Editing Masuria (section)

=== World War II ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-070980, Soldau, Umsiedlung Litauendeutscher.jpg|thumb|left|[[Baltic German]] settlers from Soviet occupied Lithuania arriving in German-occupied [[Działdowo]], 1941]]
With the start of the German [[invasion of Poland]] and [[World War II]] on 1 September 1939, the German minority in the parts of Masuria attached to Poland after World War I organised themselves in paramilitary formations called ''[[Selbstschutz]]'' (selfdefense) and begun to engage in massacres of local Polish population; Poles were imprisoned, tortured and murdered<ref>Z ałacznik do Uchwały Nr.XXVII Lokalny Program Rewitalizacji Miasta Działdowa. Ogólna charakterystyka, rys historyczny miasta Działdowa [http://www.dzialdowo.um.gov.pl/?p=document&action=save&id=3334&bar_id=1634] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327190622/http://www.dzialdowo.um.gov.pl/?p=document&action=save&id=3334&bar_id=1634|date=2012-03-27}} Urząd Miejski Miasta Działdowa</ref><ref>Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce, Tomy 18-19, Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce
Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Sprawiedliwości, page 167, 1968</ref> while Masurians were sometimes forcefully placed on [[Volksliste]].<ref>Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 by Tadeusz Piotrowski, page 83 2007, McFarland & Company, Inc.</ref><ref>Historia polityczna Polski 1935-1945 	
Paweł Piotr Wieczorkiewicz, page 164, Książka i Wiedza 2005</ref>

From now on conscripted Masurians had to serve without exception in the [[Wehrmacht|German army]] invading Poland, and Russia two years later on. In addition, the ''[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe V]]'' Nazi paramilitary death squads entered German-occupied Działdowo to commit [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|crimes against the Polish population]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=IPN|page=54}}</ref> Only some of the Polish activists from Działdowo County were caught by the Germans, as most managed to flee and hide under assumed names in the [[General Government]] (German-occupied central Poland).<ref>Cygański, p. 44</ref> Arrested Polish activists from the pre-war German part of Masuria were mostly deported to concentration camps, incl. {{ill|Hohenbruch concentration camp|lt=Hohenbruch|de|KZ Hohenbruch}}, [[Soldau concentration camp|Soldau]], [[Stutthof concentration camp|Stutthof]], [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]], [[Gusen concentration camp|Gusen]] and [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]].<ref>Cygański, p. 43</ref>

In 1939, the German occupiers established a [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camp]] for captured Polish soldiers in Działdowo.<ref name="mw">{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=IPN|page=227}}</ref> In December 1939 it was converted into a camp for Polish civilians arrested during the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'',<ref name="mw" /> and afterwards converted into the [[Soldau concentration camp]], where 13,000 people were murdered by the Nazi German state during the war. Notable victims included the Polish bishops [[Antoni Julian Nowowiejski]] and [[Leon Wetmański]], as well as the nun Mieczysława Kowalska. Additionally, almost 1,900 mentally ill patients from East Prussia and annexed areas of Poland were murdered there as well, in what was known as [[Action T4]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqLDEKVk2nMC&q=soldau++1558&pg=PA140|title=The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution|first1=Henry|last1=Friedlander|year=1995|isbn=0-8078-2208-6|page=140}}</ref> [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance]] in Masuria was organised by Paweł Nowakowski "Leśnik" commander of the [[Home Army]]'s Działdowo district.<ref>{{cite book|last=Śląski|first=Jerzy|year=1986|title=Polska walcząca, 1939–1945, Tomy 5-6|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy Pax|page=165}}</ref> The resistance operated one of the region's main smuggling points for [[Polish underground press]] in Ełk.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|year=2022|title=Polskie Państwo Podziemne na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945|language=pl|location=Gdańsk|publisher=IPN|page=57|isbn=978-83-8229-411-8}}</ref>

[[File:Gierloz Wilczy Szaniec 53.jpg|thumb|right|Remnants of the [[Wolf's Lair]] in [[Gierłoż, Kętrzyn County|Gierłoż]]]]
The Nazis believed that in future, the Masurians, as a separate non-German entity, would 'naturally' disappear in the end, while those who would cling to their "foreigness" as one Nazi report mentioned, would be deported.<ref>Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich by Michael Burleigh, page 209, 1988, Cambridge University Press</ref> Local [[Jews]] were considered by the Nazis to be [[Untermensch|subhuman]] and were to be exterminated. The Nazi authorities also executed Polish activists in Masuria and those who remained alive were sent to concentration camps.<ref>{{cite book|last=Swenson|first=Iwona|title=Słownik geograficzno-krajoznawczy Polski|year=1998|language=pl|publisher=[[Polish Scientific Publishers PWN|Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN]]|page=440}}</ref>

In Masuria, Germany also established and operated the [[Stalag I-B]] and Oflag 63 prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, Belgian, [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French]], [[Italian Military Internees|Italian]], Serbian and Soviet POWs,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=218, 390|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref> and built the [[Wolf's Lair]], [[Adolf Hitler]]'s first [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] military headquarters where the [[20 July Plot|20 July assassination attempt]] occurred in 1944. In August 1943 the [[Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe]] [[Raid on Mittenheide|attacked the village of Mittenheide (Turośl)]] in southern Masuria.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/specjal_040612/specjal_a_8.html |title=Kazimierz Krajewski, Shock in the Reich, Rzeczpospolita Daily |access-date=2011-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605071645/http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/specjal_040612/specjal_a_8.html |archive-date=2011-06-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1943, "Związek Mazurski" was reactivated secretly by Masurian activists of the [[Polish Underground State]] in Warsaw and led by Karol Małłek.<ref>Literatura polska w latach II wojny światowej Jerzy Świe̢ch, Instytut Badań Literackich (Polska Akademia Nauk), page 42
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN,</ref> Związek Mazurski opposed Nazi Germany and asked Polish authorities during the war to liquidate German large landowners  after the victory over Nazi Germany to help in agricultural reform and settlement of Masurian population, Masurian iconoclasts opposed to Nazi Germany requested to remove German heritage sites "regardless of their cultural value".<ref>[http://www.muzeum.ketrzyn.pl/palace6.htm Pałace i dwory powiatu kętrzyńskiego - wartości historyczne i kulturowe] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040718035121/http://www.muzeum.ketrzyn.pl/palace6.htm |date=2004-07-18 }} Muzeum im Wojciecha Kętrzyńsiego w Kętrzynie</ref> Additionally a [[Masurian Institute]] was founded by Masurian activists in Radość near Warsaw in 1943.<ref name="O nas">[http://www.obn.olsztyn.pl/index1.php?id=o_nas/o_nas O nas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224073951/http://www.obn.olsztyn.pl/index1.php?id=o_nas%2Fo_nas |date=2018-12-24 }} Ośrodek Badań Naukowych imienia Wojciecha Kętrzyńskiego w Olsztynie</ref>

In the final stages of [[World War II]], Masuria was partially devastated by the retreating [[Wehrmacht|German]] and advancing [[Red Army|Soviet]] armies during the [[Vistula-Oder Offensive]]. During the Soviet offensive, [[Rape during the Soviet occupation of Poland|wartime rape was especially common in the region]], as well as [[ethnic cleansing]] of the remaining German population. Already on May 23, 1945, the Soviets granted that a Polish administration be established in the region, which aroused British and American protest.<ref>{{cite book|title=Polen und die Deutschland-Frage 1939-1949| volume=23|author=Viktoria Vierheller|publisher=Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik|year= 1970|pages=105|language=de}} {{cite book|title=Niederschlesien 1942 bis 1949: alliierte Diplomatie und Nachkriegswirklichheit|author=Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach|publisher=Bergstadtverlag Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn|pages=96–97}}</ref>

However, per the decisions made at the earlier [[Yalta Conference]] and the [[Potsdam Conference]] the region passed to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, pending a final peace conference with Germany.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics|author=Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=50|isbn=9781847790323|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q40tDwAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The United States and Poland|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1980|page=303|isbn=9780674926851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC|access-date=2022-07-10|archive-date=2024-01-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111155012/https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law|author=Phillip A. Bühler|series=East European Monographs|year=1990|page=33|isbn=9780880331746|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ|access-date=2022-07-10|archive-date=2024-01-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111154906/https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of the population fled to Germany or was killed during or after the war, while those which stayed were subject to a "nationality verification", organised by the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|communist government]] of Poland. As a result, the number of native Masurians remaining in Masuria was initially relatively high, while most of the population was subsequently [[expulsion of Germans after World War II|expelled]]. Poles from central Poland and the [[Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union]] as well as [[Ukrainians]] expelled from southern Poland throughout the [[Operation Vistula]], were resettled in Masuria.<ref>Andreas Kossert, Ostpreussen, Geschichte und Mythos p. 352; Kossert gives 35 % from Central Poland, 22.6 % from Eastern Poland, 10 % victims of Op. Vistula, 18.5 % Natives in 1950</ref>