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Reichsgau Wartheland

Coordinates:52°24′00″N16°55′00″E/ 52.400000°N 16.916667°E/52.400000; 16.916667
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Reichsgau Wartheland
Warthegau
ReichsgauofNazi Germany
1939–1945
Flag of occupied Poland
Flag
Coat of arms of occupied Poland
Coat of arms

Map ofNaziconquest showing administrative subdivisions (GaueandReichsgaue) withWarthegauarea (bright yellow, right).

Reichsgau Wartheland (burgundy) on the map of occupiedPoland
CapitalPosen
Government
Gauleiter
• 1939–1945
Arthur Greiser
History
8 October 1939
1 August 1945
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Second Polish Republic
Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland
Today part ofPoland

TheReichsgau Wartheland(initiallyReichsgau Posen,alsoWarthegau) was aNazi GermanReichsgauformed from parts ofPolishterritoryannexed in 1939duringWorld War II.It comprised the region ofGreater Polandand adjacent areas. Parts ofWarthegaumatched the similarly namedpre-VersaillesPrussianprovince of Posen.The name was initially derived from the capital city,Posen (Poznań),and later from the main river,Warthe (Warta).

During thePartitions of Polandfrom 1793, the bulk of the area had been annexed by theKingdom of Prussiauntil 1807 asSouth Prussia.From 1815 to 1849, the territory was within the autonomousGrand Duchy of Posen,which was theProvince of PosenuntilPoland was re-establishedin 1918–1919 followingWorld War I.The area is currently theGreater Poland Voivodeship.

Establishment and administration

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Counties (Regierungsbezirk) and districts (Kreis), 1944
Main articles:Gleiwitz incidentandExpulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany

After the GermanWehrmachtinvaded Polandin September 1939, the German Reich occupied the whole of the Greater Poland area - the erstwhile PolishPoznań Voivodeship- and splitthe territorybetween fourReichsgaueand theGeneral Governmentarea (further east). TheMilitärbezirk Posenwas created in September 1939; in accordance with a decree of 8 October 1939, Germany annexed it on 26 October 1939 as theReichsgau Posen.[1] SSObergruppenfuhrerArthur GreiserbecameGauleiteron 21 October.[2]He would remain in this post until the end of the war in 1945. Reichsgau Posen was renamed "Reichsgau Wartheland" on 29 January 1940.

In the new Reichsgau Posen theWehrmachtestablishedWehrkreisXXI, based at Poznań (German:Posen), under the command ofGeneral der ArtillerieWalter Petzel.Its primary operational unit was the 48thPanzerKorps, covering so-calledMilitärische Unterregion-Hauptsitzeincluding Posen (Polish:Poznań),Lissa(Polish:Leszno),Hohensalza(Polish:Inowrocław),Leslau(Polish:Włocławek),Kalisch(Polish:Kalisz), andLitzmannstadt(Polish:Łódź). It maintained training areas atSieradzandBiedrusko.It also maintained the four mainprisoner-of-war campsin the province, i.e.Stalag XXI-AinOstrzeszów,Stalag XXI-BinSzubin,Stalag XXI-CinWolsztynandStalag XXI-Din Poznań,[3]which housed Polish,French,British, Dutch, Belgian, Serbian,Italian,Soviet, American, Norwegian, Moroccan, Algerian andFrench Sudaneseprisoners of war.

Nazi crimes and German colonization

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Mass execution of Poles inLeszno,21 October 1939

The territory of the Reichsgau was inhabited predominantly by ethnic Poles, by Germans (a minority of 16.7% in 1921), and by Polish Jews. The Polish population was subjected to variouscrimes,including theIntelligenzaktiongenocidal campaign. On 20–23 October 1939 alone, the German police andEinsatzgruppeVI carried out mass public executions of some 300 Poles in various towns in the region, i.e.Gostyń,Kostrzyn,Kościan,Kórnik,Krobia,Książ Wielkopolski,Leszno,Mosina,Osieczna,Poniec,Śmigiel,Śrem,ŚrodaandWłoszakowice,to terrorize and pacify the Poles.[4][5]DuringAktion T4,theSS-Sonderkommandosgassed over 2,700 mentally ill people from the psychiatric hospitals inOwińska,DziekankaandKościan.[6]

Most of the Jewish residents were eventually imprisoned at theŁódź Ghetto(officially established in December 1939) and exterminated atChełmno extermination camp(German:Vernichtungslager Kulmhof,operational from December 1941 onwards).[7]From 1940, the occupiers also operated several forced labour camps for Jews in the region.[8]Due to poor feeding and sanitary conditions, epidemics spread in those camps, which, combined with frequent executions, led to a high mortality rate.[8]On the order ofHeinrich Himmler,most of the camps were dissolved in 1943, and its surviving prisoners were sent to ghettos and death camps.[8]

Poles being led to trains under German Army escort, as part of theethnic cleansingof the areas of western Poland annexed to theReichimmediately following theinvasion of 1939

The Gauleiter andReichsstatthalterof Reichsgau Wartheland, native-bornArthur Greiser,[9]embarked on a program of complete removal of the formerly Polish citizenry upon his nomination byHeinrich Himmler.[10]The plan also entailed the re-settling of ethnic Germans from theBaltic and other regionsinto farms and homes formerly owned by Poles and Jews.[11]He also authorized the clandestine operation of exterminating 100,000Polish Jews(about one-third of the total Jewish population ofWartheland),[12]in the process of the region's complete "Germanization".[13]In the first year of World War II, some 630,000 Poles and Jews were forcibly removed fromWarthelandand transported to the occupiedGeneral Government(more than 70,000 from Poznań alone) in a series of operations called theKleine Planungcovering mostPolish territories annexed by Germanyat about the same time. Both Poles and Jews had their property confiscated.[14]

By the end of 1940, some 325,000 Poles and Jews from theWarthelandand the so-calledPolish Corridorwere expelled to General Government, often forced to abandon most of their belongings.[15]Fatalities were numerous. Many Poles were also enslaved asforced labourand either sent to forced labour camps or German colonists in the region or deported to Germany and other German-occupied countries.[8]In 1941, the Nazis expelled a further 45,000 people, and from autumn of that year, they began killing Jews by shooting and ingas vans,at first spasmodically and experimentally.[16]Reichsgau Wartheland had the population: 4,693,700 by 1941. Greiser wrote in November 1942: "I myself do not believe that the Führer needs to be asked again in this matter, especially since at our last discussion with regard to the Jews he told me that I could proceed with these according to my own judgement."[17]

Bunker no. 16 inFort VIIin Poznań, used by the German occupiers as an improvisedgas chamber

There were numerous camps and prisons in the province, including asubcampof theGross-Rosen concentration campinOwińska,[18]and a subcamp of theStutthof concentration campinObrzycko.[19]Particularly notorious camps and prisons included theFort VIIconcentration camp in Poznań, theRadogoszcz prisonin Łódź,[20]a prison camp inŻabikowo,where mostly Poles were imprisoned, but also Luxembourgers, Dutch, Hungarians, Slovaks, Americans, Russians and deserters from theWehrmacht,and many were tortured and executed,[21]and the prison inSieradz,whose mostly Polish and Jewish prisoners were subjected to insults, beatings, forced labour, tortures, executions, and were even given meals prepared from rotten vegetables, spoiled fish and dead dogs, thus often dying of exhaustion,starvationor torture.[22]

Over 270,000 Polish children aged 10–18 were subjected to forced labour in the region ofGreater Poland,which, in addition to German profits of 500 millionmarks,was aimed at the children's biological destruction.[23]In Łódź, the occupiers operated aracial researchcamp for expelled Poles, and a concentration camp forkidnapped Polish childrenof two to 16 years of age from various parts of occupied Poland.[24]In the racial research camp, Poles were subjected to racial selection before deportation to forced labour in Germany, and Polish children were taken from their parents and sent toGermanisationcamps.[24]The camp for kidnapped children served as a forced labour, penal and internment camp and racial research center, with the children subjected to starvation, exhausting labour, beating even up to death and diseases, and the camp was nicknamed "littleAuschwitz"due to its conditions.[24]Germanisation camps for Polish children taken away from their parents were operated in Kalisz, Poznań,PuszczykowoandZaniemyśl.[25]The children were given new German names and surnames, and were punished for any use of the Polish language, even with death.[25]After their stay in the camps, the children were deported to Germany; only some returned to Poland after the war, while the fate of many remains unknown to this day.[25]

Heim ins Reichre-settlement inWarthegau.Map of the Third Reich in 1939 (dark grey) after theconquest of Poland;with pockets of German colonists brought intoReichsgau Warthelandfrom the Soviet "sphere of influence" – superimposed with the red outline of Poland missing entirely from the original print.[26]

Polish resistance

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ThePolish resistance movementwas active in the region, including theUnion of Armed Struggle,Bataliony Chłopskie,Gray RanksandHome Army.[27]ThePolish Underground Statewas organized, and in July 1940, even an underground Polish parliament was established in Poznań.[28]Activities includedsecret Polish schooling,secret Catholic services, printing and distribution ofPolish underground press,sabotage actions, espionage of German activity, military trainings, production of false documents, preparations for a planned uprising, and even secretfootballgames.[29][30]The Polish resistance provided aid to people in need, including prisoners, escapees from camps and ghettos and deserters from the German army, rescued Polish children kidnapped by the Germans,[25]and facilitated escapes of Allied prisoners of war from German POW camps.[31][32][33]The Germans cracked down on the resistance several times,[34]and even kidnapped children of the resistance members and sent them to the camp for Polish children in Łódź.[35]

End of war

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From August 1944 to January 1945, the Germans used hundreds of thousands of Poles as forced labour to build fortifications in the region ahead of the advancingEastern Front.[8]In January 1945, before and during their retreat, the Germans committed several further massacres of Polish civilians, prisoners and Polish and other Allied POWs, including atOstrzeszów,Pleszew,Marchwacz,Żabikowo andŁomnicaand perpetrated severaldeath marches.[36][37][38]

By 1945 nearly half a million GermanicVolksdeutschehad been resettled in theWarthegaualone among theareas annexed by Germanywhile theSoviet forcesbegan to push the retreating German forces back through the Polish lands.Most German residentsalong with over a million colonists fled westward. Some did not, due to restrictions by Germany's own government and the quickly advancing Red Army. An estimated 50,000 refugees died from the severe winter conditions, others as war atrocities committed by the Soviet military.[citation needed]Theremaining ethnically German population was expelledto Allied-occupied Germany after the war ended in accordance with thePotsdam Agreement.[39]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Neuburger, Otto (1944) [1943]. "Gazettes of the Länder and Reichsgaue".Official Publications of Present-day Germany: Government, Corporate Organizations and National Socialist Party, with an Outline of the Governmental Structure of Germany.Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 82.Retrieved5 April2024.Reincorporated into Germany on October 26, 1939 as Reichsgau Posen by decree of October 8, 1939 (RGBl,I, p 2041).
  2. ^Michael D. Miller and Andreas Schulz (2012).Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Vol. 1.R. James Bender Publishing. p. 360.ISBN978-1-932970-21-0.
  3. ^Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945(in Polish). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. 1998. p. 393.ISBN83-85003-97-5.
  4. ^Wardzyńska 2009,pp. 193–198, 191–192, 199, 205–206, 211.
  5. ^Grochowina, Sylwia (2017).Cultural policy of the Nazi occupying forces in the Reich district Gdańsk–West Prussia, the Reich district Wartheland, and the Reich district of Katowice in the years 1939–1945.Toruń. p. 87.ISBN978-83-88693-73-1.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^Wardzyńska 2009,pp. 216–217.
  7. ^HolocaustHistory.org:"ninety-seven thousand have been processed, using three vans, without any defects showing up in the vehicles."Postwar testimonyObersturmbannführerAugust Becker,thegas-vaninspector.See:Ernst Klee;Willi Dressen; Volker Riess (1991)."A new and better method of killing had to be found:The gas-vans ".The Good Old Days: The Holocaust As Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders.Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Konecky & Konecky. pp. 69–70.ISBN1-56852-133-2.Also in:Christopher Browning(2000),Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solutionwith archives of theRSHA.
  8. ^abcdeEncyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945(in Polish). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. 1998. pp. 394–395.ISBN83-85003-97-5.
  9. ^Ian Kershaw (2013).Hitler 1936-1945.Penguin UK. p. vi.ISBN978-0-14-190959-2.
  10. ^"Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era".United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.Retrieved24 May2013.
  11. ^Lynn H. Nicholas,Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Webpp. 207-9,ISBN0-679-77663-X.
  12. ^"Special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) ".The Holocaust History Project. Archived fromthe originalon 2013-05-28.
  13. ^Main Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland,German Crimes in Poland(Warsaw: 1946, 1947);Archive ofJewish Gombin Genealogy,with introduction by Leon Zamosc.Note:The Main (or Central) Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Polish:Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce,GKBZNwP) founded in 1945 was the predecessor of theInstitute of National Remembrance(see also the"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon February 12, 1997.Retrieved2017-01-12.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)).Quote:"The creation of the Main Commission... was preceded by work done in London since 1943 by thePolish Government in Exile."
  14. ^Agency for the East that oversaw the registration, administration and eventual sale of all property confiscated from Poles and Jews (virtually all Polish and Jewish property was confiscated)Heimat, Region, and Empire: Spatial Identities under National Socialism Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann, Maiken Umbach
  15. ^Lynn H. Nicholas,Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Webpp. 213-214,ISBN0-679-77663-X.
  16. ^Max Hastings, "The Most Evil Emperor,"NYRB October 23, 2008, p. 48.
  17. ^Ian Kershaw,Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution(Yale University Press, 2008), p. 75.
  18. ^"Subcamps of KL Gross-Rosen".Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica.Retrieved16 June2024.
  19. ^"Anlage zu § 1. Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos gemäß § 42 Abs. 2 BEG"(in German). Archived fromthe originalon 23 April 2009.Retrieved16 June2024.
  20. ^Wardzyńska 2009,p. 203.
  21. ^"68 lat temu zlikwidowano obóz hitlerowski w Żabikowie".Poznań Nasze Miasto(in Polish).Retrieved16 June2024.
  22. ^Studnicka-Mariańczyk, Karolina (2018). "Zakład Karny w Sieradzu w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939–1945".Zeszyty Historyczne(in Polish).17:187–192.
  23. ^Kołakowski, Andrzej (2020). "Zbrodnia bez kary: eksterminacja dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w latach 1939–1945". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)(in Polish). Kraków:Uniwersytet Jagielloński,Biblioteka Jagiellońska.p. 74.
  24. ^abcLedniowski, Krzysztof; Gola, Beata (2020). "Niemiecki obóz dla małoletnich Polaków w Łodzi przy ul. Przemysłowej". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)(in Polish). Kraków:Uniwersytet Jagielloński,Biblioteka Jagiellońska.pp. 147–149.
  25. ^abcdKrystyna Dobak-Splitt; Jerzy Aleksander Splitt.""Dom wychowawczy" dla polskich dzieci w Kaliszu ".Kalisz.info(in Polish).Retrieved16 June2024.
  26. ^R. M. Douglas (2012).Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War.Yale University Press. p. 21.ISBN978-0-300-18376-4.In a keynote address to the Reichstag to mark the end of the 'Polish campaign', on October 6, 1939, Hitler announced theHeim ins Reich(Back to the Reich) program. The prospect of being uprooted from their homes to face an uncertain future not even in Germany proper, but in the considerably less salubrious environment of western Poland, was greeted with a deep sense of betrayal.
  27. ^Pietrowicz 2011,pp. 28–33.
  28. ^Pietrowicz 2011,pp. 34, 36.
  29. ^Pietrowicz 2011,pp. 23–26, 31–32.
  30. ^Graf, Władysław (1994). "Wojskowa konspiracja AK 1940–1944. Część 1".Zeszyty Ostrzeszowskie(in Polish). No. 38. Ostrzeszowskie Centrum Kultury. pp. 4, 7–8.
  31. ^Pietrowicz 2011,p. 23.
  32. ^Aleksandra Pietrowicz.""Dorsze" z Poznania ".Przystanek Historia(in Polish).Retrieved16 June2024.
  33. ^Graf, Władysław (1992). "Ostrzeszów: obozy jenieckie okresu 1940–1942".Zeszyty Ostrzeszowskie(in Polish). No. 17. Ostrzeszowskie Centrum Kultury. pp. 9–10, 16–18.
  34. ^Pietrowicz 2011,p. 26.
  35. ^Ledniowski, Krzysztof; Gola, Beata (2020). "Niemiecki obóz dla małoletnich Polaków w Łodzi przy ul. Przemysłowej". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)(in Polish). Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska. pp. 158–159.
  36. ^Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945.p. 147.
  37. ^Anna Czuchra (30 January 2016)."71. rocznica mordu na mieszkańcach Marchwacza".Wielkopolski Urząd Wojewódzki w Poznaniu(in Polish).Retrieved16 June2024.
  38. ^"75. rocznica likwidacji i ewakuacji więźniów obozu karno-śledczego w Żabikowie".Muzeum Martyrologiczne w Żabikowie(in Polish). 19 January 2020.Retrieved16 June2024.
  39. ^Norman M. Naimark,The Russians in Germany.p. 75.ISBN0674784057.

Sources

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Further reading

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52°24′00″N16°55′00″E/ 52.400000°N 16.916667°E/52.400000; 16.916667

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