INVASION OF POLAND, FALL 1939

German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering

World War II. In response to German aggression, Great Britain and
France declared war on Nazi Germany.

KEY FACTS

1 2 3
Nazi Germany On September 17, After Poland’s defeat in
possessed 1939, the Soviet Union early October 1939,
overwhelming military invaded eastern Nazi Germany and the
superiority over Poland, sealing Soviet Union divided
Poland. The assault on Poland’s fate. The last the country in
Poland demonstrated operational Polish unit accordance with a
Germany’s ability to surrendered on secret protocol to the
combine air power and October 6. German-Soviet Non-
armor in a new kind of Aggression Pact.
mobile warfare.

Hitler's Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 

One of Adolf Hitler's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power
in 1933 was to sign a non-aggression pact with Poland in January 1934. This
move was unpopular with many Germans who supported Hitler but resented
the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces of West
Prussia, Poznan (Poznań), and Upper Silesia after World War I under the Treaty
of Versailles. However, Hitler sought the non-aggression pact in order to
neutralize the possibility of a French-Polish military alliance against Germany
before Germany had a chance to rearm in the aftermath of the Great War.

Appeasement in Europe 
In the mid- and late-1930s, France and especially Great Britain followed a
foreign policy of appeasement. In fact, the policy of appeasement was closely
associated with British prime minister Neville Chamberlain. The objective of
this policy was to maintain peace in Europe by making limited concessions to
German demands. In Britain, public opinion tended to favor some revision of
the territorial and military provisions of the Versailles treaty. Moreover, neither
Britain nor France felt militarily prepared to fight a war against Nazi Germany.

German gains, 1936-1938

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Britain and France essentially acquiesced as Nazi Germany 

revoked the Versailles treaty’s limitations on its military (1935);

remilitarized the Rhineland (1936); 
and annexed Austria (March 1938). 

In response to Hitler’s threat to wage war against Czechoslovakia, British and

French leaders signed the Munich Agreement in September 1938. This
agreement ceded to Germany the Czech border region known as the
Sudetenland 
in return for Hitler’s promise to resolve all future conflicts
peacefully.   
Despite Hitler’s promise at Munich and Anglo-French guarantees to defend
Czechoslovakia, the Germans dismantled the Czechoslovak state in March
1939. Britain and France responded by guaranteeing the integrity of the Polish
state. This did not deter Hitler, who was determined not to be dissuaded from
war by either threats or concessions. On April 28, 1939, he announced
Germany’s withdrawal from the non-aggression pact signed with Poland just
over five years earlier. Hitler went on to negotiate a non-aggression pact with
the Soviet Union in August 1939. The German-Soviet Pact, which secretly
provided for Poland to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled
Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.

Invasion and Partition of Poland 

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. To justify the action, Nazi

propagandists accused Poland of persecuting ethnic Germans living in Poland.
They also falsely claimed that Poland was planning, with its allies Great Britain
and France, to encircle and dismember Germany. The SS, in collusion with the
German military, staged a phony attack on a German radio station. The
Germans falsely accused the Poles of this attack. Hitler then used the action to
launch a “retaliatory” campaign against Poland. 

Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn on September 1, 1939, with

an advance force consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900
bombers and over 400 fighter planes. In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions
and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in
the north, and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units quickly broke
through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a
massive encirclement attack. 

Poland mobilized late, and political considerations forced its army into a
disadvantageous deployment. The Polish army also lacked modern arms and
equipment, had few armored and motorized units, and could deploy little more
than 300 planes, most of which the Luftwaffe destroyed in the first few days of
the invasion. Despite fighting tenaciously and inflicting serious casualties on
the Germans, the Polish army was defeated within weeks. The world adopted a
new term to describe Germany’s successful war tactic: Blitzkrieg, or “lightning
war.” The tactic consisted of staging a surprise attack with massive,
concentrated forces of fast-moving armored units supported by overwhelming
air power. 

Britain and France stood by their

guarantee of Poland's border and
declared war on Germany on
September 3, 1939. However,
Poland found itself fighting a two
front war when the Soviet Union
0:00 / 1:06
invaded Poland from the east on
September 17. The Polish
government fled the country that
Fall of Warsaw
same day. 
German troops reached parts of Warsaw on
September 8 and 9, 1939. During the German
After heavy shelling and bombing,
siege of Warsaw, the city sustained heavy
Warsaw officially surrendered to the
damage from air attacks and artillery shelling.
Warsaw surrendered on September 28. Here,
Germans on September 28, 1939. 

German troops occupy Warsaw. This footage

 

comes from "Tale of a City," a film made by a

Polish underground film unit.
In accordance with the secret
National Archives - Film
protocol to their non-aggression
pact, Germany and the Soviet Union
partitioned Poland on September
29, 1939. The demarcation line was along the Bug River. 

The last resistance of Polish units ended on October 6. 

The German Occupation of Poland 

In October 1939, Germany directly annexed former Polish territories along

German's eastern border: West Prussia, Poznan (Poznań), Upper Silesia, and the
former Free City of Danzig. The remainder of German-occupied Poland—
including the cities of Warsaw, Krakow (Kraków), Radom, and Lublin—was
organized as the so-called Generalgouvernement (General Government)—
under a civilian governor general, the Nazi Party lawyer Hans Frank.

Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet
Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until the end
of January 1945.
Last Edited: Aug 25, 2021
Author(s):
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

 Investigate the reasoning behind various choices by the Allies in response to
German policy and military moves in the 1930s.

 What factors might affect national responses to aggression?

 What does war make possible?

FURTHER READING
Rossino, Alexander B. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity. Lawrence:
University Press of Kansas, 2003.
Zaloga, Steve. Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.
Record, Jeffrey. The Specter of Munich: Reconsidering the Lessons of Appeasing Hitler.
Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2007.