Strolling through the streets of Gdańsk today, it’s hard to imagine that this city was once under the brutal control of one of Adolf Hitler’s most loyal lieutenants. Albert Forster, the Nazi Gauleiter (regional party leader) of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk), was a key figure in the lead-up to World War II and the brutal occupation that followed. From his meteoric rise within the Nazi Party to the terror he unleashed on Poles and Jews, Forster’s story is a chilling chapter of Gdańsk’s history.
Join us as we explore Gdańsk’s wartime history. If you are travelling in Poland and would like to see Gdańsk in the company of an expert local guide, consider booking a place on one of our Gdańsk Day Tours or Multi-Day WW2 Tours of Poland. If you’re travelling in 2025, our Anniversary WW2 Tour of Gdansk and Northern Poland will visit Westerplatte during the 86th anniversary of the start of WW2.
Rise of a Nazi Hardliner
Albert Forster was born in Bavaria in 1902 and grew up during the chaotic aftermath of World War I. He became involved with the Nazi movement early on; by 1923, he had joined the ranks of the SA stormtroopers and even attended Hitler’s high-profile treason trial in 1924. Driven by ambition and a fanatical commitment to Nazi ideology, Forster soon caught the attention of the party’s leadership. At the young age of 28, he was appointed Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig in October 1930, positioning himself as Hitler’s key figure in the Baltic port city.
Forster wasted no time reshaping Danzig’s political landscape. He led the local Nazi takeover, employing intimidation and propaganda to seize control of the city’s government by 1933. His unwavering loyalty to Hitler did not go unnoticed by the Führer. In 1934, Forster tied the knot with his fiancée in a ceremony at Hitler’s Berlin Chancellery, where Hitler and Deputy Rudolf Hess served as witnesses. By this time, Forster had established himself as a zealous hardliner, fully prepared to implement Nazi objectives. His mission was clear: to integrate Danzig completely into the fabric of the Third Reich.
Danzig: Flashpoint on the Road to War
In the 1930s, the Free City of Danzig was a volatile region marked by rising nationalist tensions. Although it was predominantly German-speaking, Danzig was politically independent from Germany due to the Treaty of Versailles. This separation made it a key target for Hitler’s expansionist ambitions. Gauleiter Albert Forster, operating from his office in Danzig, intensified efforts to rally support for the city’s reunification with Germany, following orders from Berlin.
In the summer of 1939, as diplomatic tensions with Poland escalated, Forster publicly asserted that “Poland will be only a dream” in the near future. On August 23, 1939, just days before the outbreak of war, Forster removed the incumbent head of state in Danzig and assumed the role himself. When German forces invaded Poland on September 1, launching attacks in Danzig at locations such as Westerplatte and the Polish Post Office, Forster was at the forefront. He officially proclaimed Danzig’s incorporation into the German Reich while the city was shaken by the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The crisis in Danzig had provided Hitler with a convenient pretext for invasion, and Forster played a crucial role in igniting this conflict.
We explore the outbreak of war and the brave defence of the Polish Post Office on our WW2 Walking Tour of Gdańsk.
Persecution and Germanization under Forster
Once the turmoil of September 1939 subsided, Albert Forster took complete control as Reichsstatthalter (governor) of the newly established Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. What followed was a reign of terror against the region’s Polish and Jewish populations. Like other Nazi leaders in occupied Poland, Forster aimed to reshape the territory according to Nazi ideology. Within his first few weeks in power, he made his stance brutally clear: “Jews are not humans and must be eradicated like vermin… Any means of destruction of Jews is desirable,” he declared. By November 1939, Danzig-West Prussia had officially been declared “Judenfrei” — “free of Jews” — as Jewish residents had been either killed or deported to the east.
For the Polish population in the region, Forster’s regime initially promised a different fate, at least on paper. Unlike his counterpart, Arthur Greiser, in neighboring Wartheland, who pursued a policy of total expulsion and extermination, Forster chose a Germanization policy. He declared many Poles to be ethnic Germans if he deemed them “racially suitable.” This mass assimilation approach contradicted Nazi racial ideology and angered SS chief Heinrich Himmler. However, Forster, sensing support from Hitler, dismissed Himmler’s objections.
Hitler had instructed both Forster and Greiser to “Germanize” their conquered territories and assured them that “there would be no questions asked” about how they achieved this. Forster viewed the conversion of selected Poles into Germans, on paper, as just another tool to secure German dominance.
Beneath this veneer of assimilation, however, lay widespread brutality. Those Poles who refused or didn’t fit Forster’s criteria faced intense persecution. Nazi officials under Forster’s command seized Polish businesses and homes, shut down schools and newspapers, and arrested community leaders. Many of the region’s Poles were forced onto trains and “evacuated” to the General Government (the occupied rump of Poland) – some 87,000 people by February 1940, according to Forster’s own reports.
A Reign of Terror in Gdańsk and Pomerania
Under Albert Forster’s administration, Danzig-West Prussia descended into an orgy of violence. Nazi death squads and local ethnic German militias (Selbstschutz) fanned out to eliminate anyone seen as a threat to German rule. In the autumn of 1939, thousands of Polish civilians – intellectuals, priests, teachers, businessmen, even hospital patients – were systematically executed in the forests of Pomerania. One of the most notorious sites was Piaśnica, a tranquil woodland that became a mass grave. By early 1940, an estimated 12,000 to 20,000 Poles and Kashubians had been murdered in the Piaśnica massacres alone (some later estimates put the toll even higher).
Forster’s role in these atrocities was central. At times, he personally gave kill orders and berated his subordinates if he felt they were being too lenient. In one chilling episode, he scolded Nazi officials in the town of Grudziądz for not “spilling enough Polish blood”. He openly encouraged violence against Poles in frenzied speeches. At a rally in Wejherowo, not far from the murder sites, Forster exhorted a crowd of local Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans): “We have to eliminate the lice-ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle… In your hands I give the fate of the Poles; you can do with them what you want.” The response was immediate and ominous – the crowd roared back with shouts of “Kill the Polish dogs! Death to the Poles!”. This was the climate of horror that Forster cultivated.
Alongside these massacres, Forster oversaw the establishment of Stutthof, a concentration camp east of Gdańsk. Initially intended for political prisoners from Danzig and Pomerania, Stutthof became a killing ground for thousands, including Jews deported from across Europe later in the war. In the first months of occupation, however, its barracks were filled with local Polish activists and intellectuals who had escaped immediate execution. Few would survive long in the camp’s brutal conditions.
By the war’s midpoint, the character of Forster’s rule in Gdańsk and the surrounding region was clear. Even his so-called “mild” approach of paperwork Germanization could not mask the reality of what historian Christopher Browning termed an “orgy of murder and deportation”. Polish language, culture, and life were to be wiped out by bullet, by terror, or by forced assimilation.
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Aftermath and Legacy in Gdańsk
As the tide of war turned and the Third Reich began to collapse, Forster remained defiant. He clung to his post in Gdańsk until March 1945, when Soviet forces closed in. Disguising himself as a rank-and-file soldier, the once powerful Gauleiter tried to scurry from responsibility. He was eventually captured and handed over to Poland to face justice. In April 1948, a Polish court in Gdańsk put Albert Forster on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Witnesses recounted the nightmare of his rule – the mass shootings, the torture, the children taken from their parents in the name of Germanization. The evidence of atrocities was overwhelming. Forster, unapologetic to the end, was convicted and condemned to death. In February 1952, he was hanged in Warsaw’s Mokotów prison at the age of 49.
For the people of Gdańsk and Pomerania, Forster’s downfall was a grim but important coda to a dark era. The war left the region utterly transformed. Gdańsk – the beloved Free City that Forster once vowed to make “German forever” – lay in ruins in 1945, and its German population fled or were expelled in the conflict’s aftermath.
The city was rebuilt as part of Poland, its very name changed back to the Polish Gdańsk. Yet the memory of what happened under Nazi occupation is carefully preserved. Visitors to Gdańsk today can explore reminders of those events: the Westerplatte peninsula, where the war’s first shots were fired, the Polish Post Office museum honouring defenders killed by Nazi troops, or the sprawling Museum of the Second World War, which recounts, among many stories, Forster’s reign of terror in this region.
Eight decades on, Albert Forster’s legacy serves as a stark reminder of how quickly a tide of extremism can engulf a community. The tale of Danzig’s Gauleiter is a cautionary chronicle. It shows how even seemingly mediocre individuals can rise to positions of supreme power when they’ve committed themselves to a party or movement. Forster was neither a genius nor a natural leader; he was not brave, nor did he possess any gifts that set him apart from his peers. This was a man who rose to prominence due to one trait: an unthinking servility; a readiness to forsake any remnants of his moral compass in service to his party.
To explore this history further, consider joining us for a WW2 tour in Poland. If your time is restricted, we recommend a Guided Day Tour in Poland, including day tours from Gdansk. Meanwhile, if you’d like to cover WW2 history in great detail while travelling across Poland, please consider a Multi-Day WW2 Tour. And if visiting Poland in 2025, our Anniversary WW2 Tour of Gdansk and Northern Poland will visit the Westerplatte on the 86th anniversary of the start of WW2.
