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How 'Operation Himmler' sparked WWII: Disguised as Polish saboteurs, the Nazis attacked a GERMAN radio station to give them an excuse to invade Poland on this day 82 years ago… leading to Britain declaring war on Germany 48 hours later
UK Daily Mail ^ | 09/01/2021 | Ed Wight and Harry Howard

Posted on 09/01/2021 9:59:10 AM PDT by DFG

As night began to fall on 31 August, 1939, a small, hand-picked team of SS troops crept into the then German city of Gleiwitz.

Disguised as Polish saboteurs, their mission was to launch an attack on the city's main radio station to give Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler a justification for invading Poland.

It was part of what was codenamed Operation Himmler - the false flag attacks carried out by the Fuhrer's military intelligence service the Abwehr, along with the feared SS and the Gestapo to give the impression of Polish aggression towards Germany.

Entering through the back door, they locked three technicians into the basement before broadcasting a short message in Polish saying: 'Attention! This is Gliwice. The broadcasting station is in Polish hands.'

To make the raid seem more convincing, German concentration camp prisoners dressed in Polish army uniforms were given lethal injections and then shot in the face to avoid identification.

Their corpses were later shown to journalists as 'proof' of Polish provocation.

Within hours, the incident was being reported across Germany, where it was picked up by the BBC and the Reuters news agency.

A few hours later, the German battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Westerplatte peninsula, on what is now Poland's Bay of Gdansk. At the same time, 29 German Stuka dive bombers hit the small Polish town of Wieluń.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: europeanunion; gleiwitz; gliwice; nato; poland; russia; westerplatte; worldwar2; ww2
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1 posted on 09/01/2021 9:59:10 AM PDT by DFG
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To: DFG

Sep. 1 is commemorated in Poland as a day of mourning, while they celebrate November 11 as independence day.


2 posted on 09/01/2021 10:02:48 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: DFG

The Poles did nazi that coming.


3 posted on 09/01/2021 10:03:28 AM PDT by broken_clock (Go Trump! Still praying.)
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To: pierrem15

This is the “false flag” concept near and dear to the hearts of all Deep State operatives.


4 posted on 09/01/2021 10:04:09 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: DFG

So that’s where Johnson got the idea for the Tonkin Gulf incident.................


5 posted on 09/01/2021 10:04:39 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: cgbg

I was just going to say that Charlottesville was not the first time.


6 posted on 09/01/2021 10:05:34 AM PDT by Jonty30 (My superpower is setting people up for failure, without meaning to. )
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To: cgbg
This is the “false flag” concept near and dear to the hearts of all Deep State operatives.

EXACTLY

7 posted on 09/01/2021 10:07:24 AM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: DFG
Yes, the Reichstag Fire worked so well, the Gleiwitz affair was a foregone conclusion. It was the spark that set the whole thing (Fall Weiss, or "case white") off.

Also, Hitler's intelligence services set up a whole fake Russian radio traffic network, by which they tricked Stalin into believing that a vast number of his own military command were cooperating with the Nazis. As a result, Stalin liquidated about one-third of his senior command structure in the months before Hitler launched operation Barbarossa

8 posted on 09/01/2021 10:08:00 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: DFG

This horror might not have happened if Germany had a free and independent press at the time. But the German press in 1939 was, of course, nothing more than a propaganda arm of the state.

We are in much the same situation today. And yes, American mainstream media, I’m talking about you.


9 posted on 09/01/2021 10:09:49 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have alrseady previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: Leaning Right
We are in much the same situation today. And yes, American mainstream media, I’m talking about you.

Most of our MSM is proud to be a participant in the "situation," as you put it. As was — I'm sure — the German media back in the 1930s.

Of course, they had a more compelling excuse back then: those who told the truth simply disappeared, in the Nazi program of Nacht und Nebel, never to be seen again. Our "jounalists" simply don't get invited to the cool partiesm and get banned from Facebook and Twitter. At least for now.

10 posted on 09/01/2021 10:17:24 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: pierrem15
Sep. 1 is commemorated in Poland as a day of mourning

As is Sep. 17 when the Soviets invaded. Never forget it was a joint German-Soviet operation.

11 posted on 09/01/2021 10:24:00 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DFG

Dang it. Since I missed on timely posting on another important anniversary yesterday, can I shoehorn it in here off topic? Thanks

The fall of the western Roman Empire was a very long process, not something easy to pit point to a particular day. Nevertheless, many do so by pointing to August 31, 476 when the teenage emperor, Romulus Agustulus abdicated the throne. He’d been a puppet of the German warlord Odoacer anyway, who proceeded to send the imperial regalia to the eastern emperor, saying there was no further need for an emperor in the west. 1550 years ago yesterday


12 posted on 09/01/2021 10:24:03 AM PDT by j.havenfarm (20 years on Free Republic, 12/10/20! More than 3700 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: Leaning Right

This^^^media IS a propaganda arm of rat ideology…


13 posted on 09/01/2021 10:29:37 AM PDT by TnTnTn
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To: DFG
The Gleiwitz radio transmitter survived the war and was later used to jam broadcasts from the West during the Cold War. it is currently used by an FM station.


14 posted on 09/01/2021 10:42:31 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: DFG
This came EIGHT (8) days after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939, the non-aggression pact between the two most murderous regimes of that date, Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. At that time, Poland had been an independent nation for 20 years after a century+ of being partitioned between Russia, Prussia/Germany & Hapsburg Austro-Hungary.

An unpublished secret agreement of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact had the Germans halting at a pre-determined line for the Soviet troops to match upon their 'conquest' starting on 17 September. The fact that it took that amount of time for Stalin to advance his soldiers was another fact that convince Hitler of the weakness of the Red Army. Added factors were the 1938-39 Purge and the disastrous invasion of Finland in December of 1939-40.

Nonetheless, Poland was completely conquered by October 1939 with an exile Government in London along with some military, enough for a Polish Air Force Squadron to fight with the RAF in the Battle of Britain. Still, in divided Poland, it was difficult to impossible for the Polish victims to prefer one police state over the other. The German Gestapo even had a conference with their Soviet NKVD counterparts in March 1940 on Polish Pacification. One does wonder what working friendships were disrupted when the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, some 22 months after German & Soviet soldiers shook hands over Poland's bleeding corpse!

A note about the above map where one sees Lithuania. Like Poland, the Baltic Countries of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland all had their independence recognized by the international community following the end of WW1 in 1918-19. In the period between the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Operation Barbarossa, Stalin's Soviet Union conquered Lithuania, Estonia & Latvia, and systemically decapitated their leadership, frequently with a bullet. They did not regain that independence until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, 50 years later. Finland lost significant territory and casualties to Soviet Invasion in this 2 years but retained its independence following WW2.

15 posted on 09/01/2021 11:32:03 AM PDT by SES1066 (Ask not what the LEFT can do for you, rather ask what the LEFT is doing to YOU!)
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To: DFG

‘’Operation Canned Goods’’.


16 posted on 09/01/2021 11:46:15 AM PDT by jmacusa (America. Founded by geniuses . Now governed by idiots.)
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To: Steely Tom

MSM IS proud to be a participant in the “situation.”

Ask any Media student why they decided to go into journalism and they all say the same thing : “I want to change the world”.

They’ve been saying that since the 60s. That’s not a coincidence. Every generation. And now here we stand, at the brink of the “situation.’ Each MSM generation hoped that they would be the one to actually see the fruition of their efforts, the transformation of the world as we know it into a new creation.


17 posted on 09/01/2021 11:48:29 AM PDT by smvoice (I WILL NOT WEAR THE RIBBON. OR THE MASK)
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To: dfwgator
Never forget it was a joint German-Soviet operation.

Yep, see my #15 post, it took a bit of time to assemble.

One of my VIGOROUS arguments in college history was about the blatant ignorance about Stalin's active aggression in the 22 months between the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Operation Barbarossa. Yes, we can sympathize with the Russian People and admire their courage and tenacity in the AMAZING repulse of the German Invasion BUT what does this say about Stalin and his Communists?

With the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, they SILENCED all of the COMMUNIST / Comintern voices who were antiFascists previously. The Pact gave Hitler a free hand to attack westward against the countries Stalin already hated. In return, Stalin took the Baltic Countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and he also got the eastern half of Poland. Stalin also tried for Finland but still got land concessions that belong to Russia to this very day!

What a high-water mark for two mighty LEFTist Dictators, who, along with Mao Zedong, drenched the 20th Century in BLOOD. Oh, and for all (not you, dfwgator) who decry religious wars, colonialism and (white) oppression over the past centuries, these 3 PAGANS demonstrated a fine disregard for any racial preferences in killing any and all that came to their unfavored attention!

18 posted on 09/01/2021 11:59:18 AM PDT by SES1066 (Ask not what the LEFT can do for you, rather ask what the LEFT is doing to YOU!)
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To: SES1066

A very good Made-For-TV Play, featuring “Gandalf” as Hitler.

It shows originally Hitler was skeptical about the Gleiwitz plan, but eventually came around to support it.

Countdown To War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QdVLKrs7A4


19 posted on 09/01/2021 12:01:01 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DFG

And not long after the Germans invaded the Soviets did the same per the secret agreement with Germany. But people don’t talk about it much. But when I was in Poland I found out that they absolutely remember. And they remember what the Soviets did in Poland after the war.


20 posted on 09/01/2021 12:55:29 PM PDT by rfreedom4u ("You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas")
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