We are now in September and I will start to post more frequently. Most of the posts are going to be anecdotes from World History, as opposed to American History. The web site already has a wealth of American History anecdotes from the post-Civil War period. You can access them by going to the various periods of American History starting with the Wild West. I wanted to provide some interesting stories for my Western Civilizations and World History teachers. These might also find an audience of history buffs. For the first one, I have decided to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII. It is the story of how Hitler tried to make it look like the invasion was justified. Not the first or last time a government used deception to initiate a war.
OPERATION HIMMLER – Hitler was planning on invading Poland, but he wanted it to look like it was in self-defense. The SS concocted a plan called Operation Himmler to give the Nazis an excuse for the invasion. On the night of August 31, 1939 a select unit of SS soldiers “attacked” the German radio station at Gleinwitz, near the Polish border. They brought 12-13 condemned prisoners dressed in Polish uniforms. Before reaching the site, the “enemy” were given lethal injections and then bullets were fired into their bodies at the site. The SS men stormed the station and shot it up. They made a broadcast in Polish encouraging Poles to attack Germans. The next day, German journalists and foreign diplomats were taken to the station to see the results of the unprovoked attack on German soil. By this time, German forces were deep inside Poland, having attacked on September 1. Amazing 110-111
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