General Government facts for kids

General Government (GG, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo) is a term who refers to a region in central Poland. This region, after its annexation from the Nazi Germany in 1939, was declared semi-autonomous with local civil and military administration. Unlike Vidkun Quisling's Norway, it wasn't a puppet state. The local authorities were staffed with Germans faithful to National Socialism.

Administrative map of General Government (1941)

The creation

Germany invaded in Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering the start of World War II. Germany won Poland in just 18 days. In September 18, the Soviet Union, signatory party of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, also invades Poland. Thus, Poland is divided in three 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 is remaining occupied by Germany. According to a Hitler's decree of October 12, 1939, a General Government is created.

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. Kraków was the capital.

Images for kids

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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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  Map of Generalgouvernement (yellow) in comparison to Second Polish Republic (dark grey), today's borders (white), 1918 German-Polish border (black), and areas annexed by Nazi Germany (blue)

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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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  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

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  Ujazdów Avenue Public execution memorial table, Warsaw

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  Administrative map of the General Government, July 1940 (before Barbarossa)

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  Administrative map of the General Government, July 1941 – January 1944 following Barbarossa

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  So-called "Góral"- 500 złoty banknote used in the territories of the GG

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  German announcement of the execution of 9 Polish peasants for unfurnished contingents (quotas). Signed by the governor of Lublin district on 25 November 1941

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  The wall of the Warsaw Ghetto being built under the orders of Dr. Ludwig

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  The Warsaw Ghetto (1940-1943)

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  Announcement by the Chief of SS and Police 5.09.1942—Death penalty for Poles offering any help to Jews

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  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 1943: Jews being held at gunpoint by SS troops (from a report written by Jürgen Stroop for Heinrich Himmler)

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  Warsaw Uprising: Polish soldiers in action, August 1, 1944

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  Aerial view of the city of Warsaw, January 1945

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  Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael, stolen at the behest of Hans Frank in 1939 and never returned; one of over 40,000 works of art robbed from Polish collections

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  The Warsaw Uprising, 1944

See also

In Spanish: Gobierno General para niños