The Gleiwitz Incident 31 August

Detractors from the recent Anglo-American adventure in Iraq point to the inescapable fact that the reasons given to the public for starting the conflict proved to be false. In a nutshell, the much-hyped danger from Iraq's supposed possesion of huge numbers of 'weapons of mass destruction' proved to be an utter falacy. It will be the job of historians in the future to examine the details of the evidence, once it is released from the confines of official secrecy, to decide how much or how little the politicians of the day were 'bending' the truth to suit some higher political goal.

In a different time, in a different war, for very different motives, a different tale was told. In 1939 Nazi Germany was fairly keen to expand their aggresive plans for the domination and subjugation of Europe and find a reason to attack neighbouring Poland - ("nasty Polish agressors, stealing German land, threatening national security, weapons of mass destruction, etc. etc" - you know the sort of thing) - and in a series of incidents known collectively as 'Operation Himmler' they attempted to justify to the world an invasion of Poland. On this day, 31 August, in 1939, the main event was staged - the Gleiwitz incident, which was an attack against a German radio station in Gleiwitz (in Polish: Gliwice). Gliwice is in Polish Silesia close to the German border.

The Gleiwitz incident was organised by Alfred Naujocks who was under orders from Reinhard Heydrich. Naujocks was assisted by Heinrich Müller, the chief of Gestapo. A small group of Gestapo seized the station and broadcast a message inciting Poles resident in Silesia to strike against Germans. (This message was, of course recorded and played to the worlds press as evidence of the aggresive intent of the non-existant Polish insurgents who were supposedly threatening Nazi Germany's security).

Franciszek Honiok, a German Silesian, who was a known sympathizer with the Poles was arrested by the Gestapo on 30 August. He was given a lethal injection (Why this was done I have no idea). He was then punctured by a number of gunshot wounds and left dead at the radio station as evidence that he had been killed while attacking. Of course, questions like who, in the wide, wide world of sport, would be defending against a possible attack on a tiny radio station didn't get asked. Nevertheless, the attack was supposed to represent an attack by Polish insurgents. Strangely, the "attackers" (including Honiok) did not wear Polish military uniforms.

On 1 September, Hitler was able to announce in the Reichstag that there had been 21 border incidents in total, including three very serious ones - one of which was the Gleiwitz incident. These were used as the excuse for the "defensive" attack that had been launched earlier that morning against Poland.

We, the British, being less susceptable to dodgy flim-flam about bogus dangers to national security, didn't believe Mr Hitler - thank goodness!