WW2-Poland-2015
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Museum of the Second World War<br />
Museum of the Second World War<br />
81-83 Długa Street<br />
PL 80-831 Gdańsk<br />
Tel: +48 58 323-75-20<br />
Fax: + 48 58 323-75-30<br />
sekretariat@muzeum1939.pl<br />
Why Gdań sk?<br />
It is not by happenstance that Gdań sk was chosen as the place where the Museum of the Second World War would be built. This choice seems perfectly justified by<br />
the role Gdań sk has played in the history of Europe.<br />
Following the First World War, Gdań sk acquired the status of a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations, and thus became suspended between <strong>Poland</strong> and Germany. Hitler<br />
began making demands for its incorporation into the Third Reich in the autumn of 1938. <strong>Poland</strong>’s rejection of his claim opened the way to war. It was right here, on Westerplatte Peninsula,<br />
that the Germans attacked <strong>Poland</strong>’s military outpost on 1 September 1939, the date which is generally considered as the beginning of the Second World War. It was in neighbouring Pomerania<br />
that Nazi oppression of Poles began directly and was exceptionally harsh. Already on 2 September 1939, in nearby Stutthof, a concentration camp began to operate, with Gdań sk Poles as<br />
its first inmates. The autumn of 1939 saw the first forced expulsions of Poles from Pomerania.<br />
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