Editing Gdańsk (section)

===Free City of Danzig and World War II===
{{main|Free City of Danzig}}
[[File:Danzig NARA-68155011.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of the historic city centre around 1920]]
When Poland regained its independence after [[World War I]] with access to the sea as promised by the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] on the basis of [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s "[[Fourteen Points]]" (point 13 called for "an independent Polish state", "which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea"), the Poles hoped the city's harbour would also become part of Poland.<ref name="Amtliche">{{cite book |date=1920 |title=Amtliche Urkunden zur Konvention zwischen Danzig und Polen vom 15. November 1920 : zusammegestellt und mit Begleitbericht versehen von der nach Paris entsandten Delegation der Freien Stadt Danzig |url=https://kpbc.umk.pl/dlibra/publication/221530/edition/235125/content |publication-place=Danzig |publisher=Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Toruniu |page= |isbn=}}</ref> However, in the end – since Germans formed a majority in the city, with Poles being a minority (in the 1923 census 7,896 people out of 335,921 gave Polish, Kashubian, or [[Masurian dialects|Masurian]] as their native language)<ref>{{cite book |title=Ergebnisse der Volks- und Berufszählung vom 1. November 1923 in der Freien Stadt Danzig |publisher=Verlag des Statistischen Landesamtes der Freien Stadt Danzig |year=1926 |language=de}}. Polish estimates of the Polish minority during the interwar era, however, range from 37,000 to 100,000 (9%–34%). Studia historica Slavo-Germanica, Tomy 18–20page 220 Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Instytut Historii Wydawnictwo Naukowe imienia. Adama Mickiewicza, 1994.</ref> – the city was not placed under Polish sovereignty. Instead, in accordance with the terms of the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles Treaty]], it became the [[Free City of Danzig]], an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the [[League of Nations]] with its external affairs largely under Polish control.<ref name="auto">{{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]]|page=37}}</ref> Poland's rights also included free use of the harbour, a Polish post office, a Polish garrison in Westerplatte district, and customs union with Poland.<ref name="auto"/> The Free City had its own constitution, [[national anthem]], [[Volkstag|parliament]], and government ({{lang|de|Senat}}). It issued its own stamps as well as its currency, the [[Danzig gulden]].<ref name="Amtliche" />

With the growth of [[Nazism]] among Germans, [[anti-Polish sentiment]] increased and both [[Germanisation]] and [[Racial segregation|segregation]] policies intensified, in the 1930s the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration.<ref name="auto"/> 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> Due to such policies, only eight Polish-language public schools existed in the city, and Poles managed to organize seven more private Polish schools.<ref name=mw40/>

In the early 1930s, the local [[Nazi Party]] capitalised on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of vote in the parliament. Thereafter, the Nazis under [[Gauleiter]] [[Albert Forster]] achieved dominance in the city government, which was still nominally overseen by the League of Nations' [[High Commissioner]].

In 1937, Poles who sent their children to private Polish schools were required 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 postal workers, 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 and monuments that reminded that for centuries Gdańsk was part of Poland were removed from the city's landmarks, such as the [[Artus Court]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Jakrzewska-Śnieżko|first=Zofia|title=Dwór Artusa w Gdańsku|year=1972|publisher=[[Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe]]|language=pl|page=19}}</ref> 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 1939, before the German [[invasion of Poland]] and outbreak of [[World War II]], local Polish railwaymen were victims of beatings, and after the invasion, they were also imprisoned and murdered in [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].<ref>Wardzyńska, pp. 39-40, 85</ref>

[[NSDAP|The German government]] officially demanded the return of Danzig to Germany along with an extraterritorial (meaning under German [[jurisdiction]]) highway through the area of the [[Polish Corridor]] for land-based access from the rest of Germany. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and in May 1939, during a high-level meeting of German military officials explained to them: "It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our [[Lebensraum]] in the east", adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies.<ref>''The history of the German resistance, 1933–1945'' Peter Hoffmann p. 37 McGill-Queen's University Press 1996</ref><ref>''Hitler'' Joachim C. Fest p. 586 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002</ref><ref>''Blitzkrieg w Polsce wrzesien 1939'' Richard Hargreaves p. 84 Bellona, 2009</ref><ref>''A military history of Germany, from the eighteenth century to the present day''Martin Kitchen p. 305 Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975</ref><ref>International history of the twentieth century and beyond Antony Best p. 181 Routledge; 2 edition (30 July 2008)</ref>

After the German proposals to solve the three main issues peacefully were refused, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany [[Invasion of Poland|attacked Poland]] on 1 September after having signed [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|a non-aggression pact]] with the Soviet Union.<ref name="Reduta">{{cite book |last=Drzycimski |first=Andrzej |author-link= |date=2014 |title=Reduta Westerplatte |url= |location= |publisher=Oficyna Gdańska |page= |isbn=978-8364180187}}</ref>

[[File:The Nazi-soviet Invasion of Poland, 1939 HU106374.jpg|thumb|The German battleship {{SMS|Schleswig-Holstein}} firing at the Polish Military Transit Depot during the [[Battle of Westerplatte]] in September 1939]]
The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at [[Westerplatte]] by the German battleship {{SMS|Schleswig-Holstein||2}}, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte [[Battle of Westerplatte|resisted]] for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long [[Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig|fight]] (1 September 1939), defenders of the Polish Post office were tried and executed then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of [[Zaspa]] in October 1939. In 1998 a German court overturned their conviction and sentence.<ref name="Reduta" /> The city was officially annexed by [[Nazi Germany]] and incorporated into the [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]].

About 50 percent of members of the [[History of the Jews in Gdańsk|Jewish community]] had left the city within a year after a [[pogrom]] in October 1937.<ref name=JVL>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07105.html |title=Gdansk |access-date=18 March 2017 |archive-date=13 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113051709/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07105.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After the [[Kristallnacht]] riots in November 1938, the community decided to organize its emigration<ref name=Bauer>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOd3rLul-LcC&q=jewish+danzig&pg=PA145 |title=American Jewry and the Holocaust |first1=Yehuda |last1=Bauer |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-8143-1672-6 |page=145 |access-date=11 February 2016 |archive-date=1 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201032226/https://books.google.com/books?id=WOd3rLul-LcC&q=jewish+danzig&pg=PA145 |url-status=live }}</ref> and in March 1939 a first transport to [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] started.<ref name=shoa>{{cite web |url=http://www.shoa.de/holocaust/deportations-und-vernichtungspraxis/763.html |website=www.shoa.de |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629204011/http://www.shoa.de/holocaust/deportations-und-vernichtungspraxis/763.html |archive-date=29 June 2011 |title=Die "Lösung der Judenfrage" in der Freien Stadt Danzig |date=30 November 2018}}</ref> By September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941, just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig, most of whom were later murdered in the [[Holocaust]].<ref name=JVL/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol6_00033.html |title=Gdansk, Poland |work=jewishgen.org |access-date=27 January 2018 |archive-date=28 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128021208/https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol6_00033.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Out of the 2,938 [[Kehilla (modern)|Jewish community]] in the city, 1,227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war.<ref>''Żydzi na terenie Wolnego Miasta Gdańska w latach 1920–1945:działalność kulturalna, polityczna i socjalna''Grzegorz Berendt Gdańskie Tow. Nauk., Wydz. I Nauk Społecznych i Humanistycznych, 1997 p. 245</ref>

[[Gestapo|Nazi secret police]] had been observing Polish minority communities in the city since 1936, compiling information, which in 1939 served to prepare lists of Poles to be captured in [[Operation Tannenberg]]. On the first day of the war, approximately 1,500 [[Polish people|ethnic Poles]] were arrested, some because of their participation in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organisations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to the [[Stutthof concentration camp|Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof]] some {{cvt|30|mi|km|-1|order=flip}} from Danzig, and murdered.<ref>[http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/museums.htm Museums Stutthof in Sztutowo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050824163259/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/museums.htm |date=24 August 2005 }}. Retrieved 31 January 2007.</ref> Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the [[Massacres in Piaśnica|Piaśnica forest]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/museums.htm |title=Museums Stutthof |access-date=16 January 2006 |archive-date=24 August 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050824163259/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/museums.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

During the war, Germany operated a prison in the city,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1516 |title=Schweres NS-Gefängnis Danzig, Neugarten 27 |website=Bundesarchiv.de |access-date=18 September 2021 |language=de |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918124617/https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1516 |url-status=live }}</ref> an ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]''-operated penal camp,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1515 |title=Einsatzgruppen-Straflager in der Danziger Holzgasse |website=Bundesarchiv.de |access-date=18 September 2021 |language=de |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918124616/https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1515 |url-status=live }}</ref> a camp for [[Romani people]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1018 |title=Zigeunerlager Danzig |website=Bundesarchiv.de |access-date=18 September 2021 |language=de |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918124615/https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1018 |url-status=live }}</ref> two subcamps of the [[Stalag XX-B]] [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camp]] for [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] POWs,<ref>{{cite book|last=Niklas|first=Tomasz|editor-last=Grudziecka|editor-first=Beata|title=Stalag XX B: historia nieopowiedziana|language=pl|location=Malbork|publisher=Muzeum Miasta Malborka|page=29|chapter=Polscy jeńcy w Stalagu XX B Marienburg|date=23 August 2023 |isbn=978-83-950992-2-9}}</ref> and several subcamps of the [[Stutthof concentration camp]] within the present-day city limits.<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 |pages=165, 167–168, 175–176, 179 |issn=0137-5377}}</ref>

In 1941, [[Hitler]] ordered the [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]], eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the [[Red Army|Soviet Army]] advanced in 1944, German populations in [[Central Europe]] took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the [[East Pomeranian Offensive|final Soviet offensives]] began in January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees converged on Danzig, many of whom had fled on foot from [[East Prussia]], some tried to escape through the city's port in a large-scale evacuation involving hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the {{MV|Wilhelm Gustloff||2}} after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring [[Gdynia]]. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiekdwudziesty.pl/bitwa-o-gdansk-1945/ |title=Bitwa o Gdańsk 1945 |last=Voellner |first=Heinz |date=31 August 2020 |website=wiekdwudziesty.pl |publisher= |access-date=9 August 2021 |quote=}}</ref>

The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet air raids. The city was [[Siege of Danzig (1945)|captured]] by [[1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade|Polish]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Jakrzewska-Śnieżko|first=Zofia|title=Dwór Artusa w Gdańsku|year=1972|publisher=[[Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe]]|language=pl|page=31}}</ref> and [[Red Army|Soviet]] troops in March 1945. The city was heavily damaged and Soviet soldiers and German saboteurs set fire to houses.<ref name="Baziur"/> Soviet soldiers committed large-scale [[Rape during the liberation of Poland|rape]] and [[Looting of Poland in World War II|looting]], especially of the port, shipyard and factories.<ref name="Baziur">{{cite journal |title=Armia Czerwona na Pomorzu Gdańskim 1945–1947 (Red Army in Gdańsk Pomerania 1945–1947) |author=Grzegorz Baziur, OBEP [[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]] [[Kraków]] |journal=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance Bulletin) |year=2002 |volume=7 |publisher=IPN|language=pl|pages=35–38}}</ref><ref>Biskupski, Mieczysław B. ''The History of Poland''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, p. 97.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Tighe|first=Carl|title=Gdańsk: National Identity in the Polish-German Borderlands|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=199}}</ref>

In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the [[Yalta Conference|Yalta]] and [[Potsdam Conference|Potsdam]] conferences, the city became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the [[Fall of Communism]] in the 1980s. The remaining German residents of the city who had survived the war [[Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II|fled or were expelled]] to postwar Germany. The city was repopulated by ethnic [[Polish people|Poles]]; up to 18 percent (1948) of them had been [[Polish population transfers (1944–1946)|deported by the Soviets]] in [[Repatriation of Poles (1955–1959)|two major waves]] from pre-war eastern [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ifeo6zdSMcC&q=3200 |title=Danzig – Biographie einer Stadt |first1=Peter Oliver |last1=Loew |publisher=C.H. Beck |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-406-60587-1 |page=232 |language=de |access-date=11 February 2016 |archive-date=1 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201032302/https://books.google.com/books?id=9ifeo6zdSMcC&q=3200 |url-status=live }}</ref>