1939: Danzig

Anti-Semitic Legislation.

The year 1939, which may have ushered in the temporary eclipse of European civilization, saw so many territorial changes that the destruction of the Free City of Danzig was soon forgotten. Ever since Hitler rose to power, this preponderantly German territory of 754 square miles and a population of about 407,000 had gravitated more and more strongly toward the German orbit. By the beginning of 1939 it had been quite completely Nazified, save only for nominal remnants of the League of Nations' original authority, and Polish control over its customs and foreign affairs. It was even reported that in a conversation at Berchtesgaden on Jan. 5, Colonel Josef Beck, Polish Foreign Minister, and the German Chancellor had agreed to repudiate the shadowy League control as a prelude to the City's eventual return to German sovereignty. At any rate, anti-Jewish legislation similar to the German Nuremberg laws went into effect on Jan. 2, although it clearly violated the Danzig constitution. In the next few months several thousand Jews were expropriated and deported.

Interference by the German Gestapo.

Under the German-Polish non-aggression pact of 1934, the inevitable friction between the two countries over Danzig had been held in check and open propaganda for return of the Free City to the Reich discouraged. On Feb. 24, however, fighting broke out between uniformed Nazis and Polish students in the Danzig Technical College, and the latter were ejected from the building. Protests and counter-protests followed; there were anti-German demonstrations in many sections of Poland; and on Feb. 27 a Warsaw official statement was issued declaring that if order were not restored in Danzig, Poland would 'be obliged to take appropriate action.' On Feb. 28 the Technical College was closed.

As Prague and Memel fell to the Nazis in March, many Danzigers confidently expected that they, too, would soon be absorbed by the Reich. Tension between Polish and Nazi officials in the Free City increased noticeably, while large Polish troop concentrations were reported at Gdynia — the Polish port adjacent to Danzig. Far-sighted Nazis realized, however, that the occupation of Danzig alone would not be sufficient. The Poles would merely shift their maritime commerce to Gdynia and let the Free City stagnate economically. Hence Heinrich Himmler, chief of all German police, visited the City on March 27 and instructed local Nazi leaders not to provoke a showdown.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's guarantee to Poland, made on March 31, strengthened the Poles in their determination not to yield to force on Danzig or the Polish Corridor, although they repeated their willingness to conduct peaceful negotiations over these problems. Enraged by the British pledge, Danzig Nazis attacked the residence of the Polish Commissioner General and other official Polish buildings on April 4. One day later, the Nazi party in the Free City was purged — possibly because of its premature enthusiasm for violence — and the German secret police were stated to have sent many persons to concentration camps in the Reich.

Nazi Plan for the Return of Danzig.

After myriad rumors of putsches, Adolf Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on April 28 injected a more definite note into the situation. The Fuehrer admitted Poland's need for free access to the sea, but insisted that Danzig was a German city. Yet it had 'contracts with Poland which were admittedly forced upon her by the dictators of the peace of Versailles.' In his negotiations with Poland, he had proposed the return of Danzig as a Free State into the Reich. In return Germany had been prepared to recognize all Polish economic rights in Danzig, and to ensure a free harbor for Poland with unimpeded access to the sea.

This plan, so reasonable on the surface, was received with utter distrust in Warsaw. Addressing the Polish Sejm on May 5, Colonel Beck stressed the fact that Danzig's economic life depended on Poland; recalled that he had suggested a common guarantee of the existence and rights of the Free City on March 26 but had had no reply from Berlin; and intimated that, although Poland had not menaced the political and cultural development of the German majority in the Free City, Germany might nevertheless be striving to bar Poland from the Baltic. Thus the question of Danzig had become merely one segment of the general struggle for supremacy between Germany and the Anglo-French-Polish bloc. It could no longer be settled on its merits.

Events Leading Up to the War.

Meanwhile violent attacks on Polish property and officials within the Free City continued. On the night of May 20 a resident of the Free City's territory was killed in a shooting affray involving Polish customs examiners, under circumstances which are in dispute. As a sequel to this affair, the well-nigh continuous dispute between Danzig and Poland was broadened to include controversy over the number and functions of the Polish Customs Inspector. In a manner which betokened expert management, tension was steadily increased by incident and incitation. On June 18 German Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels visited the city to inform an enthusiastic Nazi audience that their reunion with the Reich was assured.

At the same time increasingly frequent reports began to appear of German 'tourists' who were filtering into Danzig in large numbers. The police force was suddenly strengthened; a local 'free corps' was formed; German S. S. men took control of hills overlooking the city. On July 2, Albert Förster, leader of the Danzig Nazis, publicly stated that Danzigers were ready to sacrifice 'blood and life' in order to return to Germany whenever the Fuehrer demanded. He made even more inflammatory statements in a rally on July 9 and on a number of subsequent occasions. To cope with the situation both Britain and France informed Germany in the strongest terms that they would support Poland if the issue were to be decided by arms. On July 10, Prime Minister Chamberlain explicitly declared that Britain would aid Poland if it should invade Danzig to suppress a 'spontaneous' move to unite the city with the Reich.

Incorporation of Danzig into the Reich.

Throughout July and August the pace of preparation for absorption of the Free City was accelerated in a fashion closely resembling Nazi activities during the last days of Austria and the Czech Sudetenland. All sides, however, stood firmly upon their previous positions. In the first half of August, apparent efforts at compromise by the formerly inert League High Commissioner, Dr. Karl J. Burckhardt, at Berchtesgaden, and by Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano at Salzburg, were ineffective. By Aug. 22, when German Commissioner of Justice Dr. Hans Frank declared the juridical clauses making Danzig a Free City null and void, the die had been cast. On the morning of Sept. 1, as German troops crossed the Polish border, Herr Förster proclaimed the annexation of the City to the Reich.

Thus, for the third time since its foundation at the beginning of the thirteenth century, Danzig returned to German rule. The small Polish garrison which occupied the munitions dump at Westerplatte, in Danzig territory, finally surrendered on Sept. 7 after gallant resistance. To the inhabitants of the City, absorption into the Reich made little difference in their way of life, except that the abundance of food and supplies rapidly vanished to fill needs in other parts of Germany. On Sept. 19 Herr Hitler threw a last spotlight on the City when he entered it as a liberator to deliver a speech of defiance to his enemies. In November the League of Nations quietly washed its hands of responsibility for the area by simply omitting provision for a High Commissioner from its 1940 budget. Rapidly vanishing from public consciousness, Danzig slipped back into the obscurity of a provincial German town. See also GERMANY; POLAND.