The German Question, Part One Hundred Thirty-Two

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Nine/2
"Toward War Over Danzig" Part Two

With the British and French governments still cleaning egg from their faces from Hitler's occupation of the Czech lands, the prospect of another crisis, this time involving Poland, confronted them. They needed to make a statement to reassure, not only Poland, but their own people, who had now hardened their positions about Hitler. British Prime Minister Chamberlain gave that assurance, saying that Britain and France would support Poland, "if" Polish independence were threatened. The assurance was verbal only, although negotiations with Poland for a formal treaty were promised, and there was no specific mention of Danzig or of the Polish Corridor. Why? Because neither the French nor the British governments felt Danzig was worth war, especially since both governments agreed with the basic German position that Danzig should return to Germany. Their problem was, they could not get Polish leaders to agree with that position. Their intentions were to support Danzig's rejoining Germany, but in return, to have Hitler join in serious peace negotiations. How to accomplish this? A show of strength.

With the unification of Germany in 1871, the French eventually signed an alliance with Russia. This gave France a strong ally on Germany's eastern frontier, while France provided Russia with a strong ally on Germany's western frontier. Any war would require the Germans to divide their forces to combat the two major European powers on opposite sides of their country. When war broke out in 1914 ("the Great War," later called "World War One"), the Germans had a plan to try to deal with this two-front war, which failed (see the articles in this series dealing with World War One for more info). In 1939, the idea of the British and French governments was to once again form an alliance with Russia, then called the Soviet Union. However, there were two major problems. First, the Soviet Union was communist. The other nations of Europe were highly suspicious of dealing with such a nation, and in fact, at that point in time, the nations of eastern Europe were likely far more fearful of Soviet Russia than they were of Nazi Germany. Second, unlike in 1914, Soviet Russia did not have a common border with Germany in 1939, thus limiting the Soviets' ability to help in any war. The British and French negotiated with the Soviets, who wanted to deploy troops in Poland, something the Poles would not allow. Negotiations between Britain/France and the Soviet Union broke down in mid August.* There was now no show of strength to deter Hitler and force him to talk peace, if Danzig were returned to Germany.

In an astonishing turn of events that probably had Stalin spilling his "borscht," German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop contacted the Soviets about a possible deal between Germany and the Soviet Union.

* The Polish leaders have been criticized for not accepting a pretty liberal offer from Hitler over Danzig (see previous article), and then rejecting Soviet troops on their territory; thus throwing a wrench into those negotiations. With Britain and France in western Europe, how the Poles would then defend themselves against a German invasion was very much in question.

WORD HISTORY:
Rat-This noun goes back to Indo European "redh," which had the notion of "scraping," and thus "gnawing." So it seems, our ancient ancestors saw the rat, or more generally, rodents, as "the gnawing animals." This then produced the Old Germanic offshoot "ratton," which was more specific in meaning, "rat." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "raet," and then what has become the modern form, which has existed in unaltered form for centuries. Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German "Ratte" (originally ""ratta"), Low German Saxon "Rott," some other Low German dialects "Raut," Dutch "rat," Frisian "rot," Danish and Norwegian "rotte," Icelandic "rotta," and Swedish "råtta."