Final answer:
During World War II, Polish war prisoners were somewhat protected by international law, unlike Jews, who were subjected to horrific treatment by the Nazis. Polish social elites were targeted for extermination in Operation Tannenberg, and millions of Jews were forced into ghettos and death camps where they endured unspeakable atrocities. The Allies struggled to comprehend the scale of these crimes, despite evidence and eyewitness accounts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Throughout the Holocaust, international laws offered minimal protection to Polish war prisoners, distinguishing them from Jews within the Reich. The occupation and genocidal policies imposed by the Nazis in Poland after the 1939 invasion led to grim outcomes for both Poles and Jews. The systematic murder of the Polish intellectual and leadership class, referred to as Operation Tannenberg, resulted in the deaths of at least 50,000 individuals. As for Polish Jews, their victimization intensified over time, culminating in the establishment of ghettos and extermination camps. The largest of these ghettos was in Warsaw, housing over 400,000 Jews under deplorable conditions before its eventual liquidation and the deportation of survivors to death camps like Treblinka. Kristallnacht, or the 'Night of Broken Glass', was a state-sanctioned pogrom against Jews in Germany, foreshadowing the brutality that would unfold across Nazi-occupied territories.
Rumors of mass executions and atrocities in these camps were initially difficult for the Allies to believe, but accounts from individuals such as Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski began to peel back the veil on these horrors. An estimated 6 million European Jews faced systematic murder in death camps and were subjected to grotesque medical experiments. Meanwhile, Jewish Americans faced their own battles with discrimination, even as they joined in the fight against the Third Reich.