Albert Forster, Gauleiter of Danzig.

Albert Maria Forster (July 26, 1902 – February 28, 1952) was a German politician. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (443x620, 44 KB)Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann, 1941. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (443x620, 44 KB)Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann, 1941. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Forster was born in Fürth, Bavaria and attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Fürth from 1912-1920. He became a member of the SA in Fürth in 1923 and observed the high treason process against Erich Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler and the further eight accused, which took place from 26 February to 1 April 1924 in the court of Munich. South part of the city, seen from the Alte Veste (Zirndorf), 2004 The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the district of Middle Franconia. ... The geographic region and Free State of Bavaria (German:  ), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... A gymnasium (pronounced with or, in Swedish, as opposed to ) is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English Grammar Schools and U.S. High Schools. ... The seal of SA The   or SA (German for Storm division, usually translated as stormtroop(er)s ), functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP — the German Nazi party. ... Ludendorff in 1918 Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (sometimes given incorrectly as von Ludendorff) (April 9, 1865 – December 20, 1937, Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany) was a German Army officer, Quartermaster General during World War I, victor of Liege, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. ... Hitler redirects here. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga [1]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ...

In 1930, Forster became the Nazi Party's Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland). In the spring of 1933, Forster spearheaded the Nazi take-over of Danzig. Between 1933-1939, Forster became embroiled in a feud with the Nazi President of the Danzig Senate, Arthur Greiser, who was to remain Forster's life-long nemesis. In 1939, following orders from Berlin, Forster led the agitation in Danzig to seek re-union with Germany. The Danzig issue was used as a pretext for the German invasion of Poland in 1939. The Nazi Party (German: , or NSDAP, English: National Socialist German Workers Party), was a far-right, racist political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ... A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ... Flag of Danzig The Free City of Danzig refers to either of two short-lived city-states which were centered on the present-day Baltic port known as GdaÅ„sk (German: Danzig). ... GdaÅ„sk ( ; IPA: ), also known by its German name Danzig ( ) and several other names, is the sixth-largest city in Poland and is Polands principal seaport and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. ... Arthur Greiser (born January 22, 1897, in Schroda, Province of Posen, West Prussia (Środa, Poland); executed July 14, 1946, at Poznan, Poland) was a Nazi German politician . ... Location of Berlin within Germany / EU Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE3 City subdivisions 12 boroughs Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) Governing parties SPD / Left. ... Combatants Poland Germany, Soviet Union, Slovakia Commanders Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Fedor von Bock (Army Group North), Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group South), Mikhail Kovalov (Belorussian Front), Semyon Timoshenko (Ukrainian Front), Ferdinand ÄŒatloÅ¡ (Field Army Bernolak) Strength 39 divisions, 16 brigades, 4,300 guns, 880 tanks, 400 aircraft Total: 950...

Following Poland's defeat, while Greiser became Gauleiter of the region of north-western Poland annexed to Germany after 1939, the Warthegau, Forster became the Gauleiter and Reichstatthalter (governor) of the province Danzig-West Prussia from 1939-1945, thereby concentrating both the State and Nazi Party power in his hands. Adolf Hitler instructed the Gauleiters, namely Forster and his rival Arthur Greiser, in the Warthegau to "Germanize" the area, promising that "There would be no questions asked" about how this "Germanization" was to be accomplished. He pursued a policy of assimilation of the Poles in his area of responsibility, in which all Poles proficient in the German language were classified as Germans. In addition, Forster was willing to accept any and all Poles who claimed to have "German blood" as Germans. In practice, the method of determining whether Poles had any German ancestry or not was to send out Nazi Party workers to interview the local Poles; all Poles who stated that they had German ancestry had their answers taken at face value with no documentation required. Those Poles who claimed not to have German ancestry were, for the most part, expelled to the General Government. Given the alternative between claiming to have German ancestry or being expelled, the majority of the Polish population under Forster's rule chose the former option. Forster ordered the return of property confiscated from Poles as a Germanization measure and compensated them for the loss of income in the interim, once they had been listed as Germans. In pursuing his policy, Forster believed to be following National Socialist ideology to the letter. His theory was that the bulk of the "supposedly" ethnic-Polish population in his Reichsgau were Kashubians rather than Poles, and that the Kashubians were racially German. In the Adolf Hitler School he established in Danzig, racial experts produced a steady stream of pseudo-scholarly works proving the Germanness of the local poles. He was not alone in this view among the Nazi leadership, but SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, appointed by Hitler as "Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom" and, as such, the man assigned to decide the "Germanization" policy in German-occupied territories, took the opposite view. Forster, it would emerge, did not care. On the other hand, he ruthlessly applied Nazi racial practices to the Jewish population, in what could only mean murder or deportation. Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazis to the territory of Greater Poland which was occupied, annexed and directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939 (as opposed to the General Government, GG). ... The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (Danzig-Westpreussen) was a German administrative unit created in 1939 from Freie Stadt Danzig and Polish Pomerania. ... Hitler redirects here. ... Arthur Greiser (born January 22, 1897, in Schroda, Province of Posen, West Prussia (Środa, Poland); executed July 14, 1946, at Poznan, Poland) was a Nazi German politician . ... Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazis to the territory of Greater Poland which was occupied, annexed and directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939 (as opposed to the General Government, GG). ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... The General Government (in full General government for the occupied Polish areas, in German Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete) was the name given by Germany to the governing authority in Poland after its occupation by the Wehrmacht in September and October 1939. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... A Reichsgau was a province within the Greater Germany of 1938 to 1945 (from the start of territorial annexation to the fall of the Third Reich). ... Kashubians, Kassubians, or Cassubians (Kashubian: Kaszëbi) are a Slavic ethnic group living in modern-day northwestern Poland. ... The   (German for Protective Squadron), abbreviated (Runic) or SS (Latin), was a large security and military organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany. ... Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ...

This policy was in direct contrast to what was happening in the Warthegau under Gauleiter Arthur Greiser. Greiser zealously pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing, attempting to expel the entire Polish and Jewish population under his rule. Greiser was outraged by Forster's polices toward the Poles and had complained to Heinrich Himmler that Forster's assimilation policy was against Nazi racial theory. When Himmler approached Forster over this issue, Forster simply ignored him, realizing that Hitler allowed each Gauleiter to run his area as he saw fit. Both Greiser and Himmler complained to Hitler that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be classified as Germans, but Hitler merely bounced the problem back to them, telling them to go sort out their problems with Forster on their own. This was a difficult task. Himmler's attempts to cajole Forster to see matters his way met with resentment and contempt. In a discussion with Richard Hildebrandt, HSSPF Vistula, over Germanization in his Reichsgau, Forster scoffed, "if I looked like Himmler, I wouldn't talk about race". Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazis to the territory of Greater Poland which was occupied, annexed and directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939 (as opposed to the General Government, GG). ... Arthur Greiser (born January 22, 1897, in Schroda, Province of Posen, West Prussia (Środa, Poland); executed July 14, 1946, at Poznan, Poland) was a Nazi German politician . ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Blood libel · Black Legend Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Ku Klux Klan National Party (South Africa) American Nazi Party Kahanism · Supremacism Anti... Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... SS and Police Leaders were senior Nazi Party officials that commanded large units of the SS during and prior to the Second World War. ... A Reichsgau was a province within the Greater Germany of 1938 to 1945 (from the start of territorial annexation to the fall of the Third Reich). ...

Forster's conflict with the SS also had direct and injurious consequences for ethnic Germans. During the war, hundreds of thousands of ethnic-Germans departed Soviet annexed territories hoping to be resettled in the expanding German Reich. While Greiser did all he could to accommodate them in his Reichsgau, Forster viewed them with hostility, claiming that his region needed young farmers while the refugees were old and urbanized. He initially refused to admit any of them into his Reichsgau. When a ship bearing several thousands of ethnic Germans from the Baltic states arrived at Danzig he initially refused them entry unless Himmler promised that they would not be settled in Danzig-West Prussia but proceed immediately elsewhere, an assurance that Himmler could not provide. It was only following a lengthy telephone consultation with the desperate Himmler that Forster allowed the passengers to disembark on the understanding that their residence in the Reichsgau would be temporary, though most did not, ultimately, leave the region. In time he had to relent and by June 1944 53,258 such refugees had settled in Danzig-West Prussia, a far cry from the 421,780 settled in the Warthegau. Forster's Germanization policies left less free land and housing then Greiser's mass expulsions, although it is evident that Forster's perception of the ethnic German refugees as wards of the SS played its role in determining his attitude. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Germans. ... The history of Germany is, in places, extremely complicated and depends much on how one defines Germany. ... The three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania The Baltic states refer to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. ... The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (Danzig-Westpreussen) was a German administrative unit created in 1939 from Freie Stadt Danzig and Polish Pomerania. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...

Before World War II Forster had tried and failed to gain control over the organisation of the irredentist activities of the ethnic German population in the Polish territories adjacent to the Free City of Danzig. Rather it was the SS-dominated Volksdeutche Mittelstelle that won control. With Forster and Himmler engaged in a power struggle, this rendered the ethnic Germans concerned suspicious to Forster. Upon the incorporation of these formerly Polish territories in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, Forster's distrust of the local Nazi leaders led him to deny them political power and fill all significant positions with people from the pre-war Free City of Danzig. The result was, inevitably, great bitterness among the local Germans, which Forster's Germanization policies, which denied them higher status then that of the hated ethnic Poles, naturally exacerbated. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Despite his relatively mild administration of occupied Polish Territory, Forster was responsible for the expulsion of several hundred thousand^{[citation needed]} Poles to the General Government and to the Stutthof concentration camp. He was also one of those responsible for mass murder at Piaśnica, where approximately 12,000 Polish and Kashub intelligentsia were killed. The General Government (in full General government for the occupied Polish areas, in German Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete) was the name given by Germany to the governing authority in Poland after its occupation by the Wehrmacht in September and October 1939. ... Stutthof (Sztutowo) was the first concentration camp built by the German Nazi regime outside of Germany, on September 2, 1939. ... PiaÅ›nica is a river and a village in Pomerania in Northern Poland. ... Kashubians, Kassubians, or Cassubians (Kashubian: Kaszëbi) are a Slavic ethnic group living in modern-day northwestern Poland. ... The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ...

After the war, Forster was condemned to death by the Polish court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 1948. According to some sources Forster was hanged on February 28, 1952 in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw. However according to S. Herbert Levine there are reports that by 1955 Forster was living under house arrest in a farmhouse near Gdańsk. February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Area 35,42 km² Population (2003) 221 000 Population density 6239,4 Mayor Ewa WÄ™gÅ‚owska Notable landmarks Polish Radio and Television, Pole Mokotowskie, School of Economics, Rakowiecka Street Prison Website Mokotow (pol. ... Motto: Contemnit procellas (It defies the storms) Semper invicta (Always invincible) Coordinates: Country Poland Voivodeship Masovia Powiat city county Gmina Warszawa Districts 18 boroughs City Rights turn of the 13th century Government  - Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (PO) Area  - City 516. ... GdaÅ„sk ( ; IPA: ), also known by its German name Danzig ( ) and several other names, is the sixth-largest city in Poland and is Polands principal seaport and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. ...

References

• Rees, Laurence The Nazis : A Warning From History, foreword by Sir Ian Kershaw, New York : New Press, 1997 ISBN 1-56584-551-X
• Levine, S. Herbert "Local Authority and the SS State: The Conflict Over Population Policy in Danzig-West Prussia, 1939-1945 - Central European History (1973)