Figure 1.--This photograph was taken by a German soldier in Poland. This was the kind of reception the Wehrmacht recieved when they reached ethnic Germans. The specific location in Poland is unidentified. |
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Most of the German minority in Poland welcomed the arrival of the German Army. This was the same pattern as was seen first in the Saarland and Rhineland and then in Austria and the Sudetenland. The notivation was basically nationalism and the desire to be united with Germany. And there were scattered incidents where Polish troopsand civilians atacked Germans before the German Army arrived. For Poland's German minority, the arrival of thecWehrmacht was a liberation. The Germans had been listening to NAZI propaganda broadcasts. But the NAZIs gave no real details about actions they planned to take once in control of Poland. Few in Poland, wether Germans or Poles has any real idea of what Hitler and the NAZIs had planned for Poland. There were pro-NAZIs among the Germans in Poland, but even among them, few could have imagined what Hitler and the NAZI leadership was planned. The Germans had occupied Poland in World War and behaved correctly, if severely. Most Germans and Poles expected the same would occur in this occupation.
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