Kreis Preußisch Stargard

After the German invasion of Poland and the subsequent annexation of the district area by Nazi Germany, the district was re-established under the name Landkreis Preußisch Stargard in the newly established Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia from 1939 to 1945. The towns of Großwollental (Skórcz) and Preußisch Stargard were subject to the German municipal code of 30 January 1935, which was valid in the Altreich and provided for the enforcement of the Führerprinzip at the municipal level.

The Germans immediately carried out mass arrests of Polish teachers, priests and local activists in Starogard and county as part of the Intelligenzaktion.^[6] Arrested Poles were then held both in the pre-war prison and the medieval Gdańsk Tower in Starogard and often subjected to brutal beatings^[7] and mistreatment, especially clergymen, some of whom had even swastikas cut into their foreheads.^[8] Already in September 1939, the Germans murdered 150 Poles, including inhabitants of Starogard, Skórcz and Gdynia, in Starogard and its vicinity.^[6]

In the spring of 1945, the Soviet Red Army captured the district after which it was restored to Poland. In the following years, the remaining German population was expelled.

By an unpublished decree of 29 December 1939 the German place names valid until 1918 were provisionally valid in the district. By an order of the Reich Governor in Danzig-West Prussia on 25 June 1942, all place names were Germanized with the consent of the Reich Minister of the Interior. Either the name from 1918 was retained or - if "not German enough" - acoustically adjusted or translated, for example:

• Adlig Lippinken: Adliglinde
• Barloschno: Schenkenberg
• Dombrowken: Damerau
• Groß Jablau: Großgabel
• Lesnian: Waldjahn
• Lubichow: Liebichau
• Osiek: Burgfelde
• Schlachta: Edelwalde
• Skorschenno: Wurzelacker
• Skurz: Großwollental

• Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN.