| |
| 1939, March–April |
| |
| A Polish-German crisis ensued after the German action in Czechoslovakia and the annexation of Memel (See 1939, March 23). At the end of March the German government submitted extensive demands to Warsaw, including the cession of Danzig to Germany and the right to construct an extraterritorial railway and automobile highway across Pomorze (the “corridor”), in return for a guarantee of Polish frontiers and a nonaggression pact. The demands were rejected but resulted directly in the guarantee from Britain and France. | 1 |
| |
| March 31 |
| |
| Anglo-French guarantee of aid to Poland in the event of aggression (expanded April 6 into a mutual pact of assistance “in the event of any threat, direct or indirect, to the independence of either”). | 2 |
| |
| April 28 |
| |
| In reply Hitler denounced the agreement of 1934 with Poland. Relations continued to be tense, with much friction in Danzig. In view of this situation the Poles gave up opposition to a proposed guarantee by Russia and approved the British efforts to bring the Soviet government into the new “peace front.” | 3 |
| The Danzig problem developed rapidly during the summer, and frontier incidents became frequent. The Germans began to send troops into Danzig, and the Poles began to take countermeasures while reiterating their determination to oppose any effort to change the status quo by force. Finally the crisis broke on Aug. 20 (See Aug. 20–Sept. 1). The British and French stood by Poland while the Germans refused to engage in direct negotiations. Two weeks of tension ended with the German invasion. | 4 |
| |
| Sept. 1 |
| |
| GERMAN FORCES INVADED POLAND, and 17 days later Soviet troops marched in from the east. | 5 |
| |
| Sept. 28 |
| |
| GERMANY AND THE SOVIET UNION agreed to divide Poland between them. | 6 |
| The Nazis lost no time in putting their racist doctrines into effect. Many thousands of Polish officers, professionals, and intellectuals were rounded up and executed out of hand, and many more were sent off to Germany to work in factories or to perform menial tasks. Large numbers of Poles, as an “inferior race,” were moved from their homelands into less desirable areas to make room for German settlers, who were to occupy the new territory for the Reich. | 7 |
| The large Jewish population of Poland was herded into cities and concentrated in ghettoes, where many, deprived of means of livelihood, perished of hunger or disease. With the implementation of the “final solution” (See 1942, Jan), these Jews were later moved to concentration camps established all over Poland, where most of them were destroyed by the Nazis.. | 8 |
| |
| Sept. 30 |
| |
| Polish exiles formed a provisional government in exile in Paris. | 9 |
| |
| |
