Gleiwitz incident
Gleiwitz incident | |
---|---|
Part of False flag attack | |
Location | 50°18′48″N 18°41′21″E / 50.313370°N 18.689037°E |
Objective | Pretext for the invasion of Poland |
Date | 31 August 1939 |
Executed by | German SS |
The Gleiwitz incident (
During his declaration of war, Hitler did not mention the Gleiwitz incident but grouped all provocations staged by the SS as an alleged "Polish assault" on Germany. The Gleiwitz incident is the best-known action of Operation Himmler, a series of special operations undertaken by the Schutzstaffel (SS) to serve German propaganda at the outbreak of war. The operation was intended to create the appearance of a Polish aggression against Germany to justify the invasion of Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the European theatre of World War II had begun. Manufactured evidence for the Gleiwitz attack by the SS was provided by the German SS officer Alfred Naujocks in 1945.[1]
Events at Gleiwitz
Much of what is known about the Gleiwitz incident comes from the
To make the attack seem more convincing, the Gestapo executed
In an oral testimony at the Nuremberg Trials,
Oskar Schindler played a role in supplying the Polish uniforms and weapons used in the operation as an agent for the Abwehr.[14]
Context
The Gleiwitz incident was a part of a larger operation carried out by Abwehr and SS forces.[6] Other orchestrated incidents were conducted along the Polish–German border at the same time as the Gleiwitz attack, such as a house burning in the Polish Corridor and spurious propaganda. The project was called Operation Himmler and comprised incidents intended to give the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany.[15][12] German newspapers and politicians, including Adolf Hitler, had made accusations against Polish authorities for months before the 1939 invasion of organising or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland.[15][16] On 1 September, the day following the Gleiwitz attack, Germany launched Fall Weiss (Case White), the strategic plan for the invasion of Poland, which precipitated World War II in Europe. Hitler cited the border incidents in a speech in the Reichstag on the same day, with three of them called very serious, as justification for his invasion of Poland.[15] Hitler had told his generals on 22 August, "I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth".[6][12]
International reactions
American correspondents were summoned to the scene the next day but no neutral parties were allowed to investigate the incident in detail and the international public was skeptical of the German version of the incident.[6][17]
In popular culture
There have been several adaptations of the incident in cinema.
Both Die Blechtrommel (1979), directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), directed by Jim Goddard, briefly include the incident.[20][21]
It was also mentioned in a video game;
See also
- 1939 in Poland
- 1939 Tarnow rail station bomb attack
- Jablunkov incident
- false flag operation that started the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
- Nazi crimes against the Polish nation
- Operation Greif
- Soviet invasion of Finland
References
- ^ a b Gleiwitz casus belli. 2018.
Nazi government under Hitler's leadership staged the Gleiwitz incident as a casus belli for the invasion of Poland the following morning
- ^ "Address by Adolf Hitler - September 1, 1939". fcit.usf.edu. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
- ^ "20 Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 4". Avalon Project. 20 December 1945. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
- ^
- ^ "Grossmutter Gestorben". Der Spiegel. Spiegel-Verlag. 12 November 1963. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^
- ^ "Pałac w Sławięcicach i jego wojenna historia. Miał 45 pokoi i wielką salę balową. Co się z nim stało?' (The palace in Sławięcice and its wartime history. It had 45 rooms and a large ballroom. What has happened to it?)". kedzierzynkozle.naszemiasto.pl. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ The World War II's first victim. A farmer was murdered as part of a Nazi plot to provide an excuse to invade Poland, the story of a man forgotten by history. By Bob Graham, 29 Aug 2009. The Telegraph.
- ^ "World War II's first victim - Telegraph". www.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Museum in Gliwice: What happened here?". Muzeum.gliwice.pl. Archived from the original on 4 November 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
- Thomas Laqueur, 'Devoted to Terror,' in London Review of Books, Vol. 37 No. 18–24 September 2015, pp. 9–16.
- ^
- ^ "20 Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 2; Friday, 30 November 1945". Avalon Project. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ Lebovic, Matt. "80 years ago, how a very different Schindler's 'list' helped ignite WWII". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ a b c "Address by Adolf Hitler". archives of the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School. 1 September 1939. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- ^ "Holocaust Educational Resource". Nizkor. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
- ISBN 1-84176-408-6
- ^ Der Fall Gleiwitz (1961), IMDb.com; accessed 4 June 2015.
- ^ Operacja Himmler (TV 1979), IMDb.com; accessed 4 June 2015.
- ^ Die Blechtrommel (1979), IMDb.com; accessed 4 June 2015.
- ^ Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (TV 1985), IMDb.com; accessed 4 June 2015.
- ^ "Skrytykowali grę, choć jej nie widzieli". Wiadomosci.gazeta.pl. 23 August 2004. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-385-42053-6.
- Dennis Whitehead, "The Gleiwitz Incident", After the Battle Magazine Number 142 (March 2009)
- Stanley S. Seidner, Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz Rydz and the Defense of Poland, New York, 1978.
- Spieß / Lichtenstein Unternehmen Tannenberg. Der Anlass zum Zweiten Weltkrieg, Wiesbaden und München 1979.
- Polak-Springer, Peter (April 2013). "'Jammin' with Karlik': The German-Polish 'Radio War' and the Gleiwitz 'Provocation', 1925–1939". European History Quarterly. 43 (2). SagePub: 279–300. S2CID 145321954.
External links
- "Blitzkrieg September 1, 1939: a new kind of warfare engulfs Poland". Time. 28 August 1989. Archived from the original on 13 April 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- Radio Tower Museum in Gliwice: Gliwice provocation. Broadcasting station.
- (in Russian) Мой сайт@Mail.Ru – Сервис бесплатного хостинга
- (in German) Museum der Rundfunkgeschichte und der Medienkunst – Rundfunksender Gliwice
- (in Polish) 65 lat temu wybuchła wojna:
- AWR Wavescan