Editing Polish Corridor (section)

== Nazi German and Polish diplomacy ==

The [[Nazi Party]], led by [[Adolf Hitler]], took power in Germany in 1933. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of [[rapprochement]] with Poland,<ref>Aristotle A. Kallis, ''Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945'', Routledge, 2000, p.144, {{ISBN|0-415-21612-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=BeeRQHDOKXQC&dq=hitler+rapprochment+poland&pg=PA114]</ref> culminating in the ten-year [[Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact]] of 1934. In the years that followed, Germany placed an emphasis on [[German rearmament|rearmament]], as did Poland and other European powers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/poland.htm |title=Marching Toward War: Poland |access-date=2006-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429222529/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/poland.htm |archive-date=2008-04-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://filebox.vt.edu/users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3.html |title=The Five Year Plans and Economic Distress... |access-date=2009-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501084617/http://filebox.vt.edu/users/efalwell/sovietprop/stalin3.html |archive-date=2008-05-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Despite this, the Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals without provoking armed conflict: firstly, in March 1938 [[Nazi Germany]] annexed [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]], and in the late September the [[Sudetenland]] after the [[Munich Agreement]]; Poland also made an advance against [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] and annexed [[Trans-Olza]] (1 October 1938).<ref>Goldstein, Erik; Lukes, Igor (12 October 2012). The Munich Crisis, 1938: Prelude to World War II. Routledge. {{ISBN|9781136328398}}.</ref> Germany tried to get Poland to join the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]]. Poland refused, as the alliance was rapidly becoming a sphere of influence of an increasingly powerful Germany.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnprF2IvIMoC&pg=PA170 |title=The twentieth-century world: an ... - Google Books |access-date=2009-06-16 | first=William R. | last=Keylor |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-513681-4}}</ref> On 24 October 1938, the German Foreign Minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] asked the Polish ambassador [[Józef Lipski]] to have Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.669">Weinberg, Gerhard ''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 The Road to World War II'', New York: Enigma Books, 2010 p.669</ref> During a visit to Rome on 27–28 October 1938, Ribbentrop told the Italian Foreign Minister [[Galeazzo Ciano|Count Galeazzo Ciano]] that he wanted to turn the Anti-Comintern Pact into a military alliance, and spoke of his desire to have Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania sign the Anti-Comintern Pact so "all our energies can be directed against the Western democracies".<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.669"/> In a secret speech before a group of 200 German journalists on 10 November 1938, Hitler complained that his peace propaganda stressing that his foreign policy was based upon the peaceful revision of the Treaty of Versailles had been too successful with the German people, and he called for a new propaganda campaign intended to stoke a bellicose mood in Germany.<ref>Weinberg, Gerhard ''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 The Road to World War II'', New York: Enigma Books, 2010 p.677-678</ref> Notably, the enemies Hitler had in mind in his speech was not Poland, but rather France and Britain.<ref>Weinberg, Gerhard ''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 The Road to World War II'', New York: Enigma Books, 2010 p.678</ref>    
 
Following negotiations with Hitler on the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] reported that, "He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this [[Sudeten German]] question is settled, that is the end of Germany's territorial claims in Europe".<ref>[http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/munich/czdoc09.html Document no. 9] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607043817/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/munich/czdoc09.html |date=2007-06-07 }}</ref> Almost immediately following the agreement, however, Hitler reneged on it. The Nazis increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into Germany, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web| url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_5c.html#188| title = The Polish Resistance and the German Press Campaign (August 1–19)}}</ref> In November 1938, Danzig's district administrator, [[Albert Forster]], reported to the [[League of Nations]] that Hitler had told him Polish frontiers would be guaranteed if the Poles were "reasonable like the Czechs." German State Secretary [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]] reaffirmed this alleged guarantee in December 1938.<ref name="autogenerated3">[https://archive.today/20120804224954/http://www.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect16.htm Anna M]</ref> In the winter of 1938–1939, Germany placed increasing pressure on Poland and Hungary to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.668">Weinberg, Gerhard ''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 The Road to World War II'', New York: Engima Books, 2010 p.668</ref>

Initially, the main concern of German diplomacy was not Danzig or the Polish Corridor, but rather having Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, which as the American historian [[Gerhard Weinberg]] noted was "... a formal gesture of political and diplomatic obeisance to Berlin, separating them from any other past or prospective international ties, and having nothing to do with the Soviet Union at all".<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.668"/> In late 1938–early 1939, Hitler had decided upon war with Britain and France, and having Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact was intended to protect Germany's eastern border while the Wehrmacht turned west.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.668"/> In November 1938, Hitler ordered his Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to convert the Anti-Comintern Pact, which had been signed with the [[Empire of Japan]] in 1936 and joined by [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] in 1937 into an anti-British military alliance.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.668"/> Starting in October 1938, the main focus on German military planning was for a war against Britain with Hitler ordering the [[Luftwaffe]] to start building a strategical bombing force capable of bombing British cities.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.676">Weinberg, Gerhard ''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 The Road to World War II'', New York: Engima Books, 2010 p.676</ref> On 17 January 1939, Hitler approved of the famous [[Plan Z|Z Plan]] that called for a gigantic fleet to take on the [[Royal Navy]] and on 27 January 1939 he ordered that henceforward the ''[[Kriegsmarine]]'' was to have first priority for defence spending.<ref name="Weinberg, Gerhard p.676"/>

The situation regarding the Free City and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish customs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_5c.html#188 |title=The Polish Resistance and the German Press Campaign (August 1–19) |publisher=Ibiblio.org |access-date=2009-05-06}}</ref> The Germans requested the construction of an [[extra-territorial]] ''[[Reichsautobahn]]'' freeway (to complete the ''Reichsautobahn [[Berlinka|Berlin-Königsberg]]'') and railway through the Polish Corridor, effectively annexing Polish territory and connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper, while cutting off Poland from the sea and its main trade route. If Poland agreed, in return they would extend the non-aggression pact for 25 years.<ref name="Fest, pp.575-577"/>

This seemed to conflict with Hitler's plans to turn Poland into a satellite state and with Poland's rejection of the Anti-Comintern Pact, and his desire either to isolate or to gain support against the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Fest, pp.575-577">[[Joachim C. Fest]], ''Hitler'', Harcourt Trade, 2002, pp.575-577, {{ISBN|0-15-602754-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=qnnlUEDZZIAC&dq=hitler+rapprochment+poland&pg=PA577]{{Dead link|date=May 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> German newspapers in Danzig and Nazi Germany played an important role in inciting nationalist sentiment: headlines buzzed about how Poland was misusing its economic rights in Danzig and German Danzigers were increasingly subjugated to the will of the Polish state.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of [[Lithuania]], the [[Memel Territory]], [[Ukrainian SSR|Soviet Ukraine]] and parts of the [[Czech lands]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_4.html| title = The German-Polish Crisis (March 27-May 9, 1939)}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNmfAL0CBBIC&pg=PA234 |title=A history of the world from the 20th ... - Google Books |access-date=2009-06-16 | isbn=978-0-415-28955-9|last1=Grenville |first1=John Ashley Soames |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> However, Polish leaders continued to fear for the loss of their independence and a fate like that of Czechoslovakia,<ref name="autogenerated2" /> which had yielded the [[Sudetenland]] to Germany in October 1938, only to be invaded by Germany in March 1939. Some felt that the Danzig question was inextricably tied to the problems in the Polish Corridor and any settlement regarding Danzig would be one step towards the eventual loss of Poland's access to the sea.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Hitler's credibility outside Germany was very low after the [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|occupation of Czechoslovakia]], though some British and French politicians approved of a peaceful revision of the corridor's borders.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hJGpAT7IWhwC&dq=polish+corridor&pg=PA480 John V. Denson, "Reassessing the Presidency"] Ludwig van Mises Institut, Auburn Alabama 2001, p.480</ref>

In 1939, Nazi Germany made another attempt to renegotiate the status of Danzig;<ref name="autogenerated3" /><ref name=BWBB/><ref>[[Edwin Leland James|EDWIN L. JAMES]], ''[[The New York Times]]'' May 7, 1939, Sunday, Section: The Week In Review, Page E3 [https://www.nytimes.com/1939/05/07/archives/herr-hitler-says-yes-and-col-beck-says-no-there-rests-demand-of.html]</ref> Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport if the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed.<ref name=BWBB>{{cite web| url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/bb/bb-042.html| title = The British War Blue Book}}</ref> However, the Polish administration distrusted Hitler and saw the plan as a threat to Polish sovereignty, practically subordinating Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc while reducing the country to a state of near-servitude as its entire trade would be dependent on Germany.<ref name="yale.edu">[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yellow/ylbk113.htm Avalon Project : The French Yellow Book : No. 113 - M. Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, to M. Georges Bonnet, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Berlin, April 30, 1939] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820020504/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yellow/ylbk113.htm |date=August 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D_A4ERzCsFkC&pg=PA37 |title=Britain, Poland and the Eastern ... - Google Books |date= 12 February 2004|access-date=2009-06-16 | first=Anita J. | last=Prażmowska |publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-52938-9}}</ref> [[Robert Coulondre]], the French ambassador in Berlin in a dispatch to the Foreign Minister [[Georges Bonnet]] wrote on 30 April 1939 that Hitler sought: "...a mortgage on Polish foreign policy, while itself retaining complete liberty of action allowing the conclusion of political agreements with other countries. In these circumstances, the new settlement proposed by Germany, which would link the questions of Danzig and of the passage across the Corridor with counterbalancing questions of a political nature, would only serve to aggravate this mortgage and practically subordinate Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc. Warsaw refused this in order to retain its independence."<ref name="yale.edu"/>

Hitler used the issue of the status city as pretext for attacking Poland, while explaining during a high-level meeting of German military officials in May 1939 that his real goal is obtaining ''[[Lebensraum]]'' for Germany, isolating Poles from their Allies in the West and afterwards attacking Poland, thus avoiding the repeat of the Czech situation, where the Western powers became involved.<ref>''The history of the German resistance, 1933-1945'' Peter Hoffmann page 37 McGill-Queen's University Press 1996</ref><ref>''Hitler'' Joachim C. Fest page 586 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002</ref><ref>''Blitzkrieg w Polsce wrzesien 1939'' Richard Hargreaves page 84 Bellona, 2009</ref><ref>''A military history of Germany, from the eighteenth century to the present day''Martin Kitchen page 305 Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975</ref><ref>International history of the twentieth century and beyond Antony Best page 181 Routledge; 2 edition (July 30, 2008)</ref>