Near Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939
Seventy-five years ago, on 17 September 1939, after seventeen days of bloody fighting, the Second World War came to a glorious conclusion. Although Poland, which was overrun, heroically defended itself against the German and Slovak army, nevertheless when the Soviet army also crossed the Polish border on 17 September – officially in order to defend the Ukrainian and Belorussian minority, which has been exposed to danger by the irresponsibility of the Polish government, but in reality to take possession of Eastern Poland, which had been allotted to the Soviet Union three weeks earlier in a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – the Polish army, on British advice, gave up resistance, and did not declare war on the Soviet Union. The Polish government fled to allied Romania, where they were locked up in an internment camp. An optimistic part of the Polish army surrendered to the Soviet army in exchange for the freedom to withdraw. A few hours later their officers – about 40 thousand persons – were rounded up and deported to the Soviet Union, where in April 1940 they were massacred in Katyń. The pessimistic part of the Polish army crossed the mountains to Hungary, an ally of Nazi Germany, where, instead of interment camps they were received by a warm welcome, given payments by the state, and – despite the repeated protest of the German embassy – could freely organize themselves, so that about 70 thousand Polish soldiers could continue on their way to France. The triumphant German and Soviet armies held joint parades in Brest and other towns along the common border, and then the Germans retreated to the area assigned to them by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The partition of Poland resulted in a new, stable border between the two superpowers, which guaranteed for long decades the peace in Eastern Europe.
Adolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939Poland, quickly pacified, was visited during this time by Hugo Jaeger, the Führer’s personal photographer, who shot a series of color photos on the post-war state of affairs. In addition to the pictures of the devastation of war, his pictures also show how warmly the people of Poland welcome the relief brought to them by the Wehrmacht, and how quickly Poland, freed from its incompetent leaders, are recovering under the new, responsible German government. Thirty-two of his color photos were published by Life two weeks ago, on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war. We also publish these images on the 75th anniversary of the rapid completition of the blitz, and the advent of peace in Europe.
Jewish women and children in Gostynin, Poland, after the German invasion, 1939
Refugees near Warsaw during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. (Sign reads, ʻDanger Zone – Do Not Enter.’)
Your text is ironic...
ResponderEliminarIn fact on 3rd of September England and France and soon half of the world (India, Canada, New Zealand etc) declared war against Germany. So advent of peace was not so certain
You’re right. My text is ironic. This was the best key to speak about so much historical cynicism.
ResponderEliminarYes, I know Britain and France and “half of the world” (practically the British Commonwealth, so not much more than these two countries) were formally belligerent to Germany. However, this in itself did not mean anything, as the complete idleness of these countries show it in the following months. It could have had absolutely the same outcome as the Western world’s disapproval of Putin’s occupying the Crimea in this February, and its tacit acceptance several months later, when it becomes a fait accompli and a status quo. In 1939 Britain offered guarantees to Poland only to avoid her alliance with Germany, as we wrote it here, and they had in fact neither intentions, nor means to fulfill them in the case of an eventual German attack, as the consequences showed it.
After the conquest of Poland, and the establishment of the new Eastern European borders (which are valid until today!), Germany lived in absolute peace until the next April, when they occupied Denmark and Norway. And Britain and France and “half of the world” did not do anything even after that. Then in May, Germany occupied France, and Britain kept doing nothing. They were constraint to do something only when in September – one year after the crushing of Poland! – Hitler started to bomb Britain itself.
So I think, had Hitler’s appetite been not this big, there would have been a good chance, that by the time the Western powers would have forgotten about their declaration of war, and the land which was once called Poland would be divided still now between two countries. Just like its Eastern part is still under foreign control, just because the Brits never had any real force to fulfill there the guarantees they had promised to Poland.