Anti-Polonism in the Ideology of National Socialism

Abstract

Hanna Arendt in her opus magnum observed that National Socialism divided nations into ones that were to be exterminated forthwith, such as the Jews, those that could expect to be annihilated in the foreseeable future, such as the Poles, Russians and Ukrainians, and ones for which no “final solution” was planned (the French and the Belgians). However, the extermination of the Polish civilian populace began as early as 1939. First, the Wehrmacht committed war crimes against Polish prisoners of war and civilians – the alleged partisans, while later Einsatzgruppen units started killing “radical Poles”; finally, members of the organization Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz murdered tens of thousands of Polish citizens. It was not a total genocide, as in the case of the Jews, but the first partial genocide committed during World War II– a method of pacification of a community combined with declassing and an alteration of its identity.
The nature, methods and goals (both short- and long-term) of the German occupation in the East (including Poland) were determined by National Socialist ideology. Racism, Social Darwinism, anti-Semitism and German Nationalism were at its core, but anti-Slavism and anti-Polonism also formed a part. Without the latter, neither the partial genocide committed against the Polish nation, nor the planned total genocide would have been possible.