How did the average German benefit from the annexation of Poland, in material terms?

by [deleted]

Was there some sort of economic boost for Germans from the increase of territory? Or was it just ideological, "reuniting the Germanic peoples" and all that? If necessary, assume that Hitler had stopped at Poland and 'won' the war. I'm curious more about intent and if it was logical than if it actually played out that way due to allied interference.

vonadler

The average German benefitted very Little - by then Germany was at a war footing, and any benefits were added to the German war machinery.

However, some benefits Germany did reap were;

  • $4 000 000 in gold from the gold reserves of the Free State of Danzig (the Polish gold reserve was evacuated through Romania).

  • Captured 37mm wz.36 (37mm Bofors AT guns) were sold to Finland (32) and Romania (556).

  • Captured 40mm wz.36 (40mm Bofors AA guns) were sold to Finland (92, but these include guns captured in the Netherlands), Sweden (80 plus 56 from Austria) and Romania (54).

  • Large amounts of captured Polish small arms and ammunition were also exported to Romania as part of the Oil pact of the 10th of March 1940.

culmensis
  1. Poles and other citizens from Eastern Europe were forced to work in Germany as slave workers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II
    For example wife of my grandpa brother was forced to work for average German ryot.

  2. Kidnapping of non-Germanic European children by Nazi Germany (Polish: Rabunek dzieci), part of the Generalplan Ost (GPO), involved taking children from the rest of Europe and moving them to Nazi Germany for the purpose of Germanization, or indoctrination into becoming culturally German. At more than 200,000 victims, occupied Poland had the largest proportion of children taken.[1][2] An estimated 400,000 children were abducted throughout Europe.[3] These children was adopted by average Germans.