“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 that to meet force with force from now on.” (Chancellor Hitler’s Proclamation to the German
Army, September 1, 1939)
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With the above words Hitler announced the invasion of Poland. In a matter of days the weight of Nazi military strength was to crush the Polish state. On September 17, Russia invaded Poland from the east, and between them Germany and Russia partitioned the conquered country. By September 30 all that remained of Polish independence was a provisional Polish government in Paris. Faced with the necessity of abandoning its capital, what had this exiled government managed to salvage? Of those items necessary to continued resistance, what number had escaped? Unlike men-o’-war which prepare in advance an abandon ship bill, few nations are prepared to deliver their essentials to safety if the state must be abandoned.
Perhaps the best example of this lack of an “abandon nation” bill is found in the chaos
that accompanies the attempts of an invaded state to rescue her treasury, the monetary backing
without which her currency is void, her foreign credit nit, and her ability to fight back crippled.
HERE is that story
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