Gdansk, Poland
Gdansk is Poland's primary seaport city with a lot of toursit attractions from colonial style architecture, great history to dining and taking it easy on the beach.
Gdansk is located on the Baltic coast and is Poland's maritime capital. Gdansk is an important center of Polish economy, science, culture, and tourist attractions. Gdansk, together with Sopot and Gdynia, is part of the tri-city area and is considered one of Europe's beautiful cities with incredible architecture and rich history.
Gdansk History in the 20th Century
Throughout its long history Gdansk faced various periods of rule from different states before 1945,
997-1308: as part of Poland 1308-1454: as part of territory of Teutonic Order 1454-1466: Thirteen Years' War 1466-1793: as part of Poland 1793-1805: as part of Prussia 1807-1814: as free city 1815-1871: as part of Prussia 1871-1918: Imperial Germany 1918-1939: as a free city 1939-1945: Nazi Germany Altogether combining the number of years, the city was under rule of Poland for 641 years, under the rule of Teutonic Order for 158 years, 125 years as part of Prussia and later Germany, 29 years of its history are marked by the status of a free city, and 6 years under the occupation of Nazi Germany until it was given back to Poland in 1945.
When Poland regained its independence after World War I with access to the sea as promised by the Allies on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points", the Poles hoped the city's harbour would also become part of Poland. However, since a 1919 census determined that the city's population was 98% German, it was not placed under Polish sovereignty, but, according to the terms of the Versailles Treaty, 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. This led to a large degree of tension between the city and the surrounding Republic of Poland. The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem, parliament (Volkstag), and government (Senat). It issued its own stamps as well as currency.
The majority of the Free City of Danzig's population favored reincorporation into Germany. In the early 1930s the local Nazi Party capitalized on these pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 38% 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. The Nazis demanded the return of Danzig to Germany along with an exterritorial (meaning under German jurisdiction) highway through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access between the parts of Germany which had become physically separated after World War I. The Polish government in principle agreed to this proposal until the Anglo-Polish military alliance in March 1939 effectively canceled the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 and ended Polish willingness to negotiate successions. German-Polish relations deteriorated rapidly afterwards, even escalating into border skirmishes. The German Nazi Government, knowing that it's military strength was inferior to the combined British, French, Polish, and Soviet forces, invaded Poland on September 1 only after having secured Soviet approval in late August, hoping to negotiate a peace solution with Britain and France after the end of hostilities. This invasion of Poland is regarded as the beginning of World War II.
World War II began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce daylong fight, defenders of Polish Post office were shot dead and buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa. To celebrate surrender of Westerplatte, NSDAP organized a night parade on Sep 7th along Adolf-Hitlerstrasse that was inadvertently attacked by a Polish hydroplane taking off from Hel Peninsula. The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.
Most of the Jewish community in Danzig were able to escape from the Nazis shortly before the outbreak of war. Nazi secret police had been observing Polish communities 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 ethnic Poles were arrested, some because of their participation in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organizations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp some 30 miles from Danzig, and murdered. Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Piasnica forest.
In 1941, the Nazi Regime ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against it. As the Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central and Eastern Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the final Soviet offensive began in January, 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees, many of whom had fled to Danzig on foot from East Prussia (see evacuation of East Prussia), 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 Wilhelm Gustloff after an evacuation was attempted at neighboring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.
The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet bombardment by air. Those who survived and could not escape encountered the Soviet Army, which captured the city on March 30, 1945 and largely destroyed it.[19] In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the city was returned to Poland after 152 years. The remaining German residents of the city who survived the war fled or were expelled to postwar Germany, and the city was repopulated with ethnic Poles, including many from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union who were deported by the Soviets in two major waves from the eastern portion of pre-war Poland.
About Gdansk