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on the first of september 1939 nearly 1.5 million troops 2750 tanks and 2 300 aircraft vat of
hitler's third reich stormed over the border into poland that same day britain and france bound by a
treaty to defend polish sovereignty issuing an ultimatum calling for the immediate withdrawal
of german forces the ultimatum was ignored and on september 3rd the allied powers declared war
on germany and with that the second world war in europe had begun while hitler's true goal
was plain for all to see the fuhrer justified the invasion as a response to growing polish
aggression pointing to a series of attacks against german citizens both within poland and just across
the border but while many of these attacks did indeed take place they were carried out not by
poles but rather german agents in a carefully coordinated false flag operation designed to
give hitler the justification he needed to launch his war of conquest this is the shadowy story of
operation himmler poland had been high on adolf hitler's list of grievances since taking power
in germany in 1933. on june 28 1919 in the wake of the first world war the victorious anton powers
forced a defeat to germany to sign the treaty of versailles which saddled the country with the sole
responsibility for starting the war and a series of harsh concessions the country was forced to
pay the modern equivalent of 33 billion dollars in reparations forbidden from having an air force or
a standing army larger than a hundred thousand men and stripped of 65 000 square kilometers of
territory and all its overseas colonies among these territorial concessions was the creation
of the danzig corridor a 50 kilometer wide strip of land which connected the newly restored polish
republic to the baltic coast and completely cut germany off from its territory of east prussia
a popular narrative holds that the terms of the treaty of versailles particularly the monetary
reparations were excessively harsh and led directly to the hyperinflation of the 1920s
the rise of the nazis and the outbreak of the second world war indeed following the
signing of the treaty allied supreme commander marshall ferdinand fox prophetically declared
this is not a peace it is an armistice for 20 years in reality reparations played only
a partial role in germany's post-war economic troubles while the reparation payments themselves
were cancelled in 1932 after germany had paid only 5 billion of the 33 billion obligation
nonetheless for many germans the treaty of versailles was a national humiliation adolf hitler
ruthlessly exploited the resentment to carry himself and his national socialist party to power
hitler wasted no time reclaiming the territory lost to the treaty of versailles on march the 7th
1936 german troops reoccupied the rhineland which had been demilitarized since 1919. while on the
12th of march 1938 the angelus unified germany and austria integrated germany hitler next laid
claim to the sudetenland region of czechoslovakia home to a large minority of ethnic germans these
claims precipitated an international crisis and brought europe to the edge of war in desperation
in september 1938 british prime minister neville chamberlain flew to munich and negotiated the
handover of the sudetenland in return for the cessation of german territorial expansion
this compromise infamously backfired for hitler emboldened by the allied policy of appeasement
proceeded to invade the rest of czechoslovakia on march 15 1939. however as there were hardly
any ethnic germans in this part of czechoslovakia the invasion laid bare hitler's true intentions
thus when he demanded the return of the dancing corridor to germany the allied powers were far
less willing to negotiate hitler therefore turned to his infamous schutzstaffel or ss his bodyguard
turned political paramilitary force to engineer a series of supposedly polish attacks along the
border to justify the outright invasion and occupation of poland scheduled for august 26
1939. on august 22nd as troops were massing at the border hitler told his generals i will provide a
propagandistic casus belly its credibility doesn't matter the victor will not be asked whether he
told the truth the task of planning these false flag operations codenamed underneath himmler after
heinrich himmler head of the ss fell to heinrich muller a chief of the gestapo secret police and
reinhard heydrich head of the heist densed or sd the ss intelligence service operation himmler
would consist of a series of 21 staged attacks by ss troops dressed in polish uniforms carried
out against various targets just across the german border including the railway at yablunke pass the
german customs station at hawk linden the railway station at alt aiken the forest station at pitzgen
the most elaborate operation however would be directed at the radio station grivets in upper
silesia built in 1935 by german electronics firm loren the complex's 33 meter tall antenna remains
the tallest wooden structure in europe upon season control of the station the ss troops would use the
transmitter to broadcast a pro-polish message across germany providing indisputable proof of
polish aggression and to make this and the other operations look even more convincing
inmates from the dash how concentration camp would be dressed in polish uniforms drugged shot in the
face to prevent identification and left behind at the scene of the attacks in a classic example of
dark nazi euphemism these planted bodies were referred to as conserve or canned meat leading
to the common but false claim that the whole operation was code named unterneyman conserve the
man tasked with leading the attack on the gladvitz radio station was 29 year old ss stormband fiora
alfred naoks an accomplished amateur boxer and streetballer from the nazi party's earliest days
by 1939 he had become one of reinart heydrich's most trusted agents and placed in charge of the
sd's foreign section forging passport's identity cards money and other documents for sd agents
operating abroad as now ox sold a reporter in 1960 heydrich summoned him to his office and explained
within a month we should be at war with poland the fuhrer is determined but first we have to have
something to go to war about we've organized incidents in dan zig along the east prussian
border with poland and along the german frontier but there has to be something big and obvious
in mid-august 1939 now yorks and a squad of six polish-speaking ss soldiers travelled to
glyphods and checked into oberschaessica hotel claiming to be mining engineers prospecting for
minerals in the area they then went about assembling the polish uniforms documents
weapons cigarettes and other items that they'd need to carry out the staged attack
intimately involved in this procurement process was an unexpected figure none other than oscar
schindler the industrialist who had later gone to save the lives of 1 200 jews during the holocaust
in 1939 however schindler had yet to have his change of heart and still actively supported the
nazi war effort indeed this was not even his first collaboration with german intelligence in 1936
schindler broken desperate following a series of failed business ventures joined the abv german
military intelligence and was assigned to spy on czech military defenses near the town of ostrava
unfortunately schindler proved an even worse spy than he was a businessman and was soon arrested
charged with treason and sentenced to death in august 1938 but before he could be executed
germany invaded czechoslovakia and schindler was freed he was then promoted by the ab there and
made deputy commander of intelligence in ostrava which was less than 20 kilometers from clivitz
uniforms and other materials for the glibets operation were stored in schindler's apartment
while a network of their agents under his command helped smuggle asset agents across the border
into poland by august the 25th everything was ready the niohk sent his squad awaited the code
word grasmata gestorben or a grandmother has died that would set the operation in motion
however hitler sending the poland and its allies might soon capitulate to his demands postponed the
invasion to september the first leaving nayaks and his men waiting for nearly two weeks finally on
the evening of august 31st a phone call bearing the code word arrived at the oblast schleicher
hotel and the squad piled into two cars and drove to the grivets radio station also in one of the
cars dressed in a polish uniform and drugged into unconsciousness was fasazek horniak a 43 year old
upper silesian farmer who had been arrested by the gestapo for collaborating with polish saboteurs
the squad reached the station around 8 pm and stormed up the stairs and through the front
door they met no resistance from the guards and quickly overpowered them and the engineers on duty
binding and locking them in the basement honiak's unconscious body was then dragged from the car
shot through the back of the head and draped over the front stairs as proof of polish involvement
in the raid but as one of now drock's men carl hornak prepared to make the staged pro polish
broadcast he realized that he had made a crucial error the building the squad raided contained
no broadcast studios only transmitting equipment designed to broadcast signals received via cable
from the city of breslau after a desperate 10-minute search of the building hornak resulted
to using an emergency storm microphone designed to warn radio listeners of inclement weather
in perfect polish hornak barked over the airwaves attention this is klivitza the broadcasting
station is in polish hands hornak had intended to end the broadcast with a statement about polish
territorial claims in the region but this part of the message was cut off either due to technical
problems or a polish technician who managed to shut down the transmitter but it was enough
and nyok squad withdrew from the complex radio stations in germany re-broadcast the transmission
across the country as proof of polish aggression the other 20 operation himmler attacks were
similarly successful with one major exception the squad tasked with raiding the hotlind and
customs post was not informed of the delay in the invasion plans and attacked before the post could
be cleared resulting in the deaths of several german citizens but it hardly mattered hitler
had his pretext for invasion the next morning the fuhrer gave a speech before the german parliament
or reichstag declaring i can no longer find any willingness on the part of the polish government
to conduct serious negotiations with us these proposals for mediation have failed because in
the meanwhile there first of all came as an answer to the sudden polish general mobilization followed
by more polish atrocities these were again repeated last night recently in one night there
were as many as 21 frontier incidents last night there were 14 of which three were quite serious i
have therefore resolved to speak to poland in the same language that poland for months past as used
towards us this night for the first time polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory since
5 45 am we have been returning the fire i will continue the struggle no matter against whom until
the safety of the reich and its rights are secured as hitler spoke these words the combined might of
the german veermarked and luftwaffe was already storming across the border into poland while the
allied powers were not pulled along the confusion sown by the operation himmler attacks bought
hitler valuable time to complete his invasion unopposed on september 17th the soviet union
with whom hitler had signed non-aggression pact invaded poland from the east by october the 6th
poland's fate was sealed and the stage was set for the most destructive conflict in modern history
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