‘A Blonde Province:’ Resettlement, Deportation, Murder

When Greiser came to Posen in 1939, just 325,000 individuals, or 6.6% of the population in what would become the Warthegau, considered themselves German. Greiser then led one of the most dramatic and sustained Nazi demographic experiments. In his effort to ‘Germanize’ his Gau, Greiser initiated the first mass gassings of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Germanization was an overarching project that included policies toward Germans, Poles, and Jews. Greiser adopted an array of cruel measures: resettlement, deportation, and murder; segregation and anti-church policies; and the transformation of...

When Greiser came to Posen in 1939, just 325,000 individuals, or 6.6% of the population in what would become the Warthegau, considered themselves German. Greiser then led one of the most dramatic and sustained Nazi demographic experiments. In his effort to ‘Germanize’ his Gau, Greiser initiated the first mass gassings of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Germanization was an overarching project that included policies toward Germans, Poles, and Jews. Greiser adopted an array of cruel measures: resettlement, deportation, and murder; segregation and anti-church policies; and the transformation of the Gau's natural, built, and cultural environment. Due to the influx of resettlers and Reich Germans, the ethnic cleansing of Poles, and the murder of Jews, Greiser raised the percentage of Germans in the Warthegau from 6.6% of the population in 1939 to 22.9% by April 1944.