In the early morning hours on September 1, 1939, without any declaration of
war, Germany's armies, and air force launched a blistering attack on Poland.
Over a million and a half German troops stormed into Poland along three fronts -
Germany from the west, East Prussia from the north, and Slovakia from the south.
It was the Blitzkrieg, an attack so massive in scale never seen before. The
German war machine consisted of 2,600 tanks and 2,000 aircraft, while the
Polish military had only 180 tanks and 420 aircraft. The bombing of Poland
was so intense, it was described by one Varsovian like being bombarded
inside a steel drum.
Warsaw everywhere was burning. Huge billowing columns of smoke filled the sky with thick massive clouds as red as
blood. Railway tracks were so heavily bombed that they became like twisted pretzels. Huge craters where bombs had been
dropped lined every street in Warsaw, and other cities. Enormous hills of rubble marked areas where buildings used to
stand, and protuding from the rubble were scattered the bodies of people who had been crushed beneath the collapsed
buildings. Military posts, as well as residential areas were bombed and strafed. Defenceless civilians were gunned
down as they ran from burning buildings. Peasants were massacred as they worked in the fields in the countryside.
Men, women, and children were slaughtered. Churchs, schools, hospitals, monuments, musems - all were targets for
destruction. The Polish people, their culture, and the very existence of the Polish nation was targeted by Hitler for
annihilation. Warsaw, the Paris of the east was transformed into a wasteland - an open grave.
In August 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, signed between Germany and Russia, was a non-agression pact,
which contained a secret clause that called for the partition of Poland between the two great powers. In the same month,
Britain and Poland signed the Agreement of Mutual Assistance, by which both parties gave guarantees to provide one
another with assistance in the event of hostilities from an outside power:
Article 3 Should any of the Contracting Parties become engaged in hostilities with a European Power in consequence
of action by that Power which threatened the indepencence or neutrality of another European State in such
a way as to constitute a clear menace to the security of that Contracting Party, the Provisions of Article 1
will apply, without prejudice, however, to the rights of the other European State concerned.
Article 1 Should one of the Contracting Parties become engaged in hostilities with a European Power in consequence
of aggression by the latter against that Contracting Party, the other Contracting Party will at once give the
Contracting Party engaged in hostilities all the support and assistance in it's power.
Two days after the Wermacht steamrolled into Poland, both France and Britain, Polands' closest Allies ,declared war on
Germany. The news of this promised liberation was greeted with wild enthusiam by the Poles. Throngs of people flowed
into the streets, waving flags and singing the Polish national anthem. They believed that their Allies had come to help them
in their time of great need. But in a grotesque travesty of justice, neither Great Britain, nor France intervened. British Prime
Minister Chamberlain did little more than dispatch the Royal Air Force to air drop leaflets over German military positions.
He commanded them to lay down their weapons and informed them that their declining economy could not withstand a
protracted war. Needless to say, it was a futile and cowardly response. Subsequent action was equally ineffective.
A British Expeditionary Force was sent to join the French troops already posted along the Maginot Line facing German
troops dug in on the other side. This military farce came to be known as the Phoney War. Britain and France kept busy
over the next several months bombing the Siegfried Line and conducting pointless raids into No-Man's Land.
The Polish people had been ready for the German invasion. The Mayor of Warsaw, Starzynski, called upon the citizens of
Warsaw to set up blockades, dig trenches, and arm themselves against the Germans. The Poles were far outnumbered,
but their fighting spirit more than made up for it. A German officer who had witnessed the attack reported that the Poles ...
" did not come forward with their heads down like men in heavy rain...and most attacking infantry come on like that...
but they advanced with their heads held high like swimmers breasting the waves. They did not falter."
Germany carried out it's policy of Lebensraum with ruthless efficiency. They systematically eliminated the Polish
intelligentsia, but soon victimized all Poles who might resist the German occupation. Poland was slated for extinction, and
its territory taken over by incoming German settlers. Hans Frank, the Governor of the General Gouvernement of central
Poland made this declaration: " I frankly admit that it will cost the lives of some thousand of Poles, particularly of the
intellectual leaders of Poland. In these times we, as National Socialists, are bound to ensure that no further resistance is
offered by the Polish people...(they) must be liquidated."