Editing Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (section)

===Beginnings of Operation Tannenberg and other Nazi atrocities===
{{Main|Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland|Operation Tannenberg|Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles}}
At the end of October 1939, Germany enacted the death penalty for disobedience to the German occupation.<ref name="Pogonowski4">{{cite book|first=Iwo|last=Pogonowski|title=Jews in Poland|url=https://archive.org/details/jewspolanddocume00pogo|url-access=limited|publisher=Hippocrene|year=1998|isbn=0-7818-0604-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/jewspolanddocume00pogo/page/n97 101]}}.</ref> Germany began a campaign of "[[Germanization]]", which meant assimilating the occupied territories politically, culturally, socially and economically into the German Reich.{{Sfn|Halecki|1983|p=312}}{{Sfn|Garlinski|1987|p=28}}<ref name="5MillionForgotten0">{{cite web|url=http://www.remember.org/forgotten/|title=Forgotten|publisher=Remember|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125075356/http://remember.org/forgotten|archive-date=25 January 2018|url-status=dead}}.</ref> 50,000–200,000 [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany for Germanization|Polish children were kidnapped]] to be Germanised.<ref name="ushmm0"/>{{Sfn|Cyprian|Sawicki|1961|pp=83–91}}
[[File:Polish Hostages preparing in Palmiry by Nazi-Germans for mass execution 2.jpg|thumb|Polish hostages being blindfolded during preparations for their [[Palmiry massacre|mass execution in Palmiry]], 1940]]

The elimination of Polish elites and intelligentsia was part of ''[[Generalplan Ost]]''. The ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', a plan to eliminate the Polish intelligentsia, Poland's 'leadership class', took place soon after the [[German invasion of Poland]] and lasted from fall of 1939 to the spring of 1940. As the result of the operation, in ten regional actions, about 60,000 [[szlachta|Polish nobles]], teachers, social workers, priests, judges and political activists were killed.<ref>{{cite book|first=Maria|last=Wardzyńska|title=Był rok 1939 Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|publisher=IPN Instytut Pamięci Narodowej|year=2009|isbn=978-83-7629-063-8|language=pl}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Meier|first=Anna|title=Die Intelligenzaktion: Die Vernichtung der polnischen Oberschicht im Gau Danzig-Westpreußen|publisher=[[VDM Verlag Dr. Müller]]|isbn=978-3-639-04721-9|year=2008}}.</ref> It was continued in May 1940, when Germany launched ''[[AB-Aktion]]'',<ref name="ushmm0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005473|title=USHMM|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-date=29 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329193633/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005473|url-status=live}}.</ref> More than 16,000 members of the intelligentsia were murdered in [[Operation Tannenberg]] alone.{{Sfn|Garlinski|1987|p=27}}

Germany also planned to incorporate all of the land into [[Nazi Germany]].{{Sfn|Garlinski|1987|p=28}} That effort resulted in the forced resettlement of two million Poles. Families were forced to travel in the severe winter of 1939–1940, leaving behind almost all of their possessions without compensation.{{Sfn|Garlinski|1987|p=28}} As part of Operation Tannenberg alone, 750,000 Polish peasants were forced to leave, and their property was given to Germans.{{Sfn|Davies|1986|p=446}} A further 330,000 were murdered.<ref name="Zamoyski0">{{cite book|first=Adam|last=Zamoyski|title=The Polish Way|publisher=John Murray|year=1989|isbn=0-7195-4674-5|page=358}}.</ref> Germany planned the eventual move of ethnic Poles to [[Siberia]].{{Sfn|Cyprian|Sawicki|1961|p=73}}{{Sfn|Datner|Gumkowski|Leszczynski|1962|p=8}}

Although Germany used forced labourers in most other occupied countries, Poles and other Slavs were viewed as inferior by Nazi propaganda and thus better suited for such duties.<ref name="ushmm0"/> Between 1 and 2.5&nbsp;million Polish citizens<ref name="ushmm0"/><ref name="MSZ0">{{cite web|publisher=MSZ|title=Nazi German Camps on Polish Soil During World War II|place=[[Poland|PL]]|url=http://www.msz.gov.pl/Nazi,German,Camps,on,Polish,Soil,,During,World,War,II,6465.html|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-date=7 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907133748/http://www.msz.gov.pl/Nazi,German,Camps,on,Polish,Soil,,During,World,War,II,6465.html|url-status=live}}.</ref> were transported to the Reich for [[forced labour]].{{Sfn|Piotrowski|2007|p=22}}{{Sfn|Cyprian|Sawicki|1961|p=139}} All Polish males were made to perform forced labour.<ref name="ushmm0"/> While ethnic Poles were subject to selective persecution, all ethnic Jews were targeted by the Reich.<ref name="MSZ0"/> In the winter of 1939–40, about 100,000 Jews were thus deported to Poland.{{Sfn|Garlinski|1987|p=29}} They were initially gathered into massive urban ghettos,{{Sfn|Halecki|1983|p=313}} such as the 380,000 held in the [[Warsaw Ghetto]], where large numbers died of starvation and diseases under their harsh conditions, including 43,000 in the Warsaw Ghetto alone.<ref name="MSZ0" /><ref name=Berenbaum114>{{Cite book|author-link=Michael Berenbaum|last=Berenbaum|first=Michael|title=The World Must Know|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|year=2006|page=114}}.</ref><ref name=USHMMDeportationsWarsaw>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005413|title=Deportations to and from the Warsaw Ghetto|place=US|publisher=Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-date=9 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709214900/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005413|url-status=live}}.</ref> Poles and ethnic Jews were imprisoned in nearly every camp of the [[Nazi concentration camps|extensive concentration camp system]] in German-occupied Poland and the Reich. In [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]], which began operating on 14 June 1940, 1.1&nbsp;million people perished.<ref name="harmon-drobnicki">{{cite book|first1=Brian|last1=Harmon|first2=John|last2=Drobnicki|url=http://nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/appendix-2-01.html|title=Techniques of denial|contribution=Historical sources and the Auschwitz death toll estimates|publisher=The Nizkor Project|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116020410/http://nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/appendix-2-01.html|archive-date=16 January 2009|url-status=dead}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Piper|first1=Franciszek|last2=Meyer|first2=Fritjof|language=de|url=http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=334&Itemid=8|title=Die Zahl der Opfer von Auschwitz. Neue Erkentnisse durch neue Archivfunde|journal=Osteuropa|volume=52, Jg|issue=5|year=2002|pages=631–41|type=review article|publisher=Auschwitz|place=[[Poland|PL]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521083735/http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=334&Itemid=8|archive-date=21 May 2011|accessdate=22 March 2009}}.</ref>