Figure 1.--The two little Jewish girls, Mary and Toni, were from Sanzig. Somehow they managed to reach London just before the War. We are not sure how. Danzig was only annexed to the Reich after the war began. Perhaos as Danzig was controlled by local NAZIs since 1933 that they were included in the Kindertransport. The photograph was captioned, "Refuge children arriving in London: Two refugee sisters, Mary and Toni, are pictured as they arrived at Liverpool, England, where they were included in a party held by 112 Jewish refugee children. These youngsters are from Danzig." The photograph was dated August 27, 1939." Four days latter the 'Schesvig Holstein' opened up on the Westerplatte garison in Danzig and the Panzers portd across the Polish border. Very few of the Jews left in Danzig survived the War.

Gdańsk is one of oldest Polish cities. It was founded by the Polish King Mieszko I (10th century). The city was a part of Polish Piast state either directly or as a fief. Danzig was part of the Duchy of Pomerelia. It had a Polish-Kashubian (a West Slavic ethnic people) population. The German Teutonic Knights seized the city (1308) and became part of their Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights until the 15th century. Durig this time the German population began to grow an the city became part of the Hanseatic Lague (1358). The Poles reseized the city (1457) The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) made Royal Prussia including Gdańsk part of the Polish Kingdom, with substantial autonony. It was od considerable importance to Poland, a major port for the export of Polish grain. As an important commercial center, it attracted many merchants, includinhg Germans, Jews, and Scotts. As Poland declined as a major power, it was partioned by its more powerful neighbors, especially Russia. Prussia seized Danzig in the Second Partition (1793). From this point, the city began losing its importance as an important trading port. After defearing the Austrians and Prussian, Napoleon made Danzig a free city. Prussia resetablished its controlafter defeating Napoleon (1813). And with the rest of Prussia became part of the unified German Empire (1871). After Germany's defeat in World War I and the resulting Versailles Peace Treaty, Danzig was made a free city under the supervision of the new League of Nations (1920). The population was largely German, but it was thought necessary to give newly indendent Poland access to the Baltic Sea. While independent, Danzig was included in the Polish customs area. Danzig was not llowed to remain part of Germany and the Poles were gicven access to the Danzig port. The Free City of Danzig was created with the Danzig port city and some 200 towns and villages in the surrouning area. As in Germany, anti-Semitism began to grow in Danzig. And with the NAZI seizure of power in Germany, the city NAZI Party won the Volkstag (1933 and 1935). The city government pursued its own campaign against Jews. They were dismissed from Government jobs including teaching and descriminated agaiunst in an effort to drive them from public life and the city itself. League efforts to curtail the anti-Semetic laws were ineffectual. Most of the Jewish population fled, especially after Kristallnacht (November 1938). The German naval attack on the Polish military depot at Westerplatte were the first shots fired in World War II (September 1939). Germamy immeditely annexed the city to the Reich. The local Polish, Jewish and Kashubian, and Polish minorities were persecuted and murdered as part of the Holocaust.

Gdańsk History

Gdańsk is one of oldest Polish cities. It was founded by the Polish King Mieszko I (10th century). The city was a part of Polish Piast state either directly or as a fief. Danzig was part of the Duchy of Pomerelia. It had a Polish-Kashubian (a West Slavic ethnic people) population. From an early point, Gdańsk found itself on the volitile frontier between the Germans in the West and Slavic Poles in the East. The German Teutonic Knights seized the city from the Poles (1308) and it became part of their Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights until the 15th century. Durig this time the German population began to grow an the city became part of the Hanseatic Lague (1358). The Dutch also settled in Gdańsk, including Mennonites. They were not only merchants, but also built dikes in the Weichsel Delta, jobs they were familiar with in Holland. Many of the houses in the Old Town were built in the Dutch Renaissance style and the façades look like similar buildings in Amsterdam. The Poles took the city back (1457) The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) made Royal Prussia including Gdańsk part of the Polish Kingdom, with substantial autonony. It was od considerable importance to Poland, a major port for the export of Polish grain. As an important commercial center, it attracted many merchants, includinhg Germans, Jews, and Scotts. As Poland declined as a major power, it was partioned by its more powerful neighbors, especially Russia. Prussia seized Danzig in the Second Partition (1793). From this point, the city began losing its importance as an important trading port. After defeating the Austrians and Prussian, Napoleon made Danzig a free city. Prussia reesetablished its control after defeating Napoleon (1813). Danzig with the rest of Prussia became part of the unified German Empire (1871). Gdańsk as the Germaized Danzig would play a small role in World War II. After the War, the Germans in Danzig either fled the advancing Red Army or were driven out by the Poles. The city would play a much larger role in the Cold War, again returnd to Ooland. as the birthplace of Solidarity abd the evenual collspse of not only the Soviet Union, but of the Soviet Union itself.

Kashubians

Jews

There are records of Jews in Gdańsk from a early period (11th century). The number was small and limited with the arrival of the Tutonic Knights and growing German character of the city. The Germans tended to be more hostile to Jews than th Poles and Lithuanians. Thus the status of Jews varied with the rising fortunes of Germans and Poles. A small Jewish community develops (15th century). The city finally became incorporated as part of Prussia in the Second Partition (1793). The German community becomes Germaized. As Jews were emancipated in Prussia and the German Empire, more but still small numbers of Jews began to settle in Danzig. Gradually a vibrant Jewish community developed in the city which was similar in many respects to the many liberal and higly asimilated Jewish communities developing throughout Germany. The Danzig Jewish community maintained comntact with Eastern European Jewish communities, especilly those in Poland, at the time part of the Tsarist Empire. They thus had active commercial dealings with Poland. The Danzig Jewish communnity was notably diverse, including in addition tgo German Jews, both Polish and Russian Jews. There was occasional hrasment by Prussian authoriitie, but this was limited by Chancelpr Bismrck's favorable assessment of the Jews and full emncipation, giving Jes the fill prptection of German law. After World War I, the local Jewish community increased as many Polish Jews used Danzig as aay post for emigration. Some styed especially after the United states restricted immigration (1924). The German Jews retined political leadership and with the rise of the NAZIs had to face the increasinly difficult task of dealing with NAZI authorities without the protection of the law.

Free City (1920)

After Germany's defeat in World War I and the resulting Versailles Peace Treaty, Danzig was made a free city under the supervision of the new League of Nations (1920). The population was largely German, but it was thought necessary to give newly indendent Poland access to the Baltic Sea. While independent, Danzig was included in the Polish customs area. Danzig was not llowed to remain part of Germany and the Poles were gicven access to the Danzig port. The Free City of Danzig was created with the Danzig port city and some 200 towns and villages in the surrouning area. As in Germany, anti-Semitism began to grow in Danzig.

NAZI Control (1933)

And with the NAZI seizure of power in Germany, the city NAZI Party won the Volkstag (1933 and 1935). The city government pursued its own campaign against Jews. They were dismissed from Government jobs including teaching and descriminated agaiunst in an effort to drive them from public life and the city itself. Unlike thge Reich itself, there was an international presence in Danzig that may have had some, albeit limited restraining affect. A League of Nations' High Commissioner functioned in Danzig. An Association of Jewish Academics was founded (summer 1933). They protested against the discrimination of Jews to both the Senate and the League of Nations. In the Reich, such actions would have brought arrest and or extrta-judicial beatings. League efforts to curtail the anti-Semetic laws were ineffectual. A police state of the same level did not fubction in Danzig. The League subsequently declared several acts of the Nazi-controlled city government unconstitutional. The NAZIs simply ignored these actions.

Pogrom and Flight (1937)

The anti-Jewish pogrom in Damzig pre-dated that in the Reich itself, coming a year before Kristallnacht. NAZI Gauleiter, Albert Forster, set it off with a spech (October 23, 1937). [Schenk, p. 70.] NAZI teams trashed 60 shops and homes. Terrified Jews fled the city. About half of Danzig's Jews left within a year. The NAZI-controlled city Senate enbolded by Hitler's stance at the Munich Conference and the Allies abandoning Czechoslovakia, introduced the Nuremberg race laws (November 1938). Forster now backed with the force of law, launched an official policy of repression. The Government seized Jewish businesses and handed them over to German Danzigers. Jews were harazed in the same way they had been since 1935 in the Reich. They were not allowed to attend theaters, movies, public baths, and swimming pools. Nor were they allowed to enter hotels. Tthe Senate issued regulations barring them from the prfessions (medical, legal and notary). Jews from Zoppot (Sopot) were forced out. The Kristallnacht riots in Germany inspired similar riots in Danzig (November 12-14, NAZI mobs burned the Langfuhr, Mattenbuden, and Zoppot synagouges. Jewish war veteranbs managed to save the Great Synagogue. [Kaplan, p. 93.] The Jewish community understandably decided emigration as rapidly as possible. [Bauer, p. p. 145.] The Jewish community sold all their property. including the Synagogues and cemeteries to finance the emigration. [Grass, et. al., p. 9.] The Great Synagogue on Reitbahn street was as a result taken over by the Danzig municipal administration, but officials decided to tear it down to eliminate even the menory that Jews had lived in Danzig (May 1939). The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee intervene to save the ceremonial objects, books, scrolls, tapestries, textiles and memorabilia of the onnce florising community. They reporedly paid the Danzig City Council $50.000. [Bauer, p. 145.] By the begining of 1939 there were only about 3,500 Jews left in Danzig. The trasports to Palestine began (March 1939). By the time the Germans launched the War, only about 1,700 Jews were left in the city, mostly elderly unable or unwilling to leavce their homes.

World War II (September 1939)

The German naval attack on the Polish military depot at Westerplatte were the first shots fired in World War II (September 1939). This was the final step in the long-planned NAZI take over. Unlike annexations of Austria (March 1938), Czechoslovakia (October 1938/March 1939), and Memelland (March 1939), Hitler held back from sending in the Panzers. This was because of the diplomatic status of Danzig and connectioin with Poland. His stratefgy was to only take over one country at a time. With Austria and Czechoslovakia seized and the Allies humiliated he was ready to deal with Poland abd with it Danzig. He was positive that Britain and France would not oppose him. His only concern was the Soviet Union. What British Prime-Mnister Chamberlain could not fathom at Munich was tht Hitler actually wanted a war. NAZI Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop stated privatekly that Hitler saw the Munich accord as a failure because it denined him the opportunity to lead the German military in a great war of conquest. [Manchester] Danzig was for Hitler an ace in the hand. It was a largely German city that almost all Germans beklieved should be a part of Germany. Thus it could be used to justify military action against Poland and a demand on which Poland would be unlikely to compromise. Karl Burckhardt, the League of Nations high commissioner in Danzig told British Foreiggn Munister Lord Halifax that Hitler told him that the slightest incident woold resuklt in him crishing the Poles without warning with such violence that no trace of Poland would be found afterwards. "I shall strike with the full force of a mechanized army, of which the Poles have no conception." [Manchester] Burckhardt assessment was that Hitler was boasting of his new military power rather than actually threatening war. Probablky a brave façade as aesult of the British-French-Soviet talks of an alliance with Poland to counter Germany. Halifax seems to have agreed. What we now now of German military power was not yet understood by either the Allies or the Soviets. Propaganda Minister Josef Goebels set his propsganda machine in motion, following the same poattern as with Austria and Cechoslovkia. While Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized with yellow stars and swastikas or looted in Danzig, Goebels' newspaopers reportee on nonexistant orv exaggerated accounts of the mistrratmenyt boif Germans in Danzig and Poland. The accounts concerning Danzig were absurd as the NAZIs were essentually in cimplete conyrol of the city. The Germans newspapers reported imagined Polish militaryy movements and did not mention Germam military mobilization on the Polish frontier. The NAZIs seized political control of Danzig before invading as part of the attack on Poland. The NAZIs appointed Albert Forster as the city's Gauleiter. This was a party not government post, but in Dannzig carried considerable aithority and had NAZI SA storm stroopers to carry bout his orders. He was quoted as saying, "In these happy times, we will stand together and give thanks to the Führer that he has brought us back into Greater Germany." Forster organized a formal 4,000-man strong force. Anthen a contingernt of 1,000 SS men arived for aports competution (June 29). After the event, however, they stayed put. When Heimwehr Danzig (Home Guard Danzig) appeared on the sleeve of their uniforms it became clear that they were there to stay, They were not idle. They began building barrack to house 10,000 soldiers (August 1939). Hitler's strategy through all of this was to make demands on the Poles just as he had on the Czechs. And Danzig was part of this. He demanded the vtransfer of Danzig to German control. He also demanded a German highway and railway through the Polish Corridor. And he insisted on Polish participation in the Anti-Comintern Pact. Hitler carefully calculated his demands to be beyond what the Poles would accept but sound reasonable enough to the British and French. And kept uping the ante. Hitler and Stalin shocked the world by signging a Non-Agressin Pact (August 23). Hitler no longer felt constrained to being reasonable. Withot vthe Soiviets, he was convinced that the British and French would back down as they had at Munich. Even when the British signed a fiormal defense accord with Poland (August 25), Hitler contuinued to belive hat vthe Allies would not support Poland. Ribbentrop presented the final set of demands to British Ambassador to Berlin Neville Henderson (August 29). They included a plebiscite in the Corridor with voting rules set to ensure a pro-German vote. ThecWehrmacht crossed the Polish bordes in force, staging the first Blitzkrieg. The first shors were fired in Danzig, but the city was already mostly in German hands. Germamy immeditely annexed the city to the Reich.

The Holocaust

Immediately after the Germans seized Danzig, the killing phase of the Holocaust began. The local Polish, Jewish and Kashubian, and Polish minorities were persecuted and murdered as part of the Holocaust. The invading Wehrmacht forces were joined by the SS Heimwehr (Home Defense) Danzig, an SS unit established in Banzig before the War. After tbe Polish campaign it was absorbed into the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf. Some 130 Jews were held in a building on Milchkannengasse street (ulica Stagiewna) which was called a ghetto. The Germans also inprissoned a second group, along with the city's Poles also arrested. They were held at the Victoriaschule, an old gymnasium (school) building. The Germans bate and tortured them for no reason other than a desire toinflict pain. The Germans also set up detention camps at Westerplatte and Ohra (Orunia). Jews from Zoppot were emurdered in the Piaśnica forest. The Germans set up another small ghetto where some 500 Jews were temprarily detained (1940). The Germans allowed the last group of Jews leave for Palestine (August 1940). As far as we know this is the only group pf Jews allowed to levce German conbtrolled territory after the War began. We are not sure why the Germansallowed them to leave. Tragically many were killed in the Patria disaster in Haifa port. This left only a small number of Jews in the City. The Germans deported 395 Jews to the Warsaw Ghetto (Fbruary-March 1941). The 200 Jews remaiing in the Jewish old age home were sent to Theresienstadt[and Auschwitz. Some were taken out into the Baltic Sea on barges and drowned. The Germans established Stutthof concentration camp in Danzig while fighting was still going on in Polanbd (September 1939). The first inmates were Jews. Later aboyt 50,000 Jews were intene there as the Germans wereretreating from Poland (1944). Conditions were deplorable and many died. Some of the few Jews remaining in the city when the Red Army arrived were 22 partners of mixed marriages. Another 350 Jews from surrounding area survived to repot to the regional offices of the Central Committee of Polish Jews in the summer of 1945.

Sources

Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust (Wayne State University Press, 1981).

Borzyszkowski Jozef. In Hans-Henning Hahn and Peter Kunze, Nationale Minderheiten und staatliche Minderheitenpolitik in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert (Akademie Verlag, 1999).

Denny, Isabel. The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City.

Grass, Günther, Vivian B Mann, and Joseph Gutmann. Danzig 1939: Treasures of a Destroyed Community (New York: The Jewish Museum, 2000)

Kaplan, Yosef, An Alternative Path to Modernity. (Brill: 2000).

Majer, Diemut. Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: JHU Press, 2003).

Schenk, Dieter. Danzig 1930 - 1945: Das Ende einer Freien Stadt (2013).

Schwartze-Köhler, Hannelore. "Die Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass: Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik und Zeitgeschichte (Frank & Timme GmbH: 2009).

Szubarczyk, Piotr. "Erika z Rumii", IPN Bulletin Vol. 5, No. 40 (May 2004)

Warmińska, Katarzyna. Multiple Identities: Migrants, Ethnicity, and Membership.

Created: 12:49 AM 7/19/2014
Last updated: 3:34 AM 9/28/2018