CathInfo.com

1940

The Germans are slanderously accusing the Poles of murdering a large number of the members of the German minority. As already mentioned, the number “murdered” was first stated to be 2,000, later it suddenly jumped to 58,000, and even 65,000. These figures constitute a growing degree of falsehood in German propaganda. 

Today it is no longer necessary to refute these falsehoods. It is sufficient to state that in September, 1939, a certain relatively small number of Germans were shot in execution of sentences of courts martial. Those sentenced to death were not “innocent members of the German minority,” as the official nαzι propaganda thesis would have it. They were spies, sabotageurs, and diversionists, caught red-handed. 

It has to be added that the German authorities in Poland, against all the fundamental principles of international law, are shooting and murdering those Poles who in September, 1939, did their duty to their own country, by pointing out the German spies and diversionists to the Polish authorities or conducting them to the Polish military authorities.

An English teacher in Poland for 32 years. Miss Lucy Baker- Beall arrived home on March 6 with a harrowing tale of the horrors she had witnessed in Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), the town she had come to regard as her second home. The following story is specially contributed to The War Illustrated.

1942

The Black Book of Poland is so named because of the black record of German barbarism from the close of the war in Poland, which ended October 6, 1939, until the end of June, 1941, thus covering twenty-two months, as shown in docuмents contained in this volume. No comment is offered. The facts are unmitigated and have been classified according to topics, to facilitate reference. This represents the most astounding collection of docuмents ever presented both in text and photographic reproduction. Long after the war is over, this testimonial of unspeakable barbarity will stand as a monument of accusation.

On August 19, 1939, there was a surprise secret meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee, which included the participation of the members of the Russian section of the Communist International. During the meeting Stalin announced, in a programmatic speech, that the time had come now to apply the torch of war to the European powder keg. Stalin declared flatly that "if we accept the German proposal for the conclusion of a Non-Aggression pact with them," it was to be assumed that "they would naturally attack Poland, and the intervention of Britain and France in this war would be inevitable." The resulting "serious unrest and disorder", would, as he remarked, lead to a destabilization of Western Europe, without "us," i.e., without the Soviet Union, being initially drawn into the conflict. For his closest comrades, he drew the conclusion, already proclaimed in 1925, that, in this way, "we can hope for an advantageous entry into the war."


In Stalin's vision, a "broad field of activity" now opened up for the development of the "world revolution". In other words, for the achievement - which had never been abandoned - of the Sovietization of Europe and Bolshevik domination. He concluded with the call: "Comrades! In the interest of the USSR - the homeland of the workers - get busy, and work so that war may break out between the Reich and the captalistic Anglo-French bloc!" As the first stage for the achievement of imperialist domination, Stalin designated the Bolshevization of Germany and Western Europe. The Non-Aggression Pact, with the momentous additional secret protocol, was concluded between the representatives of the Reich's government and the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics four days after this secret speech, on August 23, 1939.