Debate 3

• Germany's reasons for invading Poland

  • Securing eastern borders in case of war
  • Controlling Poland as a step towards invading the Soviet Union
  • Overturning the Versailles settlement and Polish independence
  • Gaining control of the important industrial region of Silesia and the port of Danzig
• Hitler believed


  The Allies would not risk war to defend Poland
• Hitler's gamble of invading Poland


  Did not pay off as Britain and France declared war on Germany
• Hitler's political miscalculations


  • Overconfidence from previous successes like the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement
  • Believing the Allies were weak and could be bullied
  • Underestimating Poland's desire and ability to fight
  • Misunderstanding the Allies' promises to defend Poland
• Hitler believed Britain and France would not risk war to defend Poland
• Hitler thought he could invade Poland without starting a war with the Western Allies
• The British and French increased their rearmament programmes after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia
• The British guarantee to Poland included clauses that seemed to suggest it was not as strong as it appeared
• Hitler still believed Britain would eventually seek an alliance with Germany to compete with the Soviet Union
• The Pact of Steel between Germany and Italy further increased Hitler's confidence that war with Poland would not mean war with the West
• Hitler failed to understand that the British and French did not just want to protect Polish independence, but to prevent Germany from dominating Europe
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact made Hitler more confident about invading Poland without having to worry about Soviet intervention
• Why would Britain fight to protect a Polish authoritarian dictatorship when it hadn't to protect Czechoslovakia? What Hitler failed to understand was that Polish independence was no longer the issue. The British did not want to protect Poland but to protect the balance of power in Europe upon which their own stage depended.
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a non-aggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, made Hitler more confident to invade Poland without having to worry about intervention by the Western democracies.
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact was a personal coup for von Ribbentrop and it was his calculation of British will to fight that regularly Hitler's own view.
• Von Ribbentrop was motivated in part by personal hatred of Britain. He had been snubbed by British high society during his time as German ambassador in London.
• Hitler believed that the invasion of Poland would be a small war, and he was fully prepared to wage conflict.
• Hitler had made no secret of his claims for Lebensraum (living space) in the East. To achieve this, he needed access to the resources of Poland.
• Hitler's personal ideology made war an inevitability. His belief in the natural state of the Third Reich being one of war and the Polish people as Untermenschen (subhuman) incapable of facing the Aryan race, meant that the invasion of Poland was a foregone conclusion.
• Hitler was also wary of the growing power of the US, which he believed was part of the Jewish conspiracy, and wanted to act before the US could ally with France to destroy Germany.
• Hitler's personal ideology, characterized by his belief in the supremacy of the Aryan race and the inevitability of war, made the outbreak of the Second World War more likely.
• Hitler's desperation for military victories to maintain the legitimacy of his dictatorship also contributed to his decision to invade Poland, as he could not afford to be seen as weak or indecisive.
• In the final analysis, the Second World War was inevitable due to Hitler's ideological convictions and his need to seek military victories to maintain his grip on power.