German crimes committed against the Polish people during the first months of the Second World War 1939/1940

The aim of the article is to show the scale and extent of the extermination of Polish society, which was a component of the national policy of the Third Reich in the first months of the Second World War. It is a quantitative presentation of the phenomenon of a crime which included arrests, interrogations, the use of physical and mental coercion, shootings and executions. The extermination activities against the Polish nation continued throughout the entire period of the war. The Terror of the Third Reich covered the areas of Gdańsk Pomerania, Greater Poland, Upper Silesia, and central Poland. As part of the policy of exterminating the Polish nation, at the beginning of the war, the Third Reich began the so-called "Action Intelligentsia"(Intelligenzaktion) and AB (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion) which was formally named Extraordinary Pacification Action. In the occupied areas, various German formations (Selbstschutz, Einsatzgruppen SS) committed mass, planned crimes against the Polish elite, intelligentsia, teachers, clergy, local government officials and state officials.