ABSTRACT
In an impressive way Professor Landau describes the brutality and the destructiveness of the German occupation forces. Polish entrepreneurship became nearly impossible and production in general declined rapidly, due to the expulsion and murder of Polish and Jewish management and economic elites, the general destruction of the market organizations, and the ruthless way in which German firms took over Polish and Jewish enterprises. As Professor Overy points out, in most of the occupied countries and in some of the so-called German allies the business options were limited. In Poland and in most of the occupied territories of the Soviet Union hardly any German economic policy besides plundering and destruction took place. Certainly Professor Overy is right mentioning that the concept of a Grossraumwirtschaft already existed before the war, if one takes into account some ideas of Hjalmar Schacht about the bilateralization of trade, exchange controls and the clearing system.
