The German Question, Part One Hundred Thirty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Nine/3
"Toward War Over Danzig" Part Three

Hitler had come to power in Germany partly for the reason that he was so anti-communist. Also, some part of his foreign policy successes can be attributed, likewise, to this anti-communism, as many European nations saw Hitler's Germany as a bulwark against Soviet Russia, and they preferred Germany to the Soviet Union. In August 1939, with negotiations between Britain and France with the Soviets broken down, Hitler wanted a deal with the Soviets to ensure the western powers would not intervene in a war with Poland.* After a relatively short period of negotiations between Germany and the Soviet Union, an agreement was signed on August 23. The treaty basically pledged either country to stay neutral, if the other were attacked. Hidden away in the agreement was a plan to give each country "spheres of influence" in eastern Europe, including eastern Poland for the Soviets.**

Hitler set the early hours of August 26 for the German attack on Poland. The signing of this treaty made Hitler jubilant, as he believed that Britain and France would never back Poland to the point of war without Soviet help. Hitler's jubilation was short lived, as just two days later, the British signed a treaty of mutual military assistance with Poland, which provided that each country would help the other if attacked by Germany, although "Germany" was not specified in the treaty, just the wording, "another European power." The signing of this treaty and communication from Italy's Mussolini to Hitler, that unless Italy received enormous supplies of war goods from Germany, Italy would remain neutral in any war between Germany and the Western Powers, caused Hitler to postpone the attack, which was reset for September 1.

* As I mentioned previously, I tend to agree with British historian A.J. P. Taylor's belief that Hitler wanted Poland as an ally against the Soviet Union, but I feel he had given up on that idea by August 1939, and that he felt war with Poland was probably inevitable. His aim, however, was to keep the war between only Germany and Poland by keeping Britain and France out of it.

** Poland had taken a fairly large part of the western Ukraine and White Russia after World War One. The Soviets long wanted these lands back under Russian, that is, Soviet rule.

WORD HISTORY:
Pact-This word for an "agreement" goes back to Indo European "pag/pehg," which had the notion of "fasten together, unite." This gave Latin, an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree, "pacisci," a verb which meant "to make an agreement." From this came the noun "pactum," which meant "agreement or contract." This gave French, a Latin-based language, "pacte," with the same meaning. English borrowed the word from French in the 1400s. German also borrowed the word as "Pakt."