History of Gdansk

orld War II began at Westerplatte, on the city's outskirts, on 1 September 1939 when the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein attacked the Polish military battery there. The Nazis quickly stormed the city, although they met fierce resistance from Polish units, particularly at the city's Polish Post Office. Many members of the city's Slavic minority of Polish and Kashubians were forcibly arrested and executed afterwards. During the war, the German concentration camp of Stutthof, located 34km (21 mi) east of Danzig in the present town of Sztutowo, served as the the killing ground of an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people, many of whom were ethnic Poles and Jews. By the war's conclusion in 1945, Danzig was largely in ruins and occupied by the Soviet Red Army. Approved during the Yalta Conference, Danzig (now under its Polish name Gdańsk again) was annexed by Poland. The city's ethnic German majority were expelled at the war's conclusion, leaving the city open to Polish resettlement.

Under communism, Gdańsk became a major shipbuilding centre and port for the Eastern Bloc. Dissatisfaction with the regime was particularly strong in the city and elsewhere in Pomerania, manifesting itself visibly with popular protests against severe price hikes in 1970. In Gdańsk, shipyard workers were gunned down by police and army units. Despite the clampdown, mass protests against price spikes surfaced again in 1976. In 1980, responding to the Lenin Shipyard's firing of worker Anna Walentynowicz for participating in a non-governmental worker's union, Solidarity (Solidarność) was organized to protest the regime. Led by electrician Lech Wałęsa, the Catholic-inspired labour union quickly spread across the country, forcing the Polish government to enact martial law in 1981. Despite efforts to contain the movement through police and military means, Solidarity grew only more emboldened by the draconian response, forcing the government into