Forster pursued a policy of genocide and forced assimilation of the population in his area of responsibility. At the start of the war Forster planned ethnic cleansing of all Poles originating from Congress Poland and all Jews by February 1940 from his Gau, but unforeseen problems with agriculture workers and the inadequate character of German settlers forced him to revise his policies. Forster was willing to accept any and all Poles who claimed to have "German blood" as Germans. In practice, the method of determining whether Poles had any German ancestry or not was to send out Nazi Party workers to interview the local Poles; all Poles who stated that they had German ancestry had their answers taken at face value with no documentation required. Refusal to become Germanised was punishable by deportation to the General Government or imprisonment in a concentration camp. In some cases whole settlements were classed as populated by Germans in order to meet quotas Forster laid down. Practical issues like food production could influence Forster's decisions on whom to expel.