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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1959)
8T8 Events Leading Up To Conflict Recalled Editor's note: On Sept 1, 1939, Adolph Hitler unleashed the blitz krieg invasion of Poland that touch ed off World War II. Joseph W. Grigs, now Chief European Cor respondent of UPI, was a member of the Berlin bureau of the United Press the day war broke out just 20 years ago. Later, after Pearl Harbor, he was interned by the Nazis for five months. In the following dispatch, Grigg recreates the scene in Berlin at the outbreak of the war and the light ning march of events that led up to it. By JOSEPH W. GRIGG UPI Correspondent - London -UPD- At 5:45 on the morning of Friday, Sept. 1, 1939, the "Hellschreiber" tele type printer of the official German news agency in the Berlin office of United Press began grinding out a commu nique. "Proclamation to the Ger man armed forces," it began. Over the streets of Berlin a gray rain - swept dawn was breaking. The few early work ers hurrying along the broad, empty expanse of Unter den Linden saw the street lamps ' go out and continued on their way. They did not know it would be six years before the lights went on again in Europe. They did not know that at that mo ment two air fleets of Nazi Heinkel and Dornier bombers were sweeping across Ger many's eastern frontiers to un load destruction and death on sleeping and defenseless Po- . lish cities. Hitler' Proclamation In the great mausoleum-like Reich Chancellory, which he had built in the hope of per netuating himself for all time in concrete and yellow plaster nrf bronze, the man who signed that communique, Adolf Hitler. Fuehrer and Rpirh Chancellor and Su preme Commander of the Ger man Armed Forces, went to bed. He had just signed the proc lamation which. set his armies and air fleets in motion-across the Polish frontier and un leashed the second World War. For weeks Europe had hurtled down the precipitous slope to war. All communica tions between Berlin and the Western European capitals had ceased. International trains stopped running, long distance telephone lines were cut. In London and Paris the blackout already had begun and antiaircraft guns were mounted on roof tops. Tens of thousands of women and children were being evacuated hurriedly from the cities. Bomb-proof trenches were dug in London's parks and gas masks were distributed to every Briton. Rearmed Illegally What touched off the crisis? Since he came to power in 1933 Hitler had rearmed Ger many illegally, reoccupied tne demilitarized Rhineland, seiz ed Austria, Memel and Czech oslovakia. Now he was demanding res toration of the Free City of Danzig and a road through the corridor of Polish territory that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Earlier that summer Hitler's Propaganda Minister, little club-footed Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, taking the salute at a mass torchlight demonstra tion of thousands of swastika toting Nazis in Danzig, told this correspondent with su preme confidence: "There will be no war. Britain is bluffing. Anyhow, she is too cowardly and weak to fight." Hitler believed that, too. Eleven days before he gave the order to his armies to march into Poland, Hitler pulled out what he believed ' to be his ace-in-the-hole. On the sultry night of Aug. 21 he rocked the world with the an nouncement that he was send ing his Foreign Minister, former champagne salesman Joachim von Ribbentrop, to Moscow to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviets. War Inevitable - From that moment war be came inevitable. The pact meant Hitler could attack Po land without fear that Russia would come to its aid. On Aug. 24 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told the British House of Commons that - pact or no pact-Britain would fulfill her treaty pledges to defend Poland if she were attacked. That same day the British and French began leaving Berlin. Next day, Aug. 25, Nazi Germany secretly completed its mobilization. At the same time, Hitler made a last des perate bid to bribe Britain into staying neutral when he attacked Poland. He summoned Britain's am v bassador, Sir Neville Hender son, to the Chancellory and offered him a treaty under which Nazi Germany would "guarantee" with its own armed forces the integrity of the British Empire. In return, , nvasion he demanded restoration of Germany's former colonies and a free hand to attack Po land. On Aug. 26 the German people, still blissfully un aware cf the crisis about to engulf them and, ultimately, the whole world. received their first rude warning 0I what was in store. The gov ernment announced cancella- of the annual Nazi Party Con gress at Nuremberg. Rationinrr TnM A still ruder awakening came the next day - Sunday- when the Berlin papers pub- lished a government an nouncement imposing strict rationing on food, clothing, shoes and soap. All over Berlin, correspond ents saw anti-aircraft guns being mounted on tall build ings. Sandbags were piled in front of plate glass windows. Crowds of young men carry ing suitcases and mobilization orders jammed Berlin's main railroad stations. Massed Nazi bomber squadrons roared over the Olympic stadium swim ming pool and the Wannsee lake beaches. On Aug. 26, Henderson flew back to Berlin with a note from Chamberlain ac- cepting the broad idea of an Angio-uerman "siaie wiping, ; but reiterating Britain s com- mitments to Poland. Demands Increased But on Aug. 29 Hitler upped his demands. He hand- ed Henderson another note announcing that he no longer would be satisfied with the return of the city of Danzig and a road through the so- called Polish corridor. He de- manded immediate surrender of the whole corridor by fo- land and gave the Polish gov- ernment 24 hours to send a DleniDOtentiary to Berlin to sign "the surrender. The German ultimatum was passed on to Poland; but she aireaay naa oraerea gemucu mobilization herself. At midnight on Aug. 30 rienaerson drove 10 tne ixdzi Foreign Office, told Ribben- - -, 1 it -.t : 1 irop mat ruiaiiu iiua ueeu m- tormed of fliuer s and added that the British government considered it 1m- possible for a. Polish Pteripo- time. Ribbentrop's answer was to read to Henderson in Ger- J Q Kr,-1 St" "uTL "Sr Cr;, . ing what would nave Deen Germany's terms if a Polish plenipotentiary had reached Berlin on time. Unique Report Published Late the next evening, Aug. 31, the text, of Hitler's terms was published. At that very moment the official German news agency put out an utter- ly untrue report of an attack by Polish irmmilore nrt tho I Gleiwitz radio station in Si lesia. This provided Hitler with his excuse to announce that the Nazi armed forces were "firing back." . The invasion orders already had been given. At 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 1 World War H be gan. At 10 a.m. that same, day, Hitler aDoeared before a specially summoned session of tr mhhpr-stamn Nazi Reich- stag., He helped draft the constitu He looked pale and haggard tion which brought Gen. de and his face was strained from Gaulle's Fifth Republic into lack of sleep. For the first existence. time he wore a sort of field- Edouard iDaladier, : French gray uniform in place of his Premier at the time of Mu usual brown tunic and swasti- nich, remained in politics af ka armband. ter the war, most of which he Dwarfed by a huge golden spent in Petainist or German eagle surmounted by a black internment. He was swept out swastika, he cried, "I will 0f political life by the Gaul wage tins struggle, no matter list landslide last fall because against whom, until the secu- 0f his opposition to Gaullism. rity of the Reich and its rights Marshal Philip Petain, the have been guaranteed." hero of Verdun and the traitor Berlin Blacked Out 0f vichy, was sentenced to That night Berlin was death for treason, had the sen blacked out for the first time tence commuted to life inl and there was a practice air priSOnment and died in exile raid alert. m 1951 at the age of 93. The British and French am- pierre Laval died before a bassadors handed Ribbentrop French firing squad when the identical notes demanding war ended. withdrawal of the Nazi forces Most of e t,jg Nazis killed from Poland. Next day Benito tnemselves or died on the gal Mussolini of . Italy tried to lows stage another "Munich" con- Pa'ul Josepn Goebbels com- ference and France declared mitted suicide on the same general mobilization. j M d the same bunker ml TIT I . . n nVi m n C - - . iue ixati wax iuu; Bioii-1 ed into Poland against almost no effective resistance. At 9 aon. on Sunday, Sept. 3, the. British ambassador paid a final call on Ribbentrop and handed him an ultimatum warning that if Germany did not withraw her troops within i , i sider herself in a state of war with Germany. Bluff Believed Nazi radio broke into its pro- eram anrl announced that Bri- tain had declared war. France ioined hPr . later that after- noon . But manv Germans still re- fused to believe that warm autumn day that Britain or France would really' fight, "England is just bluffing," they reassured each other. Stalingrad and El Alamem, j off Poland--jMed Off World.-War. ;l Telephone (Call From Warsaw Marked End oil GSoad tor US. Isolationists By STEWART HENSLEY UPI Correspondent Washington -UPD President Franklin D. Roosevelt was awakened at 2:50 am on the morning oi sepu x, xo, ay a telephone call from Warsaw which marked the beginning P te end OI.an era for the United states. un tne pnone was tne American ambassador to Po land, Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr., to report that Adolf Hitler had sent his Wer- rnacht smashing into Poland and Nazl warplanes were bombing Gdynia, Cracow and Katowice The war Hitler touched off just 20 years ago ended, for him, less than six years later in a blazing bunker in Berlin, Death Came To War Leaders in Varied Circumstances London- (UPD - Adolf Hitler killed himself in the stinking ruins of his Berlin bunker while the boom of Russian guns tolled the death knell of his empir Benito Mussolini was shot anH strung up bv the heels in an Italian gas station Franklm D. Roosevelt died with victory in Europe only days away Joseph Stalin lived long enough to plunge peace into the cold war- Only Winston Churchill of the "big five is still alive, At the age of 85, he spent he lazv summer months of 1959 cruising around the Med- iterranean on a Greek mil lionaire's yacht, . What of the others whose thoughts and actions of 20 years ago changed the history of tne wori(j? , Biiier. Broken Man Tn Rr;t.,;n ?n 1030. the 7 names on everyone's lips were Churcnill chamberlain and jjjjen Neville Chamberlain died a bitter and broken man not . ao j1ar-rf: his spirit shattered by forces beyond his control, Anthony Eden survived as iiuvvc m 1""""- until 19S6 and another war, this time against the Egyp tians and Gamal Abdel Nas ser. It was a war that was a disaster, and Eden retired in January, 1957, a broken and disillusioned man. In France, the greatest name of them au emerged from the war years as an ali- conquering hero but ; it was uuiu xbuu Charles de Gaulle finally found the niche in post-war France that had evaded him for so long. . Emerged as Leader Paul Reynaud, the cour ageous little Frenchman who was overwhelmed by events he could not understand when he was Premier of France in 1940, survived wartime prison to emerge as a political lead er in the Fourth Republic TTjtler Herman Goering cheated the gallows by taking poison in Nuernberg prison on Oct. 15,-1946, only two hours be fore he was to hang. Swallowed Poison Heinrich Himmler swallow- uuiauu til. ici uc wo x, tured by American troops. Gestapo chief Ernst Kalten- brunner and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop died on Vp r vxmu ?teL Hitler s successor as Fuehrer, went to prison and was released last year. Rudolf Hess is still sitting Sicily and Normandy and the ruined bombed-blasted . hulks of a hundred German cities were the final proof that this was indeed for real. his dreams of conquest buried with him in the rubble of the German capital. For the United States it ended in September, 1945, with the surrender of the Jap anese aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo bay. The Germans had given up to the victorious Allies four months earlier. U. S. Most Powerful The U. S. defense depart ment estimates the total cost Of the war to this country alone at $331,350,000,000. It brought 16,112,566 Americans under arms and left more than 400,000 of them dead and 670,000 wounded. At the end of the war, the United States undisputedljr was the most powerful nation in the Spandau jail in Berlin, a bare shadow of a human being. Field Marshal Erwin Rom mel, . hero of the battle of Africa, "committed suicide" at gunpoint for being in volved in the plot against Hit ler's life. His deputy at the time of the Allied invasion of France, Gen. Hans Spiedel, is now one of the top com manders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Died in Exile Victor Emmanuel II, a shy, drab little man who appoint ed Mussolini Premier of Italy after the 1922 march on Rome and who later dismissed Mus solini after the Allied sweep into Italy, died in" exile in Egypt on Dec. 28, 1947. Pietro Badoglio, who took over from II Duce and signed the armistice with the Allies on Sept. 8, 1942, died at the age of 85 on Nov. 1, 1956, in his native village of Grazzano. One of the tragedies of Eu ropean royalty was King Leo pold III of Belgium, who re mained in his country during the occupation and later was accused of collaboration. He was forced to abdicate in fa vor of his son, Baudouin, in 1951, and is now living at Laeken Palace near Brussels. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who fled to exile in London when war broke out, abdicated in 1948 because of ill health and now lives in the Dutch countryside. Text of Hitler's Proclamation Triggering War London (UPD Here is the text of Adolf Hitler's "Procla mation to the German armed forces" of Sept. 1, 1939, that triggered World War II: "The Polish state has re jected the peaceful settlement of our relations as neighbors, for which I have striven, and instead has appealed to arms. "The Germans in Poland are , being persecuted witn bloody terror and driven from farm and home. A series of frontier violations, intolerable for a great power, proves that the Poles no longer are will ing to respect the German Reich frontier. There remains for me no other means of putting an end to the madness but from now on to meet force with force. Stern Determination "The German armed forces will wage with stern deter mination the struggle for the honor of the German people that once more has arisen. "I expect that every soldier, mindful of the great tradition of eternal German soldier- hood, will fulfill his duty to the last. "Remember always and in all situations that you are rep resentatives of National So cialist Greater Germany. "Long live our people and our Reich." FIREMAN BOONE West Los Angeles, Calif-(UPD Singer Pat Boone helped bat tle a two alarm fire Monday at the 20th Century-Fox Stu dios. The fire of undetermined origin caused an estimated $100,000 damage to the stu dio's famed "New England Town" set. Boone was work ing on a set about 50 feet away when the fire started. SP 2-9937 on earth. With this role came leadership of the free world and, eventually, the necessity to rally the non-Communist nations against Red expan sion. With it, too, came the end of any hopes that Americans might have had that they could ever again divorce themselves from trouble else where in the world. Few if any Americans could foresee on Sept. 1, 1939, the rush of events which was to end forever the "isolationism" which had become so strong due to disillusionment follow ing World War I. World of Tomorrow In the late summer of 1939 hundreds of thousands of Americans were thronging the New York World's Fair with its "World of Tomorrow," un aware that many of them would find their "tomorrow" not among the shining scien tific marvels shown there but on the bloody sands of North Africa, in the violence of the Ardennes bulge or the blaz ing fury of the Coral Sea! To most Americans, Poland was still a remote and trouble some country in an area where trouble was the rule. There was an air of unreality about the black newspaper headlines telling of the relent less advance of the Wermacht It 'was to be almost two years before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor finally brought the United States into the actual shoot ing. But historians generally agree that the die was cast ir revocably when Hitler brush ed aside Roosevelt's peace ap peals, defied British and French warnings and struck east 20 years ago. The roots of the conflict ac tually went back to 1919, to the patchwork treaty of Ver sailles in which the Allies tried to restore the balance of power in Europe which Bis marck had upset when he united the German states in 1871. Began in 1931 Actual hostilities dated from 1931 when Japan invad ed China and began her cam paign to bring that vast coun try to its knees. The handwriting on the wall became clearer as Italy invaded Ethiopia, Germany forced the Anschluss of Aus tria and then, after the Mu nich conference gobbled up Czechoslovakia. It was at this point that Hitler said he had "no more territorial demands in Eu rope." But in March, 1939, he issued his "demands" on Po land, which eventually meant war. During the spring and sum mer of 1939, while urging cau tion on Hitler as well as the Poles, Roosevelt had been trying unsuccessfully to get Congress to amend the Neu trality Act to permit easier shipment ,of war materials to Britain, France and other tra ditional allies. Survey Ordered He also had been making plans to return from Europe the 100,000 Americans, in cluding tourists, who were there and had ordered a sur vey of the nation's war indus try potential. All these actions were strongly opposed by sincere isolationists, as well as by REVIVAL t-- A . -A, A BsHsSSSsWJsSSKIBSl Preaching A Gospel That Will Satisfy BODY SOUL SPIRIT Prayer for the Sick Every Night Wayne and Mary WESTBERG SEPT. 2 THROUGH SEPT. 13 Nightly 7:30 p.m. Except Monday and Saturday MEDFORD FOURSQUARE CHURCH East Jackson & Biddle Road V ijw those influenced by the Ger many-American Bund. American Communists, too, opposed Roosevelt's alleged "war-mongenng" after the So viet-German treaty of August. 1939. But their tune changed sharply when Hitler turned and -attacked Russia in mid 1940. The day following the Ger man attack on Poland, Roose velt held a news conference at which he promised to do everything possible to keep the United States and the Western . Hemisphere out of war.' But, at the same time. he urged unity and bipartisan firmness in preparing for any -unexpected- emergency which would directly -involve the American government and people in hostilities. Clauses Repealed In a few months, Congress repealed the restrictive claus es of the Neutrality Act and U. S. war material began to flow in steadily larger amounts to Britain and France -but on a purchase basis. It was not until early 1942, after Japan had attacked, that Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act to enable the supplying of really vast amounts of arms to the Allies, who by then included Russia, on a basis of indefinite credit. The lull between the light ning conquest of Poland and the German attack on the Lowlands and France in the spring of 1940 kept alive some American hopes that the U. S. could avoid involve ment. But in January, 1940, FDR asked for higher taxes for defense. By May, when France was reeling, he was seekmg the unprecedented sum of one billion dollars for defense, including 50,000 air craft. Japan Moving As the forces loosed in Eu rope challenged U. S. compla cency and apathy, the Japa nese were moving stealthily southward in the Orient in a drive which was to culminate in their attack on Pearl Har bor on Dec. 7, 1941. This brought the U. S. into what now had become a truly global war. Washington has been struggling to clear up the political, diplomatic and economic wreckage ever since. . j Coming - a phone you can use to The time the future. You're working busily when your doorbell rings. But you won't have to stop to go to the door. You'll just pick up any phone in your home touch a button and without moving a step, talk to whoever is there. With its tiny built-in loudspeakers, the new home phone system will let you page other members of your family. It 6 MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Cycle of Errors Committed By West Said Basic War Cause Editor's Note: What were the basic causes of World War II? Few people are as well Qualified to answer that question as Paul Rey- nana. A longtime member of the French National Assembly and a veteran cabinet minister, Reynaud fought to strengthen the French army during the 1930's. After the Munich agreement of 1935, he quit the French cabinet in disenst but returned a few months later as Minister of Finance to push his country's rearmament program. He became Premier on March 20, 1940, shorUy before the Nazi invasion that swept through. France, Rey naud refused to surrender and re signed. The Vichy Government sent him to prison, where he spent the . rest of the war. By PAUL REYNAUD (Written for UPI) Paris -(UPD Demagogues are the cancer of democracy, and demagogy led to the blunders that permitted Adolf Hitler to start the second World War just 19 years after the first: The first blunder was the refusal of the United States Senate to permit the United States to join the League of Nations. Had America joined the -League, she would have been obliged by the force of circumstance to assume a role of leadership. The combined power of the Western coun tries could then have avoided World War II. World Problem With America in the League the problem of peace would not have been simply a Fran co-German problem with Brit ain in the background. It would have been a world problem. The demago gues who preached isolation to the American people, and the sen ators who followed them were the first who were responsi ble for World War II. France, too, committed a grave error. She lived next door to a Germany which had not accepted the Versailles Treaty and which obviously wanted to rearm in order to destroy France. To meet this danger, France should have created an army capable of taking the offensive with lightning action. However, on the advice of Marshal Petain, France clung to the heavy, defensive army of trench warfare. Predicted Invasions As far back as July 4, 1925, wrote in the "Weekly Re view" that if we in France maintained ' this policy, we would one day see "the Ger Another valuable Working together to serve you .20 Years Ago Or. Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1959 man Army shake hands with the Red Army over the corpse of Poland" . and that then, doubling back on France, the German army would invade us, too. That is what happened 15 years later. But the French demagogues knowing that our exhausted people wanted only to quiet ly recover their strength told them: "If a new war breaks out, a defensive war fought behind the Maginot Line will cause fewer losses than an offensive war. What was the result? -Hitler took Austria, per mitting his army to threaten the flank of the Czech "Magi not Line. ' -Hitler moved on Czecho slovakia, whom France and Britain abandoned at Munich. -The German Army did, in fact, shake hands : with the Red Army over the corpse of Poland. -When Hitler unleashed his blitzkrieg against France, the outmoded French army-a de fensive army-was just as in capable of protecting its own soil as it had been of attack ing the aggressors of its al lies. United Stales Watched The United States, believ ing itself sheltered behind its ocean, watched without mak ing a move while Hitler per formed four successive oper ations. How did the West react as Hitler carried out his tragic drama? -As if the Hitlerian ogre could be pacified if it were given something to eat. Wit ness these events: -Lord Runcimanf acting in Britain's name,' went and new service to come from Pacific Telephone answer your doorbell will also let you talk between extension telephones in your home. The new home phone system has 1een designed with the idea of .making your telephone service even more pleasant, convenient and useful to you. It's another exam ple of the many ways we're constantly working to give you more value for your telephone dollar. The men mmm Pacific Telephone better, in Medford Your Business Office: 131 N. Bartlett St., SPring 2-6101 counseled the Czechs to give the Sudetenland to Hitler. -Chamberlain, carrying his famous umbrella, went to make conciliatory proposals to Hitler at Bad Godesberg. . -Chamberlain and Daladier went to Munich to conclude with Hitler an agreement whose effect was to put Czech oslovakia into her tomb. Let it be said that Britain had the merit to declare that she would go to war if Hitler attacked Poland. But again the work of the demagogues had done its evil; they had prevented Britain from arm ing sufficiently, despite the warnings of Winston Church ill. To complete the cycle' of errors committed by the Western countries before and during the war, there was the armistice that Marshal Petain signed with Nazi Germany. I opposed this' not only because France and Britain had agreed to sign no separate truces, but because -I wanted France to continue in the struggle so that it could continue to have its say during the war. Beware of Cancer If France had conserved a free government and had been present at Yalta, her repre sentative would have- sup ported Churchill against Roos evelt and we would not now be receiving the periodic threats of Mr. Khrushchev over Berlin, which the Allies made into an island in a Com munist sea. These are the errors which were committed. They are due to the dema- . gogy of some and the weak ness of others. Let us beware of our com mon cancer. ...WHEREVER GOOD FOOD IS SOLD . . . Sniffer's Qualify DAIRY FOODS and women of O
