The People's Dictatorship A History of Nazi Germany

Chapter 8 surveys German-dominated Europe between September 1939 and June 1941. A Nazi empire was the source of millions of foreign laborers for the German economy. Germany’s occupation of Poland was especially severe, involving the annexation of territory, forced ethnic resettlement, and the systematic liquidation of much of that country’s leadership class. Occupation policy in Poland also included the ghettoization of the country’s Jewish population, which was also subjected to forced labor. These actions mirrored measures taken against German Jews, many of whom were made to live in “Jew Houses,” and perform labor for German municipalities and business enterprises. During this same period, the German government organized the mass murder of Germans institutionalized for mental disabilities. The program, known as T4, was staffed by medical personnel who arranged for the transfer of patients from clinics and hospitals to killing centers, which employed poison gas. About 70,000 patients were murdered under the auspices of T4, which ceased operation in the face of mounting protest in German society. The killing of disabled patients continued in other forms through the end of the war, while many of the T4 personnel were transferred to Poland to organize the mass murder of Jews through poison gas.