The Polish Problem

• The Problem
  • After the Munich Pact, the Germans, who supposedly we are satisfied territorially begin to hold open talks with the Poles. The Poles had gotten territory from the Czechs and the 10 year Non-Aggression Pact with Germans.
  • Polish government is a right-wing military dictatorship (about 60% Fascist) ruled by a triumvirate. Marshal Smigly-Rydz and Foreign Minister Colonel Jozef Beck are two main leaders.
  • The German issues include a minority in Poland and territory lost to Poland by Versailles: Posen/ W. Prussia, Silesia, Danzig (League Free City), and the Polish Corridor.
  • The Germans want Danzig returned, which is 90% German, as well as a corridor so that E. Prussia can be contiguous with Germany.
  • The Poles steadfastly refuse to negotiate, so the Germans lure them with a 25 year deal, and also told them that they would settle for an extra-territorial (above ground) road across the corridor.
• Alliances both form and break
  • The Poles still refuse relying upon their alliance with the French and their 800,000 man army.
  • With the 2nd Czech crisis in March 1938, Polish fears are increased geographically.
  • British and French see the German occupation of Czechoslovakia as a breach of the Munich Pact. They draw the line in the sand. The Brits and the French will guarantee the territory of a number of countries: Greece, Romania, Belgium, and Poland.
  • The 2nd Czech crisis also foments an uprising in the Memel Land (Lithuania). The German population demands to be retuned to Germany, and Hitler annexes on March 22, 1938.
  • Thereafter, Britain with France for the first time ever sign a peacetime alliance with Poland. Hitler's reaction is that he claims its a violation of the Non-Aggression Pact with Poland and repudiates AGNA in April 1939
• Putting the pressure on
  • Hitler begins to place pressure and propaganda on the Poles. There are atrocities against the German minority. In May 1939, Hitler orders his army (the Wehrmacht) to make plans to invade Poland. Is Hitler aiming for another Munich?
  • There is feverish diplomatic activity during the summer of 1939, but no direct meetings. The 3 allies and Germany include the Soviets in their negotiations. The Poles are caught between the Germans and the Soviets, and there is a long negative history between the Poles and the Russians.
  • The Poles recently annexed large amounts of Soviet territory in 1919-20. The Poles unfortunately try to balance between the two antagonists.
  • During the summer of 1939, the British and French begin lackluster military cooperation talks with the Soviets.
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact
  • Stalin begins to worry threat the West is trying to foment a Russo-German war. Hitler, seeing Polish intransigence, sends his foreign minister Ribbentrop to Moscow in August of 1939 to meet Stalin.
  • Stalin replaces his Jewish foreign minister Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov. The Rationale was military and economic.
  • The German economic recovery, fueled by Keynesian government spending, produces far more than it consumes. Late 1930s have witnessed increasing embargoes against Nazis. There is a search for foreign markets, and lebensraum in the east.
  • Poland and USSR will provide those markets and natural resources for German Wehrmacht in case of War with the West.
  • On August 22, 1939, Ribbentrop/ Molotov sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact. This is an economic deal with the secret military codocil. The Nazis and Soviets will partition Poland if war arises while soviets stay out of Nazi war with the West.
  • Moreover, Soviet gets a large SOI in Eastern Europe. This avoids the WW1 problem of a two front war.
  • This Pact initiates the last minute pleas from Great Britain, the French, and the Poles.
• Hitler will only entertain a Polish leader who comes to Berlin with plenipotentiary powers. On August 31, Germans will dress condemned prisoners in Polish uniforms stage an attack on Germany.