Due to the very limited use of the term ‘genocide’ in scientific discourse, researchers did not carry out broad methodological considerations on the legitimacy of its use in relation to the occupation policy of the Third Reich against the Poles during World War II. Historians often conducted their research based on other theoretical models (often those that were popular at that time). For example, they studied the policy of the Third Reich in terms of the racial theory, social engineering, ethnic cleansing, total war or in a classical way, i.e. they examined various aspects of the Nazi occupation without referring to models and theories. Interestingly, many authors presented the problem in a manner similar to that resulting from Lemkin’s definition of genocide. In other words, they described the phenomenon, but without using the term ‘genocide’. They used it, however, in reference to the Holocaust. Perhaps, they did not apply it in reference to other nations due to the fact that almost the entire Jewish population was annihilated in the areas occupied by the German Third Reich. The term ‘genocide’ appeared with regard to the German policy against the Poles mainly in the colloquial sense, thereby reducing its conceptual content to mass murder. The discussions on genocide have entered a new phase in Poland. The aim of this article is to reflect on the possibility of using the term ‘genocide’ to describe the German policy against the Poles in the context of the definition created by Raphael Lemkin and the UN Convention of 1948.
