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Operation Himmler

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Operation Himmler was a Nazi Germany false flag project to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, which was subsequently used to justify the invasion of Poland. The plan was supervised by Reinhard Heydrich.

The operations, with one exception, were carried on the 31 August 1939. There were 21 separate operations, including staged attacks on:

  • the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz (Gliwice) (see Gleiwitz incident)
  • the German customs station at Hochlinden (today part of Rybnik)
  • the forest service station in Pitschen (Byczyna)

Prisoners from concentration camps were dressed in Polish uniforms, killed and left behind. They were described as "Konserve" i.e., canned goods, in planning documents.

On September 1, 1939, in a speech in the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler cited the 21 border incidents, with three of them called very serious, as justification for Germany's "defensive" action against Poland. Just a few days earlier, on 22 August, he told his generals "I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth."

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References

  1. ^ James J. Wirtz, Roy Godson, Strategic Denial and Deception: The Twenty-First Century Challenge, Transaction Publishers, 2002, ISBN 0765808986, Google Print, p.100
  2. ^ Christopher J. Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day, Zenith Imprint, 2001, ISBN 0760311676, Google Print, p.112
  3. Address by Adolf Hitler - September 1, 1939; retrieved from the archives of the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.
  4. Bradley Lightbody, The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0415224055, Google Print, p.39
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