General Government

It was created by Hitler's decree of 12 October 1939, with its capital in Kraków rather than Warsaw. It was first divided into four districts – Kraków, Warsaw, Radom and Lublin – and on 1 August 1941 the District of Galicia, centred on Lwów, was added. It was neither part of the Reich nor a state: German lawyers called it a 'neighbouring land', separated from the Reich by a customs and police border. The police and SS answered formally to Frank but in practice to Himmler.

For the occupier it was a reservoir of cheap labour and a dumping ground for Poles and Jews expelled from the annexed territories. Poles lost their secondary schools and universities, their press and their property, and round-ups, executions and compulsory quotas became part of daily life. Jews were confined in ghettos and, in 1942–1943, murdered in the extermination camps of Operation Reinhard. Frank's administration collapsed in January 1945 in the face of the Red Army's offensive.