Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The province Danzig-West Prussia (German: Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen) was a German administrative sub-division unit (Reichsgau) created in 1939 by the Nazis from the territory of the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), and Polish far-east Pomerania. The name became official on November 2, 1939, a month after invasion of Poland. The capital of the province was Danzig and its population without the city was 1,487,452 (in 1939). The area of the province was 26,057 km²
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 Roman 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.
[edit] Administration
Danzig West Prussia was divided into three districts. The main cities of each district were Bromberg, Danzig and Marienwerder.
