This week, seventy years ago, the German Reich and the Slovak Republic attacked their neighbor, Poland, and brought war to the European Continent.  Within three days Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and France had declared War on Germany. The following day Nepal followed suit. The Union of South Africa joined the other four on September the 6th.  Four days later Canada also declared War on Germany.
    Although, of course, in the aftermath, the entire world has laid all of the blame for the War on Germany, such was not the case.  After the Great War the victorious Allies imposed the Versailles Treaty upon a prostrate and starving Germany, requiring it to accept all of the blame for the war.  Therein lay the seeds of future conflict.  The Treaty, in essence, dismembered Germany by separating the bulk of the Country from East Prussia and the port city of Danzig.  The Treaty created what was known as the “Polish Corridor” to give a reconstituted Poland access to the Baltic Sea.  It made the German Port of Danzig a “Free City,” surrounded on its three landward sides by Poland, and as such, under the economic influence of Poland. Much of what had been German territory in the eastern part of Germany was now a part of Poland, and ancient German Estates were now occupied by Poles.  
    Hitler had proposed a nonmilitary resolution to German concerns, such as reincorporating Danzig (now the Polish city of Gdansk) back into the Reich and some form of land access between East Prussia and the rest of the Country, such as rail or highway or both.  The Poles had rejected all German attempts at a peaceful solution.  At the urging of the British, Hitler, on August 30, made one last attempt to resolve the problems peacefully, by agreeing that if Danzig was returned to the Reich, and a plebiscite conducted in the “Polish Corridor,” the Reich would not attack. When the Polish representative, who appeared in Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop’s office to receive the proposal, protested that he did not have the authority to accept the proposal, the Germans deemed that a refusal.  
    The residual German bitterness with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, especially with regard to Poland, which had not even existed for over a century, combined with the Nazi loathing of the Slavs, and the Poles in particular, the Poles’ intransigence, the Poles’ ignorance of the secret provisions of the Nazi/Soviet pact dividing Eastern Europe and Poland, together with Hitler’s miscalculation that France and Germany would actually fight and the Poles miscalculation that British and French efforts would be sufficient to save their country, created the road map to war.
    During the run-up to the American attack on Iraq, there was much comparison between the situation then, and the situation prior to the commencement of  World War II, and there were similarities.  Luftwaffe Chief Reichsmarshal Hermann Göring once said:    
    “Of course the people don’t want war.  But after all, it’s the leaders of the Country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.  Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the Country to greater danger.”
    Of course that is exactly what happened in the run-up to both wars.  The leaders of the aggressor Nations, the United States and Germany, convinced their respective populations that the smaller, weaker Countries being attacked were a threat.  In the case of the United States, the people were told that there was “no question” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that it had ties to Al-Qaeda.  Of course, there were lots of questions about those two statements, but those people who protested these statements were, in the words of the Reichsmarshal, denounced for “lack of patriotism,” accused of, “...exposing the Country to greater danger,” and, in some cases, branded traitors.  Of course, the same occurred in the Reich, with those types being branded as, “enemies of the State.” And, as we now know (and as many knew then), both of the aggressor nations violated the treaties which they had signed, and the laws of war, when they engaged in torture. There were other similarities. The governments of both aggressor nations utilized euphemisms to mask their illegal and unsavory policies, such as “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” for torture and “Final Solution” for murder. Both governments used the threat to national security for the restriction of individual liberties. And like the Reich, when it launched the invasion of the U.S.S.R., the American government sent its troops to war without the proper equipment. And like the Reich, when it asked its citizens to donate winter coats for the troops, the American government asked its citizens to contribute the proper equipment for their troops. And, finally, again like the Reich, the United States was disappointed when its historic allies, France and Canada, did not join it in the attack, much as the Reich was disappointed when  Italy did not join it in 1939.
    In the hours before launching their assault on Poland, the Germans staged a fake attack on a German Radio Station at Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland), a few yards inside the German border, dumped a few corpses dressed in Polish Army Uniforms around the Station and proclaimed that Germany was attacked first.
    Meanwhile, the Reich and its Slovakian Ally had massed a million and a half troops on the Polish border.  On August 30,  Poland finally began mobilization.  Its erstwhile Allies, France and Great Britain, had urged it not to mobilize earlier, for fear of provoking its larger and stronger neighbor.  The German plan for the invasion was code-named “Case White,” or Fall Weiss.  The German and Slovakian forces were divided into two Army Groups - North and South - under the command, respectively, of Colonel-Generals Fedor von Bock and Gerd von Rundstedt.  
    Poland would be attacked from three sides.  The objective of the German Army was Poland’s largest city, capital and nerve-center, Warsaw.  Army Group North was composed of the Fourth Army commanded by General Günther von Kluge, which would strike from western Pomerania, east toward Warsaw, and the Third Army, commanded by General Georg von Küchler, which would be striking south from East Prussia.  Army Group South included the 8th, 10th and 14th Armies commanded, respectively, by Generals Johannes Blaskowitz, Walther von Reichenau, and Colonel-General Wilhelm List.  The 8th and 10th Armies were based in Silesia and would drive east.  The 14th Army was based in Moravia and Slovakia and would drive in a northerly direction.
    The Poles had been planning for this contingency as well.  Their Plan was called “Plan Zachód.” The Polish plan was as flawed as the German plan was effective. The defense of the country was hampered by the fact that it had no natural barriers with its German neighbor, such as mountains or waterways. Most of the industrial area, which the Poles felt had to be defended, lay in the western, formerly German areas. The Poles, ignoring the advice of Sun Tzu,  that, “He who tries to defend everything, defends nothing,” attempted to defend their borders at the border. The Poles were at a further disadvantage, because, unlike the Germans, their equipment and tactics were not the latest. Germany had the advantage of beginning its rearmament from scratch, so it sought the latest, while the Poles stuck with mostly the WWI equipment which they had used with success in their wars with the Soviet Union and Lithuania in the early Twenties. They were also caught flatfooted because their mobilization had begun so late.
    Polish troops, totaling 950,000, were divided among, initially, the following armies: Karpaty, Kraków, Lódz, Modlin, Pomorze, Poznan, and Prusy, commanded by, respectively, Generals Kasimierz Fabrycy, Antoni Szylling, Juliusz Rómmel, Emil Krukowicz-Przedrzymirski, Wladyslaw Bortnowski, Tadeusz Kutrzeba and Stefan Dab-Biernacki. After the German assault began, the Poles attempted to create two more armies - the Lublin, under the command of Major General Tadeusz Piskor and the following week, Warzawa, for the defense of the Polish capital, commanded by Colonel Walerian Czuma.
    In the campaign, the German Luftwaffe, aided by the three Slovakian fighter squadrons, wrested control of the air from the Lotnictwo Wojskowe.
    By the second day, von Küchler’s Third Army, from East Prussia, had linked with von Kluge’s Fourth Army, behind Lt. General Bortnowski’s Armia Pomorze. Elements of the Fourth Army reached the Vistula River on September 3.  On September 6, Poland’s second largest city, Kraków, fell to General Wilhelm List’s 14th Army, Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly ordered the Polish forces to retreat to the Vistula and San Rivers, and the government evacuated the capital to Brzesc (now the Belorussian city of Brest. The Polish naval base at Westerplatte surrendered the next day.
    By September 9, armored units of von Reichnau’s Tenth Army were threatening the Polish capital. At the same time, Third Army’s tanks, commanded by General Heinz Guderian, had crossed the Narew River and were attacking along the Bug River east of Warsaw. The Poles mounted an offensive that initially achieved some success, but after several days of hard fighting, ended in another defeat at the Battle of Bzura.
    General List’s Fourteenth Army began assaulting Lwów on September 12. It had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was known then as Lemberg. It is now a part of the Ukraine and is known as Lviv. The Polish port of Gdynia fell on September 14.
    On September 17, 800,000 soldiers of the Red Army, divided into two “Fronts,” or army groups, led by Generals Mikhail Kovalov and Semyon Timoshenko, moved into eastern Poland, in order to protect, as Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov announced, “...the Ukranian and Belorussian minorities of eastern Poland in view of the imminent Polish collapse.”  That ended any hope the Poles had of continuing the fight until their rescue by their lethargic Western Allies. The Germans had been urging the Soviet government to exercise its option, under the secret provision of the Nazi/Soviet Pact, ever since the war began. But the Soviets delayed for two reasons. First, they wanted the dance with the Japanese Empire to end, and end favorably. Second, they wanted to be able to plausibly argue that Poland had ceased to exist, and that they were there merely to protect the Belorussians and Ukrainians and to restore order.
    Sensing an opportunity to recover its ancient capital of Vilnius (Wilno in Polish), which it had lost to Poland in 1920, Lithuania pounced on a prostrate Poland, and on September 19, 1939, sent two of its armed forces’ three divisions to capture the city. It was known as Operation Mindaugas and was supported by German armor under the command of Major-General Georg Brandt. It was named for the only King in the country’s history. Their efforts were made easier by the approach of two Soviet cavalry and three Soviet armored divisions. On September 23, 1939, Polish Colonel Jaroslaw Okulicz-Kozaryn surrendered the Polish City of Wilno to the Lithuanian Commander-in-Chief, General Stasys Rastikis. On October 6, the Lithuanian government began transferring its offices and personnel from Kaunas to Vilnius. Nine days later, Lithuania celebrated with parades in both cities. The sixth largest city of Poland was now the largest city, and capital, of Lithuania.
    Soviet and Polish casualties were very light, primarily because there were very few Polish soldiers to oppose the Soviet “liberators,” and those had been ordered not to fight. Polish casualties suffered against the Germans were 200,000 dead and wounded and 700,000 captured. The Red Army also sent about 200,000 Polish soldiers into captivity. German casualties numbered about 45,000. Slovakian casualties were about 150. Lithuanian casualties were 429.
    On October 5, 1939, the German Führer watched as the troops of the victorious Wehrmacht passed triumphantly through the streets of the Polish capital.
    Those parts of western Poland that had previously been a part of Germany were returned to it. 1,000,000 Poles were expelled from this area and replaced with 600,000 Germans from outside the Reich and 400,000 from within it. In addition, Poland’s third largest city, Lódz, was also incorporated into the German Reich and renamed Litzmannstadt, in honor of German General Karl Litzmann whose forces had captured it from the Russian Empire during World War I. The remainder of the country that was not incorporated into the Soviet Union, became the General-Government and was administered, from Kraków, by Hans Frank, who was convicted, sentenced to death and hung at Nuremberg. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, those areas of Poland which had been incorporated into the U.S.S.R. were also incorporated into the German General Government where most of the extermination camps were located. Slovakia was rewarded with about 700 kilometers of disputed territory for its participation.
    Undoubtedly, the Poles suffered the most of any people occupied by the Axis. There were a number of reasons for this, which included: (1) the Germans, and particularly the Nazis didn’t like the Poles; (2) there was a high Jewish population in Poland; (3) the German occupation of Poland lasted longer than in any other country; (4) Poland was in the way of the Reich’s quest for lebensraum and under that plan, the Poles were to be eliminated anyway. Before being “liberated” by the Red Army, nearly 6,000,000 - over 21 percent of the prewar population - were. Half of them were Jews.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.