The Historiography of the Holocaust

94 Dieter Pohl
gained new political importance as a result of the German law on restitution
for forced labour. 43
The situation for the occupied inside Poland was not much better. In the
annexed territories in particular, the Poles faced many forms of discrimination
in social life, such as the closure of schools and social institutions and humiliations
in day-to-day contact with the Germans. Poles were placed under special
laws which made them citizens of minor status, with almost no rights vis-à-vis
the Germans, but in a somewhat better situation than the Jews. 44
On the other hand, the German occupation was short of ethnic Germans to
be ‘settled’, and thus tried to screen the Poles for any kind of German ancestry.
The ‘Deutsche Volksliste’, a screening apparatus, divided applicants into four
categories of ‘racial’ status. In Danzig-Westpreußen the administration tried to
‘Germanize’ as many Poles as possible, whereas in the Warthegau the opposite
prevailed. 45 The majority of men who were considered of German origin had to
serve in the Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, no overall history of the ‘Deutsche
Volksliste’, which was a problematic topic in Polish post-war politics, has been
written. 46
One of the worst features of ‘Germanization’ consisted of the racial screening
of children. War orphans and those from families of alleged resisters were
forcibly removed from their families, deported to the Reich and there adopted
by German couples. Often it turned out to be impossible to return them to
their families after the war. 47
Persecution and annihilation
The theft of children was only one aspect of persecution during the occupation.
Another example is seen in the context of large resettlement schemes, which
had been developed earlier in Germany and, from 1941 on, came under the
umbrella of the ‘Generalplan Ost’. 48 Throughout the 1930s German ‘Ostforschung’
had discussed plans for ‘restructuring’ Poland, first and foremost the redrawing
of the German–Polish frontier, but also the deportation of ‘undesirables’ in
order to ‘modernize’ the Polish economy, which was considered backward due
to the predominance of small-scale farming and trade. 49 During the course of
the 1939 campaign these plans were high on the agenda, and Himmler was
given the role of Resettlement Commissar. But despite his enormous resources
of SS and police personnel, Himmler was not able to monopolize settlement
policy, but had to compete with the other internal affairs and occupation
administrations, the Wehrmacht and agricultural institutions. 50 Over the next
years short- and long-term plans were developed, predominantly to ‘Germanize’
and ‘modernize’ the annexed territories. The Generalgouvernement was included
in planning only after spring 1941, with German ‘settlement islands’ in the
south and east designed to ‘squeeze’ the Poles. The Germanization of these