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Similarities
- Both groups of citizens were shot at, for instance: after the 2 month Warsaw uprising that began in August of 1944 and after the first act of armed resistance in the Netherlands, when it was ransacked for blank identification cards and ration cards.
- Both were sent to concentration and death camps both in Germany and in their own countries, for example: when the 425 Dutch Jews were deported to Germany in February of 1941 and when Polish Jews were deported to the General Government Region (mostly) after Himmler had devised his Eastern Plan in 1940.
- Both countries were taken over with a lot of damage. Poland was attacked on its front lines, which would have lead to a lot of damage. Also, the Netherland's main trading town and port in Rotterdam was heavily bombed and hundreds of people were injured and 25,000 houses were destroyed.
- Both were sent to Germany or stayed in their own countries through Nazi forced labour schemes. In the Netherlands, this was first introduced in April of 1943, when it was announced that 300,000 Dutch ex-soliders would be sent to Germany, however this caused strikes where 95 people were killed and more than 400 injured. In May of 1943, the Nazis then announced that all Dutch men, between the ages of 18 and 35 had to become forced labourers, however out of the 170,000 that were meant to turn up, only 54,000 did. This lead to the Nazis announcing that, by 1944, all Dutch men between the ages of 16 and 65, were to become forced labourers and 500,000 of these were to be sent to Germany to labour and this was a third of all those eligible. However, this meant that 300,000 men went into hiding by 1944. On the other hand, in Poland, an estimated 1.5 million Poles were sent into forced labour both in Germany and Poland.
- Both the Dutch and Delegatura used armed resistance. The Polish Delegatura organised and staged a 2 month uprising in Warsaw and when this ended Hitler ordered the killing of 200,000 people and the destruction of Warsaw and the soliders even murdered patients in Warsaw city hospital. The Dutch then staged armed resistance when they a registry office for blank ID cards and ration cards. After this, 20,000 resistance members were arrested and sent to one of the four concentration and death camps, in these 2000 of them were murdered by the Nazis.
- Both countries' Jewish communities were attacked by the Nazis and during the war in Poland, the Jewish population decreased from 3.5 million to 3 million and in the Netherlands, approximately 107,000 Jews were sent to concentration and death camps internationally and this formed 76% of the Jewish population of the Netherlands. Also, this began when 425 Dutch Jews were deported in February of 1941.
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Differences
- The Poles were seen as racially inferior to the Germans by the Nazis; whereas, the Dutch had the same ethnic background as the Germans, which gave them less harsh treatment at the beginning of thier opposition.
- The Poles were punished badly for ANY act of resistance, such as: after the 2 month uprising in Warsaw 200,000 were killed and whole city was destroyed. However, the Dutch were not punished as badly; after the railway strike (that began in September of 1944) the Nazis took little action and only suffered themselves and 20,000 Dutch starved due to this.
- The Poles had their culture, education and leadership affected; whereas, most of this was left unchanged for the Dutch. For instance: Hans Frank closed down all Polish schools and universities in May of 1940, he introduced the use of terror, the Polish government formed the Delegatura in Poland in 1939 (which left the Nazis to freely alter the leadership system) and Himmler forced the Poles out of their homes and from their land for the native Germans to use as a part of his Eastern General Plan. However, the Dutch had thier education system unchanged for fear of a backlash and their civil servants were allowed to keep thier jobs (even though 30% of the town mayors stepped down.)
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Overall comparison
Both the Dutch and Polish people were treated badly; however, the Poles were treated worse initially, but the levels of brutality did level out by the end of the war; as, the brutality of the Dutch-Nazi regime grew worse as the Dutch became less compliant and as the Germans became more desperate for resources and workers.
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