Editing Bloody Sunday (1939) (section)

==The incident==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2008-0415-505, Bromberg, Leichen getöteter Volksdeutscher.jpg|300px|thumb|Wehrmacht soldiers and journalists with German victims of Bloody Sunday.<ref name="internationale" /> The photo was used by the Nazi press and bears the editor's cropping marks, showing the portion of the image that was intended to be used for publication.<ref name="propagandistic" />]]Beginning with the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September, fighting broke out in Bydgoszcz between Polish troops and ethnic Germans in the city, many of whom were later revealed to belonged to clandestine groups organized by the Nazi party.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Rossino |first=Alexander B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAhnAAAAMAAJ |title=Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity |publisher=University Press of Kansas |year=2003 |isbn=9780700612345 |pages=62 |quote=Conditions in Bydgoszcz had steadily deteriorated in the days immediately after the beginning of the German invasion. Situated squarely between Pomerania and East Prussia, Bydgoszcz was home to a considerable number of ethnic Germans, many of whom belonged to underground political groups organized by Nazi sympathizers. Armed clashes between Polish troops and members of the Volksdeutsche underground broke out in the days between the beginning of the German offensive and the Wehrmacht's occupation on 5 September.}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> As the Wehrmacht's Fourth Army prepared to storm the city of Bydgoszcz on 3 September, the violence intensified, resulting in the deaths of up to 300 ethnic Germans and 40 to 50 Poles.<ref name=":3">{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Richard |title=The Third Reich at War |date=2008 |publisher=Pengin Press |isbn=978-0143116714 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=8–9 |quote=Some 300 were killed in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), where local ethnic Germans had staged an armed uprising against the town's garrison in the belief that the war was virtually over, and had been killed by the enraged Poles. These events were cynically exploited by Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry to win maximum support in Germany for the invasion.}}</ref><ref name="Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg. Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939" /> Sources differ on the circumstances of the killings, but it is apparent that at least some were killed in an anti-German pogrom.<ref>{{cite book|first=Ian|last=Kershaw|title=Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis|date=25 October 2001|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-192581-3|page=242}}</ref>

The killings were incited by [[fifth column]] attacks by ethnic German partisans against the Polish garrison.<ref name=":3" /> According to historian [[Jochen Böhler]], recently unearthed German documents  confirm that the violence was sparked when Polish soldiers were attacked by agents of the Nazi intelligence organization [[Abwehr]] recruited from among the city's German minority.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-E10593,_Bromberg,_Leichen_getöteter_Volksdeutscher.jpg|thumb|Corpses of ethnic Germans at Bydgoszcz]]
Beginning in early September, the Abwehr reported in documents prepared by general [[Erwin von Lahousen]] that German armed [[sabotage|saboteurs]] conducting operations behind the [[front line]] in Bydgoszcz suffered heavy losses.<ref name="Tomasz Chińciński page 181">"Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 r. w świetle dokumentów policyjnych i wojskowych II Rzeczpospolitej oraz służb specjalnych III Rzeszy" Tomasz Chińciński, page 181 Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość 4/2 (8), 159-195. 2005</ref><ref name="W" /><ref name="meldunki" /> Their operations coordinated by [[Abwehr]] residents in Bydgoszcz-Grischner are documented in operational reports and plans in Abwehr archives. Among the tasks allocated to armed saboteur groups documented in German archives were: blowing up the main office of the German organization [[Deutsche Vereinigung]], the passport office Deutsche
Paßstelle, the German private school, and setting fire to the German theater and offices of the [[Jungdeutsche Partei]].<ref name="Tomasz Chińciński page 181" /> These operations are documented as coordinated and organized by Schutzstaffel SS.<ref name="Tomasz Chińciński page 181" />
Additionally a special Abwehr sabotage group was located in Bydgoszcz according to German records from Abwehr Breslau department, called Sabotage-Organisationen Gruppe 12 whose task was to disable a local power-plant and cut phone communications between [[Inowrocław]] and [[Toruń]].<ref name="Tomasz Chińciński page 180">"Niemiecka dywersja w Polsce w 1939 r. w świetle dokumentów policyjnych i wojskowych II Rzeczpospolitej oraz służb specjalnych III Rzeszy" Tomasz Chińciński, page 180 Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość 4/2 (8), 159-195. 2005</ref>

Besides these sabotage groups in Bydgoszcz, the Abwehr also recorded in its documents paramilitary groups that were formed in the city. According to German records stored in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in [[Freiburg im Breisgau|Freiburg]] they counted 150 members in Kampf-Organisation under leadership of a local German named Kleiss and were part of a larger military formation coordinated from [[Poznań|Poznan]] which altogether had 2,077 members. In addition to this group a 10-member combat unit under command of a German named Otto Meister was also formed in Bydgoszcz and received orders from [[Wrocław]] local office of Abwehr.<ref name="Tomasz Chińciński page 180"/> By the end of August just before the invasion took place Polish police conducted several arrests during which they found explosives, armbands and guns.<ref>Der "Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz" in Polen 1939/1940 Christian Jansen, Arno Weckbecker page 26-27, page 2010</ref>

During the night between 2 and 3 September a number of German saboteurs dressed up in Polish uniforms woke up inhabitants of two districts in Bydgoszcz telling them to run as Poland has been defeated, and as a result a significant number of civilians panicked and started fleeing the city. The chaotic flight disrupted and restricted movements of the Polish military on the roads.<ref name="www2.um.bydgoszcz.pl">Historia Bydgoszczy, Tom II, część druga 1939-1945, pod redakcją naukową Mariana Biskupa, Bydgoszcz 2004 Wydarzenia 3 i 4 września 1939 r. w Bydgoszczy - "Blutsonntag" [http://www2.um.bydgoszcz.pl/binary/Wydarzenia%203%20i%204%20wrze%C5%9Bnia%20w%20Bydgoszczy_tcm29-22266.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909185923/http://www2.um.bydgoszcz.pl/binary/Wydarzenia%203%20i%204%20wrze%C5%9Bnia%20w%20Bydgoszczy_tcm29-22266.pdf|date=2017-09-09}}</ref>

By the morning of 3 September a certain few Germans who were in good relationship with their Polish neighbors started warning them to hide as "something bad will happen in the city", offering them shelter under the condition that they must hide by 10 AM, but stated they could not disclose details on what would take place.<ref name="www2.um.bydgoszcz.pl"/>

As a contingent of the [[Polish Army]] ([[Army Pomorze]]'s [[Polish 9th Infantry Division|9th]], [[Polish 15th Infantry Division|15th]], and [[Polish 27th Infantry Division|27th Infantry Division]]) was withdrawing through Bydgoszcz<ref name="meldunki"/> it was attacked by German [[Irregular military|irregular]]s from within the city. According to a British witness, a retreating Polish artillery unit was shot at by Germans from within a house; the Poles returned fire and were subsequently shot at from a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] church.<ref name="ismaning"/> In the ensuing fight both sides suffered some casualties; captured German nonuniformed armed insurgents were [[summary execution|executed on the spot]] and some [[mob lynching]] was also reported.<ref name="meldunki"/><ref name="ND"/><ref name="Blanke580-582"/> A Polish investigation concluded in 2004 that Polish troops had been shot at by members of the German minority and German military intelligence ([[Abwehr]]) agents; around 40–50 Poles and between 100 and 300 Germans were killed.<ref name="Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg. Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939"/>

The German forces which entered the city also encountered resistance from members of the paramilitary Citizen Watch (''Straż Obywatelska''), particularly in the [[Szwederowo district, Bydgoszcz|Szwederowo]] neighborhood, which was predominantly inhabited by working-class individuals.<ref>{{cite book |last=Biskup |first=Marian |title=Historia Bydgoszczy |date=2004 |publisher=Bydgoskie Towarzystwo Naukowe |isbn=83-921454-0-2 |volume=II |location=Bydgoszcz |page=63 |language=pl |trans-title=History of Bydgoszcz}}</ref> The Citizen Watch in Bydgoszcz relinquished its weapons after receiving assurances from General Eccard von Gablenz, commander of the ''Kampgruppe "Netze"'', that its members would be treated in accordance with international law as POWs.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last1=Gumkowski |first1=Janusz |title=Zbrodnie hitlerowskie – Bydgoszcz 1939 |last2=Kuczma |first2=Rajmund |date=1967 |publisher=Wydawnictwo "Polonia" |location=Warszawa |page=17 |language=pl |trans-title=German war crimes – Bydgoszcz 1939}}</ref>