80Th Anniversary Of The Nazi Invasion Of Poland.

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/31/trump-johnson-forgotten-lessons-war-sadiq-khan-white-nationalism-rightwing

On the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, is it the time for London's Mayor to use the occasion to accuse President Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage of being ‘poster boys for white nationalism’?

[ichkeria]

... my point being it would otherwise have been a war against both communism and fascism. Hitler could have been the leader of the German equivalent of the Monster Raving Loony party (in a way he was of course)
But this was not a war of ideologies, not even on the Soviet side. That happened later.

[Gromit]

Russia invading Poland was a defensive move. It kept Nazi Germany a safe distance away from their border. Until Germany invaded Russia two years later.

[Bobbisox1]

Also the 80th anniversary of the evacuees from the cities to the country for safety

[ichkeria]

Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up Poland between then . It was its way every bit as aggressive and ruthless as the German invasion. And Poland ended up in the Soviet empire after the war.
Depends what you mean by “defensive”.
And of course it did not keep the Germans from their border. It actually did the opposite in effect. Where the Russians were is where The Soviet Union effectively started.

[Khandro]

Gromit you quote //// Britain stood with Poland in 1939 after Nazi forces invaded. It was a privilege to represent London in Gdańsk this morning as we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War and remembered those who gave their lives resisting Nazism. //
I was in Gdansk 3 weeks ago & spent some time trying to figure out its position in WW2 - it is very complicated. The local narrative is that Gdansk was neither Polish nor German at the outbreak of the war, but had independent status awarded by the treaty of Versailles & overseen by the league of nations.
The German forces (Nazis if you like) were reclaiming what they believed to be theirs. However you look at it, no one was actually invading 'Poland'.

[Mozz71]

//The German forces (Nazis if you like) were reclaiming what they believed to be theirs. However you look at it, no one was actually invading 'Poland'.//

If the Polish forces believed it to be theirs, that would leave them at an impasse (reminiscent of the Argentine's belief that they should own the Falklands) with both believing themselves to be right.

Did the German's have to cross Polish soil to reach Gdansk? I'm not familiar with it's position within Poland, but that itself would've been an act of war.

[sanmac]

Mozz71, Gdansk is on the Baltic Sea coast and, indeed, there is a lot of Polish territory to the west separating it from Germany.

[Mozz71]

Thanks SM. So as I guessed, they had to invade Polish territory in order to reach Gdansk.

[Khandro]

Sanma & moz; Like I said earlier; it is a very complicated issue & you need to look at the history of that part of the world before making such statements.
Danzig (now Gdansk) was part of & connected to Germany for hundreds of years, I can't go into details here, but to put it simply, I have in my drinks cabinet a bottle of Danzig Goldwasser (a kind of schnapps which contains real gold powder) which states on the label that it has been made in Danzig (Gdansk) since 1598 !
also see my above post 22:51

[anotheoldgit]

National Socialism eh?

[ichkeria]

No one was invading Poland? Well that’s a novel take on things.
The Nazis had of course engineered a series of false flag operations as we all know to make it look as though Poland was actually trying to invade it.
Before launching a blitzkrieg of brutal force which amounted to genocide against the Polish people.
It disturbs me that this day and age people still apologise for the actions of two of the worst regimes in history.
Makes you wonder despite all the patriotic claptrap just who would have been on whose side in 1939 ...

[Khandro]

ichi you removed my quotation marks - was that intentional? It was certainly Poland that was invaded in 1939, but Gdansk (ex Danzig) was not actually Polish. That & the rest of the region had been taken from Germany at the end of WW2.
I make no apologies for nor support Hitler's actions, but from his perspective he was taking it back from what he and many others considered to be an extremely punitive act agreed by a majority at Versailles after WW1

[ichkeria]

He didn’t just illegally take back Danzig though did he. That was just a pretext for a land grab. And mass murder.

[Khandro]

Yep; that's what he did.