http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/wrsynopsis.html
http://www.weeklyuniverse.com/2003/poland.htm
https://carolynyeager.net/hitlers-final-offer-polands-josef-beck
Sunday, 1 September 2019
80th anniversary: World War 2
Today marks the 80th anniversary since the beginning of World War 2, when the simmering tensions between Germany and Poland boiled over into war. The true nature of these tensions remain unclear to the wider public, shrouded in mystery. To be sure, the two countrys have a long history of antagonism and mistrust that always made diplomacy difficult. During the 1700s, Polands territory was gradually partitioned up by the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian empires. By 1795, all of their territory had been annexed, and they no longer existed as a sovereign state. The Poles spent the next 123 years living as subjects of other nations, which made them deeply resentful (particularly towards the Germans). When Poland regained statehood in 1918, they had developed a xenophobic and jingoistic mindset. The people wanted to get medievil and settle old scores with their neighbors. Fortunately, they were led by a capable statesman in the form of Jozef Pilsudski, who was able to reign in his peoples aggression and maintain cordial relations with Germany. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the two countrys actually signed a non-aggression pact, and things seemed to be moving in a peaceful direction. Unfortunately, these developments were undone by Pilsudksis death in 1935, and his replacement by the virulent nationalist, Edward Rydz-Smigly. His mindset was more representative of the average Pole, favoring an aggressive approach towards Germany. Bombastic speechs and hateful propaganda became common in Poland.
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Lets not forget the Soviet Union was a co-starter of the War as well and the Allies abandoned Poland to the Communists for decades.
ReplyDeleteYes. precisely. The Allies extended a guarantee to Poland, but they never retaliated against the Soviets for carving up Poland alongside the Germans. The Yalta agreement was preposterous.
DeleteMore bullshit Neo-Nazi propaganda. Ignoring that Hitler had been wanting to invade the East as far as 1924, when he was writing Mein Kampf.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Hitler lost the war, because instead of 20 million dead under Stalin, Hitler would have trumped that with at least 100 million, not even adding the 50 million that died in WW2, so 150 million under Hitler.
More than all those that died Communist nations with 50 plus years of rule.
Yes, Hitler did want to secure Lebensraum and destroy the Soviet Union. But those were long term goals. He wasn't planning on doing any of that in 1939. He wanted to settle the issue with the Danzig corridor and get the Poles to cease their provocations. That task became next to impossible after Britain and France issued a military guarantee to Poland, however. This added fuel to the fire of their jingoism, and gave them carte blanch to do whatever the hell they wanted.
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