Kretinin S.V. Germans in Poland and the policy of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Second World War

Abstract: This article examines the history of the German national minority in Poland in 1938–1939 within the context of the developed policy of Nazi Germany. At the centre of the author’s attention lie the historical circumstances in which the Polish Germans found themselves on the eve of the Second World War, their political organisers and leaders. The article reviews the main policy lines of the Nazi Reich in drawing the Germans in Poland into its orbit of influence and their use against the Second Republic. The author analyses the position of Germans in various parts of Poland and assesses Berlin’s attempts at organising a united political party for Polish Germans, analogous to the Sudeten German party of Konrad Henlein in Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, despite the strong position of the National socialist Young German party of Rudolf Wiesner, the creation of a united pro-Nazi organisation within the Second Republic did not take place. This was meanwhile the Polish authorities did not consider Germans loyal citizens of the state, which automatically repelled also the committed antifascists among Catholic organisations, Social democrats, and Communists. At the same time, the author comes to the conclusion that Polish Germans should not be automatically associated with the so-called Fifth column. Despite their sympathies for Germany, the number of committed Nazis in Poland was not great. The policy of the Polish authorities towards the German national minorities and its inconsistencies is also subjected to analysis in this study.

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