THE HOLOCAUST VIOLENCE German lebensraum (space to live). That is why he aimed his first military attack at Poland. On August 22, 1939, the German armies suddenly invaded Poland, a move which sparked off World War II. A few days before the invasion, Hitler had given his commanders this message: "You must ruthlessly kill all men, women and children of Polish origin, or who speak Polish. That is the only way we can secure the space we need to live."102 Within a few weeks, Nazi armies had occupied all of Poland and, in accordance with Hitler's order, set about a systematic genocide. All landowners' property was taken away, and rationing was introduced. Polish children with features resembling those of the German race were forcibly taken from their families and sent to Germany, to be trained as soldiers. A complete massacre of the Polish intelligentsia was initiated. Hundreds of community leaders, mayors, civil servants, priests, teachers, judges, senators and doctors were executed publicly. Tens of thousands of other educated people were sent to the concentration camps and lost their lives there. Over the course of the war, Poland lost 45 percent of its doctors, 57 percent of its lawyers, 40 percent of its teachers, 30 percent of its technicians and engineers, and a large part of its journalists and men of religion. Hitler also wanted to destroy Polish culture and everything to do with Poland. All middle schools and colleges were closed. All Polish-language newspapers were closed down. Libraries and bookshops were burned. All written cultural records and works of art were destroyed. Religious institutions were the most important target of all. Churches and other religious places were torn down. The majority of the country's priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The names of streets and roads were changed, their old Polish names replaced with new German ones. The Nazis murdered 6 million Polish citizens. Half of these were Jews, and the other half Polish Catholics. At Auschwitz and the other death camps, the first victims were these Polish Catholics. The historian Richard C. Lukas writes, "So many Poles were sent to the concentration camps that just about every Polish family had someone who had been tortured or killed in the camps."103
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