Poland suffered incomparable losses throughput the war. In the Germanoccupied area. S.S. leader Himmler carried out a ruthless program of Germanization under his newly acquired title of "Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationality." Polish inhabitants of western Poland were driven away. murdered. or deported as forced labor to central Germany. Polish schools were closed. libraries and archives destroyed. newspapers suppressed. The entire teaching staff of Jagellon University in Cracow. one of the oldest and finest universities in Europe. was arrested and many were killed at Sachsenhausen camp. Similarly. in eastern Poland. large numbers of Poles were deported to Russia. After the German invasion of Russia and eastern Poland in June 1941. the Poles found themselves allied with the Soviet Union against Germany. Though Polish divisions abroad fought bravely against the axis in Africa. in air battles over Western Europe. in the Italian campaign. and in the invasion of France. their homeland was a victim of treachery.
Keywords matched
deported