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 like all of Germany came under control of the Nazi regime. During the following years, the Nazis led by Gauleiter Franz Schwede-Coburg consolidated their power through the process known as Gleichschaltung and repressed their opponents.Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp. 500ff, 509ff; . Meanwhile, the 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.Joachim C. Fest, Hitler, Harcourt Trade, 2002, pp. 575–577,
Background The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means Land at the Sea.Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“. (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)
In 1939, the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland, engaging in a series of massacres against the civilian population, the most notable being the mass murders in Piaśnica. Polish Pomerania with a part of Kashubia was incorporated into Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.The German state set up concentration camps, expelled Poles and Jews, and systematically engaged in genocide of people they regar ded 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"Eugenia Bozena Klodecka-Kaczynska, Michal Ziólkowski (1 Jan 2003), Bylem numerem: swiadectwa z Auschwitz, page 14. Wydawn. Sióstr Loretanek.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."Dieter Schenk (2002), Albert Forster: gdanski namiestnik Hitlera : zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Gdansku i Prusach Zachodnich, POLNORD – Gdansk, page 388. and declared that Poles and Jews were not human.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."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". 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.Werner Buchholz (1999), pp. 511–515.
Pomerania and the National Socialists
Pomeranian Voivodeship
The totalitarian and anti-Polish Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took power in Germany in 1933. By this time, the Second Polish Republic was led by Józef Piłsudski who ruled the country as an authoritarian democracy. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland,Aristotle A. Kallis, Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945, Routledge, 2000, p.144, 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. 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.
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". 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. 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.
The situation regarding the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish customs. 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.
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. 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. At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of Lithuania, the Klaipėda Region, Soviet Ukraine and Czech inhabited lands. 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.
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. 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.The history of the German resistance, 1933–1945 Peter Hoffmann page 37 McGill-Queen's University Press 1996Hitler Joachim C. Fest page 586 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002Blitzkrieg w Polsce wrzesien 1939 Richard Hargreaves page 84 Bellona, 2009A military history of Germany, from the eighteenth century to the present dayMartin Kitchen page 305 Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975International history of the twentieth century and beyond Antony Best page 181 Routledge; 2 edition (July 30, 2008)
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. 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.
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." Additionally, Poland was backed by guarantees of support from both the United Kingdom and France in regard to Danzig.
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.
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 antisemitic and anti-Catholic laws, the latter primarily being directed against the Polish and Kashubian inhabitants. In the 1930s, the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration. Polish children were refused admission to public Polish-language schools, premises were not allowed to be rented to Polish schools and preschools.Wardzyńska, p. 40 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.