Pacification of Poland Was the Model for Shoah

“Pacification” of Poland via mass shootings of potential Resistance activists (which led to exactly the opposite result) became one more step on the Road to Holocaust – and a very heavy slab in a “slab stack” that less than two years later launched the “Holocaust Avalanche” that killed four million Jews.

It became a model for the “Holocaust by Bullets” – the initial stage of Shoah. It became such a model because this “pacification” was a perfect example of a democide – extermination of a social group (in this case, Polish elites).

After this line has been crossed (this was the second democide launched by the Nazis – after serial mass murder of mentally sick), it became far easier – and almost “natural” – to commit another democide.

This time of male Jews of military age (initially) – which was subsequently expanded to total genocide of all Jews (first in the Soviet Union and then in all territories under German control). This expansion was made even easier because in Poland hundreds of Jews became victims of ad hoc “local democides” committed by Einsatzgruppen, Order Police or Wehrmacht or Waffen SS units.

Murderous “pacification” of occupied Poland was implemented in tree partially overlapping stages: Operation Tannenberg, Intelligenzaktion and AB-Aktion.

Operation Tannenberg was the first stage in this democide – it lasted from September 1939 to January 1940. Around 20,000 Poles (out of a proscription list of more than 61,000 members of the Second Polish Republic’s elite) were shot in 760 mass killings, which were followed by the shooting and (mostly) gassing of hospital patients and disabled adults as part of the Aktion T4 forced euthanasia program.

The Intelligenzaktion was a series of mass shootings committed in 1939-40 against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society). The death toll was around 100,000.

The AB-Aktion took place between March and September 1940. As with the Intelligenzaktion, it aimed to eliminate the members of Polish elites. While the latter had taken place in the territories annexed by Germany, AB-Aktion took place in the General Government, the territories that were merely occupied.

Both primarily targeted government officials, social and political activists, artists, educators, business leaders and priests… in other words, all potential activists of Polish resistance. With over 7,000 activists eliminated, the Nazis believed the remaining Polish population would be docile and surrender to German rule.

Big mistake.