So how many Poles were killed during the war, and by whom?

[Davey Boy]

I remember trying to look into this topic earlier, and didn't really get all the answers I wanted.

Does anyone actually know:

1) How many Catholic Poles were killed by the Germans?

2) How many Catholic Poles were killed by the Soviets?

3) How many Catholic Poles were deported to the east by the Soviets?


I've read a few times now that the Germans actually killed about 1.8 million Catholic Poles, and that this is based on the latest research. But what research is this? Has anyone got any links, book titles?

Thanks for any help...

[Roberto]

I remember trying to look into this topic earlier, and didn't really get all the answers I wanted.

Does anyone actually know:

1) How many Catholic Poles were killed by the Germans?

2) How many Catholic Poles were killed by the Soviets?

3) How many Catholic Poles were deported to the east by the Soviets?


I've read a few times now that the Germans actually killed about 1.8 million Catholic Poles, and that this is based on the latest research. But what research is this? Has anyone got any links, book titles?

The source of the a.m. figure is the USHMM:

Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German Occupation policies and the war. This approximate total includes Poles killed in executions or who died in prisons, forced labor, and concentration camps. It also includes an estimated 225,000 civilian victims of the 1944 Warsaw uprising, more than 50,000 civilians who died during the 1939 invasion and siege of Warsaw, and a relatively small but unknown number of civilians killed during the Allies' military campaign of 1944—45 to liberate Poland.

Source:

http://www.ushmm.org/education/resource/poles/poles.pdf

Maybe you can contact them for further information.

In Gunnar Heinsohn's Lexikon der Völkermorde, the following figures are mentioned:

Nazi Occupation

- Ca. 2.5 million Poles deported for forced labor, which probably caused the majority of Polish victims of the German occupation;

- ca. 900,000 Poles expelled from their land to make room for German settlers, "countless victims" during this process;

- ca. 860,000 Poles taken to prisons or concentration camps, where many of them died;

- "umpteen thousands" killed in reprisal actions for partisan attacks;

- many people shot so that their children could be "germanized";

- ca. 150,000 civilians killed during the repression of the Warsaw Revolt in 1944;

- about 2.4 - 2.7 million non-Jewish victims in total (a figure somewhat higher than the one mentioned on the USHMM site, probably based on postwar estimates superseded by more recent research).

Heinsohn's sources:

S. Datner, J. Gumkowski and K. Leszczynski, Genocide 1939-1945: War Crimes in Poland, 1962 Warszawa & Poznan: Wydawnictwo Zadochnie

M. Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939-1945, 1965 Frankfurt am Main: Fischer

Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (1982), German Crimes in Poland (1946/47), New York: Howard Fertig

W. Bartoszewski, "Polen und Juden in der deutschen Besatzungszeit", in: C. Kleßmann (editor) September 1939, Krieg, Besatzung, Widerstand in Polen, 1989 Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pages 139-155

C. Madajczyk, Die Okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939-1945, 1987 Berlin: Akademie Verlag

F. Golczewski, “Polen”, in: W. Benz (editor), Dimensionen des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, 1991 Munich: Oldenbourg, pages 411-497

Soviet Occupation

- At least 600,000 Poles deported to Kazakhistan, about 100,000 to 150,000 of whom died;

- about 22,000 armed forces officers, police officers and higher public servants shot in April 1940, i.a. at Katyn;

- about 7,000 Poles shot in Ukrainian prisons after the beginning of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941;

- about 30,000 members of the Home Army loyal to the Polish exile government in London and an equal number of workers deported by the Soviets to the Gulag in 1944;

- 3 million Poles expelled from the areas annexed by the Soviet Union after the war and resettled in the German eastern territories, many thousands perishing during the process;

- about 200,000 Polish victims of Soviet occupation and repression in total, between 1939 and 1945.

Heinsohn’s sources:

J.T. Gross, Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland’s Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia, 1988 Princeton: Princeton University Press

K. Sword, Deportation and Exile: Poles in the Soviet Union, 1939-48, 1996 Basingstoke et al.: Macmillan et al.

A. Paczkowski, “Sowieckie represje wobec Polaków”, in: Rzeczpospolita/Sektion + Plus – Minus, No. 47 (15./16.11.1997) and 51 (13./14.12.1997)

A. Paczkowski, “Pologne, la ‘nation-ennemi’”, in: S. Courtois et al. (editors), Le Livre Noir du Communisme: Crimes, terreur, répression, 1997 Paris: Robert Laffont, pages 397-428

N. Petrov / A. Roginsky, “The ‘Polish Operation’ of the NKVD, 1937-38”, lecture at the congress Stalinismus, Massenrepression, GULag, Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, 20./21. February, 1998

Volhynia Massacres

- Between 50,000 and 100,000 ethnic Poles slaughtered by the Ukrainska Powstanska Armija (UPA) after March 1944.

Heinsohn’s sources:

V. Kosyk, “Le mouvement national ukrainien de résistence 1941-1944”, in: Revue d’Histoire de Deuxième Guerre Mondial, Volume 36, No. 141 (1986), pages 59-75

V. Poliszczuk, Legal and Political Assessment of the OUN and UPA, 1997 Toronto:Viktor Poliszczuk

[Davey Boy]

Thanks Roberto.

But I'm still looking for more info on Soviet atrocities in Poland from 1939 and into the 1950s.

Maybe Mills can shed some light on this?

[Oleg Grigoryev]

don't know about killed but according to http://www.memo.ru
between 670 and 720 thousands were arrested or deported between 1936-1956.
http://www.memo.ru/history/POLAcy/vved/Index.htm

[Oleg Grigoryev]

there is a German version of Memorial page. while it is not as comprehensive as Russian one, maybe Roberto or someone else can make something out of it. http://www.memo.ru/deutsch/hist/index.htm

[viriato]

Hi Oleg.

What do you think is the text referring to as "Poles" and "Polish citizens"? May one think of the word "Poles" being used only to Polish citizens of Polish extraction excluding all the minorities, Balorussians, Germans, Jews, Lithuanians, Roms, Tatars, Ukrainians and others? And "Polish citizens" as to all the people who were inhabitants of Poland at her pre-1939 borders? I myself would read that way but I'm not completely certain about it.

[Oleg Grigoryev]

Hi Oleg.

What do you think is the text referring to as "Poles" and "Polish citizens"? May one think of the word "Poles" being used only to Polish citizens of Polish extraction excluding all the minorities, Balorussians, Germans, Jews, Lithuanians, Roms, Tatars, Ukrainians and others? And "Polish citizens" as to all the people who were inhabitants of Poland at her pre-1939 borders? I myself would read that way but I'm not completely certain about it.

Soviet passport had a line in which you were supposed to put your ethnicity. So if you put "Pole" - then there you go. "Polish citezens" related most likely to whoever came under the Soveit rule in the former Polish colonies.

[viriato]

Thanks Oleg. It confirms what I thought, Poles referring only to ethnics Poles and Polish citizens referring to all Poles irrespectively of their ethnicity.