Hitler's+Invasion+on+Poland



In January of 1934, soon after rising to power, Adolf Hitler sought to create a nonaggression pact with Poland. It was not a decision widely supported by the German people, but its purpose was mainly to keep Poland and France from joining forces against Germany before the country could mobilize for war. Then later on in the 1930s both France and Britain followed a policy known as appeasement, where they made concessions to German demands in order to maintain peace in Europe, or so they thought. Either way, both France and Britain were far too preoccupied with internal affairs and unprepared militarily to fight another war. As a result of appeasement, Britain and France eventually allowed Hitler to build up Germany’s army and weapons, re-militarize the Rhineland, and annex Austria in 1938. Hitler did not want any conflict with Stalin and the Soviet Union, which is simply modern day Russia, as he encroached upon Polish land so he negotiated a nonaggression pact with them which resulted in the German-Soviet Pact made official in 1939. On September 1st of that same year, Germany finally invaded Poland, and defeated their army within weeks of the attack. Two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany. On September 27th, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was forced to surrender to the German army. In October, Germany annexed territories on its eastern border, and the rest of Poland was occupied when they invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. Nazi Germany continued to control Poland until their defeat in January of 1945.

