World War II - The First Day

Good morning, I am on the last week of November and winding down the World War I and World War II documentaries.  I am going to do a documentary on World War II about its first days.  The run time for this documentary is 48:12. The episode is called The First Day.

September 1, 1939 was the day when Adolph Hitler declared war on Poland.  His plan was to destroy the Polish military and then eventually the Polish nation.  He was going to obliterate the livelihoods of the Polish people as well as anyone else who stood in his way.  It was a time that ended the childhoods of millions of children.  This is the story of what happened on the first day of the invasion.

The story begins with a recreation of the order that went out for the invasion.  The war was going to begin.  Otto Schmidt recalls the day of the invasion and how the people would die.  The Nazi Airforce made their move on a small Polish town.  Schmidt recalls diving and bombing the center of the town.  He was horrified as he knew that the people did not know that they were at war. 

Piortr Kieszkowski spoke about how that day of war was when his childhood ended.  He was in the village of Wielun that was being bombed by Schmidt and his men.  He recalls the house collapsing around him.  He recalls being in darkness and that his mouth was full of dust.  It was a miracle that they had survived.  His grandmother would sadly pass away in the bombing.  The bombing of Wielun was a practice for what was to come.  Schmit recalls feeling horrified at what he had done.

Could the war have been avoided?  The Great Powers wanted to avoid war and were willing to deal with Hitler to achieve that peace.  Hitler had his eyes on Czechoslovakia and he was going to get land from Czechoslovakia.  He was going to go to war for it and the Western Powers still weary from World War I would give him the land.  The people were not consulted on this land transfer.  They would have to accept their fate for peace.  It was a “classic blackmail scheme.”  The peace deal was just a way to help give Hitler time to build up his military.  

However, Hitler was slowly preparing for war and had been secretly rearming Germany.  He was flexing his power and challenging the Allies.  His first challenge was in 1936 when he invaded the Rhineland and the West could only protest his invasion.  Eventually, Hitler took over Austria.  He was bringing German territories into the Reich.  He would have his eyes on recovering Danzing, a swath of land that was under the League of Nations control.  Finally, Hitler would invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Eventually, the Allies would see that Hitler would not stop claiming territories.  He had no limit to his aims.  The Polish government looked at Hitler and drew its conclusions.  They would make no concessions to Hitler and would fight back against Hitler.  However, Hitler was prepared to wipe out the whole Polish State.  The return of Danzing was the pretext for Hitler’s Polish invasion.  Polish people in Danzing would find themselves under persecution from the Germans.  One resident recalls Germans throwing rocks at their windows.

The Polish army tried to build up their strength.  However, the Polish military would not be a match for the German army.  That said, the Polish government put out propaganda saying that the Polish army could march into Berlin in a mere three weeks.  However, the truth was that they would not be able to stand up against the mighty German war machine.  Eventually, the military would be sent to the German border, and the threat of invasion hung in the air.  For many children it would have been the last time they would have seen their fathers.  To learn more about the beginning of World War II continue to watch the rest of the documentary.

I liked this episode, it was very well done and went through a careful explanation of the lead up to World War II.  The recreations were well done and it had a very good flow.  I would show this to a history class room.