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Polish Prisoners Of War In World War II
Polish prisoners of war in World War II were soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces captured by Germany and the Soviet Union during and after their invasion of Poland in 1939 (see also Soviet invasion of Poland). Following the defeat of Poland, tens of thousands of Polish soldiers were interned in camps, with many subjected to forced labor, harsh conditions, and political repression. While some prisoners were later released or escaped to join resistance movements, others suffered severe mistreatment or were executed, most notably during the Katyn massacre. Total numbers Polish POWs: all POWs after invasion of Poland: estimates range 650,000–1,039,800 with the lower estimates based on number of soldiers held at POW camps and the higher, for all soldiers as well as similar groups (ex. policeman) taken into custody (many were quickly released). Out of these: 420,000–694,000 held by Germany, and 125,000, 190,000, 300,000 or 452,500 held by the USSR following the Soviet invasion of P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland (, ; abbreviated SZ RP), also called the Polish Armed Forces and popularly called in Poland (, roughly "the Polish Military"—abbreviated ''WP''), are the national Military, armed forces of the Poland, Republic of Poland. They comprise five main service branches: the Polish Land Forces (), the Polish Navy (), the Polish Air Force (), the Polish Special Forces (), and the Territorial Defence Force (Poland), Polish Territorial Defence Force (), under the command of the Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Ministry of National Defence of Poland. According to SIPRI, Poland spent $38 billion on its defense budget in 2024, ranking List of countries by military expenditures, 13th in the world. In 2023, Poland spent the greatest share of its GDP for military expenditures (3.9%) among all NATO members. With over 292,000 active personnel in 2025, the Polish Armed Forces are the third largest military in NATO, after Turkish Armed Forces, Turkey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zambrów Massacre
The Zambrów massacre was a war crime that took place on the night of 13–14 September 1939. It was one of the major war crimes of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland. During that night, the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp in Zambrów was disturbed by a number of panicked horses, and more than 200 Polish soldiers, trying to move out of their way, were gunned down by German sentries.Tomasz SudołZBRODNIE WEHRMACHTU NA JEŃCACH POLSKICH WE WRZEŚNIU 1939 ROKU Biuro Edukacji Publicznej IPN Some witnesses later said the horses had been purposely released into the camp by the German sentries, who used the incident as a pretext to massacre the prisoners. Background Tactical situation The , lasting from 11 to 13 September 1939, involved units of Polish General Czesław Młot-Fijałkowski's Special Operation Group "Narew", particularly the Polish 18th Infantry Division under command of Colonel Stefan Kossecki, facing an offensive by the German XIX Army Corps under General Hei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag
An Oflag (from ) was a type of prisoner of war camp for Officer (armed forces), officers which the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929), Geneva Convention (1929). Although officers were not required to work, at Oflag XIII-B (Hammelburg) when the POWs asked to be able to work for more food, they were told the Geneva Convention forbade them from working. In some Oflags a limited number of non-commissioned soldiers working as Batman (military), orderlies were allowed to carry out the work needed to care for the officers. Officers of the Allied air forces were held in special camps called Stalags Luft but were accorded the required preferential treatment. The German Army camp commanders applied the Geneva Convention requirements to suit themselves. An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geneva Convention On Prisoners Of War
The Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War was signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929. Its official name is the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. It entered into force 19 June 1931. It is this version of the Geneva Conventions which covered the treatment of prisoners of war during World War II. It is the predecessor of the Third Geneva Convention signed in 1949. On their web site, the International Committee of the Red Cross states that: General provisions Article 1 makes explicit reference to Articles 1, 2, and 3 of ''Hague Convention respecting the laws and customs of war on land ( Hague IV), of October 18, 1907'', to define who are lawful combatants and so qualify as prisoners of war (POW) on capture. In addition to combatants covered by Hague IV, some civilians are also covered in the section of this Convention called the " Application of the Convention to certain classes of civilians". Articles 2, 3, and 4 specifies that POWs are prisoners of the Power ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Atrocities Committed Against Soviet Prisoners Of War
During World War II, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) held by Nazi Germany and primarily in the custody of the German Army were starved and subjected to deadly conditions. Of nearly six million who were captured, around three million died during their imprisonment. In June 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union and carried out a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. Among the criminal orders issued before the invasion was for the execution of captured Soviet commissars and disregard for Germany's legal obligations under the 1929 Geneva Convention. By the end of 1941, over 3 million Soviet soldiers had been captured, mostly in large-scale encirclement operations during the German Army's rapid advance. Two-thirds of them had died from starvation, exposure, and disease by early 1942. This is one of the highest sustained death rates for any mass atrocity in history. Soviet Jews, political commissars, and some officers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summary Execution
In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, as in the case of a drumhead court-martial, but the term usually denotes the ''summary execution'' of a sentence of death. Under international law, it is defined as a combatant's refusal to accept an opponent's lawful surrender and the combatant's provision of no quarter, by killing the surrendering opponents. Summary executions have been practiced by police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are frequently associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and any other situation which involves a breakdown of the normal procedures for handling accused prisoners, civilian or military. Military jurisdiction Under military law, summary execution is illegal in almost all circumstances, as a military tribunal would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Troops
A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standing army, the permanent force of the regular army that is maintained under arms during peacetime. * a military reserve force that can be mobilized when needed to expand the effectiveness of the regular army by complementing the standing army. A regular army may be: * a ''conscript army'', including professionals, volunteers and also conscripts (presence of enforced conscription, including recruits for the standing army and also a compulsory reserve). * a ''professional army'', with no conscripts (absence of compulsory service, and presence of a voluntary reserve), is not exactly the same as a standing army, as there are standing armies both in the conscript and the professional models. In the United Kingdom and the United States, the te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of a domestic irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of military occupation, occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements. The most common use in present parlance in several languages refers to Resistance during World War II, occupation resistance fighters during World War II, especially under the Yugoslav Partisans, Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Broz Tito. History before 1939 The initial concept of partisan warfare involved the use of militia, troops raised from the local population in a war zone (or in some cases regular forces) who would operate behind enemy front line, lines to disrupt communications, seize posts or villages as forward-operating bases, ambush convoys, impose war taxes or contributions, raid logistical stockpiles, and compel enemy forces to disperse and protect their base of operations. George Satterfield has ana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Untermensch
''Untermensch'' (; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a German language word literally meaning 'underman', 'sub-man', or ' subhuman', which was extensively used by Germany's Nazi Party to refer to their opponents and non- Aryan people they deemed as inferior. It was mainly used against "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Belarusians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Russians and Serbs). The term was also applied to "'' Mischling''" (persons of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan ancestry) and black people. Jewish, Slavic, and Romani people, along with the physically and mentally disabled, as well as homosexuals and political dissidents, and on rare instances, POWs from Western Allied armies, were considered untermenschen who were to be exterminated in the Holocaust. According to the '' Generalplan Ost'', the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder in the Holocaust for ''Lebensraum'', with a significant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propaganda In Nazi Germany
Propaganda was a tool of the Nazi Party in Germany from its earliest days to the end of the regime in May 1945 at the end of World War II. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amount of space in Germany and, eventually, beyond. Adolf Hitler’s ''Mein Kampf'' (1925) provided the groundwork for the party’s later methodology while the newspapers, the ''Völkischer Beobachter'' and later ''Der Angriff'', served as the early practical foundations for later propaganda during the party’s formative years. These were later followed by many media types including books, posters, magazines, photos, art, films, and radio broadcasts which took increasingly prominent roles as the party gained more power. These efforts promulgated Nazi ideology throughout German society. Such ideology included promotion of Nazi policies and values at home, worldview beyond their borders, antisemitism, vilification of non-German peoples and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-Polish Sentiment
Polonophobia, also referred to as anti-Polonism () or anti-Polish sentiment are terms for negative attitudes, prejudices, and actions against Poles as an ethnic group, Poland as their country, and their culture. These include ethnic prejudice against Poles and persons of Polish descent, other forms of discrimination, and mistreatment of Poles and the Polish diaspora. This prejudice led to mass killings and genocide or it was used to justify atrocities both before and during World War II, most notably by the German Nazis and Ukrainian Nazis. While Soviet repressions and massacres of Polish citizens were ideologically motivated, the negative attitude of Soviet authorities to the Polish nation is well-attested. Nazi Germany killed between 1.8 and 2.7 million ethnic Poles; 140,000 Poles were deported to Auschwitz, where at least half of them perished. Anti-Polish sentiment includes stereotyping Poles as unintelligent and aggressive, as thugs, thieves, alcoholics, and ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
