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Poland's losses by geographic area include about 3.5 million within the borders of present-day Poland, and about two million in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. [5] Contemporary Russian sources include Poland's losses in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union with Soviet war dead. [6] German-Soviet Partition of Poland 1939
Already during the 1939 German invasion, dedicated units of SS and police (the Einsatzgruppen) were tasked with arresting or outright killing of those resisting the Germans. [10] [75] [76] They were aided by some regular German army units and "self-defense" forces composed of members of the German minority in Poland, the Volksdeutsche. [10]
Total German POW held at that time were about 2.5 million, including 300,000 men from other nations conscripted by Nazi Germany but not included in the 1939 population [154] and 384,000 POW held in Germany who are included in the 1946 census figures. By 1950 almost all POW had been released except for 29,000 men held in forced labor in the USSR ...
The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses primarily the period from the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to the end of World War II. Following the German–Soviet non-aggression pact, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on 1 September 1939 and by the Soviet Union on 17 September.
The European Theatre of World War II opened with the German invasion of Poland on Friday September 1, 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939. On 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock , German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland.
The Invasion of Poland, [e] also known as the September Campaign, [f] Polish Campaign, [g] and Polish Defensive War of 1939 [h] [13] (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II. [14]
During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, Nazi Germany carried out a number of atrocities involving Polish prisoners of war (POWs). During that period, the Wehrmacht is estimated to have mass-murdered at least 3,000 Polish POWs, with the largest atrocities being the Ciepielów massacre of 8 September 1939 (~300 victims ...
The German Office stated that Colonel Wessel had died in Italy in 1943, that interviews of other surviving soldiers were inconclusive, and concluded with a statement that the battle of Ciepielów resulted in 13 German and 250 Polish casualties. [11] Some other German accounts have given estimates of the prisoners killed in this massacre as 250 ...