Nazis Saw Jews and Poles Similarly Winiewicz

Aims and Failures of the German “New Order”, A Study, by J. M. Winiewicz. 1943

The DRANG NACH OSTEN. Nazis Admired Polish anti-Prussian Successes. The Early Polokaust: Passive Genocide

To avoid charges of pro-Polish bias, author Jozef Winiewicz bases his work almost entirely on German sources. (p. 1). His work is short (119 pages) but detailed.

THE CENTURIES-OLD GERMAN DRANG NACH OSTEN

German thinking in general and Nazi ideology in particular, painted the Germans as bearers of civilization to the “primitive” Slavs. Wieniewicz, on the other hands, points out that the Slavs originally inhabited the territories east of the Elbe, and even then had a high agricultural culture, advanced moral standards, and a peaceful attitude towards their neighbors.

Early German aggression, the first part of DRANG NACH OSTEN, advanced German rule from the Elbe (Laba) to the Oder (Odra). Even as late as the 19th century, the Serbo-Lusatian tongue was still spoken. (p. 4).

However, continued German colonization and conquest, east of the Oder, collided with Polish resistance. Henceforth, for a time, the Germans came more as colonists than as conquerors. Even then, rather than as “bearers of civilization”, they came as refugees from the policies of German margraves, princely caprice, etc. Winiewicz thus quotes German scholar Herman Aubin (quote) Poland gave to these eastward wanderers not only land, not only security for the law of property and freedom from feudal exactions, but frequently also the opportunity for forming self-governing associations, whether municipal or religious. (unquote)(p. 8).

The bitter conflicts between the German margraves led to fratricide between the many mini-states in what only much later would become the nation of Germany. The Thirty Years War highlighted these conflicts. All this time, Poland was welcoming refugees from Germany. Some of these became Polonized, while others sought to live according to separatism, and to obtain and hold on to privileges. (pp. 10-11). [The latter, of course, also applied to the Jews.] In time, the separatist-oriented Germans commonly became actively anti-Polish, especially owing to the influences of Fichte, Hegel, Bismarck, Wilhelm II, and of course Hitler. (p. 11).

CONTINUED GERMAN PRETENSIONS TO POLISH TERRITORIES

Later German claims to Polish lands came to be based on VOLKSBODEN–the notion that German cultural and technological influences are predominant even where there are few or no Germans. (p. 50). Wieniewicz points out the REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM of German VOLKSBODEN: It would mean that the German Hansa in London, parts of the United States, etc., are rightfully part of Germany. (p. 9, 50). Furthermore, Wieniewicz argues that German presence and influence in Poland before the 19th century, though certainly real (p. 50), never amounted to a considerable number of Germans, and never changed the Polish character of the places where Germans lived. (p. 11).

THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND HAD BEEN A HEINOUS CRIME

A leading German political scientist, Konstantin Frantz, recognized the fundamentally criminal nature of the Partitions of Poland, as he wrote, (quote) …During the period of the First Partition the partitioners were still casting about for a legal justification, but with the Second and Third they had made no attempt to hide the policy of naked force. They over-rode all the laws of nations and criminally destroyed the work of many centuries of Polish history. (unquote)(p. 12).

EVEN THE NAZIS ADMIRED THE POLISH PUSHBACK AGAINST THE PRUSSIAN ARROGANCE OF BISMARCK, VON BUELOW, ETC.

The successful struggle of the Poles, based on organic work, against the German pressures of the late 19th century, in Prussian-occupied Poland, were recognized by a number of quoted German researchers. One of these, a young Nazi named Fritz Prause, wrote the following (entire paragraph is a direct quote from his thesis):

The devoted national consolidation of the Poles in Poznania and in Pomorze did not fall into their laps like ripe fruit off a tree, but it was achieved only as the outcome of an immutable faith in their own strength, as well as by the nature of this effort. So we mention here only the outstanding facts of the Polish resistance: The strengthening of peasant settlement, the leveling of social classes, the creation of a middle class of townsmen, the building up of widely diffused co-operative associations, both social and productive, the admission of the new classes to a share in political control, the summoning of all Poles into the ranks of anti-German propagandist bodies always ready to strike–the creation, in short, of a new Polish type…by these means the Poles won an increase of more than 100,000 hectares in their agricultural holdings up to the year 1913. They built up for themselves a skilled and well-drilled school of intelligentsia (clergy, lawyers, doctors, financial and economic experts.) They created for themselves a hard-working and thrifty peasant class which did not resort to alcohol, but remained on the land as community which as full of a fanatical decision to defend every possible means its land and its rights. (unquote)(p. 25).

Considering the common derogatory German attitudes (e. g, “Slavic fatalism” and POLNISCHE WIRTSCHAFT), the foregoing quote is especially instructive.

POLES IN THE NEWLY-INDUSTRIALIZED RUHR

During the 19th century, many Poles moved to the newly-industrialized Ruhr. Winiewicz cites a German newspaper that estimated that, before 1914, 250,000 Poles lived in the Ruhr. (p. 80).

POLES IN THE WARTHEGAU, ETC., DIRECTLY ANNEXED TO THE THIRD REICH

Now back to WWII. The Germans ran into practical difficulties in their attempts to classify peoples as German and non-German. They dealt with such concepts as DEUTSCHSTAMMIG (of German stock) and DEUTSCHBLUTIG (of German blood). German colonization was driven by BLUT UND BODEN, as exemplified by the 1929-1930 works of Darre. (p. 90).

The author discusses the VOLKSLISTE. For example, this enabled the Germans to force multitudes of Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht. (p. 87, 112-113). In fact, Winiewicz quotes a Polish source that estimated that, up to October 1942, nearly 120,000 Poles, from Silesia alone, had been forced to serve in the German Army. (p. 113).

Although the Germans had to give up their attempts to expel all the Poles of the Reich-annexed territories, owing to wartime reverses and the need for Polish forced labor, they merely deferred the plan until after they won the war. (p. 63).

NAZIS SAW JEWS AND POLES SIMILARLY

Winiewicz quotes some German policy statements regarding Poles and Jews, and it is obvious that these overlapped considerably. For instance, neither Poles nor Jews were allowed to object to the sentence of a German judge, to be put on oath as witnesses, or to take civil action. (pp. 92-93). Interestingly, even before WWII, Poles at universities in Nazi Germany were issued the same yellow-colored identification cards as were Jews. (p. 78).

NAZI GERMAN FORCED LABOR, RESTRICTIVE LAWS ON POLES, WERE FORMS OF PASSIVE GENOCIDE

The author does not use the word genocide, as this term was coined later (by Lemkin). However, he notes that the deportations of Poles for forced labor were not intended only for the work itself. They also were designed to place Poles in purely German districts so that, combined with excessive work, they would become exhausted and denationalized. (p. 68). However, he does not mention the fact that this policy was also designed to reduce the birth rate of Poles of prime childbearing age. Direct German attacks on the biology of Poles (in the form of passive genocide) also included physical overwork and the overall reduction of feedstuffs. (p. 69). In addition, the raising of the age of marriage for Poles was a transparent attempt to lower the Polish birthrate.