Blitzkrieg and the beginning of WWII

4:45am, September 1st, 1939, Germany attacks Poland. One and a half million German soldiers, 2600 tanks, and more than 2000 fighter planes enter Poland from the west, south and north. Everything happens quickly: Bombs destroy bridges, airfields, and railways stations deep inside Poland, tanks speed across the borders. The previous war was fought in trenches; nothing moved fast. The Germans have a new way of fighting - a new tactic.

The Poles don’t know whether.. to stay and fight, but get surrounded by the Germans, ..or to escape, but get stuck in the bombing or the chaos it’s causing. Germany's new, fast fighting tactic will later be called ‘lightning war’: blitzkrieg. Poland is the first country to experience it, but not the last. Poland was promised support by Britain and France, and asks for immediate help, but gets none.

September 3rd, Britain and France declare war on Germany, but the Poles have to manage on their own. The Poles fight hard. They are hanging on, hoping that Britain and France will attack Germany in the west, forcing the Germans to fight on two fronts. It doesn’t happen. The Germans soon reach the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union has been fighting against Japan for five months. But on September 16th, the two countries agree to cease-fire. So now, the Soviet Union leader, Josef Stalin, doesn’t have to worry about attacks from Japan. The very next day, September 17th, Stalin sends 800 000 Soviet ‘Red Army’ soldiers into eastern Poland. The Poles, who have already been fighting for 16 days against the Germans in the west, now have a new enemy in the east.

They resist as best they can, but the Red Army defeats the Polish forces in battle after battle. Hundreds of thousands of Poles are captured and taken to Soviet prison camps. Thousands of Polish soldiers, leaders, women, and children are executed by the Red Army, or by the Soviet security and intelligence service, NKVD. In Katyn, 1943, German forces discover eight mass graves containing the bodies of over 4400 Polish officers.. ..shot from behind, their bodies piled up, sometimes 12 on top of each other, and burned. The Soviet Union blames Germany for the massacre.

Germany blames the Soviets. Later, in 1992, Russia will release documents showing that the Soviet security service, NKVD was responsible not only for this massacre, but also for probably more than 20 000 Poles murdered at Katyn. September 1939, after 27 days of fierce fighting against both Germany and the Soviet Union, Poland can no longer defend itself. Germany occupies the capital, Warsaw, which lies in ruin after the bombings. October 6th.

The Polish army has to give up: it surrenders. The Polish government does not surrender, but forms a new government in London: a government-in-exile. Germany and the Soviet Union have occupied all of Poland. The country is divided between them, exactly as agreed in a secret section of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Hitler has promised the Germans more land: expanded "Lebensraum".

Western Poland now becomes part of Germany. And Stalin reclaims this territory in eastern Poland: an area the Soviet Union lost in an earlier war. Eastern Poland is now the Soviet Union’s buffer against Germany, which Stalin does not trust, and against western Europe. Poland's inhabitants are brutally terrorised, imprisoned, and executed.. both by Germany and by the Soviet Union.

At the start of the Second World War, one of the world's largest Jewish populations are living in Poland: about 3 million people. Six years later, 90% of these people will be dead.