Also, Von Ribbentrop defended the attack of Poland by stating that between 1919-1939, one million Germans had been expelled from Polish territory accompanied by numerous atrocities, and that complaints to the World Court in The Hague and the League of Nations in Geneva had been ignored.
I'm curious. Is this verifiable? How many Germans were expelled or fled from Poland? I have some books in mind that could answer this question but I'm also curious as to what others source.
In any case. I'm going to post some information that might prove useful and clarifying. To be sure, Polish persecution against Germans WAS REAL and in no way was it a German exercise in propaganda. But on some level German propaganda was conducted but on the basis of truth and reality. The middle is always closer to the truth. Once you read what I post many things should fall into place. For instance, why the German blue and white books do not mention large massacres, and this fact proves further the authenticity of the blue and white book.
The first source to set the scene and reality is 'Orphans of Versaille' by Richard Blanke. This has to do specifically with the German minority and conflict in Poland after Versaille up to the Second World War. And to be honest, I'm shocked at how little attention is paid to this work.
The overall death toll from this outbreak of communal hysteria continues to be a subject of debate. Many victims, buried in unmarked graves, were never found and remain classified as "missing". A Central Office for the Graves of Murdered Ethnic Germans was set up under Kurt Lück and Karl Berger and charged with compiling a comprehensive list of victims. Their files, deposited today in the Koblenz archives, contain 5,437 names and were the basis for several German propaganda books detailing Polish atrocities. Hitler soon seized upon exaggerated estimates of the number of dead (13,000) and missing (45,000); he combined them and then made everyone adhere to the total of 58,000. The Lück-Berger file was found in Poznań in 1945 and used by Pospieszalski to discredit the 58,000 figure. He reckoned that even 5,437 was an exaggerated count, since it included some who were missing only temporarily as well as about a thousand Polish German soldiers, who were listed whether their deaths were due to poles or to the Wehrmacht. Pospieszalski argues that most of these, and many of the civilian casualties as well were due to the war itself still others listed in the file were not ethnic Germans to begin with. He concludes that "only" about 2,000 members of the German minority in western Poland died as a direct result of popular violence during the first weeks of the war. Peter Aurich, however, studying the same evidence a decade later, found that the deaths of at least 3,841 German civilians as a result of popular violence could be attested to by more than one witness: 2,063 who were killed in or near where they lived, 1,576 who did not survive the treks eastward, and 202 who died later of injuries. Adding these figures to the number of solders killed by their Polish comrades, Aurich contends that between 4,000 and 5,000 members of the German minority in western Poland (or about 2% of it's total number) died as a result of population violence in September 1939. Orphans of Versaille, pp. 235-236
That should help clarify some history on the numbers. Onto the most important section in the final pages of the book.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Polish state was bent on the elimination of most of the German minority in Western Poland---by forced assimilation where possible, but mainly by coerced emigration. Moreover, this goal was well on the way to being achieved in 1939; the Pozanian wojewode reportedly assured his supporters that within three years there would no longer be any Germans in Poland. A study of the minority's actual political, cultural, and economic situation merely reinforces the pessimistic assessments of contemporaries cited above. The fact that Hitler took up the minority's case several months before he launched World War II was perhaps the overriding consideration at the time, but it does not make the fact of the minority's plight less compelling. Of course, any country faced with such an adversary might be justified in relegating consideration for a difficult minority to a back burner; even today, some will respond to this account of the minority's travails with a "So What?" in view of the larger issues at stake in 1939. The point, however, is that only a small proportion of the innumerable measures directed at the German minority in Poland, essentially those dating from after April 1939, can be attributed directly to Poland's anticipation of war with Germany. The bulk of the policies and attitudes that determined the living conditions of the minority in interwar Poland antedated 1939 (and 1933 too) and were unconnected to any immediate external threat. It hardly needs to be added that they did nothing to make Poland more secure when the mortal threat materialized. The fact is that Polish nationalism, motivated by the irrational but powerful compulsion to creation a nationally homogeneous society in it's western provinces, created a situation well before 1939 which was bad even by the unenlightened standards of interwar Eastern Europe. Moreover, it is hard to see how this situation would have been different had there never been a Hitler. The "plight" of the German minority in Poland, in other words, was real; it was not merely alleged or fabricated in the interest of Nazi propaganda. ----Apart from the macro political situation in 1939, however, the evidence above makes clear that Germans in Poland had ample justification for their complaints; their prospects for even medium-term survival were bleak; and no German government more principled than Hitler's would have been able to ignore their plight over the long run. Though it was not politic to make these points at the time, there is no reason why they cannot be accepted half a century later.[ Orphans of Versaille. pp. 236-237
This is absolutely essential. And I implore everyone to buy a copy of the book (as there is no free one online as far as I could find) and read the read. It's not too long for someone who has the time to read it. This also goes some way in answering my question about emigration, but alas I do not have the numbers, they might be elsewhere in Blanke's book. If anyone could let me know, please do.
Now finally, more to do with the German minority and how the 58,000 figure came into being can be gleaned from Fritz Hess's 1954 book 'Hitler and the English'. Hesse was a German diplomat stationed in London, he reported to Hitler and Ribbentrop on the current state of the English, he also recognized some very inconvenient truths which were published in this book. Confirming that Hitler definitely wanted peace with Britain and a free hand in the east. I have a copy of the book, it seems to be relatively hard to find and I actually only became aware of it because of John Toland who cites what I will quote in a moment within his biography of Hitler. Although his use of the quotation is rather condensed, once read fully it truly puts into perspective Hitler's views on the issue of the German minority and his keen attitude to deal with it ASAP.
The Polish General Staff, in accordance with a decision by the Polish council of ministers, gave orders that the threatened western provinces be cleared of the Germans. The commanders of the local garrisons were ordered to carry out the evacuation. Local fighting and mass-evacuations were the result. in the course of which some 4,850 Germans (men, women and children) were reported killed. This figure appeared in the German official publication of documents relating to Poland, only it was altered by order of Ribbentrop for reasons of propaganda. A nought was added, so that the figure 4,850 became 48,500 which, in the official publication was rounded off to appear as 50,000. The bloodshed in Poland did not remain a secret. It became known through distorted and exaggerated reports which were submitted to Hitler. A.I. Berndt was the liaison between the German News Agency and Hitler. He told me, with his usual boastfulness, how Hitler reacted. "I myself," said Berndt, "gave the Führer the little shove that landed him in the war. I got the news that the Poles had killed 30,000 Germans. As I thought 30,000 were too few, I added a nought and laid a report before the Führer which made him suppose the Poles had killed 300,000. When Hitler read it, he roared like a bull and told me I was an infamous liar. I replied that the figures might be exaggerated but that there was certainly some truth in them. Hitler was speechless and then began roaring afresh: 'They'll pay for this! Now no one will stop me from teaching these fellows a lesson they'll never forget! I will not have my Germans butchered like cattle.'" According to Berndt's account, Hitler went to the telephone and, in his presence, gave Keitel the second order for the invasion of Poland. This account is confirmed by others. Hitler's roaring was overheard by Erich Kordt, the head of Ribbentrop's bureau and is described by him in his book Wahn und Wirklichkeit. Ribbentrop, Hewel, and other witnesses reported that Hitler suddenly changed round, threw up all negotiation, and without consulting any of his advisers gave orders for the invasion. The bloodshed in Poland threw him into a state of hysterical excitement. To Ribbentrop he said: "it is my right and my duty to defend all Germans. I will not allow anyone to touch one single hair on one single German's head." Hewel told me Hitler explained his volte face by saying that the English too, would understand that he could not abandon his fellow countrymen. Hitler's second decision to order the invasion of Poland was taken at 12.40 p.m. on the 1st September. The assertion so often made, amongst others, by the prosecution at Nuremberg, that Hitler fixed the 1st of September as the date of the invasion at his conference with his generals on the 22nd August at Berchtesgaden is erroneous. Fritz Hesse, Hitler and the English, pp. 82-83
This should be enlightening. Even more so considering I found the source in a mainstream Hitler biography (and In my opinion the best one).
What we're shown is that Hitler himself was fooled by those around him. This fact, and that no massacres were recorded in the blue and white books should undoubtedly go a way to proving the reliability of the German B&W books. Accompanied with the fact we also know the Polish White book published by the Germans is also legitimate. To conclude, yes, there were Polish atrocities against Germans, terror and coercion, violence and murders but perhaps not endless massacres.
