SOME DOCUMENTS RELEVANT TO GERMANY'S INVASION OF POLAND AND
RESPONSE TO GREAT BRITAIN'S ULTIMATUM.

The file contains the following documents in the order of
appearance in the file:

(1)Proclamation by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, to the
German Army, September 1,19139.

(2) Address by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, before the
Reichstag, September 1, 1939.

(3) Communication from the German Government to the British
Government, Handed to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, to the British Ambassador (Sir Neville
Henderson) at 11:20 A.M., September 3, 1939

(4) Proclamation by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, to
the German People, September 3, 1939.

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(1) Proclamation by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, to
the German Army, September 1,19139.

The Polish State has refused the peaceful settlement of
relations which I desired, and has appealed to arms.  Germans in
Poland are persecuted with bloody terror and driven from their
houses.  A series of violations of the frontier, intolerable to
a great Power, prove that Poland is no longer willing to respect
the frontier of the Reich.

In order to put an end to this lunacy, I have no other choice
than to meet force with force from now on.  The German Army will
fight the battle for the honour and the vital rights of reborn
Germany with hard determination.  I expect that every soldier,
mindful of the great traditions of eternal German soldiery, will
ever remain conscious that he is a representative of the
National-Socialist Greater Germany.  Long live our people and
our Reich!

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(2) Address by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, before the
Reichstag, September 1, 1939.

For months we have been suffering under the torture of a problem
which the Versailles Diktat created - a problem which has
deteriorated until it becomes intolerable for us.  Danzig was
and is a German city.  The Corridor was and is German.  Both
these territories owe their cultural development exclusively to
the German people.  Danzig was separated from us, the Corridor
was annexed by Poland.  As in other German territories of the
East, all German minorities living there have been ill-treated
in the most distressing manner.  More than 1,000,000 people of
German blood had in the years 1919-1920 to leave their homeland.

As always, I attempted to bring about, by the peaceful method of
making proposals for revision, an alteration of this intolerable
position.  It is a lie when the outside world says that we only
tried to carry through our revisions by pressure.  Fifteen years
before the National Socialist Party came to power there was the
opportunity of carrying out these revisions by peaceful
settlements and understanding.  On my own initiative I have, not
once but several times, made proposals for the revision of
intolerable conditions.  All these proposals, as you know, have
been rejected - proposals for limitation of armaments and even,
if necessary, disarmament, proposals for limitation of
warmaking, proposals for the elimination of certain methods of
modern warfare.  You know the proposals that I have made to
fulfill the necessity of restoring German sovereignty over
German territories.  You know the endless attempts I made for a
peaceful clarification and understanding of the problem of
Austria, and later of the problem of the Sudetenland, Bohemia,
and Moravia.  It was all in vain.

It is impossible to demand that an impossible position should be
cleared up by peaceful revision and at the same time constantly
reject peaceful revision.  It is also impossible to say that he
who undertakes to carry out these revisions for himself
transgresses a law, since the Versailles Diktat is not law to
us.  A signature was forced out of us with pistols at our head
and with the threat of hunger for millions of people.  And then
this document, with our signature, obtained by force, was
proclaimed as a solemn law.

In the same way, I have also tried to solve the problem of
Danzig, the Corridor, etc., by proposing a peaceful discussion.
That the problems had to be solved was clear.  It is quite
understandable to us that the time when the problem was to be
solved  had little interest for the Western Powers.  But that
time is not a matter of indifference to us.  Moreover, it was
not and could not be a matter of indifference to those who
suffer most.

In my talks with Polish statesmen I discussed the ideas which
you recognize from my last speech to the Reichstag.  No one
could say that this was in any way an inadmissible procedure on
undue pressure.  I then naturally formulated at last the German
proposals, and I must once more repeat that there is nothing
more modest or loyal than these proposals.  I should like to say
this to the world.  I alone was in the position to make such
proposal, for I know very well that in doing so I brought myself
into opposition to millions of Germans.  These proposals have
been refused.  Not only were they answered first with
mobilization, but with increased terror and pressure against our
German compatriots and with a slow strangling of the Free City
of Danzig - economically, politically, and in recent weeks by
military and transport means.

Poland has directed its attacks against the Free City of Danzig.
Moreover, Poland was not prepared to settle the Corridor
question in a reasonable way which would be equitable to both
parties, and she did not think of keeping her obligations to
minorities.

I must here state something definitely; German has kept these
obligations; the minorities who live in Germany are not
persecuted.  No Frenchman can stand up and say that any
Frenchman living in the Saar territory is oppressed, tortured,
or deprived of his rights.  Nobody can say this.

For four months I have calmly watched developments, although I
never ceased to give warnings.  In the last few days I have
increased these warnings.  I informed the Polish Ambassador
three weeks ago that if Poland continued to send to Danzig notes
in the form of ultimata, and if on the Polish side an end was
not put to Customs measures destined to ruin Danzig's trade,
then the Reich could not remain inactive.  I left no doubt that
people who wanted to compare the Germany of to-day with the
former Germany would be deceiving themselves.

An attempt was made to justify the oppression of the Germans by
claiming that they had committed acts of provocation.  I do not
know in what these provocations on the part of women and
children consist, if they themselves are maltreated, in some
cases killed.  One thing I do know - that no great Power can
with honour long stand by passively and watch such events.

I made one more final effort to accept a proposal for mediation
on the part of the British Government.  They proposed, not that
they themselves should carry on the negotiations, but rather
that Poland and Germany should come into direct contact and once
more pursue negotiations.

I must declare that I accepted this proposal, and I worked out a
basis for these negotiations which are known to you.  For two
whole days I sat in my Government and waited to see whether it
was convenient for the Polish Government to send a
plenipotentiary or not.  Last night they did not send us a
plenipotentiary, but instead informed us through their
Ambassador that they were still considering whether and to what
extent they were in a position to go into the British proposals.
The Polish Government also said that they would inform Britain
of their decision.

Deputies, if the German Government and its Leader patiently
endured such treatment Germany would deserve only to disappear
from the political stage.  But I am wrongly judged if my love of
peace and my patience are mistaken for weakness or even
cowardice.  I, therefore, decided last night and informed the
British Government that in these circumstances I can no longer
find any willingness on the part of the Polish Government to
conduct serious negotiations with us.

These proposals for mediation have failed because in the
meanwhile there, first of all, came as an answer the sudden
Polish general mobilization, followed by more Polish atrocities.
These were again repeated last night.  Recently in one night
there were as many as twenty-one frontier incidents: last night
there were fourteen, of which three were quite serious.  I have,
therefore, resolved to speak to Poland in the same language that
Poland for months past has used toward us.  This attitude on the
part of the Reich will not change.

The other European States understand in part our attitude.  I
should like here above all to thank Italy, which throughout has
supported us, but you will understand that for the carrying on
of this struggle we do not intend to appeal to foreign help.  We
will carry out this task ourselves.  The neutral States have
assured us of their neutrality, just as we had already
guaranteed it to them.

When statesmen in the West declare that this affects their
interests, I can only regret such a declaration.  It cannot for
a moment make me hesitate to fulfill my duty.  What more is
wanted?  I have solemnly assured them, and I repeat it, that we
ask nothing of those Western States and never will ask anything.
I have declared that the frontier between France and Germany is
a final one. I have repeatedly offered friendship and, if
necessary, the closest co-operation to Britain, but this cannot
be offered from one side only.  It must find response on the
other side.  Germany has no interests in the West, and our
western wall is for all time the frontier of the Reich on the
west.  Moreover, we have no aims of any kind there for the
future.  With this assurance we are in solemn earnest, and as
long as others do not violate their neutrality we will likewise
take every care to respect it.

I am happy particularly to be able to tell you of one event.
You know that Russia and Germany are governed by two different
doctrines.  There was only one question that had to be cleared
up.  Germany has no intention of exporting its doctrine.  Given
the fact that Soviet Russia has no intention of exporting its
doctrine to Germany.  I no longer see any reason why we should
still oppose one another.  On both sides we are clear on that.
Any struggle between our people would only be of advantage to
others.  We have, therefore, resolved to conclude a pact which
rules out for ever any use of violence between us.  It imposes
the obligation on us to consult together in certain European
questions.  It makes possible for us economic co-operation, and
above all it assures that the powers of both these powerful
States are not wasted against one another.  Every attempt of the
West to bring about any change in this will fail.

At the same time I should like here to declare that this
political decision means a tremendous departure for the future,
and that it is a final one.  Russia and Germany fought against
one another in the World War.  That shall and will not happen a
second time.  In Moscow, too, this pact was greeted exactly as
you greet it.  I can only endorse word for word the speech of
Russian Foreign Commissar, Molotov.

I am determined to solve (1) the Danzig question; (2) the
question of the Corridor; and (3) to see to it that a change is
made in the relationship between Germany and Poland that shall
ensure a peaceful co-existence.  In this I am resolved to
continue to fight until either the present Polish government is
willing to continue to bring about this change or until another
Polish Government is ready to do so.  I am resolved t remove
from the German frontiers the element of uncertainty, the
everlasting atmosphere of conditions resembling civil war.  I
will see to it that in the East there is, on the frontier, a
peace precisely similar to that on our other frontiers.

In this I will take the necessary measures to se that they do
not contradict the proposals I have already made known in the
Reichstag itself to the rest of the world, that is to say, I
will not war against women and children.  I have ordered my air
force to restrict itself to attacks on military objectives.  If,
however, the enemy thinks he can form that draw carte blanche on
his side to fight by the other methods he will receive an answer
that will deprive him of hearing and sight.

This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on
our territory.  Since 5.45 A.M. we have been returning the fire,
and from now on bombs will be met by bombs.  Whoever fight with
poison gas will be fought with poison gas.  Whoever departs from
the rules of humane warfare can only expect that we shall do the
same.  I will continue this struggle, no matter against whom,
until the safety of the Reich and its rights are secured.

For six years now I have been working on the building up of the
German defenses.  Over 90 millions have in that time been spent
on the building up of these defense forces.  They are now the
best equipped and are above all comparison with what they were
in 1914.  My trust in them is unshakable.  When I called up
these forces and when I now ask sacrifices of the German people
and if necessary every sacrifice, then I have a right to do so,
for I also am to-day absolutely ready, just as we were formerly,
to make every possible sacrifice.

I am asking of no German man more than I myself was ready
throughout four years at any time to do.  There will be no
hardships for Germans to which I myself will not submit.  My
whole life henceforth belongs more than ever to my people.  I am
from now on just first soldier of the German Reich.  I have once
more put on that coat that was the most sacred and dear to me.
I will not take it off again until victory is secured, or I will
not survive the outcome.

Should anything happen to me in the struggle then my first
successor is Party Comrade Goring; should anything happen to
Party Comrade Goring my next successor is Party Comrade Hess.
You would then be under obligation to give to them as Fuhrer the
same blind loyalty and obedience as to myself.  Should anything
happen to Party Comrade Hess, then by law the Senate will be
called, and will choose from its midst the most worthy - that is
to say the bravest - successor.

As a National Socialist and as German soldier I enter upon this
struggle with a stout heart.  My whole life has been nothing but
one long struggle for my people, for its restoration, and for
Germany.  There was only one watchword for that struggle: faith
in this people.  One word I have never learned: that is,
surrender.

If, however, anyone thinks that we are facing a hard time, I
should ask him to remember that once a Prussian King, with a
ridiculously small State, opposed a stronger coalition, and in
three wars finally came out successful because that State had
that stout heart that we need in these times.  I would,
therefore, like to assure all the world that a November 1918
will never be repeated in German history.  Just as I myself am
ready at any time to stake my life - anyone can take it for my
people and for Germany - so I ask the same of all others.

Whoever, however, thinks he can oppose this national command,
whether directly of indirectly, shall fall.  We have nothing to
do with traitors.  We are all faithful to our old principle.  It
is quite unimportant whether we ourselves live, but it is
essential that our people shall live, that Germany shall live.
The sacrifice that is demanded of us is not greater than the
sacrifice that many generations have made.  If we form a
community closely bound together by vows, ready for anything,
resolved never to surrender, then our will will master every
hardship and difficulty.  And I would like to close with the
declaration that I once made when I began the struggle for power
in the Reich.  I then said: "If our will is so strong that no
hardship and suffering can subdue it, then our will and our
German might shall prevail."

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(3) Communication from the German Government to the British
Government, Handed to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, to the British Ambassador (Sir Neville
Henderson) at 11:20 A.M., September 3, 1939


The German Government have received the British Government's
ultimatum of the 3rd September, 1939.  They have the honour to
reply as follows: -

1. The German Government and the German people refuse to
receive, accept, let alone to fulfill, demands in the nature of
ultimata made by the British Government.

2. On our eastern frontier there has for many months already
reigned a condition of war.  Since the time when the Versailles
Treaty first tore Germany to pieces, all and every peaceful
settlement was refused to all German Governments.  The National
Socialist Government also has since the year 1933 tried again
and again to remove by peaceful negotiations the worst rapes and
breaches of justice of this treaty.  The British Government have
been among those who, by their intransigent attitude, took the
chief part in frustrating every practical revision.  Without the
intervention of the British Government - of this the German
Government and German people are fully conscious - a reasonable
solution doing justice to both sides would certainly have been
found between Germany and Poland.  For Germany did not have the
intention nor had she raised the demands of annihilating Poland.
The Reich demanded only the revision of those articles of the
Versailles Treaty which already at the time of the formulation
of that Dictate had been described by understanding statesmen of
all nations as being in the long run unbearable, and therefore
impossible for a great nation and also for the entire political
and economic interests of Eastern Europe.  British statesmen,
too, declared the solution in the East which was then forced
upon Germany as containing the germ of future wars.  To remove
this danger was the desire of all German Governments and
especially the intention of the new National Socialist People's
Government.  The blame for having prevented this peaceful
revision lies with the British Cabinet policy.

3. The British Government have - an occurence unique in history
- given the Polish State full powers for all actions against
Germany which that State might conceivabley intend to undertake.
The British Government assured the Polish Government of their
military support in all circumstances, should Germany defend
herself against any provocation or attack.  Thereupon the Polish
terror against the Germans living in the territories which had
been torn from Germany immediately assumed unbearable
proportions.  The Free City of Danzig was, in violation of all
legal provisions, first threatened with destruction economically
and by measures of customs policy, and was finally subjected to
a military blockade and its communications strangled.  All these
violations of the Danzig Statute, which were well known to the
British Government, were approved and covered by the blank
cheque given to Poland.  The German Government, though moved by
the sufferings of the German population which was being tortured
and treated in an inhuman manner, nevertheless remained a
patient onlooker for five months, withour undertaking even on
one single occasion any similar aggressive action against
Poland.  They only warned Poland that these happenings would in
the long run be unbearable, and that they were determined, in
the event of no other kind of assistance being given to this
population, to help them themselves.  All these happenings were
known in every detail to the British Government.  It would have
been easy for them to use their great influence in Warsaw in
order to exhort those in power there to exercise justice and
humaneness and to keep to the existing obligations.  The British
Government did not do this.  On the contrary, in emphasising
their obligation to assist Poland under all circumstances, they
actually encouraged the Polish Government to continue in their
criminal attitude which was threatening the peace of Europe.  In
this spirit, the British Government rejected the proposal of
Signor Mussolini, which might still have been able to save the
peace of Europe, in spite of the fact that the German Government
had declared their willingness to agree to it.  The British
Government, therefore, bear the responsbility for all the
unhappiness and misery which have now overtaken and are about to
overtake many peoples.

4. After all efforts at finding and concluding a peaceful
solution had been rendered impossible by the intransigence of
the Polish Government covered as they were by England, after the
conditions resembling civil war, which had existed already for
months at the eastern frontier of the Reich, had gradually
developed into open attacks on German territory, without the
British Government raising any objections, the German Government
determined to put an end to this continual threat, unbearable
for a great Power, to the external and finally also to the
internal peace of the German people, and to end it by those
means which, since the Democratic Governments had in effect
sabotaged all other possibilities of revision, alone remained at
their disposal for the defence of the peace, security and honour
of the Germans.  The last attack of the Poles threatening Reich
territory they answered with similar measures.  The German
Government do not intend, on account of any sort of British
intentions or obligations in the East, to tolerate conditions
which are identical with those conditions which we observe in
Palestine, which is under British protection.  The German
people, however, above all do not intend to allow themselves to
be ill-treated by Poles.

5. The German Government, therefore, reject the attempts to
force Germany, by means of a demand having the character of an
ultimatum, to recall its forces which are lined up for the
defence of the Reich, and thereby to accept the old unrest and
the old injustice.  The threat that, failing this, they will
fight Germany in the war, corresponds to the intention
proclaimed for years past by numerous British politicians.  The
German Government and the German people have assured the English
people countless times how much they desire an understanding,
indeed close friendship, with them.  If the British Government
hitherto always refused these offers and now answer with an open
threat of war, it is not the fault of the German people and
their Government, but exclusively the fault of the British
Cabinet or of those men who for years have been preaching the
destruction and extermination of the German people. The German
people and their Government do not, like Great Britian, intend
to dominate the world, but they are determined to defend their
own liberty, their independence and above all their life.  The
intention, communicated to us by order of the British Government
by Mr. King-Hall, of carrying the destruction of the German
people even further than was done through the Versailles Treaty
is taken note of by us, and we shall therefore answer any
aggressive action on the part of England with the same weapons
and in the same form.

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(4) Proclamation by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, to
the German People, September 3, 1939.

Great Britain has for centuries pursued the aim of rendering the
peoples of Europe defenseless against the British policy of
world conquest by proclaiming a balance of power, in which Great
Britain claimed the right to attack on threadbare pretexts and
destroy that European State which at the moment seemed most
dangerous.  Thus, at one time, she fought the world power of
Spain, later the Dutch, then the French, and, since 1871, the
German.

We ourselves have been witnesses of the policy of encirclement
which has been carried on by Great Britain against Germany since
before the war.  Just as the German nation had begun, under its
National Socialist leadership, to recover from the frightful
consequences of the Diktat of Versailles, and threatened to
survive the crisis, the British encirclement immediately began
once more.

The British war inciters spread the lie before the War that the
battle was only against the House of Hohenzollern or German
militarism; that they had no designs on German colonies; that
they had no intention of taking the German mercantile fleet.
They then oppressed the German people under the Versailles
Diktat the faithful fulfillment of which would have sooner or
later exterminated 20 million Germans.

I undertook to mobilize the resistance of the German nation
against this, and to assure work and bread for them.  But as the
peaceful revision of the Versailles Diktat of force seemed to be
succeeding, and the German people again began to live, the new
British encirclement policy was resumed.  The same lying
inciters appeared as in 1914.  I have many times offered Great
Britain and the British people the understanding and friendship
of the German people.  My whole policy was based on the idea of
this understanding.  I have always been repelled.  I had for
years been aware that the aim of these war inciters had for long
been to take Germany by surprise at a favourable opportunity.

I am more firmly determined than ever to beat back this attack.
Germany shall not again capitulate.  There is no sense in
sacrificing one life after another and submitting to an even
worse Versailles Diktat.  We have never been a nation of slaves
and will not be one in the future.  Whatever Germans in the past
had to sacrifice for the existence of our realm, they shall not
be greater than those which we are to-day prepared to make.

This resolve is an inexorable one.  It necessitates the most
thorough measures, and imposes on us one law above all others:
If the soldier is fighting at the front, no one shall profit by
the war.  If the soldier falls at the front no one at home shall
evade his duty.

As long as the German people was united it has never been
conquered.  It was the lack of unity in 1918 that led to
collapse.  Whoever offends against this unity need expect
nothing else than annihilation as an enemy of the nation.  If
our people fulfills its highest duty in this sense, that God
will help us who has always bestowed His mercy on him who was
determined to help himself.
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Collected and transcribed by
Larry W. Jewell
[email protected]

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