View source for Reichsgau Wartheland

{{short description|Nazi administrative subdivision}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
|conventional_long_name = Reichsgau Wartheland
|native_name = ''Warthegau''
|subdivision = ''[[Reichsgau]]''
|nation = Nazi Germany
|common_name = occupied Poland
|image_flag = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
|image_coat = Reichsadler.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
|image_map = NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png
|image_map_caption = Map of [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] conquest showing administrative subdivisions (''[[Gau (country subdivision)|Gaue]]'' and ''[[Reichsgau]]e'') with ''Warthegau'' area (bright yellow, right){{-}}[[File:Occupation of Poland 1941.png|250px]] <br /> Reichsgau Wartheland (burgundy) on the map of occupied [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]]
|capital = [[Poznań|Posen]]
|p1= Second Polish Republic
|flag_p1 = Flag of Poland (1928–1980).svg
|s1 = Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland
|flag_s1 = Flag of Poland (1928–1980).svg
|event_start = [[Invasion of Poland|Establishment]]
|year_start = 1939
|date_start = 8 October
|event_end = [[Potsdam Agreement|Disestablishment]]
|year_end = 1945
|date_end = 1 August
|title_leader = ''[[Gauleiter]]''
|leader1 = [[Arthur Greiser]]
|year_leader1 = 1939&ndash;1945
|stat_area1 = |stat_year1 = |stat_pop1 = 
|footnotes =
|today = [[Poland]]
}}
The '''Reichsgau Wartheland''' (initially '''Reichsgau Posen''', also '''Warthegau''') was a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] ''[[Reichsgau]]'' formed from parts of [[Second Polish Republic|Polish]] territory [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed in 1939]] during [[World War II]]. It comprised the region of [[Greater Poland]] and adjacent areas. Parts of ''Warthegau'' matched the similarly named [[Treaty of Versailles|pre-Versailles]] [[Prussia]]n [[province of Posen]]. The name was initially derived from the capital city, [[Poznań|Posen (Poznań)]], and later from the main river, [[Warta River|Warthe (Warta)]].

During the [[Partitions of Poland]] from 1793, the bulk of the area had been annexed by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] until 1807 as [[South Prussia]]. From 1815 to 1849, the territory was within the autonomous [[Grand Duchy of Posen]], which was the [[Province of Posen]] until [[Second Polish Republic|Poland was re-established]] in 1918–1919 following [[World War I]]. The area is currently the [[Greater Poland Voivodeship]].

==Establishment and administration==
{{Main|Gleiwitz incident|Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany}}
[[File:Wartheland Reichsgau 1944 ENG.png|thumb|Counties ([[Regierungsbezirk]]) and districts ([[Districts of Germany|Kreis]]), 1944]]
After the German {{lang | de | [[Wehrmacht]]}} [[invasion of Poland | invaded Poland]] in September 1939, the German Reich occupied the whole of the Greater Poland area - the erstwhile Polish [[Poznań Voivodeship (1919–1939) | Poznań Voivodeship]] - and  split [[Military Administration in Poland | the territory]] between four ''[[Reichsgau]]e'' and the [[General Government]] area (further east). The ''Militärbezirk Posen'' was created in September 1939; in accordance with a decree of 8 October 1939, Germany annexed it on 26 October 1939 as the ''Reichsgau Posen''.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Neuburger
 |first1               = Otto
 |year                 = 1944
 |orig-date            = 1943
 |chapter              = Gazettes of the Länder and Reichsgaue
 |title                = Official Publications of Present-day Germany: Government, Corporate Organizations and National Socialist Party, with an Outline of the Governmental Structure of Germany
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=3edKAQAAMAAJ
 |publication-place    = Washington
 |publisher            = U.S. Government Printing Office
 |page                 = 82
 |access-date          = 5 April 2024
 |quote                = Reincorporated into Germany on October 26, 1939 as Reichsgau Posen by decree of October 8, 1939 (RGBl,I, p 2041).
}} 
</ref>
[[Schutzstaffel|SS]] {{lang | de | [[Obergruppenfuhrer]]}} [[Arthur Greiser]] became {{lang | de | [[Gauleiter]]}} on 21 October.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Vol. 1. |publisher=R. James Bender Publishing |isbn= 978-1-932970-21-0 |author= Michael D. Miller and Andreas Schulz |year= 2012 |page= 360}}</ref> He would remain in this post until the end of the war in 1945. Reichsgau Posen was renamed "Reichsgau Wartheland" on 29 January 1940.

In the new Reichsgau Posen the {{lang | de | Wehrmacht}} established {{lang|de|[[Wehrkreis]]}} XXI, based at Poznań ({{langx|de|Posen}}), under the command of {{lang|de|General der Artillerie}} [[Walter Petzel]]. Its primary operational unit was the 48th [[Panzer]] Korps, covering so-called {{lang|de|Militärische Unterregion-Hauptsitze}} including Posen ({{langx |pl| Poznań}}), [[Leszno|Lissa]] ({{langx |pl| Leszno}}), [[Inowrocław|Hohensalza]] ({{langx |pl| Inowrocław}}), [[Włocławek|Leslau]] ({{langx |pl| Włocławek}}), [[Kalisz|Kalisch]] ({{langx |pl| Kalisz}}), and [[Łódź|Litzmannstadt]] ({{langx |pl| Łódź}}). It maintained training areas at [[Sieradz]] and [[Biedrusko]]. It also maintained the four main [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camps]] in the province, i.e. [[Stalag XXI-A]] in [[Ostrzeszów]], [[Oflag XXI-B|Stalag XXI-B]] in [[Szubin]], [[Stalag XXI-C]] in [[Wolsztyn]] and [[Stalag XXI-D]] in Poznań,<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945|year=1998|location=Poznań|language=pl|publisher=Instytut Zachodni|page=393|isbn=83-85003-97-5}}</ref> which housed Polish, [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French]], British, Dutch, Belgian, Serbian, [[Italian Military Internees|Italian]], Soviet, American, Norwegian, Moroccan, Algerian and [[French Sudan]]ese prisoners of war.

==Nazi crimes and German colonization==
[[File:Execution of Poles by German Einsatzkommando Oktober 1939.jpg|thumb|Mass execution of Poles in [[Leszno]], 21 October 1939]]
[[File:Ansiedler Wartheland Herkunft Karte.png|thumb|Origin of German settlers in the ''Warthegau''. White indicates areas that were to be settled later. ]]
The territory of the Reichsgau was inhabited predominantly by ethnic Poles, by German settlers (a minority of 16.7% in 1921), and by Polish Jews. The Polish population was subjected to various [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|crimes]], including the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'' genocidal campaign. On 20–23 October 1939 alone, the German police and ''[[Einsatzgruppe]]'' VI carried out mass public executions of some 300 Poles in various towns in the region, i.e. [[Gostyń]], [[Kostrzyn, Greater Poland Voivodeship|Kostrzyn]], [[Kościan]], [[Kórnik]], [[Krobia]], [[Książ Wielkopolski]], [[Leszno]], [[Mosina]], [[Osieczna]], [[Poniec]], [[Śmigiel]], [[Śrem]], [[Środa Wielkopolska|Środa]] and [[Włoszakowice]], to terrorize and pacify the Poles.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=193–198, 191–192, 199, 205–206, 211}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Grochowina|first=Sylwia|year=2017|title=Cultural policy of the Nazi occupying forces in the Reich district Gdańsk–West Prussia, the Reich district Wartheland, and the Reich district of Katowice in the years 1939–1945|location=Toruń|page=87|isbn=978-83-88693-73-1}}</ref> During ''[[Aktion T4]]'', the ''[[SS-Sonderkommandos]]'' gassed over 2,700 mentally ill people from the psychiatric hospitals in [[Owińska]], [[Dziekanka]] and [[Kościan]].{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=216–217}}

Most of the Jewish residents were eventually imprisoned at the [[Łódź Ghetto]] (officially established in December 1939) and exterminated at [[Chełmno extermination camp]] ({{langx|de|Vernichtungslager Kulmhof}}, operational from December 1941 onwards).<ref name="Klee-Dressen-Riess">HolocaustHistory.org: [http://www.holocaust-history.org/19420605-rauff-spezialwagen/ "ninety-seven thousand have been processed, using three vans, without any defects showing up in the vehicles."] Postwar testimony ''Obersturmbannführer'' [[August Becker]], the [[gas van | gas-van]] inspector. ''See:'' {{cite book |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ACWKeRF49UYC&q=%22gas-vans+in+operation:+the+Opel-Blitz%22+%22Saurerwagen%22&pg=PA69 | chapter = ''A new and better method of killing had to be found'': The gas-vans |publisher= Konecky & Konecky | title =The Good Old Days: The Holocaust As Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders |year= 1991 |author= [[Ernst Klee]] |author2= Willi Dressen |author3= Volker Riess |pages= 69&ndash;70 |isbn= 1-56852-133-2 |publication-place = Old Saybrook, Connecticut}} ''Also in:'' [[Christopher Browning]] (2000), ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120812211113/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/browning3.htm  Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution]'' with archives of the [[RSHA]].</ref> From 1940, the occupiers also operated several forced labour camps for Jews in the region.<ref name=ekw394/> Due to poor feeding and sanitary conditions, epidemics spread in those camps, which, combined with frequent executions, led to a high mortality rate.<ref name=ekw394/> On the order of [[Heinrich Himmler]], most of the camps were dissolved in 1943, and its surviving prisoners were sent to ghettos and death camps.<ref name=ekw394/>

[[File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg|thumb|Poles being led to trains under German Army escort, as part of the [[ethnic cleansing]] of the areas of western Poland annexed to the [[Reich]] immediately following the [[Invasion of Poland|invasion of 1939]]]]
The Gauleiter and [[Reichsstatthalter]] of Reichsgau Wartheland, native-born [[Arthur Greiser]],<ref name="Kershaw">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Clu5vSF3IIYC&q=60%2C000 |title=Hitler 1936-1945 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190959-2 |year=2013 |author=Ian Kershaw |page=vi}}</ref> embarked on a program of complete removal of the formerly Polish citizenry upon his nomination by [[Heinrich Himmler]].<ref name="ushmm">{{cite web|title=Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era |url=http://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/poles-victims-of-the-nazi-era |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> The plan also entailed the re-settling of ethnic Germans from the [[Nazi-Soviet population transfers|Baltic and other regions]] into farms and homes formerly owned by Poles and Jews.<ref>Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' pp. 207-9, {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}.</ref> He also authorized the clandestine operation of exterminating 100,000 [[Polish Jews]] (about one-third of the total Jewish population of ''Wartheland''),<ref name="thhpsb">{{cite web |title=Special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) |url=http://www.holocaust-history.org/quick-facts/special-treatment.shtml |publisher=The Holocaust History Project  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528142643/http://www.holocaust-history.org/quick-facts/special-treatment.shtml |archive-date=2013-05-28 }}</ref> in the process of the region's complete "[[Germanization]]".<ref name="IPN">Main Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, [http://weber.ucsd.edu/~lzamosc/gchelmno.html ''German Crimes in Poland'' (Warsaw: 1946, 1947)]; Archive of ''Jewish Gombin Genealogy'', with introduction by Leon Zamosc. ''Note:'' The Main (or Central) Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland ({{langx|pl|[[:pl:Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce|Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce]], GKBZNwP}}) founded in 1945 was the predecessor of the [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (see also the {{cite web |url=http://biwww.urm.gov.pl/ms/gkbzpnpe.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-01-12  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970212065543/http://biwww.urm.gov.pl/ms/gkbzpnpe.html |archive-date=February 12, 1997 }}). ''Quote:'' "The creation of the Main Commission... was preceded by work done in London since 1943 by the [[Polish Government in Exile]]."</ref> In the first year of World War II, some 630,000 Poles and Jews were forcibly removed from ''Wartheland'' and transported to the occupied [[General Government]] (more than 70,000 from Poznań alone) in a series of operations called the ''Kleine Planung'' covering most [[Polish territories annexed by Germany]] at about the same time.
Both Poles and Jews had their property confiscated.<ref>''Agency for the East that oversaw the registration, administration and eventual sale of all property confiscated from Poles and Jews (virtually all Polish and Jewish property was confiscated)''Heimat, Region, and Empire: Spatial Identities under National Socialism
 Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann, Maiken Umbach</ref>

By the end of 1940, some 325,000 Poles and Jews from the ''Wartheland'' and the so-called [[Polish Corridor]] were expelled to General Government, often forced to abandon most of their belongings.<ref>Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' pp. 213-214, {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}.</ref> Fatalities were numerous. Many Poles were also enslaved as [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] and either sent to forced labour camps or German colonists in the region or deported to Germany and other German-occupied countries.<ref name=ekw394>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945|year=1998|location=Poznań|language=pl|publisher=Instytut Zachodni|pages=394–395|isbn=83-85003-97-5}}</ref> In 1941, the Nazis expelled a further 45,000 people, and from autumn of that year, they began killing Jews by shooting and in [[Nazi gas van|gas van]]s, at first spasmodically and experimentally.<ref>Max Hastings, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=21971 The Most Evil Emperor]," NYRB October 23, 2008, p. 48.</ref> Reichsgau Wartheland had the population: 4,693,700 by 1941. Greiser wrote in November 1942: "I myself do not believe that the Führer needs to be asked again in this matter, especially since at our last discussion with regard to the Jews he told me that I could proceed with these according to my own judgement."<ref>Ian Kershaw, ''Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution'' (Yale University Press, 2008), p. 75.</ref>

[[File:Fort VII Poznań RB10.JPG|thumb|Bunker no. 16 in [[Fort VII]] in Poznań, used by the German occupiers as an improvised [[gas chamber]]]]
There were numerous camps and prisons in the province, including a [[List of subcamps of Gross-Rosen|subcamp]] of the [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]] in [[Owińska]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.gross-rosen.eu/historia-kl-gross-rosen/filie-obozu-gross-rosen/|title=Subcamps of KL Gross-Rosen|website=Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica|access-date=16 June 2024}}</ref> and a subcamp of the [[Stutthof concentration camp]] in [[Obrzycko]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bundesrecht.juris.de/begdv_6/anlage_6.html|title=Anlage zu § 1. Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos gemäß § 42 Abs. 2 BEG|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423004151/http://bundesrecht.juris.de/begdv_6/anlage_6.html|language=de|access-date=16 June 2024|archive-date=23 April 2009}}</ref> Particularly notorious camps and prisons included the [[Fort VII]] concentration camp in Poznań, the [[Radogoszcz prison]] in Łódź,{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=203}} a prison camp in [[Żabikowo, Luboń|Żabikowo]], where mostly Poles were imprisoned, but also Luxembourgers, Dutch, Hungarians, Slovaks, Americans, Russians and deserters from the ''Wehrmacht'', and many were tortured and executed,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://poznan.naszemiasto.pl/68-lat-temu-zlikwidowano-oboz-hitlerowski-w-zabikowie/ar/c1-1700137|title=68 lat temu zlikwidowano obóz hitlerowski w Żabikowie|website=Poznań Nasze Miasto|date=21 January 2013 |access-date=16 June 2024|language=pl}}</ref> and the prison in [[Sieradz]], whose mostly Polish and Jewish prisoners were subjected to insults, beatings, forced labour, tortures, executions, and were even given meals prepared from rotten vegetables, spoiled fish and dead dogs, thus often dying of exhaustion, [[starvation]] or torture.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Studnicka-Mariańczyk|first=Karolina|year=2018|title=Zakład Karny w Sieradzu w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939–1945|journal=Zeszyty Historyczne|language=pl|volume=17|pages=187–192}}</ref>

Over 270,000 Polish children aged 10–18 were subjected to forced labour in the region of [[Greater Poland]], which, in addition to German profits of 500 million [[Deutsche Mark|marks]], was aimed at the children's biological destruction.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kołakowski|first=Andrzej|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|page=74|chapter=Zbrodnia bez kary: eksterminacja dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w latach 1939–1945}}</ref> In Łódź, the occupiers operated a [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|racial research]] camp for expelled Poles, and a concentration camp for [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]] of two to 16 years of age from various parts of occupied Poland.<ref name=klbg>{{cite book|last1=Ledniowski|first1=Krzysztof|last2=Gola|first2=Beata|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|pages=147–149|chapter=Niemiecki obóz dla małoletnich Polaków w Łodzi przy ul. Przemysłowej}}</ref> In the racial research camp, Poles were subjected to racial selection before deportation to forced labour in Germany, and Polish children were taken from their parents and sent to [[Germanisation in Poland (1939–1945)|Germanisation]] camps.<ref name=klbg/> The camp for kidnapped children served as a forced labour, penal and internment camp and racial research center, with the children subjected to starvation, exhausting labour, beating even up to death and diseases, and the camp was nicknamed "little [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]]" due to its conditions.<ref name=klbg/> Germanisation camps for Polish children taken away from their parents were operated in Kalisz, Poznań, [[Puszczykowo]] and [[Zaniemyśl]].<ref name=dom>{{cite web|url=http://www.kalisz.info/dom-wychowawczy.html|title="Dom wychowawczy" dla polskich dzieci w Kaliszu|website=Kalisz.info|author1=Krystyna Dobak-Splitt|author2=Jerzy Aleksander Splitt|access-date=16 June 2024|language=pl}}</ref> The children were given new German names and surnames, and were punished for any use of the Polish language, even with death.<ref name=dom/> After their stay in the camps, the children were deported to Germany; only some returned to Poland after the war, while the fate of many remains unknown to this day.<ref name=dom/>

[[File:Die 'großzügigste Umsiedlungsaktion' with Poland superimposed, 1939.jpg|thumb|280px|''[[Heim ins Reich]]'' re-settlement in ''Warthegau''. Map of the Third Reich in 1939 (dark grey) after the [[Invasion of Poland|conquest of Poland]]; with pockets of German colonists brought into ''[[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|Reichsgau Wartheland]]'' from the Soviet "sphere of influence" – superimposed with the red outline of Poland missing entirely from the original print.<ref name="Douglas">{{cite book |title=Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War |author=R. M. Douglas |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-300-18376-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DeOzUL-HXb0C&q=Reichstag+Heim |page=21 |quote=In a keynote address to the Reichstag to mark the end of the 'Polish campaign', on October 6, 1939, Hitler announced the ''Heim ins Reich'' (Back to the Reich) program. The prospect of being uprooted from their homes to face an uncertain future not even in Germany proper, but in the considerably less salubrious environment of western Poland, was greeted with a deep sense of betrayal.}}</ref>]]

==Polish resistance==
The [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]] was active in the region, including the [[Union of Armed Struggle]], [[Bataliony Chłopskie]], [[Gray Ranks]] and [[Home Army]].{{sfn|Pietrowicz|2011|pp=28–33}} The [[Polish Underground State]] was organized, and in July 1940, even an underground Polish parliament was established in Poznań.{{sfn|Pietrowicz|2011|pp=34, 36}} Activities included [[Education in Poland during World War II|secret Polish schooling]], secret Catholic services, printing and distribution of [[Polish underground press]], sabotage actions, espionage of German activity, military trainings, production of false documents, preparations for a planned uprising, and even secret [[Football in Poland|football]] games.{{sfn|Pietrowicz|2011|pp=23–26, 31–32}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Graf|first=Władysław|year=1994|title=Wojskowa konspiracja AK 1940–1944. Część 1|magazine=Zeszyty Ostrzeszowskie|language=pl|publisher=Ostrzeszowskie Centrum Kultury|issue=38|pages=4, 7–8}}</ref> The Polish resistance provided aid to people in need, including prisoners, escapees from camps and ghettos and deserters from the German army, rescued Polish children kidnapped by the Germans,<ref name=dom/> and facilitated escapes of Allied prisoners of war from German POW camps.{{sfn|Pietrowicz|2011|p=23}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/teksty/69438,Dorsze-z-Poznania.html|title="Dorsze" z Poznania|website=Przystanek Historia|author=Aleksandra Pietrowicz|access-date=16 June 2024|language=pl}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Graf|first=Władysław|year=1992|title=Ostrzeszów: obozy jenieckie okresu 1940–1942|magazine=Zeszyty Ostrzeszowskie|language=pl|publisher=Ostrzeszowskie Centrum Kultury|issue=17|pages=9–10, 16–18}}</ref> The Germans cracked down on the resistance several times,{{sfn|Pietrowicz|2011|p=26}} and even kidnapped children of the resistance members and sent them to the camp for Polish children in Łódź.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ledniowski|first1=Krzysztof|last2=Gola|first2=Beata|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska|pages=158–159|chapter=Niemiecki obóz dla małoletnich Polaków w Łodzi przy ul. Przemysłowej}}</ref>

==End of war==
From August 1944 to January 1945, the Germans used hundreds of thousands of Poles as forced labour to build fortifications in the region ahead of the advancing [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref name=ekw394/> In January 1945, before and during their retreat, the Germans committed several further massacres of Polish civilians, prisoners and Polish and other Allied POWs, including at [[Ostrzeszów]], [[Pleszew]], [[Marchwacz]], Żabikowo and [[Łomnica, Nowy Tomyśl County|Łomnica]] and perpetrated several [[Death marches during the Holocaust|death marches]].<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945|page=147}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poznan.uw.gov.pl/wydarzenia-archiwalne/71-rocznica-mordu-na-mieszkancach-marchwacza|title=71. rocznica mordu na mieszkańcach Marchwacza|website=Wielkopolski Urząd Wojewódzki w Poznaniu|author=Anna Czuchra|date=30 January 2016|access-date=16 June 2024|language=pl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zabikowo.eu/75-rocznica-likwidacji-i-ewakuacji-wiezniow-obozu-karno-sledczego-w-zabikowie|title=75. rocznica likwidacji i ewakuacji więźniów obozu karno-śledczego w Żabikowie|website=Muzeum Martyrologiczne w Żabikowie|date=19 January 2020|access-date=16 June 2024|language=pl}}</ref>

By 1945 nearly half a million Germanic ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'' had been resettled in the ''Warthegau'' alone among the [[areas annexed by Germany]] while the [[Red Army|Soviet forces]] began to push the retreating German forces back through the Polish lands. [[World War II evacuation and expulsion|Most German residents]] along with over a million colonists fled westward. Some did not, due to restrictions by Germany's own government and the quickly advancing Red Army. An estimated 50,000 refugees died from the severe winter conditions, others as war atrocities committed by the Soviet military.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}} The [[Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II|remaining ethnically German population was expelled]] to Allied-occupied Germany after the war ended in accordance with the [[Potsdam Agreement]].<ref>[[Norman M. Naimark]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC The Russians in Germany.]'' p. 75. {{ISBN|0674784057}}.</ref>

==See also==
*[[History of Poland (1939–1945)]]
*[[World War II atrocities in Poland]]
*[[Special Prosecution Book-Poland]]
*[[Intelligenzaktion]]
*[[Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*[http://www.shoa.de/content/view/544/41/ Shoa.de - List of Gaue and Gauleiter] {{in lang|de}}
*[http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/nazi/innenpolitik/gaue/ Die NS Gaue] at the [[Deutsches Historisches Museum]] website {{in lang|de}}
*[http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/gau_abc.html Die Gaue der NSDAP] {{in lang|de}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal|author=Huener, Jonathan ([[University of Vermont]])|title=Nazi ''Kirchenpolitik'' and Polish Catholicism in the Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939–1941|journal=[[Central European History]]|publisher=Central European History Society of the [[American Historical Association]]|date=March 2014|volume=47|issue=1|pages=105–137|doi=10.1017/S0008938914000648|s2cid=145194931}} -  DOI [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938914000648 10.1017/S0008938914000648], online publication on 15 May 2014
*{{cite magazine|last=Pietrowicz|first=Aleksandra|year=2011|title=Konspiracja wielkopolska 1939–1945|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|issue=5–6 (126–127)|issn=1641-9561}}
* {{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]}}

{{Historical divisions of Greater Poland}}
{{Nazi Gaue}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|52.400000|16.916667|format=dms|display=title|type:landmark}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichsgau Wartheland}}
[[Category:Reichsgau Wartheland| ]]
[[Category:Former administrative regions of Greater Poland]]
[[Category:Poland in World War II|Wartheland, Reichsgau]]
[[Category:World War II occupied territories|Wartheland]]
[[Category:Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Nazi Gaue|Wartheland]]
[[Category:Germany–Poland relations]]
[[Category:1939 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:1945 disestablishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Holocaust locations in Poland]]