page_title: History of Gdańsk
section_title: World War II (1939–1945)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Gdańsk / History / World War II (1939–1945)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Adolf Hitler in Danzig am 20-09-1939
context_page_description: Gdańsk is one of the oldest cities in Poland. Founded by the Polish ruler Mieszko I in the 10th century, the city was for a long time part of Piast state either directly or as a fief. In 1308 the city became part of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights until 1454. Thereafter it became part of Poland again, although with increasing autonomy. A vital naval city for Polish grain trade it attracted people from all over the European continent. The city was taken over by Prussia during the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and subsequently lost its importance as a trading port. Briefly becoming a free city during Napoleonic wars, it was again Prussian after Napoleon's defeat, and later became part of the newly created German Empire.
  After World War I the Free City of Danzig was created, a city-state under the supervision of the League of Nations. The German attack on the Polish military depot at Westerplatte marks the start of World War II and the city was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939. Local Jews were systematically murdered in the Holocaust while Poles and Kashubians also faced persecution.
context_section_description: Following the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, Germany in October 1938 urged the Danzig territory's cession to Germany. On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II. On 2 September 1939 Germany officially annexed the Free City. The Nazi regime murdered the Polish postmen defending the Polish Post Office: this was one of the first war crimes during the war. Other Polish soldiers defending the Westerplatte stronghold surrendered after seven days of fighting. The German commander returned the sword to the Polish commander for putting up a brave fight, while the same time one the captured defenders, Kazimierz Rasinski was brutally tortured by Germans and murdered when he refused to reveal Polish communication codes. On Sep 7th NSDAP organised night parade on Adolf-Hitlerstrasse to celebrate success. It was bombed by a single Polish hydroplane operating from Hela peninsula piloted by Jozef Rudzki and Zdzisław Juszczakiewicz. Six bombs each weighing 12.5 kg (28 lb) were dropped from very low height.
  In October 1939, Danzig, together with the prewar Pomeranian Voivodship to the south and west, became the German Reichsgau (administrative district) of Danzig-West Prussia (Danzig–Westpreussen).
  With the start of the war the Nazi regime began its policy of extermination in Pomerania; Poles, Kashubians and Jews and the political opposition were sent to concentration camps, especially neighbouring Stutthof where 85,000 victims perished. Kashubian and Polish intelligentsia were killed in the Piaśnica mass murder site, which is estimated to have had 60,000 victims.
  In the city itself hundreds of prisoners were subjected to cruel Nazi executions and experiments, which included castration of men and sterilization of women considered dangerous to the "purity of Nordic race" and beheading by guillotine The courts and judicial system in the annexed territories of Nazi Germany was one of the main ways to legislate an extermination policy against ethnic Poles, terminology in the courts was full of statements such as "Polish subhumans" and "Polish rabble". Some judges even declared that Poles were to have tougher sentences than Germans because of their alleged racial inferiority.
  At the beginning of 1945, facing the imminent fall of the Nazi State, Germany started evacuating civilians from Danzig. Most Germans fled the city, many by seaborne evacuation to Schleswig-Holstein. This happened in winter under the threat of bombs and in constant danger of submarines.
  On 30 March 1945 the Soviet Red Army occupied a largely destroyed Danzig. The exact circumstances of the occupation remain a matter of dispute. While the traditional Polish historiography stressed the role of the German resistance, after 1990 reports about deliberate destructions and arsons by the Soviets were published. However, as Soviet sources about the events are inaccessible, the topic has not been conclusively clarified. In December 1945 the Soviet Consulate explained the existing "anti-Soviet feelings" with some "excesses" of the Red Army.
  In June 1945 124,000 Germans and 8,000 Poles lived in the city, from 1945 to 1950 most Germans were expelled.
caption: Hitler enters Danzig on 20 September 1939
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