The Third Reich and its Economic Impact on Poland
Executive Summary
Introduction
The Third Reich
The so-called “Third Reich” has more often than not been used as a near-synonym for Nazi Germany. Notwithstanding the exchangeable status of the two terms, the “Third Reich” has never been referred to as the “Third Empire” which is its rough English equivalent. Actually, in German, the regime is and was usually referred to as the “Drittes Reich”. This term, the “Drittes Reich” along with the term “Tausandjahriges Reich” or “Thousand-Year Empire” in English, was used by the Nazi Party to associate the new German Empire to the ones of old – the Holy Roman Empire which was considered to be the first empire lasting almost approximately a thousand years from 843 to 1806, and the German Empire of 1871, which was considered as the second empire – at the same time alluding to visualized future prosperity and the nation’s supposed destiny. However, in speeches, books as well as articles about the Third Reich after the 8th of May 1945, this thousand-year empire is often put adjacent to the twelve years of the Third Reich’s existence. The terms were only used briefly and dropped from misinformation in 1939 officially in order to prevent persiflage and also to prevent any religious implications.
Ideologically speaking, the concept of “Grodeutschland”, meaning “Greater Germany” has been sanctioned by the Nazis. The Nazis realized the integration of the Germanic peoples into one large nation as very important in their plans for the future. As often referred to in English scholarship, the “German Problem” concentrates on the subject of the administration in Northern and Central Europe, which accordingly has been a very relevant theme throughout the German history. In addition, this nationalist, Wagnerian love affair with the Volk concept concluded in the disaster of the Third Reich. Similarly, the concern over administration of the Polish corridor and Danzig in due course led to World War II.
Furthermore, the Nazis were also unwaveringly Anti-communist. They considered the leftist movement and international capitalism as the works of computational Jewry. This proposal became apparent in the displacement, internment and later, the organized annihilation of an estimated six million European Jews in the midst of the Second World War. Other included victims of the Second World War were Slavs, Gypsies, political opponents, social outcasts, religious nonconformist and uncompromising Church-affiliated leadership. As a matter of fact, although the Second World War officially began when the United Kingdom along with France declared war on Nazi Germany two days after Poland was invaded, one may argue that a war with the Soviet Union was unavoidable basing on the Third Reich’s precepts. The international conflict that followed resulted to Europe in ruins, in addition to the deaths of approximately sixty-two million peoples.
Pre-war Politics from 1933-1939
In the advent of the disturbances imposed through the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s, the counter-traditionalism of the Weimar period and the threat of Soviet-sponsored communism in Germany, many voters had began to shift their support to Adolf Hitler’s radical Nazi Party, which accordingly had made great promises of an economic, cultural and military renewal. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg consequently after the failure of General Kurt von Schleicher attempts to form a feasible government. It was said that Hindenburg was put to pressure by Hitler through his son, Oskar, and was intrigued from the former Chancellor Franz von Papen after his collection of participating financial interests. In addition, event though the Nazi Party had gained the biggest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, the Nazi Party had little majority in the parliament within Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP-NSDAP (Deutschnationale Volkspartei-Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; which means “German National People’s Party-National Socialist German Workers Party” in English) coalition. This coalition was said to rule through continuance of un-Constitutional Presidential decree issuance under Article 48m prevalent in all Chancellorships since October 1931.
Consolidation of Power. The new government of Germany established a dictatorship in a series of measures in fast succession. On the 27th of February 1933, the Reichstag was set on fire and this was followed almost after by the Reichstag Fire Decree, which overturned habeas corpus and liberties. A further step which turned Germany into a dictatorship virtually overnight was the Enabling Act passed in 1933 March under pressure which gave the government legislative powers and also gave them the power to diverge from the provisions of the constitution. With these powers, Adolf Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned the Weimar Republic into the “Third Reich”. Further consolidation of power was accomplished during the 30th of March 1934 with the Act to rebuild the Reich (Genets umber den Neuaufbau des Reich’s) which altered the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized state. In addition, the Act disbanded state parliaments, transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put the state administrations under the control of the Reich administration.
It must be duly noted that only the German Army remained independent from the control of the Nazis. The German Army had conventionally been somewhat separate from the government. The Nazi quasi-military Sturmabteilung (Storm Division) expected top positions in the new power structure. On the night of the 30th of June 1934, Hitler, wanting to sustain good relations with the army, initiated the Night of the Long Knives which was an elimination of the leadership ranks of the Sturmabteilung in addition to other political enemies which was carried by another more elitist, Nazi organization, the Schutzstaffel (Defense Quadroon). After a very short time, the German Army leaders then swore their obedience to Hitler.
At the death of President Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag united the offices of Recihspresident and Reichskanzler and reinaugurated Hitler with the new title of Fuhrer und Reichskanzler.
The commencement of Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil authority, stressed out the intention of the Nazis to utilize powerful, coercive measures to directly control German society. Soon, an army estimated to be about a hundred thousand spies and infiltrators operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critic or dissenter. Many of the ordinary Germans who were happy with the improving economy and better standard of living had remained silent and obedient, however, many of the governments political opponents especially communists and some types of socialists were reported by all-pervading eavesdropping spies and were then put in prison camps where they were mistreated ruthlessly and many were even killed and tortured. It has been estimated that tens of thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the few years of the rule of the Nazis.
Social Policy. The Nazi Regime was one that is basically characterized by political control of every aspect of society in the pursuit for racial, social and cultural purity. Modern abstract art and avant-garde art was thrown out of museums and put on special display as “Degenerate Art”, where it was mocked. Amusingly, in one notable example on March 31, 1937, there were massive crowds which stood in line to view a display of “degenerate art” in Munich, while a concurrent exhibition of nine hundred works all personally approved by Hitler attracted only little unenthusiastic gathering.
The Nazi Party, in pursuit of its mission, persecuted and killed those that they consider impure. They targeted most especially against minority groups such as Jew, Gypsies, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals.
In the years after the Nazi’s rise to power, many Jews fled the country and were persuaded to do so because of the Nazis. The time when the Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935, Jews were deprived of their German citizenship and denied government employment. Those Jews who were employed by Germans also lost their jobs during the time. their jobs were being taken by unemployed Germans. As of November 9, 1938, the Nazi Party prompted a program against Jewish businesses, also known as, Kristallnacht or the “Night of the Broken Glass” which literally means “Crystal Night”. This euphemism was utilized as the numerous broken windows made the streets looks as if it was covered with crystal. As of September 1939, more than two hundred Jess had fled from Germany with the Nazi government seizing any property they left behind.
Furthermore, the Nazis carried out programs which targeted the “weak” or “unfit” members of their own population including the T-4 Euthanasia Program which terminated approximately tens of thousands of disabled or sick Germans in an effort to preserve the purity of the “German Master Race” (Herrenvolk in German) as illustrated by the Nazi propagandists. The techniques of mass killings advanced in these efforts were later being used in the Holocaust. Under the law that was passed in 1933, the Nazi regime undertook the necessary sterilization of over four hundred thousand individuals that were labeled as having hereditary defects which basically ranges from mental illness to alcoholism.
A recent research done b Goetz Alohas stressed out the role of the extensive Nazi welfare programmers that supposedly facilitated maintaining the public support for the Nazi regime until late in the war. The German community was nationalized. In addition, labor and entertainment such as festivals, vacation trips and traveling cinemas were all made a part of the so-called “Strength to Joy” program. Similarly crucial to the building of the loyalty and comradeship was the implementation of the National Labor Service which was compulsory and the Hitler Youth Organization which constituted almost six million boys and girls. as well as to a number of architectural projects that were undertaken, the construction of the Autobahn prepared it to be the first National Motor Highway system in the world.
Between the years 1933 and 1936, Germany had outpaced the United States in construction, automobile production, unemployment and employment. generally speaking, the Third Reich provided the Germans the confidence and the naturally instilled loyalty.
Economic Policy.
The Polish Invasion
After coming to power, it was one of Adolf Hitler’s first principal foreign policy initiatives to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland in January 1934. This tactic was not very familiar with many Germans who altogether supported Hitler, nevertheless, resented the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces such as West Prussia, Poznan and Upper Silesia under the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. However, Hitler wanted the nonaggression pact in order to neutralize the alliance against Germany before Germany had the chance to rearm.
As of the mid and late 1930s, France, altogether with Britain followed a foreign policy of appeasement. The main goal of this policy was to preserve peace in Europe through the creation of limited concessions to German demands. In Britain, there is a great tendency of public opinion to favor some revision of the territorial and military provision of the Versailles treaty. In addition, neither Britain nor France in 1938 was a military prepared to fight a war against Nazi Germany.
Britain and France, relevantly, went along to Germany’s rearmament during 1935-1937, remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 and the invasion of Austria in March 1938. in September 1938, consequently after the signing away if the Czech border regions, recognized as the Sudetenland, to Germany at the Munich conference, French and British leaders forced Czechoslovakia, an ally of France, to acquiesce to the demand of Germany for the incorporation of these regions. Regardless of the guarantees of Anglo-French of the integrity of rump Czechoslovakia, the Germans tore apart the Czechoslovak state in March 1939 in violation of the Munich agreement. In response to this, Britain and France guaranteed the integrity of the Polish state. In contrast, Hitler responded by making negotiations of a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1939. This German-Soviet pact in August 1939 stated that Poland was to be divided between the two powers, namely the Axis and the Allied forces. Furthermore the German-Soviet pact also enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.
As of September 1, 1939, Germany then attacked Poland. Within weeks of the invasion, the Polish army was defeated by the Germans. With approximately more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, German units from East Prussia in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south broke through Polish defenses along the border and pressed forward on Warsaw in a considerable encirclement attack. After intense shelling and bombing, Warsaw then surrendered to the Germans by the 28th of September 1939.
In September 3, 1939, Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland’s border, had declared war against Germany. In September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union also invaded Poland, targeting on Poland’s eastern part. In October 1939, Germany directly took control of those former Polish territories along eastern border of Germany including territories such as West Prussia, Poznan, Upper Silesia and the former Free City of Danzig. The remainder of the German-occupied Poland, including cities such as Warsaw, Krakow, Radom and Lublin was organized as the so-called Generalgouvernment (General Government) under a civilian governor general, the Nazi Party lawyer Hans Frank.
The Third Reich occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland had remained under German occupation until January 1945.
Poland under the Control of the Third Reich
The German occupation of Poland was exceptionally brutal as the Nazis considered the Poles to be racially inferior. Consequently after the military defeat of Poland by Germany in September 1939, the Germans then launched a campaign of terror. German police units killed thousands of Polish civilians and necessitated all Polish males to perform forced labor. The Nazis sought to demolish Polish culture by terminating the Polish political, religious and intellectual leadership partly due to German disdain for Polish culture and to prevent resistance against the German occupation of Poland.
In May 1940, the German occupation authorities commenced AB-Aktion which was basically a plan to terminate all of the Polish intelligentsia and leadership class. The main mission of AB-Aktion was to kill Polish leaders with great speed, hence, encouraging fear in the general population of Poland and discouraging resistance. Also, the Germans killed thousands of teachers, priests and other intellectuals in mass killings in and around Warsaw, most especially in the city’s Paik prison. The Nazis sent thousands more of Poles to the newly built Auschwitz concentration camp, to Sutton and to other concentration camps in Germany wherein non-Jewish Poles comprised majority of the inmates until March 1942.
The Nazis conducted indiscriminate retaliatory measures against those populations in places that resistance was revealed. These measures included mass expulsions. In November of 1942, the Germans expelled over a hundred thousand peoples from the Samos region as many were reportedly deported to the Auschwitz and Madame camps. An estimated of fifty thousand Polish children were taken from their families, transferred to the Reich and subjected to “Germanization” policies.
Consequently after the occupation of western Poland to Germany, Adolf Hitler declared “Germanization” of the Polish territory. Nazi governors such as Arthur Greaser in the Warthog and Albert Forster in Dazing, West Prussia expelled hundreds of thousands of Polish people from their homes in the Generalgouvernment. Approximately more than five hundred thousand ethic Germans were settled in these areas.
Furthermore, a Polish government-in-exile which was led by Wladyslaw Skiros was established in London. It was basically represented on Polish soil by the underground “Delegatura” whose primary function was to collaborate the activities of the Polish Home Army (Aria Krakow). The resistance of the Poles staged a violent mass revolution against the Germans in Warsaw in August 1944 which lasted for two months, after eventually being crushed by the Germans. Approximately more than two hundred thousand Poles were killed in the revolution.
Between 1939 and 1945, 1.5 million Polish citizens at minimum were deported to German territory for forced labor. In addition, hundreds of thousands were also imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. It has been estimated that the Germans killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians during World War II and the Germans, reportedly, murdered at a minimum of three million Jewish citizens of Poland.
Poland before 1939
As of the eve of World War II, Poland was said to have gone forward towards attaining economic unity, assuring monetary stability and providing for economic growth. However, the progress towards these objectives was hindered by: (1) an inexperienced public administration and incompetently chosen economic policies; (2) the disconcerted international political situation which has greatly discouraged private investment; and (3) the occurrence of the world depression. In an attempt to solve its economic problems, the Polish government expanded its role in the management of the economy. This was done both directly in the form of ownership and operation of the enterprises and indirectly through regulation of the private economic activity.
The agricultural problem of Poland remained severe, in spite of extensive redistribution of land under the agrarian reform. However, toward the end of the interwar period, the solution for the agricultural problem was being addressed to in the framework of planned industrialization. At the same time that the government expanded the state’s direct role in industry, it also encouraged private enterprise to unite in the planned industrialization of the country. However, the emerging experiment of the partnership between the state and the private enterprise was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War.
Impacts of the Third Reich to Poland
It must be noted that Poland had indeed suffered from economic losses during the Second World War in 1939. In fact, the immense task of reconstructing the country was accompanied by the struggle to create a stable, centralized power base which was further complicated by the mistrust from a considerable part of the society apprehended for the new regime and by differences of opinion over Poland’s postwar borders, which were not firmly established as of the mid-1945.
Aside from being the first country to be overrun in the Second World War, Poland was also the last country to emerge from the theater of hostilities. The Second World War brought about widespread destruction to the national wealth, although very likely not as great as the Polish officials estimates would specify. Apparently, these estimates had the intention to serve as a foundation for compensations and economic assistance or to enlarge the consequent performance of the economy of the country. Hence, a statement in the context of the law for the Six-Year Plan emphasized that the losses from the war and requisitions resulted to a thirty-three percent reduction in the national wealth. Actually, another Polish estimate placed a capital losses in the industry for the period 1939 to 1945, which was about the time of German occupation in Poland at a roughly 11.5 billion U.S. dollars or actually equivalent to 11.5 percent if the entire national property.
Also another statement of the Polish government placed the material losses in the old territories of Poland within present boundaries at 18.2 billion U.S. dollars of which approximately 5.7 billion was distributed to the industry and 3.5 billion to the transport and communications. Also the same source equated these losses to some fifty percent of the prewar capital value. In addition, over twenty percent of the prewar industrial facilities in the new western territories were removed or destroyed.
There was also a considerable amount of war destruction and damage to the communications system. In fact, it was estimated that main railway lines were damaged to the extent of forty percent. Thirty percent of the small railway bridges and a roughly seventy percent of the large ones were reportedly ruined and the lines were practically shed of rolling stock.
In terms of agricultural losses brought about the Second World War, livestock was mainly the most damaged. It has been reported by the Office of War Reparations of the polish government that these losses on livestock were approximately as follow: (1) horses – 2,776,000 – this is seventy-five percent of prewar numbers; (2) cattle – 8,541,000 – sixty percent of prewar; and (3) pigs – 6,434,000 – eighty percent of prewar. A roughly 467,000 farm buildings were also destroyed within the new boundaries which basically amounts to over fifteen percent of their value or a loss of about 2.5 billion zlotys at 1939 prices.
Furthermore, the Polish Ministry of Reconstruction had estimated that the losses in urban buildings which were over ten percent ruined at about 527 million cubic meters valued at over 9.5 billion zlotys in 1939, which is approximately equivalent to 1.8 billion dollars of that date. A little more than half of this value of loss was distributed to the new western territories. In addition, approximately four million were estimated to be damaged from a total of nine million rooms in urban housing which had existed in the present territory of Poland before 1939; the damage is more than ten percent of their value.
These statements of loss are presented to give a more complete description of Poland’s economic potential at the onset of planning in the postwar period. The losses are probably overstated; however, they afford some suggestions of the magnitude of losses incurred. On balance, it seems apparent that Poland in her postwar boundaries possessed a much more favorable opportunity for economic development compared to prewar times in practically all the major sectors of production.
Conclusion
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