Download Nazi Germany Invades Poland On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany Invades Poland
On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the act that started World
War II. The day before, Nazi operatives had posed as Polish military officers to
stage an attack on the radio station in the Silesian city of Gleiwitz. Germany used
the event as the pretext for its invasion of Poland. The New York Times article
about the invasion included a report of the Gleiwitz episode as well as Chancellor
Adolf Hitler’s proclamation to the German army, which portrayed Germany’s
action as one of self-defense: “In order to put an end to this frantic activity no
other means is left to me now than to meet force with force.”
France and England declared war against Germany on Sept. 3, but neither
country was prepared to fight and would not deploy a significant number of
military forces until the next year, leaving Poland alone in its defense. Although it
had an army of more than 700,000, Poland was unprepared for Germany’s
blitzkrieg tactics. The German attack n Poland was quick and fierce. German
planes bombed and machine-gunned targets while blasting holes in Polish
defenses. Its army could not deploy its troops quickly enough to defend against
the more powerful German forces. As a result, many civilians lost their lives.
Any hopes of repelling the invasion were dashed on Sept. 17, when the
Soviet Red Army invaded from east. By the end of September, Germany and the
Soviet Union had control of the country. The last organized Polish resistance was
defeated on Oct. 6.
After the initial rapid attacks on Poland, things appeared to quickly quiet
down. News was sparse from the front lines, and the American press started
referring to the situation as the “Phony War.” During this time, however, German
forces steadily occupied Poland and continued to focus on civilians, imprisoning
and murdering thousands of the country’s residents.
1. How did Germany begin their attack on Poland?
2. How did Hitler justify invading Poland?
3. Why was France & Britain’s declaration of war ineffective in helping
Poland?
4. Why do you think Hitler targeted Poland? Explain!
5. Who helped the German forces occupy Poland? Why?
Connect to Today
For nearly a year, many Americans considered the “War in Europe” to be a
“phony war,” because there were few significant military engagements reported
in the news media, in light of the Nazi tactics of quietly arresting or killing Polish
citizens. Similarly, it wasn’t until after World War II that the details of the
invasion came to light.
Foreign perceptions of conflicts, both at the time occur and from a
historical perspective, have long been shaped by the news media, as Richard
Pérez-Peña noted in a 2008 New York Times article about the waning media
image of Iraq. On the other hand, journalists covering the conflict that led to the
Spanish American War in 1898 frequently published inaccurate or fabricated
articles caused in part by pressure to sell newspapers.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said: “What then is, generally speaking, the
truth of history? A fable agreed upon.”
1. Why did Americans think WWII was a “phony war” at first?
2. What are the best steps people can take to help them form their own views of
the “truth of history” and of today’s current events?