Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

World War II's first victim (Gleiwitz Incident)
UK Telegraph ^ | 08/31/2013 | Bob Graham

Posted on 08/31/2013 12:44:12 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen

As the rays of early evening sun lingered over the giant wooden mast that protruded through the pine forest, two cars passed through the gates of the German radio station and sto1pped outside the three-storey transmission building. n the following minutes, seven SS officers posing as Polish partisans, would carry out a simple act that would leave one man dead on the station steps – and provide Adolf Hitler with the excuse to invade Poland , plunging the world into six dark years of conflict. The events that took place in the fading light of August 31, 1939 around Gliwice radio station – some four miles inside Germany, on the border with Poland – have largely been overlooked by historians. Even relatives of the dead man have only spoken of the incident in hushed, private family gatherings, preferring not to ask questions of authorities on either side.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: germany; gleiwitz; gliwice; nonaggressionpact; poland; worldwareleven; wwii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

1 posted on 08/31/2013 12:44:12 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

WW III’s first victim...a milk factory in Damascus?


2 posted on 08/31/2013 12:45:26 PM PDT by Signalman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Signalman

The US’ last shred of credibility?


3 posted on 08/31/2013 12:46:22 PM PDT by Viennacon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Viennacon
The US’ last shred of credibility?

That train left the station a long time ago.

4 posted on 08/31/2013 12:47:38 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen
I would like to look over some photographs of that false flag Nazi operation, I bet I could find LBJ, Bent Willy Clinton and B. Hussein Obama there, taking notes.
5 posted on 08/31/2013 1:08:37 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
That train left the station a long time ago.

Yep. Around 2006 or 2008. Opinions vary.

6 posted on 08/31/2013 1:12:34 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen
The Truth about the "Gleiwitz Incident"
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b7e_1363701221&comments=1#k6KEVWh1DPjFVBPZ.99



7 posted on 08/31/2013 1:33:38 PM PDT by preacher (Communism has only killed 100 million people: Let's give it another chance!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

Gleiwitz radio mast today
8 posted on 08/31/2013 1:45:11 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

I read about it in THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH.


9 posted on 08/31/2013 1:46:07 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: preacher

“The Truth” is nothing more than Hitler apologia gibberish.


10 posted on 08/31/2013 1:48:24 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

“Kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need.” - Adolf Hitler (August 22, 1939)


11 posted on 08/31/2013 1:51:08 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Thanks Kid Shelleen.
In the following minutes, seven SS officers posing as Polish partisans, would carry out a simple act that would leave one man dead on the station steps – and provide Adolf Hitler with the excuse to invade Poland, plunging the world into six dark years of conflict.
Not to mention that Stalin had signed the hideously misnamed non-aggression pact, which divided Poland between the USSR and Third Reich.


12 posted on 08/31/2013 1:58:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

the American people apologize for this nincompoop being elected


13 posted on 08/31/2013 2:02:29 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kid Shelleen

Fighting had been going on in China since 1931.


14 posted on 08/31/2013 2:28:40 PM PDT by AceMineral (Some people are slaves of their own stupidity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Signalman

15 posted on 08/31/2013 2:38:13 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (Carlos Danger for mayor....NYC deserves him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

A long, long time ago.


16 posted on 08/31/2013 2:40:44 PM PDT by sport
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I always thought that the Nazis and Soviets jointly started the European war. Does Hitler attack without the Non-Aggression pact? I highly doubt it.

The fact is, Stalin wanted war, so that the Germans, British and French could bleed each other dry, so as to allow the Red Army to swoop in from the East and clean up the mess.


17 posted on 08/31/2013 2:44:29 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Revolting cat!; preacher
The truth about the "Gleiwitz Incident."

As they say in Germany, das ist ein Misthaufen.

Weber says that he cannot find a reference to the Gleiwitz incident as a pretext for war in the German media. However, he should listen to Hitler's first speech after the outbreak of hostilities, in which he said, "Polen hat heute Nacht zum ersten Mal auf unserem eigenen Territorium auch mit bereits regulären Soldaten geschossen. Seit 5 Uhr 45 wird jetzt zurückgeschossen. Und von jetzt ab wird Bombe mit Bombe vergolten." (This evening, Poland has fired on our own territory for the first time with regular soldiers. Since 5:45, we have been shooting back And from now on, we will retaliate bomb for bomb).

Weber says that “The tension between Germany and Poland had been developing steadily since the beginning of 1939”--which is curious, since Polish relations with Nazi Germany had heretofore been quite good. Poland even joined with Germany in carving up Czechoslovakia in 1938. Why did their relations suddenly turn sour? Could it be that after grabbing Austria, Czechoslovakia and the Memel strip, Hitler was gearing up to make Poland his next victim?

Weber also makes no mention of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23--eight days before Gleiwitz--in which the Nazis and Soviets agreed to divide Poland.

18 posted on 08/31/2013 2:51:10 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: preacher

Everything. Poland was in no position to attack German in 1939. It was an obvious false flag operation. Thanks for proving that there are so many credulous nazi-loving untermenschen.


19 posted on 08/31/2013 3:51:25 PM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

I agree. I’d quibble a little, Stalin had the memory of the German advances in WWI — which didn’t differ all that much from the WWII effort, in the main because of the terrain. The WWI German and Austrian forces were deployed probably overly heavy in the east, out of fear of the possible rapidity of advance along the steppe. That’s been the superhighway out of central Asia going back into prehistoric times. That worked both ways.

Also, Stalin’s intel indicated that Hitler was the best possible option for the Soviets, so much like them politically that he would make a great ally. In recent years, the surviving old-timers (who hadn’t previously been executed and whatnot) who worked for Stalin stated that, for weeks after the German invasion began, Stalin seemed to be incredulous and unable to bring himself around to the realization that Hitler had broken his word. Also, there was diplomacy between them, and the Germans were masters of blowing smoke up people’s asses.

The Soviets were also heavily deployed in the east, against the possibility of a Japanese attack. They’d beaten them more than once, and the Japanese actually gave up, concentrating on various wartime atrocities against the Chinese. Against the German invasion the Soviets raised huge “patriotic armies” which were sent with whatever they’d brought with them (pitchforks, scythes, rocks) and fed to the guns.

Soviet losses in that first autumn are reckoned in the 100s of 1000s, and before the first year, somewhere north of 2 million dead. There were also defectors, large bodies of “troops” who just gave themselves up en masse, sometimes happily following the surrender orders announced by their command. As in WWI, Moscow was considered the enemy and betrayer as much as were the Germans.

In the book “Interrogations” there’s an interesting tidbit that finally explained to me why the hell Hitler thought Operation Barbarrosa was a good idea — freelance (probably starving, definitely deprived or dirt poor) cross-border raids from Soviet and Soviet-occupied territory had him concerned that the Red Army was going to storm across the frontier any second, before Germany was ready to violate the agreement first.

Soooo, Hitler drove the UK and what was left of French forces off the continent and — ta-dah! — launched an *offensive* in the east before Germany was ready (if indeed it could have been for the next three or four years).

Molotov was sent to the Far East for hush-hush negotiations with the Japanese, nominally allied with Germany and Italy. He couldn’t get a straight, non-intransigent answer out of ‘em, but told Stalin that he thought the czarist-era peace treaty would hold. So 70 or so divisions including lots of armor were pulled from the east and shipped by train to be hurled against the Reich invasion force. The trains arrived overloaded with troops and gear, and rolled back for more completely empty.

The speed of the Red Army redeployment and resulting counterattacks threw Hitler and his yes-men for a loop. But of course, Hitler was always moaning, “the war is lost!” about every little setback. What a loser.


20 posted on 08/31/2013 6:12:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson