A shadow state that was operating within occupied Poland since 1939. It was connected to the government in exile in London and organized - on the one hand - the resistance against the German and Soviet occupying forces, while assuming - on the other hand - daily public responsibilities providing e.g. a judicial and an educational system which were independent from the structures imposed by the occupiers.

The term "Untermensch" (eng. "subhuman") was significantly coined and mostly used in the time of national socialism, being rooted in its racist ideology. In 1942, the Reichsführer of the SS Heinrich Himmler published a pamphlet titled "Der Untermensch", in which the term was manly used with regard to the population of Eastern European states and the Soviet Union.