summary
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and initiated a global conflict in the European Theatre. Prior to the invasion, Hitler had attempted to use policy to annex regions that had either been disputed or lost to Germany after the Treaty of Versailles. “As early as the autumn of 1933 Hitler envisioned annexing such territories as Bohemia, Western Poland, and Austria to Germany and the creation of satellite or puppet states economically subordinate to Germany” (Majer, 2003). One particular tract of land, known as the Polish Corridor, was dear to the German people, especially after it had been settled in by mostly Polish people. A second specific place that Germany wished to reclaim was the port city of Danzig, which was important to the German economy prior in days of yore, but Hitler later revealed was less important to him than the following concept. Lebensraum, or “living space,” was a nationalist concept that left the German people feeling as if they were not allotted a rightful amount of land to live and prosper. As a pretext for war, Hitler claimed that Poland had “attacked” his country by persecuting Germans who lived behind the redefined borders and driving them from their natural homes in terror. In truth, this maneuver was to be the first in Nazi Germany’s was attempt to regain all territories lost after World War I. Whether Hitler knew this would lead to a global conflict or did so out of a sense of extreme nationalism may never be known. What is clear is that two days later the Allied Powers declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.
references: Lindsey Sessions
Header Image: http://polishgreatness.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-1939-invasion-of-poland-day.html
Majer, D. (2003). "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. JHU Press.
Majer, D. (2003). "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. JHU Press.