and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to

In the late evening of Thursday, August 31, 1939, German covert operatives pretending to be Polish terrorists seized the Gleiwitz radio station in the German/Poland border region of Silesia.

The station’s music program came to an abrupt halt, followed by frantic German voices announcing that Polish formations were marching toward town; Germany was being invaded by Poland!

Then, like a bad imitation of the previous year’s infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, the transmission went dead for a moment of dramatic silence.

Word of Gleiwitz Reaches Rest of World

Soon, the airwaves popped and crackled to life again, and this time Polish voices (clever little devils, those Germans…) called for all Poles in the broadcast area to take up arms and attack Germany.

In no time, radio stations across greater Europe picked up the story. The BBC broadcast this statement:

There have been reports of an attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz, which is just across the Polish border in Silesia. The German News Agency reports that the attack came at about 8.00pm this evening when the Poles forced their way into the studio and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to

g that Polish formations were marching toward town; Germany was being invaded by Poland!

Then, like a bad imitation of the previous year’s infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, the transmission went dead for a moment of dramatic silence.

Word of Gleiwitz Reaches Rest of World

Soon, the airwaves popped and crackled to life again, and this time Polish voices (clever little devils, those Germans…) called for all Poles in the broadcast area to take up arms and attack Germany.

In no time, radio stations across greater Europe picked up the story. The BBC broadcast this statement:

There have been reports of an attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz, which is just across the Polish border in Silesia. The German News Agency reports that the attack came at about 8.00pm this evening when the Poles forced their way into the studio and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to

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Soon, the airwaves popped and crackled to life again, and this time Polish voices (clever little devils, those Germans…) called for all Poles in the broadcast area to take up arms and attack Germany.

In no time, radio stations across greater Europe picked up the story. The BBC broadcast this statement:

There have been reports of an attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz, which is just across the Polish border in Silesia. The German News Agency reports that the attack came at about 8.00pm this evening when the Poles forced their way into the studio and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to

broadcast this statement:

There have been reports of an attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz, which is just across the Polish border in Silesia. The German News Agency reports that the attack came at about 8.00pm this evening when the Poles forced their way into the studio and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to

and began broadcasting a statement in Polish. Within quarter of an hour, says reports, the Poles were overpowered by German police, who opened fire on them. Several of the Poles were reported killed, but the numbers are not yet known.

And thus, Hitler invented an excuse to invade Poland, which he did the next day: September 1, 1939. The day World War II began.

Alfred Naujocks: The Man Who Started World War II

Alfred Helmut Naujocks was an intellectual go-to tough man. It was Naujocks who received the orders from Heinrich M?ller, chief of the Gestapo, to put the staged terrorist attack together at the Gleiwitz station.

At Naujock’s disposal were what the Germans had codenamed “canned goods,” which were dissenters and criminals kept alive in detention camps until the Gestapo needed a warm dead body. To add cogency to the Gleiwitz attack, Naujocks brought along one such canned good: Franciszek Honiok.

Honiok, a German from the Silesian region, was a known Polish sympathizer. Before arriving at the station, the Gestapo gave him a lethal injection. Then, they dressed him up like a Polish terrorist, and brought him to the front of the radio station. Naujocks later testified that the man was unconscious, but not dead yet, when he was shot full of pistol rounds. When the police and press found Honiok’s body, they assumed he’d been one of the fictional Polish terrorists that attacked the station.