Germany, Poland and the outbreak of WW2
Edited by Ole Kreiberg
It was the conflict between Germany and Poland that triggered
off the Second World War. And this conflict can be traced back to
the drawing of the German-Polish border after the First World
War.
In agreement with the Versailles Treaty Poland annexed large
areas of German West Prussia and Upper Silesia in 1919. The
American President Wilson's advisor, Major General T.H: Bliss,
said at the time: "Putting 2.1 million Germans under the
rule of Poland will, in my opinion, necessarily lead to a new war
in eastern Europe sooner or later". And the English Prime
Minister, Lloyd George, went to the wall map during the peace
negotiations in Versailles, pointed to Danzig and West Prussia
and said: "This will be the cause of the next war".
As a matter of fact, already after the First World War Poland
drove far more than a million Germans out of West Prussia and
Upper Silesia, denounced the minority protection agreement
imposed by the League of Nations, closed German schools and
cultural institutions in large numbers and forbade German
newspapers. Poland answered the German demand for
self-determination in Danzig and West Prussia with mobilisation
of it's troops. The Poles overestimated their own strength and
underestimated that of the Germans. The Polish Foreign Minister
Lipski told the English Ambassador Hendersen: "I do not
think of advocating peace. If war comes, there will be revolution
in Germany within three days and Poland can march in". In
the Polish army "au revoir in Berlin" was introduced as
a toast. Polish Marshal Rydz-Smigly said to his army officers
(according to the English newspaper, Daily Mail on 6th August
1939): "Poland wants war with Germany and Germany will not
be able to avoid it even if she wants to". During the months
before the outbreak of the war, nearly all of the larger
newspapers in Poland, such as Dzien Polski, Mosarstwowiec,
Ilustrowany Kurier, demanded the annexation of at least East
Prussia, but if possible the Oder-Neisse Line as a frontier. And
the National Polish Youth League gave the following excitement:
"In 1410 the Germans were defeated at Tannenberg. Now we
shall beat them up at Berlin. Danzig, East Prussia and Silesia
are minimal demands". In August 1939 alone more than 2,000
Germans in Poland were slain or shot without any indictment by a
Polish prosecuting attorney.
From all this it should be clear that the Second World War could easily have started without any nazis in Germany. There were already enough political dynamite between Germany and Poland.