Widely varying policies were envisioned by the creators of '' Generalplan Ost '' , and some of them were actually implemented by Germany in regards to the different Slavic territories and ethnic groups . For example , by August – September 1939 ( Operation Tannenberg followed by the A-B Aktion in 1940 ) , Einsatzgruppen death squads and concentration camps had been employed to deal with the Polish elite , while the small number of Czech intelligentsia were allowed to emigrate overseas . Parts of Poland were annexed by Germany early in the war ( leaving aside the rump German-controlled General Government and the areas previously annexed by the Soviet Union ) , while the other territories were officially occupied by or allied to Germany ( for example , the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia became a theoretically independent puppet state , while the ethnic-Czech parts of the Czech lands ( so excluding the Sudetenland ) became a " protectorate " ) . It is unknown to what degree the plan was actually directly connected to the various German war crimes and crimes against humanity in the East , especially in the latter phases of the war . In any case , the majority of Germany 's 12 million forced laborers were abducted from Eastern Europe , mostly in the Soviet territories and Poland ( both Slavs and local Jews )
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
Generalplan Ost