 The idea of future "buffer zone" to be cleared of Poles and Jews was discussed officially at highest levels as early as 1914
In July 1917 the German supreme command under General Ludendorff, as part of the debate and planning regarding the cession of the "border strip" to Germany, specified its own designs in a memorandum.It proposed annexing a greatly enlarged "border strip" of 20,000 square kilometres, and ethnically cleansing its Polish and Jewish population (numbering between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000) from a territory of 8,000 square kilometres and settling it with ethnic Germans.Poles living in Prussia, especially in the province of Posen, were to be "encouraged" by unspecified means to move into the German-ruled puppet state of Kingdom of Poland.