Invasion of Poland: September 1st 1939 - October 6th 1939
Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939. Hitler had signed a nonaggression pact with Poland just five years prior. His only aim with this however, was to neutralize a French-Polish alliance against the Germans. The Nazi’s initial aim in invading Poland, was to gain back former German territory which they had lost after World War One due to the Treaty of Versailles. Russia soon followed Germany’s lead and also invaded eastern Poland seventeen days latter. Not long after on September 27th Warsaw surrendered to the Germans after they were encircled by thousands of tanks and planes and sustained heavy bombing and shelling. Having gained full control, Germany and Soviet Russia divided Poland on October 6th 1939 in adherence with the nonaggression pact they had signed prior to the invasion. The allies had done little in retaliation to Germany’s actions before the invasion of Poland, Britain and France for example, were not prepared for full scale war and were still adhering to their foreign policy of appeasement, but they declared war on Germany three days after Germany invaded Poland; their support of Poland, however, had been negligible. It is alleged that German forces murdered thousands of Polish civilians during the invasion, and estimated that the civilian losses were somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 deaths. The proceeding Soviet occupation included the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Polish civilians, who were “sovietized”, subject to forced resettlement, imprisoned in labor camps, or murdered. This was only the beginning of one of the most violent conflicts of history.