On May 11 , 1939 , the Senate of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań chose Dąbrowski , a professor , for the position of rector ; however , the explosion of war beginning with Nazi Germany 's invasion of Poland on September 1 , 1939 , made the accession of Dąbrowski 's rectorial duties impossible . Dąbrowski had foreknowledge of events in 1939 , and spent the duration of the war in many localities hiding from the Gestapo , Nazi Germany 's secret police . Under the Nazi 's Generalplan Ost , more than 61,000 Polish activists , intelligentsia , nobles ( szlachta ) , actors , former officers , etc. ( all those deemed capable of rousing the Polish people to defense and patriotic action ) , were to be interned or shot . ( See : Operation Tannenberg , Operation Sonderaktion Krakau , and Massacre of Lwów professors . ) Nazi racist ideology dictated the Polish elite were largely Nordic , and thus capable of dynamic leadership , therefore their liquidation or internment would deprive the Slavonic masses of Poland of any effective resistance
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
Stefan Tytus Dąbrowski