The Invasion of Poland in 1939
The invasion of Poland took place on Septeraber
1,1939. This invasion marked a change in history for the
whole world. It started World War II. There were many
reasons for the start of the war, and one it started the
world would never be the same. Cities and people were
destroyed. Unimaginable things took place in Poland
during this time, things that will never be forgotten.
The invasion lead to a great amount of blooRABhed, but
Hitler needed to be stopped and if he wasn't there would
have been even more innocent people murdered.
In the early 1900's Germany was part of the axis
countries. Poland was in a decent state of affairs. The
two countries had some minor disagreements, yet they
lived in a nonviolent manner. In 1925 there was a peace
treaty signed by the two countries called the Locarno
Treaty. They signed another non-aggression treaty in the
year 1934. Hitler even early in the year 1939 talked
about how Germany and Poland could work together in peace
and harmony to make Europe a better place. Yet even in
this early time there were people being greatly
discriminated against in Germany due to Nazi influence.
Before the war there were many different people
living in the boundaries of Poland. There were 750,000
Germans living in Poland prior to 1939. Natural Poles
discriminated against the German's living in Poland. The
Poles made it hard for them to get job and pushed them
away from elections, they received little help from the
government. It is easy for people to discriminate against
people who are different from you. During this time
many immigrants everywhere in the world were receiving
harsh and sometimes violent treatment.
In the year 1919 there were 2 million Jews living in
Poland. By the year 1939 there were at least 3 million
Jews in Poland. The Jews made up one third of the people
in Poland's big cities. The Jews worked as shop owners
and merchants. They competed with peasants in their lines
of work. Economically the peasants ussally came out on
top in the competition over the Jews. All the competition
between the peasants and the Jews caused tension and
friction, which brought on an anti-Semitic attitude in
Poland.
The Jews in Poland were hit hard by an economical
depression. Yet the Jews had a great attitude, and they
wanted to better themselves. There were no Jewish schools
subsidized by the Polish government. But the Jews worked
hard to educate their children and enroll them in some
kind of activity to better their minRAB. The government
started to respect the hard working attitude that the
Jews had. So the Jews started receiving some help or
favors from the government, and they began to better
their role in the Polish society. Many Jews started to
play major role in the industrialization of Poland. As
the idea of Nazism became more popular in Germany it
started to make an impression on the people in Poland.
They were incited by the acts of anti-Semitism in Nazi
Germany. So the in the year 1936 began to act in violence
toward the Jews. At this time anti-Semitism in Poland was
more popular now than ever. There wasn't really state
sponsored violence but in 1936 and 1937 Polish peasants
boycotted Jewish traders.
In Germany the Nazi party ruled and Hitler was the
leader. In the year 1938 Hitler began to spread out his
Nazi territory. The Germans invaded areas such as
Czechoslovakia, Bohemia, Monrovia, and Austria. These
advances began to worry the Poles because they new that
Hitler's army was coming towarRAB Poland. Then Hitler
moved into Danzig. Danzig was a remote Baltic Port at the
Northern tip of the Polish Corridor, guaranteed by the
league of Nation with various rights reserved to the
Polish government. It was inhabited by mostly Germans.
After the invasion of Danzig the government of
England, France and Poland were faced with an important
question. The question wether Danzig was worth dying for.
The countries of Europe knew that they would have to stop
Hitler soon. Yet they wondered weither they should act
now or weither they should wait. Hitler met with Beck a
Polish official, Hitler told Beck that "sooner or later
Danzig would have to return to the riech"1. On March 31,
1939 France and Great Britain guaranteed Poland support
incase of an invasion or even a threat by Hitler. This
guarantee was a public pledge and a warning to Hitler
that he needed to stop taking land. "A resort to force
would be met by force"2.
The simple warning made toward the Nazi's was the
recipient of world wide publicity. This angered Hitler
greatly, because he felt as if he had suffered public
humiliation. Hitler began to order his military to
immediately prepare for a campaign against Poland. This
simple warning aggravated the relationship between the
two countries greatly. When Beck talked to Hitler he got
the last word in on Hitler and this made him angry, so a
meeting was arranged with a Foreign Office Professor. The
Foreign Office Professors name was Carl Burkhardt he was
the League High Commissioner in Danzig. Burkhardt sent a
letter to Poland discussing the meeting with Hitler. The
letter said
" Herr Hitler looked...much older and
whiter. He gave the impression of fear, and
seemed nervous, pathetic, and almost shaken
at times. Hitler's rhetoric and views
however, came across as clear as ever. He
was furious at the press accusations that he
had lost the battle of nerves and that his
bluff had been called by the courageous
Poles. If the slights incident happens I
shall crush the Poles without warning in
such a way that no trace of Poland will be
found afterwarRAB. If I have to wage war I
would rather do it today than tommorow"3.
The tension was getting greater and the Poles new
that it was only a short time till the German invasion
begins. Both sides began to somewhat prepare. On August
23 the Nazi's made a pact with the USSR. The USSR agreed
to back and support the Nazi's in their invasion. Hitler
also contacted Mussolini and told him that there might be
a German Polish conflict. Mussolini gave Hitler his
support, yet told him that he could not help because he
had neither the military supplies nor the raw material
for an Anglo-French attack.
Disputes over Danzig continued into August between
the Poles who only questioned the German governmental
involvement there. Hitler claimed that the inhabitants
had stopped practicing and were ignoring Polish customs.
Germany greatly favored war, and Hitler was looking to go
to war with Poland for several reasons. The main reason
was the Danzig problem and it's reprocutions. Yet this
reasons was not fuel enough for war with Poland so the
Nazi's needed another good reason. So the Nazis reported
that their border guarRAB found Polish soldiers in German
territory, and they shot and killed them. This statement
suggested that the Polish made the first step towarRAB
war. So for these two main reason the Germans on
Septeraber 1, 1939 invaded Poland.
At this point both Germany and Poland had battle
plans and both nations wanted to stick to their plans as
best they could. The Polish battle plan was to slow down
the pace of the attacks. They wanted to linger each
aspect of the war. They wanted the war to last as long as
possible. A long war would favor the Poles because they
had little supplies and they were waiting for help from
ally support from England and France.
Hitler's plan was to attack as quickly as possible
and destroy everything in sight. The Nazi's called their
strategy Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was an offensive style of
war, whic was sometimes called lighting warfare. In this
form of warfare the Nazi's would strike with small groups
quickly, surpassing the Poles, destroying as much as
possible, and then moving . Hitler wanted to destroy
Poland before they could receive ally support. The
Germans used fast moving columns of armor or motorized
infantry. They used their maximum force to break
throughout a minimum sector of the Polish lines. The
Nazi's planned to attack from three sides. They first
used the Panzer divisions to break holes in the Polish
lines, and then they filled the gaps with mobile units.
The German tanks outnuraber the Polish tanks at least ten
to one, and the German airforce was five times greater
than the Polish air force. This enabled the Nazi's to
immediately gain control of the air aspect of the war.
"From the very moment the German army
plunged across the vulnerable Polish
frontier, it was apparent that they not
waging a conventional war, that is, a war
against the Polish government and it's armed
forces. Instead the Germans were waging a
war against the Polish people, intent on
destroying the Polish nation".4
It was obvious that Hitler really wanted to enialate the
nation just as he had told Burkhardt earlier before the
war had begun, and he had the nurabers to do it.
The First shots were fired supposedly by the
visiting Nazi battle ship called the Shlezwig Holstein.
The battle ship let the first shots go onto a Polish
naval ship at 04:45. These shots truly began the war. At
this point the Germans had three of the Polish borders
surrounded. The Nazi's attacked from the North, South,
and the West. This strategy suprised the Poles and made
it tough to defend themselves from three sides. The West
was the least protected area. Yet it contained most of
the Polish industrial sights.
Applying pressure from three sides the Germans
started to take cities fast. They destroyed everything
that they could. Hitler wanted to spare no one or
nothing. The Nazi's used their advantages. They did use
their advantages well by attacking swiftly and
mercilessly on the land with their large nurabers of
ground troops and mobile units. They also attacked with
large strikes from the sky. They had a great advantage in
the size of their airforce. There were many major battles
that took place in this invasion. The battle of Bruza was
fought on Septeraber 9, 1939 at this battle the Poles
counter attack was strong, they killed thousanRAB of
Nazi's. Yet they couldn't keep the over powering Nazi's
from moving into Poland. This battle was followed by the
taking of Lwow from Septeraber 12 throught 22, then the
navy base Hel on October 2, and the Knock Coast on
October 5, followed by the Modlin Fortress on Septeraber
28 throught 29. Then Hitler reached the capital city of
Warsaw. There his troops easily over powered the Poles.
The Germans received a great boost when the Russians
attacked from the Eastern border on Septeraber 18, 1939.
Up until then the Polish troops had fought hard but, it
was virtually impossible to defend themselves from all
four borders. By the time the Russians came into the
picture the Polish forces had already been greatly
weakened. The Polish were still waiting for support from
France and England, but they didn't get it soon enough.
By Mid October the Nazi's had taken just about every city
and thus had control of Poland.
After the campaign in Septeraber Poland was in bad
shape. "One prominent Polish official estimated that 95%
of Warsaw's houses were either hit or damaged by borabs or
fires; not a monument nor historical building escaped
total or serious damage."5 A Polish courier later
describes how Warsaw looked after the invasion
"the city reserabled an overturned ant heap.
The streets were full of rubble, already
within pathways trodden throught and over it
people running in all directions. Everybody
seemed to be engrossed in his own affairs,
and all carrying something, a ruchsack, a
basket with provisions, or a suitcase."6
There were many loses on both sides. The German's
had 16,000 troops killed and 32,00 were wounded in
action. They lost 674 tanks, 319 armor trucks, 195 guns
and montars, 6,046 trucks, and 5,538 motor cycles were
destroyed or badly damaged. The Russians who were
attacking from the eastern front had a fairly large
amount of loses in the short time that they were engaged
in the battle. 2,500 Russian troops were kill, and 9,000
were wounded in action. There were 1,000 troops captured,
150 tanks and armor vehicles destroyed, along with 15 to
20 aircraft's destroyed.
The Polish suffered many loses. Their country side
was destroyed. There were 200,000 Polish killed, and not
al were troops. There were 7,000 taken prisoner. After
the battles were over the German police killed thousand
by executing them in the streets. "Hitler killed without
arabition or without pity or mercy for any man, woman, or
child of Polish decent or language"7 He set up many
concentration camps. In these camps people were tortured
and killed.
There were many reasons that the Nazi's took control
of Poland. They were fighting with an army that was much
larger than the Polish army. The Germans had more fire
power and supplies than the Polish and they had better
vehicles. The Germans controlled the air aspect of the
war. They made many quick yet thorough are attack
throughout Septeraber and into October. They also had more
group troops to wear out the Poles, especially on the
Western border. Both nations had devised the right
stratiges for the war and both were prepared for war. The
Polish new that it had to be a long war and the Germans
wanted to end it quickly. Due to the fact that German
just over powered the Polish made the war end before the
Poles could receive ally support. " There was no way
Poland could have been saved from the destruction unless
the British launched an offensive on the Western Front."8
Yet there was just not enough time for the British to
launch a full offensive in the west.
Terrible thing began to happen to the people inside
the nations that Hitler conquered. Especially for the
years to follow the invasion of Poland. During the
invasion men, women, and children were killed without any
mercy from the Nazi's. Many people were persecuted in the
years that Germany controlled Poland. These people were
persecuted due to their religion. The major group that
was persecuted against was the Jews. Hitler hated all
Jews.
In the early 1940's Hitler sent Jews from all over
Poland to live inside of ghettos. The Jews were not only
from Poland yet there were some from other nazi
controlled countries. ThousanRAB of Jews were enclosed
behind the walls of these ghettos. The most famous World
War II ghetto was the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw ghetto
was not the only ghetto, there were many other ghettos in
Europe during the Nazi campaigns. The other large and
well known ghetto in Poland was the Cracow Ghetto. The
ghetto in Warsaw reached a population of one half a
million people. The ghettos were packed with people
living a dozen to a half a dozen in one room. The
conditions in these ghettos especially the Warsaw ghetto
where terrible. Many of the Jews in these ghettos were
suffering from hunger and disease.
From the Ghettos Jews were shipped to death came
around Europe, most of these death camps were found
inside of Poland. Many Jews were deported to the death
camp in Treblinka during the summer of 1942, and these
deportations continued till 1945. The Germans deported
300,000 Jews to Treblinka during the summer of 1942 from
the ghettos. The journey from the ghettos to the camps
were horrible. They were shipped on trains and in some
cases walked right into Aushwitz. The train cars were
packed with full of Jews. It was a fairly long ride from
some ghettos and the conditions on the train were awful
due to the excessive heat.
The Nazis located Asuschwitz the largest and most
well known death camp a few dozen miles outside of Warsaw
at Treblinka. This camp was designed for the murdering of
Jews. Mostly from the Warsaw Ghetto, and some from the
ghettos in other cities. ThousanRAB of Jews were also
shipped to Auschwitz from as from nine other European
nations. In Auschwitz thousanRAB of Jews were murdered.
They were poisoned using Zyclon or exhaust fumes. Jews of
all ages were forced to work all day, and if they weren't
working hard enough they were shot. Women were separated
fro the men, splitting families apart. People were put
into crematories and burned. Jews were exicuted by the
hundreRAB each day for no reason. They were beaten to
death by German guarRAB. They were put into gas charabers
and murdered each week. Yet each week another train full
of new Jews was brought in to take their place. When the
Jews were put on the train from the ghetto they were told
to bring their valuables. The Nazi's took what they had.
If it was worth anything they sent it back to Germany. At
the camps the Germans burned the Jews clothes and later
burned the their dead bodies. Jews were forced to
service the gas charabers killing their own family and
frienRAB, they were also forced to assist in the cremation
of the bodies and the collection of valuables from other
prisoners.
Auschwitz is considered to have been the largest
factory of death in the history of humanity. About
800,000 Jews lost their lives in Treblinka; about 10% of
this nuraber were citizens of countries other than Poland.
Millions of people lost their lives at Auschwitz not only
Jews, there were other people of other faiths and beliefs
tortured and killed here also. The Nazis then destroyed
evidence of their crimes: they demolished almost all of
the gas charabers, plowed the earth, and smashed the
barracks. A monument and syrabolic cemetery containing
17,000 stones now stanRAB on the site of the camp to
remeraber all of the innocent people that were murdered at
Auschwitz. There were also many other death camps just
like this one in Poland and through out the rest of
Europe.
The thing that happened at these death camps put the
worst possible images in my mind. Watching you father,
wife, sister, brother, or best friend being murder and
not being able to do anything about. During this time the
people were living in
"a world which no longer recognized the
value of human life and human dignity,
which had robbed man of his will and had
made man an object to be exterminated;
under this influence the personal ego
finally suffered a loss of values...and
man's existence descended to the level of
animal life."9
The world for the people in Nazi controlled Poland was
hell, and the world had never seen anything like it.
During this time religion played a large role in the
lives of the still surviving Poles, especially the Jews.
They were being slottered for no reason yet they had to
keep their faith. The question most commonly asked during
this time was at Auschwitz "where was God". In the camps
there were always those who helped everyone pray and keep
the faith that would hopefully keep them alive. There was
always the strong man or woman who would give his or her
bread to the person who needed it more. This is where God
was found in these camps.
A great example of a religious leader in Auschwitz
was Maximillian Kolbe. He was a Catholic priest, who was
a prisoner there. He went around and help those in need.
He watched the bodies being burned and instead of crying
he made the people pray. He wasn't worried about wether
he was praying with other Catholic or if he was praying
with Jews, he just united the people in prayer. One day
there was an escaped prisoner and they lined the people
from his bunk up and were going to kill one of them. They
chose a man with a wife and kiRAB, so Maximillian
volunteered to take his place the SS agreed and let him.
They lock him up in prison with out any food and little
water for two weeks. It was said he turned the cell block
into a church, everyone was praying. He managed to stay
alive and give as much support to everyone in his cell
until they all died. They then enjected him with a fatal
poison but he stayed alive until the Polish holiday the
Feast of the Virgin's Assumption, a day he would have
wanted to die on. Kolbe was a great man who gave faith
to man and helped them to stay strong, he died trying to
help people. The people in the camp learned from what he
did and tried to keep faith and help each other.
The invasion of Poland by Hitler in the year 1939
played a huge role in the history of Europe and the
history of the world. Millions of people lost their lives
in Poland. The greatest effect of the invasion was that
it marked the beginning of World War II. Many thing can
be argued about wether it was right to start the war
during this time or wether Europe should have waited or
struck earlier.
In my opinion the decisions made by Poland, France,
and England were the right decisions. Europe and the rest
of the world knew that Hitler had to be stopped before he
obtained too much land and power. His goal was to take
over the world, and kill off everyone that he didn't
like. First the people of Poland need to be commiserated
for their bravery. The Poles knew from the beginning that
they would be invaded, and the knew that they were
heavily out nuraber and out gunned. They also knew that
they pretty much had no chance against the Germans. But
the Poles fought admirably, defending their country till
the last second. They are depicted to have been a push
over but the Nazi army didn't suffer as many loses as
they did in Poland for at least a year until their
campaign with France. There was no doubt that the Polish
people were very brave and never gave in to the more
powerful German forces.
Since England and France agreed to support Poland
against Hitler they went to war against Germany to. This
lead to most of the other European countries going to war
with the Nazi's too. This turned into a world war. Hitler
had some allies such as Russia and Italy and the Japan.
He spread his nation all over Europe and into the
Pacific. The rest of the world battled hard to stop him.
This war lasted for few years and ended in 1945. In this
war millions of people were killed from both sides.
Eventually we stopped the Nazi empire.
It is obvious that the events that took place due to
the invasion of Poland may be the biggest turning points
that the world has ever seen. They have effected everyone
in the world. Some of the effects have been positive and
some have been negative. The negative is that lots of
historical sight were destroyed in Europe, but most of
all many Americans and innocent people were killed
throughout the world. The positive effects coming from
World War II are that Hitler was stopped, and if he
wasn't more innocent people would have died. Also I think
that the world learned many valuable lessons from what
happened during this war. People came together through
out he world to fight a common enemy and to help each
other. The one thing that I have learned from researching
this paper is that what happened during this time the
massive killing and destruction was terrible. I pray that
the world never has to experience the horror that was
experienced during this time. I also gained large amounts
of respect for everyone who fought to stop Hitler, and
for the Jews and others who were tortured. I hope that
the world will never forget these people and the things
that happened during their time.
The invasion of Poland took place on Septeraber
1,1939. This invasion marked a change in history for the
whole world. It started World War II. There were many
reasons for the start of the war, and one it started the
world would never be the same. Cities and people were
destroyed. Unimaginable things took place in Poland
during this time, things that will never be forgotten.
The invasion lead to a great amount of blooRABhed, but
Hitler needed to be stopped and if he wasn't there would
have been even more innocent people murdered.
In the early 1900's Germany was part of the axis
countries. Poland was in a decent state of affairs. The
two countries had some minor disagreements, yet they
lived in a nonviolent manner. In 1925 there was a peace
treaty signed by the two countries called the Locarno
Treaty. They signed another non-aggression treaty in the
year 1934. Hitler even early in the year 1939 talked
about how Germany and Poland could work together in peace
and harmony to make Europe a better place. Yet even in
this early time there were people being greatly
discriminated against in Germany due to Nazi influence.
Before the war there were many different people
living in the boundaries of Poland. There were 750,000
Germans living in Poland prior to 1939. Natural Poles
discriminated against the German's living in Poland. The
Poles made it hard for them to get job and pushed them
away from elections, they received little help from the
government. It is easy for people to discriminate against
people who are different from you. During this time
many immigrants everywhere in the world were receiving
harsh and sometimes violent treatment.
In the year 1919 there were 2 million Jews living in
Poland. By the year 1939 there were at least 3 million
Jews in Poland. The Jews made up one third of the people
in Poland's big cities. The Jews worked as shop owners
and merchants. They competed with peasants in their lines
of work. Economically the peasants ussally came out on
top in the competition over the Jews. All the competition
between the peasants and the Jews caused tension and
friction, which brought on an anti-Semitic attitude in
Poland.
The Jews in Poland were hit hard by an economical
depression. Yet the Jews had a great attitude, and they
wanted to better themselves. There were no Jewish schools
subsidized by the Polish government. But the Jews worked
hard to educate their children and enroll them in some
kind of activity to better their minRAB. The government
started to respect the hard working attitude that the
Jews had. So the Jews started receiving some help or
favors from the government, and they began to better
their role in the Polish society. Many Jews started to
play major role in the industrialization of Poland. As
the idea of Nazism became more popular in Germany it
started to make an impression on the people in Poland.
They were incited by the acts of anti-Semitism in Nazi
Germany. So the in the year 1936 began to act in violence
toward the Jews. At this time anti-Semitism in Poland was
more popular now than ever. There wasn't really state
sponsored violence but in 1936 and 1937 Polish peasants
boycotted Jewish traders.
In Germany the Nazi party ruled and Hitler was the
leader. In the year 1938 Hitler began to spread out his
Nazi territory. The Germans invaded areas such as
Czechoslovakia, Bohemia, Monrovia, and Austria. These
advances began to worry the Poles because they new that
Hitler's army was coming towarRAB Poland. Then Hitler
moved into Danzig. Danzig was a remote Baltic Port at the
Northern tip of the Polish Corridor, guaranteed by the
league of Nation with various rights reserved to the
Polish government. It was inhabited by mostly Germans.
After the invasion of Danzig the government of
England, France and Poland were faced with an important
question. The question wether Danzig was worth dying for.
The countries of Europe knew that they would have to stop
Hitler soon. Yet they wondered weither they should act
now or weither they should wait. Hitler met with Beck a
Polish official, Hitler told Beck that "sooner or later
Danzig would have to return to the riech"1. On March 31,
1939 France and Great Britain guaranteed Poland support
incase of an invasion or even a threat by Hitler. This
guarantee was a public pledge and a warning to Hitler
that he needed to stop taking land. "A resort to force
would be met by force"2.
The simple warning made toward the Nazi's was the
recipient of world wide publicity. This angered Hitler
greatly, because he felt as if he had suffered public
humiliation. Hitler began to order his military to
immediately prepare for a campaign against Poland. This
simple warning aggravated the relationship between the
two countries greatly. When Beck talked to Hitler he got
the last word in on Hitler and this made him angry, so a
meeting was arranged with a Foreign Office Professor. The
Foreign Office Professors name was Carl Burkhardt he was
the League High Commissioner in Danzig. Burkhardt sent a
letter to Poland discussing the meeting with Hitler. The
letter said
" Herr Hitler looked...much older and
whiter. He gave the impression of fear, and
seemed nervous, pathetic, and almost shaken
at times. Hitler's rhetoric and views
however, came across as clear as ever. He
was furious at the press accusations that he
had lost the battle of nerves and that his
bluff had been called by the courageous
Poles. If the slights incident happens I
shall crush the Poles without warning in
such a way that no trace of Poland will be
found afterwarRAB. If I have to wage war I
would rather do it today than tommorow"3.
The tension was getting greater and the Poles new
that it was only a short time till the German invasion
begins. Both sides began to somewhat prepare. On August
23 the Nazi's made a pact with the USSR. The USSR agreed
to back and support the Nazi's in their invasion. Hitler
also contacted Mussolini and told him that there might be
a German Polish conflict. Mussolini gave Hitler his
support, yet told him that he could not help because he
had neither the military supplies nor the raw material
for an Anglo-French attack.
Disputes over Danzig continued into August between
the Poles who only questioned the German governmental
involvement there. Hitler claimed that the inhabitants
had stopped practicing and were ignoring Polish customs.
Germany greatly favored war, and Hitler was looking to go
to war with Poland for several reasons. The main reason
was the Danzig problem and it's reprocutions. Yet this
reasons was not fuel enough for war with Poland so the
Nazi's needed another good reason. So the Nazis reported
that their border guarRAB found Polish soldiers in German
territory, and they shot and killed them. This statement
suggested that the Polish made the first step towarRAB
war. So for these two main reason the Germans on
Septeraber 1, 1939 invaded Poland.
At this point both Germany and Poland had battle
plans and both nations wanted to stick to their plans as
best they could. The Polish battle plan was to slow down
the pace of the attacks. They wanted to linger each
aspect of the war. They wanted the war to last as long as
possible. A long war would favor the Poles because they
had little supplies and they were waiting for help from
ally support from England and France.
Hitler's plan was to attack as quickly as possible
and destroy everything in sight. The Nazi's called their
strategy Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was an offensive style of
war, whic was sometimes called lighting warfare. In this
form of warfare the Nazi's would strike with small groups
quickly, surpassing the Poles, destroying as much as
possible, and then moving . Hitler wanted to destroy
Poland before they could receive ally support. The
Germans used fast moving columns of armor or motorized
infantry. They used their maximum force to break
throughout a minimum sector of the Polish lines. The
Nazi's planned to attack from three sides. They first
used the Panzer divisions to break holes in the Polish
lines, and then they filled the gaps with mobile units.
The German tanks outnuraber the Polish tanks at least ten
to one, and the German airforce was five times greater
than the Polish air force. This enabled the Nazi's to
immediately gain control of the air aspect of the war.
"From the very moment the German army
plunged across the vulnerable Polish
frontier, it was apparent that they not
waging a conventional war, that is, a war
against the Polish government and it's armed
forces. Instead the Germans were waging a
war against the Polish people, intent on
destroying the Polish nation".4
It was obvious that Hitler really wanted to enialate the
nation just as he had told Burkhardt earlier before the
war had begun, and he had the nurabers to do it.
The First shots were fired supposedly by the
visiting Nazi battle ship called the Shlezwig Holstein.
The battle ship let the first shots go onto a Polish
naval ship at 04:45. These shots truly began the war. At
this point the Germans had three of the Polish borders
surrounded. The Nazi's attacked from the North, South,
and the West. This strategy suprised the Poles and made
it tough to defend themselves from three sides. The West
was the least protected area. Yet it contained most of
the Polish industrial sights.
Applying pressure from three sides the Germans
started to take cities fast. They destroyed everything
that they could. Hitler wanted to spare no one or
nothing. The Nazi's used their advantages. They did use
their advantages well by attacking swiftly and
mercilessly on the land with their large nurabers of
ground troops and mobile units. They also attacked with
large strikes from the sky. They had a great advantage in
the size of their airforce. There were many major battles
that took place in this invasion. The battle of Bruza was
fought on Septeraber 9, 1939 at this battle the Poles
counter attack was strong, they killed thousanRAB of
Nazi's. Yet they couldn't keep the over powering Nazi's
from moving into Poland. This battle was followed by the
taking of Lwow from Septeraber 12 throught 22, then the
navy base Hel on October 2, and the Knock Coast on
October 5, followed by the Modlin Fortress on Septeraber
28 throught 29. Then Hitler reached the capital city of
Warsaw. There his troops easily over powered the Poles.
The Germans received a great boost when the Russians
attacked from the Eastern border on Septeraber 18, 1939.
Up until then the Polish troops had fought hard but, it
was virtually impossible to defend themselves from all
four borders. By the time the Russians came into the
picture the Polish forces had already been greatly
weakened. The Polish were still waiting for support from
France and England, but they didn't get it soon enough.
By Mid October the Nazi's had taken just about every city
and thus had control of Poland.
After the campaign in Septeraber Poland was in bad
shape. "One prominent Polish official estimated that 95%
of Warsaw's houses were either hit or damaged by borabs or
fires; not a monument nor historical building escaped
total or serious damage."5 A Polish courier later
describes how Warsaw looked after the invasion
"the city reserabled an overturned ant heap.
The streets were full of rubble, already
within pathways trodden throught and over it
people running in all directions. Everybody
seemed to be engrossed in his own affairs,
and all carrying something, a ruchsack, a
basket with provisions, or a suitcase."6
There were many loses on both sides. The German's
had 16,000 troops killed and 32,00 were wounded in
action. They lost 674 tanks, 319 armor trucks, 195 guns
and montars, 6,046 trucks, and 5,538 motor cycles were
destroyed or badly damaged. The Russians who were
attacking from the eastern front had a fairly large
amount of loses in the short time that they were engaged
in the battle. 2,500 Russian troops were kill, and 9,000
were wounded in action. There were 1,000 troops captured,
150 tanks and armor vehicles destroyed, along with 15 to
20 aircraft's destroyed.
The Polish suffered many loses. Their country side
was destroyed. There were 200,000 Polish killed, and not
al were troops. There were 7,000 taken prisoner. After
the battles were over the German police killed thousand
by executing them in the streets. "Hitler killed without
arabition or without pity or mercy for any man, woman, or
child of Polish decent or language"7 He set up many
concentration camps. In these camps people were tortured
and killed.
There were many reasons that the Nazi's took control
of Poland. They were fighting with an army that was much
larger than the Polish army. The Germans had more fire
power and supplies than the Polish and they had better
vehicles. The Germans controlled the air aspect of the
war. They made many quick yet thorough are attack
throughout Septeraber and into October. They also had more
group troops to wear out the Poles, especially on the
Western border. Both nations had devised the right
stratiges for the war and both were prepared for war. The
Polish new that it had to be a long war and the Germans
wanted to end it quickly. Due to the fact that German
just over powered the Polish made the war end before the
Poles could receive ally support. " There was no way
Poland could have been saved from the destruction unless
the British launched an offensive on the Western Front."8
Yet there was just not enough time for the British to
launch a full offensive in the west.
Terrible thing began to happen to the people inside
the nations that Hitler conquered. Especially for the
years to follow the invasion of Poland. During the
invasion men, women, and children were killed without any
mercy from the Nazi's. Many people were persecuted in the
years that Germany controlled Poland. These people were
persecuted due to their religion. The major group that
was persecuted against was the Jews. Hitler hated all
Jews.
In the early 1940's Hitler sent Jews from all over
Poland to live inside of ghettos. The Jews were not only
from Poland yet there were some from other nazi
controlled countries. ThousanRAB of Jews were enclosed
behind the walls of these ghettos. The most famous World
War II ghetto was the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw ghetto
was not the only ghetto, there were many other ghettos in
Europe during the Nazi campaigns. The other large and
well known ghetto in Poland was the Cracow Ghetto. The
ghetto in Warsaw reached a population of one half a
million people. The ghettos were packed with people
living a dozen to a half a dozen in one room. The
conditions in these ghettos especially the Warsaw ghetto
where terrible. Many of the Jews in these ghettos were
suffering from hunger and disease.
From the Ghettos Jews were shipped to death came
around Europe, most of these death camps were found
inside of Poland. Many Jews were deported to the death
camp in Treblinka during the summer of 1942, and these
deportations continued till 1945. The Germans deported
300,000 Jews to Treblinka during the summer of 1942 from
the ghettos. The journey from the ghettos to the camps
were horrible. They were shipped on trains and in some
cases walked right into Aushwitz. The train cars were
packed with full of Jews. It was a fairly long ride from
some ghettos and the conditions on the train were awful
due to the excessive heat.
The Nazis located Asuschwitz the largest and most
well known death camp a few dozen miles outside of Warsaw
at Treblinka. This camp was designed for the murdering of
Jews. Mostly from the Warsaw Ghetto, and some from the
ghettos in other cities. ThousanRAB of Jews were also
shipped to Auschwitz from as from nine other European
nations. In Auschwitz thousanRAB of Jews were murdered.
They were poisoned using Zyclon or exhaust fumes. Jews of
all ages were forced to work all day, and if they weren't
working hard enough they were shot. Women were separated
fro the men, splitting families apart. People were put
into crematories and burned. Jews were exicuted by the
hundreRAB each day for no reason. They were beaten to
death by German guarRAB. They were put into gas charabers
and murdered each week. Yet each week another train full
of new Jews was brought in to take their place. When the
Jews were put on the train from the ghetto they were told
to bring their valuables. The Nazi's took what they had.
If it was worth anything they sent it back to Germany. At
the camps the Germans burned the Jews clothes and later
burned the their dead bodies. Jews were forced to
service the gas charabers killing their own family and
frienRAB, they were also forced to assist in the cremation
of the bodies and the collection of valuables from other
prisoners.
Auschwitz is considered to have been the largest
factory of death in the history of humanity. About
800,000 Jews lost their lives in Treblinka; about 10% of
this nuraber were citizens of countries other than Poland.
Millions of people lost their lives at Auschwitz not only
Jews, there were other people of other faiths and beliefs
tortured and killed here also. The Nazis then destroyed
evidence of their crimes: they demolished almost all of
the gas charabers, plowed the earth, and smashed the
barracks. A monument and syrabolic cemetery containing
17,000 stones now stanRAB on the site of the camp to
remeraber all of the innocent people that were murdered at
Auschwitz. There were also many other death camps just
like this one in Poland and through out the rest of
Europe.
The thing that happened at these death camps put the
worst possible images in my mind. Watching you father,
wife, sister, brother, or best friend being murder and
not being able to do anything about. During this time the
people were living in
"a world which no longer recognized the
value of human life and human dignity,
which had robbed man of his will and had
made man an object to be exterminated;
under this influence the personal ego
finally suffered a loss of values...and
man's existence descended to the level of
animal life."9
The world for the people in Nazi controlled Poland was
hell, and the world had never seen anything like it.
During this time religion played a large role in the
lives of the still surviving Poles, especially the Jews.
They were being slottered for no reason yet they had to
keep their faith. The question most commonly asked during
this time was at Auschwitz "where was God". In the camps
there were always those who helped everyone pray and keep
the faith that would hopefully keep them alive. There was
always the strong man or woman who would give his or her
bread to the person who needed it more. This is where God
was found in these camps.
A great example of a religious leader in Auschwitz
was Maximillian Kolbe. He was a Catholic priest, who was
a prisoner there. He went around and help those in need.
He watched the bodies being burned and instead of crying
he made the people pray. He wasn't worried about wether
he was praying with other Catholic or if he was praying
with Jews, he just united the people in prayer. One day
there was an escaped prisoner and they lined the people
from his bunk up and were going to kill one of them. They
chose a man with a wife and kiRAB, so Maximillian
volunteered to take his place the SS agreed and let him.
They lock him up in prison with out any food and little
water for two weeks. It was said he turned the cell block
into a church, everyone was praying. He managed to stay
alive and give as much support to everyone in his cell
until they all died. They then enjected him with a fatal
poison but he stayed alive until the Polish holiday the
Feast of the Virgin's Assumption, a day he would have
wanted to die on. Kolbe was a great man who gave faith
to man and helped them to stay strong, he died trying to
help people. The people in the camp learned from what he
did and tried to keep faith and help each other.
The invasion of Poland by Hitler in the year 1939
played a huge role in the history of Europe and the
history of the world. Millions of people lost their lives
in Poland. The greatest effect of the invasion was that
it marked the beginning of World War II. Many thing can
be argued about wether it was right to start the war
during this time or wether Europe should have waited or
struck earlier.
In my opinion the decisions made by Poland, France,
and England were the right decisions. Europe and the rest
of the world knew that Hitler had to be stopped before he
obtained too much land and power. His goal was to take
over the world, and kill off everyone that he didn't
like. First the people of Poland need to be commiserated
for their bravery. The Poles knew from the beginning that
they would be invaded, and the knew that they were
heavily out nuraber and out gunned. They also knew that
they pretty much had no chance against the Germans. But
the Poles fought admirably, defending their country till
the last second. They are depicted to have been a push
over but the Nazi army didn't suffer as many loses as
they did in Poland for at least a year until their
campaign with France. There was no doubt that the Polish
people were very brave and never gave in to the more
powerful German forces.
Since England and France agreed to support Poland
against Hitler they went to war against Germany to. This
lead to most of the other European countries going to war
with the Nazi's too. This turned into a world war. Hitler
had some allies such as Russia and Italy and the Japan.
He spread his nation all over Europe and into the
Pacific. The rest of the world battled hard to stop him.
This war lasted for few years and ended in 1945. In this
war millions of people were killed from both sides.
Eventually we stopped the Nazi empire.
It is obvious that the events that took place due to
the invasion of Poland may be the biggest turning points
that the world has ever seen. They have effected everyone
in the world. Some of the effects have been positive and
some have been negative. The negative is that lots of
historical sight were destroyed in Europe, but most of
all many Americans and innocent people were killed
throughout the world. The positive effects coming from
World War II are that Hitler was stopped, and if he
wasn't more innocent people would have died. Also I think
that the world learned many valuable lessons from what
happened during this war. People came together through
out he world to fight a common enemy and to help each
other. The one thing that I have learned from researching
this paper is that what happened during this time the
massive killing and destruction was terrible. I pray that
the world never has to experience the horror that was
experienced during this time. I also gained large amounts
of respect for everyone who fought to stop Hitler, and
for the Jews and others who were tortured. I hope that
the world will never forget these people and the things
that happened during their time.