This Day in History: August 31, 1939

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by Simonov

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This Day in History

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On August 31, 1939, the German radio station in Gleiwitz is attacked. Initially blamed on Poland, the attack was actually a covert German operation intended to justify the pending invasion of Poland. German operatives belonging to the Schutzstaffel (SS) dressed in Polish uniforms attacked the station and other locations in staged false flag attacks as part of Operation Himmler. While retreating, the Nazi personnel left behind dead bodies (mostly executed prisoners from concentration camps) dressed in Polish uniforms. An anti-German broadcast was also made from the Gleiwitz radio station as part of the operation. The next day saw the launching of Case White, the Nazi German invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II. While the international community remained skeptical of the German version of the event from the beginning, the truth of the false flag operation would be confirmed with the confession of and affidavit from Alfred Naujocks, who had organized the operation at Gleiwitz under orders from Reinhard Heydrich, during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.

Keywords

assigned poland 1,633, germany 307, this day in history 249, tdih 244, wwii 233, world war two 86, august 31 1, gleiwitz 1, gleiwitz incident 1, false flag 1