DECEMBER 9 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

DECEMBER 9

1941

Roosevelt Radio Message:  In his fireside chat, US President Roosevelt addressed the American people on radio,  informing them that America was going to war. "...........Your Government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share in dividing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised by Germany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetual control of the whole of the Pacific area—and that means not only the Far East, but also all of the islands in the Pacific, and also a stranglehold on the west coast of North, Central, and South America..........We know also that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considers all peoples and Nations which are not helping the Axis powers as common enemies of each and every one of the Axis powers.......We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this Nation, and all that this Nation represents, will be safe for our children. We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini." (NB. Roosevelt's fireside chat of September 3, 1939 was quite the opposite when he said, "This nation will remain a neutral nation.")

1946

The Doctor's Trial:  The trial was the first of 12 trials conducted by the United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (not to be confused with the Nuremberg Trials). It was also called the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials". At the Doctor's Trial,  23 Nazi German SS doctors and scientists were put on trial for crimes against humanity. They were accused of conducting human experimentation that led to murder of prisoners. Sixteen were found guilty, but only 7 of them were hanged. Twenty of the 23 defendants were medical doctors (Viktor Brack, Rudolf Brandt, and Wolfram Sievers were Nazi officials).  Josef Mengele, one of the leading Nazi doctors was an insane, psychopathic killer, and had evaded capture. Among the defendants, 7 were acquitted, 7 received death sentences while the remainder received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.

1990

Poland's Presidential Election:  Lech Wałęsa won Poland's 1st direct presidential election:  On December 9, 1990 in the second round of elections, Wałęsa won, defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates to become Poland's first freely-elected head of state in 63 years, and the first non-Communist head of state in 45 years.  In 1993 he founded his own political party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR); the acronym paralleled that of Józef Piłsudski's "Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government," of 1928–35. (During his presidency, Wałęsa guided Poland through economic privatization and transition to a free-market economy (the Balcerowicz Plan), Poland's first completely free parliamentary elections in 1991,  and a period of redefinition of the country's foreign relations. He succeeded in the negotiation of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Poland, and successfully negotiated a substantial reduction in foreign debts and supported Poland's entry into NATO and the European Union. (Note: In August 2017, ten Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Lech Wałęsa, urged Saudi Arabia to stop the executions of 14 young people for participating in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests.)

DECEMBER 8 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

DECEMBER 8

1919

The Curzon Line defined Poland's Eastern Border: The Curzon Line had its beginnings after the end of World War I, when the Supreme War Council  on December 8, 1919 formally established a temporary demarcation line between the eastern border of the re-emerged Second Republic of Poland and its neighbour Russia. The Allies made the decision at their discretion, as per Article 87 of the Versailles Treaty. The Line was later named after the British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston, however no mention was made that it might become a permanent boundary. The ensuing Polish-Russian War was fought with neither side accepting the proposed Line. Stalin anticipated that the war would end in total Polish capitulation, however, Poland ultimately won the war.  The final Peace of Riga (or Treaty of Riga) provided Poland with almost 135,000 square kilometres (52,000 sq mi) of land that was, on average, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) east of the Curzon line. (When Poland was invaded by Germany and Russia in September 1939, Russia seized territory according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but it did not follow the Curzon Line, but farther beyond it, annexing it to Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR.

1939

Polish Pilots in the RAF. The first contingents of Polish pilots reached Great Britain on December 8, 1939.  More transports followed until by early June 1940 there were a total of 2,164 Polish air personnel in Britain where they were assigned to various squadrons of the RAF.  By the end of July 1940, an additional  6,220 Polish air personnel reached Britain,  bringing the total of Polish airmen in Britain to 8,384 men.   When Poland was invaded by the Nazi Germans on September 1, 1939 the Polish defences were severely strained under a powerful German assault. Polish armies collapsed shortly after September 17, 1939, when the Soviets launched a surprise invasion from the east. Polish forces fought with great courage , but were crushed in a matter of five weeks. The Polish government and armed forces evacuated en masse from Poland and made their way to France, through Hungary and Romania, in order to continue the fight against the Nazis and the Soviets. But when France fell on May 10, 1940, the Poles evacuated to Great Britain, which they perceived as the last Island of Hope.

1947

The Krupp Trial was the tenth of 12 trials of the United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (not to be confused with the Nuremberg Trials). It was also called the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials". The trial was held from December 8, 1947 to July 31, 1948.  The accused were twelve former directors of the Krupp Group,who were responsible for arming the German military forces, and for using slave labor in their companies. The main defendant was Alfried Krupp, CEO of the Krupp Holding.  One defendant (Pfirsch) was acquitted, while the others received prison sentences between three and twelve years. The main defendant Alfried Krupp was ordered to sell all his possessions.  His company had used 100,000 people as slave labor, which included 23,000 POWs.

DECEMBER 7 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

DECEMBER 7

1939

Gestapo-NKVD Conferences:  From December 6 to 7, 1939 the Gestapo and Soviet NKVD held conferences in Krakow, located in the General Gouvernment in central Poland (Nazi-German administrative center). The second round of conferences were held from December 8 to 9, 1939 in  Zakopane, a resort town in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland.  Top officials from the Gestapo and NKVD met to discuss mutual cooperation the tactics to use for dealing with Polish resistance and the exchange of prisoners of war. There were seven Gestapo-NKVD Conferences; the first was held on September 27, 1939 in Brzesc, and the last in March 1940 in Krakow. The German-Soviet alliance was established with the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on August  23, 1939. On September 1, Nazi  Germany invaded Poland on three fronts, and on September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east.

1941

Nazi German Commander of Chelmno Death Camp.  On December 7, 1941, Herbert Lange became the first commandant of the Chelmno, a Nazi German Death Camp. He organized this camp by orders of Himmler and Greiser. According to some sources, it was Lange who selected Chelmno as the location. The Death Camp was situated about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Polish city of Lodz, which the Nazi Germans renamed Litzmannstadt.  It operated from December 8, 1941, coinciding with Operation Reinhard during the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, and again from June 23, 1944 to January 18, 1945.  Up to 340,000 men, women, and children were gassed at Chelmno. On January 17, 1945 Russian troops captured the town of Chełmno but by then, the Nazi Germans had destroyed evidence of the camp's existence, leaving no prisoners behind.


Pearl Harbor Attack:  On December 7, 1941, without any formal declaration of war, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a suprise attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. Twenty-one American ships were attacked and either lost or damaged during the attack. Of the 402 American aircraft stationed in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged, 155 of them on the ground. Hardly any aircraft were ready to defend the base except for eight Army Air Forces pilots. They succeeded in getting airborne during the attack and each of them were credited with downing at least one Japanese aircraft during the attack: 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen, 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, 2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, and 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling Jr. Sterling was shot down by Lt. Fujita over Kaneohe Bay and is listed as Body Not Recovered (not Missing In Action). Lt. John L. Dains was killed by friendly fire returning from a victory over Kaawa. Of 33 PBYs in Hawaii, 24 were destroyed, and six others damaged beyond repair. (The three on patrol returned undamaged.) Friendly fire brought down some U.S. planes on top of that, including five from an inbound flight from Enterprise. Japanese attacks on barracks killed additional personnel.  American casualties were 2,335 killed,  and 1,143 wounded. The next day the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan, and the US entered WWII.

1970

Treaty between West Germany and Poland:  On December 7, 1970, the Treaty of Warsaw was signed by Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany and Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz of the People's Republic of Poland. (It was ratified by the German Bundestag on May 17,1972.)  West Germany and Poland agreed to the stipulations of the Warsaw Treaty,  that is, the acceptance of the existing border between Germany and Poland - the Oder-Neisse line, which was imposed on Germany by the Allied powers after the end of World War Two at the Potsdam Conference.  The subject had been a very sensitive topic since 1945, as Poland was concerned that a German government might attempt to reclaim some of the former eastern territories.  Willy Brandt was vehemently criticised by the conservative CDU/CSU opposition, who preceived his policy as a betrayal of German national interests, but were consoled with the belief that the Treaty was not a final arbiter.  According to Article IV of the Warsaw Treaty, it stated that previous treaties, such as the Potsdam Agreement, were not superseded by this latest agreement. Therefore the provisions of this treaty could be changed by a final peace treaty between Germany and the Allies of World War II—as provided for in the Potsdam Agreement.


Warschauer Kniefall:  On December 7, 1970 German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  After Brandt laid a wreath at the monument, he surprised everyone present when he knelt before the monument, and remained silent (for about half a minute).  During the Nazi German occupation, Willy Brandt had actively resisted the early Nazi regime, and had been in exile most of the time. Brandt's visit to Poland at the time was for the signing of the Treaty of Warsaw between West Germany and the People's Republic of Poland, guaranteeing German acceptance of the new borders of Poland. The treaty was one of the Brandt-initiated policy steps (the 'Ostpolitik') to ease tensions between West and East during the Cold War.  At the time positive reactions may have been limited, but his demonstration of  humility was an important step in bridging the gaps World War II had left between Germany and Eastern Europe. Brandt's act was remarkable and thought to be one of the reasons he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.