World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAlbert Maria Forster was born in Fürth, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany. He attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Fürth between 1912 and 1920. In 1923, he joined the Nazi Party and became a member of the SA organization. In 1930, he became the Nazi Party's Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). In the spring of 1933, he played a leadership role in the Nazi Party gaining influence in Danzig, during which feuds with Arthur Greiser and with Heinrich Himmler began. When he was placed in charge of the newly formed Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia after the German conquest of Poland, he removed all local Nazi officials and replaced them with his own supporters from Danzig. In May 1934, he married Gertrud Deetz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, with Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Heß as witnesses. He played a local leadership role during the Danzig Crisis that preceded the outbreak of the European War. After the German conquest of Poland, he was initially named Gauleiter of Reichsgau Posen, then he became the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. He held the latter position until the end of the war, during which time he focused on Germanizing the territory under his control, deporting Polish residents without German ancestry and recruiting German families to take over the deportees' lands. On the topic of Polish people with German ancestry, he took a liberal view, accepting many as racially German whom would not be considered so by other Nazi officials, including Greiser. Greiser, now a Gauleiter in the neighboring Reichsgau Wartheland, complained to Himmler of Forster's policies, who spoke to Forster. Forster chose to ignore Greiser and Himmler, knowing that it was Hitler's orders that each Gauleiter could run his own territory as he saw fit. After the end of the war, he was captured by the British and was later turned over to Poland. He was tried by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal in Gdansk in Apr 1948 and was found guilty for crimes against humanity. He was executed by hanging in 1952 in Warsaw, Poland. His wife was not informed of the execution until 1954.

Albert Forster Timeline