



The Danzig Crisis

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAfter WW1, the Versailles Treaty made former Prussian city of Danzig a quasi-independent city-state. It was governed by a local parliament while was overseen by a League of Nations appointed high commissioner. Being surrounded by Polish territory, the port facilities were also open for Polish use, but the Polish did not take comfort in mere usage. The Polish wanted Danzig within its boundaries, but the predominantly ethnic German city wished for the status quo. When the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany, recruitment efforts by the party were active in Danzig. By 1933, 38% of the Danzig parliament was consisted of Nazi Party members, and a similarly significant percentage of the population expressed their wish to become a part of Germany. With pride, some of the parliamentarians wore the Nazi swastika on their arms.

ww2dbaseUnlike annexations of Austria and Memelland, Germany treated Danzig somewhat differently. During the annexation of Czechoslovakia, Adolf Hitler was ready to use force, but diplomatic victories averted military action. Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop went as far as quoting the Czechoslovakia crisis a failure because he was not able to provide the German military an opportunity to make war. With Danzig, Hitler intended to use it as a catalyst to provoke war with Poland. Karl Burckhardt, the League of Nations high commissioner of Danzig, noted to British Lord Halifax that Hitler told him

If the slightest incident happens now, I shall crush the Poles without warning in such a way that no trace of Poland can be found afterwards. I shall strike with the full force of a mechanized army, of which the Poles have no conception.

ww2dbaseBurckhardt thought Hitler was boasting his military might instead of threatening war, perhaps setting up a façade in the face of the currently ongoing British-French-Russian talks of an alliance to contain Germany. Halifax agreed and made nothing of it.

ww2dbaseAlthough the goal was different, the German propaganda machine deployed a similar strategy that had been effective in the previous annexations. One of them was the spread of propaganda using newspapers. While Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized with yellow stars and swastikas or simply attacked, German newspapers told exaggerated stories of prejudice against the German people in Danzig. William Manchester gathered a collection of headlines from the period:

In Karlsruhe the daily paper carried the headline "WARSAW THREATENS BOMBARDMENT OF DANZIG - UNBELIEVABLE AGITATION ON THE POLISH ARCHMADNESS!" "POLEN, GIB ACHT!" ("POLAND, LOOK OUT!") warned the Berliner Arbeiterzeitung; "ANSWER TO POLAND, THE RUNNER-AMOK (AMOKLÄUFER) AGAINST PEACE AND RIGHT IN EUROPE!" On Saturday, August 26, the Zwölf-Uhr Blatt reported: "THIS PLAYING WITH FIRE GOING TOO FAR - THREE GERMAN PASSENGER PLANES SHOT AT BY POLES - IN CORRIDOR MANY GERMAN FARMHOUSES IN FLAMES!" The banner headline in the Berliner Arbeiterzeitung that day read, "COMPLETE CHAOS IN POLAND - GERMAN FAMILIES FLEE - POLISH SOLDIERS PUSH TO EDGE OF GERMAN BORDER!" Goebbels saved his masterpiece for the Sunday Völkischer Beobachter: "ALL OF POLAND IN A WAR FEVER! 1.5 MILLION MEN MOBILIZED! UNINTERRUPTED TROOP TRANSPORT TOWARD FRONTIER! CHAOS IN UPPER SILESIA!"

ww2dbaseOf course, no German newspaper mentioned the German military mobilization on the Polish border.

ww2dbaseWithin Danzig, Germany built support both politically and militarily. The Nazi Party appointed Albert Forster as the city's Gauleiter, who proclaimed Danzig German; "In these happy times", he said, "we will stand together and give thanks to the Führer that he has brought us back into Greater Germany." Forster's proclamation was not without forceful support. Starting in Jun 1939, a force 4,000-strong and loyal to the Nazi party was organized in Danzig. On 25 Jun 1939, 1,000 men of the SS traveled to Danzig for a sports competition. After the event was over, they all remained. By the next month, people knew they had no intentions of leaving as they observed the words Heimwehr Danzig, "Home Guard Danzig", on the sleeves of their SS uniforms. By Aug, men were working around the clock to build barracks large enough to house 10,000 soldiers.

ww2dbaseThrough his diplomats, Hitler demanded several items that he knew would worsen relations with Poland, which included the admittance of Danzig into the German sphere of influence, the building a German highway a German railway through the "Polish Corridor", and the Polish participation in the Anti-Comintern Pact. Hitler knew he must constantly keep demands a bit above Polish tolerance, but yet reasonable enough to stretch out the negotiations, so that he could keep the issue open while Germany prepared for war. The last set of demands was given by Ribbentrop to British Ambassador to Berlin Neville Henderson on 29 Aug 1939, demanding a plebiscite in the "Polish Corridor" with voting rules tilted to favor a pro-German outcome. Two days later, the German military crossed the Polish border on a conquest that had been in the plans for months. The world finally realized the negotiations for Danzig was nothing but a catalyst, or perhaps, only a distraction.

ww2dbaseSources:

Isabel Denny, The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City

William Manchester, The Last Lion

Wikipedia

Last Major Update: May 2007

The Danzig Crisis Timeline

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