Germans and Poles didn't look that different, the ethnic Poles didn't mix with Jews often and except for taking the historical German lands, what were the reasons for Hiter's hatred towards the Polish people?
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Poles were considered Slavs and therefore occupied a low place on the Nazi race totem pole.
They are slavic people.
On the arbitrary scale of things Nazis hate, that is reason enough.
Except you were a relative/friend of anyone important...
On the arbitrary scale of things Nazis hate, that is reason enough.
Except you were a relative/friend of anyone important...
Familiarity (that is, competition for resources (that is, in the Nazi weltanschauung, primarily land)) breeds contempt.
Jews look way more German than the Japanese do, but...
Hitler hated many things and many men... why not Poles? Especially since Poles were Slavs, since Hitlers hated Slavs and since Hitler considered that so-called races were a major aspect to considerate someone.
I don't think he really hated them as much as he hated Jews. But poles had been among the top 3 enemies of German extreme right wing nationalists for a long time.
Here are some reasons... (Please note that those are just how the Prussians and Germans saw it, not necessarily any objective truths.)
Here are some reasons... (Please note that those are just how the Prussians and Germans saw it, not necessarily any objective truths.)
- Poland had taken German territory after ww1, that was one reason to hate them.
- Poland as a nation state in 1918 was a product of German defeat in ww1. Another reason to despise them.
- Poland had throughout the 19th century been divided between Prussia/Germany, Russia and Austria. But poles had refused to give up their national identity, and instead clung intensely to their identity.
- The Prussian state had tried to assimilate the poles, making them give up their identity. The poles had refused.
- The Prussian state then had tried to harass the poles into emigrating. That too had not worked.
- The Prussian state had framed the polish resistance as an irrational, romantic, hopeless endeavor, and the poles as uncompromising die hard enemies of Prussia and later Germany. (Not completely untrue)
- And then there's the historical baggage. Prussia started out on the 16th century as a duchy under the polish crown. The first Prussian dukes had to swear homage to the polish kings. Can you imagine how much polish 19th century nationalists liked to harp on that? And how it rankled the Prussian patriots?
- The Prussian historians then constructed a grand story about how Prussia had essentially be the positive to every negative of the polish state - how the polish state of the 16th-18th century had elected foreign kings instead of kings from their own country; how the Polish state had been a dissolute mess and polish nobles completely disloyal to their nation; how poles had always so eagerly launched doomed uprisings against foreign overlords but never accepted the internal discipline and self control that could have given them the means to resist foreign domination in the first place. Note how the rise of Prussia and Prussian self-image evoked the completely opposed qualities of discipline, order, patience, frugality, loyalty to the death, reliance on one's own strength, and subordination of the individual to the greater (national) good. Prussian historians painted Poland as the antithesis to what they said Prussia was. They made Prussia appear great by pointing out how terrible Poland had been, and how terribly Poland had been wiped of the map. (Prussia itself had twice narrowly escaped being wiped of the map - first during the 7 years war when King Frederick the great was close to defeat at the hands of a coalition of implacable enemies but then czarina Elisabeth died and the coalition dissolved, later in 1807 when Napoleon had crushed Prussia completely and was only dissuaded from eradicating the Prussian state by the Russian czar Alexander.)
- Lastly you have the rather nasty way in which Prussians had painted the poles as not only a politically dissolute and inferior nation, but also as a culturally inferior people who deserved losing their independence and having foreign domination and even colonization forced one them. I think this started around the time the Prussians started to take part in the carving up of the polish state, late 18th century, and served to justify the accompanying policies to the Prussian and German people. The Prussians really had a hard time ruling their polish provinces - the poles were rather uncooperative, dodged obligations where they could, and worst of all they totally refused to buy into the Prussian narrative of how great Prussia was and how terrible Poland had been. The poles were proud and under the Prussian system that was totally unacceptable. Note that the Habsburgs had much less problems with "their" poles, succeeding in coopting the polish aristocracy and making them mostly loyal subjects. Even the Russians had way less problems with the poles. aside from a few large insurgencies that is. The Russians only demanded that the poles accept Russian political dominion, but did not paint them as historical arch enemies, or portray them as their historical antithesis, or insist that poles also give up their cultural identity like the Prussians did.
That brings Haushofer’s Geopolitics into the discussion. He hated the Anglo-American Judeo-Christian mindset and wanted a united Asia to wipe them out. Germany-Russia-Japan under one banner sans Jews.
The other pillar of Naziism, the Roman Catholic Church, hated Communism in general and Russia in particular and Jews most of all.
Hitler looked down on Slavs but didn't outright hate all of them. Only the ones who were in his eyes enemies of Germany.
Also a pillar of Polish culture. Oh those devious catholicos, working all the angles!
(Andre, how many alerts and direct replies do you get on average I wonder?
)Edit: And I know some Pole will come on and tell me Poland only got all catholic thanks to the Soviets. But it was still Catholic enough at the time for quite a few priests and nuns to go to the camps, courtesy of the Nazis.
Thank you for your correction and for your long explanatory previous post.
It's a complicated relationship.
It is not hard to find good priests putting their own life at risk to protect victims of Nazi oppression or provide a voice for the Resistance. The examples of this are legion.
Bormann and his ilk despise the Roman Catholic Church. Himmler has another whole religion so bizarre even Hitler mocks it. Schellenburg says he comes to the attention of his Secret Master inside the SS, Reinhard Heydrich, because of his skillfully crafted legal arguments condemning the hypocrisy of Rome.
On the other hand, the Fascists give Rome a seat at the table in the form of the most precious gift they could give: their own nation. This is reinforced over time by Hitler's Concordant with Rome.
Back in Germany, elements of the Roman Catholic Church are crucial for getting the Nazis in power in the first place. A Roman Catholic priest, Bernard Stampfle, edits the collage of Hitler's notes from Landsburg Prison into 'Mein Kampf'. Hitler gains his first grab at power when the Roman Catholic Zentrum Party shifts their votes behind the National Socialists; and the Zentrum Party is notoriously Anti-Pole despite Poland being a Catholic dominated country. Roman Catholic Priests form the spiritual core of the SS. And when the SS Kameraden scream Odessa, you have Ratlines leading from Berchstesgarden, through the Brenner Pass to the SS safe house of Schloss Labers in Merano, to to the town of Vitepino.
In the Roman Catholic Church in Vitepino, Father Corradini baptises the SS and washes away their sins before giving them a new name in the baptismal directory. With a new name, the SS Kameraden go to the monastary of San Gialomo located about a mile from Vatican City, where they are provided with Red Cross passports. In possession of a Red Cross passport, the Nazis are free to travel. With funds provided by Die Spinne, they disappear faster than Kaiser Sose.
To repeat, Rome provides the Ratlines by which Eichmann, Mengele and about ten thousand of the Kameraden - the supposed blood enemies of Rome - use to escape.
Where do the Nazis end up? In the ancient stronghold of the Roman Catholic Church: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. And they provide violent, effective opposition to Communist organizations in South America at the cost of basic human rights.
And, in 1945, the only organization standing intact throughout Europe is the human network of the sovereign nation of Vatican City. The Roman Catholic Church is the real winner of WW II.
It's a complicated relationship.
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I was going to add the religious dimension to this as well: Even when nominally secular, prussian nationalism was protestant-colored. Poland was catholic.
What Jodel Diplom said, basically, though I am not sure how much Hitler was influenced by Prussia thought given that his main contact with 'mainland Germans' was Bavarian (he served with the Bavarian Army, which was distinct from the Prussian Army, In WW1).
I don't think it was hatred really... more like massive amounts of national anger/outrage at the events of 1918-1933 being harnessed for the Nazi party's benefit. Like the collective German consciousness saying "These people took our land and didn't give a crap when we were pushing wheelbarrows full of cash around the streets of this once great nation, queueing all day long in a giant soup line to feed our hungry children, so now we're back on top we're gonna give them the same thing."
Do feel really bad for the Poles in that era though. Trapped between ultra nationalist murderous socialists to the west and even bigger ultra anti-nationalist socialists maniacs to the east... that's an outrageous position to be in.
Do feel really bad for the Poles in that era though. Trapped between ultra nationalist murderous socialists to the west and even bigger ultra anti-nationalist socialists maniacs to the east... that's an outrageous position to be in.
When the new expansion hits in HoI4 I'm gonna play a game as Poland and change history man.
A less proud people could have managed the location perhaps with less suffering. But maybe not without losing their identity.
Well the Versailles peace did play a role yes. But the grievances weren't about how poles had it materially better than the Germans. They didn't - remember Poland had to fight its own war of survival during those years.Poland also wasn't a rich country. To understand the hatred of the German nationalists you have to understand where they saw themselves in relation to the poles - they saw themselves as racially and culturally superior and were upset beyond all reasonable bounds by having Versailles turn things upside down, elevating Poland into a sovereign nation and giving it formerly Prussian land, making ethnic Germans into subjects of the polish state. It triggered them into rage like a 19th century southern US racist would be triggered into uncontrollable rage by seeing a black men elevated to be his equal in society.