ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
There wasn't systematic persecution of Germans on a state level by Poland. Nazi Germany amplified minor incidents through propaganda to portray Poles as barbaric aggressors. A German Foreign Office internal report from early 1939 actually noted that many claims of mistreatment were exaggerated or unfounded. Poland was holding together a fragile state and made policy mistakes but it was not engaging in organized ethnic cleansing or murder of Germans.
In Poland, there was persecution of Germans at the state level throughout the interwar period.
According to the Land Act of 28 December 1925, the Polish government was given the right to acquire large estates and farms by forced expropriation, and this right was implemented on a very large scale in the former Prussian provinces, where small farms were established for Poles. According to the Polish Constitution and the Minorities Treaty of 1919, there was to be no discrimination between Poles and Germans, but equal treatment in all respects. In fact, Polish estates were systematically exempted from taxes, while German estates were massively expropriated under all sorts of far-fetched pretexts, with the aim of resettling Poles on these lands and thus more quickly suppressing and displacing German minorities in rural areas.
Germans were gradually deprived of their civil rights in the territories of the republic. By 1939, the violence had reached an incredibly high level, which also coincided with the peak of anti-German war hysteria in Poland. The German Foreign Ministry compiled a list of the persecution of Germans by Poles in interwar Poland:
https://archive.org/details/auswaertige ... 9/mode/2up
Another document dedicated to the persecution of Poles, already in English:
https://archive.org/details/polish-atro ... 5/mode/2up
ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
The alleged quote from Marshal Rydz-Śmigły in the Daily Mail — “Poland wants war with Germany...” — is almost certainly fabricated or misrepresented. It does not appear in official archives of the paper or verified Polish communications. Poland refused several of Hitler’s demands (like annexation of Danzig and an extraterritorial corridor), which would have violated its sovereignty. Rydz-Śmigły did authorize general mobilization on August 30, in response to growing threats — which is not a declaration of war, either legally or diplomatically.
You are right that the Daily Mail did not publish these words of Rydz Smigly on August 6, 1939. I was not entirely sure what it was, but I had seen the quote before, so I wrote "according to some sources". However, the Poles were indeed completely anti-German.
Herr Foerster cited the opinions of Britons and Frenchmen including Mr Lloyd George and Mr Churchill to the effect that 'the Polish corridor was a mistake', hissed when he read out inflammatory statements by Polish newspapers, including the statement in 'Czas' that Poland would blow Danzig to bits if it united with Germany and the recent threat by Marshal Smigly-Rydz that Danzig would be the first stage in a cruisade against Germany - The Advertiser, 12 August 1939.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article ... 2%3By-Rydz
It is worth noting that the threat is referred to as 'recent', and also the phrase 'crusade against Germany'. If this were German propaganda, the threat would be referred to as 'alleged'. But on August 6 he did indeed make an anti-German speech.
A notable opinion was shared by The Evening News on August 7. Apparently, this is a German comment on yesterday's speech by Rydz Smigly (which actually took place on August 6).
"
Determined on war"
Where he is also, not without reason, referred to as the Polish dictator.
"
When leading newspapers demand East Prussia and all Germany east of the Oder, it is time for Britain to consider carefully what she had left herself in for with her guarantees".
The German comment was quite fair. Poland in 1939 was not an "innocent victim", it was not even a free state - it was a quasi-militaristic dictatorship with chauvinistic aspirations.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co. ... 7/155/0007
Mobilization in such an acute crisis is an act of war. Even the communists did not begin mobilization until 12 hours after the Wehrmacht attacked on June 22, 1941.
I mean, why do they still do it? When one side (the Germans) still offers a peace settlement, and the other (the Poles) refuses and declares mobilization, what does that mean? It seems obvious to me: a complete rejection of any peace.
And even after that, it took 48 hours for the AH to abandon all attempts at diplomacy and order the troops to cross the border.
ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
Between March and August 1939, Hitler made various “offers” to Poland that promised non-aggression in return but this was fake. Hitler had already signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 23), which included a secret protocol to divide Poland. The “offers” were intended to provide diplomatic cover. Germany was already preparing to invade.
The German peace proposals were not "fake". That's what the victors want us to think. In fact, Adolf's demands were moderate, especially considering that these German territories had been occupied by Poland in 1919-20. He saw Poland as a potential ally.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact was not about dividing Poland. This was a common diplomatic practice, for example, on May 31, 1939, the Reich and Denmark signed a similar non-aggression pact.
The notorious secret protocol is a hoax aimed at creating the image of Germany (and by the time the myth was finally formed, Russia too) as the "absolute warmonger".
Russian publicist Alexei Kungurov described this deception with secret protocols in more detail:
https://archive.org/details/20230605_20 ... 4/mode/2up
By sending in troops, Hitler had two goals:
1. To stop the persecution, murder and attacks on Germans in the territories that were part of the Reich before 1920.
2. To secure the German-Polish border, which by mid-1939 had become an uncontrollable source of instability.
Depriving the Poles of their state in ethnically Polish territories was not the goal, at least not until about September 8. The partition of Poland was made possible by, firstly, the fanatical obstinacy of the Polish government in refusing any settlement before and after September 1, secondly, the collapse of the Polish army and the flight of the government, and thirdly, the declaration of war on Germany by France and Great Britain.
ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
Nazi Germany gave reasons for invading Poland before the Gleiwitz incident, but they were not legitimate causes for war under international law or neutral historical analysis.
That quote is also a fabrication and not actual evidence that Poland wanted war. Feel free to prove me wrong but you should admit that you were using fabricated evidence to advance your argument. Not a huge deal because we all make mistakes but its important.
I try to provide a neutral and unbiased historical analysis.
The Gleiwitz incident was only one of many cases of the German-Polish crisis of 1939, and not the cause, or even the reason for the outbreak of war. Moreover, there are no objective grounds to believe that it was Germany that staged it, as some kind of "false flag operation", and not Poland.
The real reason for the war was the Treaty of Versailles, which handed over the occupied territory to Poland, effectively turning East Prussia into an enclave threatened with economic isolation. Remember that Germany didn't even have an army until 1935. The Reichswehr was a police force. Poland was quite militarized compared to Weimar and early National Socialist Germany.
ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
If Hitler had not invaded Poland in September 1939, there is still no credible evidence that Poland had any intention or military capacity to invade Germany. Poland was rearming, yes — but defensively. Its entire military doctrine was built around protecting its sovereignty from both Germany and the USSR, not expansionism.
By 1939, Poland had security guarantees from Britain and France. These were diplomatic deterrents, not tools for aggression. Poland would likely have continued trying to balance between Germany and the USSR — an increasingly impossible task.
Poland may have tried to build better ties with Romania, Hungary, and the Baltics — all in similar positions of vulnerability.
Nevertheless, the Poles were rearming, and in the last two days of peace, they were openly mobilizing on the border with Germany. The Polish leadership and government made ardent anti-German statements. There was anti-German hysteria in Polish society, and the Germans were attacked and persecuted.
Of course, the Polish Army was a morally and technically obsolete army that could not cope with the Wehrmacht. But it could create problems even by attacking the Germans across the border. Propaganda actively called for "Poland to the Oder" long before 1939.
Again, what could Hitler do: sit and watch as Poland, France and England actively rearmed, and wait for... What?
Note that Western guarantees to Poland, by "strange coincidence", were intended only for the event of a conflict with Germany. Not with the USSR, not with Lithuania (assuming that the Lithuanians wanted to seize Kaunas).
Of course, strengthening ties with other neutral powers could have helped Poland balance between its two neighbors, but given the deep-rooted chauvinism in the Polish environment, it would hardly have prevented the war.
ConfusedJew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:06 am
In Mein Kampf, Hitler made clear his goal of Lebensraum (living space) in the East. In the Hossbach Memorandum (1937), he said Germany must go to war by the early 1940s to secure land and resources. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939) was a clear sign that Hitler planned to divide Eastern Europe — starting with Poland.
A lot of your claims are taken out of context and in some cases fabrications.
The claims about the so-called "Lebensraum" were greatly exaggerated and distorted. At the time when "Mein Kampf" was written, Russia had just passed the final stage of the civil war and was in ruins. Between this period and the end of the 1930s, the situation changed dramatically.
Germany sought, first of all, to unite all Germans under one state/empire (the Reich). The claims about Hitler's anti-Slavic plans, for example, are refuted by the foreign policy of the NS itself, whose allies were such Slavic countries as: the Slovak Republic, the Bulgarian Kingdom, the Independent Croatian State, the Government of National Salvation in Serbia and the Lokot Republic in Russia. All of these were recognized allies of the Reich, who had their own troops and governments.
Hitler actually wanted Poland as an ally and a kind of guarantee in the east against the communists, which he made efforts to do from January 26, 1934 (Pilsudski-Hitler Pact) to August 30, 1939 (Last Peace Offer).
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a common diplomatic move of those years, and the efforts to conclude it largely came from Moscow, after Stalin's attempts at an alliance with the West failed. Hitler also continued to make peace offers after the defeat of Poland, but he was rejected.
These are not fabricated claims. These are historical facts.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
(c) JFK