On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded neighboring Poland. 27 days later, the Polish capital of Warsaw was in German hands. Even before the Polish surrender, the Germans began regulating and persecuting the people of Poland — both Jewish and non-Jewish. Curfews were imposed in every major city. Schools, universities, and cultural institutions were closed, and all Polish newspapers and radio stations ceased to exist. In the westernmost parts of Poland, which the Germans had long considered “greater Germany,” Polish people were evicted from their homes to make room for German settlers. Polish city names and even some street names were changed into German.
The German government targeted the Jewish people especially. In November 1939, they passed laws requiring Jews throughout German-occupied Poland to wear the Jewish Badge. Jews were prohibited from using mass transportation and other public services. They were forced to pay high taxes and to register their businesses, which the Germans began confiscating as early as December 1939. Jewish men were forced into slave labor, many of them building death camps like Majdanek and Belzec. These measures were followed by the establishment of ghettos — places in which food, clothing, and basic human rights could be easily and systematically denied to the more than two million Jewish people who lived in German-occupied Poland.
