Those plans began to be implemented almost immediately after the German troops took control of Poland . As early as October 1939 , many Poles were expelled from the annexed lands to make room for German colonizers . Only those Poles selected for Germanization , approximately 1.7 million including thousands of children who had been taken from their parents , were permitted to remain , and if they resisted it , they were to be sent to concentration camps , because " German blood must not be utilized in the interest of a foreign nation " . By the end of 1940 , at least 325,000 Poles from annexed lands were forcibly resettled in the General Government , forced to abandon most of their property . There were numerous fatalities among the very young and elderly , who perished '' en route '' or in makeshift transit camps such as those in the towns of Potulice , Smukal , and Toruń . The expulsions continued in 1941 , with another 45,000 Poles forced to move eastwards , but following German invasion of the Soviet Union , the expulsions slowed down , as more and more trains were diverted for military logistics , rather than being made available for population transfers . Nonetheless , in late 1942 and in 1943 , large-scale expulsions also took place in the General Government , affecting at least 110,000 Poles in the Zamość – Lublin region . Tens of thousands of the expelled , with no place to go , were simply imprisoned in the Auschwitz ( Oświęcim ) and Majdanek concentration camps . By 1942 , the number of new German arrivals in pre-war Poland had already reached two million
were expelled
Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany
Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)