Governor-general

Governor-general or governor general, in modern usage, is the title of an office-holder appointed to represent the monarch of a sovereign state in the governing of an independent realm. Governors-general have also previously been appointed in respect of major colonial states or other territories held by either a monarchy or republic, such as French Indochina.

Current uses

In modern usage, the term governor-general originated in those British colonies which became self-governing within the British Empire. Before World War I, the title was used only in federated colonies in which each of the previously constituent colonies of these federated colonies already had a governor, namely Canada, Australia, and the Union of South Africa. In these cases, the Crown's representative in the federated Dominion was given the superior title of governor general. The first exception to this rule was New Zealand, which was granted Dominion status in 1907, but it was not until 28 June 1917 that Arthur Foljambe, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was appointed the first Governor General of New Zealand. Another non-federal state, Newfoundland, was a Dominion for 16 years with the King's representative retaining the title of governor throughout this time.

General Government

The General Government, sometimes also General Governorate (German: Generalgouvernement, Polish: Generalne Gubernatorstwo, Ukrainian: Генеральна губернія), was a territory in Poland and Ukraine carved out by Adolf Hitler at the onset of World War II after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east.

The basis for the formation of General Government was a German claim of the total collapse of the Polish state, proclaimed unilaterally by the Führer on October 8, 1939 through the so-called Annexation Decree on the Administration of the Occupied Polish Territories. This rationale was utilized by the German Supreme Court to reassign the identity of all Polish nationals as stateless subjects, with exception of the ethnic Germans of interwar Poland, named the only rightful citizens of the Third Reich, in disregard of international law.