World War II & Holocaust
September 1, 1939: The Beginning of World War II
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. The first shots were fired at the Westerplatte near Gdańsk. Simultaneously, on September 17, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Poland was occupied within five weeks — divided between Hitler and Stalin (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).
The German Occupation (1939–1945)
What followed was the most brutal occupation in European history:
- 6 million Polish citizens were murdered — including 3 million Polish Jews (almost the entire Jewish population) and 3 million ethnic Poles
- The Nazis established the largest extermination camps on Polish soil: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibór, Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanek
- Warsaw was destroyed twice: in 1943 the Ghetto (after the Ghetto Uprising) and in 1944 the entire city (after the Warsaw Uprising)
- The Polish intelligentsia — professors, priests, doctors, officers — was systematically murdered (including the Katyń Massacre by the Soviets, 22,000 victims)
The Holocaust in Poland
Before the war, Poland was the center of the Jewish world: 3.3 million Jews (10% of the population) lived here, with a culture over 800 years old. The Nazis deliberately chose Polish soil for their extermination camps — not because Poland was antisemitic, but because it had the largest Jewish population in Europe.
The memory is complex and painful: There were Polish heroes who saved Jews at the risk of their lives (Irena Sendler smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto), and there was betrayal and collaboration. Poland has more "Righteous Among the Nations" than any other country — but the story of Jedwabne (1941) weighs on the conscience.
Warsaw Uprising (1944)
On August 1, 1944, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) rose against the German occupation — hoping to liberate Warsaw before the Red Army marched in. For 63 days, poorly armed insurgents fought against the Wehrmacht. 200,000 civilians died, the survivors were deported, and Hitler ordered the systematic destruction of the city — house by house, street by street. The Red Army stood on the other side of the Vistula and did not intervene.
