Jim Kozimor

87 years ago, Germany attacked Poland, starting World War II The Soviet Union invaded shortly afterward, dividing Poland into two occupied territories under totalitarian rule. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. To justify the attack, German propaganda spoke of “persecution of Germans” and staged an assault on the Gleiwitz radio station, later presented as Polish aggression. Sixteen days later, on September 17, the Red Army invaded from the east. This was provided for in the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: the country had been divided in advance into spheres of influence. Vyacheslav Molotov declared that the Polish state had “ceased to exist” and that the USSR was “taking under its protection” Ukrainians and Belarusians in eastern Poland. On September 28, Germany and its then-ally the USSR signed a treaty “of friendship and borders.” Two totalitarian regimes carved up Poland: Nazi occupation in the west, Soviet occupation in the east. That is how a world war began in Europe. From the first day onward, through occupation, guerrilla warfare, and the postwar decades, the Polish people fought for independence. That struggle ended only in 1989. 📸: A German and a Soviet officer greet each other during Germany’s and the USSR’s aggression against Poland (September 1939).