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Poland during World War 2 Essay examples

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I. History of Poland
After the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795), which had decreased the size of the country, giving most of the land to Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary.

The First World War provided a practical chance for Poland to restore its independence. The powers, which had separated the country more than one hundred years earlier, were fighting on opposite sides. Germany with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the Central Powers) fought Imperial Russia allied with France and Great Britain. Polish troops, under their own banners, also joined the fight. At first, under the command of the anti-Russian revolutionary Józef Pi³sudski, Polish battalions were formed to fight Russia. But in 1917, after a number of successful operations …show more content…

Poland had to balance between Germany and Soviet Russia. In 1932 Poland signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union, which was to last until 1945. In 1934 a similar ten-year pact was signed with Germany. One year earlier, shortly after Adolf Hitler's ascension to power, Polish Head of State Marshal Pilsudski made a secret proposal to France to mount together a preemptive strike against Germany to unseat Hitler before the Germans had time to rearm. But France refused, compelling the Polacks to do the next best thing: to enter into a non-aggression pact with the Germans. In 1936 the Germans broke the Versailles treaty by reoccupying the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland, thus demonstrating to the world their aggressive intentions. As we now know, Hitler and Joseph Stalin eventually broke both non-aggression pacts.

After annexing Austria, Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the German government repeated their request to Poland, demanding that Gdansk become part of the Third Reich and that an extraterritorial highway and railroad be constructed across the so-called "Polish Corridor." The request was rejected by Poland. In April 1939 a mutual assistance treaty was concluded between Poland, France and Great Britain. On August 23, 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotow pact was signed in Moscow. In a secret protocol of the pact, Hitler and Stalin drew up plans for the fourth partition of Poland, and the scene was set for

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