Did the Nazi War of Extermination in Eastern Europe Start in September 1939?: Jochen Böhler: Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg. Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939
According to Jochen Böhler in his new book Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg, during the German-Polish war of September 1939 there were at work the same utterly brutal patterns of behavior in waging war that are discernible after the Nazis’ attack on the Soviet Union. In fact, several elements of the 1941 campaign already turned up during the Wehrmacht’s conquest of Poland. However, this lasted only for a few weeks after which occupier violence somewhat subsided. Still, both campaigns can hardly be equated given the much less murderous dimensions as far as the 1939 number of victims is concerned.