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Poland The Outbreak of War
The crisis that led directly to renewed European
conflict in
1939 commenced with German demands against Poland, backed
by
threats of war, for territorial readjustments in the
region of
Danzig and the Baltic coast to connect East Prussia with
the rest
of Germany. When Warsaw refused, correctly reading
Hitler's
proposal as a mere prelude to further exactions, it
received only
hesitant promises of British and French backing. Hitler
overcame
the deterrent effect of this alliance on August 23 when
Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression treaty
that
ended their interwar hostility. A secret provision of the
treaty
essentially divided all of Eastern Europe into Soviet and
German
spheres of domination. This provision signified the
blessing of
Soviet dictator Joseph V. Stalin for Berlin to attack
Poland
without fear of Soviet interference.
The Hitler-Stalin pact sealed Poland's fate and put the
country in an indefensible position. On September 1,
Germany
hurled the bulk of its armed forces at its eastern
neighbor,
touching off World War II. Based on existing guarantees of
security, Britain and France declared war two days later,
but
they gave no effective assistance to their ally. By midSeptember , Warsaw was surrounded in spite of stout
resistance by
outnumbered Polish forces. As Poland reeled under the
assault
from the west, the Soviet Union administered the coup de
grace by
invading from the east on September 17. By the end of the
month,
the "September campaign" was over, Hitler and Stalin had
reached
terms defining their respective gains, and the Polish
lands had
been subjected once more to occupation.
Data as of October 1992
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