As part of the administrative territorial division of the areas of Poland occupied by the Nazis, the Kartuzy district, with a majority of Polish population, was included in the so-called Reich District of Gdańsk-West Prussia. In twenty parishes of this district, Catholics constituted a group of 60,000 believers served by 33 diocesan parish priests. In line with Germanization plans, cruel persecution of the Catholic clergy began. Twelve priests were murdered in the fall of 1939, three more died in concentration camps, and the rest spent shorter or longer periods of time in concentration camps or prisons. The intensively and precisely planned Germanization of church life was intended to accelerate the transformation of Kashubians into Germans. The aim of this policy was the ruthless eradication of all elements reminiscent of Polishness, including the destruction of crosses and chapels, confiscation of church property, parish archives and parish libraries. The basis for these actions were the orders of the German administrative authorities, often issued under pressure from the NSDAP and the police, as well as the decisions of Bishop Carl Maria Splett, often made arbitrarily, and the bishop's commissioner Karl Knop. The most drastic and unjust orders include: the ban on confession in Polish (from May 25, 1940), the introduction of the German language into the liturgy (from April 1, 1940) and the order to remove all Polish inscriptions and emblems from churches and cemeteries (from May 17, 1940). Religious and sacramental life was severely limited and disrupted by the lack of clergy and Nazi interventions. Despite all these restrictions, which were tried to be remedied in various ways or resisted, the Church in the Kartuzy district remained a living organism performing its functions throughout the period of the war and occupation.