Description
Book SynopsisAfter the German attack on Poland in 1939, vast swathes of Polish territory, including Warsaw and Krakow, were occupied by the Nazis in an administration which became known as the ''General Government''. The region was not directly incorporated into the Third Reich but was ruled by a German regime, headed by the brutal and corrupt Governor General Hans Frank. This was indeed the dark heart of Hitler''s empire. As the first genuine Nazi colony, the General Government became the principal ''racial laboratory'' of the Third Reich. As such, it was the site, and main source of victims, of Aktion Reinhard, the largest killing operation in human history in which at least 1.7 million Jews were murdered in just 18 months, and of a campaign of terror, exploitation and ultimately ethnic cleansing against the Polish population which was intended to serve as a template for the rest of eastern Europe. It was a place where 42,000 people could be shot in two days, where thousands of children
Trade Review
A perceptive account of one of the darkest periods in human history... this book deserves a wide readership, and should be considered vital in shaping our understanding of the brutal realities of Nazi ideology and the unrelenting horror of the Holocaust. * Jonathan Eaton, Military History *
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Notes on Place Names and Sources Introduction: 'The Wild East' 1. 'The Devil’s Work': Origins 2. 'Gangster Gau': The Regime 3. 'Gentlemen, we are not murderers': Early Measures 4. 'Something big is coming': Barbarossa 5. 'The second war': Everyday Life 6. 'That accursed year': Aktion Reinhard 7. 'The crying of the children': Ethnic Cleansing 8. 'the blood of fighting Poland': Resistance 9. 'Herr Roosevelt's list': Collapse Epilogue: 'A study of human madness' Notes Bibliography Index
