The Gestapo deports Polish Jews to Poland

In October 1938, the Polish government announced that they would refuse to admit Jews without valid passports if they had lived in Germany for more than five years. Many Jews wanted to return to Poland because of the anti-Jewish measures in Germany. To renew their passports, they had to get a stamp at the Polish consulate, but in many cases, they were denied the stamp. As a result, they were unable to leave Germany.

This was inconvenient for the Nazis: they wanted as many Jews as possible to leave the country, but many of the Jews in Germany were Polish. And so, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Gestapo, decided to banish all Polish Jews. 

The Polish Jews were forced by threats and violence to illegally cross the border with Poland. They had to leave their possessions behind. The people who were expelled were of all ages. Some were born in Germany and did not speak Polish.

However, the Polish authorities refused to accept them and so most of them had to stay in the no-man’s-land or in a camp in the Polish border area for a long time. Approximately 17,000 people were deported in this way.