On 1 July 1922 the new Prussian province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia was formed, which included the Flatow district. In the same year, the Flatow district was enlarged with the inclusion of the rural community of Schönfeld, which was earlier part of the Kolmar district. On 1 October 1938 the Flatow district was incorporated into the Province of Pomerania after the Posen-West Prussia province was dissolved.
From 1933, Głos Pogranicza i Kaszub, a local Polish newspaper, was issued in the district capital.[3]
Under the Nazi government, repressions of Poles intensified. In January 1939, Germany resumed expulsions of Poles and many were also forced to flee.[3] The Sturmabteilung, Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth and Bund Deutscher Osten launched attacks on Polish institutions, schools and activists.[4][5] In mid-1939 the Gestapo carried out arrests of Polish activists, teachers and entrepreneurs.[6] The Poles tried to resist German persecution, but some were forced to escape German arrest and thus fled to Poland.[7]
During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, persecution further intensified with mass arrests of Polish activists, who were detained in temporary camps in Lipka and the neighbouring city of Piła, and then deported to concentration camps, as well as expulsions and closure of Polish schools and enterprises.[8] During the war, the Germans operated several forced labour subcamps of the Stalag II-Bprisoner-of-war camp in the district.[9] In the spring of 1945, the Flatow district was occupied by the Red Army. After the end of World War II, the district became again part of Poland under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement.
Demographics
The district had a German majority population, with a significant Polish minority. After 1920, with the loss of the eastern part of the district, the remainder of the district in Germany had a Polish minority of 16.8% (including bilinguals) according to the census of 1925.[10]
In the German Empire, the Flatow district together with the Schlochau district formed the Marienwerder 7Reichstag constituency. This constituency was usually won by conservative candidates:[12]
In the course of the 20th century, many place names in the district which were considered "not German" enough were given a phonetic alignment or translation:
^ abCygański, Mirosław (1984). "Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939-1945". Przegląd Zachodni (in Polish) (4): 45.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. pp. 33–34.
