Gallery

 

Third Reich Corridor Propaganda
soft-pedaling Danzig and the Corridor, in spite of Polish economic pressure brought on by allowing goods shipped to Poland through Gdynia to pass duty-free. Hitler still held himself in check; he wasn’t ready for the confrontation over Danzig that Forster desired. Events leading up to the remilitarizatiion of the Rhineland precluded a conflict over Danzig, which surely would antagonize Poland and Britain.

Propaganda and Physical Violence Increase:
In June of 1936, assaults against members of the opposition parties, Jews, and Poles by the SS and SA suddenly increased. On 14 October 1936, the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) was banned; the Nazis finally had free reign, and the League of Nations was forced to stand by and watch.

Final Days:
As the events of 1938 unfolded, Germany made its first formal proposal to the Poles that Danzig be returned to the Reich and that an Autobahn and rail line be constructed through the Polish corridor. Foreign Minister Beck immediately rejected the proposal, but the Germans resurrected this “solution” throughout negotiations in 1939. The Poles still might make an ally against the Soviet Union, so all—out war was not a primary concern.

Prague was occupied on 15 March 1939, and Hitler soon reiterated his request for Danzig and the Corridor. On the 22nd, the Germans occupied Memel. The British grew worried about Nazi threats to Romanja and further demands on Poland. Prime Minister Chamberlain and High Commissioner Burkhardt had hoped that a peaceful solution could still be worked out by giving Danzig back to Germany, thus eliminating the city as a potential threat to world peace. In a speech in the Reichstag on 28 April 1939, Hitler boasted that he had overcome the chaos in Germany, restored order, increased production in all branches of industry, eliminated unemployment, united the German people politcally and morally, “destroyed, page by page, that treaty which, in its 448 articles, included the most shameful oppression ever exacted of peoples and human beings,” restored to the Reich the provinces lost in 1919, returned to their fatherland millions of unhappy Germans who had been placed under foreign rule, restored the thousand-year—old unity of the German living space - all accomplished without shedding blood or inflicting the scourge of war upon his own or other peoples, and all by his own efforts, although he had been an unknown worker and soldier only twenty—one years earlier. Hitler also stated that “Danzig is a German city and wishes to belong to Germany”. This line of reasoning became a new theme for German propaganda, and the slogan can be seen in the photos in Danzig Report No.35. Danzig’s fate was now sealed. Hitler’s final ultimatum became known on 31 August, when the German radio stopped its scheduled programs and broadcast the terms of German proposals to Poland. Der Fuhrer demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary be sent to Berlin immediately to resolve the questions. These proposals, never meant to be taken seriously, contained sixteen points.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 67 - April - May - June - 1990, Page 9.