WORLD WAR 2 – BASIC FACTS
1. World War 2 was started by Germany on 1 September 1939 with its attack on
Poland (without a declaration of war).
2. On 3 September 1939 France and the United Kingdom declared war against
Germany for attacking Poland; however, these States did not take any military
action until they themselves were attacked by Germany in 1940.
3. On 17 September 1939 Poland was treacherously attacked from the east by
Soviet Russia – also without a declaration of war and in breach of the SovietPolish Non-Aggression Pact of 1932. Pincered, the Polish Army could not win,
and, after many dramatic battles, it surrendered. Warsaw was taken after a
three-week-long siege.
4. The State authorities fled to the West – the Polish Government-in-exile was
first based in France and later in the United Kingdom, preserving the continuity
of Statehood. There has never been a Polish Government which collaborated or
cooperated with German occupiers.
5. After Warsaw’s surrender, Poland was occupied by the Germans to the west
and by the Soviets to the east. Terror was introduced on occupied land by the
Germans and Soviets alike – arrests, roundups, deportations and executions
were a common sight.
6. The Germans established in Poland a number of concentration camps and
death camps, in which they imprisoned people of many nationalities, mostly
Poles and Jews.
7. The Germans aimed to exterminate all European Jews, which they
systematically did from 1942. Within German-occupied Poland, the punishment
for any aid granted to a Jew was the death of all household members and often
also of neighbours. Despite this terrible threat, many Poles saved Jews, putting
their own lives at risk (Poles have received the most Righteous Among the
Nations awards).
8. In spite of the terror and the never-ceasing threat to their lives, Poles fought
relentlessly both in their homeland and abroad. Polish airmen participated in
the Battle of Britain, in which No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron recorded the
highest number of shot-down enemy aircraft among all Allied squadrons. Polish
soldiers defended Tobruk, participated in the Invasion of Normandy, liberated
the Netherlands, claimed Monte Cassino and fought in many other locations.
9. In German-occupied Poland there were many secret organisations, which,
together, created comprehensive State structures, forming the Polish
Underground State, led by the internationally recognised Government of the
Republic of Poland in London. The Home Army was active. It fought against the
occupiers by orchestrating sabotage and guerrilla operations, and prepared for
an armed uprising against the Germans, which broke out in Warsaw on 1
August 1944.
10. Unfortunately, the involvement of Poles in fighting on most World War 2 fronts
did not bring them back their freedom – they were betrayed by their British
and American allies, who, at the Yalta Conference with Stalin, handed over
Poland into Soviet hands. A new – Soviet – occupation of Poland started in
1945.