View source for History of Pomerania (1933–1945)

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{{Missing information|history and information regarding Polish areas of Pomerania up to 1939|date=May 2011}}
{{History of Pomerania}}
'''History of Pomerania between 1933 and 1945''' covers the period of one decade of the long [[history of Pomerania]], lasting from the [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power]] until the [[end of World War II in Europe]]. In 1933, the German [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Province of Pomerania]] like all of Germany [[Enabling act of 1933|came under control of]] the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]]. During the following years, the [[Nazis]] led by [[Gauleiter]] [[Franz Schwede-Coburg]] manifested their power through the process known as ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' and repressed their opponents.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.500ff,509ff">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp. 500ff, 509ff; {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}.</ref> Meanwhile, the [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919-1939)|Pomeranian Voivodeship]] was part of the [[Second Polish Republic]], led by [[Józef Piłsudski]]. With respect to Polish Pomerania, Nazi diplomacy – as part of their initial attempts to subordinate Poland into [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] – aimed at incorporation of the [[Free City of Danzig]] into the Third Reich and an extra-territorial transit route through Polish territory, which was rejected by the Polish government, that feared economic blackmail by Nazi Germany, and reduction to puppet status.<ref name="Fest, pp.575-577">Joachim C. Fest, ''Hitler'', Harcourt Trade, 2002, pp. 575–577, {{ISBN|0-15-602754-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=qnnlUEDZZIAC&dq=hitler+rapprochment+poland&pg=PA576]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Background==
The name ''[[Pomerania]]'' comes from [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] ''po more'', which means ''Land at the Sea''.<ref>[http://www.pommersches-landesmuseum.de/kulturreferat-fuer-pommern/aufgaben/aufgaben.html ''Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819090147/http://www.pommersches-landesmuseum.de/kulturreferat-fuer-pommern/aufgaben/aufgaben.html |date=2020-08-19 }} (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)</ref>
In 1939, the German [[Wehrmacht]] [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|invaded Poland]], engaging in a series of [[War crimes of the Wehrmacht#Invasion of Poland|massacres against the civilian population]], the most notable being the [[mass murders in Piaśnica]]. [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Polish Pomerania]] with a part of [[Kashubia]] was incorporated into [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]].
The German state set up [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], expelled Poles and Jews, and systematically engaged in [[genocide]] of people they regarded as [[Untermensch]] (primarily Jews, Poles and Roma).
[[Albert Forster]], [[Gauleiter]] and [[Reichsstatthalter]] of [[Danzig-West Prussia]], was directly responsible for the extermination of non-Germans in the region. He personally believed in the need to engage in genocide of Poles and stated that "We have to exterminate this nation, starting from the cradle"<ref>Eugenia Bozena Klodecka-Kaczynska, Michal Ziólkowski (1 Jan 2003), ''Bylem numerem: swiadectwa z Auschwitz'', page 14. Wydawn. Sióstr Loretanek.</ref><ref>[[Barbara Bojarska]] (1989), ''Piasnica, miejsce martyrologii i pamieci: z badan nad zbrodniami hilerowskimi na Pomorzu''. Page 20.  "Szczególny niepokój wywolala wsród mieszkanców jego wyrazna zapowiedz akcji zaglady Polaków, streszczajaca sie chocby w tym jednym zdaniu: Musimy ten naród wytepic od kolyski poczawszy."</ref><ref>Dieter Schenk (2002), ''Albert Forster: gdanski namiestnik Hitlera : zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Gdansku i Prusach Zachodnich'', POLNORD – Gdansk, page 388.</ref> and declared that Poles and Jews were not human.<ref>Danuta Drywa (2001), ''Zaglada Zydów w obozie koncentracyjnym Stutthof Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie.'' "Polityke eksterminacyjna na Pomorzu Gdanskim mial bezposrednio realizowac gauleiter Okregu Gdansk-Prusy Albert Forster."</ref><ref>Dieter Schenk (2002), ''Albert Forster: gdanski namiestnik Hitlera'', page 221. "...postawe Forstera, który nie poczuwal sie do jakiejkolwiek winy, zwlaszcza w przypadkach, gdy chodzilo – w jego mniemaniu – o „podludzi" w rodzaju prostytutek, Polaków i Zydów, o których zazwyczaj mówiono ''element''".</ref>
In 1945, [[Pomerania]] was taken by the [[Red Army]] during the [[East Pomeranian Offensive]] and the [[Battle of Berlin]]. Along with the Soviet offensive, atrocities against the German civilian population occurred on a large scale.<ref>Werner Buchholz (1999), pp. 511–515.</ref>
== Pomerania and the National Socialists ==
=== Pomeranian Voivodeship ===
{{Main|Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Polish Corridor}}
[[File:Gdynia - ulica 10-go lutego 1934 (37050922) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Gdynia]], Poland in 1934]]
The [[totalitarian]] and anti-Polish [[Nazi Party]], led by [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Enabling act of 1933|took power in Germany in 1933]]. By this time, the [[Second Polish Republic]] was led by [[Józef Piłsudski]] who ruled the country as an [[Authoritarianism#Authoritarianism and democracy|authoritarian democracy]]. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of [[rapprochement]] with Poland,<ref>[[Aristotle Kallis|Aristotle A. Kallis]], ''Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945'', Routledge, 2000, p.144, {{ISBN|0-415-21612-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=BeeRQHDOKXQC&pg=PA114]</ref> culminating in the ten year [[Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact]] of 1934. In the coming years, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament, to which Poland and other European powers reacted.<ref name="virginia">{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/poland.htm|publisher=xroads.virginia.edu|title=Marching Toward War: Poland|access-date=2017-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429222529/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/poland.htm|archive-date=2008-04-29|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="vt">{{cite web|url=http://filebox.vt.edu/users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3.html|publisher=filebox.vt.edu|title=users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3|access-date=2017-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501084617/http://filebox.vt.edu/users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3.html|archive-date=2008-05-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> Initially Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals of territorial expansion without provoking armed resistance; in 1938 [[Nazi Germany]] annexed [[Austria]] and the [[Sudetenland]] after the [[Munich Agreement]]. In October 1938, Germany tried to get Poland to join the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]]. Poland refused, as the alliance was quickly becoming a sphere of influence for an increasingly powerful Germany.
<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Twentieth-century World: An International History|author=Keylor, W.R.|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195136814|url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury00will_0|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury00will_0/page/170 170]|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref>
Following negotiations with Hitler for the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] reported that, "He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this [[Sudeten German]] question is settled, that is the end of Germany's territorial claims in Europe".<ref name="st-andrews">{{cite web|url=http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/munich/czdoc09.html|publisher=st-andrews.ac.uk|title=Document no. 9|access-date=2017-02-17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607043817/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/munich/czdoc09.html|archive-date=2007-06-07}}</ref> Almost immediately following the agreement, however, Hitler reneged. The Nazis increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into the Reich, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive.<ref name="ibiblio2">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_5c.html#188|publisher=ibiblio.org|title=The Polish Resistance and the German Press Campaign (August 1–19)|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref>
In November 1938, Danzig's district administrator, [[Albert Forster]] reported to the League of Nations that Hitler had told him Polish frontiers would be guaranteed if the Poles were "reasonable like the Czechs." German State Secretary [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]] reaffirmed this alleged guarantee in December 1938.<ref name="ku">{{cite web|url=http://www.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect16.htm|publisher=ku.edu|title=Anna M|access-date=2017-02-17|archive-date=2012-08-04|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804224954/http://www.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect16.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The situation regarding the Free City and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish Customs.<ref name="ibiblio2"/> The Germans requested the [[Free City of Danzig]] and the construction of an [[extra-territorial]] highway (to complete the [[Reichsautobahn Berlin-Königsberg]]) and railway through the Polish Corridor, connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper. Poland agreed on building a German highway and to allow German railway traffic, in return they would extend the non-aggression pact for 25 years.<ref name="Fest, pp.575-577"/>
This seemed to conflict with Hitler's plans and with Poland's rejection of the Anti-Comintern Pact, his desire to either isolate or gain support against the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Fest, pp.575-577"/> German newspapers in Danzig and Nazi Germany played an important role inciting nationalist sentiment; headlines buzzed about how Poland was misusing its economic rights in Danzig and German Danzigers were increasingly subjugated to the will of the Polish state.<ref name="ibiblio2"/> At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of [[Lithuania]], the [[Klaipėda Region]], [[Ukrainian SSR|Soviet Ukraine]] and Czech inhabited lands.<ref name="ibiblio3">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_4.html|publisher=ibiblio.org|title=The German-Polish Crisis (March 27 – May 9, 1939)|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref>
<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st Century|author=Grenville, J.A.S.|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415289559|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNmfAL0CBBIC&pg=PA234|page=234|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref> However, Polish leaders continued to fear for the loss of their independence and a shared fate with [[Czechoslovakia]], although they had also taken part in its partitioning.
<ref name="google2"/>
Some felt that the Danzig question was inextricably tied to the problems in the Polish Corridor and any settlement regarding Danzig would be one step towards the eventual loss of Poland's access to the sea.
<ref name="ibiblio2"/> Nevertheless, Hitler's credibility outside of Germany was very low after the occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler used the issue of the status of Danzig as pretext for attacking Poland, while explaining during a high-level meeting of German military officials in May 1939 that his real goal is obtaining [[Lebensraum]] for Germany, isolating Poles from their Allies in the West and afterwards attacking Poland, thus avoiding the repeat of the Czech situation.<ref>''The history of the German resistance, 1933–1945'' Peter Hoffmann page 37 McGill-Queen's University Press 1996</ref><ref>''Hitler'' Joachim C. Fest page 586 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002</ref><ref>''Blitzkrieg w Polsce wrzesien 1939'' Richard Hargreaves page 84 Bellona, 2009</ref><ref>''A military history of Germany, from the eighteenth century to the present day''Martin Kitchen page 305 Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975</ref><ref>International history of the twentieth century and beyond Antony Best page 181 Routledge; 2 edition (July 30, 2008)</ref>
In 1939, Nazi Germany made another proposal regarding Danzig; the city was to be incorporated into the Reich while the Polish section of the population was to be "evacuated" and resettled elsewhere.<ref name="ku"/> Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport and the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed. However, the Poles distrusted Hitler and saw the plan as a threat to Polish sovereignty, practically subordinating Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc while reducing the country to a state of near-servitude.
<ref name="yale">{{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yellow/ylbk113.htm|publisher=yale.edu|title=Avalon Project : The French Yellow Book : No. 113 – M. Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, to M. Georges Bonnet, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Berlin, April 30, 1939|access-date=2017-02-17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820020504/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yellow/ylbk113.htm|archive-date=August 20, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939|author=Prazmowska, A.J.|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521529389|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D_A4ERzCsFkC&pg=PA37|page=37|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref> Writing about the Danzig crisis on 30 April 1939, [[Robert Coulondre]], the French ambassador in Berlin sent a dispatch to Foreign Minister [[Georges Bonnet]] saying Hitler wanted:"...a mortgage on Polish foreign policy, while itself retaining complete liberty of action allowing the conclusion of political agreements with other countries. In these circumstances, the new settlement proposed by Germany, which would link the questions of Danzig and of the passage across the Corridor with counterbalancing questions of a political nature, would only serve to aggravate this mortgage and practically subordinate Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc. Warsaw refused this in order to retain its independence....Polish acceptance of Germany's demands would have rendered the application of any braking machinery in the East impossible. The Germans are not wrong then, when they claim that Danzig is in itself only a secondary question. It is not only the fate of the Free City, it is the enslavement or liberty of Europe which is at stake in the issue now joined."<ref name="yale"/> Additionally, Poland was backed by guarantees of support from both the United Kingdom and France in regard to Danzig.
[[File:Henryk Poddębski - Chojnice (131-16504).jpg|thumb|[[Chojnice]], Poland in 1938]]
A revised and less favorable proposal came in the form of an [[ultimatum]] made by the Nazis in late August, after the orders had already been given to attack Poland on September 1, 1939. Nevertheless, at midnight on August 29, [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] handed British Ambassador Sir [[Neville Henderson]] a list of terms which would allegedly ensure peace in regard to  Poland. Danzig was to be incorporated into Germany and there was to be a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor; all Poles who were born or settled there since 1919 would have no vote, while all Germans born but not living there would. An exchange of minority populations between the two countries was proposed. If Poland accepted these terms, Germany would agree to the British offer of an international guarantee, which would include the Soviet Union. A Polish [[plenipotentiary]], with full powers, was to arrive in Berlin and accept these terms by noon the next day. The British Cabinet viewed the terms as "reasonable," except the demand for a Polish Plenipotentiary, which was seen as similar to Czechoslovak President [[Emil Hácha]] accepting Hitler's terms in mid-March 1939.
When Ambassador [[Józef Lipski]] went to see Ribbentrop on August 30, he was presented with Hitler's demands. However, he did not have the full power to sign and Ribbentrop ended the meeting. News was then broadcast that Poland had rejected Germany's offer.<ref name="ku"/>
=== Free City of Danzig ===
{{Main|Free City of Danzig}}
In May 1933, the [[Nazi Party]] won the local elections in the city. However, they received 57 percent of the vote, less than the two-thirds required by the [[League of Nations]] to change the [[Constitution of the Free City of Danzig]]. The government introduced [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] and [[Anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]] laws, the latter primarily being directed against the Polish and [[Kashubians|Kashubian]] inhabitants. In the 1930s the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|pages=37}}</ref> Polish children were refused admission to public Polish-language schools, premises were not allowed to be rented to Polish schools and preschools.<ref name=mw40>Wardzyńska, p. 40</ref> In 1937, Poles who sent their children to private Polish schools were demanded to transfer children to German schools, under threat of police intervention, and attacks were carried out on Polish schools and Polish youth.<ref name=mw40/>
German militias carried out numerous beatings of Polish activists, scouts, and even mailmen, as "punishment" for distributing the Polish press.<ref name=mw41>Wardzyńska, p. 41</ref> German students attacked and expelled Polish students from the technical university.<ref name=mw41/> Dozens of Polish surnames were forcibly Germanized,<ref name=mw41/> while Polish symbols that reminded that for centuries the city was part of Poland were removed from landmarks, such as the [[Artus Court]] and the [[Neptune's Fountain, Gdańsk|Neptune's Fountain]].<ref name=mw42>Wardzyńska, p. 42</ref>
From 1937, the employment of Poles by German companies was prohibited, and already employed Poles were fired, the use of Polish in public places was banned and Poles were not allowed to enter several restaurants, in particular those owned by Germans.<ref name=mw42/> In 1938, the Germans committed over 100 attacks on Polish homes on the day of the Polish [[3 May Constitution Day]].<ref name=mw42/> In 1939, before the German [[invasion of Poland]] and outbreak of [[World War II]], local Polish railwaymen were victims of beatings and arrests.<ref>Wardzyńska, p. 39</ref>
The city also served as a training point for members of the German minority within Poland that, recruited by organisations such as the ''Jungdeutsche Partei'' ("Young German Party") and the ''Deutsche Vereinigung'' ("German Union"), would form the leading cadres of ''[[Selbstschutz]]'', an organisation involved with murder and atrocities during the German invasion of Poland in 1939.<ref>Tomasz Chinciński, Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 r. w świetle dokumentów policyjnych i wojskowych II Rzeczypospolitej oraz służb specjalnych III Rzeszy. Część 1 (marzec–sierpień 1939 r. Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość. nr 2 (8)/2005</ref> Jews were also increasingly persecuted; the [[Great Synagogue (Danzig)|Danzig Great Synagogue]] was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939.
=== Province of Pomerania ===
{{Main|Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)}}
==== Pomeranian Nazi movement before 1933 ====
Throughout the existence of the [[Weimar Republic]], politics in the province was dominated by the nationalist conservative [[DNVP]] (German National People's Party). The Nazi party ([[NSDAP]]) did not have any significant success at elections, nor did it have a substantial number of members. The Pomeranian Nazi party was founded by students of the [[University of Greifswald]] in 1922, when the [[NSDAP]] was officially forbidden. The university's rector [[Karl Theodor von Vahlen]] became [[Gauleiter]] (head of the provincial party) in 1924. Soon afterwards, he was fired by the university and went bankrupt. In 1924, the party had 330 members, and in December 1925, 297 members. The party was not present in all of the province. The members were concentrated mainly in [[Western Pomerania]] and internally divided. Vahlen retired from the Gauleiter position in 1927 and was replaced by [[Walther von Corswandt]], a Pomeranian knight estate holder.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.491ff">Werner Buchholz (1999), p. 491ff.</ref>
Corswandt led the party from his estate in [[Kuntzow]]. In the 1928 [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] elections, the Nazis got 1,5% of the votes in Pomerania. Party property was partially pawned. In 1929, the party gained 4,1% of the votes. Corswandt was fired after conflicts with the party's leadership and replaced with [[Wilhelm von Karpenstein]], one of the former students who formed the Pomeranian Nazi party in 1922 and since 1929 lawywer in [[Greifswald]]. He moved the headquarters to [[Stettin]] and replaced many of the party officials predominantly with young radicals. In the Reichstag elections of September 14, 1930, the party gained a significant 24,3% of the Pomeranian votes and thus became the second strongest party, the strongest still being the [[DNVP]], which however was internally divided in the early 1930s.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.491ff"/>
In the elections of July 1932, the Nazis gained 48% of the Pomeranian votes, while the DNVP dropped to 15,8%. In March 1933, the NSDAP gained 56.3%.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.491ff"/>
==== Nazi government since 1933 ====
Immediately after their gain of power, the Nazis began arresting their opponents. In March 1933, 200 people<ref name="Buchholz, p.509">Werner Buchholz (1999), p.509.</ref> were arrested, this number rose to 600<ref name="Buchholz, p.500">Werner Buchholz (1999), p. 500.</ref> during the following months. In [[Stettin-Bredow]], at the site of the bankrupt [[Vulcan-Werft]] shipyards, the Nazis set up a short-lived "wild" concentration camp from October 1933 to March 1934, where [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] maltreated their victims. The Pomeranian SA in 1933 had grown to 100,000 members.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.500ff,509ff"/>
Oberpräsident [[von Halfern]] retired in 1933, and with him one third of the Landrat and Oberbürgermeister (mayor) officials.<ref name="Buchholz, p.509"/>
Also in 1933, an election was held for a new provincial parliament, which then had a Nazi majority. Decrees were issued that shifted all issues formerly in responsibility of the parliament to the "Provinzialausschuß" commission, and furthermore, shifted the power to decide on these issues from the "Provinzialausschuß" to the "Oberpräsident" official, although he had to hear the "Provinzialrat" commission before. Once the power was shifted to the Oberpräsident with the Provinzialrat as an advisor, all organs of the "Provinzialverband" ("Provinziallandtag" (parliament), "Provinzialausschuß and all other commissions), the former self-administration of the province, were dissolved except for the downgraded Provinzialrat, which assembled about once a year without making use of its advisory rights. The "Landeshauptmann" position, the Provinzialverband's head, was not abolished. From 1933, Landeshauptmann would be a Nazi who was acting in line with the Oberpräsident. The law entered into force on April 1, 1934.<ref name="Buchholz, p.509"/>
In 1934, many of the heads of the Pomeranian Nazi-movement were exchanged. [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] leader [[von Heydebreck]] was shot in [[Stadelheim Prison|Stadelheim]] near [[Munich]] due to his friendship to [[Ernst Röhm|Röhm]]. [[Gauleiter]] [[von Karpenstein]] was arrested for two years and banned from Pomerania due to conflicts with the [[NSDAP]] headquarters. His substitute, [[Franz Schwede-Coburg]], replaced most of Karpenstein's staff with Corswant's earlier staff, friends of him from [[Bavaria]], and [[SS]]. From the 27 [[Kreisleiter]] officials, 23 were forced out of office by Schwede-Coburg, who became Gauleiter on July 21, and Oberpräsident on July 28, 1934.<ref name="Buchholz, pp.500ff,509ff"/>
As in all of [[Nazi Germany]], the [[Nazis]] established [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian control]] over the province by [[Gleichschaltung]].
Under the [[Nazi government]], the persecution of Poles in the German-controlled part of Pomerania intensified. In January 1939, Germany resumed [[Expulsion of Poles by Germany|expulsions of Poles]] and many were also forced to flee.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cygański|first=Mirosław|year=1984|title=Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939-1945|journal=Przegląd Zachodni|language=pl|issue=4|page=45}}</ref> The ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'', ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'', [[Hitler Youth]] and [[Bund Deutscher Osten]] launched attacks on Polish institutions, schools and activists.<ref>Cygański, p. 46</ref> From May to August 1939, the [[Gestapo]] carried out arrests of Polish leaders, activists, entrepreneurs, and even some staff of the Consulate of Poland in Szczecin.<ref>Cygański, pp. 46-47, 51-52</ref>
==== German anti-Nazi resistance ====
Resistance groups formed in the economical centers, especially in [[Stettin]], from where most arrests were reported.<ref name="Buchholz, p.500"/>
Resistance is also reported from members of the nationalist conservative [[DNVP]]. The monarchist [[Herbert von Bismarck-Lasbeck]] was forced out of office in 1933. The conservative newspaper [[Pommersche Tagespost]] was banned in 1935 after printing an article of monarchist [[Hans-Joachim von Rohr]]. In 1936, four members of the [[DNVP]] were tried for founding a monarchist organization.<ref>Werner Buchholz (1999), p.489.</ref>
Other DNVP members, who had addressed their opposition already before 1933, were arrested multiple times after the Nazis had taken over. [[Ewald Kleist-Schmenzin]], [[Karl Magnus von Knebel-Doberitz]], and [[Karl von Zitzewitz]] were active resistants.<ref>Werner Buchholz (1999), p. 505.</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1987-074-16, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]]]]
Within the Protestant church, resistant was organized within the [[Pfarrernotbund]] (150 members in late 1933) and [[Confessing Church]] ("Bekennende Kirche"), the successor organization, headed by [[Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff]]. In March 1935, 55 priests were arrested. The Confessing Church maintained a preachers' seminar headed by [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] in [[Zingst]], which moved to [[Finkenwalde]] in 1935 and to [[Köslin]] and [[Groß Schlönwitz]] in 1940. Within the Catholic Church, the most prominent resistance member was [[Greifswald]] priest [[Alfons Wachsmann]], who was executed in 1944.<ref>Werner Buchholz (1999), pp. 506, 510.</ref>
After the failed assassination attempt of Hitler on July 20, 1944, [[Gestapo]] arrested thirteen Pomeranian nobles and one burgher, all knight estate owners. Of those, [[Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin]] had contacted [[Winston Churchill]] in 1938 to inform about the work of the German opposition to the Nazis, and was executed in April 1945. [[Karl von Zitzewitz]] had connections to the [[Kreisauer Kreis]] group. Among the other arrested were [[Malte von Veltheim Fürst zu Putbus]], who died in a [[concentration camp]], as well as [[Alexander von Kameke]] and [[Oscar Caminecci-Zettuhn]], who both were executed.<ref>Werner Buchholz (1999), pp. 505, 512.</ref>
== Territorial changes in 1938 ==
In 1938–1939, the German as well as the Polish Pomeranian provinces were enlarged. Most of [[Posen-West Prussia]] (historic northern [[Greater Poland]]) and two counties of [[Province of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] were made districts of the German [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Province of Pomerania]]. Several counties from the [[Poznań Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Poznań]] and [[Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Warsaw]] Voivodeships were joined to the Polish [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Pomeranian Voivodship]], and her capital was moved from Toruń to [[Bydgoszcz]], even though Bydgoszcz is part of historic [[Kuyavia]], not Pomerania.
== World War II (1939–1945) ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[V-2 rocket|V2]] in [[Peenemünde]], 1943]]
The dispute between Germany and [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] over rights to [[Free City of Danzig]] and land [[transportation|transit]] through the [[Polish Corridor]] to the [[exclave]] of [[East Prussia]], served as [[Hitler]]'s pretext for [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|invasion of Poland]], which commenced on September 1, 1939. The [[strategy]] of the Nazi government was to temporarily divide [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin's]] [[Soviet Union]], formalized in the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. In the longer perspective, the Nazis aimed to expand the German ''"[[Lebensraum]]"'' in the East, to exploit soil, oil, minerals and workforce from the lands of the Slavs, turning them into a race of slaves destined to serve the German 1,000-year [[Reich]] and its [[master race]]. The fate of other peoples of these territories, notably [[Jew]]s, ethnic Poles and [[Romani people|Gypsies]], was to be annihilation and deportation during [[the Holocaust]].
=== Deportation of the Pomeranian Jews ===
In 1933, about 7,800 Jews lived in the [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Province of Pomerania]], of which a third lived in [[Stettin]]. The other two thirds were living all over the province, Jewish communities numbering more than 200 people were in Stettin, [[Kolberg]], [[Lauenburg]], and [[Stolp]].<ref name="Buchholz, p.506">Werner Buchholz (1999), p. 506.</ref>
When the Nazis started to terrorize Jews, many emigrated. Twenty weeks after the Nazis seized power, the number of Jewish Pomeranians had already dropped by eight percent.<ref name="Buchholz, p.506" />
Besides the repressions Jews had to endure in all [[Nazi Germany]], including the destruction of the Pomeranian [[synagogue]]s on November 9, 1938 ([[Reichskristallnacht]]), all male Stettin Jews were deported to [[Oranienburg concentration camp]] after this event and kept there for several weeks.<ref name="Buchholz, p.510">Werner Buchholz (1999), p. 510.</ref>
On February 12 and 13, 1940, the remaining 1,000 to 1,300 Jews from all the [[Stettin (region)|Stettin Region]], regardless of sex, age and health, were deported from [[Stettin]] and [[Schneidemühl]] to the [[Lublin Reservation]], that had been set up following the [[Nisko Plan]] in occupied Poland. Among the deported were intermarried non-Jewish women. The deportation was carried out in an inhumane manner. Despite low temperatures, the carriages were not heated. No food had been allowed to be taken along. The property left behind was liquidated. Up to 300 people perished from the deportation itself. In the Lublin area under [[Kurt Engel]]'s regime, the people were subject to inhumane treatment, starvation and murder. Only a few survived the war.<ref>Multiple authors, including:
* Lucie Adelsberger, Arthur Joseph Slavin, Susan H. Ray, Deborah E. Lipstadt, ''Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story'', Northeastern University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|1-55553-233-0}}, p.138: February 12/13, 1940
* Isaiah Trunk, Jacob Robinson, ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'', U of Nebraska Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-8032-9428-X}}, p.133: February 14, 1940; unheated wagons, elderly and sick suffered most, inhumane treatment
* Leni Yahil, Ina Friedman, Haya Galai, ''The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945'', Oxford University Press US, 1991, {{ISBN|0-19-504523-8}}, p.138: February 12/13, 1940, 1,300 Jews of all sexes and ages, extreme cruelty, no food allowed to be taken along, cold, some died during deportation, cold and snow during resettlement, 230 dead by March 12, Lublin reservation chosen in winter, 30,000 Germans resettled before to make room [https://books.google.com/books?id=e_aRvKpLUf0C&dq=stettin+jews+february&pg=PA139]
* Martin Gilbert, Eilert Herms, Alexandra Riebe, ''Geistliche als Retter – auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust: Auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust'', Mohr Siebeck, 2003, {{ISBN|3-16-148229-8}}, pp.14 (English) and 15 (German): February 15, 1940, 1000 Jews deported
* Jean-Claude Favez, John Fletcher, Beryl Fletcher, ''The Red Cross and the Holocaust'', Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-41587-X}}, p.33: February 12/13, 1,100 Jews deported, 300 died en route [https://books.google.com/books?id=eG_yipcsovQC&dq=stettin+jews+february&pg=PA33]</ref><ref>Yad Vashem Studies, Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah, Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 1996
Notizen: v.12, p.69: 1,200 deported, 250 died during deportation
* Nathan Stoltzfus, ''Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany'', Rutgers University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8135-2909-3}}, p.130: February 11/12 from Stettin, soon thereafter from Schneidemühl, total of 1,260 Jews deported, among the deportees were intermarried non-Jewish women who had refused to divorce, eager Nazi Gauleiter Schwede-Coburg was the first to have his Gau "judenfrei", Eichmann's "RSHA" (Reich Security Main Office) ensured this was an isolated local incident to worried Eppstein of the Central Organization of Jews in Germany ("Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland")
* John Mendelsohn, ''Legalizing the Holocaust, the Later Phase, 1939–1943'', Garland Pub., 1982, {{ISBN|0-8240-4876-8}}, p.131: Stettin Jews' houses were sealed, belongings liquidated, funds to be held in blocked accounts
* Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}, p.506: Only very few [of the Pomeranian Jews] survived the Nazi era. p.510: Nearly all Jews from Stettin and all the province, about a thousand
* Alicia Nitecki, Jack Terry, ''Jakub's World: A Boy's Story of Loss and Survival in the Holocaust'', SUNY Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7914-6407-5}}, pp.13ff: Stettin Jews to Belzyce in Lublin area, reservation purpose decline of Jews, terror command of [[Kurt Engels]], shocking insights in life circumstances</ref>
Regarding the Jewish community from the [[Schneidemühl]] area, [[JewishGen]] with reference to research by [[Peter Simonstein Cullman]] says that the widespread belief of the Schneidemühl Jews being deported along with the Jews from all the [[Stettin (region)|Stettin Region]] is contradicted by the respective files in the [[Bundesarchiv]] and [[USHMM]] archives. While there were indeed such orders and Jews from the Schneidemühl area were rounded up after 15 February, an intervention of the [[Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland|Association of Jews in Germany (''Reichsvereinigung'')]] resulted in a change of the Nazi plans on 21 February: instead of deportation to the Generalgouvernement like the Stettin Jews, these people were to be deported to places within the [[Glossary of Nazi Germany|Altreich]]. Deportations to transit and death camps followed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/pila/deportations.html|title=The deportations of the Jews of Schneidemühl — a synopsis|publisher=[[JewishGen]] ShtetlLinks|access-date=2009-11-15}}</ref>
=== Invasion and occupation of the Polish Corridor and Danzig ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E10600, Graudenz, jubelnde Menschen neben Panzer IV.jpg|thumb|100px|German tank in [[Grudziądz]] (1939)]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27915, Danzig, Enfernen eines polnischen Hoheitszeichens.jpg|thumb|100px|German troops detach Polish signs in [[Danzig]] (1939)]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-516-505, Westerplatte, hissen der Reichskriegsflagge.jpg|thumb|100px|Nazi war flag on [[Westerplatte]]]]
==== Military campaign ====
The [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|invasion of Poland]] by the [[Wehrmacht]] on September 1, 1939, which marked the beginning of [[World War II]], was in part mounted from the [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Province of Pomerania]]. General [[Heinz Guderian|Guderian]]'s 19th army corps attacked from the Schlochau ([[Człuchów]]) and Preußisch Friedland ([[Debrzno]]) areas, which since 1938 belonged to the province ("[[Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen]]").<ref>Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.511, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}</ref>
Initially, the [[Heinz Guderian]]' tank corps was to pass through [[Pomerelia]] on their way to [[East Prussia]]. The Guderian corps was to regroup there and attack [[Warsaw]] from the east. The Polish opponent was the [[Pomorze Army|Army of Pomerania]] (''Armia Pomorze''), defeated in the [[Battle of Tuchola Forest]]. [[skirmish of Krojanty|Krojanty charge]] was one of the famous episodes of the operation where the Polish cavalry unit charged and dispersed German infantry, but then ran into the machine guns of German hidden armed reconnaissance vehicles. The episode was used in [[Nazi propaganda]].<ref>Cover of [[Hitler Youth]] magazine ''[[Der Pimpf]], Nationalsozialistische Jungenblätter, 10/1939'', {{cite web|url=http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/images/pimpf/dp10-39.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-08-30 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516145315/http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/images/pimpf/dp10-39.jpg |archive-date=May 16, 2006 }}</ref>
After the initial battles in Pomerelia, the remains of the Polish Army of Pomerania withdrew to the southern bank of the [[Vistula]] river. After defending Toruń for several days, the army withdrew further south under pressure of the overall strained strategic situation, and took part in the main [[battle of Bzura]]. On the borders of the Free City of Danzig, there were two fortified Polish points: the [[Polish post office in Danzig]] and the Polish ammunition store on the [[Westerplatte]]. Both were ordered to defend up to 12 hours in case of local uprising, until an expected relief by the Polish army. The Polish Post office was held by 52 employees led by Konrad Guderski against the German [[Danzig]] police, Home Guard (Heimwehr) and [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], which after 14 hours of battle set the building on fire with [[flamethrower]]s. All but four postman who escaped either died in the battle or were executed by the Germans as partisans (only in 1995 did the German court at [[Lübeck]] invalidate the 1939 ruling and rehabilitate the "postmen"). The Polish Military Transit Depot (''Polska Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa'') on the [[Westerplatte]] repelled countless attacks by the Danzig Police, SS, the [[Kriegsmarine]] and the [[Wehrmacht]]. Finally, the Westerplatte crew surrendered on 7 September, having exhausted their supplies of food, water, ammunition and medicines, becoming one of the symbols of Polish resistance to the German invasion. The heaviest fighting in Pomerelia took place at the [[Hel peninsula]] Polish Navy base, which held out as one of the last centres of Polish military resistance until October 3, 1939 (''see [[Battle of Hel]]'').
==== Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia ====
{{Main|Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia}}
The [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Pomeranian Voivodeship]] and the [[Free City of Danzig]] were [[Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed by Nazi-Germany]] on October 8, 1939, and fused into [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]].
==== Role of German minority during Nazi invasion of Poland and atrocities against the Polish, Kashubian, and Jewish population ====
In the interwar period German minority organizations in Poland such as [[Jungdeutsche Partei]], [[Deutsche Vereinigung]], [[Deutscher Volksbund]] and [[Deutscher Volksverband]] actively cooperated with Nazi Germany through espionage, sabotage, provocations and political indoctrination. They maintained close contact with and were directed by the [[NSDAP]], Auslandsorganisation, Gestapo, [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] and [[Abwehr]].
In Pomerania German secret organisations were established with the aim of taking part in dismemberment of Poland and weapons were smuggled across the German border<ref>Mniejszość niemiecka w województwie pomorskim w latach 1920–1939, page 74 Przemysław Hauser – 1981</ref>
After the war started, acts of sabotage occurred and Polish authorities interned 126 Germans in Pomeranian Voivodeship suspected of cooperating with Nazis and involved in anti-Polish activities,<ref>Mniejszość niemiecka w województwie pomorskim w latach 1920–1939 Przemysław Hauser – 1981, page 74
''Jednocześnie wykorzystano możliwość internowania szczególnie antypolsko nastawionych Niemców''</ref> based on previously prepared lists, and shipped them away east from the potential front line.<ref>Max Kerner, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, ''Eine Welt, eine Geschichte?: 43. Deutscher Historikertag in Aachen, 26. Bis 29. September 2000: Berichtsband'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, p.226, {{ISBN|3-486-56614-8}}</ref>
Before the war, activists from German minority organisations in Poland helped to organize lists of Poles who later were to be arrested or executed in [[Operation Tannenberg]].
[[File:Poles arrested in Gdynia September 1939.jpg|thumb|Poles arrested by the Germans in [[Gdynia]] in September 1939]]
With the beginning of the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|Invasion of Poland]] on 1 September 1939, Selbstschutz units engaged in hostility towards the Polish population and military, and performed sabotage operations helping the German attack on the Polish state.
[[Bernhard Chiari]] and [[Jerzy Kochanowski]] state estimates of an overall death toll ranging from 2,000 to 3,841 West Prussian ethnic Germans who lost their lives in the context of the invasion.<ref>Bernhard Chiari, Jerzy Kochanowski, Germany Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, ''Die polnische Heimatarmee: Geschichte und Mythos der Armia Krajowa seit dem zweiten Weltkrieg'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003, pp.59,60, {{ISBN|3-486-56715-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=8vC2HudUgX0C&dq=selbstschutz+danzig&pg=PA60]: between 2,000 and 3,841 killed</ref> In a report issued after the German historians' summit in 2000, death toll estimates were summarized at about 4,500 in West Prussia, including those killed in ethnic violence, those killed while serving in the Polish army, and those killed in other war-related events like German air raids.<ref>Max Kerner, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, ''Eine Welt, eine Geschichte?: 43. Deutscher Historikertag in Aachen, 26. Bis 29. September 2000: Berichtsband'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, p.226, {{ISBN|3-486-56614-8}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=WaY71u9iW2EC&dq=Kerner+Eine+Welt+226&pg=PA226]: 4,500 killed</ref> Historian [[Tomasz Chinciński]] gives a total of 3,257 deaths, 2000 of them being victims either of the normal wartime conditions (including civilians incidentally killed by advancing German army), or of participation in diversionary actions organized by [[fifth column|Nazi sympathetics]].<ref name=ch>Tomasz Chinciński, Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 r. w świetle dokumentów policyjnych i wojskowych II Rzeczypospolitej oraz służb specjalnych III Rzeszy. Część 1 (marzec–sierpień 1939 r. Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość. nr 2 (8)/2005: The precise number is estimated at 3257, of which 2000 died as resulted of diversion actions they participated in.</ref> The most infamous supposed incident of violence involving suspected Nazi fifth columnists was [[Bloody Sunday (1939)|Bloody Sunday]] in [[Bydgoszcz]], {{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} which was used excessively by [[Nazi propaganda]], which vastly inflated death tolls initially to 5,800 and then in 1940 to 58,000.<ref>Max Kerner, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, ''Eine Welt, eine Geschichte?: 43. Deutscher Historikertag in Aachen, 26. Bis 29. September 2000: Berichtsband'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, p.226, {{ISBN|3-486-56614-8}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=S8nsdMcJq4cC&dq=selbstschutz+danzig&pg=PA62]</ref> For propaganda purposes, the attacks on ethnic Germans were exploited as an apparent justification for 'ethnic cleansing' and retaliation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ian Kershaw|title=Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis|date=25 October 2001|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-192581-3|page=242}}</ref>
By 5 October 1939, in West Prussia, Selbstschutz units made from German minority members under the command of [[Ludolf von Alvensleben]] were 17,667 men strong, and had already executed 4,247 Poles, while Alvensleben complained to Selbstschutz officers that too few Poles had been shot. (German officers had reported that only a fraction of Poles had been "destroyed" in the region with the total number of those executed in West Prussia during this action being about 20,000. One Selbstschutz commander, Wilhelm Richardt, said in Karolewo (Karlhof) camp that he did not want to build big camps for Poles and feed them, and that it was an honour for Poles to fertilize the German soil with their corpses.<ref name="Origins">''The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942'' Christopher R. Browning University of Nebraska Press 2007 page 33</ref>
About 80% of the German male adults of the Reichsgau were organized by the [[SS]] in [[Selbstschutz]] units following the German conquest.<ref>Detlef Brandes, ''Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938–1945: Pläne und Entscheidungen zum"transfer" der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei und aus Polen'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, p.62, {{ISBN|3-486-56731-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=S8nsdMcJq4cC&pg=PA62]</ref> [[Wehrmacht]], [[Selbstschutz]], [[Einsatzgruppen]] of [[Sicherheitspolizei|Sipo]] and [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]], and Danzig [[NSDAP]] units were involved in a series of atrocities committed during and after the invasion, including [[murder]] primarily of Polish [[intelligentsia]], Jews, and the [[Action T4|extermination]] of mentally and physically disabled,<ref name="tiergartenstrasse4">{{cite web |url=http://www.tiergartenstrasse4.org/Killing_of_Mental_Patients_in_Pomerania,119.html |publisher=Tiergartenstrasse4.org |title=Killing of Mental Patients in Pomerania, 119 |last1=Hojan |first1=Artur |author-link1=Artur Hojan |last2=Munro |first2=Cameron |date=2017 |access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref> most notably at the [[Mass murders in Piaśnica|massacres in Piaśnica forest]]. This resulted in between 12,000 and 20,000 dead until October 25, and up to 60,000 dead in the first six month.<ref>Bernhard Chiari, Jerzy Kochanowski, Germany Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, ''Die polnische Heimatarmee: Geschichte und Mythos der Armia Krajowa seit dem zweiten Weltkrieg'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003, pp.59,60, {{ISBN|3-486-56715-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=8vC2HudUgX0C&pg=PA60]: between 12,000 and 20,000 dead until October 25, footnote: between 52,794 and 60,750 dead in the first six months</ref><ref>Detlef Brandes, ''Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938–1945: Pläne und Entscheidungen zum"transfer" der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei und aus Polen'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, p.62, {{ISBN|3-486-56731-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=S8nsdMcJq4cC&dq=selbstschutz+danzig&pg=PA62]: Selbstschutz killed 20,000 to 30,000 in Danzig-Westpreußen and Warthegau</ref> The highest death toll was paid during the initial stage of the occupation.<ref name="Stutt" /> Estimates range from 36.000 to 42.000 killed.<ref name="Stutt" />
Units were prepared before the war to sabotage Polish war efforts as well as organized mass executions of Poles.<ref name="Stutt" /> Executions aiming at the extermination of the Polish population started only hours after the invasion.<ref name="Stutt">"Monografia KL Stutthof " "Pomorze Gdańskie pod okupacją-Eksterminacja ludności ludności polskiej w pierwszych miesiącach okupacji Wrzesień-Grudzień 1939" [http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz2,4.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122132631/http://kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz2,4.htm |date=2009-01-22 }}. Bogdan Chrzanowski, State Museum of Stutthoff.</ref> During September 1939, [[Wehrmacht]] took the main part in atrocities as well as [[Einsatzgruppen]] of [[Sicherheitspolizei|Sipo]] and [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] (police and security service).<ref name="Stutt" /> From September 1939 to January 1940, atrocities were primarily committed by [[Selbstschutz]] units.<ref name="Stutt" />
During the September campaign, security police set up the first [[List of concentration camps for Poles|concentration camps for Poles]]. Deportations to the [[General Government]] and [[Stutthof concentration camp|Stutthof]] soon followed. Use of the Polish language was strictly forbidden, even in church, by the German [[Roman Catholic]] Bishop [[Carl Maria Splett]].
[[File:KL Stutthof krematorium.jpg|thumb|Crematorium of the [[Stutthof concentration camp]], the largest concentration camp in German-occupied Pomerania]]
Provisional prisons were set up in Danzig (Gdańsk) and [[Pruszcz Gdański]]. Prisoners were treated extremely brutally. Later Poles who were arrested were moved to [[Stutthof concentration camp]]. In [[Gdynia]], based on lists prepared before the war, units of [[SS]]-Wachsturmbann Eimann, military units, [[Gestapo]], and police arrested thousands of people. They were transported to concentration camps in Gdynia-Grabówek, Redłów, Victoria Schule or Stutthof.<ref name="Stutt" />
On the territories of counties: Tczewski, Starogardzki, Kartuski, Kościerski and Morski numerous arrests and executions took place. In the area of [[Szpęgawski Forest]] many Jews were murdered.
In October 1939, the Polish intelligentsia of [[Toruń]] was imprisoned in "Fort VIII" under harsh conditions, before being executed in [[Barbarka massacre|Barbarka forest]] (several hundreds), the local airport, and [[Przysiek]].<ref name="Stutt" />
Also in October 1939, 300 citizens of [[Grudziądz]] were murdered in [[Góry Księże]] and [[Mniszek, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Mniszek]].<ref name="Stutt" />
===== Operation Tannenberg =====
Germans especially targeted Polish intellectual and national elites, primarily priests, teachers, lawyers, doctors, officers, land owners, state officials, members of political and social organisations, as well as anyone that could hinder the German plan to enslave the Polish nation (see [[Operation Tannenberg]]).<ref name="Stutt" />
The first pogroms were made by Wehrmacht units and [[Sicherheitspolizei|Sipo]] [[Einsatzgruppen]].<ref name="Stutt" /> They arrested and executed political, social, and cultural activists as well as local government officials. Offices, institutions, and locations of Polish social and political organisations were penetrated. This action was codenamed [[Operation Tannenberg]]. Goals were the liquidation of intellectual elites, and [[Polish culture during World War II|destruction of Polish culture]], institutions and organisations. Operational groups and Selbstschutz received orders to "politically cleanse the areas". The first arrests of Poles started after Wehrmacht arrived in [[Free City of Danzig]] (Gdańsk) on 1 September 1939.<ref name="Stutt" /> With the help of units from SA, SS, and local police Polish officies and institutions were taken over. [[Polskie Koleje Państwowe|Polish State Railways]] workers and custom officers were executed in [[Szymanków]], [[Kałdów]], or in their offices.
Concentration camps for Polish intelligentsia and Jews were set up in the second half of September 1939 in [[Karolew, Sępolno County|Karolew]] and [[Radzim, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Radzim]], located in Sępolno powiat.<ref name="Stutt" />
[[File:Piaśnica before execution.jpg|thumb|[[Massacres in Piaśnica]]]]
A high death toll was paid by the Polish clergy.<ref name="Stutt" /> It was a consequence of the old Prussian belief that the [[Catholic Church]] is the main pillar of Polish nation and patriotism. This belief was particularly expressed by [[Albert Forster]], [[Gauleiter]] in [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]]. From 701 priests of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełmno|Diocese of Chełmno]] on September 1, 1939, 322 were executed or died in concentration camps. 38 clergy from [[Starogard Gdański]] were executed in the [[Forest of Szpęgawsk]] on October 20, 1939. The same day, lecturers and students from [[Pelpin]] [[seminary]] were arrested by [[Gestapo]] and afterwards executed. Similar incidents happened in most of [[Pomerelia]].
[[Piaśnica Wielka]] was one of the first execution sites in occupied Poland. The executions took place between October 1939 and April 1940. Among others, intellectuals from Gdańsk, [[Gdynia]], [[Wejherowo]], and [[Kartuzy]] were murdered at this site.<ref name="Stutt" /> Additionally, about 2000 mental care clients from the "[[Glossary of Nazi Germany|Altreich]]" were murdered there.<ref name="sejm">{{cite web|url=http://orka2.sejm.gov.pl/IZ5.nsf/main/13E2D652|publisher=orka2.sejm.gov.pl|title=Odpowiedź na interpelację w sprawie dokumentacji dotyczącej zbrodni ludobójstwa w Piaśnicy|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref> Overall, an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 were killed.<ref name="Stutt" />
===== Polish and Kashubian resistance =====
Some Poles and Kashubians of Pomerelia organized an anti-Nazi guerrilla resistance group called "[[Pomeranian Griffin]]" (''TOW Gryf Pomorski''). The main Polish resistance organization, [[Armia Krajowa]] (Home Army), had a dedicated "Pomerania" district, itself was part of the larger "Western" district.<ref>Krzysztof Komorowski, ''Armia Krajowa na Pomorzu'', in Krzysztof Komorowski, ''Armia Krajowa: Rozwój organizacyjny'', Wydawnictwo Bellona, 1996, {{ISBN|83-11-08544-7}}, pp. 358-384</ref> It had units both in the pre-war Polish part and the pre-war German part of Pomerania.
Activities included [[Education in Poland during World War II|secret Polish schooling]], printing and distribution of [[Polish underground press]], sabotage actions, espionage of German activity, smuggling data on German persecution of Poles and Jews and on German [[V-weapons]] to Western Europe, and facilitating escapes of endangered Polish resistance members and Polish, British, French and Russian prisoners of war who fled from [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|German POW camps]] via the port cities to neutral [[Sweden]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|title=Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=5|pages=16, 25, 30, 33–34|issn=0137-5377}}</ref> In 1943, local Poles managed to save some [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]] from the [[Zamość]] region, by buying them from the Germans during transport through Pomerania.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kozaczyńska|first=Beata|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|page=123|chapter=Gdy zabrakło łez... Tragizm losu polskich dzieci wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny (1942-1943)}}</ref> The [[Gestapo]] cracked down on the Polish resistance several times, with the Poles either killed or sent to prisons of concentration camps.
=== Province of Pomerania 1939–1944 ===
In September 1939, the persecution of Poles from pre-war German Pomerania reached its climax with mass arrests of Polish activists, teachers etc., who were then sent to [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].<ref>Cygański, pp. 48–49, 54</ref>
On manors and bigger farms Polish [[prisoners of war]] partly replaced German workforce. In the cities, Polish forced-labourers were exploited by German companies and factories.
[[File:Stalag II D Stargard.jpg|thumb|[[Stalag II-D]] POW camp in [[Stargard]]]]
Germany operated several [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camps]], including [[Stalag II-B]], [[Stalag II-C]], [[Stalag II-D]], Stalag II-E, [[Stalag Luft I]], [[Stalag Luft II]], [[Stalag Luft IV]], [[Stalag Luft 7]], Stalag 302, Stalag 351, [[Oflag II-D]] and Oflag 65, for Polish POWs and civilians, including women and children, and [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French]], Belgian, Dutch, Serbian, [[Italian Military Internees|Italian]], American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, Czech, [[German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|Soviet]], [[Senegalese Tirailleurs|Senegalese]], Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian, South African and other [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] POWs, with numerous forced labour subcamps in the region.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=221, 232, 284, 353, 393, 397–398, 401, 503–505, 507, 510|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref>
There were also several subcamps of the [[Stutthof concentration camp]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gliński|first=Mirosław|title=Podobozy i większe komanda zewnętrzne obozu Stutthof (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=3|page=160|issn=0137-5377}}</ref> and several Nazi prisons with numerous forced labour subcamps in the region. [[Połczyn-Zdrój]] was the location of a [[Germanisation in Poland (1939–1945)|Germanisation]] camp for [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.polczyn-zdroj.pl/node/318|title=Lebensborn|website=Połczyn-Zdrój|access-date=11 December 2023|language=pl}}</ref> [[Unieszyno]] and [[Police, West Pomeranian Voivodeship|Police]] housed camps for [[Sinti]] and [[Romani people]] (see ''[[Romani Holocaust]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001328|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Wunneschin|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=11 December 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001210|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Stettin|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=11 December 2023|language=de}}</ref>
Roughly 60,000 German men from Pomerania died as soldiers in the [[Wehrmacht]] and [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] until May, 1945.
Since 1943, the province became a target of allied air raids. The first attack was launched against [[Stettin]] on April 21, 1943, and left 400 dead. On August 17/18, the British [[RAF]] launched an attack on [[Peenemünde]], where [[Wernher von Braun]] and his staff had developed and tested the world's first [[rocket]]s. In October, [[Anklam]] was a target. Throughout 1944 and early 1945, Stettin's industrial and residential areas were targets of air raids. [[Stralsund]] was a target in October 1944.<ref name="Buchholz, p.512">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.512, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}</ref>
Despite these raids, the province was regarded "safe" compared to other areas of the [[Third Reich]], and thus became a shelter for evacuees primarily from hard hit [[Berlin]] and the West German industrial centers.<ref name="Buchholz, p.512" />
After the war had turned back on Germany, the [[Pomeranian Wall]] was renovated in the summer of 1944, and in the fall all men between sixteen and sixty years of age who had not yet been drafted were enrolled into [[Volkssturm]] units.<ref name="Buchholz, p.512" />
The province of Pomerania became a battlefield<ref>Werner Nemitz, ''Kriegsende eines HJ-Volkssturmsoldaten'', Books on Demand, 2000, {{ISBN|3-8311-0229-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=X48-zBCqsFwC&dq=schwede+coburg&pg=PA35]</ref> on January 26, 1945, when in the pretext of the [[Red Army]]'s [[East Pomeranian Offensive]] Soviet tanks entered the province near Schneidemühl ([[Piła]]), which surrendered on February 13.<ref name="Buchholz, p.512" />
=== East Pomeranian Offensive ===
[[File:Kolobrzeg1945.JPG|thumb|The [[Battle of Kolberg (1945)|Battle of Kolberg]] left 80% of the town in ruins.]]
On February 14, the remnants of German [[Army Group Vistula]] ("Heeresgruppe Weichsel") had managed to set up a frontline roughly at the province's southern frontier, and launched a counterattack ([[Operation Solstice]], "Sonnenwende") on February 15, that however stalled already on February 18. On February 24, the [[Second Belorussian Front]] launched the [[East Pomeranian Offensive]] and despite heavy resistance primarily in the [[Rummelsburg]] area took eastern [[Farther Pomerania]] until March 10. On March 1, the [[First Belorussian Front]] had launched an offensive from the [[Starogard Gdański|Stargard]] and Märkisch Friedland ([[Mirosławiec]]) area and succeeded in taking northwestern Farther Pomerania within five days. Cut off corps group [[Hans von Tettau]] retreated to [[Dziwna]] as a [[Salients, re-entrants and pockets|moving pocket]] until March 11. Thus, German-held central Farther Pomerania was cut off, and taken after the [[Battle of Kolberg (1945)|Battle of Kolberg]] (March 4 to March 18).<ref name="Buchholz, pp.512-515">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.512–515, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}</ref><ref>Tony Le Tissier, ''Zhukov at the Oder: the decisive battle for Berlin'', [[Greenwood Publishing Group]], 1996, pp.99ff, {{ISBN|0-275-95230-4}}</ref>
The fast advances of the Red Army during the [[East Pomeranian Offensive]] caught the civilian Farther Pomeranian population by surprise. The land route to the west was blocked since early March. Evacuation orders were issued not at all or much too late. The only way out of Farther Pomerania was via the ports of Stolpmünde ([[Ustka]]), from which 18,300 were evacuated, Rügenwalde ([[Darłowo]]), from which 4,300 were evacuated, and Kolberg ([[Kołobrzeg]]), which had been declared fortress and from which before the end of the [[Battle of Kolberg (1945)|Battle of Kolberg]] some 70,000 were evacuated. Those left behind became victims of murder, [[war rape]], and plunder. On March 6, the [[USAF]] bombed [[Swinemünde]], where thousands of refugees were stranded, killing an estimated 25,000.<ref name="Buchholz, p.514">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p. 514, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2006-0822-500, Gotenhafen, Generalleutnant Karl Mauss.jpg|thumb|[[Karl Mauss]] in occupied [[Gdynia]], March 1945]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28907, Gdingen, leichter Kreuzer beschießt sowjetische Stellungen.jpg|thumb|German navy shelling Soviets in Gdynia, March 1945]]
Many Germans fled westward as the [[Red Army]] advanced on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]. The [[Hel Peninsula]] and [[Hel, Poland|Hel]] town, northwest of [[Danzig]], were defended by the German army until the end of the war on May 9, 1945. 900,000 people were evacuated by ship, mainly by the [[Kriegsmarine]]. 200,000 could flee to the more western provinces of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] on land (most before March, 1945). Only 3% of those who fled per ship died on the Baltic sea due to Soviet torpedoes. On land, due to the harsh winter and due to [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] air raids, the losses among civilians were much higher.
The roving cauldron of [[Hans von Tettau]]'s corps was defended by some 10,000<ref name=Duffy197 /> to 16,000<ref name=Duffy197 /><ref name=LeTissier102 /> troops, stemming primarily from the remnants of the "Holstein" and "Pommerland" Panzer Divisions,<ref name=Duffy197 /> taking with them about 40,000 civilians. This group had managed to break through the Soviet encirclement north of Schivelbein ([[Świdwin]]) and fought their way toward the coastline. Hoping for evacuation by the German navy, they secured a bridgehead near Hoff and Horst ([[Niechorze]]). As evacuation did not happen, they moved on to [[Berg Dievenow|Dievenow]], from where they were ferried to [[Wollin]] island on March 11 and 12.<ref name=Duffy197>Christopher Duffy, ''Red storm on the Reich: the Soviet march on Germany, 1945'', [[Routledge]], 1991, p.197-198, {{ISBN|0-415-03589-9}}</ref><ref name=LeTissier102>Tony Le Tissier, ''Zhukov at the Oder: the decisive battle for Berlin'', [[Greenwood Publishing Group]], 1996, p.102, {{ISBN|0-275-95230-4}}</ref>
East of the [[Oder]] river, [[Wehrmacht]]'s [[3rd Panzer Army]] had set up the Altdamm ([[Dąbie, Szczecin|Dąbie]]) bridgehead between Gollnow ([[Goleniów]]) and Greifenhagen ([[Gryfino]]). The [[Red Army]] cleared the areas south of the bridgehead with the [[47th Army]] until March 6, and the areas north of it with the [[3rd Shock Army]], reaching the coast on 9 March. On March 15, [[Adolf Hitler]] ordered some of the defending units to reinforce the 9th Army near Küstrin ([[Kostrzyn nad Odrą]]), seriously weakening the Altdamm bridgehead. [[Hasso von Manteuffel]], in command since 10 March, was unable to further defend the bridgehead after March 19, evacuated most of it on 20 March and had the Oder bridges blown up. The Red Army took the remaining pockets of the former bridgehead on March 21. About 40,000 German troops had been killed and 12,000 captured defending the bridgehead.<ref>Tony Le Tissier, ''Zhukov at the Oder: the decisive battle for Berlin'', [[Greenwood Publishing Group]], 1996, pp. 102–103, {{ISBN|0-275-95230-4}}</ref>
=== Battle of Berlin ===
On March 20, [[Wehrmacht]] abandoned the last bridgehead on the [[Oder]] rivers eastern bank, the [[Altdamm]] area. The frontline then ran along [[Dziwna|Dievenow]] and lower Oder, and was held by the [[3rd Panzer Army]] commanded by general [[Hasso von Manteuffel]]. After another four days of fighting, the [[Red Army]] managed to break through and cross the Oder between [[Stettin]] and [[Gartz (Oder)]], thus starting the [[Battle of berlin#North|northern theater of the Battle of Berlin]] on March 24. Stettin was abandoned the next day.<ref name="Buchholz, p.514" />
Throughout April, the [[Second Belorussian Front]] led by general [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]] advanced through [[Western Pomerania]]. [[Demmin]] and [[Greifswald]] surrendered on April 30.<ref name="Buchholz, p.514" />
In Demmin, nearly 900 people committed [[suicide|mass suicides]] in fear of the Red Army. Coroner lists show that most drowned in the nearby River [[Tollense]] and River [[Peene]], whereas others poisoned themselves.<ref>[http://www.mdr.de/fakt/aktuell/949223.html MDR ''Fakt''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031222003553/http://www.mdr.de/fakt/aktuell/949223.html |date=2003-12-22 }} from September 22, 2003 (mostly German, English in parts)]</ref> This was fueled by atrocities – rapes, pillage and executions committed by Red Army soldiers until the city commander had the access to the rivers blocked on May 3.<ref>Buske, Norbert (Hg.): ''Das Kriegsende in Demmin 1945. Berichte Erinnerungen Dokumente'' (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Landeskundliche Hefte), Schwerin 1995</ref>
In the first days of May, [[Wehrmacht]] abandoned [[Usedom]] and [[Wolin]] islands, and on May 5, the last German troops departed from [[Sassnitz]] on the island of [[Rügen]]. Two days later, Wehrmacht surrendered unconditionally to the Red Army.<ref name="Buchholz, p.514" />
=== Evacuation ===
Pomeranian [[Gauleiter]] [[Franz Schwede-Coburg]] propagated a turn of the war until the very end. Evacuation orders therefore were issued either too late or not at all. Schwede-Coburg even had the authorities repel flight attempts by the population.<ref>Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.516, {{ISBN|3-88680-272-8}}</ref>
=== Civilian losses ===
Many Germans in Pomerania, including Danzig ([[Gdańsk]]) and Pomerelia, died during and shortly after the war due to air raids, but mainly{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} afterwards due to Soviet Red Army atrocities committed in revenge against the German civilians.
The official post-war West German [[Schieder commission]] estimated German civilian losses in all of the territories generally called "Pomerania" at:
*[[Danzig]]: 100,000 dead out of 404,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
*German [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Province of Pomerania]]: 440,000 dead out of 1,895,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
*[[West Prussia]] ([[Pomerelia]]): 70,000 of 310,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944 (of which 100,000 were "settlers" transferred to this province by the [[NSDAP|Nazi government]]).<ref>Figures from: Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Gebieten östlich der Oder-Neiße, volume 1, edition from 1984, page 7 E, 158 E, 159 E</ref>
==See also==
*[[Wehrmacht prison Anklam]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{Pomeranian history}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Pomerania (1933-1945)}}
[[Category:History of Pomerania by period| 8]]
[[Category:1930s in Prussia]]
[[Category:1940s in Prussia]]
[[Category:Holocaust locations in Poland|Pomerania]]
[[Category:Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)| 1933–1945]]
[[de:Geschichte Pommerns]]