Editing Lithuania Minor (section)

====Post-World War I====
[[File:Tilsit Act.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Act of Tilsit]]]]
Lithuania declared its independence from Russia in 1918 during World War I. Some [[Prussian Lithuanian]] activists signed the [[Act of Tilsit]], demanding unification of Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Major into a single Lithuanian state, thus detaching the areas of East Prussia from Germany which were inhabited by Prussian Lithuanians. This claim was supported by the Lithuanian government. The part north of the Neman River up to [[Klaipėda|Memel]] was separated from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920, and was called the [[Klaipėda Region|Memel Territory]]. It was made a [[protectorate]] of the [[Allies of World War I|Entente]] States, in order to guarantee port rights to Lithuania and Poland. In January 1923, the [[Klaipėda Revolt]] took place and [[Klaipėda region]] was annexed to Lithuania in 1923 under violation<ref>{{in lang|de}} [http://www.ostdeutsches-forum.net/preussen/ostpreussen/Memelland/Bericht-1923.htm] Bericht der nach Memel entsandten Sonderkommission an die Botschafterkonferenz</ref> of the Treaty of Versailles. The subsequent incorporation of the territory brought economic prosperity to Lithuania, with the region accounting for 30 percent of the country's economy. However, the region's economic significance declined after economic sanctions were imposed by [[Nazi Germany]] in 1933. Nazi Germany persecuted the Lithuanian population of the region. In 1938 a massive [[1938 renaming of East Prussian placenames|campaign of renaming of placenames]] was carried out in the German-held part of Lithuania Minor in attempt to erase traces of Lithuanian origin. In 1940, the last Lithuanian newspaper published in Tilsit was closed by the Nazis.<ref name=mlrt>{{cite web|url=http://www.mlrt.lt/eng/mlis.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719112258/http://www.mlrt.lt/eng/mlis.html|archive-date=19 July 2006|title=Historic chronology of Lithuania Minor|access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref>

German Foreign Minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] [[1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania|delivered an ultimatum]] to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister on 20 March 1939, demanding the surrender of the Klaipėda region to German control. Ribbentrop vowed that if Klaipėda was not ceded to Germany peacefully, it "will be taken by other means if necessary".<ref name=Lietuva>Mažoji Lietuva. [http://www.mazoji-lietuva.lt/article.php?article=237 Klaipėdos krašto istorijos vingiuose] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927224535/http://www.mazoji-lietuva.lt/article.php?article=237 |date=27 September 2007}}.</ref> Lithuania submitted to the ultimatum and, in exchange for the right to use the new harbour facilities as a Free Port, ceded the disputed region to Germany in the late evening of 22 March 1939. Reunion of the Memel Territory with Germany was met with joy by a majority of Prussian Lithuanians.<ref name="Vareikis">{{cite journal |last=Vareikis |first=V. |year=2001 |title=Memellander/Klaipėdiškiai Identity and German-Lithuanian Relations in Lithuania Minor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries |journal=Sociologija. Mintis Ir Veiksmas. |volume=1–2 |pages=54–65 |doi=10.15388/SocMintVei.2001.1-2.7233 |issn=1392-3358 |doi-access=free }}</ref> It was Nazi Germany's last territorial gain prior to World War II. The remainder of Lithuania came under [[Occupation of Baltic states|occupation by the Soviet Union]], then briefly became [[Lithuanian 1941 independence|independent again in 1941]] before being [[German occupation of Lithuania during World War II|occupied entirely by Nazi Germany]].

During World War II, the Germans operated the {{ill|Hohenbruch concentration camp|de|KZ Hohenbruch}} at present-day [[Gromovo, Kaliningrad Oblast|Gromovo]] ({{langx|lt|link=no|Lauknos}}), as well as several [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camps]] for [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] POWs of various nationalities, incl. the [[Macikai POW and GULAG Camps|Stalag 331 C/I-C]] and Stalag I-D camps for regular soldiers,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/Stalag.htm|title=German Camps|access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref> the Stalag Luft VI camp and [[Dulag Luft]] transit camp for air force personnel, [[Oflag]]s 52, 53, 60 for officers, and forced labour subcamps of [[Stalag I-A]].<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=128, 212–213, 217, 389, 391, 509|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref> Groups of Poles [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|expelled]] from [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] were deported by the Germans to [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] in the region (in the vicinity of [[Klaipėda]] and [[Tilsit]]).<ref name=mw>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2017|title=Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939–1945|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|pages=395, 405, 409, 410, 416, 423|isbn=978-83-8098-174-4}}</ref>