Intelligenzaktion - Extermination of the Polish elite

Hitler's plan to annihilate Polish nation was started by operations within the scope of Intelligenzaktion which aimed at the extermination of Polish elite members (teachers, academics, doctors, lawyers, priests, clerks, public functionaries etc.). 

The operation was launched right after German troops took over Poland in September 1939 and continued till 1943.

It is estimated that 100,000 Poles were victims to the German "purification" policy with 50,000 executed on the spot and further 50,000 sent to concentration camps.

Please note chosen statistics as for the numbers of the executed as for different areas of occupied Polish territory: 

• Pomerania (Northern Poland) - 30,000 killed 
• Greater Poland (Wielkopolska, Western Poland) - 2,000 killed 
• Mazovia District - 6,700 killed 
• Silesia - 2,000 killed 
• Łódź area - 1,500 killed 
• AB Aktion (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion) with Cracow as one of the main 'targets' - 3,500 killed. 

Also, one cannot forget that about 800,000 Polish citizens were expelled from their homes once Germans invaded western provinces of Poland in 1939 and included these lands into the Third Reich.

Read more:

• http://www.berlin-1945.com/horrors-of-war/german-ab-aktion-in-poland/ accessed on 15 March 2018