General Government
General Government (GG, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo) is a term for a region in central Poland. This region was created by Nazi Germany in 1939 and declared semi-autonomous with local civil and military administration. The local authorities were staffed with Germans faithful to National Socialism.
The creation
Germany invaded in Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering the start of World War II. Germany conquered Poland in just 18 days. In September 18, the Soviet Union, signatory party of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, also invaded Poland. Thus, Poland was divided into three main parts:
- The western part who was annexed directly in the Greater German Reich as Gau Wartheland.
- The eastern part was annexed by the Soviet Union. Unlike Germany, much of the occupied Polish territory remained in the Soviet Union after the war.
- The central part remained occupied by Germany. According to a Hitler's decree of October 12, 1939,[1] a General Government is created.[2]
At first, General Government was composed of four Polish voivodeships: Warsaw, Radom, Lublin and Kraków. In August 1941, the General Government was enlarged, incorporating Galicia which was detached from the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa. Kraków was the capital.
General Government Media
Hans Frank, head of the General Government, at a police parade in Kraków during the German occupation of Poland
German-Soviet border drawn in the aftermath of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, signed in Moscow by Stalin and Ribbentrop during the Second Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact known as the Frontier Treaty of September 28, 1939
Hans Frank with district administrators in 1942 – from left: Ernst Kundt, Ludwig Fischer, Hans Frank, Otto Wächter, Ernst Zörner, Richard Wendler