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108-581: Prabuty is located between the Liwieniec and Sowica lakes, approximately 18 kilometers east of Kwidzyn , 100 kilometers southeast of Gdańsk , 100 kilometers west of Olsztyn , and 133 kilometers southwest of Kaliningrad . Prabuty is a rail junction on the Warsaw – Gdynia railway. In 1236, the Teutonic Knights under Henry III, Margrave of Meissen , destroyed an Old Prussian fortress between

216-482: A "dormant Polishness" and to determine which were redeemable as Polish citizens; few were actually expelled. The verification procedure varied in different territories and was changed several times. Initially, the applicants had to prove their past membership in a Polish minority organization of the German Reich, and in addition needed a warrant where three Polish locals testified their Polishness. In April 1945,

324-624: A chaotic situation in the American and British zones of occupation. The Soviet Union transferred territories to the east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland in July 1945. Subsequently, most of the remaining Germans were expelled to the territories west of the line. President Harry S. Truman complained that there were now five occupation zones because the Soviets had turned over the area extending along

432-661: A customs chamber for Polish products floated down the Vistula to Polish Baltic ports. The town of Marienwerder meanwhile had become the capital of the District of Marienwerder . In 1772, the Marienwerder district was integrated into the newly established Prussian Province of West Prussia , which consisted mostly of territories annexed in the First Partition of Poland . In November 1831, several Polish cavalry units of

540-784: A general loss of sense for right and wrong. Much abuse also came from large Soviet contingents stationed in Poland after the war . A high number of crimes committed by regular Soviet soldiers - on both Germans and Poles - had been reported (see Rape during the liberation of Poland ). A high death toll among the few Polish officials who dared to investigate these cases followed. Yet, Soviet troops played an ambiguous role, as there are also cases where Soviets freed local Germans imprisoned by Poles, or delayed expulsions to keep German workforce, for example on farms providing Soviet troops (for instance in Słupsk ). The damaged infrastructure and quarrels between

648-476: A lesser extent, even the newly arrived Poles were facing was an enormous crime wave, most notably theft and rape, committed by gangs not only consisting of regular criminals but also Soviet soldiers, deserters or former forced laborers (Ost-Arbeiter), coming back from the west. In Upper Silesia , a party official, complained about some Polish security forces and militia raping and pillaging the German population and

756-518: A letter to Roosevelt expressed his concerns about the idea of compensating Poland in the west. However, pressed by Churchill, he was forced to accept the Tehran decision, which was the direct cause of his resignation from his post. The next Polish Prime Minister, Tomasz Arciszewski claimed that Poland did not "want neither Breslau nor Stettin". Although the Polish government-in-exile was recognised by

864-464: A proof of a continual Polish settlement. The Polish government aimed to retain as many "autochthons" as possible, as they were needed both for economic reasons and also for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate an intrinsic "Polishness" character of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as " Recovered Territories ". "Verification" and "national rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal

972-587: A small cellar were set up. The attitude of Polish civilians, many of whom had experienced brutalities during the preceding German occupation , was varied. There were incidents when Poles, even freed slave labourers, protected Germans, for example by disguising them as Poles. The attitude of the Soviet soldiers was ambivalent. Many committed numerous atrocities, most prominently rapes and murders, and did not always distinguish between Poles and Germans, often mistreating them alike. Other Soviets were taken aback by

1080-748: A treaty regulating the new Polish-Soviet border. A year later, before the Potsdam Conference, the western Allies followed Stalin, recognized the Soviet-sponsored government, which accepted the shift of the borders westwards, and withdrew their recognition for the Polish government-in-exile. Poles were classified as sub-humans (Untermenschen) by the Nazis, with their ultimate fate being slavery and extermination, while Germans occupied position of privileged "Uebermenschen" that were to rule over Poles and other nations; when Stanisław Mikołajczyk joined

1188-664: Is part of the region of Powiśle . The Pomesanian settlement called Kwedis existed in the 11th century. In 1232, the Teutonic Knights built the castle and established the town of Marienwerder (now Kwidzyn) the following year. In 1243, the Bishopric of Pomesania received both the town and castle from the Teutonic Order as fiefs, and the settlement became the seat of the Bishops of Pomesania within Prussia . The town

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1296-573: Is uncertain, though it is generally assumed that the majority emigrated. The German society of Wałbrzych has maintained a continuous existence since 1957. People from all over Poland moved in to replace the former German population in a process parallel to the expulsions. While the Germans were interned and expelled, up to 5 million settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the area. The settlers can be grouped according to their background: After 1 January 1948, Germans were primarily shipped to

1404-752: The Armia Krajowa , Soviet records indicated 506 of the Poles died in captivity. Tomasz Kamusella maintains that in early 1945, some 165,000 Germans were transported to the Soviet Union, where most perished. According to Gerhardt Reichling, 520,000 German civilians from the Oder-Neisse region were conscripted for forced labor by both the USSR and Poland, he maintains that 206,000 perished. Ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland, who collaborated with

1512-471: The Geneva Conventions , the Polish community was entitled to its own schools, and from 1934 local Poles strove to establish a Polish school. The Germans blocked the establishment of the school, and Polish organizations filed 100 complaints to the German administration before the Polish private gymnasium was finally established on November 10, 1937. Local German press incited the Germans against

1620-485: The November Uprising stopped in the town on the way to their internment places. By the enlargement of its administrative functions, the population of the town started to grow and in 1885, it numbered 8,079. This population was composed mostly of Lutheran inhabitants, many of whom were engaged in trades connected with the manufacturing of sugar, vinegar and brewing as well as dairy farming, fruit growing and

1728-605: The Polish Government were not present at any of those conferences and felt betrayed by their western Allies who decided about future Polish borders behind their backs. Following the Tehran Conference (November–December 1943) Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill made it clear that the Soviets would keep the Polish territories east of the Curzon Line and offered Poland territorial compensation in

1836-621: The Red Army 's advance and was composed of both spontaneous flight driven by Soviet atrocities , and organised evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through to the spring of 1945. Overall about 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the surrender in May 1945. In 1945, the eastern territories of Germany as well as Polish areas annexed by Germany were occupied by

1944-824: The Soviet occupation zone (after 7 October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR)), based on a Polish-Soviet agreement. Most Germans had been expelled by the end of 1947. In entire 1948, a relatively small number of 42,700 were expelled, and another 34,100 in 1949. In 1950, 59,433 Germans were expelled following a bi-lateral agreement between the People's Republic of Poland and the GDR, 26,196 of whom however headed for West Germany . Between October 1948 and December 1950 all 35,000 German prisoners of war detained in Poland were shipped to Germany. On 10 March 1951,

2052-475: The "Government of National Unity" as a deputy prime minister in 1945, he justified the expulsions of Germans by national terms following communist Władysław Gomułka , but also as a revolutionary act, freeing the Poles of exploitation by a German middle and upper class. In general the Polish historiography views the expulsion of Germans as justified and correct, even when describing it as a "lesser evil". The majority of German citizens and ethnic Germans who left

2160-664: The 1980s. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Elbląg Voivodeship . In 1982, the communists brutally crushed the protest of interned anti-communist oppositionists. The main landmark is the Kwidzyn Castle , a 14th-century Brick Gothic Ordensburg castle and cathedral complex of the Pomesanian Cathedral Chapter, which now houses a museum. It is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland . The adjacent co-cathedral of St. John

2268-453: The Allied authorities in the occupation zones of Germany and the Polish administration caused long delays in the transport of expellees, who were first ordered to gather at one of the various PUR transportation centers or internment camps and then often forced to wait in ill-equipped barracks, exposed both to criminals, aggressive guards and the cold and not supplied sufficiently with food due to

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2376-738: The Allies at that time, the Soviet Union broke off all diplomatic relations with it in April 1943 after Polish government demanded the investigation of the Katyn massacre . On April 20, 1944, in Moscow, the Soviet sponsored Polish Communist cell founded the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) on Stalin's initiative. Just one week later the representatives of the PKWN and the Soviet Union signed

2484-648: The Committee for Polish Affairs, which, however, had to operate partly secretly. On May 16, 1920, the largest Polish plebiscite demonstration in Powiśle took place in the town, and Poles had to organize defenses against attacks by German militias. According to Polish sources there was German electoral fraud resulted in 7,811 votes given to remain in East Prussia, and therefore Germany, and only 362 for Poland. Afterwards, anti-Polish terror intensified. According to

2592-668: The Evangelist was built between 1343 and 1384, and serves as a co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elbląg . It contains the tombs of three Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights as well as numerous bishops. A bridge connects the castle to a sewer tower which was once situated on a river that has since dried up. Other sights include the Appellate Court for Kwidzyn County, the town hall,

2700-561: The German inhabitants were expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and the pre-war Polish population was joined by Poles displaced from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union . Heinz Heydrich (1905–44), brother of Reinhard Heydrich , is buried in the local military cemetery, according to the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) . The local football club is Pogoń Prabuty. It competes in

2808-600: The German minority engaged in mass murder, rapes and plunder of Polish citizens, in addition to making lists of people that were to be sent to German concentration camps. Poles wanted to avoid such events in the future and as a result, Polish exile authorities proposed a population transfer of Germans as early as 1941. In 1941, Władysław Sikorski of the Polish government-in-exile insisted on driving "the German horde (...) back far [westward]", while in 1942 memoranda he expressed concern about Poland acquiring Lower Silesia , populated with "fanatically anti-Polish Germans". Yet as

2916-600: The German occupiers, were considered "traitors of the nation" and sentenced to forced labor. In territories that belonged to Poland before the war, Germans were treated even more harshly than in the former German territories. Deprived of any citizen rights, many were used as forced labor prior to their expulsion, sometimes for years, in labor battalions or in labour camps. The major camps were at Glatz , Mielęcin , Gronów , Sikawa , Central Labour Camp Jaworzno , Central Labour Camp Potulice , Łambinowice (run by Czesław Gęborski ), Zgoda labour camp and others. When Gęborski

3024-515: The German population. In July 1945, at the Potsdam Conference , the Allies placed most former eastern territories of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line under Polish administration. Article XIII concerning the transfer of Germans was adopted at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. It was an emergency measure, drafted and adopted in great haste, a response to the wild expulsions of Germans from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which had created

3132-464: The German population. A majority of them left the city but not all arrived save territory alive. Those which stayed were robbed, raped and eventually murdered by the Red Army. On 30 January the town was captured by the Red Army. The Red Army established a war hospital in the town for 20,000 people. The town center was burned and pillaged by Soviet soldiers. In the course of 1945 the city was emptied of

3240-518: The Germans have to be driven out. The main objective has to be the cleansing of the terrain of Germans, the building of a nation state". To ensure the Oder–Neisse line would be accepted as the new Polish border at a future Allied Conference (Potsdam Conference), up to 300,000 Germans living close to the rivers' eastern bank were expelled subsequently. On May 26, 1945, the Central Committee ordered all Germans to be expelled within one year and

3348-555: The Germans in Poland to go west, to Germany proper, where they belong". On February 6, 1945, Soviet NKVD ordered mobilisation of all German men (17 to 50 years old) in the Soviet-controlled territories. Many of them were then transported to the Soviet Union for forced labour . In the former German territories the Soviet authorities did not always distinguish between the Poles and Germans and often treated them alike. German civilians were also held as "reparation labor" by

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3456-1008: The Holy Trinity church, the Saint Padre Pio chapel, various government buildings and old townhouses. A branch of International Paper is located in Kwidzyn, as is the Kwidzyn School of Management. The second biggest employer in Kwidzyn is Jabil , a global electronics manufacturing services company. The city has lower average crime and unemployment rates when compared with the national average rates of Poland . These lower rates are attributed to sports programmes for youth such as MMTS Kwidzyn ( handball ) and MTS Basket Kwidzyn . The town's main sports clubs are: The intersections of Polish National roads 55 and 90, Voivodeship roads 521 and 532, and Voivodeship roads 518 and 588, are located either in Kwidzyn or just outside of

3564-429: The Nazis to replace Poles removed or killed during the occupation. Germany deported millions of Poles either to other territories, to concentration camps or as slave workers. Many others were deported by the Soviet Union during the years 1939-1941, when Germany and Soviet Union cooperated against Poles . German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland participated in wartime German activities, starting with

3672-453: The Oder and Neisse rivers eastward before Polish authorities closed the river crossings, another 800,000 entered Silesia from Czechoslovakia, bringing up Silesia's population to 50% of the pre-war level. This led to the odd situation of treks of Germans moving about in all directions, to the east as well as to the west, each warning the others of what would await them at their destination After

3780-477: The Oder and western Neisse to Poland and was concerned about Germany's economic control and war reparations. Churchill spoke against giving Poland control over an area in which some eight million Germans lived. Stalin insisted that the Germans had all fled and that the Poles were needed to fill the vacuum. On July 24, the Polish communist delegation arrived in Berlin, insisting on the Oder and western Neisse rivers as

3888-480: The Polish "Bureau for Repatriation" (PUR) was disbanded; all further resettlement from Poland to Germany was carried out in a non-forcible and peaceful manner by the Polish state travel agency Orbis. According to the Polish census of 1946, there were still 2,036,400 Germans in the " Recovered Territories ", 251,900 in the pre-war Polish territories (primarily eastern Upper Silesia , Pomerelia and Greater Poland ) and

3996-405: The Polish administration had set up a State Repatriation Office ( Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny, PUR ), the bureau and its administrative subunits proved ineffective due to quarrels between Communists and opposition and a lack of equipment for the giant task of expelling Germans and resettling Poles in an area devastated by war. Furthermore, rivalry occurred between the Soviet occupation forces and

4104-437: The Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their place of residence was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. Many areas located near

4212-463: The Polish school on the same day. Nazi Germany co-formed the Einsatzgruppe V in the town, which then entered several Polish cities, including Grudziądz , Ciechanów , Łomża and Siedlce , to commit various atrocities against Poles during the German invasion of Poland , which started World War II . Many Poles expelled from German-occupied Poland were deported to forced labour in

4320-679: The Polish school, and in 1938 a fourteen-year-old boy was shot at the school playground, which the German police ignored, and the shooter was not caught. The Germans, especially the Hitler Youth , repeatedly harassed and attacked Polish students and devastated the school. It was forcibly closed down on August 25, 1939. The German police surrounded the Polish school and arrested its principal Władysław Gębik, 13 teachers, other staff and 162 students, who were imprisoned in Tapiau (today Gvardeysk ), and then deported elsewhere. Later on, students under

4428-600: The Potsdam Conference, Poland was officially in charge of the territories east of the Oder–Neisse line. Despite the fact that article 12 of the Potsdam agreement from August 2, 1945, stated that "population transfer" should be performed in ordered and humane manner, and should not commence until after the creation of an expulsion plan approved by the Allied Control Council, the expulsions continued without rules and were associated with many criminal acts. While

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4536-547: The Soviet Red Army and communist Polish military forces . German civilians were also sent as "reparation labor" to the USSR. The Soviet Union transferred former German territories in the east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland in July 1945. In mid-1945, 4.5 to 4.6 million Germans remained on the territories that were given under Polish control pending a final peace conference with Germany, which eventually never took place. Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by

4644-549: The Soviet Zone from Poland in 1947. An unknown number remained; a small German minority continues to reside in Upper Silesia and Masuria. The regions were typically evacuated of its population village by village. On short notice, Germans were ordered to assemble in the local market square to march on to a relocation camp (obozy tranzytowe), allowed to take with them as much as they could carry. Deportation of Germans

4752-460: The Soviet annexation, the lands initially faced a severe population shortage. By early 1946, 932,000 people had been "verified" as having Polish nationality. In the February 1946 census, 2,288,000 persons were listed as Germans and 417,400 became subject to verification aiming at the establishment of nationality. From the spring of 1946 the expulsions gradually became better organised, affecting

4860-533: The Soviet-backed communist military authorities in Poland even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"), to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland as envisioned by the Polish communists. Between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected. Contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the so-called Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by

4968-539: The Soviets, reparations were more important than boundaries, and Stalin might have given up on the Poles if they had not so vociferously protested when, in spite of his 'illness', he consulted with them during the evening of July 29. With German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland, there was an expressed fear of disloyalty of Germans in Eastern Upper Silesia and Pomerelia , based on wartime German activities. As Germany invaded Poland,

5076-705: The Teutonic Knights in the war, the town became part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights. In 1525, the Teutonic state was transformed into a secular and Lutheran duchy under the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Albert , a political foundation only possible with the consent of the Polish King Sigismund I the Old . The town was visited by Polish Kings Sigismund II Augustus in 1552 and Stephen Báthory in 1576. In 1618

5184-815: The USSR. Data from the Russian archives published in 2001, based on an actual enumeration, put the number of German civilians deported from Poland to the USSR in early 1945 for reparation labor at 155,262 where 37% (57,586) died. However, the West German Red Cross estimated in 1964 that 233,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR from Poland as forced laborers where 45% (105,000) were dead or missing. The West German Red Cross also estimated 110,000 German civilians were held as forced labor in Kaliningrad Oblast where 50,000 were dead or missing. The Soviets also deported from Poland 7,448 Poles of

5292-501: The Upper Silesian voivode declared the fulfillment of only one of these requirements to be sufficient. In Masuria, a Polish last name or a Polish-speaking ancestor was sufficient. On the other hand, in areas like Lower Silesia and the province of Pomerania , verification was handled much more strictly. Of the 1,104,134 "verified autochthons" in the census of 1950, close to 900,000 were natives of Upper Silesia and Masuria. To

5400-645: The Vistula, to which the town of Marienwerder belonged, was to take part in the East Prussian plebiscite , which was organized under the control of the League of Nations . The Inter-Allied Commission with nearly 2,000 troops often favored the Germans, and its services towards Poles were often delayed and limited, while the administration remained under German control. The town was home to the Polish Warmian Plebiscite Committee and

5508-659: The West. The final decision to move Poland's boundary westward, preconditioning the expulsion of Germans, was made by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, when the Curzon line was irrevocably fixed as the future Polish-Soviet border. The precise location of the Polish western border was left open and, though basically the Allies had agreed on population transfers,

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5616-555: The administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Westpreußen in the Province of East Prussia and from 1939 until 1945 to the district of Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder in the province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia . During World War II Germany operated a prisoner-of-war camp in the town. The town was captured by the Soviet Red Army in 1945 in the final months of the war. It then became again part of Poland. Most of

5724-411: The age of 18 were released, older students were forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht , while teachers and staff were deported to concentration camps , where most of them were murdered. The head of the local Polish Bank Ludowy was also arrested, and the local Polish consulate was cut off from telephone lines, nevertheless the state radio in Poland still provided information regarding the attack on

5832-464: The anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation in 1440. Since its establishment, part of the population wanted the town to join the organization. In 1451, the town council eventually joined the Prussian Confederation, but bishop Kaspar Linke expelled the councilors and confiscated their property. The town was accepted again by the organization in February 1454, and upon the request of the organization, in March 1454, Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated

5940-458: The area of post-war Poland fled or were evacuated before the arrival of Polish authorities. After the Red Army had advanced into the eastern parts of post-war Poland in the Lublin–Brest Offensive , launched on 18 July 1944, Soviet spearheads first reached eastern German territory on 4 August 1944 at northeastern East Prussia and Memelland , causing a first wave of refugees . With the Soviet Vistula–Oder Offensive , launched on 12 January 1945, and

6048-472: The area settled with some 3.5 million ethnic Poles; 2.5 million of them were already re-settled by summer. Germans were defined as either Reichsdeutsche or Volksdeutsche, resembling the 1st or 2nd category in the Nazis' Volksliste . People who had signed a lower category were allowed to apply for "verification", which was to determine whether they would be granted Polish citizenship as "autochthons". Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 Germans managed to cross

6156-408: The areas east of the Oder–Neisse line before Soviet and the attached Polish Army took control of the region. Refugee treks and ships which came into reach of the advancing Soviets suffered high casualties when targeted by low-flying aircraft, torpedoes, or were rolled over by tanks. The most infamous incidents during the flight and expulsion from the territory of later Poland include the sinking of

6264-423: The brutal treatment of the Germans and engaged in their protection. According to the West German Schieder commission of 1953, the civilian death toll was 2 million. However, in 1974 the German Federal Archives estimated a death toll of about 400,000 (including the victims of those deported from Kaliningrad ). German settlement in the former eastern territories of Germany and pre-war Poland dates back to

6372-479: The creation of a Greater Germany , which was to be built by means of removing a variety of non-Germans from Poland and other areas in Central and Eastern Europe, mainly Slavs and Jews believed by Nazis to be subhuman . These non-Germans were targeted for slave labor and eventual extermination . While Generalplan Ost's settlement ambitions did not come into full effect due to the war's turn, millions of Germans mostly from Central and Eastern Europe were settled by

6480-406: The ducal rights were inherited by the Brandenburg branch of the House of Hohenzollern , remaining under Polish suzerainty. In 1657 the Brandenburg dukes severed ties with the Polish crown and in 1701 elevated their realm to the sovereign Kingdom of Prussia . During the War of the Polish Succession , Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński stayed in the town in July 1734. In 1765 Prussia established

6588-432: The east (today mainly parts of Ukraine , Belarus and Lithuania ) settled in large numbers everywhere in the Recovered Territories (but many of them also settled in central Poland). During the war the population of the annexed areas of Poland was classified by the Nazis in different categories according to their "Germanness" in the Deutsche Volksliste . While most of the Volksdeutsche population of pre-war Poland fled or

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6696-594: The eastern territories was composed of both spontaneous flight and organized evacuation, starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through the early spring of 1945. Conditions turned chaotic in the winter, when miles-long queues of refugees pushed their carts through the snow trying to stay ahead of the Red Army. From the Baltic coast , thousands were evacuated by ship in Operation Hannibal . Since February 11, refugees were shipped not only to German ports, but also to German occupied Denmark , based on an order issued by Hitler on 4 February. Of 1,180 ships participating in

6804-413: The evacuation plans was delayed until Soviet and Allied forces had defeated the German forces and advanced into the areas to be evacuated. The responsibility for leaving millions of Germans in these vulnerable areas until combat conditions overwhelmed them can be attributed directly to the draconian measures taken by the German authorities against anyone even suspected of 'defeatist' attitudes [as evacuation

6912-453: The evacuation, 135 were lost due to bombs, mines, and torpedoes, an estimated 20,000 died. Between 23 January 1945 and the end of the war, 2,204,477 people, 1,335,585 of them civilians, were transported via the Baltic Sea, up to 250,000 of them to occupied Denmark. Most of the evacuation efforts commenced in January 1945, when Soviet forces were already at the eastern border of Germany. About six million Germans had fled or were evacuated from

7020-402: The expulsion of Germans: "We must expel all the Germans because countries are built on national lines and not on multi-national ones" was demanded by participants of a Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party on May 20–21, 1945. On the same Plenum, the head of the Central Committee, Władysław Gomułka, ordered: "There has to be a border patrol at the border [Oder-Neisse line] and

7128-438: The extent remained questioned. Concerning the post-war western frontier of Poland, the agreement simply read: " If a specific problem such as the frontiers of liberated Poland and the complexion of its government allowed no easy solution, hopes were held out for the future discussion of all outstanding problems in an amicable manner. " Upon gaining control of these lands, the Soviet and Polish-Communist authorities started to expel

7236-405: The families of the retained or the parts thereof remaining with them. About 250,000 had been issued East German passports in the 1950s, ending their former statelessness. Many were concentrated in the areas of Wrocław (former Breslau) Wałbrzych (former Waldenburg), and Legnica (former Liegnitz), all in Lower Silesia, and in Koszalin (former Köslin) in Pomerania. How many actually left

7344-441: The fighting in their homelands ended. Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 crossed back over the Oder and Neisse rivers eastward, before Soviet and Polish communist authorities closed the river crossings; another 800,000 entered Silesia from Czechoslovakia. The Polish courier Jan Karski warned US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the possibility of Polish reprisals, describing them as "unavoidable" and "an encouragement for all

7452-400: The flourishing economy. The Prussian Confederation , which opposed Teutonic rule, was founded in the town on March 14, 1440. The town itself joined the organization on 17 April 1440. Upon the request of the organization in 1454 Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region and town to the Kingdom of Poland , and the Thirteen Years' War broke out. In 1466, after the defeat of

7560-488: The former eastern territories of Germany; 290,800 from Danzig , 688,000 from pre-war Poland and 170,000 Baltic Germans resettled in Poland during the war). Research by the West German government put the figure of Germans emigrating from Poland from 1951 to 1982 at 894,000; they are also considered expellees under German Federal Expellee Law . The German population east of Oder-Neisse was estimated at over 11 million in early 1945. The first mass flight of Germans followed

7668-430: The frontier, and they vehemently argued their case before the foreign ministers, Churchill, and Truman, in turn. The next day Churchill warned Stalin: "The Poles are driving the Germans out of the Russian zone. That should not be done without considering its effect on the food supply and reparations. We are getting into a position where the Poles have food and coal, and we have the mass of (the) population thrown at us." To

7776-565: The guards, who insisted the internees should speak Polish, even if they were Germans born in German-speaking Silesia or Pomerania." Among the interned were also German POWs . Up to 10% of the 700,000 to 800,000 POWs of the respective battlegrounds were handed over to the Poles by the Soviet military for the use of their work force. POW labor was employed on the reconstruction of Warsaw and revival of industrial, agricultural and other productive enterprises Their number in 1946

7884-548: The industrial construction of machines. In 1910, Marienwerder had a population of 12,983 of which 12,408 (95.6%) were German-speaking and 346 (2.7%) were Polish-speaking. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I , the district of Marienwerder was divided. The parts west of the Vistula were incorporated into the Polish Second Republic , which had just regained its independence. The parts east of

7992-401: The internment "resulted in numerous deaths, which cannot be accurately determined because of lack of statistics or falsification . Periodically, they could be 10% of inmates. Those interned are estimated at 200-250,000 Germans and the local population, and deaths might range from 15,000 to 60,000 persons." Norman Naimark cited Zygmunt Woźniczka as maintaining "that the death toll in all camps

8100-416: The invasion of Poland. Created on order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , a Nazi ethnic German organisation called Selbstschutz carried out mass murder during Intelligenzaktion alongside operational groups of German military and police. In addition, the German minority engaged in such activities as identifying Poles for execution and illegally detaining them. To Poles, moving Germans out of Poland

8208-462: The lakes Dzierzgoń and Liwieniec. The settlement was first mentioned in 1250 as Riesenburg . The village grew around the castle and received Culm law city rights on 30 October 1330 from bishop Rudolf of Pomerania (1322–1332). In 1379 the town was visited by Lithuanian duke Švitrigaila . In 1410 and 1414 it was captured by the Poles. Knights and squires of the Prabuty district were co-founders of

8316-507: The last German inhabitants. Meanwhile, large parts of the inner city were sacked. Since then, Polish newcomers from Poland and Lithuania repopulated the town and its environments. The Lutheran ecclesiastical buildings were handed over to the Catholic Church. After World War II , the town became again part of Poland under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement , although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until

8424-464: The local German Nazi authorities headed by gauleiter Karl Hanke . The Polish historians Witold Sienkiewicz and Grzegorz Hryciuk maintain that civilian deaths in the flight and evacuation were "between 600,000 and 1.2 million. The main causes of death were cold, stress, and bombing". The Nazi German Ministry for Inner Affairs passed a decree on 14 March 1945 allowing abortion to women raped by Soviet soldiers. Many refugees tried to return home when

8532-716: The lower leagues. Kwidzyn Kwidzyn ( Kfee-dzin [ˈkfʲid͡zɨn] ; German : Marienwerder ; Latin : Quedin ; Old Prussian : Kwēdina ) is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River. With a population of 37,975, it is the capital of Kwidzyn County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship . Kwidzyn is located on the Liwa River, some 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) east of the Vistula river, approximately 70 km (43 mi) south of Gdańsk and 145 km (90 mi) southwest of Kaliningrad . It

8640-622: The medieval Ostsiedlung . Nazi Germany used the presence and the alleged persecution of Volksdeutsche as propaganda tools in preparation for the invasion of Poland in 1939. With the invasion, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . This was followed by population exchanges, and included Baltic Germans who were settled to occupied Poland. The Nazis' Generalplan Ost strategy for Central and Eastern Europe envisioned

8748-524: The military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff by a Soviet submarine with a death toll of some 9,000 people; the USAF bombing of refugee-crowded Swinemünde on 12 March 1945 killing an estimated 23,000 to 25,000; the desperate conditions under which refugees crossed the frozen Vistula Lagoon , where thousands broke in, froze to death, or were killed by Soviet aircraft; and the poorly organized evacuation and ultimate sacrifice of refugee-crowded Breslau by

8856-484: The newly installed Polish administration, a phenomenon dubbed dwuwladza (double administration). The Soviets kept trains and German workmen regardless of the Polish ambitions and plans. There was a simultaneous unorganized resettling of displaced and homeless Poles. Polish settlers, who themselves had been expelled from areas east of the Curzon Line, arrived with about nothing, putting an even higher pressure on

8964-572: The overall shortages. The "organized transfer" as agreed at the Potsdam Conference began in early 1946. Conditions for expellees improved, yet due to the lack of heating facilities, the cold winters of both 1945/46 and 1946/47 continued to claim many lives. On September 13, 1946 President Bierut signed a decree on "the exclusion of persons of German nationality from the Polish National Community" The major evictions were completed in 1946, although another 500,000 Germans arrived in

9072-724: The parallel East Prussian Offensive launched on 13 January 1945, Soviet gains of pre-war German and annexed Polish territory became permanent. With the subsequent East Pomeranian , Lower Silesian and Upper Silesian Offensives in February and March, the Red Army seized control of virtually all territories east of the Oder river. Wehrmacht counter-offensives like Operation Solstice and Operation Gemse were repelled, and only shrinking pockets like Breslau , Danzig , Heiligenbeil , Hela , Kolberg , Königsberg , and Pillau remained German controlled. Soviet soldiers committed reprisal rapes and other crimes In most cases, implementation of

9180-626: The pre-war German border were resettled by people from neighbouring borderland areas of pre-war Poland. For example, Kashubians from the pre-war Polish Corridor settled in nearby areas of German Pomerania adjacent to Polish Pomerania . People from the Poznań region of pre-war Poland settled in East Brandenburg . People from East Upper Silesia moved into the rest of Silesia. And people from Masovia and from Sudovia moved into adjacent Masuria. Poles expelled from former Polish territories in

9288-752: The region and town to the Kingdom of Poland , and the Thirteen Years' War broke out. The Bishop and canons of Pomesania also pledged allegiance to the Polish King. Around that time, the town was mentioned in documents as Prabuth . After the Battle of Chojnice , in which Polish forces were defeated, the town was forced to side with the Order again. After the war and the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) ,

9396-609: The remaining German population. By 1950, 3,155,000 German civilians had been expelled and 1,043,550 were naturalised as Polish citizens. Germans considered "indispensable" for the Polish economy were retained; virtually all had left by 1960. Some 500,000 Germans in Poland, East Prussia, and Silesia were employed as forced labor in communist-administered camps prior to being expelled from Poland. Besides large camps, some of which were re-used German concentration camps , numerous other forced labour, punitive and internment camps, urban ghettos, and detention centres sometimes consisting only of

9504-470: The remaining Germans to leave. For the Germans, the Potsdam Agreement eased conditions only in one way - because now the Poles were more confident in keeping the former eastern territories of Germany, the expulsions were performed with less haste, which meant the Germans were duly informed about their expulsions earlier and were allowed to carry some luggage. Another problem the Germans and, to

9612-431: The territorial boundaries of Poland: including the former eastern territories of Germany annexed by Poland after the war and parts of pre-war Poland ; despite acquiring territories from Germany, the Poles themselves were also expelled from the former eastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. West German government figures of those evacuated, migrated, or expelled by 1950 totaled 8,030,000 (6,981,000 from

9720-442: The town became a part of Poland as a fief , and Pomesanian bishops retained their rule over the area. In 1525 the town became part of Ducal Prussia , a vassal state of Poland. In 1556, a synod was held in the town. The town suffered during the 17th century Polish-Swedish wars . In 1628, half of it was burnt down, and in 1688 the remainder was burned. In 1722, fire caused destruction once again. In 1701, as part of Ducal Prussia,

9828-423: The town became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia and part of the newly created province of West Prussia in 1773. Despite this, as of 1789, Polish Protestant church services were still held in the town, and there was a Polish municipal school there. In October 1831, several Polish cavalry and infantry units and honor guards of the November Uprising stopped in the town on the way to their internment places. In 1871,

9936-539: The town became part of the German Empire in the framework of the Prussian-led unification of Germany . Until 1919, Riesenburg belonged to the administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder in the Province of West Prussia . After World War I , a referendum was held concerning the future nationality of the town, which remained part of Weimar Germany . From 1920 to 1939, Riesenburg belonged to

10044-460: The town limits. There is also a train station. Kwidzyn is twinned with: Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II . The German population fled or was expelled from all regions which are currently within

10152-465: The town's vicinity. The Germans also operated a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp in the town. On 21 January at approximately 16:00, a surprising order came to evacuvate the civilians westwards towards Chojnice . When the Red Army invaded East Prussia at least 95% of the citizens of Marienwerder were speaking German as their mother tongue, and therefore they feared the atrocities committed to

10260-541: The war went on, Lower Silesia also became a Polish war aim, as well as occupation of the Baltic coast west of Szczecin as far as Rostock and occupation of the Kiel Canal . Expulsions of Germans from East Prussia and pre-war Poland had become a war aim as early as in February 1940, expressed by Polish Foreign Minister August Zaleski . After Sikorski's death, the next Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk in

10368-480: The war. Numbers of how many were offered to stay in Poland as Poles and eventually did are not available, but it is assumed that the vast majority had rather opted and left for Germany by 1960. Those of mixed descent from within or without the borders of pre-war Poland were also allowed to stay on the premise of Polonization, yet likewise no comprehensive data exist. Some Germans were exempted from expulsion and retained because of their professional skills, if no Pole

10476-599: The war. A similar fate occurred to the Czech speaking residents of the Czech Corner in Kladsko Land who were transferred to Czechoslovakia . The word "autochthon", introduced by the Polish government in 1945 for propaganda purposes, is today sometimes considered an offensive remark and direct naming as Kashubians, Silesians, Slovincians, and Masurians is preferred to avoid offending the people described. During

10584-673: The west of Cassubia in the area of Slovincian settlement, some residents were expelled along with the German population, but some remained. In the 1950s, mainly in the village of Kluki (formerly Klucken), a few elderly people still remembered fragments of Slovincian. Some non-German residents of the Recovered Territories and the Kaliningrad Oblast who were not of Slavic descent, such as the Lietuvininkai and Kursenieki were also expelled to Germany after

10692-613: Was 40,000 according to the Polish administration, of whom 30,000 were used as miners in the Upper Silesian coal industries. 7,500 Germans accused of crimes against Poles were handed over to Poland by the Western Allies in 1946 and 1947. A number of German war criminals were imprisoned in Polish jails, at least 8,000 remained in jail in 1949, many of them also being POWs. (see also Supreme National Tribunal ) Some Nazi criminals were executed ( Category:Nazis executed in Poland ), some died in prisons ( Erich Koch in 1986), Johann Kremer

10800-420: Was at hand to replace them. These Germans were treated as second class citizens, especially regarding salary and food supply. So-called "abandoned wives", whose husbands found themselves in post-war Germany and were not able to return, were compelled to "seek divorce" and were not allowed to leave for Germany before 1950–52. The other ones retained were not allowed to leave before 1956; these measures also included

10908-441: Was between twenty and fifty percent of the inmates." Zayas states that "in many internment camps no relief from outside was permitted. In some camps relatives would bring packages and deliver them to the Polish guards, who regularly plundered the contents and delivered only the remains, if any. Frequently, these relatives were so ill-treated that they never returned. Internees who came to claim their packages were also mistreated by

11016-847: Was by trains to the west that in reverse direction brought Polish displaced persons such as former forced laborers. Trains were sealed to prevent flight of the deported and often took days or even weeks, during which many of the old and young people died. The condition of the deported as they arrived in the British occupation zone impelled the British to raise a formal protest on April 11, 1946. Close to three million residents of Upper Silesia ( Silesians ), Masuria ( Masurs ) and Pomerania ( Slovincians , Kashubians ) were considered of Slavic descent but many of them did not identify with Polish nationality, were either bilingual or spoke German only. The Polish government declared these so-called "Autochthons" to be Germanized Poles, who would be re-Polonized and serve as

11124-452: Was considered] and the fanaticism of many Nazi functionaries in their execution of Hitler's 'no retreat' orders. Hitler and his staff refused to accept Soviet military superiority. Hitler called the Red Army "gleaned punks" and "booty divisions", who were not able to win decisive battles. Himmler called the preparation of the early 1945 Soviet offensive "the biggest bluff since Dshingis Khan". The first mass movement of German civilians in

11232-455: Was expelled, some were rehabilitated and offered their pre-war Polish citizenship back. While those who had signed Volksliste category "I" were expelled, rehabilitation was offered to people who had been subject to forced labour before, spoke Polish and were rated as not constituting a threat. Once granted Polish citizenship, they were encouraged to Polonize their names, or to restore their original Polish names if they had been Germanized during

11340-546: Was populated by artisans and traders, originating from towns in the northern parts of the Holy Roman Empire . A Teutonic knight, Werner von Orseln , was murdered in Marienburg (Malbork) in 1330. He was among the first to be buried in the newly erected cathedral of the town. St. Dorothea of Montau lived in Marienwerder from 1391 until her death in 1394; future pilgrims visiting her shrine would contribute to

11448-466: Was released in 1958 and returned to Germany. In 1945, the territories east of the Oder-Neisse line ( Silesia , most of Pomerania , East Brandenburg and East Prussia) were occupied by Soviet and Soviet-controlled Polish military forces. Polish militia and military started expulsions before the Potsdam Conference, referred to as "wild expulsions" (German: Wilde Vertreibungen ), affecting between 700,000 and 800,000 Germans. The Polish communists ordered

11556-674: Was seen as an attempt to avoid such events in the future and, as a result, the Polish government in exile proposed a population transfer of Germans as early as 1941. During World War II, expulsions were initiated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The Germans deported 2.478 million Polish citizens from the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany , murdered 1.8 to 2.77 million ethnic Poles, another 2.7 to 3 million Polish Jews and resettled 1.3 million ethnic Germans in their place. Around 500,000 Germans were stationed in Poland as part of its occupation force; these consisted of people such as clerks, technicians and support staff. Representatives of

11664-451: Was tried by the Polish authorities in 1959 for his wanton brutality, he stated his only goal was to exact revenge for his own treatment during the war. The German Federal Archives estimated in 1974 that more than 200,000 German civilians were interned in Polish camps, they put the death rate at 20-50% and estimated that more than likely over 60,000 persons perished . The Polish historians Witold Sienkiewicz and Grzegorz Hryciuk maintain that

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