Hitler's Germany invaded Poland 85 years ago

On the evening of August 31, 1939, members of Nazi Germany's paramilitary organization, the "Schutzstaffel" (SS) occupied a radio station in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia — then Germany and now Gliwice, Poland. They pretended to be Polish soldiers and broadcast a message in Polish calling for armed struggle against Nazi Germany.

The goal was to give the impression that Polish soldiers had attacked and taken control of the German radio station. As "proof" the men left behind the body of an imprisoned Polish civilian framing him as a perpetrator. They had murdered him for this very purpose. The false flag attack was part of a series of similar provocations staged along the border. Germany's Nazi leader Adolf Hitler wanted a justification for war in order to seize Poland and his plans for expansionism towards the East.

Less than 24 hours later, early on the morning of September 1, the German military, the Wehrmacht invaded Poland — without having declared war.

That same day, Hitler made a statement in front of the lawmakers in the Reichstag in Berlin that was broadcast on the radio into virtually every German home: "This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our territory. Since 5.45 A.M. we have been returning the fire, and from now on bombs will be met by bombs. Whoever fights with poison gas will be fought with poison gas. Whoever departs from the rules of humane warfare can only expect that we shall do the same. I will continue this struggle, no matter against whom until the safety of the Reich and its rights are secured."

The Ministry of Propaganda then issued guidelines on how the media was to report on the conflict: The word "war" was not to be used in headlines. The message to be conveyed was: we are only striking back — as the Führer had said in his speech. In Germany, the word "Führer," which translates as "leader," is directly associated with Adolf Hitler.

This lie was the pretext for an attack that would start World War II. The supposed victims were in fact the perpetrators.

According to Matthias Oppermann, head of the history department of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is affiliated with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station was meant to serve three purposes. "First, to convince the German people, who were by no means enthusiastic at the prospect of going to war yet again, that Poland had provoked Germany and retaliation was therefore unavoidable. Second, foreign countries, above all Great Britain and France, also had to be convinced of this narrative."

Poland's allies, France and Great Britain, saw through Hitler's ploy. Two days after the invasion, they declared war on Germany. However military aid for Poland failed to materialize  — due to caution, political hesitation and strategic miscalculation.

The invasion of the Red Army

The Wehrmacht advanced quickly and with extreme brutality. They had many times more tanks and aircraft than the Poles. "In some cases, we saw Poles charging machine gun lines on horseback. I also remember that this cavalry attack even overwhelmed our first line. But then they ran straight into tanks and then, of course, it was over," recalled former Wehrmacht soldier Albert Sefranek in a video on the website of the Haus der Geschichte, the German history museum located in Bonn.

On September 17, the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland from the East. Shortly before the war, Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had forged the Treaty of Non-Aggression, agreeing not to attack each other but to divide Poland between them. As the war progressed, Hitler also ordered an attack on the Soviet Union.

Four weeks after the invasion of Poland, Warsaw surrendered. The Nazis celebrated their "blitzkrieg" tactics. The invasion and the German occupation of Poland cost the lives of more than 5 million Polish citizens, the vast majority of them civilians. Jews and many others from all over Europe were murdered in the concentration camps set up by the Nazis. Around half of the 6 million Jews who perished were Polish citizens. This attack on Poland continues to have a negative impact on German-Polish relations to this day.

The legacy of the attack for today's politics

Even today, blame for the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust continues to have an impact on Germany's foreign and defense policy. This is one of the reasons why military aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression is the subject of such intense debate. The idea that German tanks could once again roll across foreign soil frightens many Germans.

German history can represent a challenging obstacle to how present-day politics are shaped, as became evident in the case of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, transporting Russian gas through the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing Poland — and drawing hefty criticism from the government in Warsaw.

"You must not forget that the Hitler-Stalin Pact was a prerequisite for Hitler's invasion of Poland. I therefore believe it is a political, moral and psychological imperative for Germany to draw no distinction between its own security interests and those of Poland," historian Oppermann explained. "When the Polish government voices concern about Russia, it is well aware of why. This is another reason why it was a serious mistake in German foreign policy to pursue the Nord Stream 2 project," he added.

Reference points for the Russian attack on Ukraine

Nothing can compare with the crimes of Nazi Germany. But some parallels between then and now are worth pointing out — for example, the Russian attack on Ukraine. Both Germany's attack on Poland 85 years ago and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 were conceived with propaganda in mind.

In addition, state propaganda helped cement the narrative "that Russia is actually the one being threatened and must defend itself against fascism," says Matthias Dembinski, project manager at the Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research, in an interview with DW. "It has been presented as a defensive struggle against a West that is supporting fascist forces in Ukraine and pushing Russia to the brink of its existence."

Past experiences can play a major role in giving guidance for present-day political actors. "The most important lesson is that liberal democracies cannot assume they can appease a tyrant at the helm of a regime bent on war," said Oppermann from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "Neither political, territorial, nor economic concessions will work. Appeasement does not work, only firm deterrence and the willingness to use military means in extreme cases."

This article was originally written in German.

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