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The Danzig crisis was an important prelude to World War II.The crisis lasted from March 1939 until the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. The crisis began when tensions escalated between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic Poland over the Free City of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk, Poland).
In order to secure, after the plebiscite (irrespective of the result thereof), Germany's unrestricted communication with the province of Danzig-East Prussia, and Poland's access to the sea, Germany shall, in case the territory be returned to Poland as a result of the plebiscite, be given an extraterritorial traffic zone running from, say ...
During the Czech crisis, Hitler visited the German Gymnastics and Sports Festival in Breslau. When the Sudeten team passed the VIP stand where Hitler was, they shouted "Back home to the Reich!" Josef Goebbels noted in his diary that "The people yelled, cheered and cried. The Führer [Hitler] was deeply moved." [8]
The loss of Danzig did although deeply hurt German national pride and in the interwar period, German nationalists spoke of the "open wound in the east" that was the Free City of Danzig. [23] However, until the building of Gdynia , almost all of Poland's exports went through Danzig, and Polish public opinion was opposed to Germany having a ...
The Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took power in Germany in 1933. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, [92] culminating in the ten-year Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. In the years that followed, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament, as did Poland and other European powers.
The day will come when the fight for right will free Germany and Europe!" [7] At the same time, politics in Danzig had taken a turn towards the right with the Danzig branch of the National Socialists under the leadership of Gauleiter Albert Forster becoming the second party in the Danzig Senate on a platform of "Home to the Reich!" [7]
The causes of World War II have been given considerable attention by historians. The immediate precipitating event was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, and the subsequent declarations of war on Germany made by Britain and France, but many other prior events have been suggested as ultimate causes.
Invasion of Poland; Part of the European theatre of World War II: Left to right, top to bottom: Luftwaffe bombers over Poland; Schleswig-Holstein attacking the Westerplatte; Danzig Police destroying the Polish border post (re-enactment); German tank and armored car formation; German and Soviet troops shaking hands; bombing of Warsaw.