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Around 6 million Polish citizens perished during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
: about one fifth of the pre-war population. Most were civilian victims of the war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
during the occupation by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Statistics for Polish
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
casualties are divergent and contradictory. This article provides a summarization of these estimates of Poland's human losses in the war and their causes. The official Polish government report on war damages prepared in 1947 put Poland's war dead at 6,028,000; 3.0 million ethnic Poles and 3.0 million Jews not including losses of Polish citizens from the
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
and Belarusian ethnic groups. This figure was disputed when the communist system collapsed by the Polish historian
Czesław Łuczak Czesław Łuczak (born 19 February 1922 in Kruszwica – 10 August 2002 in Poznań) was a Polish historian focusing on World War II. He served as Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań from 1965 to 1972; and, from 1969 to 1981 and from ...
who put total losses at 6.0 million; 3.0 million Jews, 2.0 million ethnic Poles, and 1.0 million Polish citizens from the other ethnic groups not included in the 1947 report on war damages.Materski and Szarota page 16 In 2009 the Polish government-affiliated
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) published the study ''"Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami"'' ''(Poland 1939-1945. Human Losses and Victims of Repression Under the Two Occupations)'' that estimated Poland's war dead at between 5.6 and 5.8 million Poles and Jews, including 150,000 during the Soviet occupation. 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. Contemporary Russian sources include Poland's losses in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union with Soviet war dead. In Poland this is viewed as inflating Soviet casualties at Poland's expense.


Causes

Most Polish citizens who perished in the war were civilian victims of the war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
during the occupation by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. The Polish
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) estimates total deaths under the German occupation at 5,470,000 to 5,670,000 Jews and
Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in ...
, 2,770,000
Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in ...
, 2.7 to 2.9 million Polish Jews According to IPN research there were also 150,000 victims of Soviet repression. ;Jewish Holocaust deaths Approximately three million
Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...
were victims of
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...
. In 2009 the Polish
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) put the total of Jewish deaths at 2.7 to 2.9 million.Materski and Szarota. Page 32. Polish researchers estimate that 1,860,000 Polish Jews were murdered in the Nazi death camps, the remainder perished inside the
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland Ghettos were established by Nazi Germany in hundreds of locations across occupied Poland after the German invasion of Poland. Yitzhak Arad, ''Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.'' Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987.''Biuletyn ...
, aboard
Holocaust trains Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the '' Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holocau ...
, and in mass shooting actions. The Nazi extermination camp overall death toll is estimated at 2,830,000; including 1,860,000 Polish Jews: 490,000 killed at Belzec; 60,000 at Sobibor; 800,000 at
Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...
; 150,000 at
Chełmno Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Due to its regional impor ...
; 300,000 at
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...
; and 60,000 at Majdanek. An additional 660,000 Jews from other countries, were transported to Auschwitz and murdered. Over a million Jews deported from Western countries to camps and ghettos set up in occupied Poland perished in the Holocaust. The Nazi death camps located in Poland are sometimes incorrectly described as Polish death camps. ;Human Losses of the ethnic Polish population According to the figures published by the
Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
in 1941 the ethnic Polish population was 24,388,000 at the beginning of the war in September 1939.Maly Rocznik Statystyczny Polski- London 1941 The IPN puts the death toll of ethnic Poles under the German occupation at 2,770,000Materski and Szarota. Page 9. and 150,000 due to Soviet repression The main causes of these losses are as follows. ;Acts of War * 1939 Military Campaign-About 200,000 Polish civilians were killed in the 1939 Military Campaign. Many were killed in the
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
's
terror bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
operations, including the bombing of Frampol and
Wieluń Wieluń ( la, Velun) is a town in south-central Poland with 21,624 inhabitants (2021). Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), it was previously in Sieradz Voivodeship (1975–1998). Wieluń has a long and rich history. In the past, ...
, bombing of
Sulejów Sulejów is a town in central Poland with 6,130 inhabitants (2020). It is situated in Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Voivodeship (1975–1998). Sulejów gives its name to the protected area known as Sulej� ...
. Massive air raids were conducted on these, and other towns which had no military infrastructure. Civilians were strafed from the air with machine gun fire in what became known as a
terror bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
campaign. Columns of fleeing refugees were systematically attacked by the German fighter and dive-bomber aircraft. The
Siege of Warsaw (1939) The siege of Warsaw in 1939 was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army ( pl, Armia Warszawa) garrisoned and entrenched in Warsaw and the invading German Army.Zaloga, S.J., 2002, ''Poland 1939'', Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd., It began with hu ...
caused a huge toll of civilian casualties. From the very first hours of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was a target of an unrestricted aerial bombardment campaign by the German
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
. Apart from the military facilities such as infantry
barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
and the
Okęcie Okęcie () is the largest neighbourhood of the Włochy district of Warsaw, Poland. It is the location of Warsaw Chopin Airport and the PZL Warszawa-Okęcie aircraft works, and home to the Okęcie Warszawa professional association football clu ...
airport and aircraft factory, the German pilots also targeted civilian facilities such as water works, hospitals, market places and schools. * Warsaw Uprising Between 150,000 and 250,000 Polish civilians died in the 1944
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
, mostly from mass murders such as the
Wola massacre The Wola massacre ( pl, Rzeź Woli, lit=Wola slaughter) was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the ...
. ;Murdered in Prisons or Camps, and in mass executions During the occupation many Non-Jewish ethnic Poles were killed in mass executions, including an estimated 37,000 Poles at the
Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation o ...
prison complex run by the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
. Polish researchers of the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
have estimate about roughly 800,000 ethnic Polish victims during the German occupation including 400,000 in prisons, 148,000 killed in executions and 240,000 deaths among those deported to concentration camps, including 70-75,000 at
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...
. During the occupation, communities were held collectively responsible for Polish attacks against German troops and mass executions were conducted in reprisal. Many mass executions took place outside prisons and camps such as the
Mass murders in Piaśnica Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
. Psychiatric patients were executed in
Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...
. Farmers were murdered during pacifications of villages. ;Forced Labor in Germany Non-Jewish ethnic Poles in large cities were targeted by the ''
łapanka ''Łapanka'' () was the Polish name for a World War II practice in German-occupied Poland, whereby the German SS, Wehrmacht and Gestapo rounded up civilians on the streets of Polish cities. The civilians to be arrested were in most cases chos ...
'' policy which the German occupiers utilized to indiscriminately round up civilians off the street to be sent as forced laborers to Germany. In Warsaw, between 1942 and 1944, there were approximately 400 daily victims of ''łapankas''. Poles in rural areas and small towns were also conscripted for forced labor by the German occupiers. According to research by the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
between 1939 and 1945, 1,897,000 Polish citizens were taken to Germany as forced laborers under inhuman conditions, which resulted in many deaths. However,
Czesław Łuczak Czesław Łuczak (born 19 February 1922 in Kruszwica – 10 August 2002 in Poznań) was a Polish historian focusing on World War II. He served as Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań from 1965 to 1972; and, from 1969 to 1981 and from ...
put the number of Poles deported to Germany at 2,826,500 Although Germany also used forced laborers from all over Europe, Slavs (and especially Poles and Russians) who were viewed as racially inferior, were subjected to intensified discriminatory measures. They were forced to wear identifying purple tags with "P"s sewn to their clothing, subjected to a curfew, and banned from public transportation. While the treatment of factory workers or farm hands often varied depending on the individual employer, most Polish laborers were compelled to work longer hours for lower wages than Western Europeans. In many cities, they were forced to live in segregated barracks behind barbed wire. Social relations with Germans outside work were forbidden, and sexual relations (" racial defilement") were considered a capital crime punishable by death. ;Malnutrition and Disease Prior to the war the area which became the
General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
was not self sufficient in agricultural production and was a net importer of food from other regions of Poland. Despite this food deficit the German occupiers confiscated 27% of the agricultural output in the General Government, thus reducing the food available for the civilian population. This Nazi policy caused a humanitarian crisis in Poland’s urban areas. By 1940, between 20 and 25% of the population within the Government General depended on outside relief aid. Richard C. Lukas points out “To be sure, the Poles would have starved to death if they had to depend on the food rationed to them." To supplement the meager rations allocated by the Germans, Poles depended on the black market in order to survive. During the war 80% of the population’s needs were met by the black market. During the war there was an increase in infectious diseases caused by the general malnutrition among the Polish population. In 1940 the tuberculosis rate among Poles, not including Jews, was 420 per 100,000 compared to 136 per 100,000 prior to the war. During the occupation the natural death rate in the
General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
increased to 1.7% per annum compared to the prewar level of 1.4% ;
Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany During World War II, around 200,000 ethnic Polish children as well as an unspecified number of children of other ethnicities were abducted from their homes and forcibly transported to Nazi Germany for purposes of forced labour, medical experimenta ...
Part of the
Generalplan Ost The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be under ...
involved taking children from Poland and moving them to
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
for the purpose of
Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...
, or indoctrination into becoming culturally German. The aim of the project was to acquire and " Germanize" children with purportedly
Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...
traits who were considered by Nazi officials to be descendants of German settlers in Poland. The
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
cited a source published in the
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...
in 1960 that put the number of children kidnapped in Poland at 200,000 of whom only 30,000 were eventually returned to Poland, the others remained in post war Germany. ;Soviet Repression In the aftermath of the September 1939
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and
Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subs ...
, the territory of
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
was divided between
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
(USSR). The Soviet occupied territories of Poland, with total population of 13.0 million, was subjected to a reign of terror. According to research published in 2009 by the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
about 1.0 million Polish citizens from all ethnic groups were arrested, conscripted or deported by the Soviet occupiers from 1939 to 1941; including about 200,000 Polish military personnel held as prisoners of war; 100,000 Polish citizens were arrested and imprisoned by the Soviets, including civic officials, military personnel and other "enemies of the people" like the clergy and Polish educators; 475,000 Poles who were considered "enemies of the people" were deported to remote regions of the USSR; 76,000 Polish citizens were conscripted into the Soviet Armed forces and 200,000 were conscripted as forced laborers in the interior of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet forces returned to Poland in 1944-1945 there was a new wave of repression of Polish citizens from all ethnic groups including 188,000 deported, 50,000 conscripted as forced labor and 50,000 arrested.Materski and Szarota page 30 The
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
puts the confirmed death toll due to the Soviet occupation at 150,000 persons including 22,000 murdered Polish military officers and government officials in the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
. They pointed out that
Czesław Łuczak Czesław Łuczak (born 19 February 1922 in Kruszwica – 10 August 2002 in Poznań) was a Polish historian focusing on World War II. He served as Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań from 1965 to 1972; and, from 1969 to 1981 and from ...
estimated the total population loss at 500,000 ethnic Poles in the Soviet occupied regions. Andrzej Paczkowski puts the number of Polish deaths due to Soviet repression at 90,000–100,000 of the 1.0 million persons deported and 30,000 executed by the Soviets According to Zbigniew S. Siemaszko the total of those deported was 1,646,000 of whom 1,450,000 were residents and refugees (excluding POWs). According to Franciszek Proch the total of those deported was 1,800,000 of whom 1,050,000 perished.Franciszek Proch, ''Poland's Way of the Cross'', New York 1987 Pages 99-147 ; Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed in an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...
(UPA) beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of 1944 in the Nazi occupied
Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. The ...
and Eastern Galicia. The
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
maintains that 7,500 ethnic Ukrainians were also killed during this interethnic conflict Wojciech Materski, Tomasz Szarota (2009)
POLSKA 1939-1945 STRATY OSOBOWE I OFIARY REPRESJI POD DWIEMA OKUPACJAMI.
Internet Archive. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
;Losses of other ethnic minorities The figure of 5.6 to 5.8 million war dead estimated by the IPN was for only the Jewish and ethnic Polish population. They did not provide figures for the death toll of Polish citizens from the other ethnic minorities. ;Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians According to the figures published by the
Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
in 1941 there were about 7.0 million Polish citizens from ethnic minorities at the beginning of the war in September 1939, mostly
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
,
Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...
, Polishchuks and
Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Unite ...
living in the eastern regions of Poland annexed by the USSR.Maly Rocznik Statystyczny Polski-London 1941 The IPN did not estimate the death toll of Polish citizens from these ethnic minorities. The IPN maintains that accurate figures for these losses are not available because of border changes and population transfers, according to their figures 308,000 Polish citizens from the ethnic minorities were deported into the interior of the Soviet Union and were conscripted into the Soviet armed forces. During the German occupation Polish citizens from ethnic minorities were deported to Germany for forced labor. ;Ethnic Germans In prewar Poland about 800,000 persons were identified as ethnic Germans. According to the IPN 5,437 ethnic Germans were killed in the 1939 military campaign. The IPN also puts the number of Polish citizens conscripted into the German armed forces at 250,000 of whom 60,000 were killed in action. Tens of thousands of ethnic Germans were killed during the Nazi evacuation from Poland in 1944 and 1945, and as a result of repression NKVD and Red Army or died in post war internment camps. During the war the Nazi occupiers instituted the
Volksliste The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List), a Nazi Party institution, aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939-1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich ...
in the
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Naz ...
to register ethnic Germans in Poland. Many Polish citizens were pressured to sign the Volksliste in order to avoid Nazi reprisals. About 1 million persons were on Volksliste groups 1 and 2 that included Polish citizens of German descent; Volksliste groups 3 and 4 included 1.7 Polish citizens that were subject to future Germanisation. In addition 61,000 . ethnic Germans were living in the
General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
. During the war 522,149 ethnic Germans from other nations were settled in Poland by the Third Reich. By 1950 670,000 ethnic Germans from prewar Poland had fled or were expelled and about 40,000 remained in Poland; about 200,000 Polish citizens who were on Volksliste groups 1 and 2 during the war were rehabilitated as Polish citizens.


Summary of estimates

In 1947 the communist dominated government in Poland estimated war losses at 6.0 million ethnic Poles and Jews, they did not include the losses of Polish citizens from other minorities -
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
and
Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...
.Materski and Szarota Page 14 In 1951 the Polish government made a reassessment of war losses that put actual losses at 5.1 million ethnic Poles and Jews; this study was to remain secret until the communist government collapsed. In a 2009 study by the Polish government affiliated
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
the total deaths of ethnic Poles and Jews were estimated at 5.6 to 5.8 million persons including 150,000 in Soviet captivity. The Polish government estimate of war dead in 1947 was based on the results of the 1931 Polish census using the criterion of language spoken to breakout the various ethnic groups. The classification of the ethnic groups in Poland during the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...
is a disputed topic, Tadeusz Piotrowski called the 1931 Polish census "unreliable", noting that it had underestimated the number of non-Poles The official figures for nationality from the 1931 Polish census based on the mother tongue put the percentage of ethnic Poles at 68.9%, Jews 8.6% and other minority groups 22.5%., Tadeusz Piotrowski maintains that the adjusted census figures(taking religious affiliation into account) put the percentage of ethnic Poles at 64.7%, Jews 9.8% and other minority groups 25.5% of Poland's population. Based on the analysis by Tadeusz Piotrowski roughly 1.0 million
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
and
Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...
and 400,000 Polish speaking Jews were misclassified as
Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in ...
in the official figures for the 1939 population.Tadeusz Piotrowski ''Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947'' McFarland & Company, 1997 page 305 Polish demographer Piotr Eberhardt maintains that it is commonly agreed that the criterion of declared language to classify ethnic groups led to an overestimation of the number of Poles in pre-war Poland. He notes that in general, the numbers declaring a particular language do not mesh with the numbers declaring the corresponding nationality. Members of ethnic minority groups believe that the language criterion led to an overestimation of Poles.


Reports, studies and assessments


Polish Bureau of War Damages

In April 1947 the Polish government Bureau of War Damages (BOW) published an analysis of Poland's war losses. This study was prepared for a conference on war reparations from Germany. Their figure of 6,028,000 Polish war dead has been cited in historical literature since then. :


Polish Ministry of Finance

The Polish government Ministry of Finance in 1951 prepared a study to investigate and detail Poland's war losses in order to document claims for war reparations from Germany.Gniazdowski, Mateusz. Losses Inflicted on Poland by Germany during World War II. Assessments and Estimates—an Outline The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs, 2007, no. 1. This study was to remain secret and not published until after the collapse of communism in Poland. The Ministry of Finance estimated actual losses at 5,085,000 persons, 943,000 less than the Polish government Bureau of War Damages(BOW) report of 1947. According to Ministry of Finance figures losses were 5,085,000 persons (1,706,700 Poles and 3,378,000) Jews According to ''Assessments and Estimates: an Outline'' by Mateusz Gniazdowski: "This discrepancy was explained by demographers who maintained that that the (BOW) included the "missing" category in the total population loss figure, based on the statistics of the end of 1945, while many people believed to have been dead either returned to the country, or remained abroad as emigres. It was not until 1950 that the war – or war related – population migrations were over, in demographic terms." :


Kazimierz Piesowicz

In 1987 the
Polish Academy of Science The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
journal ''Studia Demograficzne'' published an article by Kazimierz Piesowicz that analyzed the demographic balance from Poland from 1939-1950. :Poland's Population Balance (1939–1950) :


Franciszek Proch

Franciszek Proch was a Polish lawyer and journalist. During the war he was imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp. In the post war era he resided in Germany and the United States. Proch published ''Poland's Way of the Cross'' in 1987 in which he estimated Poland's war dead. The estimates of Franciszek Proch were cited by Tadeusz Piotrowski in his book ''Poland's Holocaust'' :


Czesław Łuczak

Czesław Łuczak Czesław Łuczak (born 19 February 1922 in Kruszwica – 10 August 2002 in Poznań) was a Polish historian focusing on World War II. He served as Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań from 1965 to 1972; and, from 1969 to 1981 and from ...
was a Polish historian, and Rector of the
Adam Mickiewicz University Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
from 1965 to 1972, from 1969 to 1981 and from 1987 to 1991; director the University's Institute of History. He was a member of the
Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
in communist Poland. Łuczak authored ''Polska i Polacy w drugiej wojnie światowej'' (''Poland and Poles in the Second World War''). In a section on the demographic losses he presented estimated losses with some brief observations. The figures are Łuczak's estimates.Łuczak (1993) Page 683 :
Czesław Łuczak Czesław Łuczak (born 19 February 1922 in Kruszwica – 10 August 2002 in Poznań) was a Polish historian focusing on World War II. He served as Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań from 1965 to 1972; and, from 1969 to 1981 and from ...
also authored an article in the Polish academic journal ''Dzieje Najnowsze'' Rocznik, titled ''Szanse i trudnosci bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939–1945'' (''Possibilities and Difficulties of the Demographic Balance in Poland 1939-1945''), pages 9–14: :


Tadeusz Piotrowski

Thaddeus Piotrowski is a Polish-American sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology in the Social Science Division of the
University of New Hampshire at Manchester The University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNH Manchester) is the urban campus of the public University of New Hampshire and is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was established in 1985 as the sixth college of the University of New ...
. Piotrowski's assessment in 1998 of Polish war losses is that ''"Jewish wartime losses in Poland are estimated to be in the 2.7-2.9 million range. (Many Polish Jews found refuge in the Soviet Union and other countries.) Ethnic Polish losses are currently estimated in the range of 2 million. (The number is probably higher if we add all those who died at the hands of the Ukrainian Nationalists.)"'' Comparative Poland's War Dead estimated by Tadeusz Piotrowski in 2005 presented on the ''Project in Posterum'' website,Tadeusz Piotrowski
''Poland World War II casualties''
/ref> : Causes of Poland's War Dead estimated by Tadeusz Piotrowski in 2005 on Project in Posterum website, :


Kazimierz Bajer

An analysis of Poland's war losses by Kazimierz Bajer was published in the journal of the veterans of the
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) e ...
. Bajer calculated the estimated population losses of the 12 million ethnic Poles over the age of 15 who were capable of resistance during the German and Soviet occupation. Bajer's figures were used by Polish government affiliated
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) to estimate the war dead of the ethnic Polish population. : : ''Source of figures:'' Bajer, Kazimierz ''Zakres udziału Polaków w walce o niepodległość na obszarze państwa polskiego w latach 1939-1945,'' "Zeszyty Historyczne Stowarzyszenia Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej", (Kraków) 1996 Page 14 A. Bajer uses the 1947 Bureau of War Damages figures as the base to compute his estimate of ethnic Polish war dead.Bajer, Kazimierz Zakres udziału Polaków w walce o niepodległość na obszarze państwa polskiego w latach 1939-1945, "Zeszyty Historyczne Stowarzyszenia Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej", (Kraków) 1996 Page 11 B. Figure included by IPN in total ethnic Polish war dead of 2,770,000Materski and Szarota page 30 Table 10 C. The IPN put the war dead in 1944/45 at 183,000. D. According to Bajer's calculations the number of Polish citizens on the
Volksliste The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List), a Nazi Party institution, aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939-1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich ...
was 2,224,000. (200,000 were conscripted into the German Armed Forces, 937,000 were ethnic Germans, 272,000 were Poles involved in the Polish resistance and 815,000 were not involved in the resistance movement.)


Institute of National Remembrance

The Polish government affiliated
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) in 2009 estimated total war dead at between 5,620,000 and 5,820,000 persons. They did not provide a detailed population balance showing how the figures were derived. They did however breakout the figures of the total war dead. : Losses of Ethnic Poles during German occupation per year. :


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust h ...
believes that "The Nazi terror was, in scholar Norman Davies's words, "much fiercer and more protracted in Poland than anywhere in Europe." Reliable statistics for the total number of Poles who died as a result of Nazi German policies do not exist. Many others were victims of the 1939-1941 Soviet occupation of eastern Poland and of deportations to Central Asia and Siberia. Records are incomplete, and the Soviet control of Poland for 50 years after the war impeded independent scholarship. The changing borders and ethnic composition of Poland as well as vast population movements during and after the war also complicated the task of calculating losses In the past, many estimates of losses were based on a Polish report of 1947 requesting reparations from the Germans; this often cited document tallied population losses of 6 million for all Polish "nationals" (Poles, Jews, and other minorities). Subtracting 3 million Polish Jewish victims, the report claimed 3 million non-Jewish victims of the Nazi terror, including civilian and military casualties of war.'Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German Occupation policies and the war."


Military casualties

Poland lost a total of about 140,000 regular soldiers killed and missing. The Polish resistance movement lost an additional 100,000 fighters during the war. The official Historical Journal of the Polish military has published statistics on Polish military casualties. The following schedule details these losses. The
Polish contribution to World War II In World War Two, the Polish armed forces were the fourth largest Allied forces in Europe, after those of the Soviet Union, United States, and Britain. Poles made substantial contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on lan ...
included the
Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; th ...
, and the
1st First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and 2nd Polish Army fighting under Soviet command. : ''Sources:'' Wojciech Materski and Tomasz Szarota. ''Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami.'' Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Warszawa 2009, . Page 20 T. Panecki, Wysiłek zbrojny Polski w II wojnie światowej, :pl:Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny 1995, nr 1-2, s. 13,18. *The figure of 95-97,000 killed in the 1939 campaign includes 17-19,000 in Soviet hands as POW. *The
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) e ...
resistance movement which had a strength of about 400,000 fighters in 1944 lost 100,000 killed in the struggle against the German occupation and 50,000 imprisoned by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.


Polish casualties in English language sources

Estimated figures for
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
casualties are divergent and contradictory. The authors of the ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' maintain that "casualty statistics are notoriously unreliable".
I. C. B. Dear I. C. B. Dear (Ian Dear) is a full-time writer specializing in maritime and military history, and between 1996 and 2004 was a reviewer for 'Contemporary British History'. He formerly served in the Royal Marines, and later worked in the film and b ...
and
M. R. D. Foot Michael Richard Daniell Foot, (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and former British Army intelligence officer with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. Biography The ...
''Oxford Companion to World War II'' Oxford, 2005 page 225
The following is a list of published statistics for Polish casualties in World War II. * ''
Encyclopedia Britannica An encyclopedia ( American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articl ...
'' article "World Wars" (2010) Military-killed, died of wounds or in prison-123,718; wounded-236,606; prisoners or missing 420,760; civilian deaths due to war 5,675,000. Estimated total deaths 5,800,000. *
I. C. B. Dear I. C. B. Dear (Ian Dear) is a full-time writer specializing in maritime and military history, and between 1996 and 2004 was a reviewer for 'Contemporary British History'. He formerly served in the Royal Marines, and later worked in the film and b ...
, ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (2005) Military losses- 123,000 Civilian losses- 4,000,000 Total losses- 4,123,000. *''World War II Desk Reference'' (2004). Military losses-123,000 estimated. Civilians killed 6,000,000. *
Spencer C. Tucker Spencer C. Tucker is a Fulbright scholar, retired university professor, and author of works on military history. He taught history at Texas Christian University for 30 years and held the John Biggs Chair of Military History at the Virginia Milita ...
, ''Encyclopedia of World War Two'' (2004) Battle deaths 320,000; wounded 530,000; missing in action 420,760. Civilians dead 3,000,00. * Clodfelter, Micheal. ''Warfare and Armed Conflicts – A Statistical Reference'' (2002) Total military dead all causes 597,320 including battle deaths of 123,178; wounded 766,606. Civilian deaths 5,675,000 including 3,000,000 Jews *
John Keegan Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, ...
, ''Atlas of the Second World War'' (1997)-Military dead 850,000(169,822 as allies); civilian dead 5,778,000. * ''World War Two: Nation by Nation'' (1995) Military dead approx. 480,000 including (125,000 killed in battle, 30,000 POW in Soviet hands and 200,000 in German hands, 80,000 Polish resistance and 35,000 in German armed forces.) Civilian dead 5,300,000 including 2,900,000 Jews. *John Ellis, ''World War II: A Statistical Survey'' (1993) 1939- 66,300 killed & 133,700 wounded, W. Europe 4,500 killed & 13,000 wounded, with Russians at least 40,000 killed & wounded Civilians 4,800,000 killed in camps plus c. 500,000 other dead *
Alan Bullock Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, (13 December 1914 – 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book '' Hitler: A Study in Tyranny'' (1952), the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which influence ...
(1992) – Military dead 123,000 and 6,000,000 civilian dead(including 2,900,000 Jews). *
Rudolph Rummel Rudolph Joseph Rummel (October 21, 1932 – March 2, 2014) was an American political scientist and professor at the Indiana University, Yale University, and University of Hawaiʻi. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war w ...
(1997)- Military dead 320,000.''Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder since 1900'', Lit Verlag, 1999 Democide 5,788,000 including:Nazi
Democide Democide is a term coined by American political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or hig ...
- 5,400,000 (2,365,000 Poles, 3,000,000 Jews and 35,000 Gypsies.) Soviet
Democide Democide is a term coined by American political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or hig ...
1939-1945 328,000.
Democide Democide is a term coined by American political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or hig ...
by Ukrainian nationalists 60,000. * ''Wars and War-Related Deaths 1700-1987'' (1987)- Total deaths 6,600,000 -military 600,000; civilians 6,000,000, *
Melvin Small Melvin Small (born March 14, 1939 in New York City) is an American academic working as a distinguished professor emeritus of history at Wayne State University in Detroit. Education Small earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 19 ...
and J. David Singer (1982), Military dead 320,000. *
Quincy Wright Philip Quincy Wright (December 28, 1890 – October 17, 1970) was an American political scientist based at the University of Chicago known for his pioneering work and expertise in international law, international relations, and security studies. ...
(1965), Deaths (military 64,000; civilians 2,064,000).Quincy Wright ''A Study of War'' revised ed University of Chicago Press. 1965 page 1542


References


Further reading

*Wojciech Materski and Tomasz Szarota. ''Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami.'' Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Warszawa 2009, . Digital copy
Internet Archive ''Wayback Machine''
* Gniazdowski, Mateusz. ''Losses Inflicted on Poland by Germany during World War II. Assessments and Estimates—an Outline'' The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs, 2007, no. 1.This article is available from the Central and Eastern European Online Library at http://www.ceeol.com * Gross, Jan Tomasz, ''Polish Society Under German Occupation'' Princeton University Press, (1979) *Krystyna Kersten, Szacunek strat osobowych w Polsce Wschodniej. Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI- 1994 * Łuczak, Czesław (1993), ''Polska i Polacy w drugiej wojnie światowej'' *Łuczak, Czesław (1994), ''Szanse i trudnosci bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939–1945'' ossibilities and Difficulties of the Demographic Balance in Poland 1939-1945 Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI- 1994 * Richard C. Lukas, ''Forgotten Holocaust: Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-44'' Hippocrene Books, 2001 *Nurowski, Roman ''War Losses of Poland'' Warsaw 1960 *T. Panecki, ''Wsiłek zbrojny Polski w II wojnie światowej'' :pl:Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny,1995, no. 1–2 *Piesowicz, Kazimierz. ''Demographic effects of World War II. emograficzne skutki II wojny swiatowej.' Studia Demograficzne, No. 1/87, 1987. 103-36 pp. Warsaw, Poland *Poland. Bureau odszkodowan wojennych(BOW), Statement on war losses and damages of Poland in 1939–1945. Warsaw 1947 *Franciszek Proch, ''Poland's Way of the Cross'', New York 1987 *Tadeusz Piotrowski
''Poland World War II casualties''
*Tadeusz Piotrowski ''Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947'' McFarland & Company, 1997 *U.S. Bureau of the Census ''The Population of Poland'' Ed. W. Parker Mauldin, Washington- 1954
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.''Poles Victims of the Nazi Era''". Ushmm.org
*Zieliński, Henryk. ''Population changes in Poland, 1939-1950'' New York Mid-European Studies Center, National Committee for a Free Europe 1954 *Wojciech Materski, Tomasz Szarota (2009)

Internet Archive. Retrieved March 13, 2013. *Victims of the Nazi Regime-Database of Polish citizens repressed under the German Occupatio

* :pl:Piotr Eberhardt,
''Political Migrations In Poland 1939-1948'' Warsaw2006
* :pl:Piotr Eberhardt, ''Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis'' Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 2003.
Andrzej Gawryszewski LUDNOŚĆ POLSKI W XX WIEKU POLSKA AKADEMIA NAUK NSTYTUT GEOGRAFII I PRZESTRZENNEGO ZAGOSPODAROWANIA IM. STANISŁAWA LESZCZYCKIEGO
*Bajer, Kazimierz ''Zakres udziału Polaków w walce o niepodległość na obszarze państwa polskiego w latach 1939-1945'', "Zeszyty Historyczne Stowarzyszenia Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej", (Kraków) 1996


Further reading


External links


Truth about camps
website created by
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...

Map
of the German death camps on occupied Polish territories.

and biographical notes and witness’ accounts created by
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...

Database
containing records concerning SS KL Auschwitz personnel
''Polish Victims'' article in The Holocaust Encyclopedia
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust h ...
{{commons category, World War II casualties of Poland