THE NAZI INVADERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 40, 15 April 1942, Page 6

THE NAZI INVADERS

FOULNESS IN POLAND

LIST OF INDICTMENTS

It is only to be expected of German mentality that it should glory in its crimes. In connection with the second anniversary of the creation of the' "Wartheland" from the Western provinces of Poland, Greiser, the German satrap for the area, was the chief speaker at a National Socialist demonstration in the Great Theatre of Pozan, on German "achievements" during the past two years. During his period of government 120,450 houses containing 43(5,200 apartments have been expropriated from their Polish owners. Out of the 1 total area of 3,900,000 hectares of cultivated land 3,116,000 hectares in 337,192 farms have been expropriated from their Polish owners. 50,000 German families, with an aggregate of 200,000 persons, have been installed in the Polish owners' places. 900 industrial firms have been completely transferred to German ownership, while a further 1848 are administered by German Truehanders. 922 commercial firms have been completely transferred to German ownership, while a further 2850 are administered by German True-hand-

1152 small handicrafts establishments have been transferred to German ownership, while 3000 more are administered by German Truehanders. Several thousand small handicrafts establishments still remain in Polish hands, but 2000 of them have been set aside to be taken over by scimc. time in the future by German front line soldiers. Before the Avar there were 15,000 commercial firms in the Wartheland area, but to-day there are only 10,500. Greiser announced that a further 2,500 are to be eliminated, leaving 8000. Of these 5000 shall! be German firms, and only 2000 will be left in Polish hands. All activities of these firms have already been adapted to the needs of war economy. 1700 schools were now open in the Warthland; in these schools 2500 teachers are teaching 110,000 German children. He made no mention of Polish schools, leaving l\ : s hearers and readers, not only in Germany but abroad, to deduce that Polish children are not receiving any instruction at all, except possibly in German schools.

Paying special tribute to the German police in the area, Grciser complained cf what he called the great criminality found among Poles. He added that alreadj r in 1941 40,000 sentences have been pronounced on Poles in the Wartheland, 2000 of them by special tribunals. No Compromise, No Sentimentality. Exasperated at the difficulties they are meeting in their attempts at Germanisation, Greiser emphasised that the German attitude to the Polish question is uncompromising, and violently attacked all manifestations of sentimentality. Summarising the Third Reich's nationality policy on the strict separation of the various national groups from one another, Grciser demanded a similar separation in the religious sphere. A German who gees to a Polish church automatically excludes himself from the German community. Conditions in Provinces The elimination of the Roman Catholic Church is a basic part of the German campaign to 'Germanise' the 'Western provinces of Poland. The latest information from these areas is to the effect that almost all the Catholic churches are now closed, and that many of them have been turned into warehouses, cinemas, etc.

Another feature ol" the Clennanisation of the 'incorporated' provinces is the drive to secure the mechanisation of agriculture. The larger forms' (which are ail now in (lerman hands) are being" rapidly provided Avith agricultural machinery, tractors and tractor-drawn ploughs, harvesters, binders etc. Parallel Avith this nwasion of the machine a continual deportation of the Polish agricultural labourers and peasants to tlie Reich is going on.