GrudziądzGrudziądz 'grudzionc (Graudentum, Graudentium, Graudenz) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. The Old Town of Grudziądz and 14th-century granaries were declared National Historic Monuments of Poland. Grudziądz is located close to the east shore of the river Vistula, approximately north-east of Świecie, south of Gdańsk and south-west of Kaliningrad.
Battle of WesterplatteThe Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the mid-1920s, the Second Polish Republic established the Polish Military Transit Depot (Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa, WST) on the Westerplatte peninsula in the Free City of Danzig. Beginning on 1 September 1939, the German Wehrmacht and Danzig Police assaulted the WST.
SopotSopot (ˈsɔpɔt; Sopòt or Sopòtë; Zoppot ˈtsɔpɔt) is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, and has the status of the county, being the smallest city in Poland to do so. It lies between the larger cities of Gdańsk to the southeast and Gdynia to the northwest. The three cities together form the metropolitan area of Tricity. Sopot is a major health-spa and tourist resort destination.
German rearmamentGerman rearmament (Aufrüstung, ˈaʊ̯fˌʀʏstʊŋ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out by Germany from 1918 to 1939, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent it starting another war. It began on a small, secret, and informal basis shortly after the treaty was signed, but was openly and massively expanded after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933.
DziałdowoDziałdowo d͡ʑau̯ˈdɔvɔ (Soldau) (Old Prussian: Saldawa) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Działdowo belonged previously to Ciechanów Voivodeship (1975–1998). The town is a major railroad junction connecting the capital city of Warsaw with Gdańsk and Olsztyn to the north. The first settlement in the vicinity, known as Sasinowie in Polish and Sassen in German, was established by the Old Prussians, an indigenous Baltic tribe.
Hel PeninsulaHel Peninsula (; Mierzeja Helska, Półwysep Helski; Hélskô Sztremlëzna; Halbinsel Hela or Putziger Nehrung) is a sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is located in Puck County of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The name of the peninsula might come from either the Old Polish word hyl/hel, meaning "empty or exposed place," or the Germanic word heel, which is derived from the form of the peninsula and the fact that the area was first settled by the Goths, an East Germanic tribe.
Drang nach OstenDrang nach Osten (ˈdʁaŋ nax ˈʔɔstn̩; 'Drive to the East', or 'push eastward', 'desire to push east') was the name for a 19th-century German nationalist intent to expand Germany into Slavic territories of Central and Eastern Europe. In some historical discourse, Drang nach Osten combines historical German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe, medieval (12th to 13th century) military expeditions such as those of the Teutonic Knights (the Northern Crusades), and Germanisation policies and warfare of modern German states such as those that implemented Nazism's concept of Lebensraum.
ChojniceChojnice (xɔjˈɲit͡sɛ; Chònice or Chòjnice; former Konitz or Conitz) is a town in northern Poland with 39,423 inhabitants as of December 2021, near the Tuchola Forest. It is the capital of the Chojnice County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Chojnice was founded around 1205 (although the date is considered to be estimate) in Gdańsk Pomerania (Pomeralia), a duchy ruled at the time by the Samborides, who had originally been appointed governors of the province by Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland.
ŚwiecieŚwiecie (ˈɕfjɛt͡ɕɛ; formerly Schwetz) is a town in northern Poland with 25,968 inhabitants (2006), capital of Świecie County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is located within the ethnocultural region of Kociewie. Świecie is located on the west bank of river Vistula at the mouth of river Wda, approximately north-east of Bydgoszcz, 105 kilometers south of Gdańsk and 190 kilometers south-west of Kaliningrad. A fishermen's village existed at the site of the present-day town in the Early Middle Ages.
Gerhard WeinbergGerhard Ludwig Weinberg (born 1 January 1928) is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a member of the history faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1974. Previously he served on the faculties of the University of Michigan (1959–1974) and the University of Kentucky (1957–1959).
