# Nazi attack on the Gdansk/Danzig post office

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 16, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225 "2018-12-16T15:46:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/1 "2018-12-16T15:46:41Z")

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Why?  
Is there evidence to support these buildings as being the HQ for Poland’s intelligence operation?

I seem to recall the buildings were also the repository of a nontrivial amount of birth/marriage/death records. Is that true?

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/2 "2018-12-16T16:32:45Z")

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> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> Why?  
> Is there evidence to support these buildings as being the HQ for Poland’s intelligence operation?
> 
> I seem to recall the buildings were also the repository of a nontrivial amount of birth/marriage/death records. Is that true?

A link would be nice. When did this happen?

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/3 "2018-12-16T16:36:46Z")

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Juuuuust before [WWII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_of_the_Polish_Post_Office_in_Danzig).

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/4 "2018-12-16T16:42:56Z")

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I just read the article. It seems like it was a matter of who (Germany or Poland) was the rightful controller of Danzig which was semi-autonomous. The post office was a symbolic seat of government.

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/5 "2018-12-16T18:19:27Z")

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I read it too, coincidentally. 🙂  
The Intelligence Office thing smacks of revisionism, but it also makes sense. Especially in light of Mr. Post Man being armed to the teeth and trained well enough to hold back some determined elite soldiers. Curious to know if there is, like, concrete evidence supporting it, though.  
In terms of genocide it makes sense as well. You can kill the people, but to destroy their entire personal histories is some next level work. Curious to know if that might have been a motivator as well. Again, a request for evidence/confirmation.

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/6 "2018-12-17T14:45:07Z")

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Any work-week historians got an answer? 😃

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/7 "2018-12-17T14:52:10Z")

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[https://m.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/employees-danzig-post-office-fought-germans-15-hours-invasion-poland-captured.html](https://m.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/employees-danzig-post-office-fought-germans-15-hours-invasion-poland-captured.html)

This article is interesting and gives a lot more background.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-attack-on-the-gdansk-danzig-post-office/826225/8 "2018-12-17T17:43:13Z")

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In addition to the other reasons \*\*Hajario’s \*\*article mentions that the Germans cut the electrical and telephone lines to the building. One of the building photos has the sign “Telegrafaiczny” - telegraph.

Capture the post office, and you’ve also captured the telephone and telegraph lines to the outside world. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable objective.