I think what you are reciting with respect to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact is a slight misinterpretation of those events. Hitler knew of Stalin's aspirations for eastern Europe, and the Pact was: a) a recognition of those Soviet aspirations, and, b) an acknowledgment by both sides such that any act of Germany towards Poland would not be seen as an aggression towards Stalin. It was a tactical move, not a "dividing up of Poland."
Poland had been terrorizing and murdering German civilians inside their borders well before that agreement. Bloody Sunday, usually looked upon as the "last straw" occurred on September 3-4, 1939, a couple weeks following the Pact.
Poland was making their own arrangements with Britain, forcing Britain to sign a protectionist agreement with them in the case of war, on March 31, 1939, including reparation payments which they never fulfilled. It was all a setup to cause another international conflict, making Germany the scapegoat. Poland knew their actions against German civilians, and their ignoring of pleas for peace from Hitler, would instigate an invasion.
Parts of it is factually incorrect. Let me correct that:
Yes. Poland was making arrangements with Britain to secure peace through an aliance (anti-aggression pact). Poland was then betrayed by Brits and left alone.
Poland had been terrorizing and murdering German civilians inside their borders well before that agreement.
No. That is false. There were acts of sabotage and provocateurs shortly before Hitlers invasion as he needed a good excuse.
It was a tactical move, not a "dividing up of Poland."
It was actually both: tactical move + original intention to divide the country.
a). You have confirmed the Hitler’aspiration. Yes. Germans wanted western part of Poland.
b). Soviets - they unfortunately wanted it to - the eastern part. It’s been agreed that they invade the country at the same time.
The Germany has invaded Poland on 1st September 1939. Since then Hitler was sending messages to Stalin asking why they’re not joining the invasion as agreed? He was infuriated.
Stalin has played the game. He didn’t want to be perceived by Britain and France as an aggressor so he waited 2 weeks until the West learn about the German invasion and then on 17 September 1939 Soviets have invaded Poland claiming that they’re coming to “help and save” Poland from Hitler.
What was a real intention of this “help” you can see later in Katyn where Soviets have murdered thousands of Polish soldiers and officers taken into prison during the invasion. Mass graves in the forest, in multiple places.
The only lands within Poland that Hitler wanted returned were those assigned to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. Virtually all historians agree that Versailles was an intentional farce. As a concession, Hitler was willing to compromise with Poland on a corridor to Danzig.
"Dutch historian Louis de Jong wrote that on March 25, 1939, windows were smashed in the houses of many ethnic Germans in Posen and Kraków, and in those of the German embassy in Warsaw. German agricultural co-operatives in Poland were later dissolved and many German schools were closed down, while ethnic Germans who were active in the cultural sphere were taken into custody. Around the middle of May 1939, in one small town where 3,000 ethnic Germans lived, many household effects in houses and shops were smashed to bits. The remaining German club-buildings were closed down in the middle of June."
Hitler made multiple pleas to the Polish leader to call off the terrorist attacks, one can assume from the spring of 1939. The earliest report above only mentions smashed windows, but it is easy to assume that the attacks in more remote areas likely went beyond that, and some perhaps avoided mention for fear of reprisals.
Even the article you’ve quoted says at the very beginning:
Most historians state that Germany’s invasion of Poland was an unprovoked act of aggression designed to open up Lebensraum and take control of Europe. According to conventional historians, Hitler hated the Poles and wanted to destroy them as his first step on the road to world conquest.
The examples you’re quoting later are the provocateurs that I’ve mentioned earlier.
Don’t forget that Hitler had a Ministry of Propaganda where they’ve pushed the lies about Poland. You can see the examples of them in your articles, like windows of Germans smashed, etc.
Connect the dots - the provocateurs and Goebbels’ propaganda machine and you see how that worked. Nowadays you would call it: false flag.
I think, herein lies part of the problem with our discussion. You quoted the beginning of the article I linked, "...Most historians state that Germany's invasion of Poland was an unprovoked act..." Yet, just under this lies the point of the article:
"This article uses non-German sources to document that, CONTRARY to what most historians claim, Germany’s invasion of Poland was provoked by the Polish government’s acts of violence against its ethnic German minority."
What you did was lift the "counterpoint" of the article, which the article sought to disprove, and used it as a verified fact. This counterpoint was not what the article set out to support -- in fact, just the opposite.
Yes, most books and historical reporting of this time DO implicate Germany. But who exactly is writing and printing those books? We must be careful to clear away the agendas at play here, to cover the tracks of those who were really behind this whole mess. The point of this article is to somewhat clarify the truth of what happened, as best as can be done decades later. We can place this moment in time alongside other events, contrasting against lies during this period (like Kristallnacht) promoted to evoke emotional responses, and piece together the framework of a coordinated information war waged against Hitler and Germany. Many shrug off the importance of the truth of WWII today, claiming that it is "ancient history." But, the truth is that the lies about that period continue to hide our true enemy, who continues to wage war against the world at this very moment.
During that time, the propaganda war was heavy in the press, both from the Soviets and international jewry at large. When we hear the word, "propaganda," we immediately associate it with negativity, or lies. But what is missed with the point of the Reich Ministry you linked is that the German effort was one to impress the truth not only upon the international community to counter the lies from the enemy, but also upon its own citizens. In addition, it was an effort in bolstering nationalistic pride, and patriotism, towards its oftentimes demoralized citizens. The German propaganda machine was largely one of an attempt to correct the lies printed in the papers and reported elsewhere. Positive propaganda, if you will. I watched an excellent video on this topic once. Unfortunately, I neglected to save it.
Were there staged photographs of windows smashed, intentionally done to evoke an emotional response? Possibly. But there is too much testimony of actual terrorism, including the thousands and thousands of German citizens who fled the violence across the German border seeking asylum, to indicate the truth of what was really going on.
I think what you are reciting with respect to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact is a slight misinterpretation of those events. Hitler knew of Stalin's aspirations for eastern Europe, and the Pact was: a) a recognition of those Soviet aspirations, and, b) an acknowledgment by both sides such that any act of Germany towards Poland would not be seen as an aggression towards Stalin. It was a tactical move, not a "dividing up of Poland."
Poland had been terrorizing and murdering German civilians inside their borders well before that agreement. Bloody Sunday, usually looked upon as the "last straw" occurred on September 3-4, 1939, a couple weeks following the Pact.
Poland was making their own arrangements with Britain, forcing Britain to sign a protectionist agreement with them in the case of war, on March 31, 1939, including reparation payments which they never fulfilled. It was all a setup to cause another international conflict, making Germany the scapegoat. Poland knew their actions against German civilians, and their ignoring of pleas for peace from Hitler, would instigate an invasion.
Parts of it is factually incorrect. Let me correct that:
Yes. Poland was making arrangements with Britain to secure peace through an aliance (anti-aggression pact). Poland was then betrayed by Brits and left alone.
No. That is false. There were acts of sabotage and provocateurs shortly before Hitlers invasion as he needed a good excuse.
It was actually both: tactical move + original intention to divide the country.
a). You have confirmed the Hitler’aspiration. Yes. Germans wanted western part of Poland.
b). Soviets - they unfortunately wanted it to - the eastern part. It’s been agreed that they invade the country at the same time.
The Germany has invaded Poland on 1st September 1939. Since then Hitler was sending messages to Stalin asking why they’re not joining the invasion as agreed? He was infuriated.
Stalin has played the game. He didn’t want to be perceived by Britain and France as an aggressor so he waited 2 weeks until the West learn about the German invasion and then on 17 September 1939 Soviets have invaded Poland claiming that they’re coming to “help and save” Poland from Hitler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland
What was a real intention of this “help” you can see later in Katyn where Soviets have murdered thousands of Polish soldiers and officers taken into prison during the invasion. Mass graves in the forest, in multiple places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
The only lands within Poland that Hitler wanted returned were those assigned to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. Virtually all historians agree that Versailles was an intentional farce. As a concession, Hitler was willing to compromise with Poland on a corridor to Danzig.
As part of this discussion, this radio recording provides additional evidence against Poland: https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/youtube-video-proves-that-hitler-did-not-start-wwii/
As far as when the aggressions from Poles against German civilians first occurred, the following article documents these: http://www.wearswar.com/2022/01/07/ethnic-german-genocide-neutral-sources-document-why-germany-invaded-poland/ From the link:
"Dutch historian Louis de Jong wrote that on March 25, 1939, windows were smashed in the houses of many ethnic Germans in Posen and Kraków, and in those of the German embassy in Warsaw. German agricultural co-operatives in Poland were later dissolved and many German schools were closed down, while ethnic Germans who were active in the cultural sphere were taken into custody. Around the middle of May 1939, in one small town where 3,000 ethnic Germans lived, many household effects in houses and shops were smashed to bits. The remaining German club-buildings were closed down in the middle of June."
Hitler made multiple pleas to the Polish leader to call off the terrorist attacks, one can assume from the spring of 1939. The earliest report above only mentions smashed windows, but it is easy to assume that the attacks in more remote areas likely went beyond that, and some perhaps avoided mention for fear of reprisals.
Even the article you’ve quoted says at the very beginning:
The examples you’re quoting later are the provocateurs that I’ve mentioned earlier.
Don’t forget that Hitler had a Ministry of Propaganda where they’ve pushed the lies about Poland. You can see the examples of them in your articles, like windows of Germans smashed, etc.
Connect the dots - the provocateurs and Goebbels’ propaganda machine and you see how that worked. Nowadays you would call it: false flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Ministry_of_Public_Enlightenment_and_Propaganda
I think, herein lies part of the problem with our discussion. You quoted the beginning of the article I linked, "...Most historians state that Germany's invasion of Poland was an unprovoked act..." Yet, just under this lies the point of the article:
"This article uses non-German sources to document that, CONTRARY to what most historians claim, Germany’s invasion of Poland was provoked by the Polish government’s acts of violence against its ethnic German minority."
What you did was lift the "counterpoint" of the article, which the article sought to disprove, and used it as a verified fact. This counterpoint was not what the article set out to support -- in fact, just the opposite.
Yes, most books and historical reporting of this time DO implicate Germany. But who exactly is writing and printing those books? We must be careful to clear away the agendas at play here, to cover the tracks of those who were really behind this whole mess. The point of this article is to somewhat clarify the truth of what happened, as best as can be done decades later. We can place this moment in time alongside other events, contrasting against lies during this period (like Kristallnacht) promoted to evoke emotional responses, and piece together the framework of a coordinated information war waged against Hitler and Germany. Many shrug off the importance of the truth of WWII today, claiming that it is "ancient history." But, the truth is that the lies about that period continue to hide our true enemy, who continues to wage war against the world at this very moment.
During that time, the propaganda war was heavy in the press, both from the Soviets and international jewry at large. When we hear the word, "propaganda," we immediately associate it with negativity, or lies. But what is missed with the point of the Reich Ministry you linked is that the German effort was one to impress the truth not only upon the international community to counter the lies from the enemy, but also upon its own citizens. In addition, it was an effort in bolstering nationalistic pride, and patriotism, towards its oftentimes demoralized citizens. The German propaganda machine was largely one of an attempt to correct the lies printed in the papers and reported elsewhere. Positive propaganda, if you will. I watched an excellent video on this topic once. Unfortunately, I neglected to save it.
Were there staged photographs of windows smashed, intentionally done to evoke an emotional response? Possibly. But there is too much testimony of actual terrorism, including the thousands and thousands of German citizens who fled the violence across the German border seeking asylum, to indicate the truth of what was really going on.