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History of Poland
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The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses the German invasion of Poland as well as the Soviet invasion of Poland through to the end of World War II. On 1 September 1939, without a formal declaration of war, Germany invaded Poland with the immediate pretext being the Gleiwitz incident, a provocation staged by the Gestapo claiming that Polish troops had allegedly committed "provocations" along the German-Polish border including house torching, which were all staged by the Germans. Nazi Germany also used issues like the dispute between Germany and Poland over German rights to the Free City of Danzig and the freeing of a passage between East Prussia and the rest of Germany through the Polish Corridor as excuses for the invasion. Pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was attacked by the Soviet Union on 17 September 1939. Before the end of the month most of Poland was divided between the Germans and the Soviets.
Contents
1 German and Soviet invasions
2 Occupation and dismemberment of Poland
2.1 Treatment of Polish citizens under German occupation
2.2 Treatment of Polish citizens under Soviet occupation
3 Resistance in Poland
4 Collaboration with the occupiers
5 The Holocaust in Poland
6 Polish-Ukrainian conflict
7 Government in exile
8 Yalta and the Soviets
9 See also
10 Notes and references
11 Further reading
12 External links
German and Soviet invasions Main articles: German invasion of Poland (1939), Soviet invasion of Poland, and Slovak invasion of Poland (1939)
The Nazi German invasion was anticipated already since the late thirties in the Polish army order of battle in 1939, but the strategic position of the Polish armed forces to resist was nevertheless hopeless, because Poland was surrounded on three sides by the German territories: Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia (all parts of Germany), and German-controlled Czechoslovakia. The newly formed Slovak State assisted their German allies by attacking Poland from the south. The Soviet Union encroached from the east, and finally Polish forces were blockaded on the Baltic Coast by the German and Soviet navies. The German "concept of annihilation" (Vernichtungsgedanke) that later evolved into the Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") provided for rapid advance of Panzer (armoured) divisions, dive bombing (to break up troop concentrations), and aerial bombing of undefended cities to sap civilian morale. The Polish Army and Air Force had insufficient new equipment to match the onslaught.
German forces were numerically and technologically superior to Polish armed forces. The Germans threw 85% of their armed forces at Poland. They commanded 1.6 million men, 250,000 trucks and other motor vehicles, 11,000 artillery pieces, 2,500 tanks and a cavalry division. Some of the Luftwaffe pilots were the veterans of the elite Condor Legion, which had seen action during the Spanish Civil War (1936?39).
