WWII in Gdańsk
German troops storming the Westerplatte Peninsula on September 1st, 1939. | Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E10718 : Haine : CC-BY-SA 3.0
Unbeknownst to a European continent still healing its wounds in the two short decades since World War I, the unavoidable and terrifyingly quick successor to what had been idealistically referred to as the ‘War to End All Wars’ would prove to be even more devastating and destructive; and a more lasting tragedy. World War II was the most global, and the most deadly conflict in human history. And it began right here in Danzig/Gdańsk.
PRELUDE The city had long been caught in a tug-of-war between Germany and Poland, and the decision by the League of Nations to make it a Free City State following World War I left neither side happy. Though the two communities continued to live together as they had for centuries, the Germans now controlled the State senate, the police and much of the business, while the Poles dominated the railways, port authority and had their own postal service. After the election of Hitler in neighbouring Germany, bitter rivalries came to the surface, anti-Polish sentiment spread rapidly, and by 1935 the local police force had started keeping tabs on any Pole seen as a threat to German interests. The rise in tensions wasn’t a shock to Poles. In 1925 the League of Nations had bowed to pressure and consented to the deployment of a token 88-man Polish force across the water from the Free City on the Polish-controlled Westerplatte Peninsula. As Hitler’s posturing became ever more threatening, the Poles continued to covertly strengthen their foothold, smuggling in military hardware and secretly building fortifications in breach of League of Nations decrees. 40
OUTBREAK On August 31, 1939, Nazi units dressed in Polish uniform infamously staged a mock attack on a radio tower in the German border town of Gleiwitz (now Gliwice). Photos of the charade were flashed across the world, with Hitler claiming a provocative attack by the Polish army. The following dawn, Germany launched a strike on Westerplatte (p.43), an attack that would ultimately kick off World War II. Popular theory asserts the first shots of the war were fired from the German warship the SMS Schleswig Holstein, supposedly visiting Gdańsk on a goodwill mission. Wrong. Logbooks recovered by the Nowy Port Lighthouse across the water from Westerplatte prove beyond doubt that the German battleship was pre-empted by a matter of three minutes by a Nazi gun emplacement halfway up the lighthouse. Shocked, but ready, the Poles scored a direct hit on the lighthouse, thus in all likelihood making the German lighthouse gunners the first casualties in a war that would go on to claim 55 million lives. The German shelling of Westerplatte was simultaneously supported by infantry attacks on the Westerplatte gateway, with the Polish defenders repelling repeated advances by the navy storm troopers. At precisely the same time, another equally ferocious battle was being waged at the small post office (p.43)in the city’s then-named Hevelius Square. Detachments of German police and SS laid siege to the 50 Polish post workers inside, who put up a brave struggle for over 17 hours until casualties became intolerable, part of the building collapsed and the Germans began to attack with flamethrowers.
