General Government of Poland

General Government
Generalgouvernement  (German) Generalne Gubernatorstwo  (Polish)
Administratively autonomous component of Germany
1939–1945
Flag Emblem
The General Government in 1942.
Capital		Litzmannstadt (12 Oct – 4 Nov 1939) Krakau (4 Nov 1939 – 1945)
Languages		German (official) Polish Ukrainian Yiddish
Government		Civil administration
Governor-General
•	1939–1945	Hans Frank
Secretary for State
•	1939–1941	Arthur Seyss-Inquart
•	1941–1945	Josef Bühler
Historical era		World War II
•	Invasion of Poland	October 12, 1939
•	Vistula-Oder Offensive	February 2, 1945
Area
•	1939	95,000 km2 (37,000 sq mi)
•	1941	142,000 km2 (55,000 sq mi)
Population
•	1941 est.	12,000,000
Density		85/km2 (219/sq mi)
Currency		złoty Reichsmark
Preceded by Succeeded by Military Administration in Poland Republic of Poland (1944–52) Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Today part of		Poland  Slovakia  Ukraine

The General Government—sometimes also referred to as General Governorate (German: Generalgouvernement [ɡenəˈʀaːlɡuvɛʁnəˌmãː], Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo, Ukrainian: Генеральна губернія)—was a German zone of occupation established after the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east. The territory was expanded in 1941 to include the District of Galicia.

The basis for the formation of General Government was a German claim of the total collapse of the Polish state, proclaimed by Hitler on October 8, 1939 through the so-called Annexation Decree on the Administration of the Occupied Polish Territories. This rationale was utilized by the German Supreme Court to reassign the identity of all Polish nationals as stateless subjects, with exception of the ethnic Germans of interwar Poland, named the only rightful citizens of the Third Reich, in disregard of international law.

The General Government was run by Nazi Germany as a separate administrative unit for logistical purposes. When the Wehrmacht forces attacked the Soviet positions in Kresy in June 1941 during its initially successful Operation Barbarossa, the area of the General Government was enlarged by the inclusion of the regions of Poland occupied by the Red Army since 1939. Within days, Eastern Galicia was overrun and renamed Distrikt Galizien. Until 1945 the General Government comprised much of central and southern Poland (and of modern-day Western Ukraine), including the major Polish cities of Warsaw, Kraków, Lwów, Lublin, Tarnopol and Stanisławów, among others.