Crime without Punishment Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
Summary
Abstract: This chapter is an attempt to explore the scope and methods used by Germany in its extermination and Germanization policy aimed at Polish children in the years 1939 to 1945. Children were sent to prisons and concentration camps, pseudomedical experiments were conducted on them, they were sent into forced labor, and planned mass abductions of them were conducted for the purpose of Germanization. The German leadership remained firmly convinced that the crimes they committed on children would never see the light of day; they erased all traces of the children's origins, changing first and last names, and dates of birth.
This extermination and Germanization of Polish children was part of a long-term plan to secure the ultimate end of annexing the Polish lands to Germany. By means of the Germanization and extermination of Polish children, an “age-old problem” was meant to be solved; it was to be a measure to prevent a future generation of Poles from striving to regain the pillaged lands of their fathers.
Keywords: Children in prisons, concentration camps, pseudomedical experiments on children, forced labor using children, abduction of children for Germanization purposes
Introduction
The struggle and resistance of Poles against the German expansion to the east was one of the most tragic moments in the history of Poland, and the persistence and identity of the Polish nation.
At the turn of the 18th century, in the indigenous Polish lands taken by force by Germany, Russia, and Austria during the Partitions, a Germanization policy, directed at those who constituted the foundation of a nation's endurance, the child, intensified within the German language zone. “The struggle for the child and for the young generation was a central element of the conflict between the two nations in Silesia, Pomerania and Greater Poland” (Orzechowski, 1960, p. 17) throughout the entire 18th, 19th, and the first half of the 20th centuries.
The centuries-long and criminal expansion of Germany at the expense of Poland resulted in an obvious – from the Polish post-war perspective – classification of the German crimes committed in Poland during World War II (1939–1945) as “Nazi crimes”.
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- Crime without PunishmentThe Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945, pp. 13 - 30Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2022