Błąd Hitlera polegał na tym, że wpadł w diabelską pułapkę i zaczął czynić zło (niemiecka okupacja była dla Polaków piekłem na ziemi i tego się nie da wymazać z pamięci). Stał się dla wielu znienawidzonym narzędziem zagłady i znakomitym straszakiem na przyszłość. Gdyby na okupowanych terenach polskich, białoruskich czy rosyjskich Niemcy zachowali się inaczej, gdyby – zamiast okrutnie eksterminować miejscową ludność słowiańską – zorganizowali jej lepsze, godne życie, to nigdy by nie przegrali tej wojny.
***
Zgoda, pisałem o Hitlerze przedwojennym. Nie mniej o ile całkowitą bezpodstawną głupotą było zmarnowanie potencjału ludzi z terenów zdobytych od sowietów, którzy wręcz witali Niemców jak wyzwolicieli, a biali Rosjanie rwali się do walki po stronie niemieckiej, nie wszystko można zwalić na Niemców, jeżeli chodzi o ich zachowanie w Polsce.
U nas się o tym nie mówi, ale mniejszość niemiecka była przed samą wojną dość poważnie prześladowana*, co mogło wpłynąć na zachowanie armii niemieckiej.
Dodatkowo komuś ewidentnie zależało na tym co ewidentnie nie było w interesie zwykłych Polaków. Podczas wojny istniała grupa ludzi przeprowadzająca ataki terrorystyczne, dość zresztą wątpliwej wartości strategicznej.Np przy jednym wysadzeniu pociągu zginęło kilku pomniejszych oficerów niemieckich i ponad osiemdziesięciu Polaków. Ci „partyzanci” zarabiali wielokrotnie więcej niż przeciętna krajowa i byli opłacani z zagranicy.
Czemuż to takiej partyzantki nie było na polskich terenach zdobytych przez sowietów?
Proszę sobie poczytać co o Polakach sadzą w komentarzach pod artykułem Anglina. Bez wątpienia Hitler niestety zbyt mądry nie był, niestety Polacy generalnie choć jako ludzie bynajmniej nie są gorsi od innych ale jako nacja są politycznie chyba poniżej przeciętnej. To chyba caryca Katarzyna wspominała o tym że Polacy mają tendencję do stawiania pomników swoim zdrajcom.
* In October 1930, the influential Polish newspaper, Die Liga der Grossmacht, carried the following declaration:
“A struggle between Poland and Germany is inevitable. We must prepare ourselves for it systematically. Our goal is a new Grunewald (The Battle of Tannenberg on July 15th, 1410 when the Teutonic Knights were defeated). However, this time a Grunewald in the suburbs of Berlin.
“That is to say, the defeat of Germany must be produced by Polish troops in the centre of the territory in order to strike Germany to the heart. Our ideal is a Poland with the Oder and the Neisse as a border in the West. Prussia must be re-conquered for Poland, and indeed, Prussia as far as the Spree.
“In a war with Germany there will be no prisoners and there will be room neither for human feelings nor cultural sentiments. The world will tremble before the German-Polish War. We must evoke in our soldiers a superhuman mood of sacrifice and a spirit of merciless revenge and cruelty.”
As reported in the Daily Mail, August 6, 1939, Marshall Rydz-Smigly said, “Poland wants war with Germany and Germany will not be able to avoid it even if she wants to.” (…)
Enmity and hostility between Poland and Germany, and between the Polish and German peoples, have historic roots dating back at least to the time of the Tuetonic Knights who ruled over Poland during the Middle Ages. The Tuetonic Knights (Germans) brought in large numbers of German settlers who became a substantial German speaking minority in Poland. Then, in 1772 Poland was “partitioned,” that is, large parts of Poland were divided up between the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire, and Prussia, which finally resulted in the collapse of the Polish state.
Poles who came under Prussian rule were subjected to extensive “Germanization” policies, which they greatly resented. The Catholic Poles were reduced to the status of second class citizens, creating a fierce enmity between the Poles and the Protestant Germans, which exists to this day.
By the time of the First World War, Poles were a substantial minority in both West Prussia and East Prussia. Following WWI, Poland was reconstituted as a sovereign state out of lands taken from Russia, Austria and Germany. Large numbers of ethnic Germans suddenly found themselves under Polish rule in what had only recently been their own country. Now in the driver’s seat, the Poles treated these Germans with contempt and abuse. When Hitler and the National Socialists came to power in Germany and talk of reclaiming the City of Danzig and the Corridor for Germany was in the air, hostilities between the Poles and the Germans increased exponentially. The German minority became victims of violent abuse by their new Polish overlords.
Reports of the hostilities breaking out between Poles and ethnic Germans, and Jews and ethnic Germans, in Polish controlled territories created a feeling of urgency in Germany. Beginning around May, 1939, ethnic Poles, protected by the Polish Army, launched a reign of terror against German nationals living within the Polish Corridor. Gangs of Bolshevik Jews also carried out attacks upon ethnic Germans. It was estimated that some 58,000 ethnic Germans were killed during this period by marauding mobs, encouraged by the Polish government. The German government lodged dozens of formal complaint with the League of Nations, but with no results. Hitler became increasingly distressed about it and said to the British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson on August 25, 1939: “Poland’s provocations have become intolerable.” As the leader of the German people, he felt a responsibility to do something to stop the massacres, and military action against Poland seemed the only way to do it. Poland’s refusal to agree to Danzig returning to Germany, and her refusal to allow Germany to build a highway and a railroad across the Corridor to connect East Prussia to Germany was justification in themselves for military action against Poland, but the slaughter of innocent German civilians living in Poland was becoming an even more urgent justification. (…)
Hitler did not even want a war with Poland, much less a world war. Hitler had made every attempt to settle the dispute with Poland over the return of Danzig and a highway across the Polish Corridor diplomatically. In fact, Hitler wanted more than to simply settle the dispute with Poland; he wanted an alliance with Poland in his anti-Comintern pact against the Soviet Union, which he had already concluded with Japan. Poland saw the Soviet Union as her enemy and the anti-Comintern pact would actually have served Poland’s interests. They were foolish, indeed, to have rejected it.
The Poles had stubbornly refused to negotiate with Germany for a number of reasons. First, the Poles and the Germans had shared a mutual hostility for centuries. The military officers who ruled Poland were a proud lot with an exaggerated confidence in their military power. Britain, France and the United States all pressured Poland to resist Hitler’s demands, and finally, British Prime Minister Chamberlain had insanely given the Poles an unsolicited war guarantee, promising to declare war on Germany if Hitler invaded, and he talked France into doing the same. From March to August, 1939, Hitler did his best to negotiate a settlement with Poland over Danzig, and his demands were far from unreasonable. But the Poles, confident in their British and French war guarantee defiantly refused. Add to that the provocation of the massacres of ethnic German civilians living inside Poland. Finally, at wits end, Hitler made a deal with Stalin and the two invaded and divided Poland.
What would it have cost Poland to have concluded a peaceful settlement with Hitler? The German city of Danzig, which was under the supervision of the League of Nations, and did not belong to Poland, would have been returned to Germany. Germany would also have been allowed to build a highway and a railroad across the former German territory, the Polish Corridor, to reconnect with East Prussia. That’s it! A peaceful settlement of the dispute would have taken nothing away from Poland. But the cost of refusing to settle the dispute peacefully was a world war in which millions of Poles were killed, much of their country destroyed, followed by 50 years of Nazi and Soviet occupation.
The Myth of German Villainy
Benton L. Bradberry
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