Editing Bydgoszcz (section)

===World War II===
{{Main|German retribution against people of Bydgoszcz}}
[[File:Public execution of Polish hostages in Bydgoszcz 1939.jpg|thumb|left|Public execution of Polish civilians caught by the Germans in a street roundup on 9 September 1939.]]
During the [[invasion of Poland]], at the beginning of [[World War II]], on September 1, 1939, Germany carried out air raids on the city. The Polish [[15th Infantry Division (Poland)|15th Infantry Division]], which was stationed in Bydgoszcz, fought off German attacks on September 2, but on September 3 was forced to retreat. During the withdrawal of Poles, as part of the diversion planned by Germany, local Germans opened fire on Polish soldiers and civilians. Polish soldiers and civilians were forced into a defensive battle in which several hundred people were killed on both sides. The event, referred to as the ''[[Bloody Sunday (1939)|Bloody Sunday]]'' by the [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda of Nazi Germany]], which exaggerated the number of victims to 5,000 "defenceless" Germans, was used as an excuse to carry out dozens of [[Executions in the Valley of Death|mass executions of Polish residents]] in the Old Market Square and in the [[Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)|Valley of Death]].<ref name=TB/><ref name=VB/> Between September 3–10, 1939, the Germans executed 192 Poles in the city.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=110}}

On September 5, while the [[Wehrmacht]] entered the city, German-Polish skirmishes still took place in the Szwederowo district, and the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]] of the city began. The German ''[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe IV]]'', ''[[Einsatzkommando|Einsatzkommando 16]]'' and [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]-Totenkopf-Standarte "Brandenburg" entered the city to commit [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|atrocities against the Polish population]], and afterwards some of its members co-formed the local German police.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=55, 61–62}} Many of the murders were carried out as part of the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', aimed at exterminating the Polish elites and preventing the establishment of a [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]],{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=71}} which emerged nevertheless. On September 24, the local German ''[[Kreisleiter]]'' called local Polish city officials to a supposed formal meeting in the city hall, from where they were taken to a nearby forest and exterminated.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=102}} The ''Kreisleiter'' also ordered the execution of their family members to "avoid creating martyrs".{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=102}} By decision from September 5, 1939, one of the first three German special courts in occupied Poland was established in Bydgoszcz.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Grabowski|first=Waldemar|year=2009|title=Polacy na ziemiach II RP włączonych do III Rzeszy|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=IPN|issue=8–9 (103–104)|page=62|issn=1641-9561}}</ref>

The Germans established several camps and prisons for Poles.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=110}} As of September 30, 1939, over 3,000 individuals were imprisoned there, and in October and November, the Germans carried out further mass arrests of over 7,200 people.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=157–158}} Many of those people were then murdered.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=158}} Poles from Bydgoszcz were massacred at various locations in the city, at the Valley of Death and in the nearby village of [[Tryszczyn]].{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=158}} The victims were both men and women, including activists, school principals, teachers, priests, local officials, merchants, lawyers, and also boy and girl scouts, gymnasium students and children as young as 12.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=158–160}} The executions were presented as punishment for supposedly "murdering Germans" and "destroying peace", and were used by Nazi propaganda to show the world that it was alleged "Polish terror" that forced [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] to start the war.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=158}} On the [[National Independence Day (Poland)|Polish National Independence Day]], November 11, 1939, the Germans symbolically publicly executed Leon Barciszewski, the mayor of Bydgoszcz.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=160}} On November 17, 1939, the commander of the local [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]]-[[Einsatzkommando|EK]] unit declared there was no more Polish [[intelligentsia]] capable of resistance in the city.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|p=160}}

{{multiple image
| width = 200
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| image1 = Pologne Bydgoszcz 321x329px- Synagoga 1920 detruit.jpg
| image2 = Judenfrei Bydgoszcz synagoga.jpg
| footer = The local synagogue was destroyed during the German occupation. The inscription reads in German: "This city is free of Jews".
}}

The city was annexed to the newly formed province of [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]] as the [[seat (legal entity)|seat]] of the district or county (''kreis'') of Bromberg. However, the annexation was not recognised in international law. Extermination of the inhabitants continued throughout the war, and in total, around 10,000 inhabitants, mostly [[Polish people|Poles]], but also [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish Jews]], were killed.<ref name=TB/>{{Better source needed|date=June 2024}} Some Polish inhabitants were also murdered in the village of [[Jastrzębie, Świecie County|Jastrzębie]] in January 1940, and local teachers were also among Polish teachers murdered in both [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]] and [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] concentration camps.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=180–182}} The history of [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jews]] in Bydgoszcz ended with the [[German invasion of Poland]] and the [[Holocaust]]. The city's Jewish citizens, who constituted a small community in the city (about two percent of the prewar population)<ref name="EP">{{cite web|url=http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/10867_1.html |title=Encyklopedia PWN |publisher=Encyklopedia.pwn.pl |access-date=2009-05-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050324124849/http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/10867_1.html |archive-date=March 24, 2005 }}</ref> and many of whom spoke German, were sent to [[extermination camps]] or murdered in the town itself. The city renamed ''Bromberg'' was the site of [[Bromberg-Ost]], a women's subcamp of the [[Stutthof concentration camp]]. A deportation camp was situated in Smukała village, now part of Bydgoszcz. On February 4, 1941, the first mass transport of 524 Poles came to the [[Potulice concentration camp]] from Bydgoszcz.<ref>{{cite book|last=Molesztak|first=Aldona|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=[[Kraków]]|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|page=193|chapter=Doświadczenia obozowe dzieci w niemieckim obozie przesiedleńczym i pracy w Potulicach i Smukale - wspomnienia więźniarek}}</ref> The local train station was one of the locations, where Polish children aged 12 and over were sent from the Potulice concentration camp to slave labor.<ref name=ap>{{cite magazine|last=Paczoska|first=Alicja|year=2003|title=Dzieci Potulic|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=IPN|issue=12–1 (35–36)|page=61|issn=1641-9561}}</ref> The children reloaded freight trains.<ref name=ap/>

During the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupation]], the Germans destroyed some of the city's historic buildings to erect new structures in the [[Nazi architecture|Nazi style]].<ref name=VB/> The Germans built a huge secret dynamite factory (''[[Bromberg Dynamit Nobel AG Factory|DAG Fabrik Bromberg]]'') hidden in a forest in which they used the [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slave labor]] of several hundred forced laborers,<ref name=VB/> including [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[prisoners of war]] from the [[Stalag XX-A]] POW camp in Toruń.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bukowska|first=Hanna|year=2013|title=Obóz jeniecki Stalag XXA w Toruniu 1939-1945|magazine=Rocznik Toruński|publisher=Towarzystwo Miłośników Torunia, [[The Nicolaus Copernicus University Press|Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika]]|language=pl|volume=40|page=107|issn=0557-2177}}</ref> In 1943, local Poles managed to save some [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]] from the [[Zamość]] region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kozaczyńska|first=Beata|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska|page=123|chapter=Gdy zabrakło łez... Tragizm losu polskich dzieci wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny (1942-1943)}}</ref>

The Polish resistance was active in Bydgoszcz. Activities included distribution of underground Polish press, sabotage actions, stealing German ammunition to aid Polish partisans, espionage of German activity{{sfn|Chrzanowski|2022|pp=30, 40–41, 47–48, 57, 62}} and providing shelter for British POWs who escaped from the Stalag XX-A POW camp.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|title=Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=5|pages=30, 33–34|issn=0137-5377}}</ref> The [[Gestapo]] cracked down on the Polish resistance several times.{{sfn|Chrzanowski|2022|p=39}}

In spring 1945, Bydgoszcz was occupied by the advancing [[Red Army]]. Those German residents who had survived were [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|expelled]] in accordance with the [[Potsdam Agreement]] and the city was returned to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the 1980s. The Polish resistance remained active in Bydgoszcz.{{sfn|Chrzanowski|2022|p=74}}