Westerplatte Memorial

Miejsce Pamięci Narodowej Westerplatte

The Second World War began in the early hours of September 1, 1939, when the German Wehrmacht attacked various Polish targets, including the Westerplatte peninsula near Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk). Since 1924, the Polish army had used the Westerplatte peninsula as an ammunition depot. The units stationed there resisted the German forces until September 7, 1939, thus becoming an important symbol of Polish resistance. Although Westerplatte was not the first Polish target to be attacked by the Germans, it is considered to mark the beginning of the war in Poland. Today, there is a memorial on the site of battle.

History

After the First World War, the victorious powers laid down a new order for the eastern territories of the German Reich in the Versailles peace treaty. Large parts of West Prussia, almost the entire province of Posen and part of Upper Silesia were ceded to newly independent Poland. Danzig and surrounding areas were assigned the status of a free city – an independent state under the auspices of the League of Nations. The Second Polish Republic was at first a parliamentary democracy, yet it became increasingly authoritarian in the inter-war period. During that time, national and ethnic minorities represented about 31 percent of the Polish population, including about one million Germans. The western border of Poland and the situation of the German minority led to many political conflicts between Warsaw and Berlin. The relations improved at the beginning of 1934, when a pact of non-aggression was signed by the two states. Poland was also involved in the breaking up of Czechoslovakia in 1938 when it occupied the Zaolzie region, which is located on the border to Upper Silesia.
On September 1, 1939, following a staged Polish attack on a German radio station, the Wehrmacht attacked about 64 Polish sites, including Westerplatte. Though the peninsula was officially part of the Free City of Danzig, it was used exclusively by the Polish Army. Shortly before five in the morning, the training ship »Schleswig-Holstein« opened fire on Westerplatte. The Polish units had deeply entrenched themselves in the wooded area on the peninsula and so they were able to fend off the Germans for several days. The Polish commander surrendered only on September 7, when drinking water, food and medical supplies had run out. The Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland ended on October 5, 1939, when the last Polish units surrendered.

Westerplatte, 1939, Destroyed forest on Westerplatte after it was taken on September 8, 1939, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E10718

Westerplatte, 2008, Headstones of Polish soldiers who defended Westerplatte, Don Cameron

Victims

In total, over 66,000 Polish soldiers died in action in Poland in September 1939; about 3,300 of them were officers. About 133,000 were wounded, 400,000 came into German captivity. About 15 soldiers died during the struggle for Westerplatte, 13 were severely injured, 25 to 40 suffered minor injuries. The survivors were taken prisoner by the Germans.

The Second World War began in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland and the occupation of the west of the country by German troops and the east of the country by the Red Army. Persecution and terror directly followed the invasion in both parts of the country. German units massacred members of the intelligentsia, Jewish and non-Jewish civilians as well as hospital patients. At the end of 1939 the German administration established ghettos where the Jewish population was forced to live in cramped and horrendous conditions. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, eastern Poland also fell under German control. SS Einsatzgruppen started to systematically murder Jewish men, later also women and children. In autumn 1941, local German authorities in the former west of the country began to prepare for the mass murder of Jewish ghetto prisoners using poison gas. By 1945, some three million Polish Jews had been murdered in the extermination camps at Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek or Auschwitz, starved to death in the ghettos or shot dead. In 1943 the Jews living in the Warsaw ghetto staged an uprising, which was brutally crushed by the SS. Polish soldiers fought with the Allies on all fronts during the Second World War. Polish partisan groups, including the patriotic »Armia Krajowa« (Home Army), formed the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe. August 1, 1944 saw the start of the Warsaw Uprising, the most extensive civilian campaign against the Germans in occupied Europe. It failed also because the Red Army, already standing on the opposite side of the Vistula River, chose not to intervene. It is estimated that up to 250,000 people lost their lives in the uprising. A total of around three million non-Jewish Poles met a violent death during the German occupation. Once the Red Army had arrived on (East) Polish soil in January 1944, the troops of the Armia Krajowa were stripped of their weapons by the Soviet secret service and the officers were either shot or deported. The millions of deaths during the occupation, the permanent Soviet annexation of eastern Poland, the incorporation of former eastern German territories and the ensuing population transfers all left a traumatic political and social legacy in Poland. Remembrance of the murder of European Jews in German extermination camps was initially marginalised in the Polish culture of memory. Although Auschwitz soon became an international symbol of the Holocaust, in Poland it was viewed for decades above all as a »site of Polish martyrdom«. However, the start of the 21st century brought about changes in this respect, due in part to the fierce debates over the Jedwabne massacre in eastern Poland. The massacre of around 340 Jews on July 10, 1941 was originally attributed to the »Gestapo and Hitler police« but had in fact been carried out by Polish »neighbours« without orders from the Germans. Debates in Poland and abroad on Polish perpetration resulted in the Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski (*1954) issuing an apology to the victims in 2001. There were increasing calls from experts, such as those from Poland’s Institute for National Remembrance, for the country to confront the most difficult chapters in its history, which also include the anti-Jewish pogroms in 1946-47 and state anti-semitism in communist Poland during the post-war period. The Polish invests extensively in memorial culture, including grand projects with international ambition. The Warsaw Rising Museum was opened already in 2004. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was opened in 2013 on the territory of the former Warsaw Ghetto, a new museum dedicated specifically to the Warsaw Ghetto will follow suit in 2024. Since 2017, there is a major Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. Since the turn of the millennium, the sites of the former German extermination camps have also been converted into modern memorial sites. An ever-growing preoccupation with Poland’s Jewish and multicultural heritage can be observed in the field of culture as well.

Remembrance

After the war, Poland was in the Soviet sphere of influence and a communist dictatorship was established. The official discourse on the history of the war emphasised the suppression of the Polish people by the German occupying forces while the Soviet occupation was celebrated as the »liberation«. To the communist authorities, the events of September 1939 were a failure of the government of the Second Polish Republic. Soldiers who had served under that government were persecuted during the Stalinist period, until 1956.
For many years, the historic site on Westerplatte was neglected by the state; the only reminder of the battle was a cross erected in July 1946, bearing the names of the soldiers killed. In 1962, the authorities took the cross down and replaced it with a Soviet T-34 tank instead – a symbol without any reference to the history of the site. At the same time – during the 1960s – Westerplatte became a symbol of Polish resistance. In the 1970s, it became the central memorial site to the Second World War. In 1966, a monument by Franciszek Duszeńko entitled »Memorial to the Defenders of the Coast« (Polish: Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża) was unveiled. The electricity works, referred to as »Guardhouse no. 1« (Wartownia Nr 1), is the only preserved building of the former military depot. In 1974, a memorial room was set up inside the guardhouse. Since the 1980s, it has been maintained by the historical museum of Gdańsk and it was run for years by veterans. In 1981, the independent labour union Solidarność, which was founded in Gdańsk, erected the cross which had been destroyed in 1962 anew. After the fall of communism it was also finally possible to commemorate the Soviet invasion of September 17, 1939, which had for decades been placed under a taboo. The Soviet tank was removed from the site in 2007.

Westerplatte, 2008, »Memorial to the Defenders of the Coast«, Don Cameron

Westerplatte, 1939, Polish soldiers who defended Westerplatte being taken into captivity by German soldiers, Public Domain

Possibilities

Exhibition in the building of guardhouse no. 1 (Wartownia Nr 1)

Open

The premises of the Westerplatte memorial are accessible at all times. Guardhouse no. 1: May to September 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contact

https://muzeumgdansk.pl/oddzialy-muzeum/wartownia-nr-1-na-westerplatte/

m.jasik@muzeumgdansk.pl

+48 (0)58 343 69 72

ul. Mjr. H. Sucharskiego
80-601 Gdańsk

Westerplatte, 2008, Remains of the Polish barracks, Don Cameron

Westerplatte, 2008, Close-up of the »Memorial to the Defenders of the Coast«, Don Cameron

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