reprieve all men , women and children of the Polish race " " . This could be seen as an attempt to destroy the entire nation . The Germans saw both Poles and Polish Jews as racially inferior to them . Indiscriminate executions by firing squad . The Germans carried out massacres and executions of innocent civilians from the very beginning of war against Poland . It is estimated that 200 executions were carried out daily . Typically , the executions were conducted in public spaces such as the town square in order to inflict terror . Civilians were murdered every single day during the Wehrmacht advance across Poland in September 1939 . The locations , dates and numbers include : Starogard ( 2 September ) , 150 Poles and 40 Jews ; Świekatowo ( 3 September ) , 26 Poles ; Wieruszów ( 3 September ) , 20 Jews ; Widawa ( 3 September ) , Rabbi burned to death , massacre in Częstochowa ( 4 September ) , between 600 – 1 , 000 or more people murdered , including 110 – 180 Jews ; Imielin ( 4 – 5 September ) , 28 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 187 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , page 187 . < / ref > Kajetanowice ( 5 September ) , 72 civilians massacred in revenge for two German horses killed by German " friendly fire " ; Trzebinia ( 5 September ) , 97 Polish citizens ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 239 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 239 < / ref > Piotrków ( 5 September ) , Germans set fire to Jewish section of city ; at least 6 Jews shot ; Bedzin ( 8 September ) , 200 burned to death ; Tuchola ( 8 September ) , one man shot in passing ; Limanowa ( 9 September ) , nine Jews and one Pole ; Kłecko ( 9 – 10 September ) , 300 Polish citizens ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 315 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , pp . 315 – 324 . < / ref > Mszadla , Łódź Voivodeship ( 10 September ) , 153 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 333 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 333 . < / ref > Gmina Besko ( 11 September ) , 21 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 355 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 355 . < / ref > Kowalewice , Łódź Voivodeship ( 11 September ) , 23 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 352 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 352 . < / ref > Sucha Dolna , Łódź Voivodeship ( 11 September ) , eleven Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 353 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 353 . < / ref > Kokoszkowy ( 13 September ) , ten Poles ; Pilica ( 12 September ) ; 32 Jews and 4 Poles ; Olszewo , Gmina Brańsk ( 13 September ) , over half the village murdered including women and children ; Mielec ( 13 September ) , 55 Jews burned to death ; Piątek , Łódź Voivodeship ( 13 September ) , 43 Poles and 7 Jews ; Przemyśl ( 14 September ) , 43 Jews massacred ; Sieradz ( 14 September ) , 5 Jews and 2 Poles ; Solec Kujawski ( 14 September ) , 44 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 387 - 388 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , pp . 387 – 388 . < / ref > Linsk ( 19 September ) , 1 Pole ; Tuchola ( 28 September ) , 1 Pole ; Gostycyn ( 28 – 29 September ) , 6 Poles ; Zurawki ( 29 September ) , 9 Poles ; Gzinka ( 30 September ) , 11 Polish citizens ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 468 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 468 . < / ref > Chojnice , 40 Polish citizens ; Gmina Kłecko , 23 Poles ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 313 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 313 . < / ref > Bądków , Łódź Voivodeship , 22 Poles . < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 330 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 330 . < / ref > Dynów , 200 Jews ; < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 392 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 392 . < / ref > Needless to say , public executions continued well beyond September , and included Wieruszów County , < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 171 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , pp . 171 – 173 . < / ref > Gmina Besko , Gmina Gidle , < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 267 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , p . 267 . < / ref > Gmina Kłecko , Gmina Ryczywół , < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 375 - 376 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , pp . 375 – 376 . < / ref > and Gmina Siennica , < ref name = " Datner - 55 / 380 - 384 " > Szymon Datner , " 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce " , pp . 380 – 384 . < / ref > among others . Along with civilians , captured Polish Army soldiers were massacred also . On the very first day of invasion ( 1 September 1939 ) , Polish POWs were murdered at Pilchowice , Czuchów , Gierałtowice , Bojków , Lubliniec , Kochcice , Zawiść , Ornontowice and Wyry . Bombing campaigns . The " Luftwaffe " took part in the mass killing by strafing refugees on the road . The number of civilians wounded or killed by aerial bombing is put at over 100 , 000 . The " Luftwaffe " dropped thousands of bombs on open cities inhabited only by civilian populations . Amongst the Polish cities and towns bombed at the beginning of war were : Brodnica , Bydgoszcz , Chełm , Ciechanów , Kraków , Częstochowa , Grodno , Grudziądz , Gdynia , Janów , Jasło , Katowice , Kielce , Kowel , Kutno , Lublin , Lwów , Olkusz , Piotrków , Płock , Płońsk , Poznań , Puck , Radom , Radomsko , Sulejów , Warsaw , Wieluń , Wilno , and Zamość . Over 156 towns and villages were attacked by the " Luftwaffe " . Warsaw suffered particularly severely with a combination of aerial bombardment and artillery fire reducing large parts of the historic centre to rubble . The Soviet Union assisted the Germans by allowing them to use a radio beacon from Minsk to guide their planes . As part of their military campaign , the Nazi war propaganda used the Bydgoszcz incidents to enrage German nationals . In the town of Bydgoszcz , the German " Fifth Column " ( see : " Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz " ) attempted to aid the invading forces by shooting at Polish soldiers . The Polish Army executed a number of them in reprisal , including for possession of military weapons . The Nazi German government claimed wholesale slaughter of Germans in the city , which was not true . As soon as Bydgoszcz was talken over by the Wehrmacht , some 20 , 000 civilian Poles were murdered for revenge , wrote Davies . Joint German and Soviet occupation ( 1939 until June 1941 ) . Following the invasion of Poland by Germany on 1 September 1939 from the west , on 17 September 1939 their Soviet ally attacked Poland from the east in accordance with the terms of their secret agreement . Within a month , Poland had been divided between two occupational forces . Germany annexed 91 , 902 square kilometres with 10 million citizens and controlled the so - called General Government which consisted of a further 95 , 742 kilometres with 12 million citizens . The Soviet Union occupied 202 , 069 square kilometres with over 13 million citizens . There were many similarities between the two zones of occupations . Both invaders executed Polish civilians and prisoners - of - war in parallel campaigns of ethnic cleansing . " The scale and extent of the brutality practised in occupied Poland far exceeded anything experienced in other occupied countries . " Soviet war crimes against Poland . Amongst the first to suffer mass repressions at the hands of the Soviets , were the Border Defence Corps . Many officers were murdered by the NKVD right after capture . Polish General Olszyna - Wilczyński was shot without due process at the moment of his identification . In the Wilno area all higher officers were murdered , same as in Polesie , where 150 army officers were executed before the rest of them were taken prisoner . In Rohatyń , any uniformed men captured , were murdered with their wives and children . The Polish regular troops in Lviv , including Police force , voluntarily laid down their arms after agreeing to the Soviet terms , which cynically and dishonestly allowed them to travel to neutral countries ( Rumania and Hungary ) . The Russian leadership reneged on their agreement entirely . All Poles were imprisoned and instead sent to Soviet POW camps including 2 , 000 army officers . Soviet estimates put the total number of captured Polish servicemen at 9 , 350 officers and 181 , 233 soldiers . Katyn massacre of Polish military echelon by the NKVD . The Katyn massacre in April and May 1940 has become the most notorious example of Soviet war crimes committed by the NKVD against prisoners of war following the invasion . The Katyn Forest near Smolensk , Russia , is the primary location where 4 , 443 officers ( the entire Polish military echelon under incarceration ) , were murdered by the Soviet secret police . Most victims were Polish reserve officers including political leaders , government officials , and intellectuals . The name Katyn is now associated with the systematic execution of up to 21 , 768 Polish citizens in several nearby locations . From the outset , the Soviet secret police began to eliminate the Polish social activists and community leaders through judicial murder . Captured Poles were transported to the Soviet Ukraine where most of them were executed in the dungeons of the Kharkiv NKVD offices . The Soviets set out to destroy former Polish system of administration and remove Polish cultural influences under concocted premises of class struggle . All Polish nationals were declared citizens of the Soviet Union subject to Stalinist laws as of 29 November 1939 . Soviet deportations as a means of ethnic cleansing . In a grim foreshadowing of the near future , an estimated 1 . 2 to 1 . 7 million Polish nationals ( entire families with children , women and elderly ) were loaded onto freight trains and deported to the Eastern parts of the USSR , the Urals , and Siberia . The Soviets used against Poles the same process of subjugation used against their own citizens for many years beforehand , especially mass deportations . In 1940 and the first half of 1941 , the Soviets removed Poles from their homes in four major waves . The first deportation action took place from 10 February 1940 on , with more than 220 , 000 victims , sent to northern European Russia ; the second , on 13 – 15 April 1940 affected 300 , 000 to 330 , 000 Poles , sent primarily to Kazakhstan . The third wave , in June – July 1940 totaled more than 240 , 000 victims perhaps 400 , 000 . The fourth one took place in June 1941 , deporting 200 , 000 Poles . The fourth wave included a large number of children . Upon resumption of Polish - Soviet diplomatic relations in 1941 , it was determined , based on Soviet information , that more than 760 , 000 deportees had already died . A large percentage of the dead were children , who had comprised about a third of all deportees . On top of deporting Polish citizens " en masse " , the Soviets forcibly drafted Polish men into the Red Army . It is estimated that a staggering 210 , 000 young Poles were conscripted as newly declared Soviet subjects . Cultural destruction of Kresy . In the Soviet zone of occupation Polish language was replaced with Russian in official usage . Religious education was forbidden . Schools were forced to serve as tools of communist indoctrination . Monuments were destroyed ( i . e . in Wołczyn , the remains of King Stanisław August Poniatowski were ditched ) , street - names changed , bookshops closed , libraries burned and publishers shutdown . Collections from Tarnopol , Stanisławów and Sokal were transported to Russian archives . Soviet censorship was strictly enforced . Even the ringing of church bells was banned . Notably , a small minority of Polish citizens of various ethnic backgrounds ( i . e . Belarussians ) welcomed the Soviet invasion in the hope of gaining political concessions . Taxes were raised and religious institutions were forced to close . The Soviets replaced the zloty with the ruble , but gave them blatantly absurd equal value . Businesses were mandated to stay open and sell at pre - war prices , hence allowing Soviet soldiers to buy goods with rubles . Entire hospitals , schools and factories were moved to the USSR . Terror in the German zone of occupation . During the German invasion of Poland ( 1939 ) , special action squads of SS and police ( the " Einsatzgruppen " ) were deployed in the rear , and arrested or killed civilians caught offering resistance against the Germans or considered capable of doing so , as determined by their position and social status . Tens of thousands of government officials , landowner s , clergy , and members of the intelligentsia — teachers , doctors , journalists , and others ( both Poles and Jews ) — were either murdered in mass executions or sent to prisons and concentration camp s . German army units and paramilitary Selbstschutz ( " self - defense " ) forces composed of " Volksdeutsche " also participated in executions of civilians . The Selbstschutz , along with SS units , took an active part in the Mass murders in Piaśnica , in which between 12 , 000 and 16 , 000 Polish civilians were murdered . One of the most well known examples was the deportation to concentration camps in November 1939 of 180 professors from the university of Cracow . The German occupiers launched AB - Aktion in May 1940 a plan to eliminate the Polish intelligentsia and leadership class . More than 16 , 000 members of the intelligentsia were murdered in Operation Tannenberg alone . The Roman Catholic Church was suppressed in Wartheland more harshly than elsewhere : churches were systematically closed ; most priests were either killed , imprisoned , or deported to the General Government . In the General Government , Hans Frank ' s diary shows he planned a " war on the clergy " . The Germans also closed seminaries and convents and persecuted monks and nuns . Between 1939 and 1945 , an estimated 2 , 801 members of the Polish clergy were murdered ( in all of Poland ) ; of these , 1 , 926 died in concentration camps ( 798 of them at Dachau ) . One hundred and eight of them are regarded as blessed martyrs , Maximilian Kolbe as a saint . German " pacifications " of Polish towns and villages . The so - called " pacification " operations sometimes named the anti - partisan actions , constituted the core policy of the Nazi regime against Poland and were of a large scale , resulting in the death of approximately 20 , 000 townspeople in less than two years following the attack . They were mainly conducted in the areas of General Government , Pomorze , and in the vicinities of Białystok and Wielkopolska . Terror killings committed by uniformed troops included : Otorowo ( 20 October 1939 ) , 5 or 19 Poles shot because Swastika flag was removed by someone ; Szamotuły ( 20 October ) , 5 Poles in a crowded spectacle at the city centre ; Warsaw ( 22 November 1939 ) , announcement of the first anti - Jewish legislation : 53 Jews executed in public as punishment for one " einheimischen Polizisten " assaulted on the street ; Wawer ( 27 December ) , 106 / 107 murdered ; Palmiry ( December 1940 to July 1941 ) , 2 , 000 Poles during secretive German AB - Aktion in Poland ; Kościan ( 2 – 23 October , 7 November 1939 ) , 68 Polish intelligentsia including parish priest and a count ; Gniezno , 15 Polish townsmen including Father Zabłocki ; Bydgoszcz , 136 Polish school boys including 12 - year - olds with about 6 , 000 others by end of 1939 ; Leszno , 250 Poles ; Śrem , 118 Poles ; Wolsztyn , a group of Poles ; Kórnik , 16 Polish citizens ; Trzemeszno , 30 Polish citizens ; Mogilno , 30 / 39 Poles and a Jew ; Antoninek , 20 Polish citizens shot . Other execution sites included : Rawicz , Grodzisk Wielkopolski , Nowy Tomyśl , Międzychód , Żnin , Września , Chełmno , Chojnice , Kalisz and Włocławek . Extermination of psychiatric patients . In July 1939 , a Nazi secret program called T - 4 Euthanasia Program was developed in Germany with the intention of exterminating physically or mentally handicapped people . The programme was put into practice in the occupied territories during the invasion of Poland . Initially , it was implemented according to the following plan : a German director took control over the psychiatric hospital ; under the threat of execution no patient could be released ; all were counted and transported from the hospital by trucks to an unknown destination . Each truck was accompanied by soldiers from special " SS " detachments who returned without the patients after a few hours . The patients were said to be transferred to another hospital , but evidence showed otherwise . The first action of this type took place on 22 September 1939 in Kocborowo at a large psychiatric hospital in the Gdańsk region . Along with their patients , six hospital employees including a deputy director , were murdered by a firing squad . By December , some 1 , 800 patients from Kocborowo had been murdered and buried in the Szpegawski forest . In total , 7 , 000 victims were buried there . Another extermination action took place in October 1939 at a hospital in Owińska near Poznań where 1 , 000 patients ( children and adults ) were killed ( 200 more a year later ) . In addition to executions by firing squad , other methods of mass murder were also implemented for the first time such as at the hospital in Owińska . Some 400 patients along with medical staff , were transported to a military fortress in Poznań where , in Fort VII bunker s , they were gassed with carbon monoxide delivered in metal tanks . Other Owińska hospital patients were gassed in sealed trucks by exhaust fumes . The same method was performed in Kochanówek Hospital near Łódź where 2 , 200 persons were killed between March – August 1940 . This was the first " successful " test of mass murder using gas van poisoning and this " technique " was later used and perfected on many other psychiatric patients in occupied Poland and Germany . Starting in 1941 , gas vans were used on inmates of the extermination camps . The total number of psychiatric patients murdered by the Nazis in occupied Poland between 1939 and 1945 is estimated to be more than 16 , 000 , with an additional 10 , 000 patients who died of malnutrition and hunger . Additionally , approximately 100 out of 243 members of the Polish Psychiatric Association met the same fate as their patients . Treatment of Polish Jews prior to the Holocaust . While ethnic Poles were usually subject to selective persecution in an effort to discourage them from resisting the Germans , all ethnic Jews were targeted from the outset . During the first 55 days of the occupation approximately 5 , 000 Polish Jews were killed . As of November 12 , 1939 , all Jews over the age of 12 , or 14 , were forced to wear the Star of David . They were legally banned from working in key industries and in government institutions ; to bake bread , or to earn more than 500 zloty a month . Initially , the Jews were killed at a lower rate than ethnic Poles . Inside occupied Poland , the Germans created hundreds of ghettos in which they forced Jews to live . These World War II ghettos were part of the German official policy of removing Jews from public life . The combination of excess numbers of inmates , unsanitary conditions and lack of food resulted in a high death rate among them . The first ghetto was established in October 1939 at Piotrków . Initially the ghettos were open but on 1 May the Łódź ghetto was closed by Germans sealing the Jews inside . The Warsaw ghetto was closed in November 1940 . The Germans started a reservation for Jews near Lublin . The Germans tried to divide the Poles from the Jews using several cruel laws . Another law was that Poles were forbid from buying from Jewish shops in which if they did they were subject to execution . Maria Brodacka became the first Pole to be killed by the Germans for helping a Jew . The Germans used the incident to kill 100 Jews being held as hostages . At the start of the war 1 , 335 Poles were killed for sheltering Jews . The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos located in the territory of General Government during World War II , established by Nazi Germany in Warsaw , the prewar [ [ Capital capital of Poland . Between 1941 and 1943 , starvation , disease and mass deportations to [ [ concentration camp ] ] s and [ [ extermination camp ] ] s such as during the [ [ Gross - aktion Warschau ] ] , reduced the population of the ghetto from an estimated 445 , 000 to approximately 71 , 000 . In 1943 the Warsaw Ghetto was the scene of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising . The ghetto was reduced to rubble . From 1940 to 1944 , it is estimated that starvation and disease caused the death of 43 , 000 Jews imprisoned in the Holocaust ghettos . Most Polish Jews subsequently perished in the German death camps . Towards the end of 1942 , the mass extermination of Polish Jews had started with deportations from urban centres to death camps including Jews from outside Poland . Cultural genocide . [ [ File : Warsaw 1944 by Bałuk - 26320 . jpg | thumb | right | Germans looting the [ [ Zachęta ] ] National Gallery of Art and Museum in Warsaw , summer of 1944 ] ] As part of the concerted effort to destroy Polish culture and heritage , the Germans closed and destroyed [ [ universities ] ] , schools , museums , libraries , and scientific [ [ laboratories ] ] . They demolished hundreds of monuments to national heroes . Polish leading academic institutions were turned into German establishments . By the end of 1942 " over 90 % " of the world - class art previously in Poland – as estimated by the German officials – was put into their own possession . Polish language had been banned in " [ [ Reichsgau Wartheland | Wartheland ] ] " . Children were forced to learn the basics of German under harsh physical punishment . To prevent the birth of a new generation of educated Poles , German officials decreed that the schooling of Polish youth would end at the elementary level . In his capacity as Reich Commissioner , Himmler oversaw the kidnapping of Polish children to be Germanized . Historians estimate that between 50 , 000 and up to 200 , 000 Polish children were taken from their families during the war . They were sent to the farms and families in the Reich never to return . Many of the children remained in Germany after the war unaware of their true origin . At the end of October 1939 , the Germans introduced the death penalty for active disobedience to the German occupation . Plans for mass expulsions and the system of [ [ slave labor ] ] camps for up to 20 million Poles were made . Himmler thought of moving all Poles to Siberia . In May 1940 he wrote a [ [ memorandum ] ] ; in it , he promised to eventually [ [ deport ] ] all Poles to the east . Most of them were intended to die during the cultivation of the swamps . Forced evictions and roundups of slave labor . The Germans planned to change ownership of all property in the land incorporated into the [ [ Third Reich ] ] . In a speech to German [ [ colonist ] ] , [ [ Arthur Greiser ] ] said : " In ten years there will not even be a peasant smallholding which will not be in German hands " . In the " [ [ Wartheland ] ] " , the Nazi goal was complete Germanization . The formerly Polish territories were to become politically , culturally , socially , and economically German . The Nazis closed elementary schools where Polish was the language taught . Streets and cities were renamed ( Łódź became " Litzmannstadt " , etc . ) . Tens of thousands of Polish [ [ Company | enterprises ] ] from large industrial firms to small shops , were seized without payment to the owners . Signs posted in public places warned : " Entrance forbidden for Poles , Jews , and dogs . " The forced resettlement affected 2 million Poles . In the severe winter of 1939 – 40 families were made to leave behind almost everything without any recompense . As part of Operation Tannenberg alone , 750 , 000 Polish peasants were forced out of their homes which were leveled , and the land given to German colonists and servicemen . A further 330 , 000 were murdered . Jews were treated slightly differently as they were gathered together into ghettos in the cities . [ [ Heinrich Himmler ] ] ordered all Jews in the annexed lands to be deported to central Poland . In winter 1939 – 40 , about 100 , 000 Jews were thus deported . All Polish males were required to perform forced labor . Between 1939 and 1945 , at least 1 . 5 million Polish citizens were captured , and transported to the Reich for forced labour against their will . One estimate has 1 million ( including POWs ) from annexed lands and 1 . 28 million from the General Government . The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes the figure was more than two and half million during the war . Many were teenage boys and girls . Although Germany also used forced labourers from [ [ Western Europe ] ] , Poles , along with other Eastern Europeans viewed as inferior , were subject to especially harsh [ [ discriminatory ] ] measures . They were forced to wear identifying purple Ps sewn to their clothing , subjected to a curfew , and banned from [ [ public transport ] ] . While the treatment of factory workers or farm hands often varied depending on the individual employer , Polish laborers as a rule were compelled to work longer hours for lower wages than Western Europeans and , in many cities , they were forced to live in segregated [ [ barracks ] ] behind barbed wire . Social relations with Germans outside work were forbidden and sexual relations with them were considered " [ [ Rassenschande | racial defilement ] ] " , punishable by death . During the war , hundreds of Polish men were executed for their relations with German women . Concentration camps . [ [ File : PLASZOW - German concentration camp near Krakow PL . jpg | thumb | upright = 1 . 4 | [ [ Kraków - Płaszów concentration camp | Płaszów concentration camp ] ] outside Kraków ] ] Citizens of Poland , but especially ethnic Poles and Polish Jews were imprisoned in nearly every camp of the [ [ Nazi concentration camps | extensive concentration camp system ] ] in German - occupied Poland and in the Reich . A major [ [ labour camp ] ] complex at [ [ Stutthof concentration camp | Stutthof ] ] , east of Gdańsk / Danzig , existed from September 1939 , till the end of war . An estimated 20 , 000 Poles died there as a result of hard labour , executions , disease and starvation . Some 100 , 000 Poles were deported to [ [ Majdanek concentration camp ] ] with subcamps in Budzyn , Trawniki , [ [ Poniatowa concentration camp | Poniatowa ] ] , Krasnik , Pulawy , as well as the " Airstrip " , and Lipowa added in 1943 . Tens of thousands of prisoners died there . An estimated 20 , 000 Poles died at [ [ Sachsenhausen concentration camp | Sachsenhausen ] ] outside Poland , 20 , 000 at [ [ Gross - Rosen ] ] , 30 , 000 at [ [ Mauthausen - Gusen concentration camp | Mauthausen ] ] , 17 , 000 at [ [ Neuengamme concentration camp | Neuengamme ] ] , 10 , 000 at Dachau , and 17 , 000 at [ [ Ravensbrück ] ] . In addition , tens of thousands of Polish people were executed or died in their thousands at other camps , including special children ' s camps such as in Łódź and its subcamp at [ [ Dzierżązna ] ] , in prisons and other places of detention inside and outside Poland . The [ [ Auschwitz concentration camp ] ] went into operation on 14 June 1940 . The first transport of 728 Polish prisoners consisted mostly of schoolchildren , students and soldiers from the overcrowded prison at [ [ Tarnów ] ] . Within a week another 313 arrived . There were major transports in August ( 1 , 666 ) and September ( 1 , 705 ) . This so - called " Polish " phase of Auschwitz lasted until the middle of 1942 . By March 1941 , 10 , 900 prisoners were registered at the camp , most of them Poles . The most notorious concentration camps in occupied Poland as well as along Nazi German borders included : [ [ Gross - Rosen ] ] in Silesia , now part of Poland , [ [ Janowska ] ] , [ [ Kraków - Płaszów concentration camp | Kraków - Płaszów ] ] , [ [ Poniatowa concentration camp | Poniatowa ] ] ( reassigned from forced labor camp ) , [ [ Skarżysko - Kamienna ] ] , [ [ Soldau concentration camp | Soldau ] ] , [ [ Stutthof concentration camp | Stutthof ] ] , and [ [ Trawniki concentration camp | Trawniki ] ] . Forced labour camps . The World War II camp system where Poles were detained , imprisoned and forced into slave labour , was one of fundamental structures of the Nazi regime , and with the [ [ invasion of Poland ] ] became the backbone of German war economy and the state organized terror . It is estimated that some 5 million Polish citizens went through them . The incomplete list of camp locations with at least 100 slave labourers , included in alphabetical order : [ [ Andrychy ] ] , Antoniew - Sikawa , [ [ Augustów ] ] , [ [ Będzin ] ] , Białośliwie , [ [ Bielsk Podlaski ] ] , Bliżyn , [ [ Bobrek concentration camp | Bobrek ] ] , Bogumiłów , Boże Dary , [ [ Brusy ] ] , [ [ Burzenin ] ] , [ [ Chorzów ] ] , Dyle , [ [ Gidle ] ] , [ [ Grajewo ] ] , [ [ Herbertów ] ] , [ [ Inowrocław ] ] , [ [ Janów Lubelski ] ] , [ [ Kacprowice ] ] , Katowice , [ [ Kazimierza Wielka ] ] , [ [ Kazimierz Dolny ] ] , Klimontów , [ [ Koronowo ] ] , Kraków - Podgórze , [ [ Kraków - Płaszów concentration camp | Kraków - Płaszów ] ] , Krychów , Lipusz , łysaków , Miechowice , Mikuszowice , [ [ Mircze ] ] , [ [ Mysłowice ] ] , Ornontowice , [ [ Nowe ] ] , [ [ Nowy Sącz ] ] , [ [ Potulice ] ] , [ [ Rachanie ] ] , [ [ Słupia ] ] , [ [ Sokółka ] ] , [ [ Starachowice ] ] , Swiętochłowice , [ [ Tarnogród ] ] , [ [ Nowy Wiśnicz | Wiśnicz Nowy ] ] , [ [ Wierzchowiska ] ] , [ [ Włoszczowa ] ] , Wola Gozdowska , Zarki , and [ [ Zarudzie ] ] . German - Soviet war of agression ( July 1941 to December 1944 ) . Following the German attack against Soviet forces in eastern Poland , the Soviet [ [ NKVD ] ] panicked and executed their prisoners " en masse " before retreating . One estimate puts the death toll in the prisons at up to 30 , 000 , although , there may have been as many as 100 , 000 victims at the Soviets hands as they retrogressed . Another estimate puts the total at 120 , 000 for those killed in NKVD prisons and during the flight . Stalin ordered the execution of those believed to have spied on the Soviet Union which meant practically everyone for the secret police executioners . Soviet executions of civilian prisoners June / July 1941 . The Soviets left thousands of corpses piled up in prison yards , corridors , cells , basements , and NKVD torture chambers , usually in a sea of blood ; as discovered by the advancing Germans in June / July 1941 . The following is a partial list of prisons and other secret execution places , were mass murder took place ; compiled by historian [ [ Tadeusz Piotrowski ( sociologist ) | Tadeusz Piotrowski ] ] , and others . In eight prewar Polish voivodeships , they included in alphabetical order ; Augustów prison : ( with 30 bodies ) ; [ [ Berezwecz ] ] : ( with 2 , 000 , up to 3 , 000 dead ) ; Białystok : ( with hundreds of victims ) ; Boryslaw , ( dozens ) ; Bóbrka : ( 9 - 16 ) ; Brzeżany : ( over 220 ) ; Busk : ( about 40 ) ; Bystrzyca Nadwornianska , [ [ Červień | Cherven ] ] , Ciechanowiec : ( around 10 ) ; Czerlany : ( 180 POWs ) ; Czortków , Dobromil : ( 400 murdered ) ; Drohobycz : ( up to 1 , 000 ) ; Dubno : ( around 525 ) ; Grodno : ( under 100 ) ; Gródek Jagiellonski : ( 3 ) ; Horodenka , Jaworów : ( 32 ) ; Kałusz , Kamionka Strumilowa : ( about 20 ) ; Kołomyja , Komarno , Krzemieniec : ( up to 1 , 500 ) ; Lida , Lwów ( over 12 , 000 murdered in 3 separate prisons ) ; Łopatyn : ( 12 ) ; [ [ Łuck ] ] : ( up to 4 , 000 bodies ) ; Mikolajów , Minsk : ( over 700 ) ; Nadworna : ( about 80 ) ; Oleszyce , Oszmiana : ( at least 60 ) ; Otynia : ( 300 ) ; Pasieczna , Pińsk : ( perhaps hundreds ) ; Przemyślany : ( up to 1 , 000 ) ; Równe : ( up to 500 ) ; Rudki : ( 200 ) ; Sambor : ( at least 200 , up to 720 ) ; Sarny : ( around 90 ) ; Sądowa Wisznia : ( about 70 ) ; Sieniatycze : ( 15 ) ; Skniłów : ( 200 POWs ) ; Słonim , Stanisławów : ( about 2 , 800 ) ; Stryj : ( at least 100 ) ; Szczerzec : ( about 30 ) ; Tarasowski Las : ( about 100 ) ; Tarnopol : ( up to 1 , 000 ) ; [ [ Wilejka ] ] : ( over 700 ) ; Wilno : ( hundreds ) ; Włodzimierz Wołynski , Wołkowysk : ( 7 ) ; Wołożyn : ( about 100 ) ; Wolozynek , Zalesiany , Zaleszczyki , Zborów : ( around 8 ) ; Złoczów : ( up to 750 ) ; Zółkiew : ( up to 60 ) and Zydaczów . It was not only prisoners who were murdered by NKVD as the Soviets retreated . Other Soviet crimes included Brzeżany , where Soviet soldiers threw hand grenades into homes , and Czortków , where four priests , three brothers and a tertiary were murdered . The Holocaust in Nazi occupied Poland . The first German death camp in occupied Poland was established in late 1941 at [ [ Chełmno nad Nerem | Chełmno ] ] ( " Kulmhof " in German ) . In the [ [ Chełmno extermination camp ] ] , the " SS Totenkopfverbände " used mobile [ [ gas van ] ] s to murder mostly Jews and Roma imprisoned at the [ [ Łódź Ghetto ] ] ( German : " Litzmannstadt " ) . At least 152 , 000 people were killed at Chełmno , according to a German verdict , and up to 340 , 000 estimated by GKBZNwP . After the [ [ Wannsee Conference ] ] of 1942 , the German government secretly built three regular death factories in occupied Poland as part of [ [ Operation Reinhard ] ] ( most deadly phase of the [ [ Final Solution ] ] ) using faster methods of killing and [ [ Cremation # World War II | incinerating ] ] people , this time by semi - industrial means . They were as follows : the [ [ Treblinka extermination camp ] ] , [ [ Belzec extermination camp | Belzec ] ] , and [ [ Sobibor extermination camp ] ] . Parallel killing facilities were set up at [ [ Auschwitz - Birkenau ] ] within the already existing " Auschwitz I " , at the [ [ Majdanek concentration camp ] ] , and finally , at the [ [ concentration camp ] ] [ [ Warsaw concentration camp | " Warschau " ] ] . Auschwitz - Birkenau . In September 1941 , 200 ill prisoners , most of them Poles , along with 600 Soviet [ [ prisoners of war | POWs ] ] , were killed in the first gassing experiments at Auschwitz . Beginning in 1942 , Auschwitz ' s prisoner population became much more diverse , as Jews and other " enemies of the state " from all over German - occupied Europe were deported to the camp . About 960 , 000 Jews died at Auschwitz among its at least 1 . 1 million victims , including 438 , 000 from Hungary and 300 , 000 Polish Jews , French 69 , 000 , Dutch 60 , 000 , and Greek 55 , 000 . The Polish scholar [ [ Franciszek Piper ] ] , the chief historian of Auschwitz , estimates that 140 , 000 to 150 , 000 Poles were brought to that camp between 1940 and 1945 , and that 70 , 000 to 75 , 000 died there as victims of executions , of [ [ human experimentation | cruel medical experiments ] ] , and of starvation and disease . There were also hundreds of thousands of victims at concentration camps in Majdanek , Treblinka , and Warsaw . Ukrainian massacres in occupied Poland . For many years during the Soviet domination over [ [ Communist Poland ] ] , the knowledge of Ukrainian [ [ Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia ] ] perpetrated against ethnic Poles and Jews , by Ukrainian nationalists and paesants was suppressed for political propaganda reasons . Among the first to suffer mass killings were the units of Polish Army fleeing the German advance in 1939 . On top of uniformed men being ambushed , there are records of civilians being murdered along with them , and women raped . Following the German attack against the USSR , many ethnic Ukrainians viewed [ [ Nazi Germany ] ] as their liberator , in the hopes of establishing an independent Ukraine . The ethnically motivated killings intensified after the Soviet occupation zone was overrun across the regions of " Kresy " . Some 200 Polish refugees were murdered at Nawóz . Ethnic Ukrainians were also among the supporters of the rounding up and murdering of Jews . [ [ File : Lipikach . jpg | thumb | right | Victims of a massacre committed by OUN - UPA in [ [ Wołyń Voivodeship ( 1921 – 1939 ) | Lipniki , Poland ] ] , 1943 ] ] Numerous sources state that as soon as the Germans advanced toward Lviv , Ukrainian countrymen began to murder Jews in territories with predominantly Ukrainian population . It is estimated that , in this wave of pogroms across 54 cities , some 24 , 000 Jews were killed . With many Jews already executed or fleeing , the organized groups of Ukrainian nationalists under [ [ Mykola Lebed ] ] began to target ethnic Poles , including even pregnant women and children . During the subsequent campaign of ethnic cleansing by Ukrainian nationalists gathered into paramilitary groups under the command of [ [ OUN - UPA ] ] and [ [ OUN - B ] ] partisans , some 80 , 000 – 100 , 000 Polish citizens were murdered . Locations , dates and numbers of victims included ( in chronological order ) : Koszyszcze ( 15 March 1942 ) , 145 Poles plus 19 Ukrainian " collaborators " , 7 Jews and 9 Russians , massacred in the presence of the German police ; Antonówska ( April , 1942 ) , 9 Poles ; Aleksandrówka ( September , 1942 ) , 6 Poles ; Rozyszcze ( November , 1942 ) , 4 Poles ; Zalesie ( December , 1942 ) , 9 Poles ; Jezierce ( 16 December 1942 ) , 280 Poles ; Borszczówka ( 3 March 1943 ) , 130 Poles including 42 children killed by Ukrainians with the Germans ; Pienki , Pendyki Duze & Pendyki Male , three locations ( 18 March 1943 ) , 180 Poles ; Melnytsa ( 18 March 1943 ) , about 80 Poles , murdered by Ukrainian police with the Germans ; Lipniki ( 25 March 1943 ) , 170 Poles ; Huta Majdanska ( 13 April 1943 ) , 175 Poles ; Zabara ( 22 – 23 April 1943 ) , 750 Poles ; Huta Antonowiecka ( 24 April 1943 ) , around 600 Poles ; Klepachiv ( 5 May 1943 ) , 42 Poles ; [ [ Katerynivka | Katerburg ] ] ( 7 – 8 May 1943 ) , 28 Poles , 10 Jews and 2 mixed Polish - Ukrainian " collaborator " families ; Stsryki ( 29 May 1943 ) , at least 90 Poles ; Hurby ( 2 June 1943 ) , about 250 Poles ; Górna Kolonia ( 22 June 1943 ) , 76 Poles ; Rudnia ( 11 July 1943 ) , about 100 Poles ; Gucin ( 11 July 1943 ) , around 140 , or 146 Poles ; Kalusiv ( 11 July 1943 ) , 107 Poles ; Wolczak ( 11 July 1943 ) , around 490 Poles ; Orzesyn ( 11 July 1943 ) , 306 Poles ; Khryniv ( 11 July 1943 ) , around 200 Poles ; Zablocce ( 11 July 1943 ) , 76 Poles ; Mikolajpol ( 11 July 1943 ) , more than 50 Poles ; Jeziorany Szlachecki ( 11 July 1943 ) , 43 Poles ; Krymno ( 11 July 1943 ) , Poles gathered for church mass murdered ; Dymitrivka ( 22 July 1943 ) , 43 Poles ; Ternopil ( August , 1943 ) , 43 Poles ; Andrzejówka ( 1 August 1943 ) , ' scores ' of Poles murdered ; Kisielówka ( 14 August 1943 ) , 87 Poles ; Budy Ossowski ( 30 August 1943 ) , 205 Poles including 80 children ; Czmykos ( 30 August 1943 ) , 240 Poles ; Ternopol ( September , 1943 ) , 61 Poles ; Beheta ( 13 September 1943 ) , 20 Poles ; Ternopil ( October , 1943 ) , 93 Poles ; Lusze ( 16 October 1943 ) , two Polish families ; Ternopil ( November , 1943 ) , 127 Poles , a large number of nearby settlements destroyed ; Stezarzyce ( 6 December 1943 ) , 23 Poles ; Ternopil ( December , 1943 ) , 409 Poles ; Ternopil ( January , 1944 ) , 446 Poles . It is estimated that anywhere between 200 , 000 , and 500 , 000 civilians of all ethnic backgrounds died , during the OUN - UPA ethnic cleansing operations in eastern Poland . Some Ukrainians also collaborated as [ [ Trawnikis | Trawniki guards ] ] at the concentration and extermination camps , most notably at [ [ Treblinka ] ] . Some Poles have also murdered ethnic Ukrainians in retaliation , such as in the case of [ [ Pawłokoma massacre | Pawłokoma ] ] . There are also claims of [ [ Dubingiai massacre | smaller scale killings ] ] of ethnic Lithuanians . Other retaliatory actions included the Jedwabne pogrom ( or Jedwabne massacre ) of Jewish people living in and near the town of [ [ Jedwabne ] ] in [ [ Bezirk Bialystok ] ] during occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany , that took place in July 1941 . The official investigation of the [ [ Polish Institute of National Remembrance ] ] confirmed that the crime was " committed directly by Poles , but inspired by the Germans . " . German massacres during the Soviet counter - offensive . By 1943 , it was common for the population to be subjected to mass murder , such as in the [ [ Józefów ] ] Massacre , where 1 , 500 Jewish women only with children and elderly were killed . The [ [ Gentile ] ] population of Polish metropolitan cities was a target of the " [ [ łapanka ] ] " actions , in which the detachments of " SS " , " Wehrmacht " and police rounded up civilians on the street . Between 1942 and 1944 , there were approximately 400 Poles captured in Warsaw " łapankas " daily . From 1943 until 1944 , the [ [ Warsaw concentration camp ] ] ( " Konzentrationslager Warschau " ) holding up to 40 , 000 victims , was used as [ [ death camp ] ] in the extermination of population of the capital . During the existence of the " KL Warschau " , it is estimated that tens of thousands of civilians were killed there , most of them Polish inhabitants of the city . Some estimates put the total at 200 , 000 . Prisoners were shot in publicised executions of hostages , or died due to deplorable conditions in the camp and typhus epidemics . Historians including [ [ Maria Trzcińska ] ] postulated the existence of a [ [ gas chamber ] ] in a railway tunnel at Bema Street ; however , this claim is considered controversial . Warsaw Uprising massacres . During the 1944 [ [ Warsaw Uprising ] ] , German forces committed many atrocities against Polish civilians , following [ [ Planned destruction of Warsaw | the order by Hitler to raze the city and " turn it into a lake " ] ] . The most severe of them took place in Wola district where , at the beginning of August 1944 , tens of thousands of civilians ( men , women , and children ) were methodically rounded - up and executed by " [ [ Einsatzkommando ] ] " of " [ [ Sicherheitspolizei ] ] " operating within the " SS - Gruppenführer " [ [ Heinz Reinefarth ] ] group under the overall command of [ [ Erich von dem Bach - Zalewski ] ] . Executions in the Wola district , sometimes called the [ [ Wola massacre ] ] , also included the killings of both the patients and staff of local hospitals . Victims ' bodies were then collected by the members of the " [ [ Verbrennungskommando ] ] " , comprising captured Polish men , and burnt . The carnage was so bad that even the German high command were stunned . [ [ File : Polish civilians murdered by German - SS - troops in Warsaw Uprising Warsaw August 1944 . jpg | thumb | right | Film footage taken by the [ [ Polish resistance movement in World War II | Polish Underground ] ] showing the bodies of women and children murdered by troops of the [ [ SS - Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger | SS - Sturmbrigade " Dirlewanger " ] ] in Warsaw , August 1944 . ] ] Other similar massacres took place in the areas of " Śródmieście " ( City Centre ) , Old Town , Marymont , and Ochota districts . In Ochota district , civilian killings , rapes , and looting were conducted by the members of Russian collaborators from [ [ S . S . Sturmbrigade R . O . N . A . ] ] . Until the end of the September 1944 , [ [ Polish resistance movement in World War II | Polish resistance ] ] fighters were not considered by Germans as combatants ; thus , when captured , they were summarily executed . After the fall of the Old Town , during the beginning of September , the remaining 7 , 000 seriously wounded hospitals ' patients were executed or burnt alive often with the medical staff caring for them . Similar atrocities took place later in the Czerniaków district . A number of captured insurgents were hanged or otherwise executed after the fall of Powiśle and Mokotów districts as well . More than 200 , 000 Poles were killed in the uprising . Out of 450 , 000 surviving civilians , 150 , 000 were sent to labour camps in Germany , and 50 , 000 to 60 , 000 were shipped to death and concentration camps . After the rising had ended , the Germans continued to systematically destroy the city . The city was left in ruins . Neither Erich von dem Bach - Zalewski nor Heinz Reinefarth were ever tried for their Warsaw Uprising atrocities . The role of Soviets is debated by historians . Questions are asked about the Soviet political motives in halting their advance on the city during the uprising , thus allowing for the destruction to continue , and denying the use of their airfields to the RAF and US air force . The end of German rule and the return of the Soviet terror ( January 1944 ) . With the return of the Soviets , the killings and deportations started again . Stalin turned his attention to the AK ( Home Army ) which was seen as an obstacle in Soviet goals of controlling Poland hence the NKVD set out to destroy them . The Poles were accused of having Germans spies in their ranks , trying to take control of the Polish units fighting along with the Red army , and causing desertions . Home Army units which fought against the Germans in support of the Soviet advance had their officers and men arrested . At Wilno and Nowogrodek , the Soviets shipped to concentration camps 1 , 500 officers and 5 , 000 troops . The Home Army was made illegal . As a result , it is estimated up to 40 , 000 Home Army partisans were persecuted and many others deported . In the Lublin area more than 50 , 000 Poles were arrested between July 1944 and June 1945 . It is suspected that the NKVD carried out killings in the Turza Wood where 17 bodies have been found , although witnesses put the total at 600 . At Baran Wood , 13 bodies have been found but witnesses again claimed hundreds . Records show that 61 death sentences were carried out plus 37 in October 1944 alone . During World War II , Polish Jews suffered the worst percentage loss of human life compared to all other nationalities ; nevertheless , there are rare instances of Jewish pro - Soviet groups being accused of perpetrating atrocities also . The most infamous were the massacres at [ [ Koniuchy massacre | Koniuchy ] ] in 1944 , and [ [ Naliboki massacre | Naliboki ] ] in 1943 committed by forest partisans . The Jews also served as [ [ Kapo ( concentration camp ) | the only guards ] ] at [ [ Szebnie concentration camp ] ] in the south - eastern part of [ [ occupied Poland ] ] from 1943 on , maintaining discipline and administering torture – before being sent to death in the gas chambers of [ [ Auschwitz concentration camp ] ] themselves . Internment of Polish nationals ( Gulags , concentration camps , trials ) . Upon the conclusion of World War II , Poland remained under Soviet military control . Approximately 60 , 000 soldiers of the [ [ Armia Krajowa | AK ] ] had been arrested by the [ [ NKVD ] ] . Some 50 , 000 of them were deported to the gulags and prisons deep in the Soviet Union . After several months of brutal interrogation and torture , 16 leaders of the [ [ Polish Underground State ] ] were trown to Soviet jails on trumped - up charges after [ [ Trial of the Sixteen | a staged trial ] ] in Moscow . The Soviet Army [ [ Northern Group of Forces ] ] stationed in the country until 1956 . The persecution of the anti - Nazi resistance members was only a part of the reign of [ [ Stalinism in Poland | Stalinist terror in Poland ] ] . In the period of 1944 – 56 , approximately 300 , 000 Polish people had been arrested , or up to two million , according to differing accounts . There were 6 , 000 political death sentences issued , the majority of them carried out . Possibly , over 20 , 000 people died in communist prisons including those executed " in the majesty of the law " such as [ [ Witold Pilecki ] ] , a hero of [ [ Auschwitz ] ] . Estimated casualties of World War II and its aftermath . Poland is now estimated to have lost between 4 . 9 and 5 . 7 million citizens at the hands of the Germans . Between 150 , 000 and 1 million more died at the hands of the Soviets . In total , about 6 million Polish citizens died . The vast majority were civilians . The daily average loss in Polish lives was 2 , 800 . Poland ' s professional classes suffered higher than average casualties with Doctors ( 45 % ) , lawyers ( 57 % ) , University professors ( 40 % ) , technicians ( 30 % ) , clergy ( 18 % ) and many journalists . It was not only Polish citizens who died at the hands of the occupying powers but many others . One estimate is 2 million people from 29 countries died in occupied Poland . This includes 1 million Jews moved to the [ [ Nazi extermination camps ] ] and 784 , 000 Soviet POWs . References . [ [ Category : World War II crimes in Poland ] ] [ [ Category : History of Poland ( 1939 – 45 ) ] ] [ [ Category : Germany – Poland relations ] ] [ [ Category : Poland – Soviet Union relations ] ] [ [ Category : The Holocaust in Poland ] ] [ [ Category : World War II occupied territories | Poland ] ] [ [ Category : Massacres in Poland ] ] [ [ Category : History of Poland ] ] [ [ Category : Massacres of Poles in Volhynia ] ] [ [ Category : Anti - Polish sentiment ] ]