GENERAL PLAN OST SPEECH - FULL TEXT Many people in the West don't know Poles were victims of the Germans, and in fact, some people even think the Polish nation collaborated. So let's put that to rest; Magnus Brechtken, in his book Political and Transitional Justice in Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the 1950s, states that Polish collaboration was .1 percent, Which means cooperation is not worth mentioning. Almost everyone knows about the Final Solution of the Jews, which began almost two years into the war, but there was a Final Solution meant for the Poles. This was called General Plan Ost, the eventual extermination of the Poles, something that was to be extremely horrific and prolonged. Some other aspects of the War many Westerners don't know is that Poles were the first victims of the war and that Poland was invaded virtually simultaneously as the Soviets and Germans collaborated. .The Germans invaded on September 1st, and the Soviets on September 17th in their agreement to take over Poland, the Molotov Ribbentrop pact. It was soon stated by these nations that "Neither party will allow on its territory any Polish agitation that affects the other country's territory. Both shall liquidate such agitation on their territories in embryo and shall inform each other about expedient measures to accomplish this." And they started doing this immediately by trying to exterminate any leadership; the Soviets deported an estimated over 1.5 million Polish citizens, also with the help of some non-Polish citizens, into Siberia, with many perishing and the murder of 22 thousand Polish officers and the Germans striking the intelligentsia as well with AB actions and more, and also the persecution of the church. This would not be enough, though, because the Germans' plan was the ultimate disposal of the Poles altogether. In the annexed lands, the goal was complete "Germanization" to assimilate the territories politically, culturally, socially, and economically into the German Reich through whatever means necessary. This was through lebensraum to fulfill Hitler and Himmler's goal for the German people, which meant "living space," meaning no room for Polish people. For the first two years of the war in German-occupied Poland, Poles were being murdered at a 9:10 higher ratio than Jews, and Poles were even wearing the Star of David or hiding in the ghetto to avoid roundups. Although when the Jews did become the victims when the Final Solution began, Poles took every action necessary to warn the world repeatedly, to no avail. The Polish government-in-exile, Jan Karski, and Witold Pilecki are just a few that tried to get the word out to the West, but no one cared or did anything, including many Jews. In fact, it was also in Poland that Poles, their whole families, and often the whole village faced the death penalty for aiding a Jew in any manner – this meant even giving a Jew water. There must be a reason for this, it’s because Poles were so overwhelmingly helpful to the Jews that the Germans had to put in draconian punishments. Here are some examples why this decree became necessary: On July 3rd, 1941, Gazeta Czestochowska, an official German newspaper published in Polish, complained; "The cases multiply, when Polish peasants, impelled by dangerous sympathy for the Jewish rabble, smuggle products into the ghetto and sell them at even cheaper prices than to their own Polish brethren. Such persons are warned of severe measures against them."' In October 1941, the German county supervisor in Krasnik remarked with angry incredulity: "according to my observations, the enforcement of this decree [forbidding the Jews to leave the Jewish quarter] is absolutely necessary because in my entire two years of duty in the East I have never experienced a situation where the Jews wander in such a (free) manner from one locality to another as I have observed here." In January 1942, the Germans again voiced their anger about the fact that there was no negative reaction on the part of Poles toward Jewish beggars. Poland even had their own group dedicated to saving Jews, Zegota, and could save up to 40 -50 thousand lives; in total, it is estimated that Poles aided 3 million Jews in some fashion even though they faced these risks. So we must recall that Hitler outlined his plans for the Poles in his Olbersalzberg speech in August 1939 "Accordingly, I have placed my death's-head formation in readiness…with orders to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women and children of Polish derivation and language," he added. "Only thus shall we gain the living space] we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" These quotes reflect the hateful Nazi ideology of the German people, and they should be seen as reprehensible and morally repugnant. We should also remember that many Germans who followed this regime were never punished and believed this philosophy to their core. The extermination of the Polish intelligentsia was beginning, which was to be the outcome for the rest of the Poles. This would have been completed if the Germans had the workforce and the resources. Author Isabel Heinemann points out that physical extermination was an unambiguous implication of this plan. She comments, "Although none of the plans made it explicit, it is evident that for the racial experts, mass death posed a necessary condition for the entire Germanization process." There were some implications for "resettlement," but that was just code for eliminating the Poles in time. Ultimately the plan demanded, over ten years, the extermination, expulsion, and enslavement of most or all Poles. What was meant by expulsion and enslavement meant being brutally worked to death. "techniques of genocide were neither so quick nor perhaps so simple as outright mass extermination, yet they were far crueler and equally effective." States Heineman. Indeed General Plan Ost was a prolonged genocide. The Polish outnumbered the Jews, and do not think for a moment the Germans would not have committed mass murder of the Polish IF THEY COULD NOT. Hans Frank, the General Governor of German-occupied Poland, stated ""The Polish nation is not worthy of life and should be destroyed." And Himmler echoed Hitler when he said, "All Poles will disappear from the world. It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles." That was essentially what the Germans had planned for the Polish; that they would disappear from the world, and their major task was to destroy them.

Genocide is nothing new to the Polish people, nor is their history being forgotten or neglected. This forgotten extermination of the Polish people is hardly known, even to some of the Polish, but like all victims, it is necessary to remember them by sharing their stories. In the end, no less than 111,091 people were murdered in this action. Yet, still, in total, it is estimated that at least 200,000 Poles died during the Great Terror in the Soviet Union. This Action was applied under Order Number 00485, issued on August 11, 1937, by the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Yezhov. The Polish people are proud and value their historical roots as they should. They particularly appreciate their compatriots who fell victim to dreadful persecution in the 20th century. Poland has built statues and museums, published books, and created films in its honor. Touching ceremonies and events are organized in their name, during which we pay tribute to the sacrifices they made for the Polish nation. It seems, though, with one particular exception. This Soviet crime against the Polish nation has remained all but forgotten. To this day, it is omitted from historical consciousness. This atrocious event is the NKVD's infamous Polish Operation in 1937 - 1938, the genocide against the Polish nation. It was a drastic and brutal crime of an immense nature. To put this in perspective, the number of Poles killed in the genocide is four times more than the capacity of the National Stadium of Warsaw. Something else disturbing is the proportion of the death sentences imprisonments ordered during the operation; around 80 percent of the total number were murdered. According to Terry Martin, an American historan, Poles were 30,94 times more likely to be shot than other ethnic minorities living in the Soviet Union. The initiator behind the operation was Joseph Stalin. He declared the whole territory of the Soviet Union was filled by a conspiratorial element of the Polish Military Organization conspiratorial (PMO) In reality, this element, did not exist - it was created by Stalin's imagination. This did not pose a problem for NKVD investigators, however. During long nighttime interrogations - which used bestial and advanced torture techniques - detained Poles were forced to confess that they were Polish spies and members of the Polish Military Organization. Polish nurses confessed to having poisoned Soviet children at the behest of the Organization. Workers admitted to sabotaging machines. Members of Kolkhozes said that they had set fire to land and barns. The Soviets used whips, batons, bayonets, rifle butts, and sometimes even electricity to force these confessions out of the Poles. They used a range of torture techniques, many which they used in occupied Poland from 1944 onwards. These included ripping out fingernails, burning hands with cigarette butts, kicking kidneys, and crushing the testicles with office cabinets. Many Poles would later suffer the same fates in World War II and postwar Poland when dealing with the UB. To give you insight into how the Soviets dealt with prisoners, about a decade later, Witold Pilecki would state that his time with the Gestapo was child's play compared to the Soviets. Joseph Stalin encouraged the invigilators to continue their hard work, and he supervised the progress of the Polish investigation. He wrote Yezhov, adding, "Kick and clean out this Polish espionage scum. Destroy it for the good of the Soviet Union." Yezhov gave his underlings the following orders: "Beat the Poles as much as you can. Carry on in this spirit, extract confession, and pay no attention to can. Carry on in this spirit, extract confessions, and pay attention to anything else." They went as far as to scout the phonebooks and employment and tenancy lists for Polish-sounding surnames; even a "ski" or "wicz" Not long after, no one cared about formalities; they became redundant, and Poles were murdered on such a large scale that attention was no longer paid to official causes of death or even sentencing. In many cases, people were simply murdered, and their sentences were confirmed afterward. Situations arose where surnames, dates of births, and prison cells mixed up. As a result, prisoner were often mistakenly murdered just because they had a surnames resembling someone on a death list. This event became a sadistic, gory orgy of mass murder with the usual traditional shot to the back of the head. Indeed, persecution did not end with the death of the victim; it continued to follow the family. On the order of Yehzov, the deceased family was persecuted. Widows would be arrested and sent to Gulags, where many would never return. Children were labeled enemies of the state: those 15 years or older were sent to camps, and those younger would be sent to orphanages stripped of their Polish identity . Family fortunes were confiscated, and homes were boarded over. Most families had several generations living in the same home, and the parents of the executed Pole were thrown onto the freezing streets winter streets with no prospects an of an income to starve. Many that lost their lives were several thousand Poles that had been removed to Kazakhstan. During this period, deportations took place, as they would later at the start of World War II, under horrendous conditions, and many would perish, mostly children. This was part of the depolinization process. Certain demographic groups within the Polish population were killed almost entirely, eradicating Polish families and leading to a breakdown and the gradual disappearance of Polishness. So yes, Genocide is nothing; we all know about the Holocaust it is in our collective memory, and we hear about it almost daily, but there were many genocides, and this was one of them years before the Jewish genocide. It's another example of the determination to eliminate an entire nation and completely eradicate their memory. Source Assistance: Piotr Zychowiz, Tomasz Sommer, Institute of National Remembrance, Mieroszewski Centre