1 - The Big Three and Poland: July 1943–July 1944

Summary

The collapse of Poland and formation of the Polish Government in exile

The German attack on Poland, which precipitated the outbreak of the Second World War and finally led to the destruction of the Third Reich, began on 1 September 1939. Within a few weeks Polish regular resistance collapsed, in spite of the heroism of the Polish Army, and Poland found herself once again under foreign domination. At the end of September 1939 Poland was once more partitioned by Germany and Russia. The Red Army entered eastern Poland on 17 September in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact concluded on 23 August 1939, which provided for the partition of Poland in the event of war. In August 1939 Hitler and Stalin decided to co-operate in the destruction of Poland as her frontiers were unacceptable to them both. Germany was not reconciled to the terms of the Versailles settlement in Eastern Europe, while Russia resented the loss of territories ceded to Poland by the Treaty of Riga. Stalin tried later on to justify his pact with Hitler in terms of political and strategic expediency. But, to the Poles the Red Army's entry into Poland appeared as an act of treachery, a ‘stab in the back’.

The defeat of Poland began for the Polish nation a period of oppression, terror and destruction, which lasted for almost six years and in its magnitude and ferocity surpassed anything that the Poles, in their eventful and often tragic history, had had to endure. But, it was also a period of great Polish military, political and diplomatic activity.