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History of Pomerania (1933-present) covers the History of Pomerania from the 1933 to the present.

Nazi era

Polish Corridor

The Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took power in Germany in 1933. By this time, the Second Polish Republic was led by an authoritarian regime represented by Józef Piłsudski and Józef Beck. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, culminating in the ten year Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. In the coming years, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament, as did Poland and other European powers. Regardless, the Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals without provoking armed conflict; in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria and the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement. In October 1938, Germany tried to get Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Poland refused, as the alliance was quickly becoming a sphere of influence for an increasingly powerful Germany.

Following negotiations with Hitler for the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain reported that, "He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this Sudeten German question is settled, that is the end of Germany's territorial claims in Europe". Almost immediately following the agreement, however, Hitler reneged. The Nazis increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into the Reich, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive. In November 1938, Danzig's district administrator, Albert Forster reported to the League of Nations that Hitler had told him Polish frontiers would be guaranteed if the Poles were "reasonable like the Czechs." German State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker reaffirmed this alleged guarantee in December 1938.

The situation regarding the Free City and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish Customs. The Germans requested the Free City of Danzig and the construction of an extra-territorial highway (Berlinka) and railway through the Polish Corridor, connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper. Poland agreed on building a German highway and to allow German railway traffic, in return they would extend the non-aggression pact for 25 years.

This seemed to conflict with Hitler's plans and with Poland's rejection of the Anti-Comintern Pact, his desire to either isolate or gain support against the Soviet Union. German newspapers in Danzig and Nazi Germany played an important role inciting nationalist sentiment; headlines buzzed about how Poland was misusing its economic rights in Danzig and German Danzigers were increasingly subjugated to the will of the Polish state. At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of Lithuania, the Memel Territory, Soviet Ukraine and Czech inhabited lands. However, Polish leaders continued to fear for the loss of their independence and a shared fate with Czechoslovakia, although they had also taken part in its partitioning. Some felt that the Danzig question was inextricably tied to the problems in the Polish Corridor and any settlement regarding Danzig would be one step towards the eventual loss of Poland's access to the sea. Nevertheless, Hitler's credibility outside of Germany was very low after the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

In 1939, Nazi Germany made another attempt to renegotiate the status of Danzig; the city was to be incorporated into the Reich while the Polish section of the population was to be "evacuated" and resettled elsewhere. Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport and the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed. However, the Poles distrusted Hitler and saw the plan as a threat to Polish sovereignty, practically subordinating Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc while reducing the country to a state of near-servitude. Additionally, Poland was backed by guarantees of support from both the United Kingdom and France in regard to Danzig.

A revised and less favorable proposal came in the form of an ultimatum made by the Nazis in late August, after the orders had already been given to attack Poland on September 1 1939. Nevertheless, at midnight on August 29, Joachim von Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson a list of terms which would allegedly ensure peace in regard to Poland. Danzig was to return to Germany and there was to be a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor; all Poles who were born or settled there since 1919 would have no vote, while all Germans born but not living there would. An exchange of minority populations between the two countries was proposed. If Poland accepted these terms, Germany would agree to the British offer of an international guarantee, which would include the Soviet Union. A Polish plenipotentiary, with full powers, was to arrive in Berlin and accept these terms by noon the next day. The British Cabinet viewed the terms as "reasonable," except the demand for a Polish Plenipotentiary, which was seen as similar to Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha accepting Hitler’s terms in mid-March 1939.

When Ambassador Józef Lipski went to see Ribbentrop on August 30, he was presented with Hitler’s demands. However, he did not have the full power to sign and Ribbentrop ended the meeting. News was then broadcast that Poland had rejected Germany's offer.

Free City of Danzig

In May 1933, the Nazi Party won the local elections in the city. However, they received 57 percent of the vote, less than the two-thirds required by the League of Nations to change the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The government introduced anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic laws, the latter primarily being directed against the newly brought in Poles and Kashubian inhabitants. The city also served as a training point for members of the German minority within Poland that, recruited by organisations such as the Jungdeutsche Partei ("Young German Party") and the Deutsche Vereinigung ("German Union"), would form the leading cadres of Selbstschutz, an organisation involved with murder and atrocities during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. As throughout Germany, Jews were increasingly persecuted; the Danzig Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939.

Despite several years of proposals by the German governments, both before and after 1933, to renegotiate Danzig's anomalous position, Poland refused, and as late as April 1939 Professor Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.

Province of Pomerania

Pomeranian Nazi movement before 1933

Throughout the existance of the Weimar Republic, politics in the province was dominated by the conservative DNVP (German National People's Party). The Nazi party (NSDAP) did not have any significant success at elections, nor did it have a substantial amount of members. The Pomeranian Nazi party was founded by students of the University of Greifswald in 1922, when the NSDAP was officially forbidden. The university's rector Karl Theodor von Vahlen became Gauleiter (head of the provincial party) in 1924. Soon afterwards, he was fired by the university and went bankrupt. In 1924, the party had 330 members, and in December 1925, 297 members. The party was not present in all of the province. The members were concentrated mainly in Western Pomerania and internally divided. Vahlen retired from the Gauleiter position in 1927 and was replaced by Walther von Corswandt, a Pomeranian knight estate holder.

Corswandt led the party from his estate in Kuntzow. In the 1928 Reichstag elections, the Nazis got 1,5% of the votes in Pomerania. Party property was partially pawned. In 1929, the party gained 4,1% of the votes. Corswandt was fired after conflicts with the party's leadership and replaced with Wilhelm von Karpenstein, one of the former students who formed the Pomeranian Nazi party in 1922 and since 1929 lawywer in Greifswald. He moved the headquarters to Stettin and replaced many of the party officials predominantly with young radicals. In the Reichstag elections of September 14, 1930, the party gained a significant 24,3% of the Pomeranian votes and thus became the second strongest party , the strongest still being the DNVP, which however was internally divided in the early 1930s.

In the elections of July 1932, the Nazis gained 48% of the Pomeranian votes, while the DNVP dropped to 15,8%. In March 1933, the NSDAP gained 56,3%.

Nazi government since 1933

Immediately after their gain of power, the Nazis began arresting their opponents. In March 1933, 200 people were arrested, this number rose to 600 during the following months. In Stettin-Bredow, at the site of the bankrupt Vulcan-Werft shipyards, the Nazis set up a short-lived "wild" concentration camp from October 1933 to March 1934, where SA maltreated their victims. The Pomeranian SA in 1933 had grown to 100,000 members.

Oberpräsident von Halfern retired in 1933, and with him one third of the Landrat and Oberbürgermeister (mayor) officials.

Also in 1933, an election was held for a new provincial parliament, which then had a Nazi majority. Decrees were issued that shifted all issues formerly in responsibility of the parliament to the "Provinzialausschuß" commission, and furthermore, shifted the power to decide on these issues from the "Provinzialausschuß" to the "Oberpräsident" official, although he had to hear the "Provinzialrat" commission before. Once the power was shifted to the Oberpräsident with the Provinzialrat as an advisor, all organs of the "Provinzialverband" ("Provinziallandtag" (parliament), "Provinzialausschuß and all other commissions), the former self-administration of the province, were dissolved except for the downgraded Provinzialrat, which assembled about once a year without making use of its advisory rights. The "Landeshauptmann" position, the Provinzialverband's head, was not abolished. From 1933, Landeshauptmann would be a Nazi who was acting in line with the Oberpräsident. The law entered into force in April 1, 1934.

In 1934, many of the heads of the Pomeranian Nazi-movement were exchanged. SA leader von Heydebreck was shot in Stadelheim near Munich due to his friendship to Röhm. Gauleiter von Karpenstein was arrested for two years and banned from Pomerania due to conflicts with the NSDAP headquarters. His substitute, Franz Schwede-Coburg, replaced most of Karpenstein's staff with Corswant's earlier staff, friends of him from Bavaria, and SS. From the 27 Kreisleiter officials, 23 were forced out of office by Schwede-Coburg, who became Gauleiter in July 21, and Oberpräsident in July 28, 1934.

As in all of Nazi Germany, the Nazis established totalitarian control over the province by Gleichschaltung.

Resistance

Resistance groups formed in the economical centers, especially in Stettin, from where most arrests were reported.

Resistance is also reported from members of the conservative DNVP. The monarchist Herbert von Bismarck-Lasbeck was forced out of office in 1933. The conservative newspaper Pommersche Tagespost was banned in 1935 after printing an article of monarchist Hans-Joachim von Rohr. In 1936, four members of the DNVP were tried for founding a monarchist organization.

Other DNVP members, who had adressed their opposition already before 1933, were arrested multiple times after the Nazis had taken over. Ewald Kleist-Schmenzin, Karl Magnus von Knebel-Doberitz, and Karl von Zitzewitz were active resistants.

Within the Protestant church, resistant was organized within the Pfarrernotbund (150 members in late 1933) and Confessing Church ("Bekennende Kirche"), the successor organization, headed by Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff. In March 1935, 55 priests were arrested. The Confessing Church maintained a preachers' seminar headed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Zingst, which moved to Finkenwalde in 1935 and to Köslin and Groß Schlönwitz in 1940. Within the Catholic Church, the most prominent resistance member was Greifswald priest Alfons Wachsmann, who was executed in 1944.

After the failed assassination attempt of Hitler in July 20, 1944, Gestapo arrested thirteen Pomeranian nobles and one burgher, all knight estate owners. Of those, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin had contacted Winston Churchill in 1938 to inform about the work of the German opposition to the Nazis, and was lexecuted in April 1945. Karl von Zitzewitz had connections to the Kreisauer Kreis group. Among the other arrested were Malte von Veltheim Fürst zu Putbus, who died in a concentration camp, as well as Alexander von Kameke and Oscar Caminecci-Zettuhn, who both were executed.

Territorial changes in 1938

In 1938-39, the German as well as the Polish Pomeranian provinces were enlarged. Most of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and two counties of Brandenburg were made a district of the German Province of Pomerania. Several counties from Mazovia and Greater Poland were joined to the Polish Pomeranian Voivodship, and her capital was moved from Toruń to Bydgoszcz (Bromberg).

World War II (1939–1945)

The dispute between Germany and Poland over rights to Free City of Danzig and land transit through the Polish Corridor (Pomerelia) to the exclave of East Prussia, served as Hitler's pretext for Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, which commenced on September 1, 1939. The strategy of the Nazi government was to temporarily divide Poland with Stalin's Soviet Union, formalized in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the longer perspective, the Nazis aimed to expand the German "Lebensraum" in the East, to exploit soil, oil, minerals and workforce from the lands of the Slavs, turning them into a race of slaves destined to serve the German 1000 Year Reich and its master race. The fate of other peoples of these territories, notably Jews and Gypsies, was to be annihilation and deportation during the Holocaust.

Deportation of the Pomeranian Jews

In 1933, about 7,800 Jews lived in the Province of Pomerania, of which a third lived in Stettin. The other two thirds were living all over the province, Jewish communities numbering more than 200 people were in Stettin, Kolberg, Lauenburg, and Stolp.

When the Nazis started to terrorize Jews, many emigrated. Twenty weeks after the Nazis seized power, the number of Jewish Pomeranians had already dropped by eight percent.

Besides the repressions Jews had to endure in all Nazi Germany, including the destruction of the Pomeranian synagoges in November 9, 1938 (Reichskristallnacht), all male Stettin Jews were deported to Oranienburg concentration camp after this event and kept there for several weeks.

In February 12 and 13, 1940, the remaining 1,000 to 1,300 Pomeranian Jews, regardless of sex, age and health, were deported from Stettin and Schneidemühl to the Lublin-Lipowa Reservation, that had been set up following the Nisko Plan in occupied Poland. Among the deported were intermarried non-Jewish women. The deportation was carried out in an inhumane manner. Despite low temperatures, the carriages were not heated. No food had been allowed to be taken along. The property left behind was liquidated. Up to 300 people perished from the deportation itself. In the Lublin area under Kurt Engel's regime, the people were subject to inhumane treatment, starvation and murder. Only a few survived the war.

Invasion of the Polish Corridor and Danzig

The invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in September 1, 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, was in part mounted from the Province of Pomerania. General Guderian's 19th army corps attacked from the Schlochau and Preußisch Friedland areas, which since 1938 belonged to the province ("Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen").

Initially, the Heinz Guderian' tank corps was to pass through Pomerelia (Polish Corridor) on their way to East Prussia. The Guderian corps was to regroup there and attack Warsaw from the east. The Polish opponent was the Army of Pomerania (Armia Pomorze), which was quickly destroyed in the Battle of Tuchola Forest. One of the famous episodes of the operation in that region was the Krojanty charge, where a Polish cavalry unit had charged and dispersed German infantry, but then run into the machine guns of German hidden armed reconnaissance vehicles. The episode was used in Nazi propaganda to underline unreasonable Polish attacks against Germans, and in Polish propaganda to claim brave Poles caused panic among German infantry.

After the initial battles in Pomerelia, the remains of the Polish Army of Pomerania withdrew to the southern bank of the Vistula river. After defending Toruń (Thorn) for several days, the army withdrew further south under pressure of the overall strained strategic situation, and took part in the main battle of Bzura. On the borders of the Free City of Danzig, there were two fortified Polish points: the Polish post office in Danzig and the Polish ammunition store on the Westerplatte. Both were ordered to defend up to 12 hours in case of local uprising, until an expected relief by the Polish army. The Polish Post office was held by 52 employees led by Konrad Guderski against the German Danzig police, Home Guard (Heimwehr) and SS, which after 14 hours of battle set the building on fire with flamethrowers. All but four postman who escaped either died in the battle or were executed by the Germans as partisans. The Polish Military Transit Depot (Polska Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa) on the Westerplatte repelled countless attacks by the Danzig Police, SS, the Kriegsmarine and the Wehrmacht. Finally, the Westerplatte crew surrendered on 7 September, having exhausted their supplies of food, water, ammunition and medicines, becoming one of the symbols of Polish resistance to the German invasion. The heaviest fighting in Pomerelia took place at the Hel peninsula Polish Navy base, which held out as one of the last centres of Polish military resistance until October 3, 1939 (see Battle of Hel).

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

The Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig were annexed by Nazi-Germany on October 8, 1939, and fused into Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen.

Anti-German violence

The Polish authorities arrested 10,000 to 15,000 ethnic Germans based on previously prepared lists, and shipped them further east. Between 2,000 and 4,500 ethnic Germans are estimated to have lost their lifes. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). The most prominent of these events is Bloody Sunday (1939).

Anti-Polish and anti-Jewish violence

About 80% of the German male adults of the Reichsgau were organized by the SS in Selbstschutz units following the German conquest. Wehrmacht, Selbstschutz, Einsatzgruppen of Sipo and SD, and Danzig NSDAP units were involved in a series of atrocities committed during and after the invasion, including murder primarily of Polish intelligentsia and Jews, and euthanasy of mentally and physically disabled, leaving between 12,000 and 20,000 dead until October 25, and up to 60,000 dead in the first six month.

Even during the September campaign, security police set up first security police camps for Poles. Deportations to the General Government and Stutthof soon followed. Polish was strictly forbidden, even in church, by the German Roman Catholic Bishop Carlo Maria Splett of the Diocese of Danzig.

Some Poles and Kashubians of Pomerelia organized a guerrilla resistance group called "Pomeranian Griffin" (TOW Gryf Pomorski).

Province of Pomerania 1939-1944

On manors and bigger farms Polish prisoners of war partly replaced German workforce. In the cities, Polish forced-labourers were exploited by German companies and factories.

Roughly 60,000 German men from Pomerania died as soldiers in the Wehrmacht and SS until May, 1945.

Since 1943, the province became a target of allied air raids. The first attack was launched against Stettin in April 21, 1943, and left 400 dead. In August 17/18, the British RAF launched an attack on Peenemünde, where Wernher von Braun and his staff had developed and tested the world's first rockets. In October, Anklam was a target. Throughout 1944 and early 1945, Stettin's industrial and residential areas were targets of air raids. Stralsund was a target in October 1944.

Despite these raids, the province was regarded "safe" compared to other areas of the Third Reich, and thus became a shelter for evacuees primarily from hard hit Berlin and the West German industrial centers.

After the war had turned back on Germany, the Pomeranian Wall was renovated in the summer of 1944, and in the fall all men between sixteen and sixty years of age who had not yet been drafted were enrolled into Volkssturm units.

The province of Pomerania became a battlefield in January 26, 1945, when in the pretext of the Red Army's East Pomeranian Offensive Soviet tanks entered the province near Schneidemühl, which surrendered in February 13.

East Pomeranian Offensive

In February 14, the remnants of German Army Group Vistula ("Heeresgruppe Weichsel") had managed to set up a frontline roughly at the province's southern frontier, and launched a counterattack (Operation Solstice, "Sonnenwende") in February 15, that however stalled already in February 18. In February 24, the Second Belorussian Front launched the East Pomeranian Offensive and despite heavy resistance primarily in the Rummelsburg area took eastern Farther Pomerania until March 10. In March 1, the First Belorussian Front had launched an offensive from the Stargard and Märkisch Friedland area and succeeded in taking northwestern Farther Pomerania within five days. Cut off corps group Tettau retreated to Dievenow as a moving pocket until March 11. Thus, German-held central Farther Pomerania was cut off, and taken after the Battle of Kolberg (March 4 to March 18).

The fast advances of the Red Army during the East Pomeranian Offensive caught the civilian Farther Pomeranian population by surprise. The land route to the west was blocked since early March. Evacuation orders were issued not at all or much too late. The only way out of Farther Pomerania was via the ports of Stolpmünde, from which 18,300 were evacueted, Rügenwalde, from which 4,300 were evacuated, and Kolberg, which had been declared fortress and from which before the end of the Battle of Kolberg some 70,000 were evacuted. Those left behind became victims of murder, war rape, and plunder. In March 6, the USAF shelled Swinemünde, where thousands of refugees were stranded, killing an estimated 25,000.

Many West Prussian Germans fled westward as the Red Army advanced on the Eastern Front. The Hela peninsula and Hela town, northwest of Danzig, were defended by the German army until the end of the war on May, 9th, 1945. 900,000 people where evacuated by ship, mainly by the Kriegsmarine. 200,000 could flee to the more western provinces of Germany on land (most before March, 1945). Only 3% of those who fled per ship died on the Baltic sea due to Soviet torpedoes. On land, due to the harsh winter and due to Soviet air raids, the losses among civilians were much higher.

Battle of Berlin

In March 20, Wehrmacht abandoned the last bridgehead on the Oder rivers eastern bank, the Altdamm area. The frontline then ran along Dievenow and lower Oder, and was held by the 3rd panzer army commanded by general Hasso von Manteuffel. After another four days of fighting, the Red Army managed to break through and cross the Oder between Stettin and Gartz (Oder), thus starting the northern theater of the Battle of Berlin in March 24. Stettin was abandoned the next day.

Throughout April, the Second Belorussian Front led by general Konstantin Rokossovsky advanced through Western Pomerania. Demmin and Greifswald surrendered in April 30.

In Demmin, nearly 900 people committed mass suicides in fear of the Red Army. Coroner lists show that most drowned in the nearby River Tollense and River Peene, where others poisoned themselves. This was fueled by atrocities - rapes, pillage and executions committed by Red Army soldiers until the city commander had the access to the rivers blocked on May 3.

In the first days of May, Wehrmacht abandoned Usedom and Wollin islands, and in May 5, the last German troops departed from Sassnitz on the island of Rügen. Two days later, Wehrmacht surrendered unconditionally to the Red Army.

Civilian losses

Many Germans in Pomerania, Danzig and West Prussia (Pomerelia) died during and shortly after the war due to air raids, but mainly afterwards due to Soviet Red Army atrocities committed in revenge against the German civilians.

The German civilian losses in all of the territories generally called "Pomerania" were estimated at:

• Danzig: 100,000 dead out of 404,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
• German Province of Pomerania: 440,000 dead out of 1,895,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
• West Prussia (Pomerelia): 70,000 of 310,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944 (of which 100,000 were "settlers" transferred to this province by the nazi government).

World War II aftermath

Border shift (1945)

After World War II, the Polish-German border was moved west to the Oder-Neisse line. In case of Pomerania, the Free City of Danzig and most of the pre-war German province of Pomerania fell to Poland. The city of Stettin (Szczecin) and Swinemünde (now Swinoujscie), located on Usedom island, became Polish. In addition, a strip of land 20 km west of Stettin/Szczecin, and a small part of the Usedom island also became part of Poland in order to facilitate the growth of the cities. The remainder of Pomerania west of Stettin/Szczecin and the Oder River was joined with Mecklenburg and formed Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Polish part of Pomerania

At the end of the WW II, Pomerania was completely devastated. In addition to destruction during the war, Soviets treated the property left in the pre-war Polish Corridor (Pomerelia, West Prussia) as war loot. Machines, animals and anything that could be packed were sent to Soviet Union. Additionally, the land contained unexploded landmines and explosives remained lying around the sites of major battles. The situation in the former Prussian Province of Pomerania, most of which was to be assigned to Poland shortly, was even more catastrophical.

Gangs of criminals, mostly from Warsaw, razed by the Germans, terrorised the population and used the cover of night to steal anything left behind by the Soviet Army. This period was known as 'Shaber'.

The Soviet Army was granted the military polygons and naval bases of Pomerania; the areas were excluded from Polish jurisdiction until 1992. Russia used the area to store nuclear warheads.

Many German civilians were deported to labor camps like Vorkuta in the Soviet Union, where a large number of them perished or were later reported missing.

Polonization of the "Recovered Territories"

Along with the establishment of the People's Republic of Poland as the heir of the Piasts, the population had to be made to fit the new frontiers. With its eastern territories (the Kresy) annexed by the Soviet Union, Poland was effectively moved westwards and its area reduced by almost 20% (from 389,000 km² to 312,000 km²). Millions of "non-Poles" (mainly Germans and Ukrainians) had to be expelled from the new Poland, while the Poles east of the Curzon line had to be expelled from the Kresy. The expellees were termed "repatriates". The result was the largest exchange of population in European history. The picture of the new western and northern territories being recovered Piast territory was used to forge Polish settlers and "repatriates" arriving there into a coherent community loyal to the new regime, and to justify the previous ethnic cleansing of the area. Largely excepted from the expulsions of Germans were the "autochthons", close to three million ethnically Slavic inhabitants of Masuria (Masurs), Pomerania (Kashubians, Slovincians) and Upper Silesia (Silesians), of whom many did not identify with Polish nationality. The Polish government aimed to retain as many autochthons as possible for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate the intrinsic "Polishness" of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as "recovered" territories. "Verification" and "national rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal a "dormant Polishness" and to determine which were redeemable as Polish citizens; few were actually expelled The "autochthons" not only disliked the subjective and often arbitrary verification process, but they also faced discrimination even after completing it, such as the Polonization of their names.

Expulsion of Germans

The Germans who had not already fled the Pomeranian towns and countryside were expelled by the Polish communist Government. Less than 50,000 ethnic Germans stayed in the entire region after 1948, and many of these repatriated to West Germany in the 1950s due to increasing discrimination and maltreatment by Poles. Some of the Kashubians in the formerly German Province of Pomerania, called Zachodniopomorski (Western Pomerania) by the Poles, were allowed to stay, if they could speak a bit of Polish.

The Polish Government brought settlers to Pomerania who took the houses of the expelled Germans. These settlers were mostly poor civilians and "asocial persons" from central Poland and also ethnic Poles from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. Also, many were ethnic Ukrainians, both Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox, from southeastern Poland whom the Communist Polish Government had forced to move to this western part of the state, to ensure no ethnic rebellion or clash could happen at the new, ethnically mixed southeastern Polish-Ukrainian border.

During the Soviet conquest of Farther Pomerania and the subsequent expulsions of Germans until 1950, 498,000 people from the part of the province east of the Oder-Neisse line died, making up for 26,4% of the former population. Of the 498,000 dead, 375,000 were civilians, and 123,000 were Wehrmacht soldiers. Low estimates give a million expellees from the then Polish part of the province in 1945 and the following years. Only 7,100 km2 remained with Germany, about a fourth of the province's size before 1938 and a fifth of the size thereafter.

In 1949, the refugees from West Prussia and the Province of Pomerania established the non-profit Landsmannschaft Westpreußen and Landsmannschaft Pommern, respectively, to represent West Prussians and Pomeranians in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Removal of German population and heritage

Despite the propagandist picture of an ancient Polish territory, the "Recovered Territories" after the take-over still hosted a substantial German population, and the centuries of German presence had marked the area a German one. This had to be changed quickly, as the territories' legal status was uncertain at the end of the war, and left room for different interpretations even after the Potsdam Agreement. The Polish administration set up a "Ministry for the Recovered Territories", headed by the then deputy prime minister Władysław Gomułka. A "Bureau for Repatriation" was to supervise and organize the expulsions and resettlements.

The expulsion of the remaining Germans in the first post-war years presaged a broader campaign to remove the footprints of centuries of German history and culture from public view. All German placenames were replaced with Polish or Polonized medieval Slavic ones. If no Slavic name existed, then either the German name was translated or new names were invented. The German language was banned, and many German monuments, graveyards, buildings etc. were demolished. Objects of art were moved to other parts of the country. Protestant churches were either converted into Catholic ones or used for other purposes. Official propaganda spread all-round anti-German sentiment, which was shared by many of the opposition as well as many in the Catholic church.

Resettlement

People from all over Poland quickly moved in to replace the former German population in a process parallel to the expulsions. While the Germans were interned and expelled, close to 5 million settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the newly gained areas ("recovered territories") between 1945 and 1950. An additional 1,104,000 people had declared Polish nationality and were allowed to stay (851,000 of those in Upper Silesia), bringing up the number of Poles to 5,894,600 as of 1950. The settlers can be grouped according to their background:

• settlers from Central Poland moving voluntarily (the majority)
• Poles that had been freed from forced labor in Nazi Germany
• so-called "repatriants": Poles expelled from the areas east of the new Polish-Soviet border were preferably settled in the new western territories, where they made up 26% of the population (up to two million)
• non-Poles forceably resettled during Operation Wisła in 1947. Large numbers of Ukrainians were forced to move from south-eastern Poland under a 1947 Polish government operation aimed at dispersing, and therefore assimilating, those Ukrainians who had not been expelled eastward already, throughout the newly acquired territories. Belarusians living around the area around Białystok were also pressured into relocating to the formerly German areas for the same reasons. This scattering of members of non-Polish ethnic groups throughout the country was an attempt by the Polish authorities to dissolve the unique ethnic identity of groups like the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lemkos, and broke the proximity and communication necessary for strong communities to form.
• Jewish Holocaust-survivors, most of them "repatriates" from the East, creating Jewish cooperatives and institutions – the largest community was founded in Szczecin (Stettin, Pomerania) However most of them had left Poland by 1968 due to Polish antisemitism and antisemitic governmental campaigns, with the first mass flight of Jews from Poland taking place as a consequence of postwar anti-Jewish violence culminating in the Kielce pogrom in 1946.

Polish and Soviet newspapers and officials encouraged Poles to relocate to the west – "the land of opportunity".. These new territories were described as a place where opulent villas abandoned by fleeing Germans waited for the brave; fully furnished houses and businesses were available for the taking. In fact, the areas were devastated by the war, the infrastructure largely destroyed, suffering high crime rates and looting by gangs. It took years for civil order to be established.

German part of Pomerania

In May 1945, the armies of the Soviet Union and the western allies met east of Schwerin. Following the Potsdam Agreement, the western allies handed over the western part of Mecklenburg to the Soviets. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was established in July 9, 1945, per order Nr. 5 of Red Army marshall Zhukov, head of the Soviet administration (SMAD), as the Province of Mecklenburg and West Pomerania (sapadnoi Pomeranii).

During and after the war, the make-up of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern's population changed due to wartime losses and the influx of evacuees (mainly from the Berlin and Hamburg metropolitan areas that were subject to air raids) and people who fled and were expelled from the former eastern territories of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, which became the eastern border of Mecklenburg Vorpommern. After the war, the population had doubled with more than 40% of the population being refugees.

Before the war, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania had a population of 1,278,700, of whom many perished during the war and another share moved west in the course of the Red Army's advance. In October 1945, the authorities counted 820,000 refugees, of whom a number of 30,000 and 40,000 moved about without destination.

In 1947, some 1,426,000 refugees were counted, 1 million of which was from post-war Poland. Most of them were settled in rural communities, but also the towns' population increased, most notably in Schwerin from 65,000 (1939) to 99,518 (January 1947), in Wismar from 29,463 to 44,173, and in Greifswald from 29,488 to 43,897.

In 1949, out of a population of 2,126,000, refugees accounted for 922,088. Yet, many people - both refugees and pre-war locals - moved towards the western allies' occupation zones, causing the number of inhabitants to decrease within the following decades.

Following the land reform of 1945/46, all farms larger than 100 ha were seized by the administration. Two thirds of the seized farms, making up for 54% of the overall seized farmland, were distributed among the refugees, who had become the majority in many rural communities. The remaining large farms not distributed among the population were run by the administration as so-called "People-owned farm" (Volkseigenes Gut, VEG). After the reform, one out of two refugees was assigned to an own small farm.

In June 5, 1946, a law enacted by the Soviets led to the constitution of a provisional German administration (Beratende Versammlung) under Soviet supervision in June 29, 1946. After the unfree elections of October 20, 1946, a Landtag replaced the Beratende Versammlung and worked out the constitution of January 16, 1947, for the Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In April 18, 1947, the state's name was shortened to Land Mecklenburg.

Communist era

Polish part of Pomerania

The situation changed for the worse in 1948, when all countries of the Eastern Bloc had to adopt Soviet economic principles. Private shops were banned and most farmers were forced to join agricultural cooperatives, managed by local communists.

In 1953 Poland was forced to accept the end of war reparations, which previously were solely placed on East Germany, while West Germany enjoyed the benefits of the Marshall Plan. In 1956 Poland was on the verge of a Soviet invasion, but the crisis was solved and the Polish government's communism developed a more human face with Władysław Gomułka as the head of politburo. Poland developed the ports of Pomerania and restored the destroyed shipyards of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin.

These were organised as two harbour complexes: one of Szczecin port with Swinoujscie avanport and the other was Gdańsk-Gdynia set of ports. Gdańsk and Gdynia, along with the spa of Sopot located between them, became one metropolitan area called Tricity and populated by more than 1,000,000 inhabitants.

In 1970, after putting an end to the uncertain border issue with West Germany under Willy Brandt, the massive unrest in the coastal cities marked the end of Władysław Gomułka's rule. The new leader, Edward Gierek, wanted to modernize the country by the wide use of western credits. Although the policy failed, Poland became one of the main world players in the shipyard industry. Polish open sea fishing scientists discovered new species of fish for the fishing industry. Unfortunately, countries with direct access to the open seas declared 200 mile (370 km) economic zones that finally put the end to the Polish fishing industry. Shipyards also came under growing pressure from the subsidized Japanese and Korean enterprises.

During 1970, Poland built also the Northern Harbour in rebuilt Gdańsk, which allowed the country independent access to oil from OPEC countries. The new oil refinery had been built in Gdańsk, and an oil pipeline connected both with main Polish pipeline in Płock.

East German part of Pomerania

Mecklenburg was a constituent state of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) upon its formation in 1949. In 1952, the East Berlin government abandoned "states" in favour of districts (German: Bezirke). As a result of this, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern were replaced by three districts covering roughly the same area (Bezirk Rostock, Bezirk Schwerin and Bezirk Neubrandenburg, commonly known as the Nordbezirke (northern districts)) under the highly-centralised GDR government. The administrative changes also made the historical border between Mecklenburg and Pomerania vanish from the maps.

Throughout the 1950s, small farms including those created in the previous land reform were forced to group to Socialist-style LPG units. In Aktion Rose, private property of housing was turned over to the state. From this stock, various state organizations ran the GDR's seaside resort.

While the northern districts' economy primarily relied on agriculture, the East German government developed the shipyards in the old Hanseatic ports (the largest being in Rostock and Stralsund), and also established a nuclear power plant in Lubmin near Greifswald.

Democratic era

Polish part of Pomerania

In 1980, Polish Pomeranian coastal cities, notably Gdańsk, became the place of birth for the anticommunist movement, Solidarity. Gdańsk become the capital for the Solidarity trade union. In 1989 it was found that the border treaty with the Communist German Democratic Republic had one mistake, concerning the naval border. Subsequently, a new treaty was signed.

The West Pomeranian Voivodeship's rural countryside from 1945 until 1989 remained underdeveloped and often neglected, as the pre-1945 German structures of Prussian-style nobility leading and steering agricultural cultivation had been destroyed by expulsion and communism.

German part of Pomerania

The part of Pomerania west of the Oder Neisse line was attached to Mecklenburg by a SMAD order of 1946 to form the Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This Land was renamed Mecklenburg in 1947, became a part of East Germany (GDR) in 1949 and was dissolved by the GDR government in 1952. The area of Western Pomerania was split into the eastern Kreis districts of the newly established Bezirk administrative GDR subdivisions Bezirk Rostock and Bezirk Neubrandenburg, Gartz (Oder) joined Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder). The Western Pomeranian areas retained their agricultural character, yet the farms were reorgainzed by a land reform, splitting the large estates into small units distributed to land-less peasants and expellees from the former eastern territories of Germany who by then made up for about 40% of the population. The peasants were then forcibly grouped into Communist-style LPG units. The East German policy of industrialization led to the establishement of a nuclear power plant near Greifswald and the development of the Stralsund Volkswerft shipyard as well as the Sassnitz ferry terminal directly linking Western Pomerania to the Soviet Union via Klaipeda. In 1990, after the GDR regime was overthrown by the peaceful Wende revolution, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was reconstituted and joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Since then, the region suffers from a population drain as mostly young people migrate to the West due to high unemployment rates.

See also

References

1. Aristotle A. Kallis, Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945, Routledge, 2000, p.144, ISBN 0415216125
2. Marching Toward War: Poland
3. http://filebox.vt.edu/users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3.html
5. Document no. 9
6. ^ The Polish Resistance and the German Press Campaign (August 1-19)
7. ^ Anna M
8. The Polish Resistance and the German Press Campaign (August 1-19)
9. ^ Joachim C. Fest, Hitler, Harcourt Trade, 2002, pp.575-577, ISBN 0156027542
10. The German-Polish Crisis (March 27-May 9, 1939)
11. ^
12. Avalon Project : The French Yellow Book : No. 113 - M. Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, to M. Georges Bonnet, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Berlin, April 30, 1939
14. Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919 - 1939, 3rd series, vol.v, HMSO,London, 1952:25
15. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.491ff, ISBN 3886802728
16. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.509, ISBN 3886802728
17. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.500, ISBN 3886802728
18. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.500ff,509ff ISBN 3886802728
19. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.489, ISBN 3886802728
20. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.505, ISBN 3886802728
21. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.506,510 ISBN 3886802728
22. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.505,512 ISBN 3886802728
23. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.506 ISBN 3886802728
24. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.510, ISBN 3886802728
25. Lucie Adelsberger, Arthur Joseph Slavin, Susan H. Ray, Deborah E. Lipstadt, Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story, Northeastern University Press, 1995, ISBN 1555532330, p.138: February 12/13, 1940
26. Isaiah Trunk, Jacob Robinson, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation, U of Nebraska Press, 1996, ISBN 080329428X, p.133: February 14, 1940; unheated wagons, elderly and sick suffered most, inhumane treatment
27. Leni Yahil, Ina Friedman, Haya Galai, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, Oxford University Press US, 1991, ISBN 0195045238, p.138: February 12/13, 1940, 1,300 Jews of all sexes and ages, extreme cruelty, no food allowed to be taken along, cold, some died during deportation, cold and snow during resettlement, 230 dead by March 12, Lublin reservation chosen in winter, 30,000 Germans resettled before to make room
28. Insert footnote text here
29. Martin Gilbert, Eilert Herms, Alexandra Riebe, Geistliche als Retter - auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust: Auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust, Mohr Siebeck, 2003, ISBN 3161482298, pp.14 (English) and 15 (German): February 15, 1940, 1000 Jews deported
30. Jean-Claude Favez, John Fletcher, Beryl Fletcher, The Red Cross and the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 052141587X, p.33: February 12/13, 1,100 Jews deported, 300 died en route
31. Yad Vashem Studies, Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah, Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 1996 Notizen: v.12, p.69: 1,200 deported, 250 died during deportation
32. Nathan Stoltzfus, Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany, Rutgers University Press, 2001, ISBN 0813529093, p.130: February 11/12 from Stettin, soon thereafter from Schneidemühl, total of 1,260 Jews deported, among the deportees were intermarried non-Jewish women who had refused to divorce, eager Nazi Gauleiter Schwede-Coburg was the first to have his Gau "judenfrei", Eichmann's "RSHA" (Reich Security Main Office) ensured this was an isolated local incident to worried Eppstein of the Central Organization of Jews in Germany ("Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland")
33. John Mendelsohn, Legalizing the Holocaust, the Later Phase, 1939-1943, Garland Pub., 1982, ISBN 0824048768, p.131: Stettin Jews' houses were sealed, belongings liquidated, funds to be held in blocked accounts
34. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, ISBN 3886802728, p.506: Only very few survived the Nazi era. p.510: Nearly all Jews from Stettin and all the province, about a thousand
35. Alicia Nitecki, Jack Terry, Jakub's World: A Boy's Story of Loss and Survival in the Holocaust, SUNY Press, 2005, ISBN 0791464075, pp.13ff: Stettin Jews to Belzyce in Lublin area, reservation purpose decline of Jews, terror command of Kurt Engels, shocking insights in life circumstances
36. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.511, ISBN 3886802728
37. Max Kerner, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, Eine Welt, eine Geschichte?: 43. Deutscher Historikertag in Aachen, 26. Bis 29. September 2000: Berichtsband, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, p.226, ISBN 3486566148
38. Bernhard Chiari, Jerzy Kochanowski, Germany Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Die polnische Heimatarmee: Geschichte und Mythos der Armia Krajowa seit dem zweiten Weltkrieg, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003, pp.59,60, ISBN 3486567152 : between 2,000 and 3,841 killed
39. Max Kerner, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, Eine Welt, eine Geschichte?: 43. Deutscher Historikertag in Aachen, 26. Bis 29. September 2000: Berichtsband, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, p.226, ISBN 3486566148
40. Detlef Brandes, Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938-1945: Pläne und Entscheidungen zum"transfer" der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei und aus Polen, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, p.62, ISBN 3486567314
41. Bernhard Chiari, Jerzy Kochanowski, Germany Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Die polnische Heimatarmee: Geschichte und Mythos der Armia Krajowa seit dem zweiten Weltkrieg, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003, pp.59,60, ISBN 3486567152 : between 12,000 and 20,000 dead until October 25, footnote: between 52,794 and 60,750 dead in the first six month
42. Detlef Brandes, Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938-1945: Pläne und Entscheidungen zum"transfer" der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei und aus Polen, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, p.62, ISBN 3486567314 : Selbstschutz killed 20,000 to 30,000 in Danzig-Westpreußen and Warthegau
43. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.512, ISBN 3886802728
44. Werner Nemitz, Kriegsende eines HJ-Volkssturmsoldaten, Books on Demand, 2000, ISBN 3831102295
45. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.512-515, ISBN 3886802728
46. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.514, ISBN 3886802728
47. MDR Fakt from September 22, 2003 (mostly German, English in parts)]
48. Buske, Norbert (Hg.): Das Kriegsende in Demmin 1945. Berichte Erinnerungen Dokumente (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Landeskundliche Hefte), Schwerin 1995
49. Figures from: Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Gebieten östlich der Oder-Neiße, volume 1, edition from 1984, page 7 E, 158 E, 159 E
50. Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p.153, ISBN 0415919746, 9780415919746
51. Paczkowski, Andrzej (2003). "The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom". translation Jane Cave. Penn State Press. pp. p. 14. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
52. Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p.153, ISBN 0415919746, 9780415919746
53. Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p.153, ISBN 0415919746, 9780415919746
54. Martin Åberg, Mikael Sandberg, Social Capital and Democratisation: Roots of Trust in Post-Communist Poland and Ukraine, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, ISBN 0754619362, Google Print, p.79
55. Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p.153, ISBN 0415919746, 9780415919746
56. Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1
57. Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1
58. Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1
59. Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948, 2001, p.114, ISBN 0742510948, 9780742510944
60. Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, pp.363, ISBN 3570550176, 9783570550175
61. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.515, ISBN 3886802728
62. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.167, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854
63. Dan Diner, Raphael Gross, Yfaat Weiss, Jüdische Geschichte als allgemeine Geschichte, p.164
64. Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.344, ISBN 3570550176, 9783570550175
65. ^ Tomasz Kamusella and Terry Sullivan in Karl Cordell, Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe, 1999, pp.175ff, ISBN 0415173124, 9780415173124
66. Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.344, 349, ISBN 3570550176, 9783570550175
67. Dan Diner, Raphael Gross, Yfaat Weiss, Jüdische Geschichte als allgemeine Geschichte, p.164
68. Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.520, ISBN 3570550176, 9783570550175
69. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.166, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854
70. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: gives 4.55 million in the first years
71. Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski, Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis, 2003, p.142 gives 4,79 million as of 1950, ISBN 0765606658, 9780765606655
72. Cite error: The named reference Eberhardt_2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
73. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 2.8m of 4.55m in the first years (whole western territories)
74. Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
75. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 1.5m of 4.55m in the first years (whole western territories)
76. Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
77. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 1.55m of 4.55m in the first years
78. Thum, p.129
79. Selwyn Ilan Troen, Benjamin Pinkus, Merkaz le-moreshet Ben-Guryon, Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, pp.283-284, 1992, ISBN 0714634131, 9780714634135
80. Thum, p.127 + p.128
81. Selwyn Ilan Troen, Benjamin Pinkus, Merkaz le-moreshet Ben-Guryon, Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, pp.284ff, 1992, ISBN 0714634131, 9780714634135
82. Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854
83. Brunner, Detlev, Inventar der Befehle der Sowjetischen Militäradministration Mecklenburg (-Vorpommern) 1945-1949 in Texte und Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte 12, 2003, ISBN: 3-598-11621-7
84. Beatrice Vierneisel, Fremde im Land: Aspekte zur kulturellen Integration von Umsiedlern in Mecklenburg und Vorpommern 1945 bis 1953, 2006, p.11, ISBN 3830917627, 9783830917625
85. Beatrice Vierneisel, Fremde im Land: Aspekte zur kulturellen Integration von Umsiedlern in Mecklenburg und Vorpommern 1945 bis 1953, 2006, p.12, ISBN 3830917627, 9783830917625
86. Beatrice Vierneisel, Fremde im Land: Aspekte zur kulturellen Integration von Umsiedlern in Mecklenburg und Vorpommern 1945 bis 1953, 2006, p.12, ISBN 3830917627, 9783830917625
87. Heinrich-Christian Kuhn, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Der Bürger im Staat, "Die Bundesländer", Heft 1/2, 1999
88. Beatrice Vierneisel, Fremde im Land: Aspekte zur kulturellen Integration von Umsiedlern in Mecklenburg und Vorpommern 1945 bis 1953, 2006, p.13, ISBN 3830917627, 9783830917625

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