Military enrolment in German-occupied Poland

[1] Nazi Germany regarded Poland's ethnic-German minority as racially superior Volksdeutsche, and ethnic Poles as subhuman.

[3] On the Eastern Front, prisoner-of-war camps for Wehrmacht soldiers were a substantial recruitment pool for the Polish Armed Forces in the East.

[5] Some Polish citizens of diverse ethnicities served in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, in particular in parts of Poland annexed by Germany such as Upper Silesia.

Service in the German military was universal in nature in these areas, however, assessing the number of ethnic Poles involved is difficult due to the fluidity of national identity.

[6] German authorities assumed those classified as category III Volksliste were in fact mostly ethnically Polish, and marked their military documents with "Pole".

Serving in the Wehrmacht was not motivated solely by a desire for collaboration, but often resulted from the need to adapt to a complex and changing situation, and in some cases was done for opportunistic reasons.

As soon as the war started, the Selbstschutz engaged in widespread massacres of Poles and Jews in West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Reichsgau Wartheland, together with the Einsatzgruppen.

[3] Anders' optimism was well-founded, and thanks to POW recruitment the Polish army in the West ended the war as a larger formation than it had started as when the Italian campaign began.

[3][8] On the Eastern Front, prisoner-of-war camps for Wehrmacht soldiers were a significant recruitment pool for the Polish Armed Forces in the East.

(Gau Upper Silesia) Leon Piesowocki - In 1943, he was called up to serve in the Wehrmacht and sent to Bourg-en-Bresse in France, and then to the vicinity of Livorno in Italy, where he deserted and joined the Allied troops.

Losy Polaków przymusowo wcielonych do wojska niemieckiego w okresie II wojny światowej - [Accessed 19/1/2021] In Polish, but with many articles and books on the matter.