Catalogue ref: CN 11/8/23 Polish Jews working in a public
garden. Three men and woman haul a ground roller whilst in the
background three women tend a flowerbed. These photographs were
in the hands of the British Government. They show scenes of life
in Poland under Nazi rule. The photographs came from a news
agency called Interphoto News Pictures. The agency would
probably have sold them to newspapers around the world as well
as to the British government. The Nazis invaded Poland in
September 1939. Soon afterwards the USSR invaded Poland from the
East and the country collapsed. Conditions for Polish civilians
were appalling. For Polish Jews conditions were even worse. As
soon as they had conquered the country the Nazis set about
putting their plans into action. The first was to clear Poles
out of their homes and off the land so that German settlers
could take their place and gain new living space or
“Lebensraum”. The second was to round up the Polish Jews and
force them to live in ghettos. A ghetto is usually