After the
Nazi invasion of Poland, the ethnically Polish and
Kashubian population of
Polish Pomerania was immediately subjected to brutal terror. Poles were seen by German state during the war as
subhuman.
Prisoners of war, as well as many Polish intellectuals and community leaders were murdered. Many of the crimes were carried out, with official approval, by the so-called
Einsatzkommando 16 and "
Selbstschutz", or paramilitary organizations of
ethnic Germans with
previously Polish citizenship. They in turn were encouraged to participate in the violence and
pogroms by the local
Gauleiter Albert Forster, who in a speech at the Prusinski Hotel in
Wejherowo agitated ethnic Germans to attack Poles by saying "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 crowd gathered before the hotel chanted "Kill the Polish dogs!" and "Death to the Poles". The Selbstschutz participated in the early massacres as Piaśnica, and many of their members later joined police and
SS formations which continued the massacres until the Fall of 1940. Organized action aimed at exterminating the Polish population of the region, however, began only after the end of the September campaign, with the Intelligenzaktion Pommern, a part of an overall
Intelligenzaktion by Nazi Germany aimed at liquidating the Polish elite. Its main targets were the Polish
intelligentsia, which was blamed by the Nazis for pro-Polish policies in the
Polish corridor during the
interwar period. Educated Poles were also perceived by the Nazis as the main obstacle to the planned complete
Germanization of the region. == Prepared list of targets ==