Last updated: 9 January 2013
Following the destruction of its armed forces in the autumn of 1939, the Republic of Poland was partitioned between Nazi and Soviet forces and officially ceased to exist. The new regimes had racial violence and ideological conformity at their very heart and as the war progressed millions of Poles were killed.
This lecture will attempt to illuminate both the fate of those trapped within occupied Poland and of those millions of Poles who were able to escape.
Dr Halik Kochanski is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has served as a member of the Council of the Army Records Society and Society for Army Historical Research.