Josef Goebbels mentioned in his diary that, “Poland would become a rump State, built only to serve the German reich” (paraphrased). Indeed, many Poles would be brought back as slave workers to the German reich.

There are three German wartime records that highlight the difference in policies towards the Poles and the Jews.

A letter, from Warsaw district chief Medical officer Wilhelm Hagen to Hitler, December 7, 1942 (http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-hagen-letter-to-deal-with-13-of.html)

The report of the SS officer Heinrich Kinna, stationed at Auschwitz, 1941 (http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-kinna-report-german-document-on.html)

A report of the RSHA on October 1944, (http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2020/10/rsha-report-of-october-1944-polish.html)

In the first document, Wilhelm Hagen is notifying Hitler about German anti Tuberculosis measures. Hagen mentions that there are 70,000 “unproductive” people - i.e. Children and people under the age of ten. Hagen proposes the following solution: “Wie mit Den Juden, das heist, sie zu toten” - (treat them) the same as the Jews, that is, to kill them.

In other words, killing Poles that could not serve as slaves was an option on the table, but the Nazi killing apparatus - gas vans and extermination camps - were reserved for the Jews, the main target of Nazi ideology. So in this case, Hagen has to ask permission directly from Hitler to kill Poles, the same as the Jews.

Kinna’s report says the same thing. He basically records the conflict between the WVHA (economic branch of the SS) and the RSHA (Security branch). The WVHA’s directive is that “idiots, sick people, and cripples should be unburdened from the camp via ‘liquidation’”, but is contradicted by the RSHA’s directive that “Contrary to the measures applied to the Jews, Poles must die a ‘natural’ death”. Same thing that Hagen said. Jews are the main targets of Nazi killing apparatus, and Poles get to live longer.

Finally, the SS report of october 1944 has the following to say.

“Partly due to all these measures on the German side and especially the lack of German statements about their future fate in the new Europe, the Polish people feel expelled from the European community of nations and fear that, like the Jewish people, their ethnic substance will be destroyed.”

Essentially, as mentioned above, German Policy towards the Poles was Brutal. The Nazis collaborated with the Soviets in purging intelligentsia (AB Aktion) and enslaved the Poles and Ethnically cleanse them. The Poles also witnessed the Nazis’ murder of the Jews. Come 1944, the Germans were losing and hoped to turn things around , so they tried to establish a new Policy towards the Poles in order to gain their favor, as the Poles shared their fear of the USSR, who threatened to occupy Poland. Unfortunately, it was too little and too late. The Poles feared that after the Jews, they would be exterminated next.