Part of the General Government zone of occupied Poland | |
Period | 1939–1943 |
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Membership | 200 |
Goralenvolk was a geopolitical term invented by the German Nazis in World War II in reference to the Goral highlander population of Podhale region in the south of Poland near the Slovak border. The Germans postulated a separate nationality for people of that region in an effort to extract them from the Polish citizenry during their occupation of Poland's highlands. The term Goralenvolk was a neologism derived from the Polish word Górale (the Highlanders) commonly referring to the ethnic group living in the Beskid and Tatra mountains. In an attempt to make the Gorals collaborate with the SS, the Nazis proclaimed that they were of Germanic descent, and were thus worthy of Germanisation and separate treatment from other Poles.[1][2]