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On September 17, 1939, while the Poles were still attempting to stave off the German offensive, the Soviets invaded Poland and occupied the eastern part of the country, under the terms of an agreement concluded between the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov and his German counterpart Ribbentrop. Within three weeks the Germans had defeated Poland and divided it into three regions: the western and northern provinces of the former Polish state, including the country’s second-largest city, Lodz, were annexed to the Reich; eastern districts were annexed to the Soviet Union and Lithuania; and an enclave in central Poland was converted into the Generalgouvernement – an area whose political future was undefined during the initial phase of the occupation

The Conquest of Poland and the Beginnings of Jewish Persecution Skip to main content Accessibility High contrast Reverse contrast (yellow over black) No css Reset Choose Language English עברית Français Deutsch Español Русский عربي فارسی Educational Materials in other Languages Follow us: Facebook Twitter Youtube Blog Pinterest Instagram Search Menu Shop Donate Social Languages Accessibility About Us Friends Press Room Contact Us Shop Donate Reserve your Visit The Holocaust About the Holocaust The Holocaust Resource Center This Month in Holocaust History Video Lectures Video Testimony Resource Center The Middle East Conflict, Antisemitism and the Holocaust Digital Collections Shoah Names Database The Photo Archive Righteous Database The Documents Archive Survivor Testimonies Deportations Database The Artifacts Collection The Library Online Film Catalog Archives About the Archives Reference and Information Services Hall of Names Gathering the Fragments Research About the Institute Publications Yad Vashem Studies Events of the Intl Institute Projects Postdoc Fellowships Education & E-learning About Us Educational Materials Educational Videos For Educators in Jewish Frameworks Online Courses Seminars e-Newsletter International Projects International Conferences Languages Echoes & Reflections Museums The Holocaust History Museum The Art Museum Exhibitions Pavilion ready2print Exhibitions The Artifacts Collection Exhibitions Online Exhibitions Exhibitions Pavilion ready2print Exhibitions "Shoah"- Auschwitz-Birkenau Remembrance Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024 Holocaust Remembrance Day Through the Years Online Torchlighter Film Archive Int. 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Drive to Yad Vashem: For more Visiting Information click here About Us The Holocaust Digital Collections Archives Research Education Museum Exhibitions Remembrance Righteous Visiting Friends Press Room Contact Us Home The Holocaust About the Holocaust The Outbreak of World War II and Anti-Jewish Policy The Conquest of Poland and the Beginnings of Jewish Persecution The Conquest of Poland and the Beginnings of Jewish Persecution About the HolocaustNazi Germany and the Jews 1933-1939 The Outbreak of World War II and Anti-Jewish PolicyThe Conquest of Poland and the Beginnings of Jewish Persecution Expansion of German Conquest and Policy Towards Jews Western Europe South-Eastern Europe North Africa and the Middle East The Ghettos The Beginning of the Final Solution The Implementation of the Final Solution The World of the Camps Combat and Resistance Rescue The Fate of the Jews Across Europe The Final Stages of the War and the Aftermath The Holocaust Resource Center Video Testimonies Resource Center Video Lecture Series FAQs The Eichmann Trial This Month in Holocaust History The Middle East Conflict, Antisemitism and the Holocaust Following the conquest and division of Poland in 1939, Jews were subjected to humiliations and brutal violence, and were forced to wear the identifying Star of David. The policy of incarcerating the Jews in ghettos was outlined. Read More... Photos Testimonies Video Lectures Artifacts Documents Art German policemen humiliating Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Hagermann on "Bloody Wednesday" in Olkusz, Poland, 31/07/1940 Yad Vashem Photo Archives 4613/903 The German Invasion of Trzebinia, Poland Professor Yehuda Bauer: Why Did World War II Break Out? (part 1) Professor Yehuda Bauer: Why Did World War II Break Out? (part 2) Professor Dan Michman: Where Did the Nazis Take the Term "Ghetto" From and Why? Silver adornment for a Torah scroll- one of the many religious objects plundered by the Nazis for transfer to Germany. Yad Vashem Artifacts CollectionDonated by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Organization, USA Silver candlesticks and valuables looted from Jewish homes and synagogues. Warsaw, Poland Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection Marking put on the sign of a Jewish-owned store in Lodz by the Nazis Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection A Nazi proclamation from Galicia Yad Vashem Artifacts CollectionDonated by Janna Kovba, Ukraine Bible confiscated by the Institute for Research into the Jewish Question, headed by Alfred Rosenberg The Institute carried out widespread looting of Jewish property throughout German-occupied territory. On the front page is the Institute's official stamp, and a second stamp on the inside front cover reveals that the bible belonged to Fiszel Bozyn from Lodz.  Bozyn was murdered in 1943. Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection Instructions by Reinhard Heydrich on Policy and Operations Concerning Jews in the Occupied Territories, September 21, 1939 Identifying Marks For Jews in the Government-General, November 23, 1939 Supplementary Regulations for the Ban on Changes of Residence by Jews in the Government-General Attack on the Jews of Wloclawek Following the German Occupation * Jewish Memorandum to the Authorities on the Economic Situation of the Jews Following the Occupation Felix Nussbaum. "The Great Disaster" Indian ink and wash on paper, 193954,5 x 67 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, JerusalemGift of Roger Katz, Brussels Moshe Rynecki (1881-1943). Refugees, 1939. Watercolor on paper Gift of Alex Rynecki, CaliforniaCollection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum On September 17, 1939, while the Poles were still attempting to stave off the German offensive, the Soviets invaded Poland and occupied the eastern part of the country, under the terms of an agreement concluded between the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov and his German counterpart Ribbentrop. Within three weeks the Germans had defeated Poland and divided it into three regions: the western and northern provinces of the former Polish state, including the country’s second-largest city, Lodz, were annexed to the Reich; eastern districts were annexed to the Soviet Union and Lithuania; and an enclave in central Poland was converted into the Generalgouvernement – an area whose political future was undefined during the initial phase of the occupation. Approximately 1.8 million Jews were trapped in the German-occupied zone of Poland, and more than a million Polish Jews in the eastern areas of Poland came under Soviet rule. Following the onset of the war, the Germans freed themselves of many of the restraints they had maintained in peacetime. Circumstances no longer required them to bow to public opinion or political considerations. Unhesitatingly, they terrorized the Polish people, arrested and murdered its leaders and intellectual elites, and defined Poles as “hewers of wood and drawers of water”, as servants of the “master race”. Since anti-Jewish policy and the solutions to the Jewish question were presented as part of the attempt to eliminate the damage caused by the Jews to the German nation and government, the police and SS were authorized to be the executive force in dealing with the Jews. On September 21, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Security Police, sent a directive, the Schnellbrief, explaining the procedures and approach that would be invoked against the Jews in the Polish occupation zones. According to the Schnellbrief, Jews living in towns and villages were to be transferred to ghettos, and Jewish councils – Judenräte – would be established to carry out the German authorities’ orders. Heydrich’s instructions distinguished between a transitional phase in solving the “Jewish problem” and the “final aim”. It should not be presumed, however, that the term “Final Solution” had been defined by then or that the overall murder scheme had been planned. What existed at that time, apparently, were vague plans and a general and indefinite wish to solve the Jewish problem in some rapid and radical way. During this phase, the idea to deport the Jews from the Reich was still dominant. As they marched into the towns of Poland, Germans preyed on the Jews they encountered, subjecting them to humiliation and beatings, shearing the beards of the Orthodox and organizing public hangings to terrorize the population. The perpetrators were members of special SS units who accompanied the regular military units. They torched synagogues and Jewish homes, and abducted Jews on the street for forced labor to repair the damage from the battles. After receiving enormous monetary fines for having “caused” the World War and its attendant devastation, Jewish leaders were inundated by decrees, such as the registration of a Jewish labor force and the imposition of compulsory labor. The Jews were steadily dispossessed of their possessions and deprived of their sources of livelihood. 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