Editing Bloody Sunday (1939) (section)

==Background==
[[Bydgoszcz]] (Bromberg) was part of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] until 1772, when it was annexed by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] during the [[First Partition of Poland]]. As a part of Prussia, the city was affected by the unification of Germany in 1871 and became part of the [[German Empire]].  It would remain a part of the German Empire until the end of [[World War I]]. In February 1920, the [[Treaty of Versailles]] awarded the city and the surrounding region to the [[Second Polish Republic]] (the administrative region of [[Pomeranian Voivodeship#Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Pomeranian Voivodeship]]). This resulted in a number of ethnic Germans leaving the region for Germany. Over the [[interwar period]], the German population decreased even further.

The emergence of the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi Party]] in Germany had an important impact on the city. [[Adolf Hitler]] revitalized the [[Völkisch movement]], making an appeal to the German minority living outside of Germany's post-World War I borders and recruiting its members for Nazi intelligence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Higgins |first=David R. |title=Behind Soviet Lines: Hitler's Brandenburgers capture the Maikop Oilfields 1942 |publisher=Bloobsbury |year=2014 |isbn=978-1782005995 |pages=9}}</ref> It was Hitler's explicit goal to create a [[German question#Later influence|Greater German State]] by annexing territories of other countries inhabited by German minorities. By March 1939, these ambitions, charges of atrocities on both sides of the [[Germany–Poland border|German-Polish border]], distrust, and rising nationalist sentiment in Nazi Germany led to the complete deterioration of [[Germany–Poland relations|Polish-German relations]]. Hitler's demands for the Polish inhabited [[Polish Corridor]] and Polish resistance to Nazi annexation fueled ethnic tensions. For months prior to the 1939 [[German invasion of Poland]], German newspapers and politicians like [[Adolf Hitler]] had carried out a national and international [[propaganda]] campaign accusing Polish authorities of organizing or tolerating violent [[ethnic cleansing]] of [[German minority in Poland|ethnic German]]s living in Poland.

After armed conflict erupted on 1 September 1939, ethnic Germans living in Poland were in many places subjected to attacks, and the Polish government arrested ten to fifteen thousand on suspicion of being loyal to Germany, marching them toward the east of the country.<ref name=":3" /> Eventually, around 2000 ethnic Germans died in such actions.<ref name=":3" /> Nazi propagandists used these incidents to claim that the invasion was justified, and the events in Bydgoszcz became emblematic of this.<ref>Kershaw 2001, p. 242</ref>