1941: Poland

While the Nazi conquerors carried out their projects for enslaving the Poles, Polish Prime Minister Wladislas Sikorski and other patriots in London endeavored to win sympathy for their nation and continued to fight with the Allies. In a New Year's broadcast, General Sikorski said that he envisaged his countrymen as 'impatiently awaiting the day of liberation, when the Germans will receive their merited severe punishment.' Poland's wish for freedom was partially granted in July when Soviet authorities liberated their half of the country in exchange for Polish military support. But by the time the Russo-Polish Agreement had been concluded all of Poland was overrun with Germans, and Polish residents enjoyed no relief from foreign rule. The agreement was significant, however, in that it freed many Poles who had been imprisoned in Russia since 1939, and materially strengthened the anti-Axis forces.

GERMAN OCCUPATION

Nazi Oppression.

The Nazi administrators of Poland have been generally acknowledged as the most cruel foreign rulers in history. A detailed report on conditions in Poland, compiled from information brought out of Poland over a period of many months by Catholic priests and laymen, was made public in Vatican City in October. It stated that more than 60,000 Poles had been jailed and put into concentration camps, 540,000 Polish workers sent to Germany for forced labor in addition to the 640,000 Polish war prisoners working there, and all Polish property in German-annexed Poland and 60 per cent of it in the Government General confiscated. In November, Deputy Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-exile Stanislaw Mikolajczyk said that 112,000 Poles had been executed and an additional 30,000 had died in concentration camps. He also claimed that over 1,500,000 Polish artisans and peasants had been herded from German-annexed Poland to the Government General. The natural result of the deplorable living conditions forced on the Poles was a widespread typhus epidemic, reported in mid-December.

Annexed Provinces.

The Polish provinces annexed to Germany—including the leading industries and the best agricultural land—were subjected to the Germanization process which was expected to replace all Poles with Germans within ten years. In September it was estimated that 684,100 Germans had already been moved to this territory—393,000 from districts of Rumania annexed by the Soviet Union, 130,000 from Russian-occupied Poland, 130,000 from the Baltic countries, and 31,000 from the Government General. The number of Germans imported, however, was considerably less than the number of Poles deported, and the Germans conducted a search for people of even remote German ancestry who might 'incline to Germany.' Many of the families thus imported were unfamiliar with the German language and way of life, although they were instructed in Nazi doctrine before being assigned Polish property.

The Government General.

The worst conditions in Europe existed among the Jews and Poles in the Government General of German-occupied Poland. After annexing the provinces of Posen, Pomorze, Upper Silesia, and Lodz to the Reich in October 1939, Germany had designated the rest of its Polish conquest as the 'Government General of Poland,' a future homeland for all Poles and the Jews of Europe. Early in 1941 the four German papers of occupied Poland carried accounts of trials which resulted in death sentences for at least 326 Poles in January alone. As in other Nazi-occupied countries, Jews were treated even more harshly than Christians. On March 30 it was reported that the Gestapo had initiated a new wave of terror with mass arrests and deportations. The reports stated that 85 per cent of Cracow's 100,000 Jews had been forced to leave the city and that the remaining 15 per cent were confined to a ghetto in the Podgorze district. German vital statistics revealed that during July, said to be a typical month, there were 1,316 deaths of 'Aryans' and 3,459 deaths of Jews, although only one-third of the city's population was Jewish. A Reuters dispatch, quoting Polish sources, said on Oct. 29 that 1,000 Jews had been forced to kneel in trenches near Lomza and were machine gunned by Nazi troops.

Despite all persecution and threats of death penalties, patriots continued various forms of passive resistance and secretly exchanged information with the outside world. 'Underground Poland Speaks,' a manifesto compiled by Poles in the Government General describing the horrors of Nazi oppression, was smuggled out of the country and published in London on Aug. 9. During the same month, Deutsche Rundschau stated that 8,000 copies of the Atlantic Charter had been discovered in Polish hands. Hardly any Poles could be found who were willing to cooperate with the Nazis, although it was reported that many were approached and given inducements to do so. The actor Igo Sym was one of the few who signed a declaration of loyalty to the occupation authorities; on March 12 he was mysteriously murdered in Warsaw, and several prominent citizens were arrested as hostages. Professor Casimir Bartel, former Prime Minister of Poland and an eminent scientist, was said to have been offered Nazi leadership in Poland similar to that of Vidkun Quisling in Norway. After refusing, he was returned to Lwow and shot by the Gestapo. (See also RELIGION: Jews.)

Nazi Economic Exploitation.

While terrorizing the Poles, the Germans systematically exploited the country's resources for the benefit of the Reich. On Jan. 22 the United States Commerce Department disclosed that Germany had made plans to develop a large wool-growing industry in the Government General for export to the Reich. An order of April 9 provided for the establishment of a Control Office for Chemical Products in the Government General. This office was to regulate and supervise trade in the industrial products that were not under German monopoly control. It was also to determine import needs, plan the distribution of imports, and control exports. The section of south Central Poland where the Poles had begun to build a large industrial project, which might have revolutionized their country, was converted into a German industrial plant early in the year. This district has great potentialities for electrical power development and communication by rail and river. Although the Poles damaged their factories considerably during the invasion of 1939, the Germans repaired many of them and forced Poles to work there under police supervision. Polish workers moved as slowly and inefficiently as possible without detection, however, and there were numerous cases of sabotage. The executions of 50 Polish workers as the result of Gestapo Chief Himmler's sabotage investigation were reported on Nov. 4. Nevertheless, in spite of Gestapo activity, the amount of damage to Polish factories and lines of communication increased considerably during the last weeks of the year, as the German Army suffered its first real defeats in Russia.

Germany provided for the complete economic reorganization of the Government General in the spring. A Central Economic Chamber and four regional chambers were established by a decree of March 3, effective April 1, to reorganize the autonomous administration of labor, industrial economy, forestry and the wool industry, agriculture and food supplies. The Secretary of State of the Government General was assigned the supervision of the new chambers. The regional chambers were established at Radom, Lubin, Warsaw and Cracow—where the Central Chamber is also located. Each of the chambers is headed by a commissioner, whose duty it is to make the economic organization of the region conform with political requirements. These chambers took over the functions and funds of the Foreign Trade Council, the Association of Chambers of Industry and Commerce and the Polish chambers of industry and commerce, handicrafts and agriculture.

POLISH GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE

Polish Forces in Britain.

Poles who had escaped from their fatherland continued the struggle for its freedom. On Jan. 8 they opened a Polish-Czecho-slovakian staff college in Britain with high officers of both armies as lecturers. Prime Minister Sikorski visited America in the spring. With Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, on April 5 he signed a joint declaration which provided for the recruiting of a Polish legion for service with other Polish forces after a period of training in Canada. It was subsequently announced that the Polish training camps would be in Ontario at Owen Sound and Windsor. The first big contingent of these trainees arrived in Great Britain in October. Prime Minister Sikorski went from Canada to the United States, where he had conferences with President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull on April 8. At a press conference in the Polish Embassy afterwards, General Sikorski stated that there were 34,000 Polish troops in the British Isles and that the Polish air force totaled 9,600 men. He also mentioned that there were 10,000 Poles fighting in the Near East with British forces under General Wavell and that the Polish Navy was helping the British. On May 12 Sikorski returned to Britain in a bomber.

Relations with the United States.

Many prominent Polish exiles spent the year in the United States trying to win financial support for their nation. They prepared a testimonial of thanksgiving to present to President Roosevelt in March through Ambassador Jan Ciechanowski, who had arrived in the United States on Feb. 17 to replace Jerzy Potocki. It contained richly colored illustrations by the noted Polish artist Artur Szyk. The text, written by Stephen Ropp, began, 'We, exiles of our beloved Poland ... wish to testify to our deepest feelings concerning these United States of America—our refuge.' The most famous Polish exile, pianist and former Prime Minister Ignace Jan Paderewski, died in New York City on June 29. On June 18 it was revealed that consulates in the United States had summoned all male Poles from 18 to 50 years of age to register for military service. Poles in the United States and throughout the world were gratified when the United States, on Sept. 4, added Poland to its list of countries eligible for Lease-Lend aid. Polish President Raczynski expressed his sympathy for the United States in a telegram to President Roosevelt on Dec. 10 and the Polish Government-in-exile declared the existence of a state of war between Poland and Japan on Dec. 11, only four days after Japan had attacked United States bases in the Pacific.

Relations With the U.S.S.R.

Poles in Russian-occupied Poland, before the German invasion, were kept in constant fear of suddenly being torn away from friends and family for deportation to the barren eastern extremities of the U.S.S.R. Reports reaching the United States agreed that over 500,000 Poles had been transported in sealed cattle-cars, or other crude vehicles, to primitive quarters in Siberia or near the Russo-China border. The first deportees were drawn from the intelligentsia, including teachers, lawyers, judges and governmental officials. The next group was composed of farmers whose lands were desired for Russian 'colonists.' The Poles who were allowed to remain in their homeland, however, were treated considerably better than those in German-occupied Poland.

The German invasion gave Poland and Russia a common enemy, and on June 23 Polish Prime Minister Sikorski said in London. 'The Polish-Russian question, which might have shattered the outlook of many a friend of ours in the West, ... may disappear from international politics.' The initial meeting for Polish-Russian negotiations took place in London the first week-end in July. Prime Minister Sikorski and Soviet Ambassador to London Ivan M. Maisky met at the British Foreign Office. The resulting Polish-Soviet Agreement was concluded on July 30, when Ambassador Maisky and Prime Minister Sikorski signed the document in the presence of British Prime Minister Churchill. The treaty, which came into force immediately upon signature, paved the way for full Polish-Russian military cooperation against Germany. It included the following main provisions:

(1) The U.S.S.R. and Poland mutually voided all earlier agreements detrimental to each other, including the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 which partitioned Poland;

(2) The two countries promptly restored diplomatic relations, and Moscow granted amnesty to all Polish citizens who had been confined in the Soviet Union as prisoners of war:

(3) Both Governments agreed to aid each other in every possible way in order to hasten the defeat of Nazi Germany; and

(4) The U.S.S.R. permitted a Polish army to be formed on Soviet territory, to operate as an independent unit but subordinate 'in an operational sense' to the Supreme Command of the Red Army.

There was considerable Polish opposition to the agreement. Foreign Minister August Zaleski and two other cabinet members resigned in protest, and Prime Minister Sikorski appointed Count Edward Raczynski, Ambassador to London, as Acting Foreign Minister. Poles criticizing the agreement pointed out that: it does not fix boundaries and therefore leaves the Russians free to make all the territorial claims on Poland they wish: the provision for granting 'amnesty to all Polish citizens detained on Soviet territory either as prisoners of war or on other sufficient grounds....' does not necessarily affect persons deported to Siberia or other parts of Russia, and the Russians could find loopholes permitting them to retain anyone they wanted. Another important factor in Polish opposition to the agreement was resentment of the way Russia has treated Poles in the past.

Prime Minister Sikorski selected Professor Kot as Ambassador to Moscow, and on Aug. 4 named General Wladislas Anders—a prisoner of war in the U.S.S.R. since 1939—Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army on Soviet soil. Polish forces under General Anders began training in the Urals almost immediately. The Soviet Government announced on Aug. 13 that it had liberated all Polish war prisoners and Polish nationals who had been detained when Russia occupied eastern Poland. Many of these Poles joined the ranks of General Anders. The Overseas News Agency reported on Aug. 16 that General Szyszke Bohusza, chief of the Polish military mission in Moscow, had signed a military agreement with the Soviet Union. On Sept. 26 it was estimated that three Polish divisions including about 45,000 men would be ready to fight against Germany on the Russian front as soon as supplies of arms and equipment en route from Britain and America arrived. According to Josef H. Retinger, Polish Chargé d'Affaires in Moscow, about 80 per cent of these Polish soldiers had had army training and 50 per cent of them had been in battle. Retinger also stated that 1,500,000 Poles gradually being released by the U.S.S.R. were to be given religious and educational freedom and would be permitted to publish uncensored newspapers in Russia. In Egypt on Nov. 12 Prime Minister Sikorski declared that a Polish army of 150,000 would soon be in action on the Eastern Front.

Polish delegates, led by National Democrat Januszatis and Communism-sympathizer Wasilewska, participated significantly in the Conference of Slav Nations held in Moscow during August. Poles had refused to attend the last great Russian-inspired Pan Slav Conference, which convened at Prague in 1910.

Prime Minister Sikorski and Polish military leaders arrived in Kuibyshev on Nov. 29 to inspect Polish military units fighting with the Russians. In Moscow, a few days later, General Sikorski conferred with Soviet dictator Stalin, and on Dec. 4 a Polish-Soviet mutual assistance pact was signed by the two prime ministers. It provided for full military cooperation to insure ultimate victory over Nazi Germany and also pledged both countries to friendship after the coming peace. As the year ended, Russian and Polish forces were planning a large-scale joint offensive for early in 1942. See also GERMANY; U.S.S.R.