The class system in 1939-1945During the Second World War, Poland suffered greatly under five years of German occupation. Nazi ideology viewed “Poles” – the predominantly Catholic ethnic majority – as “subhumans” occupying lands vital to Germany. As part of their policy to destroy Polish resistance, the Germans killed many of the country's political, religious, and intellectual leaders. They also kidnapped children deemed racially suitable for adoption by the Germans and locked Poles in dozens of prisons and concentration and forced labor camps, where many perished. German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Polish troops fought valiantly against much better equipped forces with fierce force. commitments around Warsaw. Exhausted of food and water, the besieged capital surrendered on September 27, and fighting by regular units of the Polish army ceased in early October. Hitler's pretext for military expansion eastward was the "need" for more Lebensraum, "living space," for the German nation. On the eve of the invasion, he reportedly told a meeting of senior officials: I have ordered - and I will have anyone who utters a single word of criticism executed by firing squad - that our goal of war is not about hitting certain lines. , but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my formation of skulls in readiness - for the moment only in the East - with orders to send men, women and children to their merciless and compassionate death. of Polish origin and language. Only in this way will we get the living space we need. In 1939, Germany directly annexed the western and northern borders...... middle of paper ...... majority of unemployed and less educated peasants and workers as unskilled laborers in the agriculture and industry. The Nazis believed that Jews were responsible for what they saw as the degeneration of modern society. Hitler viewed modern ideologies that emphasized equality and emancipation as a revolt of the lower classes and peoples led by the Jews. The Nazis viewed Bolshevism as the most radical recent form of the ancient Jewish conspiracy that would lead to dissolution and national disintegration. For Hitler, Nazism was therefore a doctrine of world salvation intended to redeem humanity from the Judeo-Bolshevik doctrine. He believed that the German race must gain and maintain total supremacy through total war against the Jews. Such a war would be a fight in which the only alternatives, on either side, would be victory or extinction...