Gau Pomerania
{{Short description|Administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
|conventional_long_name = Gau Pomerania
|common_name = Gau Pomerania
|subdivision = Gau
|nation = Nazi Germany
|image_flag = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
|image_coat = File:Arms of Pomerania.svg
|image_map = NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png
|image_map_caption =
|national_anthem =
|capital = Stettin
|p1 = Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)
|p2 =
|flag_p1 = Provinz Pommern flag.svg
|flag_p2 =
|flag_s1 = Flag of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (state).svg
|flag_s2 = Flag of Poland.svg
|s1 = Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
|s2 = Poland
|event_start = Establishment
|year_start = 1925
|date_start = 22 March
|event_end = Disestablishment
|year_end = 1945
|date_end = 1 August
|pol_subdiv =
|title_leader = Gauleiter
|leader1 = Theodor Vahlen
|year_leader1 = 1925–1927
|leader2 = Walther von Corswant
|year_leader2 = 1927–1931
|leader3 = Wilhelm Karpenstein
|year_leader3 = 1931–1934
|leader4 = Franz Schwede-Coburg
|year_leader4 = 1934–1945
|today= Germany{{Clear}}Poland
|stat_year1 =
|stat_area1 =
|stat_pop1 =
}}
The Gau Pomerania (German: Gau Pommern) formed on 22 March 1925, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 comprising the Prussian province of Pomerania. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. Most of the Gau became part of Poland after the Second World War while the remainder became part of what would become East Germany.
History
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onwards, after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.{{cite web |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/ns-regime/innenpolitik/gaue/ |title= Die NS-Gaue |website=dhm.de |publisher=Deutsches Historisches Museum|access-date= 29 March 2016|language=de|trans-title=The Nazi Gaue }}
At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiters often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.{{cite web |url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-06-organization.html |title=The Organization of the Nazi Party & State |website=nizkor.org |publisher=The Nizkor Project |access-date=29 March 2016 |archive-date=9 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109221505/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-06-organization.html |url-status=dead }}
The position of Gauleiter in Pomerania was first held by Theodor Vahlen from 1925 to 1927 when he was dismissed because of his association with Gregor and Otto Strasser. He was succeeded as Gauleiter by Walther von Corswant from 1927 to 1931, who continued to represent Pomerania as a Reichstag member until his death in 1942. The post of Gauleiter was next held by Wilhelm Karpenstein from 1931 to 1934, followed by Franz Schwede-Coburg from 1934 to 1945.{{cite web |url=http://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/uebersicht-der-nsdap-gaue-der-gauleiter-und-der-stellvertretenden-gauleiter-zwischen-1933-und-1945/ |title= Übersicht der NSDAP-Gaue, der Gauleiter und der Stellvertretenden Gauleiter zwischen 1933 und 1945 |website=zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de |publisher=Zukunft braucht Erinnerung|access-date= 29 March 2016|language=de|trans-title=Overview of Nazi Gaue, the Gauleiter and assistant Gauleiter from 1933 to 1945 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/gau_pomm.html |title= Gau Pommern |website=verwaltungsgeschichte.de |access-date= 29 March 2016|language=de|trans-title=Gau Pomerania }} Karpenstein survived the war and died in 1968.{{cite web |url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd130334928.html |title= Karpenstein, Wilhelm |website=deutsche-biographie.de |publisher=Bavarian State Library|access-date= 29 March 2016|language=de}} Franz Schwede was the first Nazi Party member to become Mayor of a German city, Coburg in Bavaria, and was therefore awarded the honorary addition of Coburg to his name by Adolf Hitler. Highly anti-Semitic Schwede-Coburg had the last Jews in Pomerania deported in early 1940 and thereby made the Gau the first to be Judenrein, free of Jews.
The local Polish population was subjected to persecution, which intensified during the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II in September 1939 with mass arrests of Polish activists, teachers etc., who were then sent to concentration camps.{{cite journal|last=Cygański|first=Mirosław|year=1984|title=Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939-1945|journal=Przegląd Zachodni|language=pl|issue=4|pages=48–49, 54}}
File:Stalag II D Stargard.jpg in Stargard]]
Germany operated several prisoner-of-war camps, including Stalag II-B, Stalag II-C, Stalag II-D, Stalag II-E, Stalag Luft I, Stalag Luft II, Stalag Luft IV, Stalag Luft 7, Stalag 302, Stalag 351, Oflag II-B, Oflag II-C, Oflag II-D and Oflag 65, for Polish POWs and civilians, including women and children, and French, Belgian, Dutch, Serbian, Italian, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, Czech, Soviet, Senegalese, Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian, South African and other Allied POWs, with numerous forced labour subcamps in the region.{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=221, 230–232, 284, 353, 393, 397–398, 401, 503–505, 507, 510|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}{{cite web|url=http://stalag2b.free.fr/leskommandos.htm|title=Les Kommandos|website=Stalag IIB Hammerstein, Czarne en Pologne|access-date=21 June 2024|language=fr}}{{cite journal|last=Aniszewska|first=Jolanta|year=2011|title=W obowiązku pamięci... Stalag II D i formy upamiętnienia jeńców wojennych w Stargardzie Szczecińskim|journal=Łambinowicki rocznik muzealny|location=Opole|language=pl|volume=34|page=21}}
There were also several subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp{{cite journal|last=Gliński|first=Mirosław|title=Podobozy i większe komanda zewnętrzne obozu Stutthof (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=3|page=160|issn=0137-5377}} and several Nazi prisons with numerous forced labour subcamps in the region. Połczyn-Zdrój was the location of a Germanisation camp for kidnapped Polish children.{{cite web|url=https://www.polczyn-zdroj.pl/node/318|title=Lebensborn|website=Połczyn-Zdrój|access-date=21 June 2024|language=pl}} Piła, Unieszyno and Police housed camps for Sinti and Romani people (see Romani Holocaust).{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100000795|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Schneidemühl|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=21 June 2024|language=de}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001328|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Wunneschin|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=21 June 2024|language=de}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001210|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Stettin|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=21 June 2024|language=de}}
The Polish resistance movement was active in the region, including the Odra organization and local units of the Home Army. Activities included espionage of German military activity, infiltration of the local German industry, sabotage actions, distribution of Polish underground press,{{cite book|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|year=2022|title=Polskie Państwo Podziemne na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945|language=pl|location=Gdańsk|publisher=IPN|pages=47–48, 57|isbn=978-83-8229-411-8}}{{cite book|author= |title=Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945|year=1998|location=Poznań|language=pl|publisher=Instytut Zachodni|page=625|isbn=83-85003-97-5}} and facilitating escapes of Polish and British prisoners of war who fled from German POW camps by the Baltic Sea to neutral Sweden.{{cite journal|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|title=Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=5|pages=29–30|issn=0137-5377}}
In early 1945, German-perpetrated death marches of prisoners of German POW camps and concentration camps passed through the region.{{cite journal|last=Gliński|first=Mirosław|title=Ewakuacja i wyzwolenie obozu Stutthof (25 stycznia–9 maja 1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=3|page=189|issn=0137-5377}}{{cite book|last=Kaszuba|first=Sylwia|editor-last=Grudziecka|editor-first=Beata|title=Stalag XX B: historia nieopowiedziana|language=pl|location=Malbork|publisher=Muzeum Miasta Malborka|pages=108–109|chapter=Marsz 1945|date=2021 |isbn=978-83-950992-2-9}}{{cite web|url=https://bialogard.info/7,4412,stalag-luft-iv-marsz-smierci|title=Stalag Luft IV. Marsz Śmierci|website=Miasto Białogard|access-date=21 June 2024|language=pl}}
When Soviet forces reached Pomerania Schwede-Coburg delayed the order of evacuation, thereby abandoning much of the population and goods behind enemy lines. His insistence in sending under-trained Volkssturm units into battle caused Pomerania to have the third-highest Volkssturm casualty of all German Gaue. He escaped from Pomerania but was captured by British forces. Sent to prison for 10 years in 1948, he died in Coburg in 1960.{{cite web |url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz120209.html |title= Schwede-Coburg (bis 1931 Schwede), Franz |website=deutsche-biographie.de |publisher=Bavarian State Library|access-date= 29 March 2016|language=de}}
See also
- Gauliga Pommern, the highest association football league in the Gauliga from 1933 to 1945
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/gauleiter.htm Illustrated list of Gauleiter]
{{Nazi Gaue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord missing|Germany}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gau Pomerania}}
Category:1931 establishments in Germany