How did Germany take over Poland?

Answer 1

Let's start with the annexation of the Sudetenland where ethnic Germans( Sudetendeutsch) were "liberated" without a shot fired in 1938. The subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia a couple months later was the final straw in Hitler's march toward breathing room, (Lebensraum) for Germany. The Soviets helped with the invasion of Czechoslovakia and got considerable land afterwards. In 1939 Hitler wanted more so he put a plan together to invade Poland which had a treaty with France and the UK. A staged attack on a German radio station by Germans posing as Polish soldiers called the Gleiwitz Incident was part of Operation Himmler, yes that Himmler, as an excuse to invade Poland. The Soviets helped once more in the invasion coming from the east while the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht came in from the south and west. Poland was overwhelmed in the first demonstration of "lightning war" or blitzkrieg. Bohemia, Silesia and Polish land was again split up between Germany and the USSR. The successful invasion of Poland resulted in the beginning of WWII in Europe. Because of the treaty with Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. By the way, a famous Pole who was critical of Germany, Franciszek Honiok, was arrested by the Gestapo the day before the Gleiwitz Incident and his dead body was left by the Nazi's as evidence of Polish aggression. The work camp outside Munich was to use some of its prisoners in case the Gestapo could not find Honiok. So, Hitler was going to use Jewish prisoners from Dachau to start WWII. Incredible.