Reichsgau Wartheland

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Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazi German government to the largest subdivision of the territory of Greater Poland which was directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939. The name "Wartheland" refers to the German name given to the Warta river. Its territory roughly corresponded to the previous Province of Posen of the German Empire. Historically, the main parts of the area had been annexed already by Prussia from 1793 until 1807. During the period 1815-1849 an autonomous Polish region linked with Prussia had been formed. The Poles regained independence in 1918-1919 (refer to "Greater Poland through history" section below).

Poznań (German: Posen) City Hall occupied by the Nazis

Area: 43,905 km²
Population: 4,693,700 (1941)

The territory was inhabited by Poles and a German minority (16.7 % of total population in 1921). During World War II many Poles and Jews (297.000) were expelled from the territory into the occupied General Government (more than 70,000 from Poznań alone) in actions called the Kleine Planung.

1 Invasion
2 Occupation
3 End of war
4 Notes
5 See also

[edit] Invasion

A series of staged attacks near the German-Polish border provided a pretext for invasion of Polish territory in 1939.

After the invasion of Poland, the conquered territory was partitioned among four different Reichsgau and the General Government area further east. Militärbezirk Posen was created in September 1939 and as Reichsgau Posen annexed to Germany on October 8, 1939, with Arthur Greiser as the first and only Gauleiter. The name Reichsgau Wartheland was introduced on January 29, 1940.

[edit] Occupation

In the Wartheland, the Nazis' goal was complete "Germanization", the political, cultural, social, and economic assimilation of the territory into the German Reich. In pursuit of this goal, the installed bureaucracy renamed streets and cities and seized tens of thousands of Polish enterprises, from large industrial firms to small shops, without payment to the owners.

The Germanization of the annexed lands also included an ambitious program to resettle Germans from the Baltic and other regions on farms and other homes formerly occupied by Poles and Jews. By the end of 1940, the SS had expelled 325,000 Poles and Jews from the Wartheland and the Danzig corridor and transported them to the General Government, confiscating their belongings. Many elderly people and children died en route or in makeshift transit camps such as those in the towns of Potulice, Smukal, and Torun. In 1941, the Nazis expelled a further 45,000 people.

[edit] End of war

At the beginning of 1945, the Red Army drove the retreating Germans through the Polish lands. Caught in severe winter temperatures, most resident German citizens fled, many too late due to restrictions by their own government. An estimated 50,000 of the former German residents perished, some from flight conditions, others from atrocities committed by vengeful Soviet soldiers as well as native Poles.

Early expulsions were undertaken by the Polish communist military authorities already before the Potsdam Conference. To ensure their incorporation to Poland, the Polish communists ordered that Germans were to be expelled. "We must expel all the Germans because countries are build on national lines and not on multi-national once." a cite from Plenum of Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party, May 20-21, 1945.^[1] Germans were defined as either Reichsdeutsche, people enlisted in 1st or 2nd Volksliste groups, and those of the 3rd group, who held German citizenship.

The early phase of expulsion was often particularly brutal. Polish soldiers, stated one report, "relate to German women as to free booty".^[2]

Later, at Potsdam conference, the Allies agreed on the post-WWII frontiers in Europe and officially sanctioned German populatin transfers. These actions gave way in spring 1946 to a series of larger, better organized, and less lethal "forced resettlements" which continued through 1947. A final major wave of resettlement resumed in 1948 and 1949.