Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland
Name	Reichsgau Wartheland
Subdivision	Reichsgau
Nation	Nazi Germany
Capital	Posen (Poznań)
Gauleiter	Arthur Greiser
Established	1939
Disestablished	1945

Reichsgau Wartheland. The Reichsgau Wartheland was a German administrative unit created from territories of occupied Poland annexed directly into the Third Reich following the invasion of Poland in 1939. It was the largest of the incorporated territories and was intended to serve as a model region for the Nazi racial and colonial ambitions in the east. Under the ruthless leadership of Gauleiter Arthur Greiser, the region became a primary laboratory for radical Germanization policies, the brutal displacement of populations, and the systematic implementation of the Holocaust.

History and establishment

The territory was formed on 26 October 1939 from the majority of the pre-war Poznań Voivodeship, parts of the Łódź Voivodeship, the Pomeranian Voivodeship, and the Warsaw Voivodeship. This annexation violated international law and was part of Adolf Hitler's direct order to incorporate these lands into the German Reich. The creation of the Reichsgau was formalized by a decree from Hermann Göring in his capacity as head of the Four Year Plan, and its borders were adjusted several times, notably with the neighboring Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The region's historical significance to German eastern expansion and its substantial pre-war German minority were used by Nazi propaganda to justify its incorporation.

Administrative structure

The capital was established at Posen (Poznań), which was made the seat of the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter Arthur Greiser, who wielded absolute power. The Reichsgau was subdivided into three Regierungsbezirke: Posen, Hohensalza (Inowrocław), and Kalisch (Kalisz), later renamed Litzmannstadt (Łódź) after the German general Karl Litzmann. Civil administration was immediately imposed, replacing the initial military rule of the Wehrmacht, and was closely integrated with the apparatus of the Nazi Party. Key institutions like the Gestapo, under officials such as Ernst Damzog, and the SS, commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe, operated with wide-ranging authority to enforce Nazi policies.

Germanization and population policies

The Wartheland was the epicenter of the most radical Germanization efforts within the Generalplan Ost. The policy aimed to completely remake the demographic landscape by removing the Polish and Jewish populations and replacing them with ethnic Germans resettled from areas like the Baltic states, Bessarabia, and Volhynia. This involved the mass expulsion of over 630,000 Poles and Jews into the General Government and the incarceration of others in concentration camps such as the nearby Auschwitz. Simultaneously, a racial classification system was implemented by the Volksliste, dividing the remaining population into categories of German ancestry, with those deemed "re-Germanizable" subjected to intense pressure and those rejected facing persecution or deportation.

Economic exploitation and role in the war effort

The economy was ruthlessly plundered and subordinated to the needs of the German war economy. Polish and Jewish property, including farms, businesses, and industries, was confiscated and transferred to the Reichswerke Hermann Göring, the SS, or incoming German settlers. Major industrial centers like Litzmannstadt (Łódź) were critical to wartime production, particularly textiles for the Wehrmacht. Agricultural output from the fertile region was directed to supply Germany proper, often through the use of forced labor from the local population and prisoners of war. The Reichsbahn network was expanded to facilitate this exploitation and the deportation of populations.

The Holocaust and persecution

The Reichsgau Wartheland was a central site for the Final Solution. The first stationary gas vans were used at the Chełmno extermination camp to murder the Jewish population of the region and deportees from across Europe, including from the Łódź Ghetto. Under the supervision of SS-Standartenführer Herbert Lange, over 150,000 people were killed at Chełmno. The Łódź Ghetto, established in the city of Litzmannstadt, became the second-largest ghetto in occupied Europe and a major source of slave labor before its inhabitants were deported to their deaths. The Intelligenzaktion and other operations targeted the Polish elite, with thousands of teachers, priests, and officials murdered in mass executions or sent to concentration camps like Mauthausen.

Dissolution and aftermath

The Reichsgau collapsed with the advance of the Red Army during the Vistula–Oder Offensive in January 1945. Arthur Greiser fled west but was later captured, tried by the Supreme National Tribunal in Poland, and executed in 1946. The territory was restored to Poland under the Potsdam Agreement, and the remaining German population was expelled. The brutal policies enacted in the Wartheland became key evidence in major war crimes trials, including the Nuremberg trials, and the region stands as a stark example of the genocidal nature of Nazi imperialism in Eastern Europe.

Category:History of Poland (1939–1945) Category:Nazi Gaue Category:Holocaust locations in Poland