the German invasion of Poland in 1939 cited the city of gdinsk as one of the primary reasons for
the conflict the truth is that the free cities Administration let the Germans take control of
the area before the war even began despite their best efforts godines today is Polish
but it has not forgotten the horrors of the second world war today we discover what's
left of the free city of godaisk I'm your host Ryan silkash and you're watching its history
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firstly some names godinsk is the Polish name for the city and Danzig is the German name
first mentioned in the year of 997 gynsk was a Polish City ruled by polls until 1308 when the
Teutonic Knights seized it after a 13-year War King Kashmir IV reclaimed the city for Poland
in 1466 remaining with Poland until 1772 the Kingdom of Prussia Incorporated it in 1793 had
a brief stint of independence from 1807 to 1814 under Napoleon and then returned to Prussia again
remaining Prussian and then German territory until the end of world war one and with the
end of the first world war came the Treaty of Versailles and President Woodrow Wilson
of the United States had an idea for Germany's fate within his 14 points among them was a call
for an independent Poland with access to the Sea many polls hoped good dance to be this CIA
but a census in 1919 revealed a striking statistic to the Victorious Powers the city had a 98 German
population the Allied Powers saw this as a significant issue the Treaty of Versailles
hold point was to make a lasting Peace So putting the city of mostly Germans into the hands of poles
regardless of their ties to the region would be a recipe for disaster Germany was already going
to have an exclave in West Prussia adding guidance to the Polish Corridor would only inflame tensions
and so it was the Allies came to a solution that made exactly nobody happy instead of giving the
city to either Germany or Poland they granted the city's Independence on paper this seems like an
okay compromise but to pulse this precious trade city was outside of their reach into Germans the
Allied Powers tore a German City from their brothers and all but added it to the polish
Corridor so how exactly was living in the free city of kadinsk well Poland controlled its foreign
policy the city was free and enacted legislation with its own government and Parliament known as
volstag and its people could vote for appointments to the parliament it had its own currency issued
its own passports and as godynsk was a major port area they did a lot of business out of their ports
they even had a flag a red field displaying a crown and two crosses in a column the free
City's territory wasn't just limited to the city itself in fact the size of this nation covered
1952 square kilometers including 252 Villages and larger towns such as sopot Olympia and novistaf
the area fell under the protection of the League of Nations which appointed a High Commissioner
to oversee it internationally on January the 10th 1920 the free City became a recognized city-state
and yes the International Community did use the German name to refer to the city perhaps
suggesting exactly what they thought about the region the nation did have its own border erecting
Stone markers surrounding the border with Poland and Germany marking the free City's territory with
FD and Germany's with d the city was open to both polls and Germans and either could become citizens
as the city issued its own passports that was not a problem in theory at least but we'll come back
to this later the city unfortunately had a very rough start Poland's economy initially depended
on the Commerce flowing through the free City but as an outcry from Poland increased against their
state having to pass through a German check hole to survive Poland invested heavily in gautenia
10 miles north it grew extremely quickly leaving godine skin a very precarious situation in fact
for the first few years of the state's life it relied exceptionally heavy on International Aid to
rebuild after World War one and more importantly not to go hungry despite the claim laid on the
City by both Poland and Germany the city took a different turn in its cultural development most
City residents considered themselves not polish or German but instead being from the city the city
pressured anyone who did not wish to surrender their German citizenship to leave flying in the
face of the previous attempts of germanization from the pre-war era but this would cease after
two decades during the 1920s an economic boom graced the free City and the city began minting
its own coins and stamps expanding greatly on currency circulation but as the Great Depression
came problems arose firstly the currency crashed secondly the Nazi party in Germany caused
quite a stir in the free city as the new regime viewedinsk as their rightful land in an attempt
to counter the recent German posturing the league of Nations granted the Western Plateau Peninsula
to the Polish military for fortification and the creation of a Polish post office in the city
the city's most significant Act of resistance took place here as the polls held off the Nazi
invaders for 17 hours it only fell after part of the building had collapsed and the Germans
stormed in with flamethrowers all that being said these external protections did nothing to
stop the threat within the city in 1933 the Nazi party took the majority of the seats in the free
cities Parliament and from there on all heads of States would be members of the Nazi party 1933's
election saw Hermann rajning become president of the Senate before residing in 1934 and falling out
with the party his replacement Arthur greiser had no qualms with the party having joined in
1929 and the paramilitary SS in 1931. 1935 saw the last elections in the free City and the Nazi
party's control over the government only increased with a 59.31 percent majority around this time the
shoots police eye a Nazi paramilitary group for the free City began marching around the
streets local radios became entirely dominated by fascist propaganda and they strong-armed officials
not affiliated with the party to vote for them so as you might imagine with all this chaos the
international support for the free City dried up quickly in the year of 1938 the city saw a
significant political development German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim Von ribbentrock issued
a demand to the Polish government to immediately transfer the free City to German control Poland
naturally refused the order and when the German Army invaded Poland on September the 1st 1939
they cited the refusal as one of the primary provocations of the invasion during The Invasion
a German warship shelled the Western Plata Garrison marking one one of the first battles
of World War II in Europe The Garrison held out for a week against 13 total attacks from the
German Army killing 50 and wounding 150 with the Germans only suffering a reported 15 dead and 40
wounded the free City itself didn't offer staunch resistance the city recognized annexation into the
German Reich the same day that the War began as mentioned previously the post office offered stiff
resistance for about a day but the city entered German hands without much resistance especially
compared to its polish neighbors Adolf Hitler gave a speech in what he considered Danzig on the 19th
of September 1939 showing just how comfortable the Nazis were there the city's Administration
and police force continued operation after the annexation but that too would ultimately come to
an end the German population began fleeing West as the Soviet Army entered the city's vicinity
as the final Soviet defensive began in January of 1945 a massive wave of German refugees fled
through the Danzig port and cargo and passenger ships many of which the Soviets fired upon
killing tens of thousands Allied bombing raids also fired upon the city and when the Soviets
finally captured it on March the 30th 1945 the bombs mostly leveled to the ground as the war
came to a close the Soviets turned the city back to the poles though Poland itself was now under
Communist dictatorship regardless Danzig finally gadinsk would remain in Polish hands to this day
World War II destroyed much of gdinsk and reconstruction took place over the next two
decades guidance became a significant Port City once again so I bet you're wondering what remains
of the free City well to start the location of the Polish post office is now a museum dedicated to
that office and its Defenders a monument unveiled in 1979 stands outside immortalizing the arduous
struggle against fascist tyranny polish history portrays it as a David and Goliath tale of a
handful of postmen holding out against the German Army and the SS for dozens of hours it remains a
significant source of national pride and for good reason but perhaps the most prominent remnant of
the free city are the Border stones that were left behind they still stand in many places along the
old border now I actually recently retraced this entire border on my other channel called America
you can check out that video after this one we put up some exclusive pictures from the trip
on Instagram as well and what I can tell you is that the Border ran from the help Peninsula
around the free cities territory stopping at the Village of biawagura which according to the terms
of the treaty that created the country resided in Poland Germany and the free City all at once there
were 17 border Stones marking the border between Germany and the free City with one still standing
outside of kranitza moorska deep in the woods and along the Baltic Coast the stone itself features
the aforementioned D and FD markings as well as the date 28th of June 1918 which is the date that
the Treaty of Versailles came into effect another Stone lays in a courtyard of the Fine Arts Factory
in Chev surrounded by the cultural heritage of the city and its people the stone lies in a mock-up of
the pre-war City it wasn't originally here being moved after the war but it makes a fine set piece
and this whole top topic is a very curious thing for me I mean what do you do with the
Border markers of a country that no longer exists well one interesting solution is also found in
the city of Chev here there is no stone rather a stone platform with stairs on either side on
one side of the stairs peas parking Poland and on the other side is a simple F marking the free city
as you can see I visited this location as well and uh you know the locals were nice enough to
accommodate me and tolerate my presence for a while another border marker was actually found
near a house now this wasn't an entire Stone but it appears to the untrained eye that a part of a
border marker made it into someone's gate pillar the f is engraved running horizontally now I asked
Iran to local historians and how this Stone ended up here well no one really knows at the
border Tri point in biawegora where we would have found the tri-border instead of a pillar
is a commemorative Boulder marking place where all three nations met at one point it features
the names of four cities from the free City's jurisdiction those being sopotinsky novistav
and of course it lies on an anti-flood embankment of the visual River the last Stone once set where
the roundabout now in circles so it was relocated outside a primary school in gdinsk itself again
it features a p and an FD marking the Polish border the roundabout has gained the nickname
reflecting what used to lie within translating it to English it would be the Border roundabout this
has received some controversy from godine's counselors but names have a way of sticking
so here we have it that's much bigger than the one that we found in uh
gardenia and soap out has a similar style Rock you see this one's a little bit roughed up as
well but there's a clear inscription there's a p and here we have the classic FD very interesting
and here we have a map of that short-lived country we started up here near soap out see
came down visited the uh marker probably somewhere around here in the forest and
uh now we've moved to the commemorative one which I guess was taken from this location
now we are about to head down to Chev and later we will go to this tri-marker area before we go
back up to grenita warska where we should see probably what is the most important monuments
to this entire lost border lastly we have a rather interesting Remnant a government in Exile formed
in 1947 two years after the end of World War II the free of Danzig government in Exile is
an unrecognized organization based in Berlin laying claim to all of the previous territories
held by the free City and as wacky as that might sound they're actually not even the only ones
shortly after its formation the British occupation Zone in Germany forbade Nationals of the free City
to petition for the city back regardless the government in Exile continued based in Berlin
still respecting the original constitution of the free City its council is elected entirely by
melon ballots from the descendants of citizens of the free City they claim that Nazi Germany
illegally occupied the free City during the invasion of Poland and that the Soviet Union
illegally awarded the occupied City to Poland I have to tell you as a Polish citizen myself
I don't agree with this idea whatsoever actually it's absurd as the city recognize the annexation
into Nazi Germany as we mentioned previously but that didn't stop them from making appeal to
the United Nations for recognition in 1998. this appeal went nowhere the mayor of the city at the
time went as far as to call the whole movement a joke and that anyone could band together and call
themselves a government in Exile if they wanted to higher ups in the illegitimate government
demanded either their land returned or monetary compensation how much money varied depending on
who you ask but around the time of the U.N appeal the number was at about 300 billion dollars and
when asked what they planned to do with the free City should it be restored they went as far as
saying that the current residents would lose their current citizenship and as godynsk is home to a
99 polish population I don't think I have to point out that that idea is completely insane
over 80 years later one can still see the remains of the free City around the area
where it once resided home to a grand story of Polish resistance from the second world war
and the solidarity Trade union that overthrew the Communist dictatorship pedinsk is a Polish
city today but one with a very Dynamic history anyways don't forget to check out my video on
cult America where we retrace the Lost border and ReDiscover some of the Forgotten Stones as
well as the archive posted up on Instagram until next time guys this is Ryan silkash signing off