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Dr. Hans Frank was appointed as Generalgouverneur für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Governor General of the occupied Polish Territories ) by a Hitler decree dated 12 October 1939.  Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart was the Deputy Governor General and Dr. Josef Bühler was the State Secretary. All three men were jurists and Das Generalgouvernement was headquartered in the city of Krakau.

(*We have included additional information about Dr. Frank near the bottom of this USMBOOKS web page)

This is a lot two very rare Nazi magazines called Das Generalgouvernement, issue 13/14 (October-November) and issue 15 (December) from the first year it was published - 1941. The 9-1/8 x 12-1/4 inch magazines have a total of 226 pages filled with in-depth historical details about the German government in the occupied Polish territories, emphasizing the government’s structure, goals, personnel, and accomplishments during the first two years of its existence.

The Germans administered the Generalgouvernement as “colonial territory” and the ultimate goal was the Germanization of the area, and gradually reducing the freedom and movement of non-Germans such as Jews, Russians and gypsies.

The territory was made up of the land area that became Poland after World War I, including parts of Ukraine, parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Silesia. This area was heavily damaged during World War I, became even more rundown during the the time it was an independent Poland, and badly damaged again during the 1939 Wehrmacht and Soviet army invasion and division of Poland. After the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the Generalgouvernement became a lot bigger as Galicia and additional parts of what is now Ukraine were added to it. Those areas had however, sustained additional damage during the June 1941 battles between German and Russian forces.

The text highlights the German plans to improve the standard of living in the land that made up the Generalgouvernement using the NSDAP structure that had been so successful in rebuilding Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s. While the Generalgouvernement was made up of historically German land and was settled mostly by ethic German people, from the German government perspective 20 years of Polish administration and neglect had to be erased (“the Wehrmacht does this with weapons, the Generalgouvernement with new laws, rules and regulations”).

The German solution to those problems included removing non-German population (Jews, gypsies, Russians, Ukrainians and Poles) although it was acknowledged that “under the present war conditions” some persons of foreign racial groups had to work in the service of Greater Germany.

There is also an extensive section about the Sonderdienst created in May 1940 The men of the Sonderdienst were recruited from the ethnic German community, received leadership training, were armed and wore special uniforms. They helped the regular police with enforcing law and order, and combatting black market activities and price gouging. The military leadership is also covered and due to the war, it allowed German soldiers to help out with construction projects and work on farms to increase agricultural output.

The two very rare 1941 issues of Das Generalgouvernement offered for sale on this USMBOOKS web page commemorate the second anniversary of the Generalgouvernement and also shine light on the ‘unexpected addition’ of Galicia due to the success of Operation Barbarossa, referred to as Hitler’s “Will and Genius Plan”. “The achievements of the German civil servants, administrators and workers in the Generalgouvernement are an example for the German soldiers conquering new living space in the East.”

These magazines spell out very well the German organization and plans for the Generalgouvernement: constructing new roads and railways, changing the education system and the healthcare system, new currency policies and interest rates, and improving agriculture and forestry, sport and welfare, for example. The postal system and finance system had to be overhauled and a new tax system was introduced. Retirement and welfare benefits had to be brought up to the standards of Grossdeutschland. Examples of progress during the last two years are shown and described.

The police system was also overhauled as the remaining Polish police was considered ‘untrustworthy” to carry out the new laws. New German police leadership was installed in Krakau, Warsaw, Lublin, Radom and other big cities. New passport and visa regulations were created because as a result of the enlargement of the Generalgouvernement, it had become an important transit area to and from Greater Germany.

There is a very interesting map of the Generalgouvernement, showing the national and/or ethnic make-up of the population (Germans, Poles, Ukranians, Goralen and Jews, etc.) and there are many rare pictures in these magazines not found in other Third Reich publications. They include the central administration building of the Generalgouvernement in Krakau, Dr. Frank during a review of Sonderdienst troops, Jews in Radom and Lublin, German soldiers helping farmers get ready for winter, modern German delousing ovens, a Polish policeman reporting to the head of an Einsatzgruppe, Einsatzgruppe police springing in to action and even cornering anti-German “bandits”, newly built modern postal facilities, the Nazi propaganda office and state theater in Krakau, entertainment for wounded Wehrmacht soldiers, German radio broadcasting vehicles, Hans Frank meeting foreign journalists, battle damage in Lemberg (now Lviv in Ukraine), State Secretary Dr. Bühler, as well as pictures from the exhibition Deutscher Kampf im Osten and new modern bridges and roads built during the past two years in the Generalgouvernement area.

Above, a Polish policeman reporting to the head of a German Einsatzgruppe.

Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Community Clarification and Publicity) is another interesting part of these 1941 Nazi magazines. A great effort was made to reach ethnic Germans in the Generalgouvernement, to make them feel a part of and proud of their German heritage and community. Just as in Nazi Germany, organizations and groups were organized for women, youth, veterans, charity (like the WHW), etc. German language public safety posters were produced, German language radio broadcasts were introduced and remaining Polish newspaper editors and journalists were replaced with Germans, adjusting the content of existing newspapers and magazines.

An effort was made to remove the large sphere of Jewish influence in literature, and to remind the population of the hundreds of years of German culture, history and traditions. German entertainment for Wehrmacht troops was organized as well by the Volksaufklärung und Propaganda office in the Generalgouvernement.

The war economy and industrial output of the Generalgouvernement was very important to German officials due to its proximity to Nazi Germany and the war front in the East. There is interesting information about import and export duties and the Generaldirektion der Monopole that was formed to deal with former Russian, Polish and even old Austro-Hungarian industrial monopolies in the territory. It is interesting to note that the Generalgouvernement had monopolies on tobacco, spirits, salt, and sugar, for example.

Above, an advertisement from the Deutsche Reichsbahn announcing to travelers that the German railroad network is nearly five times larger than before the war.

Above, a Deutsche Post Osten ad highlighting the benefits of their savings accounts which could be accessed by civil servants and soldiers at any post office in Großdeutschland.

Above, Einsatzgruppe police cornering armed anti-German “bandits” in the ruins of a house.

These rare 1941 magazines also contain extensive advertising by German and other companies which had already opened branches in the Generalgouvernement in addition to ethnic German companies that already existed there. The most interesting advertisement certainly has to be for the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik owned by Oskar Schindler in Krakau! Virtually everyone on earth is familiar with Schindler’s company from the movie "Schindler’s List", but 99.9% of them have never seen a printed ad for the company and we have never seen another example! Other advertisers include Bayer, Steyr-Daimler-Puch, Deutsche Reichsbahn, Continental, Hanomag, Bata, Philips, Commerzbank as well as retail clothing stores, furriers, breweries, construction, weaving and chemical companies, etc. There are also ads by representatives of companies trying to establish a marketing foothold in the Generalgouvernement.

* Dr. Hans Frank was a lawyer by profession and held many different posts during the Third Reich. Among other things he was the Reich Commissar for the Coordination of the State Administration of Justice and for Reformation of the Law in the Nazi Ministry of Justice (1933-34), Bavarian State Minister of Justice (March 1933-December 1934), President of the Academy of German Law (1933-1942), Head of the National Socialist Lawyers League (1933-1942), and President of the International Chamber of Law (1941-42). He was also an editor and wrote articles for several different Nazi era law magazines and the National Socialist Handbook for Law and Legislation.