HITLER IN POLAND

 

by Heinrich Hoffmann

 

REICHSTAG, September 1, 1939

 

The Reichstag President, Field Marshal Hermann Goering, opened the historic meeting of the Reichstag with a short speech at 10 am on Friday morning

 

Danzig - the beautiful old German city. View of the St. Mary's Cathedral

 

"Danzig was and is a German city! The Corridor was and is German!"

"The Versailles Treaty means nothing for Germans!"

 

Ethnic German refugee families from the Province of Volhynia seek protection in the Reich

 

"Poland has unleashed the fight against the Free City of Danzig!"

 

"I have therefore now decided to speak to Poland in the same language that Poland applies for months against us!"

 

1 will make sure that our border in the east will be peaceful as on our other frontiers.

 

Deutschland – Sieg Hail!

 

Reich Chancellery, on September 3, 1939: The Fuhrer signed his appeal to the German people

 

Before their departure, the Poles blew the great Vistula Bridge near Dirschau

 

The destroyed railway station in Dirschau - a witness of Polish destruction

 

Polish prisoners on their march to Berlin

 

Counterattack forward

 

Sortie over the clouds!

 

A Polish airfield has been bombed

 

Only important military targets have been hit!

 

Our Luftwaffe dive-bombers in action,

 

bombing Polish bunker line on Mlawa

 

German artillery rush through a burning village in Poland

 

This detachments will overcome any difficult terrain

 

A silent witness of the senseless Polish vandalism

 

Light infantry guns cross water stream at full gallop

 

The ethnic Germans of the city of Tarnow

 

Greet liberators of their home!

 

Our motorcycle riflemen leading the way through smoking ruins

 

German cavalry patrol riding through flaming village

 

One of the many transit camps of captured Polish weapons

 

This German farm was burned down by Poles

 

German infantry in the Polish village

 

German Infantry - constantly on the heels of the enemy!

 

Polish snipers are taken out of their holes!

 

The guns of the "Schleswig-Holstein" thunder - and Westerplatte  is burning brightly

 

Stubborn resistance was broken: they had to surrender

 

Order to attack: light armored car going in action from dense bush

 

All hands to work: German advance is breaking through inexorably

 

The Poles blown up all bridges - and yet advance continues

 

The Fuhrer motorcade driving through the Tuchel Heath to the front

 

An unexpected encounter: combat soldiers meeting the Fuhrer

 

Ethnic German peasant family returns to home soil

 

Their fate was hard! But the words of the Liberator give new courage

 

Under the eyes of the Fuhrer our army crossing the Vistula River

 

After the crossing of the Upper Vistula River: Polish soil was fought over in tough marches – rest is always brief

 

Our combat engineers work tirelessly

 

Everywhere they pave the way for their victorious comrades

 

Also work detachments are here

 

Austrian soldiers cross the San River

 

The bridge is up to all requirements of our combat engineers

 

Men with spades meet the Fuehrer motorcade on their way to Lodz

 

Wounded tell their Fuhrer about quiet devotion to the duty

 

The Fuhrer welcomes General of Artillery von Reichenau

 

Everyone wants to see him! - Comrade among comrades

 

All eyes are shining - all hands are up in salute!

 

On the front with General of Artillery von Küchler

 

The Fuhrer is here! - Ethnic German girl cheers him

 

Everybody wants to see him! – The car can move forward only very slowly

 

This lieutenant captured the standard of the Polish 8th Rifle Regiment on horseback

 

General of Armored troops Guderian making his report

 

and Major-General Lichel describes the course of the battle

 

General of Infantry Strauss and General of Artillery von Kluge reporting the situation

 

Comradely handshake with General of Infantry Blaskowitz

 

The Fuhrer discussing tactical situation with General of Artillery, Major-General von Reichenau and General-Major Crantz

 

The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces discusses flow of the battle with Colonel General List

 

and General of Artillery von Reichenau

 

Major General Crantz informed Fuhrer about the use of his troops

 

The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander thanked Colonel-General List

 

General von Bock reported that Mlawa has been taken

 

The Fuhrer discussing the tactical situation with General von Rundstedt

 

With only the big goal in mind

 

- on the military roads of today!

 

The head of the entire operations of the army in Poland: Colonel General von Brauchitsch and his Chief of Staff, General of Artillery Halder

 

In the Fuhrer HQ on the Eastern Front: Colonel-General Keitel reports to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

 

On the same day when British tried to provoke Poles for a re-conquest -

 

-  Fuhrer visited Lodz, where workers everywhere are going back to the streets in order to bring order

 

Fuhrers motorcade goes through Polish territory. The escort squad secures the ride

 

On these dusty roads Fuhrer meets yet again with incalculable columns of Polish prisoners

 

First Soldier at the goulash cannon -

 

one with them in trouble and Victory

 

The winner returns Danzig to the Reich

 

Westerplatte in German hands: the dream of "Polish sea" is now in the past

 

Gdynia, "one of the most important bases of the Polish sea" becomes Gotenhafen again

 

The Supreme Commander with the brave crew of the "Schleswig-Holstein"

 

Order has been carried on - bridge over the Narew River is destroyed

 

A Polish town ...

 

near Bug Canal  

 

With Fuhrer airplane on the way to the frontline leaders

 

Where it came to air combat, the enemy has been broken

 

Congratulations from the Fuhrer

 

Air General Kesselring reported about military action

 

Just a single bomb - and that what was left from a Polish armored train

 

The Fuhrer and his entourage visited the destroyed armored car

 

The dive bombers did a great job!

 

Field Marshal Goering leader in the Headquarters

 

The Fuhrer sit for a discussion with Reich Minister of the Foreign Affairs von Ribbentrop

 

The Supreme Commander and his Wehrmacht adjutant

 

Admiral Dr. c h. Raeder is going to report

 

Thanks for brave commitment of his bodyguard to the Supreme commander

 

These men of the Leibstandarte have particularly distinguished themselves

 

Reichsführer SS Himmler in Gotenhafen

 

On observation of the Warsaw suburb of Praga

 

The barrage of German artillery on the fortress Warsaw going according the schedule

 

Under its protection infantry pushes further and further into the Polish capital

 

The bombardment has made resistance of the Polish city commander inevitably futile

 

Barricades blocking the streets of the big city in order to stop the German advance

 

The Polish peace emissaries came, their situation is serious

 

General Blaskowitz presenting surrender terms in the carriage of the Army High Command

 

The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander speaks in the new Reich Chancellery to the commanding officers of the campaign (Click on the image to enlarge).

From left to right: Colonel-General von Bock, Colonel-General List, General of Artillery Kuchler, General of Infantry von Reichenau, Gross Admiral Dr.h c. Raeder, General-Admiral Albrecht, Rear Admiral Schniewind, General of Infantry Blaskowitz, General of Artillery Halder, General of Artillery von Kluge, Colonel-General Milch, Air General Kesselring, Air General Lohr and Major-General Jeschonnek.

 

Poland is defeated! - The remains of a million-strong army go into captivity

 

The leader of all Germans has arrived to the Polish capital

 

The "campaign of eighteen days" has gone down in history

 

The great battle for German freedom is completed

 

Fuhrer’s Armed Forces is the pride of the German nation

 

and at the Reichstag session of 6 October 1939 the world heard about new ways to peace