Prior to World War II , there were 3,500,000 Jews in Poland , living predominantly in cities : about 10 % of the general population . The database of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews provides information on 1,926 Jewish communities across the country . Following the conquest of Poland and the 1939 murder of intelligentsia , the first German anti-Jewish measures involved a policy of expelling Jews from Polish territories annexed by the Third Reich . The westernmost provinces , of Greater Poland and Pomerelia , were turned into new German '' Reichsgaue '' named Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland , with the intent to completely Germanize them through settler colonization ( '' Lebensraum '' ) . Annexed directly to the new '' Warthegau '' district , the city of Łódź absorbed an initial influx of some 40,000 Polish Jews forced out of surrounding areas . A total of 204,000 Jewish people passed through the ghetto in Łódź . Initially , they were to be expelled to the '' Generalgouvernement '' . However , the ultimate destination for the massive removal of Jews was left open until the Final Solution was set in motion two years later
murder of intelligentsia
Intelligenzaktion
The Holocaust in Poland