We have been reminded often in the newspapers that the first week in September 1939 saw the outbreak of the second World War, when Germany invaded Poland. In France there had been a slogan "Do you want to die for Danzig?" and that city (now Gdansk) was one of the more sensational points of the attack.
The High Commissioner then was Carl Burckhardt, a Swiss professor, a lively minded, vivacious, even somewhat histrionic man. Certainly, his account of his last 24 hours in the Free City make fascinating reading. He did write a book, but his account given to two colleagues on arrival back in Geneva, head quarters of the League of Nations, is even more vivid that that in his memoirs, published about 20 years later.
There had been a "friendly" visit by a German warship, the Sehleswig Holstein which, it was discovered later, had a unit of assault troops under the decks. On the night of August 31st, Burckhardt told his colleague, three Gestapo men appeared at his house. They told him not to go to bed as the Gauleiter, Forster, would come to see him. Burckhardt said he would see the Gauleiter in the morning.
The Gestapo cut his telephone lines and took over the ground floor as Burckhardt went to bed. His family had already left. He was asleep at about 4 o'clock in the morning when the window glass fell into the room with the first explosions. The German warship had opened fire on the city. The Swiss valet came into the bedroom: "Nous sommers perdus, la guerre mondiale va nous tous engloutir." That is: "We are lost, the world war is going to engulf us all." Of this, one of his colleagues remarked: "A vignette in the best Burckhardt style."
"The Gauleiter, Foerster, arrived at 8 a.m., armed to the teeth and with two armed aides. He announced: "You represent the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles no longer exists. In two hours the Swastika will be hoisted above this house. You will be escorted to the frontier or, if you wish to stay, you will stay as a private individual." Burckhardt said he would go at once. With a Gestapo man in every room, he packed, and at ten o'clock, with his secretary, typist and valet went to the door.
Here came the last revenge of Danzig. The old butler of the house in previous days fussed about, bullying the other servants. When Buckhardt passed out, accompanied by his two little dogs, Burckhardt saw "the old swine kick at the dogs as he passed by". Burckhardt drove to Kaunas, the Lithuanian capital, and eventually back to Geneva.
Burckhardt's predecessor, Sean Lester, had spent three years trying to defend the constitution of the Free City against the aggression of the Nazis. The League failed to back him. Concessions were the tactic of the Great Powers. Lester had to be withdrawn.