Abstract. – The article discusses the problem of the Nazi research projects carried out in occupied Poland during WW II by German and Austrian ethnologists employed at the Institut fur Deutsche Ostarbeit (IDO). Drawing on new or hitherto littleknown sources, the author provides new and verifies the existing information to be found in publications dealing with IDO, mainly with the activity of one of the IDO’s section – namely, the Sektion Rassen- und Volkstumsforschung. The paper presents results of fieldwork research and expeditions carried out by SRV ethnologists among selected groups of people in occupied Poland, with special regard to the ethnic, ethnographic, and racial studies. The analysis of the vast amount of documentation allows us to deepen our knowledge on the SRV’s ideological assumptions and plans, and specifically to determine the actual scope of that research, its methods, tools, and the empirical results of field explorations. [Anthropology and ethnology in the Third Reich; Nazi ethnic and anthropological research; Nazi ethno-policy in occupied Poland; Institut fur Deutsche Ostarbeit; Podhale]