Can Nazi Germany’s rule in annexed Poland be understood as colonial, or was it something entirely different? Rachel O’Sullivan investigates how concepts from colonial contexts, such as settlement, assimilation, segregation and violence, can inform research on National Socialist policies toward ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche), Poles and Jews. She examines strategies aimed at including or excluding these population groups alongside colonial and settler colonial methods, offering new ways to understand German rule and the Holocaust within broader historical frameworks.