Editing General Government (section)

==History==
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 121-0270, Polen, Krakau, Polizeiparade, Hans Frank.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Hans Frank]], head of the General Government, at a police parade in [[Kraków]] during the German occupation of [[Poland]]]]

After Germany's [[Invasion of Poland|attack on Poland]], all areas occupied by the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German army]] including the [[Free City of Danzig]] initially came under [[Military occupation|military rule]]. This area extended from the 1939 eastern border of Germany proper and of [[East Prussia]] up to the [[Bug River]] where the German armies had halted their advance and linked up with the Soviet [[Red Army]] in accordance with their secret pact against Poland.

The [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] signed on 23 August 1939 had promised the vast territory between the Vistula and Bug rivers to the Soviet "sphere of influence" in divided Poland, while the two powers would have jointly ruled Warsaw. To settle the deviation from the original agreement, the German and Soviet representatives met again on September 28 to delineate a permanent border between the two countries. Under [[German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation|this revised version]] of the pact the territory concerned was exchanged for the inclusion in the Soviet sphere of [[Lithuania]], which had originally fallen within the ambit of Germany. With the new agreement the entire central part of Poland, including the core ethnic area of the Poles, came under exclusively German control.
[[File:Mapa 2 paktu Ribbentrop-Mołotow.gif|thumb|German-Soviet border drawn in the aftermath of the [[Invasion of Poland|Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland]], signed in Moscow by [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Joachim von Ribbentrop|Ribbentrop]] during the Second [[Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact]] known as the [[German-Soviet Frontier Treaty|Frontier Treaty]] of September 28, 1939]]

Hitler decreed the direct annexation to the [[German Reich]] of [[Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany|large parts]] of the occupied Polish territory in the western half of the German zone, in order to increase the Reich's [[Lebensraum]].<ref>''"Erlaß des Führers und Reichskanzlers über die Gliederung und Verwaltung der Ostgebiete"''</ref> Germany organized most of these areas as two new [[Reichsgau]]e: [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia|Danzig-West Prussia]] and [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]]. The remaining three regions, the so-called areas of Zichenau, Eastern [[Upper Silesia]] and the [[Suwałki]] triangle, became attached to adjacent [[Gau (country subdivision)|Gaue]] of Germany. Draconian measures were introduced by both RKF and HTO,{{Ref|a-RKF|[a]}} to facilitate the immediate [[Germanization]] of the annexed territory, typically resulting in [[Forced resettlement|mass expulsions]], especially in the Warthegau. The remaining parts of the former Poland were to become a German ''{{lang|de|Nebenland}}'' ([[March (territory)|March]], borderland) as a frontier post of German rule in the east. A Führer's decree of October 12, 1939 established the General Government; the decree came into force on October 26, 1939.<ref name="Diemut2003"/>

[[Hans Frank]] was appointed as the [[governor-general]] of the General Government. German authorities made a sharp contrast between the new Reich territory and a supposedly occupied [[rump state]] that could serve as a bargaining chip with the Western powers. The Germans established a closed border between the two German zones to heighten the difficulty of cross-frontier communication between the different segments of the Polish population.

The official name chosen for the new entity was the ''{{lang|de|Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete}}'' (General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories), then changed to the ''Generalgouvernement'' (General Government) by Frank's decree of July 31, 1940. However, this name did not imply anything about the actual nature of the administration. The German authorities never regarded these Polish lands (apart from the short period of [[German military administration in occupied Poland|military administration]] during the actual [[invasion of Poland]]) as an [[Military occupation|occupied territory]].<ref name="Majer265">Majer (2003), p. 265.</ref> The Nazis considered the Polish state to have effectively ceased to exist with its defeat in the September campaign.

Overall, 4&nbsp;million of the 1939 population of the General Government area had lost their lives by the time the Soviet armed forces entered the area in late 1944. If the Polish underground killed a German, 50–100 Poles were executed by German police as a punishment and as a warning to other Poles.<ref>[http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206246.pdf Generalgouvernement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831062732/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206246.pdf |date=2021-08-31 }} Shoah Resource Center</ref> Most of the Jews, perhaps as many as two million, had also been rounded up and murdered. Germans destroyed Warsaw after the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. As the Soviets advanced through Poland in late 1944 the General Government collapsed. American troops captured [[Hans Frank]], who had governed the region, in May 1945; he became one of the defendants at the [[Nuremberg Trials]]. During his trial he resumed his childhood practice of Catholicism and expressed repentance. Frank surrendered forty volumes of his diaries to the Tribunal; much evidence against him and others was gathered from them. He was found guilty of [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]]. On October 1, 1946, he was [[capital punishment|sentenced to death]] by [[hanging]]. The sentence was carried out on October 16.