"Today's" NY Times report says the number of Poles killed in action during the 1939 war was 50,000 to 70,000.
And somewhere I read the number who escaped to fight for the allies was circa 100,000 -- doubtless many of those survived the war.
So the figure of 400,000 total Polish military deaths must necessarily include large numbers of others.
Yes, including "resistance fighters" as "military" would explain it.
But our particular discussion is the question of whether the Germans necessarily treated POWs "correctly" -- if the conquered country had signed the Third Geneva Conventions (1929)?
Well, I find it hard to believe that a nation which wantonly murdered millions in Geneva-signing countries like Poland would necessarily show strict scruples when it came to treating their POWs.
However, for the moment at least, I've found no hard data to confirm it.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the 400K number is garbage. You can’t even get to that if you include the 100K conscripts killed while supporting the German military.
Here’s a couple of options:
90 - 95K Killed in the invasions (including Russian massacres. Probably a 60-30 split German/Russian, but most killed by Germans in combat, a very large percentage of the Russian caused deaths being prisoners executed.
30 - 35K killed fighting with the Russians and British
15-20K Killed fighting with AK. That would total some 140-150K.
Another set of numbers, broken down slightly differently (These are from about 1947, and ignore the Russian massacres:
German invasion - 66,300
Fighting with the Reds - 13,900
France and Norway 2100
British Army 7,900
1944 uprising 13,000
Resistance 20,000
Total (excluding Katyn and related) 123,200.
Add in Katyn, and you’re pretty close to my round numbers.
So at 140,000, folks might quibble about details. 400,000, without a lot of footnotes, appears to be, at best, an error or misunderstanding.
What makes Poland stand out is the systematic killing of civilians (by both set of socialists). The treatment of the Polish while prisoners of war of the Germans, is largely unremarkable. (Once they returned to civilian status, of course, they shared the fate of their civilian neighbors. )