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 placed 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 prevent 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 placed under French control meant the German economy could not recover,
and the jobs were not 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 needed 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 did not believe in.
This strong leader for Germany appeared in Adolf Hitler. Hitler took advantage of 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 anyone's 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 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 gained popularity because
you did not 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 Germanys in the first place.
This made the concept seem relatively fair as they felt it was their land and 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 the land back for the master race.
One thing that encouraged Lebensraum was overpopulation within Germany. The Nazi
Party claimed that Germany was facing an 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 would not 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 [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
was worried about America as a superpower and so he intened 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 Germanys 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 all 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 Russia.
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 Hitlers 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 the other. 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 evident when Soviet Russia was not 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 considered 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 Russias 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. This was 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 1939
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 were one reason why
16,000,000 German civilians fled Germany to Eastern Europe. The bombing combined with
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.
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 meetings 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 much
hostility 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 Nazis final solution, the
solution to the Jewish problem. The Nazis 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 were not 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 Nazis set up a large ghetto. This ghetto housed 30%
of the population of Warsaw and crammed them into an area that was 2.4% of the size of
Warsaw. This ghetto was interesting because it unified Jewish people within it. Jewish
people worked together to survive and set up schools to educate children 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 a high proportion of the population were Jews and Hitlers 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 Britain
and France being unwilling to work with Stalin to create peace. Hitler took advantage of a
weak Germany to enforce his racist and idealistic beliefs and New Zealanders had to
support the war effort whether they liked it or not.

Tim Armstrong