Polish Post Office in Gdańsk - 1 September 1939

[daraheen]

They didn't put up much of a fight? These postmen held it for nine hours in the face of a massive assault by Wehrmacht and SS, only becoming dislodged when the Germans flooded the basement with kerosene and sent in flame throwers. I believe these heroes were later shot as 'partizans'.

[Forumlivii]

From Italy: my grandmother worked in the post office of Gdansk (Danzig) before the war and my mother was a friend of the little girl died in the clashes in 1 september, think that your name is: Ewina.

[IanHunedoara8]

The defense of the Polish Post Office in Danzig was detailed extensively in the novel, The Tin Drum.According to the author, the postmen were immediatly executed as "irregulars" and their remains were buried in Saspe cemetery.

[historicrecord]

How many postmen were actually killed ? Does that name plate list their names ? Presumably the German population there left in 1945.

[alanheath]

I think the Nazis judicially murdered 38 people, six Poles were killed during the fighting. They 'tried' the defenders and the death sentence was signed by Walter von Brauchitisch making him ultimately responsible for their murder.

The German population was deported in 1945 - 1946.

[historicrecord]

This is former Danzig - which was one of the pretexts which Hitler used to justify his invasion of Poland claiming he wanted to create a corridor to this German enclave.

[alanheath]

The motorway only just opened after being closed for seventy years. There is only a tiny section between Elbląg and Kaliningrad. Hitler never bothered with building a motorway that was supposed to link up with it roughly in the position of the Polish route 22 from Gorzow to Elblag today.