Nisko Plan

   Following the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, the Germans commenced the process of expelling Poles and Jews from territories intended for Germanization. In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on the area along the Bug and Vistula rivers as the demarcation line between both countries. The Lublin region, which fell on the German side of the line, was set aside as a “reservation” for the Jews who found themselves in German-occupied territory. The establishment of the Nisko transit camp, located in the Lublin region, marked the initial step in the German objective of deporting all of the Jews from Reich-held territories.

   The Nisko Plan was aborted by Heinrich Himmler for logistical reasons when plans to move ethnic Germans from the Baltic states to the newly acquired territories in western Poland became difficult because of the lack of jobs and housing in the area. The failure to implement the Nisko Plan, however, was not the end of Germany’s objective of removing the Jews from Reich territory. Subsequently, the Germans turned to the Madagascar Plan as a means of solving their Jewish problem through a territorial solution.