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This was my final submission to old Voat, before the darkness took it. Repost prompted by this thread.

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This is the "UfA Tonwoche" newsreel, issue 468, aired on 23 August, 1939.

One week later, Germany launched the Poland offensive.

Subtitled by yours truly, just for you goats.

- Short version: WEBM MKV
- Full version: WEBM MKV

To my knowledge this has never been available in English to the general public, until now.

"Why did Hitler invade Poland?"

A question that often comes up when discussing WW2. Even here, people rarely know or have good answers. Even more rare than answers are sources. As with any war, the victors put a lot of effort into burying and discrediting any just cause their enemy might have had.

This video lays out the German perspective, the situation they were in, the history that led up to it, and why they had to act.

It explains how the territories in question, that Germany "invaded", were still Germany merely 20 years prior, before the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and had been German for hundreds of years before that. It shows that Germans still lived on that land, and spoke German, and wanted to be German, and part of Germany. They had no interest in being Polish. They were just told one day that they must be. It shows German refugees fleeing those regions, their own homeland, that their ancestors had lived on for hundreds of years, because of the hunger and poverty and violence they suffered under Polish rule. Many of them testify that they are forbidden from teaching their children German, their own language, or sending them to German schools. Those who disobey are imprisoned or sent to Russia.

Is it all just Nazi propaganda and lies? Maybe. I can only show it to you. It's up to you to decide what's true.

But ask yourself: Why has nobody shown this to you before? Why was it hidden away? Why would sharing this in Germany likely land you in a cell next to Mrs Haverbeck?