JUNE 28 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JUNE 28

1651

Battle of Beresteczko between Poles and Ukrainians began:  After a two-year truce, the Battle of Beresteczko was fought between the Ukrainian Cossacks, under the command of Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Tatar allies, and a Polish army under King John II Casimir.  A total of 33,313 Cossacks, supported by Ukrainian peasants, went into battle against the Polish army.  By mid June 1651, the Polish army numbered 14,844 Polish cavalry, 2,250 German-style cavalry, 11,900 German-style infantry and dragoons, 2,950 Hungarian-style infantry (haiduks), 1,550 Lithuanian volunteers, and 960 Lipka Tatars. In addition, there were also 16,000 German mercenaries, and a few Cossacks who were loyal to and remained within the ranks of the Polish army.  The Polish commanders planned to break the Cossack ranks with a charge of the Polish Winged Hussars - an effective, and deadly tactic that had been used in many previous battles, such as at the Battle of Kircholm and Kłuszyn. (It would later prove victorious in the famous 1683 Battle of Vienna against the Turks.) The Cossack army was already well acquainted with this Polish style of war and chose to avoid an open battlefield by fighting from a huge fortified camp. During the first day of fighting, the Polish Winged Hussars emerged victorious,"since their army sustained that first attack cheerfully and in high spirits". The Polish Winged Hussars were victorious on June 30, 1651.

1919

The Treaty of Versailles was signed bringing World War I to an end.  (It was signed exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.   Article 231 of the Treaty, later became known as the War Guilt clause, forced Germany to disarm, to make substantial territorial concessions, and to pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. Among the terms and conditions of the Treaty was that Germany recognize the independence of Poland and renounce "all rights and title over the territory".  Territories to be ceded to Poland were parts of Upper Silesia (with the future of the rest of the province to be decided by plebiscite); the province of Posen (now Poznan);  Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania), on historical and ethnic grounds, so that Poland would have access to the sea, ie the Polish Corridor; the East Prussian Soldau area; (while the sovereignty of southern part of East Prussia would be decided by plebiscite); and the city of Danzig ( became the Free City of Danzig, established by the League of Nations.)  An area of 51,800 square kilometres (20,000 square miles) was granted to Poland. Memel was to be ceded to the Allied and Associated powers.

1943

Four Crematories at Auschwitz:  SS Major Karl Bischoff, chief of construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, had implemented the construction of the four crematories by the end of June 1943. Crematory I was a brick cottage with windows sealed, and converted into a gassing facility. Crematory II was converted a few weeks later. Crematory III used an existing mortuary with morgues in the basement and ground-level incinerators, and converted it into a killing factory by installing gas-tight doors, vents for the Zyklon B (a highly lethal cyanide-based pesticide) to be dropped into the chamber, and ventilation equipment to remove the fumes afterward. Crematoria IV & V were designed as gassing centers, were also constructed that spring. By June 1943, all four crematoria were operational. Most of the prisoners were killed using these four structures.

1944

The Heuaktion (or hay operation) was a Nazi German operation in which they kidnapped 40,000 to 50,000 Polish children from the ages of 10 to 14 and transported them to Germany as slave labourers. Upon their arrival in Germany, the children were handed over to Organisation Todt and the Junkers aircraft works. The Nazis expected that the mass kidnapping would pressure the adults of the occupied territories to register as workers in the Reich, as well as to weaken the “biological strength” of the areas of the Soviet republics which Germany had invaded. (After the end of World War II, the  Nuremberg Trials classified the kidnapping of children as part of the Nazi program of systemic genocide.)

1945

Under the terms of the Yalta agreement, the Provisional Government of National Unity (Polish: Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej or TRJN) was formed to govern Poland until free elections could be held and a permanent constitutional system established.  Former Prime Minister of Poland Stanisław Mikołajczyk trusted the Soviets and entered into negotiations with them, but would later be betrayed.  The Polish Government-In-Exile did not recognize the TRJN.

1956

Riots broke out in Poznan Poland, 38 died:  Workers demonstrated to demand better working conditions at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violence.  Over 100,000 workers gathered in the city centre near the local Ministry of Public Security building.  About 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the People's Army of Poland and the Internal Security Corps under communist officers were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification fired shots killing many of the protesters. Casualties were estimated between 57 and 100 people or more (including a thirteen-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski.) Hundreds of other demonstrators sustained injuries. The Poznań protests were a milestone in the Polish struggle leading towards the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government in Poland in October. 

MARCH 16 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

MARCH 16

1935

Hitler announced the rearmament of Germany and the reintroduction of conscription. His move was a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.  Germanys plans for rearmament began as soon as the Treaty was signed in 1919. Although it began secretively, it expanded to great proportions after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933.  Historians have argued that Hitlers rise to power was condoned by the West in order to allow a rearmed Germany to act as a bulwark against the emergence of a powerful USSR. This mindset was evident when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa to invade Soviet territory, and the West observed with anticipation the hope that Germans and Russians would fight themselves to a bloody standstill.  Before the war, allied governments, in particular  British Prime Minister Chamberlain, failed to intercede earlier because he believed that his appeasement policies would be effective to avert war.  There was the speculation that anything that might have caused Hitler not to overreach as quickly and as far as he did, would only have condemned Europe to living behind a Nazi Iron Curtain, in which Germany would still be able to commit the atrocities against the Jews in the "Final Solution", and develop its nuclear weapons program.  According to respected historian George Kennan,  "Unquestionably, such a policy might have enforced a greater circumspection on the Nazi regime and caused it to proceed more slowly with the actualization of its timetable. From this standpoint, firmness at the time of the reoccupation of the Rhineland (March 7, 1936) would probably have yielded even better results than firmness at the time of Munich."

1940

Germans bombed Scapa Flow naval base in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.  In the Naval Situation General review submitted to the British War Cabinet  the event was described as follows;  " At dusk on 16 March an attack was made on Scapa by 15 enemy bombers operating in small groups, and continued from 7:45pm until 9pm...It is reported that only the first wave of five aircraft attacked ships in the harbour, dropping about 20 bombs. This attack came in low and climbed on reaching Scapa Flow to make dive bombing attacks on the fleet. H.M.S. Norfolk was hit in the quarter deck and holed by a near miss aft, 4 officers being killed, and 4 officers and 3 ratings wounded. The damage to the ship necessitates docking, but she was capable of steaming at 10 knots, and has since arrived at the Clyde. H.M.S. Iron Duke (depot ship) was also damaged by two near misses, and one other capital ship was attacked but not hit."  (Britain had chosen Scapa Flow to be their main naval base, primarily due to its great distance from German airfields.  British defenses from WWI had fallen into disrepair consequently the defences were inadequate. Upon Churchill's order, construction began for a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow, as well as placing booms and mines over the main entrances, installing coastal defence and anti-aircraft batteries at crucial points, and sinking new blockships.)

MARCH 7 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

MARCH 7

1936

Germany Remilitarization:  Hitler sent German military troops into the Rhineland, violating the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact. The Rhineland was designated by the Treaty as a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany. Two years later, Nazi Germany invaded its territories and annexed Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. Then on September 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, starting World War Two.

1944

Emanuel Ringelblum, 43, was executed on this day by the Gestapo.  He was a Polish-Jewish historian and social worker.  Ringelblum and his family had been arrested and confined in the Warsaw Ghetto. But unbeknownst to the other inmates, he led a secret operation, code-named Oyneg Shabbos (Yiddish for "Sabbath delight"). In his association with many other inmates, comprising Jewish writers, scientists and ordinary people, he devoted his days to collecting information such as diaries, documents, commissioned papers, and even preserved the posters and decrees that comprised the memory of the doomed Ghetto. And at night he wrote notes. Among approximately 25,000 sheets preserved there are also detailed descriptions of destruction of ghettos in other parts of occupied Poland, the Treblinka extermination camp, Chełmno extermination camp and a number of reports made by scientists conducting research on the effects of famine in the ghettos. Ringelblum was also one of the most active members of Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna (Polish for Jewish Social Aid), an organization established to help the starving people of the Warsaw Ghetto. On the eve of the Ghetto's destruction in the spring of 1943, when all seemed lost, the archive was placed in three milk cans and metal boxes. Parts were buried in the cellars of Warsaw buildings.  On the night before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Ringelblum and his family escaped from the Ghetto and found refuge on the "Aryan" side of Warsaw, but their whereabouts were quickly discovered by the Gestapo. (they had been hiding at the pre-war address of 81 Grójecka Street)  Ringelblum and his family were arrested and executed in Pawiak Prison, along with the Polish people who had provided them with shelter.

1945

German submarine U-1302 was depth charged and sunk in St. George's Channel ( position 52°19′N 05°23′W ) by depth charges from the Canadian frigates HMCS La Hulloise, Strathadam, and Thetford Mines.

JANUARY 20 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 20

1320

Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek was crowned King of Poland. He was a Duke until 1300, and Prince of Kraków from 1305. He was nicknamed, "Lokietek" because of his short stature. (Lokietek is a diminutive of the word "lokiec" which means "ell" or "elbow", a medieval measure of length, as in "elbow-high".) For the two hundred years preceding Lokietek's birth, Poland was besieged by dynastic wars (due to infighting among the princes of each of the five provinces). During Wladyslaw's reign, he reunited these disparate provinces and restored order and stability in the Kingdom of Poland.

1667

Treaty of Andrussovo ended the Thirteen Years War (also called the Russo-Polish War) between Tsarist Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Though the Commonwealth initially suffered defeats, it regained strength and won several battles. However, the Commonwealth's economy had been severely plundered by the Russians, so that Poland could not continue to finance a prolonged war - to do so would have incited civil war and unrest. The Commonwealth were forced under these circumstances to sign a truce which gave the Russians the extensive territories of the Left-bank Ukraine, Siever lands, and Smolensk, as well as the city of Kiev, among other terms. It was a truce signed for 13.5 years during which time both states agreed to prepare the conditions for the eternal peace. It marked the beginning of the rise of Russia as a great power in Eastern Europe.

1920

At the end of World War One, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and imposed several restrictions on the German nation.  As a result of President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Treaty also restored the sovereignty and independence of Poland -  after 123 years of oblivion. The Second Republic of Poland (1920–1939) was granted control of 130 km of the Baltic shoreline in the corridor dividing East Prussia from the rest of Germany and the entire Duchy of Posen.

1942

The Wannsee Conference was held in Berlin, led by Reinhard Heydrich,  to coordinate a Europe-wide "Final Solution of the Jewish Question", and to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the deportation to Poland of European Jewry, their detention in extermination camps located in the General Government (Nazi-occupied Poland),and their systematic murder. Although killing of Jews had already been underway, the persecution and murder of Jews reached unprecedented levels after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. By the end of World War II, 6 million Jews had been killed through starvation, disease, murder, as well as 4 to 5 million ethnic Poles. Many other victims were non-Jews and including Germans and Soviets. These statistics do not include all the Nazi genocides committed.

1944

Winston Churchill met with representatives of the Polish government-in-exile in an effort to break the diplomatic impasse with the Soviets. Churchill pressured the Poles to accept the Curzon Line as a basis for discussion, explaining that the Soviets' need for security as well as their enormous battlefield sacrifices to liberate Poland from the Germans entitled the Soviets to ask for revision of Polish frontiers. Churchill promised in return to challenge Moscow's demand for changes in the Polish government.

1945

The German Evacuation of East Prussia towards the end of World War Two. It is not to be confused with the expulsion after the war had ended, under Soviet occupation. The evacuation was initiated due to German fears of the advance of the Red Army during the East Prussian Offensive. Some parts of the evacuation were planned as a military necessity, such as that of Operation Hannibal. But many German refugees fled of their own accord due to the reports of Soviet atrocities against Germans still in Soviet-controlled areas.

1957

Wladyslaw Gomulka won Poland's parliamentary election. Gomulka was the de facto leader of post-war Poland until 1948 and again from 1950 to 1970. Initially, his reforms were very popular, ie a "Polish way to socialism" but during the 1960s he became more rigid and authoritarian, unwilling to permit changes, and supported the persecution of the Catholic Church and intellectuals (particularly Leszek Kołakowski, who was forced into exile).

1977

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Polish-American diplomat served as National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981. Before that he was a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968. Major foreign policy events during his time in office included the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China (and the severing of ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan); the signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II); the brokering of the Camp David Accords; the transition of Iran from an important U.S. ally to an anti-Western Islamic Republic; encouraging dissidents in Eastern Europe and emphasizing human rights in order to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union;  the arming of the mujahideen in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; and the signing of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal after 1999.

SOVIET INVASION OF POLAND: LEGACY OF CURZON LINE

On 17th September 1939, over 800,000 Soviet troops swarmed across Poland's eastern border, comprising 33 divisions, 11 brigades, armed with 4,959 guns, 4,736 tanks, and supported by 3,300 aircraft. Sixteen days earlier the Germans had invaded Poland from the north, west and south. Polish troops fought courageously and were considered a formidable force to contend with, however they were vastly overwhelmed by German fire power. Polish Command ordered all units to head for the south-eastern part of Poland (the Kresy) where they could regroup and reinforce their defensive positions in anticipation of Anglo-French assistance. No help came. The Polish armies were alone and caught in a pincer. Their only option was immediate evacuation to France through Romania and Hungary.

The Kresy was annexed by the Red Army. Over 230,000 Polish soldiers were captured and interned in Soviet POW camps. About 13.5 million Polish were made citizens of the Soviet Union, a harbinger of the brutal "sovietization" policies yet to be unleashed. In the period from 1939 to 1941 hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens - soldiers and civilians, were deported to the far reaches of the Gulag. Many were executed, including the 16,000 Polish officers who were systematically murdered in the forests of Smolensk by the Soviet NKVD - it was the Katyn Massacres.

Just days before the outbreak of World War Two, a Non-aggression Pact, also referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol that established a line along which Poland would be partitioned for the fourth time in her history.   It was called the Curzon Line.

Lord Curzon

The Curzon Line was established after the close of the first Great War. In 1918, after 123 years of oblivion, the Polish State was recreated according to the Fourteen Points laid down by US President Woodrow Wilson, which specified that "an independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea..."  
   
The Commission of Polish Affairs was appointed by the Allied Supreme Council to make recommendations on the matter of drawing a demarcation, or armistice line separating Poland from her Bolshevik neighbour to the east.  
 

Third Partition of Poland 1795

The British decided that the line should be based loosely on the last version of Poland's border, that is the border between the Prussian Kingdom and the Russian Empire following the third partition of Poland in 1795. Hence the Second Polish Republic was reborn from territories formerly occupied by the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire.  However,  the 1919 Treaty of Versailles did not deal with the subject of Poland's eastern borders. Article 87 stipulated that "the boundaries of Poland not laid down in the present Treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers."
   

Neither Poland nor Russia was willing to accept the Curzon Line as long as military fortunes weighed in their favor. Just months before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the Polish-Russian War erupted over territorial claims to the Ukraine and Belarus. Poland's Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, the Father of Poland, envisaged a Polish-led Intermarum, in which a federation consisting of Eastern and Central European states would be a formidable barrier to a possible resurgence of German and Russian imperialist ambitions. Pilsudski's objective was to expand the Polish border as far east as possible. Lenin's vision was to spread his communist revolution throughout Europe, using Poland as the springboard.

L-R Jozef Pilsudski and Edward Smigly-Rydz -  Polish Russian War 1920

By 1919, Polish armed forces had taken much of Western Ukraine and by May 1920 the Poles had captured Kiev. A counteroffensive by the Soviets in July prompted the Polish Prime Minister Wladyslaw Grabski to call upon the Allies for military assistance. But instead, the Allies put considerable pressure on Grabski to withdraw his troops back to the 1919 version of the line, and to an armistice in Galicia. On July 11, 1920 Lord Curzon dispatched a telegram to the Bolshevik government in which he proposed that a ceasefire be agreed to along the 1919 line. Henceforth the line was referred to as the Curzon Line.  Irregardless, the Polish government refused to accept these terms on the grounds that the Allies had reneged on their promise to provide military support to Polish armed forces.

In March 1921 the Polish-Russian War ended with a Polish victory. Under the terms agreed upon in the Treaty of Riga, Russia ceded a vast amount of territory to Poland; approximately 135,000 square km (or 52,000 square miles) of land to the east, which surpassed the Curzon line by a distance of 250 km. Lithuania was partitioned between Poland and Lithuania, resulting in two versions of the southern part of the Curzon Line (see Part A and Part B of the following map). The Treaty included a significant part of the Vilna Governorate and the city of Wilno, as well as East Galicia, including the city of Lviv, and most of the region of Volhynia.

Map created by Radek, S

Explanation of Map:The Curzon Line is indicated by the light blue line"B" which was established in 1919. Line "A" is the darker blue line as established by Stalin in 1940.



The Treaty of Riga was ratified by the Polish government on April 15th, and by the Soviet Russian government on April 22nd, and took legal force when documents were exchanged in Minsk on April 30th.  Furthermore, it was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series of August 1921. However the Allies were unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of the Treaty, perhaps due to the fact that the Brits were not included in the deliberations. It was only through the support of the French government that Great Britain, the US, Italy and Japan finally followed suit and conceded recognition of the Treaty in March 1923.

Polish Russian Signing of the Treaty of Riga 1921

Following the German invasion of Poland,  Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov issued a declaration of war against Poland on September 17, 1939,as per the following:

The Polish-German War has revealed the internal bankruptcy of the Polish State. During the course of ten days' hostilities Poland has lost all her industrial areas and cultural centres. Warsaw, as the capital of Poland, no longer exists. The Polish Government has disintegrated, and no longer shows any sign of life. This means that the Polish State and its Government have, in point of fact, ceased to exist. In the same way, the Agreements concluded between the U.S.S.R. and Poland have ceased to operate. Left to her own devices and bereft of leadership, Poland has become a suitable field for all manner of hazards and surprises, which may constitute a threat to the U.S.S.R. For these reasons the Soviet Government, who has hitherto been neutral, cannot any longer preserve a neutral attitude towards these facts.

The Soviet Government also cannot view with indifference the fact that the kindred Ukrainian and White Russian people, who live on Polish territory and who are at the mercy of fate, should be left defenceless.

In these circumstances, the Soviet Government have directed the High Command of the Red Army to order troops to cross the frontier and to take under their protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia.

At the same time the Soviet Government propose to take all measures to extricate the Polish people from the unfortunate war into which they were dragged by their unwise leaders, and enable them to live a peaceful life.

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R. V. Molotov

Needless to say, Molotov's declaration was merely a ruse - an invention to portray the Soviet army as so-called "liberators".  Of course, it was nothing of the kind.  The Red Army invaded Poland along two fronts: the Belarussian Front was invaded by troops under the command of Comandarm 2nd rank Mikhail Kovalyov, and the Ukrainian Front was invaded by troops led by Comandarm 1st rank Semyon Timoshenko.  German-Soviet collaboration was visibly evident. 

German and Soviet Officers congratulate each other

As the Red Army advanced westward, they invariably encountered German troops headed eastward.  In fact the German command, having captured Brest Fortress on September 17th, transferred its control over to the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade. Days later there was a German-Soviet parade in the town.  Lwow was surrounded by German troops on September 14th, and by the 22nd of September the city surrendered to the Soviets.  Other Polish cities fell to Soviet control - Wilno was taken on September 19th after battling the enemies for two days - then Grodno succumbed to defeat on September 24th after a courageous four-day battle.  By the end of September the Red Army had reached its intended destination - the line formed by the Narew, Western Bug, Vistula and San Rivers.  It was the border specified in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.  

On September 28, 1939, the Germans and Russians modified the Curzon Line so that the  northern part of the border was dramatically shifted towards the west, encompassing the city of Bialystock and its environs under the sphere of Soviet Control.  The map illustrated above was signed by Stalin and Ribbentrop.

The Curzon Line was a recurring topic of discussion during the deliberations at Teheran and Yalta Conference.  Despite British protests, Stalin belabored the issue at every opportunity and demanded that the Curzon Line be established as Poland's eastern border.  However, it was fait accompli. The Russians had already established control in Poland, and installed a puppet government.  Churchill attempted to retain a section of East Galicia and the city of Lwow, but to no avail.  Stalin argued that it was Lord Curzon who came up with the idea of the demarcation line, and he believed that the Soviets could not be expected to settle for anything less.  Furthermore, Stalin frequently brought up the subject of ethnography of the region in an effort to validate the Curzon Line,  and claimed that Poles did not represent the majority in the territories of the Ukraine and Lithuania. But in some areas, including the cities of Bialystock, Grodno, Lwow and Wilno there was a clear Polish majority. After the deportations, however, the Polish population (Poles and Jews) declined significantly. 

The Polish government-in-exile was strongly opposed to the Curzon Line, but was not informed that eastern Poland had already been handed over to Stalin.  Polish Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikolajczyk continued to pressure the Allies to persuade Stalin to reconsider. But it was already fait accompli.  The British refused to deal with the matter, preferring instead to appease Stalin, not wanting to upset him.

Though the Allies claim to have won the war,  the real victor was Stalinist Russia.  Despite attempts by Western diplomacy to achieve a real peace, Churchill and Roosevelt gave in to each of Stalin's demands, which condemned eastern Europe including Poland to languish behind the Iron Curtain for decades.

The Curzon line has been the eastern border of Poland since July 1945. But its legacy continues. Even after the dissolution of Soviet Union, the Curzon line still remains unchanged, but with some variation. Poland now shares its eastern border with Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine.

 

WW2 PROPAGANDA: WAR OF WORDS Part 2 Nazi Propaganda

By the time he rose to power in 1933 Adolf Hitler was made into the very personification of a "saviour" and mesmerized millions of Germans who worshiped him as an idol. In the video above he presented himself as the collective consciousness of the German people, acting on behalf of their interests, and spewed rhetoric of the need to defend Germany against its enemies. The German people looked up to him as their only hope for the restoration of their national pride and readily embraced everything that he said believing it to be the Gospel truth.

The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 had dealt Germany harsh terms after their defeat in World War I. It forced them to admit responsibility for causing the war and imposed stringent demilitarization in addition to territorial changes and financial reparations. The humiliation and anger felt by the German people was shared by Hitler and it was from this cauldron of discontent that he emerged to lead the nation. The German people saw him as the only leader who was capable of restoring Germany to glory. But the world recognized him for what he was, the Incarnation of Evil.


This propaganda poster underscored by the inscription "Long live Germany" depicted Hitler as a savior to the nation.  It illustrates a silhouette of the German eagle as if it were descending from the heavens, like the dove which descended upon Jesus Christ at his Baptism. Nazi propaganda projected Hitler as the very embodiment of the German nation. It is interesting to note that before Hitler's appearances at Nazi rallies, his deputy Rudolph Hess would deliver rousing introductions, bordering on the verge of hysteria, and proclaimed to ecstatic crowds that "The Party is Hitler! But Hitler is Germany, as Germany is Hitler!" It was not an improvisation but the tactics of a meticulously prepared propaganda. The tone of these words held an uncanny similarity to those spoken by Jesus to his disciples. In the Book of John, Chapter 14:20, Jesus said, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."The origin of one was totalitarian and the other Divine, but both statements were an affirmation of absolute unity, calling for the total sacrifice and subordination of the individual to an established doctrine.

This is an NSDAP (Nazi Party) poster which was circulated in Germany circa 1924. It depicted an eagle as having broken free from its chains and the symbol of the rising swastika on the horizon as the harbinger of a new dawn. It was a Nazi promise that under the yoke of Hitler, Germany would be liberated from the bondage that was the Treaty of Versailles. During the inter-war period, the Weimar Republic experienced an alarming degree of hyperinflation which led to Germany defaulting on its reparation payments. Consequently, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr seizing valuable industrial assets. The climate of resentment and outrage was fertile ground for Hitler and the Nazi Party to wield its ideology.




 
Propaganda was the key. Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published in 1925 was a veritable blueprint of theories and ideologies that would later become instrumental in the policies of the Third Reich. This treatise on propaganda was permeated with Hitlers perverse vision of the world and of humanity, and amounted to nothing more than a jumble of logical fallacies. Just like all the despots who came before, and after him, Hitler understood the means with which to conquer the soul of the German people, and to defeat his enemies. Simplicity and generalizations were the order of the day, as provided by the following quotation.


"The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determine their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling. And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate; right or wrong; truth or lie; never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing." (Hitler)

Hitler knew that the most effective propaganda campaigns had to be constructed with the most simplest of messages, so that the weakest link in society could understand them. It had enormous appeal not only to young Germans but to compatriots who were provincial in their outlook of things. He said that "the receptive powers of the masses are very restricted and their understanding feeble. On the other hand they quickly forget." Posters and photographs of Hitler posing with German children were intended to project his image as that of a loveable father figure. Stalin, who was as great a mass murderer as Hitler, generated the same kind of propaganda.

Just eight days after having been elected as Chancellor of Germany, Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and appointed Joseph Goebbels as its head. Their objective was to spread Nazi ideology throughout the globe, and maintain an iron-fisted control over every aspect of German society and culture. One department dealt exclusively with German and international newspapers. Other departments worked on assigned portfolios such as Budget, Law, Propaganda, Radio, Film, Personal, Defence, International, Theatre, Music, Literature, Visual Arts, and Tourism. In 1933 the fledgling Ministry had only five departments and 350 employees but by 1939 at the start of World War II there were 2,000 employees in 17 departments. Quite noteworthy is that between 1933 and 1941 the Ministry's propaganda budget skyrocketed from 14 million to 187 million Reichsmarks.


Hitler Youth was established in 1922 as a paramilitary division of the Nazi Party composed of youth 14 to 18 years of age but included members as young as 10 years old.  They were considered the future of the German Reich and were indoctrinated in Nazi ideology at a very young age - inculcated with the principles of honour, sacrifice and anti-Semitism.  As part of their scouting activities they went camping, played sports, exercised and competed for badges. They also distributed Nazi propaganda literature, and recruited new members. Initially none received weapons training, however during the Allied bombing of Germany, boys of Hitler Youth charged into battle willing to die for Hitler. The girls however were groomed for a future role of wife and mother.





Nazi ideology was diffused through a vast array of propaganda in the form of posters, film, literature and even postage stamps glorifying German women in the role of motherhood for the Reich. Women were encouraged to have as many children as possible otherwise, Hitler warned, the German race would be overrun by so-called inferior races. They even received "mothers crosses", medals that looked similar to military decorations, in gold, silver, or bronze. The bronze medal was awarded to mothers with four children, the silver medal to mothers of 6 children, and the gold medal to mothers of 8 or more children.  They were distributed annually at Mother's Day rallies, and members of the Hitler Youth were ordered to salute them military-style. The good German mother was considered to be the one who submitted to to the demands of the State while fulfilling her destiny of protecting the purity of German pedigree.

anchluss propaganda postcard

Upon Hitler's rise to power, he revived the ambitions for Pan-Germanism, a political ideology based on ethnocentrism and racism which had its origins in the 19th century. Its aim was the reunification of all Germanic peoples of Europe, and was the impetus that led to the anchluss - the occupation and annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938 followed soon after by the annexation of Sudetenland and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Ambitions for Pan-Germanism was not a new concept but originally took hold during the Napoleonic wars with the birth of "romantic nationalism". Germany's history had long been one of fragmentation consisting of a disconnected patchwork of states.  It was the goal of the Nazi Party to re-unite ethnic Germans into a larger "Great Germany" through invasion and "liberation" of neighbouring countries.

Poster Nazi Blitzkrieg of Poland 

The major focus of Nazi ideology was Hitler's vision of
"lebensraum", that is, living space for the Greater German state  After having already annexed Austria, and invaded Czechoslovakia, Germany targeted Poland. Hitler feigned an attempt to negotiate with the Polish government for the control of the Free City of Danzig, and access through the Polish Corridor to East Prussia, but Poland refused, cognizant of Hitlers real agenda.  On August 31, 1939, Nazi SS disguised in Polish uniforms staged an attack against a German radio station at Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and broadcast the incident to the world as so-called "evidence" of Polish aggression against Germany.  It was the pretext that Hitlerr needed to start a war. The very next day Germany invaded Poland without a declaration of war.





Polish civilians and soldiers in towns throughout the western frontier of Poland fled the German onslaught. In the town of Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) the Poles who fled succeeded in killing approximately 5,000 to 6,000 ethnic Germans. These Germans who were formerly neighbors, were suspected by the Poles of being spies for the Nazi regime, traitors, or snipers. Nazi propagandists pounced on the opportunity to elicit support from Germans and the world by fabricating the number of Germans killed to that of 58,000. The Nazis published the following photograph in one of their newspapers as "proof" of the atrocities committed by the Polish people.  Wehrmacht soldiers and journalists were photographed inspecting the scene of a so-called massacre of Bloody Sunday, September 3, 1939. Notice the editor's crop marks at the top of the photo, an indicator that it was selected for publication in a Nazi newspaper.

Anglio Twoje Dzielo! ( Britain, Your Work!)
This Nazi propaganda poster depicted the image of a wounded Polish soldier blaming Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for the Polish defeat in the September Campaign in September 1939.  (The British Prime Minister had already ceded Czechoslovakia to Hitler a year earlier as a result of the Munich Agreement.) Hence, Nazi propaganda attempted to persuade the Poles into joining the German army but few did. The Polish people harbored a great deal of animosity and distrust against Germany, the result of centuries of German occupation and partition of Poland.

"Der Pimpf" was the name of a Nazi magazine which began publication in 1935, as "Morgan", but was changed in 1937. The name "Der Pimpf"  means "little rascal", "scamp", or "little fart." The magazine had wide appeal among young German boys who were easily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. It contained articles glorifying the adventures of the Hitler Youth and urged young Germans to aspire to become SS soldiers.  On the cover of this issue, a drawing of the Polish cavalry was depicted as charging towards German tanks.  This was purely a myth perpetuated by the Nazis, from the first day that Poland was invaded by Germany. In the "Skirmish of Krojanty"  the Polish cavalry led a charge against a German infantry battalion but was forced to retreat under a barrage of fire by German armoured personnel carriers. Shortly thereafter a team of reporters had converged on the area, and seeing the dead bodies of Polish cavalrymen and their horses, assumed that they had charged against German tanks. It provided the Nazis with the opportunity to perpetuate the myth, in an effort to undermine and humiliate the Poles in the eyes of the world.To this day, many people still believe this Nazi propaganda.

Nazi German Poster of Eagle with wings spread over Europe and Russia ("Deutschlands Europaische Sendung") This poster was distributed by the Nazis throughout occupied Europe, circa 1942 onward. It was an attempt by Hitler to persuade Europe that Germany was part of the Eastern crusade against Bolshevism. (The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, ie, the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, signed on August 23, 1939 was the precursor to the joint invasion and partition of Poland on September 1st, 1939.) The treaty  was abrogated when Hitler turned his armies against Russia in June 1941.  Hitler called it Operation Barbarossa, named after the medieval ruler Frederick Barbarossa, who according to legend would rescue Germany in her time of need.  Despite initial successes the Nazi armies were ultimately decimated.






 
Der Sturmer was the most vehemently anti-Semitic newspaper in Nazi Germany. This image was the front page of its May 1934 issue which depicted a caricature of Jewish men collecting the blood of Christian children for a religious ritual.  It was one of many anti-Semitic slurs against the Jews and included accusations of pornography, anti-capitalism and anti-catholicism. Jews were portrayed as ugly characters with grotesque facial features and misshapen bodies.  The publisher of the tabloid, Julius Streicher, promoted the myth of blood libel which had originated during the Middle Ages. It claimed that Jews killed Christian children, sacrificed them and drank their blood.  This propaganda continues today and finds acceptance largely among the uneducated, the provincial, and most particularly the disenfranchised.

Nazi propaganda portrayed the Jews as the cause of all Germany's economic and social problems and accused them of international capitalism and Bolshevism.  In a speech given by Hitler at a Nazi rally, he asked the audience who was responsible for Germany's defeat in WWI and the audience erupted "the Jews". The indoctrination was complete.  In this poster from 1942, the Jews were depicted carriers of typhus. It was a metaphor Hitler often used to portray Jews as a source of moral and social decay. By then Jews had been deported to Nazi German concentration camps where they were starved, tortured and worked to death. Outbreaks of typhus in the camps and lice infestation among the Jewish inmates were held as "proof" by the Nazis that the Jews were a race of "dangerous bacillus".

Translated to English, the slogan means "Smash the Enemies of Greater Germany",  and illustrated the anger felt by Germans against Britain, US, and Russia. This poster dates to the summer of 1940. At that time a battle was raging which ultimately marked the turning point for Allied fortunes during WWII. It was the Battle of Britain, which pitched the forces of the Luftwaffe against that of the RAF. Germany failed to destroy Britain's formidable air defenses and met with its first major defeat of the war. Churchill praised Allied pilots who fought in Battle of Britain in a historic speech - "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".

Fundamental to Nazi ideology was the myth of the "master race" exemplified by the white skin, and blue-eyed blondes of the German and Nordic peoples, and with it came the notion of safeguarding the so-called "purity" of their race as a means to preserve their idea of cultural superiority in a world of mongrels. Much of this theory has been borrowed from various sources. The writings of a French aristocrat and racial theorist, Arthur de Gobineau claimed that the fall of the ancient regime in France was the result of racial degradation brought about by racial mixing, for which he blamed the Jews. (This provided the Nazi Party with fodder to make similar pronouncements about the Jews in relation to Germans.)  But Hitler was most influenced by a French biologist and founder of genetics Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who, unlike Darwin, categorized each race in a specific order from the origin of apes. A German geneticist, Ernst Haeckel elaborated on this theory by organizing each race in gradations from "fully human" to "subhuman". The word "aryan" was derived from the Sanskrit word "arya" which means "honourable", "respectable" and "noble" however in its original unadulterated version, arya did not refer to Germanic peoples but rather to the Indo-Iranian peoples. However by the 18th century Europeans altered its definition to include Indo-European ancestry which included Greeks, Latin, and Germans. 

Nazi Propaganda Film
The Eternal Jew

"Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) was a Nazi propaganda film produced by the Ministry of Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels.  As with all other media generated by the Nazi Party, its intention was to mold public opinion. It was always the same refrain; to stereotype the Jews as grotesque, as parasitic and as untermenschen bent on enslaving the world. The film was produced as if it were a documentary but it was a chain of staged events narrated with the most venomous vitriol. The Germans ordered the Jewish congregation of Vilker synagogue to assemble for full services wearing tallithim and tefillin.  When the Rabbi was ordered to read from the Torah, he looked at the camera and uttered, "Today is Tuesday". It was a signal to indicate that the assembly was coerced, because the Torah is never read on Tuesdays.

This Nazi propaganda poster dated from 1941 reads as "Europe's Victory is Your Prosperity". Germany is depicted here by the mailed fist which is shown to have defeated England, hence the cross on the graveyard, and is then poised to destroy Stalin and the Soviet Union. (But Hitler was unable to invade England in 1940 which marked his first major defeat in the war. His adventures in the Soviet Union will have proved equally futile, but with greater losses.)  Hitler was vehemently opposed to communism and regarded the Soviet Union as the repository of European Jewry and Bolsheviks. He warned that a "victory of Bolshevism over Germany would not lead to a Versailles Treaty, but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people."  Until 1942, the Nazis promoted the slogan, "Der Russe sei eine Bestie, er muesse verrecken." meaning "the Russian is a beast, he must croak" but the slur was quickly dropped when the German labor force needed Russian workers.  Hitler also condemned capitalism, and the Jews for monopolizing global wealth for "selfish purposes". (Such generalizations were used by the Nazi Party in a calculated attempt to rally support from German factions left and right.) The impetus for invading Russia was to guarantee the security and safety of a Greater Germany however "lebensraum" or "living space" was a really a euphemism for Nazi plunder of neighboring countries.

Editor's Note:

The video, images and quotations presented in this special series are for educational purposes and not meant as dissemination of Nazi propaganda.  Our best defense against propaganda is knowing how to define and identify it.

Polish Greatness.com and Polish Greatness (Blog) are fiercely opposed to Nazism and neo-Nazism and strongly condemns all private or public persons, organizations, leaders, and nations which promote hate propaganda in any form.

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WW2 PROPAGANDA: WAR OF WORDS

Soviet Propaganda

German-Soviet Friendship Treaty

September 29, 1939

Germany and the Soviet Union signed a friendship treaty today establishing the terms of Poland's partition. Germany laid control over the area west of the Bug River consisting of nearly 73,000 square miles and along with it over 50% of all Polish industries including the substantial mining sectors.The USSR took it's share of the spoils covering an area of 78,000 square miles of eastern Poland including all of Lithuania and confiscated all property held by the Polish state as well as privately-run businesses. An economic agreement has also been signed in which Soviet officials promise to provide Germany with the entire oil production of the Dohowicz oil fields. In Western Poland over 22 million Poles are now in the hands of the Nazi Regime.This marks the 4th time in history that the nation of Poland has been partitioned by its neighboring enemies, Germany and Russia. Since the Soviet invasion began almost two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of Polish men, women and children have been rounded up and deported to Siberia. Those who survive the long treacherous journey will be subjected to hard forced labour.

Germany and Russia signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Aug 1939 to partition Poland

After the third partition on October 24,1795, Poland ceased to exist as a nation for 123 years. It was not until after World War I, at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, that Poland regained it's nationhood and independence. As part of the terms of that treaty the German provinces of Posen and West Prussia were granted to Poland as a corridor to the Baltic Sea.. Poland also obtained half of Silesia. Danzig was made a Free City under the control of the League of Nations.
 

Treaty of Versailles was signed in Paris, 1919 Thirty two countries were represented.

The RAF lost 5 Hampden bombers during a daylight raid at Heligoland, a small archipelago in the North Sea. The raid occurred in two waves. In the first wave, the Hampden bombers attempted an attack on 2 German destroyers but failed. In the second wave all 5 planes were destroyed.

In the British House of Commons today, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain commented whether Britain and France's entry into the war could stop Nazi aggression. Two days ago Chamberlain in an address to the House of Commons said "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of who we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war."  Meanwhile, a national census was conducted in Britain to assess rationing and mobilization efforts.

British PM Chamberlain debating in Parliament

Fritz Kuhn, leader of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund organization was arrested in New York City today and charged as an enemy agent of the United States. Kuhn served Germany during World War I as Infantry Lieutenant and was decorated with an Iron Cross. He moved to the United States in 1928 and in 1934 became a naturalized citizen. On March 19, 1936 Hitler personally selected Kuhn to be the leader of the newly formed German-American Bund.



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