The Invasion of Poland - Causes and Consequences

Causes

Introduction

The invasion of Poland signalled the start of World War Two and saw threats from Hitler and Germany being put into action. This invasion led to mass genocide of Jews and minorities and led to social changes in New Zealand to deal with the war.

Treaty Of Versailles

Unfair treatment to Germany in the terms of the Treaty of Versailles led the German public to support extremist views and radical ideas to challenge the repression put on them by Britain and France. The terms agreed to in the Treaty of Versailles after World War One were based on hatred and revenge that Britain and France had towards Germany. Little did they know that these terms they  made to stop another war against Germany would push them into another war.

After the war, Germany was broken. High unemployment and the industrial sector, the Saar, being put under French control meant the German economy could not recover and the jobs weren’t there.  Despite the fact the German economy was crippled, Britain and France decided that Germany should pay the entire cost of the war, an unachievable task at the time. Germany was made entirely responsible for the war and the people of Germany felt they were being unfairly blamed for a war they did not start. Germany also lost all its colonies and much of its land to places like Poland and many believed the amount of land taken away was unfair. Germany had no power in Europe due to the loss of their colonies, no industry to cure unemployment, a huge debt they could not repay and less land to feed the people.  These factors led to a huge amount of social unrest within Germany. The German people were looking for a new leader that could take Germany back to the old times and someone who would lift the responsibility of the war off their shoulders. They wanted someone who could stand up to the super powers of Europe unlike previous German leaders, someone who could say that Germany was great when the rest of Europe was looking down on them. The German public would do whatever it took to have this leader - even if it meant supporting views they didn’t believe in.

This strong leader for Germany appeared in Adolf Hitler. Hitler took advantage of the the tough economic times in Europe and Germany and convinced people that extreme nationalism, racism and fascism were the only way to overcome the debt and repression that was holding Germany back. These extreme beliefs reinforced the fact the Hitler was strong and these ideas showed Germany was strong as well and made the public believe in Hitler. Britain and France had become concerned about Hitler as he had given Germany its power back that Britain and France had tried to take away in the Treaty of Versailles and Hitler was becoming increasingly threatening.  Hitlers public speaking had convinced a troubled Germany that these extreme views were necessary and used them to  justify the invasion of Poland to the German people.  In September 1939, Hitler had justified his beliefs enough so that when Germany invaded Poland on the first of September his country was committed to the war as well as they believed it was the right thing to do.

Without the harsh terms in the Treaty of Versailles maybe the German public would not have been forced into extremist views to challenge the repression on the German economy and society.  In the eyes of the German people, Hitler had challenged and won and was rebuilding Germany without anyones help, bringing Germany back to a central power in Europe.

Lebensraum

Another cause of the invasion of Poland was the idea of Lebensraum, expansion of Germany and the German people for “living space”. The concept involved Germans, the “master race”, having enough living space to live off their own resources.  This was a Nazi ideology brought about by Hitler and supported by the public due to the anger that they felt over the loss of colonies and land to countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia after World War One in the terms of The Treaty of Versailles. The idea of Lebensraum was effectively a justification for invading other countries and  reinforcing racist beliefs. The justification was that the German race was so superior, as they believed they were the “master race”, that they deserved to take the land, especially the land that was previously theirs.

Lebensraum was important because Hitler needed support from the mainstream German people as he could not get popular on racist beliefs alone. The issue of lost German land was an idea that Germans felt passionately about. Lebensraum was an idea that could gain adoption and popularity due to the fact that you didn’t have to carry Nazi racist beliefs to think that it was good for Germany. On a basic level, Lebensraum was seen as taking back land that was Germany’s in the first place. This made the concept seem relatively fair as they felt it was their land and was their right.  This made the Nazi Party popular with the German Public, not just far right political extremists. The German Public may not have known at the time that Lebensraum involved killing  “inferior races” and using brutal force to get land back for the “master race”.

One thing that encouraged Lebensraum was overpopulation within Germany. The Nazi Party claimed that Germany was facing a overpopulation crisis due to the land lost in the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted Germany to be self sufficient so that Hitler could go to war without massive food shortages back in Germany like in WW1. In WW1 countries had blocked trade and so there was a food shortage to Germany and Hitler wanted to ensure that this wouldn’t be a problem in the future.

Hitler's belief that Germany deserved more land because they had more colonies in comparison to other European countries was also another motivating factor behind Lebensraum. Hitler declared that “[European Countries were] absurdly small in comparison to their weight of colonies, foreign trade...”. He compared Germany to places like America, with lots of land and few colonies and decided that Germany deserved more and therefore had the right to expand. This quotation and idea of Lebensraum also shows the increasing relevance of America as a world superpower. Hitlers quotation shows that he is worried about America as a superpower and so he intends to match them by expanding.

Hitler invaded Poland first due to the especially large amount of land they had lost from them such as the Polish Corridor. The Polish Corridor was a section of land that connected Poland with the Baltic Sea. Hitler disliked the Polish Corridor because it gave Poland control, power and freedom that it did not have before and Poland now relied much less on Germany. Hitler wanted Germany’s power back.

Hitler also invaded Poland because Poland had a large Jewish population. This allowed Hitler to put his racist beliefs into action straight away.

Without Lebensraum, Hitler had no justification for invading Poland, and without justification the German Public would not support him. The ideas of expansionism and racism which Hitler convinced the public to believe in gave him the power to invade Poland.

Nazi Soviet Pact

If Hitler wanted to invade Poland and start a war he needed security from the USSR and Stalin so that he would not be attacked on both sides. He did not currently have the resources for a full out war. Hitler knew that invading Poland meant certain war with Britain and France due to the Anglo-Polish agreement, a military alliance that ensured Polish independence, which was signed in 1939.  The Nazi Soviet pact allowed Hitler time to further build up his army against Britain and France and ensured that Germany would not be attacked on two fronts straight away which would have meant an end to the war straight away.  

Stalin agreed to a pact between Germany and Russia out of fear. Germany's ever increasing military power and war machine was threatening Russia. Germany had invaded Russia on other occasions and so Hitler’s threat was not empty.  Hitler had stated before that he wanted to take Soviet land as part of Lebensraum and the Nazi Soviet pact ensured a short term alliance while Russia and Germany built up their armies. On the 24 August, the pact was signed and it agreed to non-aggression between Germany and Russia. Russia would not help Poland if Germany invaded and Russia would not invade Germany. In return, Russia would get half of Poland.

The Nazi Soviet pact was an agreement made to be broken. It was always going to be short term as neither leader could trust one another. This was due to different political beliefs. Stalin was forced into a Pact with Germany as Britain and France were unwilling to cooperate due to fear of communism. This was shown by Soviet Russia not being invited to sign or discuss the Munich Agreement, an appeasement policy to Hitler. This showed Stalin that he could not trust Britain and France and that he was not a true Ally. Once the Soviet Union was finally allowed into the League of Nations, Stalin saw that it was in fact powerless to stop the growing German power and so he decided to join Germany and ensure Russia’s safety at the start of the war, despite the fact he could not trust Hitler.

The Nazi Soviet pact led to the invasion of Poland because it gave Germany enough confidence to invade without being attacked on both fronts. Without the pact, the war would have ended quickly as Germany would not have had enough military power to stop an attack from Russia.

Consequences

Declaration of War by Britain and France on Germany

The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany led to the declaration of war by Britain and France and signalled the start of World War Two. On 1st September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland.  One week after the Nazi Soviet Pact. Due to the Anglo-Polish military alliance with Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 2nd September 21939 and kept their word. They could no longer let aggressive Nazi Germany be a threat.  Along with Britain and France, many colonies such as New Zealand also declared war on Germany.

Civilians and refugees were significantly affected by the declaration of war by Britain and France as this meant heavy battle and city bombings. City bombings was one reason why 16,000,000 German civilians fled Germany to Eastern Europe. This combined civilians also having very little food to survive on with small rations that was caused by a food shortage in Germany. Starvation, cold and disease killed over 2,000,000 refugees in the war.

The declaration of war would eventually lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War Two.

Conscription in New Zealand

After the outbreak of war in September 1939, New Zealand immediately joined the war effort to help Britain. Men were pressured into military service by government and society when conscription was introduced. Not going to war was seen as a cowardly thing to do.

The New Zealand Government wanted New Zealand to support the war effort against Germany. Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, used propaganda to convince the New Zealand people that going to war was the right thing to do. He had to do so because New Zealand had only just got over World War One and so getting public support was paramount. Conscription had to be popular enough otherwise New Zealand would not be able to help in the war effort properly.

In 1939 the Emergency Regulations Act was passed after the invasion of Poland. This Act gave the Government broad powers and put people and property in the hands of the government. This act directly affected New Zealanders and among other things required them to dim building and vehicle lights. The Public Safety Act gave the government more powers. The act made propaganda against the war “unsafe” and illegal. The irony of these policies was that they were enforced by Prime Minister Peter Fraser. This was ironic because PM Fraser had protested against World War One and was now enforcing regulations to support World War Two. This shows complexities within New Zealand regarding the war at the time.

Peter Fraser used radio and newspapers to build support for World War Two. As New Zealand was very isolated from the rest of the world at this point, censoring radio and newspapers was easy. This support led to 60,000 men signing up to volunteer to go to North Africa for WW2.

The public support and laws passed by the Government made it hard for conscientious objectors in New Zealand. Those who were religious, pacifists, communists or jehovah's witnesses were looked down upon for not embracing the war effort that PM Fraser had encouraged. Men who did not agree with conscription were forced to work at labour camps throughout the country and many were locked up for the entire war. The laws meant that conscientious objectors could be held in prison indefinitely. This harsh stance by the government was to ensure that the conscientious objectors did not start a resistance movement. Conscientious objectors meeting were shut down by police and mail was censored. The treatment of conscientious objectors raised questions about freedom and human rights in New Zealand.

Conscription also led to social change within New Zealand. With many men overseas at war, women had to take up jobs that were traditionally done by men. This helped shift gender views within New Zealand and has directly contributed to today's society. Conscription was also significant to the men in New Zealand who were deployed overseas, many of whom did not return.

Holocaust

The invasion of Poland meant that Nazi Germany could continue persecuting minorities while the war continued.

Before the war, Jews were persecuted in Germany. Hitler had used Jews as a scapegoat and blamed the recession after World War One on Jewish people. There was was much unrest toward Jews in Germany before the War. One example of this was Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, an operation carried out by Nazi Germany to destroy and damage shops owned by Jews. The war meant that this persecution was allowed to not only continue, but now Nazi Germany could take their racism to extremes and so the Holocaust began.

Jews from Germany and around Europe were sent into Germany to concentration camps to be held and executed. As Germany fought and claimed more land, more Jews were sent into Germany. In total 6,000,000 Jews were killed, many of them in concentration camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka. Treblinka was part of the Nazi’s final solution, the solution to the “Jewish problem”. The Nazi’s set up camps to kill instead of just holding prisoners like they had in the past. At Treblinka, 99% of Jewish people were killed within two hours. If Jews weren’t killed at a concentration camp in the stages of the final solution, they were made to take part in forced labour.

In the capital of Poland, Warsaw, the Nazi’s set up a large ghetto. This ghetto housed 30% of the population of Warsaw and crammed them into 2.4% of the size of Warsaw. This ghetto was interesting because it unified Jewish people within the ghetto. Jewish people worked together to survive and set up schools to educate kids within the ghetto even though the penalty for doing this was death. Homosexuals, blacks and disabled people from Germany and Europe were also treated badly following the invasion of Poland and the Holocaust.

The invasion of Poland and the war that followed meant that Hitler was able to hide the Holocaust and other extreme views from Europe. The invasion of Poland was significant because it had a high proportion of Jewish population and Hitler’s success in invading poland allowed his racist beliefs to continue.

Conclusion

The invasion of Poland was caused by the harsh terms set out by the Allies and the unwillingness to work with Stalin.

Tim Armstrong