Special edition / 2019 "POLAND HAS NOT YET PERISHED" Anniversary of WWII Warsaw, September 1, 2019 Outbreak 09/01 1939 09/17 INVASION 1939 OF POLAND WWII started when Germany and Russia invaded Poland. understood that it was unrealistic to win Poland over to follow the anti-Soviet plans. Stalin desired territories in Eastern and Central Europe; He was furious, and Stalin felt that he could Hitler hoped to avoid a two-front war and to isolate Poland. enter into a deal with him. He began to organize his supporters for this. In March, In fact, however, the ambitions of both of them were much at the party congress, he gave a speech, greater. For this reason, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact which soon became known as “the chestnut speech.” He argued that the USSR could of August 23, 1939 was a temporary solution. cooperate with anyone for its own good, and that the West was trying to drag its country he pact could have shocked many. of the 1920s, when the two world-isolated larly make it clear that it could go back to [the into an unwanted war. “War-mongers who After all, just three years earlier, states concluded an open economic and establishments of the Treaty of ] Rapallo, but are accustomed to have others pull chestnuts T the Germans had concluded an secret military treaty in Rapallo, Italy. the Germans were not interested. Hitler for out of the fire for them,” he thundered. Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, to which “Those relations began to deteriorate at quite a time wanted to drag Poland to his side Then the day of August 23 arrived; the Italy also joined shortly afterwards. The the end of the Weimar Republic due to the and ultimately make it his vassal,” explains visit of von Ribbentrop to Moscow and the states in question pledged to work together growing strength of the German commu- Prof. Kornat. Now, it was Poland to be the signing of the Treaty of Non-Aggression against the communist international nists. The Berlin-seated authorities saw first to fall prey to both dictators. between Germany and the Union of Soviet community. Hitler perorated many times them as a threat to state stability and democ- Socialist Republics. However, the most that it had been the “Reds” who stabbed racy,” explains Prof. Marek Kornat, histori- Fourth Partition important was not the document itself, but the Germans in the back in 1918, and an and Sovietologist of the Polish Academy Three partitions of Poland by its neigh- the top secret protocol that constituted contributed to their defeat in the Great of Sciences [PAN] and Cardinal Stefan bors – Prussia, Russia, and Austria – were an annex to it and concerned the future of War. The Führer and Stalin were on both Wyszyński University in Warsaw. “When held in the second half of the 18th century. Central and Eastern Europe. Stalin and sides of the barricade in the second half of Hitler came to power, he almost completely As a result, the Polish state disappeared from Hitler decided that Poland would be divided the 1930s, when a war broke out in Spain. froze his contacts with Moscow. He allowed the map of Europe for over a hundred years, along the lines of the Vistula, Narew and The Soviets sent equipment and soldiers to only partial economic cooperation because to return back to it in 1919 – for twenty years. San Rivers. The Soviet zone of influence the Republicans; the Germans did the same the Germans could not do without Soviet The first signs of the rapprochement would include Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, to the nationalists led by General Franco. natural resources,” he adds. Stalin was not so of the Germans and Soviets began to be which in time would be incorporated into There was no trace of the good relations radical. “In the 1930s, Moscow would regu- evident at the beginning of 1939. Hitler then the USSR. Germany, in turn, would seize Continuation on the next page Special edition / 2019 September 1 – The 80th Anniversary of WWII Outbreak 2 In one of the most famous photographs of that time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Council of People’s Commissars, Vyacheslav Molotov, sits behind a desk. He holds a fountain pen in his hand. In front of him, there is a printed sheet of paper. A man leans down from the side, giving him further sheets of paper to sign. The German equivalent of Molotov, Joachim von Ribbentrop, stands in the back, slightly lowering his eyesight. The other officers also have serious faces. Joseph Stalin is the only smiling person. Thanks to the agreement that would First WWII become known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Hitler was given all he wanted. Yet, it was Stalin who gained the most from the Treaty of August 23, 1939. Victims Less than two weeks before the invasion of Poland, on August 22, 1939, at the briefing of the higher Wehrmacht commanders in Obersalzberg, Adolf Hitler uttered significant words that affected the nature of the upcoming war’s activities. Our strength consists in our Kesselring stressed in his speech to the speed and in our brutality. graduates of the military aviation schools: Genghis Khan led millions of “As you circulate over the enemy’s cities women and children to slaughter – with and fields, you should suppress all your Lithuania, and probably also Bessarabia. imperialist war. According to that theory, premeditation and a happy heart. History feelings. You must tell yourself that the “The protocol states that the Germans the capitalist states of Western Europe sees in him solely the founder of a state. beings you see are not human. The only and Russians would decide on the would sooner or later take action against “It’s a matter of indifference to me what people are the fighting Germans. For possible creation of some rump Polish each other; and after the devastating war, a weak western European civilization the German Luftwaffe, there are no so- state in the future. In 1939, Hitler allowed the Soviet Union would enter the arena, will say about me. I have issued the called non-military objects or emotional such a possibility, but since Stalin was not subjugate them, and install communism,” command – and I’ll have anybody who considerations. Enemy states should be completely interested in it, he abandoned explains Prof. Kornat. During the meeting utters but one word of criticism executed wiped off the surface of the earth.” this idea,” emphasizes Prof. Kornat. of the Politburo of the Soviet party, Stalin by a firing squad – that our war aim does Wieluń, a town of 15,000 inhabitants News about the project of the next par- argued: “it is in the interest of the USSR – not consist in reaching certain lines, but located twenty kilometers from the tition of Poland quickly reached the West. the workers’ homeland – that a war breaks in the physical destruction of the enemy. Polish-German border of that time, The first to learn about it were the Ameri- out between the Reich and the capitalist Accordingly, I have placed my death- could not boast of industrial or military cans, who then shared the information with Anglo-French bloc (...). For this reason, head formation [SS-Totenkopfverbände] facilities, apart from a small sugar factory. Great Britain, which passed it on to France. it is imperative that we agree to conclude in readiness – for the present only in the It was also not a transport hub; there were The only government that remained una- the pact proposed by Germany, and then East – with orders to them to send to death no units of General Juliusz Rómmel’s ware until the end was the Warsaw cabinet. work in such a way that this war, once it is mercilessly and without compassion, men, “Łódź” Army operating in this area, declared, will last as long as possible.” women, and children of Polish derivation and no military fortifications were built Pact of Illusions Stalin finally wanted to subjugate not and language. Only thus shall we gain around the town. Theoretically, many The pact with Stalin allowed Hitler to only the Allied States, but also Germa- the living space (Lebensraum) which we people could feel relatively safe, and gain much greater access to Soviet natural ny. Hitler never abandoned the dreams need. Who, after all, speaks today of the count on the fact that the main border resources, led to the isolation of Poland, of expanding the living space, Lebensraum, annihilation of the Armenians?” [cit. by fights would avoid their hometown. demonstrated to Western leaders that that Germans should look for in the East. Lochner, Louis Paul (1942). What About However, thanks to General Wolfram defending Poland is not really worth the “That is why both sides were aware that the Germany?. Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. von Richthofen, the former Commander effort, and, in the perspective of conflicts with Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a temporary 11–12]. of the Condor Legion and the German them, pushed away the threat of fighting on solution,” emphasizes Prof. Kornat. A leading role in Blitzkrieg, as the Assault Air Force Commander, two fronts. “However, Stalin gained more,” When on September 1 German troops German tactics was with time called, was it was different in 1939. It was Richthofen says Prof. Kornat. He was able to occupy attacked Poland, and seventeen days later given to the air force. The Luftwaffe was – the cousin of the famous “Red Baron,” large territories without starting a war with the Red Army divisions entered Polish ter- the eye in the Führer’s apple, the em- the German Ace of the Great War, the West.