AN OVERALL SURVEY OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN OCCUPIED POLAND DURING WORLD WAR II

• Authors: Paczynska I.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article presents a typology of forced migration movements caused by German and Russian occupation of the territory of Poland during WW II (1939-1945) and an estimate of the numbers involved in individual population streams. The outbreak of the war and the German occupation triggered off the foilowing large-scale population movements: - displacements which accompany any war, connected with mobilization and military operations; - displacements under duress, caused by hostitities, occupation or a host of patriotic motives, ie. flight from home territory in anticipation of heavy fighting, the invasion of enemy troops, or in consequence of restrictions imposed by or on behalf of the military authorities; fight from home territory to avoid detention, because of involvement in the resistance movement or because of the decision to seek refuge abroad; - intemal migrations, which come as a result of decisions made by the occupying power, ie. population transfers and displacements in the territories incorporated into the German Reich and in the Generał Gouvernement, all kinds of deportations of the Jewish population, regional and local cleansing, eg. to make room for German settlers, or to create segregated German and Jewish residential zones in cities; evictions caused by the creation of military bases; deportations to all kinds of camps; mass detentions; depletion of able-bodied population caused by forced recruitment to the labour service (Baudienst); - external migrations, ie. displacement of population beyond the pre-war borders of Poland (forced labour, deportations of detainees and prisoners, deportations of ethnic Poles - including transfers of orphaned children to German institutions, transfers of prisoners of war, displacements which came as a result of conscription into the German army or other military/paramilitary formations of Polish citizens enrolled on the German Volksliste, forced recruitement to labour service m the 'Organisation Todt', evacuations in the last months of the war - including the evacuations of concentration camp inmates). The foliowing distinctions have been devised to cover the population movements in the territories annexed by the Soviet Union:- displacements of prisoners of war; - migrations of refugees from Western and Central Poland; -population transfers sanctioned by oftlcial agreements between the Soviet Union and the German Reich; - deportations from home territories; - local and regional displacement, ie. within designated resettlement areas or Soviet republics; - other forced migrations, eg. connected with conscription into the Red Army, compulsory work assignments, land appropriation for military use; - migrations triggered off by the outbreak of the German-Soviet war (flight from the approaching frontline; evacuation of factories, prisons, institutions, summer camps, etc); - migrations connected first with the formation of General Anders' Polish Army in the USSR and its departure for the Middle East; and later, migrations connected with the formation of General Berling's Polish Army; - Polish migrations which resulted from Ukrainian terror; - migrations in the last phase of the war.

Keywords

EN

FORCED MIGRATIONS DURING WW II (POLAND)

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Księgarnia Akademicka
• Journal: Studia Historyczne
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 299-322
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Paczynska I.

• I. Paczynska, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA04708976