Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (German: Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen) was a German administrative sub-division (Reichsgau) created in 1939 from the territory of the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), and Polish far-east Pomerania.

The Nazi governor, Albert Förster, was later sentenced to death and executed for crimes against humanity. He operated his own concentration camp in Stutthof. The infamous mass murder site of Piasnica, where some 60,000 local Polish-Kashub intelligentsia were murdered, is located in the area. The Polish Catholic Church was severely persecuted and most Catholic priests were deported to concentration camps. However, most of Danzig's Jewish minority left the region in 1939, as Danzig was not then part of Germany. In March 1945 the region was captured by the Red Army, and after a few days of looting it returned to Polish administration.

Area: 26,057 km²Population: 1,487,452(1939, without Gdansk)

While German nationalist propaganda claimed the territory had significant German population which desired reunification with German state, Reich statistics show that in 1939 out of 1,487,452 people only 210,000 were Germans. Including Danzig (348,000 inhabitants, 95% German (1923)) the population was still predominatly Polish before the Second World War.
*Administration of Danzig-West Prussia 1939-1945
*World War II evacuation and expulsion

See also

* Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
* West Prussia
* Pomerania
* Albert Förster