Consequences of Nazism - Poland

Poland

The Nazis intended to destroy the Polish nation completely. In 1941, the Nazi leadership decided that the Polish state was to be fully cleared of ethnic Poles within 10 to 20 years and settled by German colonists. From the beginning of the occupation, Germany's policy was to plunder and exploit Polish territory, turning it into a giant concentration camp for Poles who were to be eventually exterminated as "Untermenschen". The policy of plunder and exploitation inflicted enormous material losses to Polish industry, agriculture, infrastructure and cultural landmarks. The cost of the destruction by Germans alone is estimated at approximately €525 billion or $640 billion. The remaining industry was largely destroyed or transported to Russia by Soviet occupation forces following the war.

The official Polish government report of war losses prepared in 1947 reported 6,028,000 war victims out of a population of 27,007,000 ethnic Poles and Jews alone. For political reasons the report excluded the losses to the Soviet Union and the losses among Polish citizens of Ukrainian and Belarusian origin.

Poland's eastern border was significantly moved westwards to the Curzon line. The resulting territorial loss of 188,000 km² (formerly populated by 5.3 million ethnic Poles) was to be compensated by the addition of 111,000 km² of former German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line (formerly populated by 11.4 million ethnic Germans). Kidnapping of Polish children by Germany also took place, in which children who were believed to hold German blood were taken away; 20,000–200,000 Polish children were taken away from their parents. Out of the abducted only 10–15% returned home. Polish elites were decimated and over half of Polish intelligentsia were murdered. Some professions lost 20–50% of their members, for example 58% of Polish lawyers were exterminated by Nazis, 38% of medical doctors and 28% of university workers. The Polish capital Warsaw was razed by German forces and most of its old and newly acquired cities lay in ruins (e.g. Wrocław) or lost to the Soviet Union (e.g. Lwów). In addition Poland became a Soviet satellite state, remaining under a Soviet-controlled Communist government until 1989. Russian troops did not withdraw from Poland until 1993.