Germanisation in Poland (1939–1945)
An intense process of Germanisation was carried out by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Poland during World War II, with the ultimate goal of eliminating Polish culture and people. This included the mass-murder of Polish intellectuals and the kidnapping of Polish children. Ideological background "Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf proclaimed, language-exclusive Germanisation does not equate to total Germanisation, an alien nation, which expresses its thought in non-German form, degrades the greatness and honour of the German nation. The implementation of Germanisation requires a change of character of the occupied nation via partial expulsion of the Polish populous and the assimilation of the rest, deemed upon their "racially worthy" elements." The greatest fervour of Germanisation was implemented in those regions seized by the German Wehrmacht during World War II. Frequently in his public rallies, Adolf Hitler called for the displacement and liquidation of Poles inhabiting Poland. On November 25, 1939, at the NSDAP Office of Racial Policy, a codification was formed codifying Erhard Wetzel and Günther Hecht's memorandum entitled "The Question of the treatment of the population of the former Polish territories in accordance to racial politics" ("Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevölkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassepolitischen Gesichtspunkten"), which openly