a history of violence

BERLIN, Sept 1 (Friday)(A.P.) - Adolf Hitler today ordered the German army to meet force with force. His order of the day to the army read:

“The Polish state has rejected by efforts to establish neighborly relations and instead has appealed to weapons. Germans in Poland are victims of a bloody terror, driven from house and home. A series of border violations unbearable for a great power show that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German border.

“To put an end to these insane incitations, nothing remains but for me to meet force with force from now on. The German army will conduct a fight for honor and the right to the life of the resurrected German people with firm determination. I expect the every soldier, mindful of the great traditions of the eternal German military, will do his duty to the last.

“Remember always that you are representatives of the National Socialist great Germany. Long live our people and our reich!”

If you have heard a bigger load of bullocks, let me know.

September 01, 2010, 6:57pm

“…Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss…”

WWII in HD: Part One, Darkness Falls (2009)

September 01, 2010, 2:50pm

German forces goosestepping their way through Warsaw, Poland in 1939.

September 01, 2010, 2:13pm

Invasion of Poland, September 1st 1939

September 01, 2010, 2:05pm

September 1 1939: Nazi Germany Invades Poland

The invasion of Poland is only one of the many beginnings of the Second World War, though it is considered by most Europe’s own version of Pearl Harbor. September 1st 1939, Poland was invaded by German (and Soviet) forces in what would become known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War. The Polish armies were no match for Hitler’s superior Wehrmacht forces or to the Luftwaffe’s Blitzkrieg and it was quickly apparent in battle. As a result, on October 6th 1939, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over the country. Even though Poland’s allies, Great Britain and France had declared on Nazi Germany, neither country did anything at all (or very little) to try and change the outcome of the invasion. While the country never formally surrendered to either Hitler or Stalin, the success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic and just the beginning of the occupations’ terror.

Under German occupation, between 5.46 and 5.67 million Polish citizens were killed - about 20% of the country’s total population and over 90% of its Jewish minority - including the mass murder of 3 million Poles in extermination camps, slave labor camps and in numerous massacres where faceless civilians were rounded up, taken to a nearby forest and were machine-gunned, then buried. It didn’t matter if they were dead or not. The Germans were not alone in their crimes however, under Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941 resulted in 150,000 deaths and deportation of 320,000 Poles. All of who had been deemed dangerous to the Soviet regime were subjected to ‘Sovietization,’ forced resettlement, imprisonment in labor camps (the Gulags) or murdered like the Polish officers in the Katyn massacre.

Events After the Fall of Poland:
1 September 1939, Poland Invaded
2 April 1940, Denmark and Norway Invaded
10 May 1940, Holland, Belgium and France Invaded
15 May 1940, Holland Surrenders
26 May 1940, Belgium Surrenders
10 June 1940, Norway Surrenders
22 June 1940, France Surrenders
June 1940, Britain is the last democracy in Europe fighting Hitler

(paraphrased from wikipedia and my vast nerdy knowledge)

September 01, 2010, 1:18am

August 29, 2010, 12:00pm

August 28, 2010, 1:32pm

Goodnight tumblr, I’m watching The Rocketeer and going to bed!

August 27, 2010, 2:03am