Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazis 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 main parts of Reichsgau Wartheland had been occupied by Prussia (later Germany) during 1793-1807. During the period 1815-1849 an autonomous Polish region linked with Prussia had been formed and was abolished after 1849, but the Poles achieved independence in 1918-1919 (refer to "Greater Poland through history" section below). Image:Posen Rathaus Nazi.jpg

• 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 were expelled from the territory into the GG (more than 70,000 from Poznan alone) in actions called the Kleine Planung, part of Generalplan Ost.

Invasion

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

After the invasion of Poland, the conquered territory was partitioned among four different Reichsgau and the General Government area further east. Reichsgau Wartheland was created on October 8, 1939, with Arthur Greiser as the first and only Gauleiter.

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.

End of war

At the beginning of 1945, Russian forces 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, some from the atrocities committed by conquering Soviet soldiers. Most captured German men were sent to Soviet camps in Kazakhstan.

Of those German citizens who remained in their homes many were subsequently persecuted. Those who failed to pass reviews by the communists were expelled by the communist government, newly established in Poland by the Red Army. Private and public German property was confiscated and used to compensate Poles, who were forcibly relocated from southeastern Poland.

See also:

• Poland
• Poznań (city)
• History of Poznań (city)
• World War II atrocities in Poland
• History of Poland (1939-1945)
• Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany