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Glimpses of Danzig, 50 Years Later
By Giles du Boulay

On 1 September 1939 Nazi troops attacked Poland and selected targets in Danzig and on that morning Gauleiter Albert Forster announced to the people of Danzig that “the hour for which you have been longing for twenty years has come. This day Danzig has returned to the great German Reich”.

Albert Forster, a fanatical Nazi, had been responsible for stirring up anti— Polish feeling in Danzig for some considerable time before this fateful day. Below is a New Year’s greetings telegram for 1938 from Herman Goering to Forster and on the next page is wi extract from the “Vol kischer I3eobachter” on 25 August 1939 reporting his installation as Danzig’s Head of State. The front page stories (translated on the following page) about so—called Polish aggression are typical of this notorious Nazi newspaper with its ranting, propagandistic style mixing fact and fiction ready to be lapped up by the gullible readership.

31.12.37. Once again at the end of year full of mutual work for the Führer and the people I send you my sincerest congratulations for the coming year. With warmest greetings in lasting solidarity. Heil Hitler, your Herman Goering.

 


Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 68 - July - August - September - 1990, Page 11.