General Government

The General Government (GG, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo) was 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.

Administrative map of General Government (1941)

The German Invasion of Poland (1939) on September 1 triggered 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 the territory taken by Germany, much of the occupied Polish territory remained in the Soviet Union after the war.
• The central part remained occupied by Germany. Hitler's decree of October 12, 1939, created the General Government.

At first, General Government was composed of four voivodeships of Poland: 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

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  Hans Frank, head of the General Government, at a police parade in Kraków during the German occupation of Poland

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  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

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  Orange and yellow areas of former Austrian part after Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Union in 1795 roughly correspond with Generalgouvernement

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  Official proclamation of the General-Government in Poland by Germany, October 1939

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  Hans Frank with district administrators in 1942 – from left: Ernst Kundt, Ludwig Fischer, Hans Frank, Otto Wächter, Ernst Zörner, Richard Wendler

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  Announcement of the execution of 60 Polish hostages and a list of 40 new hostages taken by Nazi authorities in Poland, 1943

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  Part of Hans Frank's ordinance from 31 October 1939 on "counteracting the acts of violence in the General Government"

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  Nazi anti-semitic propaganda poster

Other websites

• Poland under Nazist occupation, Northwestern University