531. Hitler's War on Poland: The Pact with Stalin (Part 2)
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This night, for the first time, Polish regular soldiers fired on our territory. Since 5.45 a.m., we have been returning their fire. And from now on, bombs will be met by bombs. Whoever fights 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. And I will continue this struggle against any enemy until the safety and rights of the Reich are secured. I am asking no more of any German than what I did myself for four years. There will be no hardships that I do not share. From this moment on, my entire life belongs to my people. I want nothing else now than to be the first soldier of the German Reich. I have now put on the same uniform that was once so dear, so sacred to me. I will only take it off when victory is won, or else I will not live to see it. So, Dominic, the unmistakable tones there of Adolf Hitler, and he was addressing the Reichstag on the 1st of September 1939.
And this was on the occasion of the declaration of war on Poland, which in effect, I know that historians of China may disagree, but let's run with this. It's basically the outbreak of the Second World War. Yeah. And I gave him there, you know, doing his kind of rant. People on YouTube were able to see me gesticulating and all of that, frothing.
Yeah.
But actually, he was quite hesitant, really, wasn't he? He kind of occasionally stumbled over his words, seemed a bit nervous. Yes. You know, he's been looking forward to this great moment. And now when it's come, I mean, is there kind of a slight measure of doubt?
There is, I think, a lot of stress. I think Hitler's not the devil. He's a human being. He's made of flesh and blood. And at this crucial moment in his career, the moment that his life, his political career has been building towards, the outbreak of the war in Europe that he has been predicting for so long. I think he's in a bit of an emotional state, actually. He's in a bit of a mess because he doesn't know whether Britain and France are going to enter the war or not. Everything is in play. And yeah, he actually got the time wrong. So he said 5.45, but it was actually 4.45. He stumbled there and said the wrong time. And he was very, very hesitant and with good reason, right? This is the moment that he throws the dice and we all know what the consequences for Europe will be, but also the consequences for Hitler himself. He looks ahead there to his own death. I won't take this uniform off unless either victory is won or I am dead. And he's already, I think, anticipating what he will do if things go wrong, i.e. the Wagnerian fate.
Yeah, dead at the funeral pyre of his capital. Exactly. So this is the second episode of our trilogy about the Nazi war on Poland. And we ended last time, Tom, as you may remember, with Hitler and his generals drawing up their plan of attack. On the 11th of April 1939, the Poles have resisted their attempts to persuade them to give up Danzig and to turn themselves into a satellite state. So he's drawn up this plan for an attack on Poland. And it's about the same time in April that Joachim von Ribbentrop, very much not somebody admired by the rest of history, it's fair to say, for all kinds of reasons, sartorial and ideological reasons,
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