Content Warning: This article analyzes historical events related to mass executions and ethnic cleansing during World War II, which may be distressing. Its purpose is to educate about the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the importance of human rights, encouraging reflection on the dangers of discrimination and the value of memory.

Intelligenzaktion, a Nazi operation launched in late 1939, aimed to eliminate the Polish intelligentsia and elite to crush potential resistance and facilitate Germanization. In Danzig-West Prussia (now Pomerania), this campaign, led by Gauleiter Albert Forster, resulted in the murder of approximately 12,000 to 20,000 Poles and Kashubs from September 1939 to the spring of 1940, with total regional deaths reaching 60,000 by the end of the war. The incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into the Reich violated the Treaty of Versailles and sparked terror. This analysis, based on verified sources such as Wikipedia, the Wikipedia reader WikiMili, and historical accounts from Poland in War Tours, provides an objective overview of the operation, Forster’s role, and its aftermath, to foster debate about human rights violations and the dangers of ethnic cleansing.

The annexation of Danzig and pre-war planning

The Free City of Danzig, established by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, was a semi-autonomous territory under the supervision of the League of Nations, with a predominantly German population but with Polish rights to the port. Nazi Germany considered this a violation of national unity. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and Danzig was immediately incorporated into the Reich, becoming part of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia on October 8, 1939, under the command of Gauleiter Albert Forster.

Before the invasion, Nazi authorities compiled lists of Polish elites (teachers, clergy, intellectuals, veterans, doctors, and landowners) for arrest and elimination. This was part of Operation Tannenberg, a broader plan to decapitate Polish society. In Pomerania (Gdańsk Pomerania), home to Polish and Kashubian communities, the repression was particularly severe and aimed at erasing cultural and political leadership.

The Role of Albert Forster and the Campaign of Terror
Albert Forster, appointed Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter on October 26, 1939, oversaw the administration of Danzig-West Prussia. Forster, a fervent Nazi, incited violence in a speech at the Prusinski Hotel in Wejherowo, urging ethnic Germans to attack Poles: “We must eliminate the lice-ridden Poles, starting with those in their cradles.” This rhetoric fueled pogroms and mass arrests.

The Pomeranian Intelligenzaktion, a regional phase of the broader Intelligenzaktion, targeted 61,000 Poles from special lists, and executions from the fall of 1939 to the spring of 1940 claimed around 65,000 lives in total in Pomerania. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz units, supported by the Wehrmacht and SS, carried out the massacres, often with threatened local collaboration.

Key sites included Piaśnica, a forest near Wejherowo, where between 12,000 and 20,000 Poles and Kashubs were murdered from October 1939 to early 1940 and buried in mass graves. Elsewhere, such as the “Valley of Death” of Chojnice, 2,000 deaths were recorded, including patients in psychiatric hospitals under Action T4. In November 1939, the region was declared “Judenfrei” (free of Jews), with 30,000 Jews murdered or deported.

The Forster administration expelled between 35,000 and 170,000 Poles, and 87,000 were “evacuated” by February 1940, according to its reports. The region recorded a total of 60,000 murders by the end of the war, including ethnic cleansing and forced Germanization.

Broader Context: Intelligenzaktion and Nazi Objectives

Intelligenzaktion was part of Operation Tannenberg, carried out by the Einsatzgruppen and Selbstschutz, killing 100,000 Polish intellectuals across the country. In Danzig-West Prussia, it aligned with Lebensraum ideology, displacing Slavs with German settlers. Forster’s power struggle with Himmler limited SS interference, but he enforced Nazi policies ruthlessly.

The campaign destroyed Polish culture, closed schools, confiscated property, and conscripted labor. The Kashubs, ethnic Poles of Germanic descent, were forced into the Deutsche Volksliste, reclassifying them as Germans.

After Germany’s surrender in May 1945, Forster was captured by the Red Army and tried at the Gdańsk National Court in 1946 for war crimes, including the Piaśnica murders. Convicted, he was executed by hanging on February 28, 1952.

The trials exposed the scale of the operation, with evidence from mass graves and survivor testimonies. Monuments like the one in Piaśnica commemorate the victims and educate about the forgotten aspects of the genocide.

The Intelligenzaktion in Danzig-West Prussia, under Albert Forster, exemplified Nazi ethnic cleansing, murdering between 12,000 and 20,000 Poles in Piaśnica alone and up to 60,000 regionally. From the annexation of Danzig to Forster’s execution in 1952, it devastated the Polish and Kashubian communities of Pomerania. For history enthusiasts, this story underscores the fragility of human rights and the dangers of discrimination. Verified sources like Wikipedia encourage remembrance of the victims and dialogue about preventing genocide and building a tolerant future.